A Report! From Inside The Walls Of Yesterday

A Report! From Inside The Walls of Yesterday

Where we last saw our brave heroes, they were deep inside the Mall Mart backrooms, after a noticeable  power outage that may or may not have been caused by my own hubris~

The power outage, however, was not where the day ended. Context is important here, so that you will understand why I am due for a small meeting of sorts. "It's just some classes," they say. "Think of it as reeducation on the core values of Mallmart," 

With determination in my gut, I had stormed the fields of Mallmart that afternoon, heading straight to the heart of the beast- our pharmacy and beauty section. The power outage made this part of the store particularly difficult to manage. Price scanners could not be used during a power outage. Looking up items for customers could not be done during a power outage. Labels could not be made, during a power outage. So places like pharmacies, where there are so many small nearly similar looking bottles of medicines, ointments and vitamins can seem particularly daunting. 

However, this was not the only danger of the pharmacy and beauty section, as if items cannot fully fit on shelves, they go to 'topstock', the space at the very top of the shelf where items could not be reached by customers. This, was always overstuffed in pharmacy. So as I got ready to put a bottle of melatonin in topstock, I almost didn't notice something warm dripping onto my scalp. 

I looked up, and saw pitch black, oozing through the cracks of the skylight of the pharmacy's ceiling. Impossibly dark, making me wonder just what was up there. Did I see a glimpse of something? Hidden inside the dark mass of ooze? And how was it up there in the first place? Would it stay up there festering and if not, how would they get it down? Did it even matter? I felt an arm roughly tug me away from my spot underneath the skylight. "Girl, you smell like roadkill now." Kara stared at me as I blinked owlishly, coming out of my daze. I'm not sure however long I stood under there, trying to decipher the contents that was dripping over me but I was a mess. And indeed, it did smell like roadkill but mostly gasoline.

And, since it was just close enough to the end of shift, I did not get to drive home to get cleaned up. I had to work with the stuff all over me. The posts continued to be dead quiet with no interaction.

The store continued to stay in chaos, a thrumming pulse coming deep from the bowels of Mallmart as I stocked the chemical aisle. 'What have I done, all I wanted was to be popular- I must've done something horrible in a past life to deserve this. No one in the history of being in pain has suffered as much as I, a Mallmart associate covered in black ink has today'

"Shouldn't they keep her in the back where she isn't stinking up the store?" Three young teens talked amongst themselves. "Keep your voice down! I heard that chick is hella weird. She just randomly showed up one day in Niceville-"

"Can I help you?" I ask, turning on my heel to face them. Immediately, two of the three became bashful and shy, but the young girl with long brown hair grinned. "No, but you clearly do. What's your aesthetic? Special ed. barbie?"

"What's your aesthetic? Being a big bitch-"

My eyes locked with my manager's, and I sucked in air as if trying to suck the words back in. My lips pressing together until they turned white-

A Lesson, in talking to customers, with Madame Macabre!

When engaging with an angry customer, should you;

A.) Ask How You Can Better Help Them?

B.) Count to 10 Mississippi In Your Head While Working To Keep Calm

C.) Accept That You Are a Small Spec In The Vast Unending Universe And That Soon You Will Be Dust Along With All Your Problems

Answer; D.) All Of The Above

You should never resort to calling the customers names, because this could deduct Mallmart points from your account! What are Mallmart points?

Mallmart points are points you can collect through hours worked, and diligence. These can be traded in for when you need to take time off, or in this case, when you have a small infraction. 

I was not fired. Instead, they kindly asked me to take the Mallmart reeducation course so I can "better understand Mallmart's values". I am not at the mercy to disclose what Mallmart's reeducation program entails.

Mallmart's reeducation certainly does not involve them taking you out to a shady back alley to hit you with sticks until you promise not to insult customers though.

It's not.

Trust me :)

So, I limped into the breakroom, sitting in a heap at the table, a moan slithering from my lips as I open a can of soda. "That bad, huh?" Taylor from Mallmart asks, her voice wonderfully flat. "I am going to scream, Taylor dear,"

"Don't do that-"

"It's too late, I'm screaming."

"You're just drinking from your soda though-?"

"Internally, Taylor. Internally."

"Oh."

TJ MIKELOGAN'S HALLOWEEN 2023 EVENT + day 12 ↳ found footage — Cloverfield (2008) dir. Matt Reeves

A Report! From Inside The Walls of Mallmart

The shadows stretch ominously over the well manicured lawns of Okaloosa, and the seas kick their legs against the shores with a sort of nervous energy That tells me maybe they too know what is going to come next. Even as they don't tell me their secrets of our universe, I still have one thing in the back of my mind, and I know when I write about it, I'm going to have all ears listening. It's just a matter of when.

Of course, time seems non-existent at a place like Mallmart, and before I knew it the sun was bright in the sky, and I was eagerly sitting at a table with a bag of strawberries in one hand, and a can of whipped Cream in the other. Because today, is the day Taylor from Mallmart comes into my life.

Taylor, is goth.

She is donned in all black, and her hair is glossy and voluminous and her skin is soft, and stretchy, and wonderfully pale. Taylor has eyes the color of a grassy field on a misty day, and Taylor smells of cherry licorice and warm linens.

Taylor of Mallmart is my idol.

"Taylor, darling! I brought you strawberries!" The student of microbiology sat down next to me. "Oh thank you, you didn't have to do that." Her voice is monotone, but with underlayers of warmth. Not everyone understands it, not everyone can hear her amazing depth. "The whipped cream is unopened," and she glances down to where I point. "Oh it's okay," 

"Perhaps we can do whippets at lunch instead, Dear Taylor~"

This, elicits a dark and sardonic chuckle from her, which shoots electricity down my spine. I get up from my seat. "Until next time, Taylor from Mallmart,"

I thought about the fact that I am bound to get noticed, sooner or later. That being this invisible is temporary. It sparked a nervous energy in my chest, but all I could think was, 'Surely this isn't it. This isn't all that is to life.I can't be stuck like this, I can't- The lights blinked out of Mallmart one by one, and then, panic.

"Well, this is exciting." The customer next to me jumps at my cheery statement, as if she hadn't noticed me standing there. There's no working like this. People are panicking, workers are ushering people out and asking them to leave their carts at the front of the grocery exit. I take my cart back to the backrooms, only to find all the doors closed, and the room pitch black save for the floodlights in each room, leaving a very dim glow.

Taylor, is now attempting to navigate the backrooms, peering anxiously where the baler would be. "I'll get the door for you," I grin at her. Confused, she reaches into her pocket and fumbles a moment before shining her phone light on me, and her eyes widen, the pupils dilating. Her breathing came out shallow and uneven. "Taylor? Wait, Taylor-" and she was gone, running down through the store as I was hot on her heels, out she goes into the parking lot, into a car, which peeled out leaving me in awe. 

So, quietly I go back to the break room, sit down at a table, and spray whipped cream into my mouth.

Because I know when I write about it, I'm going to have all ears listening.

LITERATURE SERIES: H.P. Lovecraft

“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.” ― H.P. Lovecraft

Carrie White, a Lesbian? It's More Likely Than You Think!

Let's be honest, the fact Carrie ended up going to prom with the boyfriend of a girl who ended up forever haunted by Carrie in her dreams by the end of the film is relationship goals for all of us out there and I think the sooner we can accept this, the sooner we can go on to pursue our own uncomprehendable   sapphic horrors.

Carrie White can and will be part of the lesbian icons in the horror genre 💛