"Goddammit!" Sophia slammed my door. "I didn't get the job."
"What?" I said.
"Those pricks didn't give me the job. I was the best cashier they had and the boss comes down and says 'we don't want her kind working here'."
"What? He said that to your face? Just cause of the way you look?" I said.
"Yeah. First they showed me some videos and then they gave me this workbook to drill on so I could get used to the register. And I was flying, man, my fingers were flying across the scanner. And on the keypad, even one of the guys came up and said 'wow, I've never seen anyone type that fast'."
"He might have been hitting on you," Quentin commented.
"Well, anyway, the boss walks by and he calls over my trainer and he's at the other end of the register, he thinks he's far enough away I can't hear him. And he says 'is that the new girl?' and she says 'yes' and he says 'I don't want her working here. She could give the store a bad image'."
"Oh, god, what an asshole."
"Was that Gary?" Quentin said.
"Yeah, that's what his nametag said."
"God, I'd thought he'd quit by now. He's the asswipe who fired me."
"So then the trainer comes and says she's very sorry, but they've decided not to hire me because my 'workmanship quality' wasn't what they were looking for."
"What the hell does that mean?"
"It means they think I look like a Satanist, so they're not going to hire me."
"That'd be just like Gary. He only cares about business, not the people who run it. He won't even get a motorized cart pusher for us because he thinks we can do it just as good without spending profit. He's got all these damn signs about how we can stop prices from going up - he calls it 'shrink'."
"Yeah, cause that's what happened to the size of his dick," Jo commented.
"I just want to kill that son of a bitch," Sophia continued. "I was the best cashier and they fire me just because of the way I look."
"Hey," I suggested, "Why don't we make this guy our next..." sacrifice, victim, what word could I use without it sounding bad. "...guy."
"Hey, that's good. That's a good idea, Caleb."
"I'm in favor," Quentin remarked with conviction.
"All right, let's go in there tomorrow and get what we need," Jo said.
"We'll need to find a bonding icon," Sophia added.
"Eh, there's got to be something."
"All right, let's all meet here first to plan it out, then we'll drive over to Gold's."
"Sounds good."
The next day, we headed out to the grocery store. We all parked side by side, one after the other, like we were FBI agents or Mafia or something. There was a big, yellow sign on top of the building that said 'Gold's' on it. In the parking lot, the cart corrals were backed up to the point of streaming into the drive lanes. Across the lot I could see one guy pushing a row of fifteen carts into the store. He was sweating terribly, like he had been doing this for six hours straight.
We walked in past the sliding glass doors. There was a grand total of ten carts for the customers to take. Quentin laughed, probably because of the memories flooding back into his mind.
"Man, this takes me back."
"Quentin, you only left six months ago."
"That's a long time when you're seventeen."
Inside the store was a cyclone of chaos. Yellow uniform-clad employees scurried desperately around, like ants in an anthill, and we were here to shine a magnifying glass on their queen.
"So what do we need?" I said.
"We," Jo side-stepped a rushing customer with a cart full of groceries, "We need something that bonds you and Gary, Sophia."
"Hmm, let me think for a minute..." Sophia pondered. "This could be tough, I was only here for three hours."
Quentin walked over to the Customer Service Desk, a big counter for buying lottery tickets, cigarettes, and such. Quentin's eyes widened and a smile crept over him when he saw a blonde-haired girl with blue eyes and a nametag that said 'Sarah' swiftly grabbing items for customers. He began to approach the desk.
Sophia said, "Well, let's look around, maybe we can find something."
"All right," Jo replied and followed her into the store. "Do you think if we bought a can or something, that'd work?" I heard him say as they wandered off.
I turned my attention back to Quentin. He was leaning on the counter, while Sarah was busily hammering away at the line of customers.
After a while, the line dispersed and Sarah finally realized a former employee and friend was standing in front of her.
"Quentin?"
"Yep."
"Hey, it's good to see you. Where have you been?"
"Eh, out wandering."
"Find another job yet?"
"Yeah, I've got a weekend job at Blockbuster."
"Mmm, how's that working out?"
"Pretty good, it gets me enough to get by."
"Hey guess what, I've got a boyfriend."
"Oh, really," I could hear a little cracking in his voice, "Who is he?"
"You remember Matt?"
"Matt?"
"Mm-hm, he got moved up to produce, too."
"Really? That's great... that's really great... cause I remember how you were always telling me how much you wanted a boyfriend."
"Yeah, now that I got one, it's really great. He's funny, and kind, and... and... he's just everything I wanted."
"Oh, great. That's good. Really, I'm happy for you."
"Thanks, oh, guess what, you forgot your last paycheck."
"Oh, I did?" Quentin said, a little happier.
Sarah stooped under the desk to get it, and Quentin turned around to me and mouthed 'she has a boyfriend?!'
Sarah emerged and handed QT a piece of paper.
"Wow, can't believe I forgot this," he laughed lightly. "Well, I guess I'll let you get back to work."
"Yeah, I'll see ya around."
"Yeah, see ya."
QT turned and walked back to me standing by the rentable wet-vacs as Sarah again continued her never-ending work.
"She has a boyfriend," he whispered, "She has a goddamn boyfriend, for Christ's sake."
"Why is that important?"
"Because I wanted to be her boyfriend. She always talked to me about how she's never had a boyfriend, and how it was so hard to find a nice guy these days. I was there, wasn't I? And Matt - I never really liked Matt, I thought he was annoying. He always called on the page phone with a real uppity voice."
"Why didn't you say anything?"
"Caleb, that... You just don't get it, do you. I'm just not the kind of guy who can go up and talk to girls like that, all right?" Actually, I had to kind of agree with him. It wasn't much my style either. If Sophia didn't keep taking steps, we'd still be only friends. Quentin started flipping his paycheck against his hand. "Well, at least I got something out of it though."
Jo and Sophia returned then.
"We're screwed, we have no idea what could possibly bond her and Gary."
"What's that?" Sophia asked.
"My last paycheck," Quentin replied.
"Hah," Jo retorted, "You dumbass, you never came back to pick it up."
"Hey," Sophia started getting excited, "Hey, hey, I got an idea. That could be our bonding element."
"But it's Quentin's, not yours," I said.
"That doesn't matter, just as long as it's one of the Chosen's."
"And that'll work? We use Quentin's paycheck as the bonding element between Sophia and Gary?"
"Yeah, just as long as it's linked to one of the Chosen, we're set."
"Kickass," I said.
"But... it's my paycheck, my last one," Quentin interjected.
"Oh, fuck your damn paycheck. You lived six months before without it," Sophia said.
"Yeah, but I got some money now," Quentin whined.
"C'mon, let's get out of here and set up before we get run over."
I nodded and we started walking out of the store.
"Couldn't we just use the envelope?" he said as we exited.
We immediately drove back to my house and walked back to the shed. The night fell quickly, like those who had opposed us. And another would fall tonight - doomed because he had defied us, the Chosen.
Quentin and Sophia had arranged everything we needed, the candlesticks were lit, the iron pan and the dagger were in place on the floor, and the paycheck was ready to be sacrificed for our ritual. The new, closed-in environment of the shed made the whole experience much more disquieting and uneasy, especially with only the candles as our light source. It was about 7:50, kind of late, but I don't think the time of day was a factor in the ritual.
"Dude, this hay is kind of itchy," Quentin commented.
"Deal with it," Jo retorted.
"Have we got everything ready?"
"Yep, I checked everything," Quentin answered.
"Let's get started," I said as I sat down cross-legged on the floor.
"Awa ansila dedero kan cruento pestis ton shatruex mena ouacra domus," Jo chanted.
I thought I felt a cold chill flow over me, but it was probably nothing. Jo cut off a piece of his hair, Quentin did the same, then I, and then Sophia.
"Ton cruo infuscomus marana da caecux."
Now I thought the room got hotter. My sixth sense was kicking in, telling me something was screwed up here. Quentin handed me the dagger after he was done with it. I swiped the blade against the tip of my finger and held it over the pan. I handed it to Sophia who pricked her finger and let four drops fall.
FOOM. The pan erupted in fire, blazing like crazy.
"Whoa, shit," Sophia said.
"How'd that happen?" I said.
"MATALA DOMUS-BHAAVA, PESTIS CRUENTO TAKARA."
"Oh, fuck. What was that!?"
"Oh, god, what's going on?"
I could see the shed walls around us start to twist and contort... and bleed.
"Whoa, look," Quentin said, "The walls are bleeding!"
"I can see the fuckin' walls are bleeding, dumbass!" Jo yelled.
"Let's get out of here," Sophia exclaimed.
Before we could do that, the walls fell away from us and spun out into a black void that suddenly surrounded us. I looked down at the floor, the wood was starting to crack and split apart.
"Uh-oh," was all I could utter.
The floor shattered and broke apart and we fell into the spinning chasmic emptiness. The last thing I saw was the three others being swallowed into the cold abyss, the true heart of darkness as void as a dead man's gaze. The world we knew abandoned and the world to come uninvited.