Gaud walked into a grocery store and the lights flickered.
It was a normal Tuesday afternoon.
I’d finished putting the display back up, and decided that I should probably clean up the vomit at A3, near the front of the store. I heard the door open and do it’s jingle, but no one was there. As I stared, I thought I could hear a faint hissing.
The lights died. This was the first time this had ever happened since I worked here. The circuits had frequent checks and any blown bulbs were usually replaced pretty quickly. And they sure as hell don’t blow all at once. I could still see, from the light streaming in from the window, but I couldn’t see more than the faint shadowy end of my isle.
I squinted and I saw them.
“It” wasn’t a good term. They carried themselves well, and you just felt that they were human, but slightly off. Like some kind of imperfect impostor, trying their best to lower themselves to a human level. They were in B2, adjacent to my aisle, where the candy was stocked. They stared unnervingly at the skittles. I don’t even think they blinked unless they wanted to communicate.
The skittles seemed to phase into the basket in their pink arms, which were pointing forward perpendicular to their body. They walked both robotically and smoothly, trying to calm the people there from their otherworldliness but failing and scaring them even more. The strange, pink creature stopped motionless at the cash register.
All of the employees had probably run to the bathroom to hide and the patrons had all run outside, so I was the only one in their vicinity. I walked, hesitant, to the register, after 5 minutes of them being motionless.
They took out a small notebook and began writing in perfect Helvetica.
Gaud
Was that their name?
“Uh, hi Mx. Gaud, um,” I scanned their single pack of skittles.
“Is that all, uh Mx?”
Change
They wrote on their pad again.
Money
They handed me a twenty dollar bill.
“That’s… way too much for skittles, Mx. Do you need-”
They scribbled frantically.
Smallrou nd orang e
“You want your change in pennies?”
yesyesyes
“We don’t have 2000 pennie-”
GIVE ME ALL YOU HAVE
They were writing so furiously that the paper caught on fire. They blew it out and wrote normally.
Sorry for anger just hungry give me what you can
Hungry? For pennies? Well, they were a strange, pink creature. Maybe that was their normal diet.
“I have about, uh, 300 pennies, and I’ll give you your 17 back.”
No need many know me keep for self
Know me? Are they some cult leader?
“Wow, uh thanks, Mx. Gau-”
They wrote something and shoved it into my palm, then lifted one finger to their uncanny mouth, smiling strangely. After receiving the money, they shoved some pennies into their toothless, rubbery mouth and- Ugh, put the he skittles in their eyes. I flinched away.
They walked calmly out of the store, fading and looking less and less real the farther they walked. After fading completely, the lights flickered back on. I looked at the clock- my shift was over? I had only been working for a few hours!
I uncrumpled the paper. There, written in their strange script, colored even though they only had a pencil were the words:
Anxiety-prone-human 