abhorrent appliances

51 2 2
                                    

Welcome, newest employee! Today is your first day at Abhorrent Appliances, the evilest furniture for the best of the worst! Your uniform is in the staff room, it's on the second floor, ask Jeramy if you are struggling to find it. (He's usually in the ceiling above the entrance, request Jeramy, not Samantha.) Remember, the customers might not be human and would prefer it if you don't bring it up to them, this is how you got here in the first place! Just remember your training and you'll do fine!  
                                      Good luck!
                                               Management.

It was an opening shift, so the store wasn't open yet. The note was left taped on the door. I noted that the door was stiff as I opened it, I would have to notify someone about that. I read the note and... the ceiling? There's someone in the ceiling? Two people in the ceiling? They never told me about this during training. I looked at the ceiling and tentatively yelled: "Jeramy? You there?"
A panel shifted, lifted, and then quickly fell with a thud.
"You good, need to find anything?" a voice rang from the ceiling. I fell back several feet. I assumed nothing would happen.
"Uh.h, yeah t-the staff room", I had just about forced those words out of my mouth when suddenly, a long arm emerged from where the ceiling tiel once was.

The arm was partially rotting in places, some green was scattered in the blood red skin of whatever lived in the ceiling. I could clearly make out where the bones and muscles were, which helped me to see that there were multiple elbows in the arm, allowing it to be much longer than it should have been. The hand was almost non existent, i could barely tell it was a hand, nothing more than a slightly fatter part of the arm with fingers coming off of it. These fingers were also abnormally long, containing multiple joints. The hand closed slowly, almost creaking, leaving one finger to point down the hall towards an unmarked door.

"That's the staff room, call me if you need anything else" Jeremy's voice rang again as his hand swapped down to pick up the ceiling tiel and place it back, concealing himself once more.
"T-thank you!.."
At this point, I realised that, either they call some basement the first floor, or this was the first floor, but I also didn't want to anger whatever was probably watching me through the ceiling, so I took Jeremy's advice.

I got to the door, forced it open, and was greeted with a set of stairs. I was surprised but then i remembered that there's at least one motherfucker that lives in the ceiling so..... I didn't have much to complain about. I started to climb up the stairs. Whispers crept into my ear, and it felt like a goddamn caterpillar. The wind danced around my legs and wrapped around me like a scarf. The stairs seemed taller than possible. I started to sprint up the stairs, fearing that I would be late to open the store. I eventually got to the door but it felt like an eternity filled with nothing but walking.

What is it with doors in this place with being stiff? Because this door was also hard to open and I could see flakes of wood fall off the door. A cloaked individuals stood in each corner of the room that was presented before me, leaving me to believe that there were two in the corners that were hidden from my view. I walked into the room to find out where my uniform was, trying to ignore the figures. Deep humming came from the figures every time I got close to a corner. This went on for about three minutes before I got frustrated with not knowing where it was.

"Where is my bloody uniform?" I yelled before I was able to stop myself. The figures all began to hover towards me, their humming ever growing and burying itself into my psyche before I couldn't hear my own thoughts anymore. Suddenly, they all scurried back into their respective corners, their humming dying as they fled. I could finally hear how my heart was beating like a war drum. My mind was making the sound a microwave makes and I was not happy with it. Suddenly, my eyes caught a ceiling tile on the floor.

abhorrent appliancesWhere stories live. Discover now