Story 9
Supermarket
Until recently, I worked at a supermarketâstocking shelves early in the morning and running the cash register through the late morning.
It was run by a pretty shady company. There were all sorts of crazy rumorsâlike the store manager had run away a few years ago, a student working part-time there had committed suicide, the companyâs boss was secretly a drug dealer using this rural supermarket for transactions because there was less risk of police involvement⊠all kinds of bizarre stories.
According to a friendly part-timer I knew who had been working there for about 15 years, it was true that the manager had run off. And while it wasnât an employee, there actually had been a case where a customer died inside the store.
For some reason, that customer died in the giant freezer in the back room of the supermarketâa suspicious death. But apparently the customer was quite elderly, and since neither the back room entrance nor the freezer were locked, it was written off as an accidental death from wandering in by mistake. The veteran part-timer didnât know the exact cause of death, but said that since the freezer wasnât usually opened much after the morning stocking, it might have been death by freezing.
I think I first saw it last winter.
That day, like always, I went to work. I happened to be in charge of unlocking the back door of the supermarket.
I opened the lock, rolled up the shutter, and then saw a shadowâa personâslipping into the employeesâ restroom in the back. Probably a woman. I couldnât see clearly, but I had that impression.
I quickly shut the shutter and called the manager. He said if someone had entered before I unlocked the door, the security system wouldâve gone off, so it was probably just my imagination. Convinced by his words, I went back inside.
From that day on, though, I started seeing that shadow repeatedly inside the store.
Everywhere. The same kind of shadow. Probably a womanâs.
I even talked about it with my coworkers. Many of them said theyâd seen shadows too. But everyone said it wasnât something to worry aboutâseeing figures was a common part of creepy stories, and after all, someone had died there. So I tried not to think about it.
But about a month ago, I couldnât ignore it anymore.
It was a slow day, so I was allowed to finish my work early. As I walked through the store to return to the back room, I saw the shadow again near the fresh foods section, where the entrance to the back room is.
âDonât think about it, donât think about it,â I told myself, and opened the back room door. But then I saw the shadow againâthis time running.
I wasnât planning to follow it, but since the direction it ran led to the changing rooms, I reluctantly walked that way too.
After turning the corner and walking a little, I reached the womenâs changing room. Right next to it is the freezer. As I was about to open the changing room doorâ
The freezer door opened about 30 centimeters.
Inside was a woman, grinning widely with the corners of her mouth stretched up, beckoning to me.
Startled, I quickly ducked into the changing room and couldnât bring myself to step outside until someone else came in.
I hope it was just my imagination.
But without a doubt, that woman was beckoning me.
This became a trauma for me, and I quit my job at the supermarket.
Was that the ghost of the person who died in the freezer? If so, why was she beckoning to me?
Or⊠was the person who died in the freezer also beckoned by that woman?
