Short Story / Supermaket Horror

        Crimson red eyes peered from underneath the bill of the Pirates baseball cap; leaning against the return cart holder. He watched the unsuspecting customers, always in search for the perfect one. Loki sniffed the night time air. A woman walked passed him, but she wasn’t all that tempting to him.  He loved this time of year. Halloween night, All hallows eve, both were his favorite. It was the only time of year, where people were less cautious about things, making his work easier to perform. He wasn’t sure just who he was looking for, though usually he did. Tonight, he felt like picking just anybody, and making them scream. Nobody would believe them, he was god at keeping himself from being detected. He watched three more people walk by, before finally spotting his prey. He was young, about mid twenties to late thirties, with brown hair, cut to his neckline. He was tall, muscular, but that didn’t worry him at all. That was one thing he never had to worry about; the human’s strength was no match for his. He pushed off the metal pole he was leaning on, and followed the man inside.
*
        Mitchell stepped out of the car, stretching his tired muscles. He had sat at the computer too long, so he welcomed the change when his wife, Anna, asked him to make a junk food run. The cravings had been getting worse since she reached her last trimester; he wasn’t sure why. But it had, and here he was at twelve midnight on Halloween ready to go get all the junk food he could load up into the cart. As he made his way, he looked up into the sky. The moon was blood red and full, never a good sign, though he wasn’t a very superstitious man. He just didn’t like what the moon symbolized. Sighing, he pushed the thoughts aside, thinking about the current writing project he had been working on. It was a vampire novel, and was coming to him in waves. It was unusual when he wrote like this, but he welcomed it when it did come. He was thinking of his next character, when he felt like someone was throwing daggers at him from behind. It was a metaphor he was thinking of, but that’s what it felt like. He stopped, turning to look behind him. Nobody was there. He searched the whole parking lot, seeing a couple standing down by the dollar store, kissing and hugging, not at all worried about him. He shook his head, pushing the feeling to the back of his mind. He continued to work out the problems with one of his characters in his head.
        He grabbed the cart, thinking. He knew he needed to do a character sketch on this particular character, since they were new. As he thought  about the character’s profile, he barely saw the cashier, a young kid no more than maybe seventeen with piercing all over his body (and probably littered with tattoos as well) staring at him as he walked down the bread isle. He stopped, feeling someone following him. He craned his neck back, trying to see who was behind him, so he could ask what they wanted. Again, only the clerk was there, and he had long since grown disinterested in Mitchell. Running his hands through his hair, he placed his hands on the handle of the cart again; continuing to walk on.

        Loki followed close behind, the smell of death upon him. It seemed simply divine, like a fresh picked flower. His heart raced. He wanted to get this over with. He wanted to feel the man take his last breath, speak his last words. But he knew he had to bid his time. He wanted nobody to see what was about to go on, wanted them to think the man had gone completely insane. It was his way of playing tricks on the unknowing human.
        [i]My how I’ve been away for so long. The long sleep deprived me of my happiness.[/i] He thought to himself. He watched as the man made his way down the first isle, concealed from the annoying cashier, who kept staring blankly at him as he walked.

        Mitchell stopped in front of the peanut butter and jams, picking up a couple of Jiffy jars and placing them into the basket. Anna wasn’t found of peanut butter and jelly, but he was, and they were running out. He scanned the grape jellies next, selecting the Smucker’s Concord grape jelly, putting two jars of it in his basket. If he was going to shop, he was going to get something out of it as well. He scanned the items once more, making sure that he had what he wanted. Satisfied, he turned, heading towards the meat section. As he was about to walk away from the isle, a jar, or something, flew by his head, nearly missing him; crashing to the floor, and breaking shards of glass everywhere. He turned, eyes darting around him. Nothing was there, but the jar was definitely real. He walked over to the meat cooler, bending down, trying to convince him of the fact. He rubbed his eyes, getting up and looking for the nearest employee. He had to walk down towards the dairy isle just to find someone.
        “Excuse me, I seem to have dropped a jar of jam and it broke all over the floor.” He watched the woman’s expression darken just a bit, before she answered.
        “I’ll be there in a minute,” she said, placing the milk she held in her hand on the shelf.
        “Thank you,” he replied, and turned, walking back toward his buggie. He would have told her the truth, but the look told him she wouldn’t have believed him anyways. Heck, he didn’t even believe it himself, but he had been the one to see it flying past his head, so he had no other choice. He could spare her from having to know the truth though. Bending down, he began to push the bigger pieces of glass into a pile, hoping to make the mess a little easier to clean up. A minute had passed, and still she hadn’t made any attempt to come and clean it up. He stood, ready to move on.
        “People just don’t want to work anymore,” he stated, to no one in particular, and began to check out the meat as he walked past the mess. He was a quarter of the way down, when he felt someone poking him with a sharp object. He spun around, this time ready to beat the crap out of the person. Nobody was there.
        “Look, whoever is doing this, please stop. I haven’t done anything to you.” He gazed around him, hoping to deter anymore attacks on him. When none came, he turned back to do his shopping. But he didn’t get much further.
        Someone grabbed him by the shoulder, throwing him down to the ground.
        He watched as the thing turned from a mist, to a man right before his eyes. Mitchell stared, not believing his eyes.
        It had to be a dream.
        “Who are you?” he began but he didn’t get to finish, and the man didn’t bother to answer. Instead, he was grabbed by the collar of his shirt, and picked up and tossed up in the air like a rag doll. He landed with a loud thud; the back of his head hitting the hard floor with a smack. His eyes went blurry, tearing as he tried to see what the man planned to do next. His vision slowly came back into focus, but not before the next round of attacks began again.

        Loki felt alive again. He could smell the guy’s fear, and it smelled wonderful… like a brand new rose after a morning rain. He wanted more, he wanted to kill. This man would be his first victim, and he couldn’t kill Loki. His excitement began to grow. A new tradition was beginning. Halloween would be Loki’s finest hour.

        Mitchell regained his bearings, and began to scoot back, trying to find something to grab on to and pull himself up. He wanted to get away from this crazed man, but there was little place else to go. He had to make it up one of the isles, before he was attacked again.  He made it to the meat counter, watching as the man advanced towards him. Mitch knew it would do no good to try and get his name again. Getting away was his only option. He scrambled to his feet, his head suddenly swimming. He was going to have a concussion, if he didn’t already have one. He turned towards the isle across from him, and lifted his eyes to the sign.
        Isle 3 it read.
        He staggered towards it, watching the man slowly advance towards him. He wanted away from him, and now. He feared for his life. He hated Halloween.

        Loki was enjoying his little game. But soon, it had to end. His mother always said all good things much come to some end, and this was no exception. He watched the man staggering towards the third isle, towards the exit. It was definitely time to end it. He picked up the pace, going faster than the man in front of him could manage… the space between them closing rapidly. He smiled counting the steps till the man was dead. He closed the remaining area, grabbing the man by the arms, and dragging him back to the isle. He still didn’t want any witnesses; not that they would be able to see him anyhow. That was his other special gift, one that he spent years perfecting… the ability to only show himself to his prey. It definitely came in handy. He pushed him down on the ground, watching as his head yet again bounced off the floor.
        [i]This is too much fun.[/i] He cracked his knuckles, smiling as he did.
        The man in front of him made no move to get up.
        He bent down, grabbing the other man by throat, and raising him into the air. No movement came to stop him from choking the son of a bitch to death. Anger replaced his good humor fun.
        “Damn it, wake up.” He shook the man violently. “This isn’t any fun if you’re already dead.”  He kept shaking him, stopping only at certain intervals to yell at him. He tightened his grip on the man’s throat. Loki saw his eye fluttering finally, but this only caused his grip to tighten even more. The man’s eyes came wide open, bulging with the pressure Loki was putting on this windpipe. The man tried to say something, anything, but all that came out was garbled talk. Loki watched as the man’s face turned blue, several shades. He wasn’t about to let go till the man was dead.

        All Mitchell could do, was think about his pregnant wife at home, and their unborn child. He thought of ways to get out of this, but couldn’t come up with any. The man was much stronger than he could ever hope to be, and thus made any attempt to save his life a failure. The grip on his throat began to get tighter, the wind more cut off than before. He watched his life flash before his eyes: the summer home they just bought, the day his son would be born, his wife’s sorrow stricken face after she gets the news of his death. All this and he was unable to prevent it. As the last of his breath left his body, one more thought came to his mind.
        If he had only waited several more hours, Halloween would be over, and this nut job wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do this. He thought this over and over again as his body became limp, and he was alive no more.
*
        Loki felt his body shiver one last time as all the breath he had in his body was completely gone. Once satisfied, he lowered the other man to the ground, dropping him only when he was several inches from the floor. Standing, he gazed at his handy work, smiling, then walked over the dead man’s body, and left the store. He was only a few inches when he heard all the commotion from behind. The man’s body had been discovered. Loki walked into the night, his crimson red eye staring out from the back of his head.