In a Hushed Night

It was a stormy evening on the 24^th of January. The tiny droplets of snowfall, that was seen throughout the day, grew stronger, every hour that passed. As expected on the earlier days of the month, snow has been pouring out every day for the past weeks, but tonight was different. White snowfall together with the strong winds was just a perfect combination to create a blizzard that caused mystery and confusion that night.

It was thirty minutes past ten in the evening. A man named Jack Hunter entered an underground bar, located at a basement of a building, designed with neon lights and loud music patrolling inside the whole area. There was a descent amount of people, chatting while drinking their glasses of high-class champagne and gin. As they were chatting, it would be foolish not to see their glamorous jewelry being worn on their necks, ear, wrists and more. As Jack carefully observed all these, he went straight to the right side of bar, where a middle to old aged Italian man named Vito was waiting for him.

“Two glasses of scotch on the rocks.” Vito said to the bartender, as he smiled at me when I sat down on the stool beside him.

Vito has aged evidently throughout the years. His hair has turned gray on the sides. Wrinkles had been carved up deeply into his tan colored skin and was further enhanced when he smiled. His outfit was still on point, a perfectly white tailored suit, with a golden Rolex Daytona on his wrist as a cherry on top. 

“It has been a long time Jacky! How’s my favorite thief?” he said.

“Just tell me the job so that I can get the money already” Jack replied hastily.

Vito reached out of the pocket of his suit, and showed him a brown envelope of cash, looked right about fifteen hundred grands inside.

“I’ve got a job for you. All yours, but you’re going do something big Jacky.” he paused for a second.

“Inside the supermarket across town, there is a hidden treasure. A vault, inside that innocent store, contains some precious minerals that I believe would be happy to be in my hands. Your job is to locate it and bring them to me.”

“What time does the store close?” Jack asked.

“Midnight. Right about an hour from now. Try to be inside before it closes, to save your time breaking in. Hopefully, this blizzard won’t bother you much for this one.” Vito replied.

“The hidden jackpot amongst all the listed price tags, I see.” Jack said, as he finished his scotch and set off track to the Chevrolet that his boss gave him for the mission.

The vision from the driver’s seat was very blurry, nearing zero visibility, due to the strength of the blizzard. The only guidance that helped Jack see through the blur was the shine of the dimming street lights and cars that passed through the road.

After a rough ride through the storm, he finally arrived at his destination. He parked at the end side of the parking lot of the supermarket. The lights of the store, mainly blue and red, were still shining faintly and being reflected on the headboard of the Chevy. It was fifteen minutes before they close, and Jack was still inside the vehicle. He tried to observe the surroundings for possible entry and exit points, tried to locate the CCTVs, but the blizzard was still compromising his complete scan of the area.

About five minutes of trying to scan the area, Jack went out of the Chevy. The breeze from the severe and bitterly cold winds pierced through his white coat. It was darn cold outside. He then went straight to the entrance of the supermarket.

As soon as he entered, the temperature rose again to a comfortable level optimal for survival. A sigh of relief for Jack. He went straight to his favorite part of the store, the cereal corner. He enjoyed looking at the colorful cartoons at the packaging of the boxes. Although, as Jack was entertaining himself, he noticed something peculiar in the atmosphere of the grocery. There was still supermarket music being played in the background speakers all over the place, but he was the only one listening to it. He looked from left to right, searched every aisle from dairy, chips, poultry, all the way to the appliance corner. To Jack’s surprise, there were no people around. No customers, no assistants, no cashiers nor security. The supermarket was empty of living flesh except his.

“Hmm. Well this performance will be as easy as a target practice.” smirking to himself.

Jack guessed that the vault containing the jewels will be in the main office of the supermarket. Hence, he walked slowly and cautiously towards the main office located at the back end of the store, just to make sure no was there.

He turned the knob. It wasn’t locked. When he opened the door, a vault was comfortably sitting at the back end of the room, waiting for a thief to unlock it. Immediately, Jack got his instruments for stealing such as a tool that looked like a stethoscope to decipher coded vaults such as this.

Just after a minute or two, the vault was opened, and the glistening jewels were carefully placed inside a small black bag that Jack had with him.

“Job well done.” He said after committing the robbery effortlessly.

The store’s lights were not yet switched off. It was ten minutes before the supermarket closes. Jack walked comfortably along the aisles of the store towards the exit door, as if he was strolling in a park.

As soon as he headed towards the glass door for an exit, he suddenly heard a tiny voice who cooed inside the store. Staggered and astonished, Jack immediately inspected the supermarket from left to right. The cooing, then became a cry. It was the voice of a baby. He followed the cry of the baby. Lo and behold, this tiny human being was on the floor right in front of the poultry section, where all the frozen meat and chicken were displayed. The mission of stealing the jewelry was running like clockwork, until he was petrified by the baby on the floor.

“There are just some people who are a little bit less humane than me.” Jack said to himself.

He approached the helpless baby and carried him with his wide arms.

“Oh, c’mon little boy! What are you doing all alone here at this time? You should be with your Mama!” he murmured to the baby.

Jack was a thief, but he was not a murderer. He could not leave a helpless little baby all alone in this severe and chilling blizzard. Now, his right arm holds the baby, while his left holds the treasure.

As both of them were walking towards the exit door, the lights of the supermarket were shut. Pitch darkness surrounded them with every step Jack took. The dim and thinning moonlight was the only lamp that guided him towards the finish line.

“Ah! Must be midnight already.” Jack said to himself.

Suddenly, the translucent light tubes from the ceiling switched back on again, and the brightness illuminated again throughout the store.

“This is odd.” As Jack looked up to observe the tubes from the ceiling of the supermarket.

Afterwards, the lights were flickering simultaneously in a random pattern. He actually tried to do some Morse code out of the blinking, but it was all nonsense.

All his attention was focused at the ceiling when he did not notice the baby. As Jack snapped out of his bewilderment, he looked down at the baby, and was horrified by the sight he saw.

The baby was glaring and smiling mischievously at him. The baby opened his mouth, and deep red blood gushed from his throat into the clothes of Jack.

“What the heck is wrong with you!” Jack screamed to his fullest, almost forgetting he was in mission, and dropped the baby to the tiles of the store.

Surprisingly, the baby was able to get up with its legs, and ran into the darkness of the store. Jack was just standing in the middle of the aisle, his knees were shaking, and teeth chattering. He tried to hobble slowly towards the exit door with all his might, while he still held on to the bag full of jewels.

*Thud*

A box of cereals fell from the aisle behind him. He knew that it was following him. He knew that this was not a baby, it was a creature that had watched him perform his robbery from the moment he entered the supermarket.

As soon as Jack reached the glass door, and touched the handle to pull, he suddenly felt the urge to look back. He knew he shouldn’t, but did anyway. Jack tilted his head towards the dark aisle, and the creature was not lingering there. It probably got scared away, he thought to himself.

He opened the door and tried to step forward with his left foot. Suddenly, he couldn’t move his left foot. He looked down, and the bloody hands of the creature were grabbing his foot.

“Heeeelp!” Jack screamed with all his might, but the blizzard was just too strong for his voice to reach a greater distance.

The strength of the creature was powerful enough to pull him back into the supermarket despite the struggling of Jack. He was sucked into the void of darkness of the store. From then on, nobody knew what happened to Jack, the thief.

The next morning, 25^th of January, the blizzard has gone. The sky was clear and the sun shone all throughout town, including the supermarket. Inside the supermarket, there were no traces of blood whatsoever on the surfaces along the aisles. It was just a regular day in the store, where customers buy their needs and necessities from dairy, chips, poultry and all the way to the appliances. The glistening jewels that a thief once stole, were back to its vault.