After working the night shift for 2 months, Ayo had come up with a few theories as to why The Pegasus Grocery Store was weird. His first theory had been disproved almost immediately: there was absolutely no way someone was playing a prank on him. He initially thought this because, after the Very First Incident, which happened his first week there, he asked the old day shift girl, Rachel, what was up with that. Her response was it may have been a group of teen boys messing around with him. He wanted so desperately for that to be true, but the blood on the walls looked and smelt too real. Then, the next night, the blood began to ooze it started to form writing on the wall. That freaked him out more than anything his mind could conjure and he almost quit immediately. When he called to declare his resignation, the store's owner begged him to stay and tripled his pay right there. Had it not been for Ayo's destitute state, he would have packed his bags and searched for a priest to cleanse him. And when he confronted Rachel about the incident, she looked away and then mumbled something about needing to do inventory. To this day, he isn't sure how much Rachel really knew about this place and the strangeness that surrounds it. She stopped showing up to work about 5  months after the Very First Incident and Jumoke replaced her.

He knew it wasn't his condition either. His hallucinations couldn’t cause physical harm to him. So when a spirit claiming to be an angel stabbed him in the arm with a long sword, he started taking the events in the store a bit more seriously. The “angel” in question was an imposter, a man in a costume, but the sword was a genuine weapon from the heavens. He keeps it stowed on the wall behind the counter as a badge of pride. Jumoke uses it for cutting open melons when she's bored.

The place was haunted, that was for sure, but not in the way he had thought. Yes, writings on the wall with blood seem ominous and could spell out death, but it could also be an ancient creature's way of saying hello. There were many guests that stayed in the store; a ghost of a colonial master called him a slur while stealing a bottle of water from the fridge (Ayo had to pay for that because there wasn’t any historical record of that man’s existence), the Adze, who stay in their harmless firefly form most of the time but every now and then try to trick Ayo into giving them his soul when in human form, and a man who’s electrifying persona knocked the power out and left Ayo’s hair raised. Most of them were tame at best and a nuisance at worst, but some of them were truly terrible. He's had to google ancient Yoruba spells to seal away a few violent and vengeful demi-gods under the snack aisle, and the damage to the store, as a result, came from his paycheck more than once. Each time something big happens, it sets him back from his goal of getting the fuck out of there and maybe living a better life. It seemed less of a goal and more of a pipe dream at this point. But Jumoke seems to have everything set to leave first so kudos to her.

Ayo suspected that the owners may have something to do with the strangeness at the store. First off, he had neither seen what they looked like nor had been given their names. He just showed up in [REDACTED], and nearly two days later, was called in for an interview, even though (and Ayo is absolutely sure of this fact) he did not post an application to the store ever. The “interview” in question was a series of mazes that eventually led him to the grocery store via a hidden door in the walls. Ayo hasn’t ever been able to open that door again. After getting the job, Ayo got a call from his phone and was given specific instructions such as not to let certain customers in or to stock certain items at specific times. One that the owners were very very strict on, and one that always stuck with him, was to never open the door that leads to the roof. About a year. Ago, Ayo had dared Ola, a kid who started work that night to look in there. He peeked his head in, slowly climbed down the ladder, took off his badge and walked into the night towards the forest, whistling an oddly cheery tune. Ayo hasn’t heard from him since, but every now and then when he takes the trash out, he can hear the whistling coming from the forest. What he knows for sure is that his curiosity about what lay behind the door was long gone.

Perhaps he exists in a sort of twilight zone. He never left Ibadan that stormy night and he was in some dreamland triggered in his mind after the fight with his parents. There have been times he could hear their voices, but he wasn't sure if it was his parents trying to wake him up, another trick from a djinn, or his own self critical voice mimicking his parents.

Maybe God was punishing him for the abomination he was. His father always expressed it, and even now his mother would agree with that sentiment. But how could a God exist if some of the literal demons he had met were kinder than the humans he had spent his life with? If there was a God, he was a sick twisted villain.

*

He stares at the phone camera as he felt time flow around him. The shaving stick in his shaking hand like a sword to attack a dark beast. But he is afraid, not of attacking the beast, but the aftermath of the bloody battle. He would have to come face to face with a version of himself he hadn't seen in a long time. He hadn't done this in since he left home, and was proud at how much his beard had grown, regardless of how small and scraggly it was. It changed his face and made him look like a real man.

He is a real man.

He began the task, going against the grain of the hair, just like he'd seen his father do it. The scraping against his skin felt grating, and he could feel the little cuts on his face. He winced at his reflection when he saw the red dots and then shrugged. At least his face wasn't as bad as he thought. He could feel the wool in his chest loosen and maybe for the first time in a while. Maybe all the pain of the past few years was worth it.

"You're no man." Ayo scrapes his cheek with the blades. He whips around with speed to face the source. It was the girl from the storage room. She sits on the floor, legs crossed, arms folded, eyes judging.

"You're a coward" She spits with vitriol in her voice.

"What do you want?"

"I want you to confess to what you are! I want you to admit you were wrong!" She's standing, pointing at him with a cold finger."

I did what was right for myself! I needed to be myself!"

"You hurt your family! You went against everything you were raised for and killed me in the process! All for what? Some stupid fantasy of yourself?"

"Just let me live my life, you judgmental bitch!" He turns back to face the phone and the girl stands where his image normally was. This makes Ayo really afraid, his hallucinations can't possess electronics.

"You can't get rid of me, you abomination. You're better off dead!" She screams.

Ayo wants to look away from her fiery brown eyes, eyes he had once glimpsed into every single day of his life. But a force compels him to look deep into them.

"Do you think that this life matters? Your only 'friend' is leaving you for good. Nobody wants to be with an abomination like you."

Ayo lets out a cry of frustration and pain and flings his phone across his room. The screen has a spider web crack pattern on it and lights blink in and out. He curls up in a ball, wishing tears in his eyes would stain his bloody cheeks so he could feel the sting Wishing he could feel anything other than the wool inside him. He was tired. Tired of trying to live a life he had always wanted. Tired of the guilt and shame. Tired of feeling alone. What’s the point of living when no one wants you alive? What's the point of living if you don't feel alive?