Kira made her way down the pathway toward the store's restrooms. Passing the photo printers, she entered double-doors leading to the 'employee's only' area. Large pallets of merchandise were being hauled by two stockers with a loud forklift. She pivoted to the left of the loading bay, entering an unlabeled door to the left of the break room. The security area was a tiny space cluttered with a wall full of angled monitors. Surveillance feeds cycled across each of the displays every few seconds. Dale, a short geriatric man with a thick mustache, gave a small wave at her from his chair.
"Benny's looking for you."
"I heard. Funny that he cares about leaving posts, but I'm the only one actually doing anything about this kid."
"Hey, I heard the code ninety-nine. Don't leave my help out of this. You'd have lost him if it wasn't for me."
"That's the thing Dale. I lost him." Kira stated, giving him a curious look.
How had he not caught onto that already, she wondered. It was possible that the poor man's memory was slipping. He had to be in his late sixties, or even older, given the collage of wrinkles he was sporting. His bushy eyebrows were the only aspect of him that wasn't completely grey. At least he still had a full head of hair, as compared to Benny's growing bald-spot. Dale gave a disheartened grunt, turning his attention to the keyboard on his desk. Many of the keys were so worn down that the letters were unidentifiable.
"Well, that's not great. Like I said, I watched the front, and he hasn't left. I'm done for the night. Tell Eric to check the feeds if he wants, but our overall shrinkage reports are stacked. Place could be robbed blind for a month and we'd still beat Newhaven's numbers."
Kira nodded as he stood up from his chair. Dale had a solid quality to him, as if he was an immovable object. He was so unlike all the other old people she had met. Their worn expressions couldn't hold a candle to Dale's warmth and quiet charm. Dale was always worth talking to whenever their lunch breaks aligned. He'd seen so much, either from the company or from life experience, regarding it all with fun anecdotes. She wasn't looking forward to his retirement in a few weeks.
"Try not to let Benny give you too much lip. You were following protocol to the letter. Lost kids are far more important than some lady trying on overpriced sweaters. I'll be sure to back you up on my way out. Gotta talk to him about my 401k plan anyway. Have a nice night. I'll see ya tomorrow."
He ambled out of the room without another word. Kira watched him slink away, frowning as the door closed behind him. It hit her just how much she would miss having him around after he was gone. The soft click of the handle preceded the dying sounds of his footsteps across the floor. A light whir from the computer towers on Kira's left drew her attention back to the monitors. The room was over-lit with a harsh center light and the whole area smelled like melting cheese. Shuddering at the odor, she hunched over the keyboard, tapping at the arrow keys.
Various video feeds cycled in and out of place in front of her on the central display. She studied each one, dismissing all of the departments that didn't match. In a tense moment she paused her clicking, freezing her finger in place over the key. The window showed a fish-eye view of the electronics department. It was angled directly overhead the television displays, focusing on the stereo equipment. Giving a few more taps, she jumped to a separate camera that was actually trained on the televisions. They were still showcasing obnoxious advertisements with flashy colors and random nature shots.
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Grabbing the mouse, Kira moved the pointer, struggling to locate it across all of the monitors. A series of icons appeared as she moved it onto the center display. Taking a stab in the dark, she clicked on the only element that looked like a rewind function. To her delight, the playback of the frame reversed, rapidly undoing the many garish ads. She held the icon down for almost a minute, jerking her hand as the earlier version of herself popped up. Kira scrubbed through the footage, jumping back several minutes to watch the beginning. There was an eerie quality to the silence of the video, as if she was looking at something she wasn't meant to see.
Kira watched the wall of TVs, all flashing separate positions of the same ad. She stared directly at the screen and refused to blink. The boy sprinted into the frame, running down the aisle until he dove into a clearance television. Kira's eyes bulged as she witnessed it again, pausing the window as her previous self tripped. It was completely illogical in every way. She scrubbed back and watched it happen again. Over and over, she saw the kid disappear into thin air, with each playback bashing against her mind like a hammer.
A single held breath escaped her lips. Kira wasn't conscious of the fact that she had been holding it since she started looking at the footage. Dozens of thoughts and possible excuses spiraled in her mind to explain what she was looking at. All of them failed in an instant, as if every ounce of sanity had drained from her head. The proof in front of her was damning to that fact that it was showing the impossible. Could she show this to anyone and expect them to believe that it wasn't edited? Or that it wasn't some kind of practical joke or attempt at an internet conspiracy?
She couldn't stop re-watching the footage. Each playback looped to show her falling on her face, the pain of it all ignored for the primary subject. Kira focused on each frame, searing the memory of what happened into place. The boy dove into a TV and vanished without a trace. An inkling of a plan leapt into her mind as she cycled through the video for the twelfth time. She needed a copy of this. If anything, to look back on and prove that she hadn't imagined the whole thing, as if that was ever possible.
Kira moused over the other icons, searching for a way to export the clip. She glanced across the desk in the hopes of finding blank CDs or a random flash drive. The monitor blipped off into darkness the instant she looked away from the screen. A quick twitch jolted her attention back to the now empty viewport. Her eyes expanded in panic as each of the other displays died, loosing their glow in a flash. The empty screens glared back at her with a silence that signified death. With a harsh flash, the center monitor bathed her eyes with a white screen, causing her to blink wildly.
Hello Kira. Apologies, but we would prefer this footage not be reproduced.
"What the-?" Kira muttered, reading the text as text as it appeared on the center screen. The font was large, imposing black text that stood out, juxtaposed against the stark white. Each new character typed itself into place as she read.
As for what you just saw, there is little that we can do about that. Please stand by.
Kira felt the bottom of her feet give way. She buckled her knees, giving a sharp scream as she fell into nothingness. The room around her became blinding white light that seared into her eyeballs. Even wincing in pain did nothing to prevent the sharp glow from digging past her eyelids. Kira's cries rang out from her, disintegrating off into the blank void that enveloped her. The sensation of falling smacked her mind like a rubber band before it was over. Just as soon as the feeling began, it disappeared, and she was standing on solid ground.
She crumpled to her feet. Pressing against the surface of it, Kira blinked, trying to take everything in. The floor was tiled marble with soft specks of black dotting the surface. As she raised her head, the lack of walls on either side terrified her the most. There was also no ceiling above her, with the light coming from no visible source. It was as if only the marble floor existed. Black, blank space existed on every side, stretching everywhere that wasn't the floor.
The floor-space itself wasn't large. She rose to her feet, trembling worse than her aunt's chihuahua, taking it all in. Something about the area felt perfectly symmetrical. Kira wasn't skilled at geometry, but the way it looked gave off a sense of exquisite precision. As she turned to face each direction, she met only an inky void. It was a complete absence of light, lingering right past the floor's illuminated space. A sharp popping sound startled her, whipping herself to see the blonde kid in the red jacket standing behind her.
"Ah. Sorry. Occupational hazard."