I idly browsed the superstore isles, looking at my phone. I had just run out of chapters in a book on Royal Road that I was reading so I clicked through the search page, not paying much attention to where I was rolling the orange shopping cart. Suddenly the cart’s wheels slammed into an unexpected obstruction. I looked up from my phone and gasped.

The obstacle was the body of a man.

"Sir, are you alright?" I rushed to the person on the floor.

It was then that I noticed the body that my cart bumped into was looking ragged as if its clothes were at least a few decades old.

In fact, the body of the man I had reached towards was an ossified, mummified corpse, grey, wrinkled skin wrapped around skeletal remains of a man.

I stared at the corpse, my eyes wide. It didn’t make any sense in the context of the otherwise clean and pristine superstore isle. The corpse reminded me of the buddhist monk okushinbutsu mummies that have been found buried for centuries within stupas and mountains of Nortern Japan.

My first thought was that this was just a movie prop, someone’s idea of a practical joke for a tiktok short. I cautiously looked around the isles trying to spot the pranker with the phone camera pointed at me. There was nobody there. In fact, I was completely alone in the aisle.

An 80’s style calculator metal watch on the corpse's wrist suddenly unfurled, spreading its metal bits out to resemble a spider-like construct. I yelped, as the watch spider leapt on my wrist and dug in with its pincers, drawing blood as it folded back into the shape of a watch. I jumped backwards, trying to shake the watch off me.

It didn't budge. God damn it.

The watch beeped noisily, the screen flashing red. The sound of the beep was odd, off in some way. I felt as the beep rushed across my entire body and shuddered.

I gave up on prying it off my stinging wrist and yelled for help. Nobody came. I looked at the nearest shelf. The orange sign said "isle 774".

I stared in bewilderment at the metal spider now attached to my wrist and the aisle number.

This had to be some kind of twisted joke!

The pain from where the metal wristwatch had dug into my skin was all too real.

.

I called out again, my voice echoing down the empty aisles, "Hello? Is anyone there?"

No answer came.

How could an entire store be completely empty? I looked back at the withered corpse I had accidentally bumped with my cart. His clothes looked very decayed, contrasting with the bright, sterile aisles of this store. It was like he was some relic of the past, preserved here. A creeping unease went through me. The dead man looked far too detailed and too real, nothing like a plastic halloween prop.

I took a deep breath to calm my nerves. Freaking out wasn't going to help.

Glancing down the aisles in both directions, all I could see were the sterile white shelves, neatly lined with various products. No employees. No other customers. No visible exit.

I walked forward and made a turn out of the dead end corner I was in.

The isle ahead of me was far too long, impossibly so, stretching for miles into a vanishing point into… forever.

I rubbed my face, trying to think rationally.

Was this… a dream? Was I hallucinating? Surely, perspective like this couldn’t be real.

Figuring I had nothing better to do, I rolled my cart forward. The aisles seemed to be grouped by products. Isle 771 had pillows and bedding.

I grabbed the nearest pillow and a spare blanket. I unzipped the plastic covering and squeezed the pillow. It felt soft, real. The pillow offered me a semblance of metaphorical comfort. I shoved the blanket into my cart.

I continued pushing my cart slowly through the never-ending aisles, glancing around for any signs of life. The sterile fluorescent lights hummed monotonously above me. This place was beyond creepy. But I couldn't let fear get the best of me. There had to be an explanation.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

I wandered through the endless sterile aisles, pillow and blanket in tow, wondering if I had lost my mind. This place couldn't actually be infinite...could it? Yet no matter how far I walked, all I saw were more tidy shelves lined with products, dim fluorescent lights buzzing overhead.

"Of course the one time I decide to go shopping this happens," I muttered. "Get trapped in some freaky alternate reality superstore with no one around but corpses dressed in vintage clothing. As if Mondays weren't bad enough already..."

I peered down yet another aisle labeled "Kitchenware - Isle 963." Who needed 963 aisles worth of kitchen products?! This place was absurd. And I still had no clue what was going on or how the metal spider watch had latched itself onto me.

"Maybe the isles loop around in circles and this is all some twisted psychology experiment..." I grumbled, wheeling my cart along. At least I'd scored a pillow out of the deal, not that it made being stuck here any less bizarre. With a sigh, I continued my exploration, hoping to eventually find someone - anyone - who could explain this mess.

I shuffled along through the endless aisles, bleary-eyed under the constant glare of the fluorescent lights. I had been walking for what felt like hours, yet all I continued to see were more rows and rows of neatly organized shelves.

I paused to rub my eyes, glancing over the contents of the nearest shelves labeled "Home Decor - Isle 1,983." 1,983?! Just how big was this place? The shelves before me displayed an odd assortment of items - decorative plates etched with strange symbols, unsettling faces that seemed to watch me as I passed, ornate mirrors with intricately carved frames. I frowned, moving closer to inspect a particularly disturbing portrait of a gaunt man on a diaper box. I noted that the man had 12 fingers. Weird, but not unexpected. Company designer must have gotten lazy and used a drawing AI to get this made.

I shook my head and continued on. A few aisles later I came across "Gardening Supplies - Isle 2,174." The shelves here were lined with bags of soil, shovels, hoses, and an array of dangerous looking pruning tools and shears.

I wandered along, observing the neverending shelves with mounting confusion. There seemed to be absolutely no logical order or organizing principle to this place whatsoever.

The next isle over was labeled as "Isle 13,965" while just a few aisles later, a section stocked with electronic gadgets was marked "Isle 52."

What kind of chaotic system was this?!

I peered down an aisle labelled "Produce - Isle 3" lined with fresh fruits and vegetables. At the end of that same aisle however, a large display of fur coats and winter accessories was visible. None of it made any sense!

My unease continued growing as I pushed my cart along. Clearly whoever - or whatever - had created this infinite store was either completely insane or operating on a level of reality I couldn't even comprehend.

Either way, the randomness and unpredictability did not bode well for me. With aisles and products shifting around with no logic or pattern, my chances of mapping this place or finding an exit seemed dismally low.

I glanced nervously over my shoulder as I walked, feeling like the shelves themselves might be watching me somehow. This place just kept getting more unsettling. Sticking close to my cart of pilfered goods, I pressed onward, my sense of reality fraying with every step.

I blinked hard, wondering if my exhausted mind was playing tricks on me. Up ahead, an employee was stocking a shelf - the first sign of life I had seen. As I rushed eagerly towards them, I realized with dawning horror that while their orange vest was real, the employee's body was crafted entirely from intricately folded receipts.

This was no human employee. It was some kind of receipt origami creation animated to crudely mimic a person. As it turned to face me, I shuddered at its papery rattling movements and the way its receipt-folds vaguely resembled a face. Dark scribbles were visible across the receipts, almost like arcane writing.

"What - what are you?" I stammered, taking an instinctive step back.

The receipt creature continued steadily stacking items on the shelf, paying me no mind. Warily, I stepped closer and saw that the shelf was labeled "Deli Meats - Isle 4,982" while the product being stocked was sinks and faucets.

I shook my head, completely baffled by this place. First an infinite, randomly organized store, then ossified human corpses, now Origami creatures stalking the aisles. Every discovery only heightened my unease.

As I watched the receipt creature shuffle away down the aisle, I couldn't suppress a shudder.

I gasped as a sudden pain lanced through my chest. Glancing down, I saw the blood-slicked tip of a garden trowel protruding from just below my sternum. I grasped at it in shock, my fingers scraping against the wooden handle now jutting incongruously from my torso.

This couldn't be real. Trembling, I traced my fingers down the trowel's shaft, following the path of embedded metal that disappeared inside my body. Hot blood pumped around the breach, spilling down my shirt.

I blinked against the dimming lights, swaying on my feet. The receipt creature was nowhere to be seen. I must have blacked out for a moment because I had no memory of being attacked.

My breath gurgled wetly as I stumbled back against a shelf for support. This was it. I was going to die alone in this twisted place, killed by some animated origami monster for reasons I'd never understand.

As the icy grip of death closed around me, I thought I saw a hint of movement from the corner of my eye. Through the haze of pain, I watched in detached wonder as metal spider limbs unfurled from the watch on my wrist once more.

The watch elongated, splitting open to reveal an impossibly complex interior. Tiny gears whirred from within. Jagged metal legs flexed, reflecting the dim light. Then all at once, the watch collapsed back in on itself with a beeping noise.

I gasped, adrenaline coursing through me as my surroundings snapped back into focus. I was in aisle 771, next to the withered corpse I had first encountered upon entering this twisted place. Frantically I grabbed at my chest, feeling for the mortal wound I had suffered just moments before. But there was no trowel impaling my sternum, no searing pain or spilled blood. I was completely unharmed.

I stared wild-eyed at my phone’s display. Somehow the clock had reset almost a full hour earlier, to shortly after I had first arrived here. It was as if time itself had bent back upon itself.

“The watch...” I muttered, staring at the intricate metal spider device attached to my wrist. It seemed this was no ordinary timepiece.

When I had been killed, it had somehow transported my consciousness back to this earlier point in time.