Until Tonight

The bell above the door dinged as a man in a black leather jacket stepped into the convenience store, unleashing a rushing wave of hot summer air into the air-conditioned building. Save for the cashier behind the counter, the store was empty. The man adjusted the sunglasses covering his eyes as the door closed behind him; and he started towards the back of the store, to the drink coolers.

The cashier watched as the man in sunglasses opened a cooler-door and removed a chilled bottle from inside. Afterwards, the man headed towards the front of the store and approached the counter, where the cashier resided.

"How are you doing today?" The cashier recited the line every one of his customers must hear.

"Just fine," the man in sunglasses grinned, slightly revealing his teeth behind heat-chapped lips. He set a bottle of root beer on the counter and slid it, along with two dollar bills, towards the cashier.

For a quick moment, the cashier noticed something strange about this customer, though he wasn't quite sure what. He handed the man his change, but as the coins transferred hands, a nickel lost its way and fell to the floor with a faint clink.

"Oh, sorry about that," the cashier said.

"No, that was my fault," the other man said. He bent down to pick it up, and as he did, the glasses fell from his face and hit the floor; a lens popped out of the frame on impact. He pocketed the nickel along with the other change and examined his sunglasses.

"Heh, oh well," he said, "they were a little too big anyway." He discarded them in a nearby trash can and walked over to a rack of sunglasses. A few were tried on before he decided on a pair which looked similar to his broken ones.

When he approached the counter again, the cashier was confused by what he noticed about the man; this was the first time he had seen his eyes without the sunglasses obscuring them. What he saw made his skin crawl and his palms wet.

The man set the sunglasses on the counter and handed the cashier a five-dollar bill, which was taken by a fidgety hand. The sight of those eyes sent chills creeping up the cashier's spine. He was nervous, and it was obvious by his quick, flustered movements. Struggling to maintain looking as nonchalant as possible, he ultimately failed. He felt that he shouldn't look at the man's eyes, as if it were similar to staring at a person's disability: was this man disabled? He didn't know, but the man's eyes did frighten him.

The cashier chose to avoid eye contact. He kept his eyes looking down at his hands, which shook as he fumbled for the correct amount of change from the register. The man must've been somewhat amused, judging by the smirk on his face which the cashier saw once or twice with his peripheral vision as he strained to keep him out of view.

He outstretched a nervous hand to give the man his change, and after successfully dropping every coin into his palm, he glanced at the man's face. The eerie eyes glanced back. He couldn't wait until the man covered those things: they were jet-black, as dark as a midnight sky. And not only were the centers of his eyes black, but even where there should've been white, there wasn't--only blackness.

The man put the change away and placed the sunglasses over his eyes. The cashier felt relieved that he could finally look him in the face again, the way he had before. He didn't have to look at those dreadful midnight skies anymore; now, they were hidden behind dark pieces of plastic.

The cashier might have asked a question pertaining to his eyes, but he didn't, and he wasn't going to. He felt it was best to simply forget about what hid behind those dark spectacles.

He tried as best he could to shake off the chills his spine still contained and said: "He-here's your receipt." He hoped the man hadn't acknowledged his stutter as he handed him the slip of paper.

"Thank you," the man said as he accepted the receipt, crinkling it into his jacket pocket.

"Have a nice day," the cashier said, anxious for the strange customer to leave.

"You too." He grabbed the root beer from the counter.

"At least now you'll have something to quench your thirst in that heat out there," the cashier managed to say without showing any signs of the discomfort he had experienced earlier.

"Yeah, it'll do," the man said as he started toward the door. Right before he pushed it open, he smiled with sharp teeth and murmered to himself: "Until tonight." Then, he pushed the door open and walked out, into the blistering heat of the day.