3rd Shift

Chapter 5 - The Interview

Finley stood in front of the mirror in his bedroom, frowning to himself as he attempted to look in at his own reflection. His figure blurred in the reflection, and the closer he got, the worse he appeared. And since he needed to be as close as possible to put in some eye color-changing contacts, the inevitable blur was making the process much harder than it should've been.

The blur was something Finley would never be able to avoid, but at least he could alter how his eyes appeared. That way, he wouldn't immediately come across as looking like a vampire. It was an effective line of defense, and it did well enough as long as his reflection wasn't obviously showing anywhere.

However, when he couldn't see himself to actually put the contacts on his eyes, the vampire got rightfully frustrated.

He hated contacts.

He hated putting them on.

And he hated how they felt.

Just as Finley had finally finished up setting the contacts that gave his eyes a dark brown appearance on, he took a step backward and let out an overexaggerated sigh.

"Finally. That took way too long to do," Finley groaned out his words to himself, immediately turning to check the clock on the wall.

5:34 pm. It should be dark by now. My interview is in an hour, so I should get ahead and leave. Just in case I hit traffic.

The vampire looked one more time in the mirror to make sure he was presentable enough to leave as he had planned. Brown contacts in. Black button-down shirt hanging loosely over a plain black t-shirt. A pair of his nicer black pants fitted perfectly over his black and red Timberland boots.

Of course, he couldn't exactly see himself, but he knew he looked good enough for his interview at Buggies & Baskets.

The drive across the city to get to the new store was somewhat stressful, but the vampire did his best to remain level-headed and go over what he remembered interviews to be.

I've been hanging tags for-- Finley paused in the middle of his thought as he mentally went over his resume. Three years. The other two were just in the grocery department, stocking overnight and helping the scanning coordinator at the time.

The vampire nodded to himself as he turned around the last corner to get into the parking lot of the place he was going to try to get employed at. As soon as he did, though, his eyes went wide.

Gray was not exaggerating when they said this place was massive!

The parking lot itself was enough to intimidate anyone. The two-acre lot had the capacity to hold almost up to five hundred cars at once. There were lamp posts stationed at the ends of each aisle of available spaces, illuminating the entire lot in the darkness of night.

Naturally, Finley parked near the back left of the parking lot. He was used to having to walk a short distance to get inside, believing the front spots belonged to the customers that regularly shopped at their store. As he began walking towards his destination, he couldn't help but look up at the monolith of a grocery store.

The front of the store itself was also lit up brightly, giving off an inviting atmosphere as music played over a couple of speakers hanging over the entrance and exit automatic doors. The entire front of the store was decorated in festive November decorations from pumpkins to displays of apple cider and fake decorative floral pieces. Glass was used to cover the storefront, adding to that inviting homely atmosphere with being able to see into the store and how bright it was in there as well.

Finley excitedly made his way inside, actually getting a bit of a smile as he looked around at the lobby and entrance to the store. This was, arguably, one of the nicest grocery stores he had ever seen. From what he could see from where he stood, there was plenty of shopping carts, or 'buggies' as the locals liked to call them, available for use. Everything appeared to be spotlessly cleaned as if they had been expecting a health department audit. The produce department, as well as the first couple aisles he could see from where he stood, were all stocked and neatly faced up to make it look like they were primed and ready for business.