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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/googlyeyes93 on 2024-10-01 17:47:05+00:00.

I miss movie rental stores. Of all the things that technology has taken from us, that’s one of the greatest losses. I’m biased, sure, since it was my first major job and helped me get through college, but come on, there was nothing like it, right?

Cal’s was a town institution, and I had been going there for years already by the time I started working there in 1997. I’m honestly amazed they hired me instead of banning me from the store outright, as much trouble as we caused back then. It was always a challenge to see who could sneak into the adult video room and shoplift without getting caught. Little did I know how much I would hate the stupid kids like me who did that.

It was definitely a product of its time, with a renovation every decade or so that really brought it into the uh… present. At the time, at least. Think it was ‘95 when the last update was done on the original store, and that was a neon nightmare that was trying way too hard to be cool. Not that it needed to be cool, considering it was the only rental place within thirty miles for our little nowhere town. Every weekend, without fail, this place would be full of families looking for the latest tape to entertain the kids, teenagers trying to pass off a fake ID for scary movies, and the occasional weirdo who was spending far too much time by the adult room. Yeah, those were a pain in the ass.

I got hired on in ‘97, summer before my senior year of high school. It wasn’t bad, all things considered, and beat the shit out of working the IGA market down the road. Pushing carts in the south Georgia summer wasn’t something I want to wish on my worst enemy, so getting to work in constant air conditioning was a godsend. Seriously, if I never push a fucking shopping cart through the heat of Satan’s musty taint, it’ll be too damn soon.

Sorry, back to Cal’s. I’m getting old and tend to ramble so… yeah, sorry. I started in ‘97, mostly just working during the day in the summer. It was good money for a kid at the time, and hey, it put gas in my car and gave me a way to meet people, so it wasn’t all bad. Things changed a good bit when we moved into the mall a few years later but… sorry, getting ahead of myself again.

Anyway, normal enough job for the most part, especially back in the days when home video was a booming business and video stores still had a place in this world. I would work days for the most part during my first couple of months there, but when school started back, I started getting put on the closing shifts. When I tell you this place was a whole different animal when the sun went down… I saw some weird shit.

Nothing started off too crazy. When I went to closing shift, my first night was mostly uneventful, though probably because I had Dustin, the assistant manager at the time, showing me what to do before I was left alone. Things were mostly the same as working during the day, except with the whole added task of locking the door when I leave now. Big responsibilities was how closing was sold to me, and woo boy was I… whelmed.

We went through the motions, taking the returns for the day, checking them into the system and inspecting to make sure everything was still intact. We had been renting videogames for a few years too, so it was typically up to us to check the cartridges at the end of the day and make sure they still worked. God, the PS1 release that year was a nightmare thanks to the new world of scratchable disks. People didn’t know how to take care of the damn things and they ALWAYS came back messed up.

First few nights of closing were fine. Dustin gave me the lowdown on what to expect working nights, regular customers, people to be on the lookout for, how to fix the tape rewinder in case it decided to eat a VHS, stuff like that. Usually we just ended up going through the drop-off bin and making calls about late returns, which were differing levels of pleasant depending on who got the call. Hell, sometimes you tell someone their copy of Ghost is three weeks late and they come up to the store to curse at you personally while throwing the tape at your face. Fuck you too, Miss Griffords.

Now, going through the drop-off tapes was… a varied experience. If you were around in the time of VHS, you know that they could be VERY easily recorded over. The even worse thing is that the recording could be at ANY point in the tape. That means we would have to throw every single tape in and watch on fast forward, making sure that nothing extra might be on the returns.

Some things were innocent enough, probably just mistakes by stupid kids. The occasional kids movie would cut off right in the middle, suddenly hitting a loud action figure commercial before going into an episode of Street Sharks or Beetleborgs. Can never miss those Saturday morning cartoons.

Others were uh… ranging in quality. I recall there being one copy of Homeward Bound that became a prized item of the shop, though it would never go up for rent again. There was a very attractive woman in town who decided to record a VERY intimate message for the manager who was in charge when I got hired. He was fired not long after that. The tape was treated as a holy relic though.

Then we started getting the unmarked tapes. I didn’t even realize it when going through the basket since I would just throw the stack of tapes into the VCR to check before putting them into the books. Hell, half the tapes were so worn down they couldn’t have the name read on them anyway. Assuming they weren’t already plastered over with a giant “CAL’S COSMIC VIDEO” alien sticker so people didn’t try to pawn them.

The first one… I’ll never forget the first tape. It was me, alone, on shift closing up on a Friday night. It was already a wild night, with one shoplifter trying to snag a copy of Final Fantasy VII and getting himself the cuffs instead. With how insane everything was and our ridiculous hours on weekends, it was well past midnight when I inally started going through the tapes. The usual suspects came through, tapes of The Lion King, Predator… Howard the fucking Duck for some god awful reason. It was the last one, and when I first popped it in I didn’t think to look at the title. I just went by what I saw onscreen, considering by now I could recognize half of the movies here by one frame.

I put the tape in. At first I assumed it was a found footage movie, kind of like Man Bites Dog and Cannibal Holocaust. Blair Witch Project wouldn’t be out for a while, so it wasn’t a booming subgenre quite yet. We got obscure titles from time to time though, so I just figured it was one I may not have seen yet.

Except then, through the grainy static and tracking signal on the tape, Cal’s came into view. I could see the huge stupid neon signs, almost unintelligible in the shit quality it was filmed on. It was unmistakable though, and as it came closer I started to notice details. It was night time, and lights were on inside the store. As the camera got closer, I could make out a figure inside, standing at counter.

It came right up to the glass then, gliding through the bushes outside to press as close in as it could without shattering the window. In the moment, I didn’t even think about it, I just immediately started mashing the eject button like it was an emergency call. I threw the tape, don’t ask me why, and it landed over by the new release section. Next move was calling the police, because at this rate I wasn’t ready to fuck around.

On that tape, the figure standing at the counter was me. I would take it as some kind of prank or something from my friends later, but at the time it freaked me the hell out. It was filmed that night, with me wearing the same Night of the Living Dead t-shirt I was right then and there. Swear to god I was hiding behind the counter clutching a box cutter until the cops finally knocked on the door. Even then it was a minute before I could work up the courage to even exit my hiding spot.

They watched the tape, but wouldn’t believe me when I said I hadn’t noticed anyone all night. Supposedly it was just teenage pranks, trying to scare people as it got closer to Halloween. It was useless even trying to talk to them about it, even after they saw the damned tape. Assholes just left without even filing a report, leaving me alone in this neon bastion on the dark street. I was scared shitless. I left the video on the counter with a note, hoping it was as they said, just a prank.

The next day I was off, and didn’t plan on leaving my house unless I was dragged out. My plan went well… until around eleven at night when our phone started ringing. Mom was pissed, to say the least, thinking it was some girl calling around for me before I answered. Hell, she probably still believes that, considering I picked up and immediately got asked to come to the shop.

Dustin was closing that night. This dude is always about getting his shit done on time and getting out of there, so he was already going through the numerous returns for the night. He got the same kind of video, showing him standing at the counter, wearing the exact same outfit as he was right then and there. I guess he had read the note I left, because he was asking me if it was some elaborate prank. When I kept denying it, he finally believed me. The shaking in his voice gave him away, and considering he was relatively unflappable, that made me worry. This guy got held up at gunpoint for the register one day and didn’t flinch, so getti…

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