TheBlueHour 4

Card Declined

The man removed his card from the machine once again as the cashier simply glared at him.

"I'm sorry." The man said. "This was working when I got coffee just a few minutes ago." The Cashier said nothing as the man swiped his card one more time.

"No… this should be working." The cashier continued saying nothing even as a few angry voices arose from the now very long line behind the check out lane. The man at the register barely seemed to notice as he continued with his card. The cashier looked out the glass front doors towards the cool night lit by Chicago's neon lights and passing cars. Unfortunately he still had just under an hour left in his shift so he couldn't actually leave into the night yet. The manager walked over and started talking to the man as someone in the long line began yelling, so the cashier stepped away from the cash register. At least the incident gave him a few minutes to… to his surprise he saw the sports game being played on the demo TVs nearer to the back of the store disappeared to be replaced with a nearly black screen containing only white text. Surprised, the cashier took several steps in the direction. A few customers seemed to notice to, but most of them were more focused on the long line and the red 'card declined' flashing on the cash register. The cashier stepped towards the screens which showed one frozen image, and curiosity gave way to fear as he saw at the top of the monitors the dreaded three arrow symbol of the SCP Foundation. The cashier put on his Streamliner costume, the white suit and bicycle helmet appearing on him instantly as he used his Reality Bending powers. No one in the store noticed. The Streamliner took several cautious steps towards the TV sets and looked around nervously.