Chapter Text
Ah the Candyclub, the local candy store in town that seems to have only one person working at there ever. That one person being Kevin, a twenty something man who is probably pushing 30, who started working here because it was kinda his dream job, and one of the steps into an even bigger dream of his.
That is, until said dream was shattered his first day working here because of those kids. Skid and Pump, two Halloween fanatics who seemed innocent enough until they are showing you eldritch horrors, owning killer dolls, luring an escaped cannibalistic serial killer to you, covering the place in fake blood, and over all bringing trouble and making your life far harder than it needs to be. But aside from those two, the place is usually a ghost town from opening to closing.
Oh. And then there's Frank. The best way to describe Frank is a 7'4 menace who prefers to annoy you than be an actual danger. Despite being the local kidnapper, hardly anyone actually fears him. He never harms the kid. He's more like... an overpriced surprise baby-sitter that everyone deals with and no one bothers to report because in the end, he never hurts the kid (infact, if they aren't asleep the whole time they seem to enjoy being around him). He's also seven-foot-four and could likely snap your spine with his bare hand but that's beside the point.
In fact, said menace was currently driving righhhhhttt outside of the candy club, doing figure 8's right where Kevin could see his stupid white van through the window, almost like a lovely little fuck you. Frank had a habit of kidnapping kids right outside of the candyclub, making its already poor business even worse because even though most of the town isn't afraid of the local man in the white van, they are afraid of divulging over a thousand bucks to get their already expensive child back. And every time Kevin tried to get onto the man, telling him to take his "work" somewhere else, Frank would just shrug and say "this is the best place to find em, i don't make the rules" while grinning in such a way that it made Kevin's blood boil right under the surface of his flesh.
Frank knew it pissed him off too. That's why he did it. It was so damn easy to rile Kevin up. Even better because Kevin was basically all bark with no bite. And even if there was bite, it was like a little snap, nothing vicious. Frank enjoyed making him mad. It was entertaining.
Hence why he was doing the figure 8s in the parking lot, watching Kevin when he could. Kevin was glaring at him, holding a broom so tight his knuckles had gone white.
Kevin glared out the large window. Just 15 more minutes to his shift and then he's gone. Still, it didn't change the boiling feeling in his chest. Especially when he did catch a glimpse of a man in his Van, who was GRINNING at him. Can you believe that! Asshole... not only that, by company policy Kevin couldn't leave until the parking lot was empty.
He huffed, looking away. He'd grow bored soon enough and leave, he had to. Kevin turned his attention to the broom in his hand, which he had pressed so hard into the ground it had started to bend the wrong way. He sighed, relaxing his arm a bit. The broom practically jumped up from the tension it was under, nearly hitting Kevin in the face before clattering onto the ground. He huffed, snatching it back up to place it back against the corner between the wall and one of the shelves, not realizing he was glaring at it like it had cursed out his bloodline.
He hadn't heard the slide of the doors open, or even the lack of sounds of an engine revving outside. When he turned around, he was very quickly greeted by the sight of Frank leaning against the counter, grinning at him. Kevin jumped, before frowning. Even when leaning, Frank was still so much larger compared to him.
"Frank, what do you want. My shift ends soon," Kevin frowned, glaring at Frank with a look that could only be described as an angry cat. Frank just grinned a bit more.
"Can't a man visit the local candy shop?" He leered, eyeing Kevin.
"Not when its about to close, and he likes to kidnap CHILDREN outside of it."
"Its just business, little guy! You know how it is." He shrugged, popping what looked like a lemon drop into his mouth. How did he even-
"Just- leave, please." Kevin sighed in annoyance, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"Cmon, the place is still open."
"FOR 5 MINUTES!!" Kevin barked. He just wanted to go home, man. Get out of this stupid uniform and pass out watching k-drama's on cable. He felt his nails digging into his palm, likely leaving crescent moon marks from how he had his fists balled up.
"Exactly! Till then, I can be in here, candy hearts." Frank looked at him innocently, completely aware of how under Kevin's skin he was getting.
"I really don't like you, you know that?" Kevin huffed, glaring at him.
"No ya don't, otherwise you wouldn't be looking at me so hard."
Kevin sputtered, his already hot face starting to feel like it was burning. "THATS NOT WHY-" He groaned. Frank chuckled, not making any notion of budging any time soon. "You know what, stay here I don't care!" He lied through gritted teeth. "I'm going home, maybe you should too."
"Eh, home aint far. It's just in the lot." Frank shrugged, turning around to still lean on the counter even as Kevin circled around him towards the door. Kev paused, actually hearing what he was saying.
"Wait you actually... live in your van?" Kevin questioned, looking at him with a brow raising.
"Yup. Makes work easy." He shrugged. Kevin suddenly had some very mixed feelings, but he quickly stuffed them down again. Now was not the time to feel pity, especially not for this guy who INSISTED upon making his life harder.
"I... whatever, I'm going home."
"Hey, aint it work policy to wait for all customers to leave?" He leered.
"Its also policy to leave when a staff asks you to leave, but I don't see you respecting that." He retorted with a forced smile, trying to keep himself from grinding his teeth; a rather bad habit of his that he needed to stop. Frank's eyebrows raised a twinge at hearing an actual response rather than just annoyed... everything. Seems being annoyed and tired wasn't the only thing Kevin could be. He could be sarcastic as well! Who knew (Frank, in fact, did know).
"Ehhh, I ain't one for rules and policies." He shrugged again, simply watching Kevin mentally fume in pure amusement. Kevin stood there, looking like an angry cat with his fists balled up at his sides.
"I hate you."
"I know."
Kevin huffed, looking at the clock above the door. 1 more minute and then technically, he could report Frank for trespassing. The idea amused him, but then again- He wasn't exactly... on amazing terms with the law. The police found him suspicious, probably. Mostly because the whole sugar incident which... He really couldn't explain. He had no idea if it actually was sugar, or god was playing poker with his life and won but hey. At least he's not in jail or prison for possession! Though, dealing with this really made him wish he was.
He pulled at the sleeves of the pink sweater he was wearing under his work shirt, pulling at a string on it. Before he knew it, at least a minute had passed of him simply glaring at Frank, with him grinning back in silence.
“Right well, I’m going home, “ He wanted to throw in an extra ‘screw company policy’ but he decided against it for the time being.
“Yeah, yeah point taken.” Frank suddenly remarked, making his way out the glass doors. Even though he was leaving, the way he was simply pissed Kevin off more. Once Frank was out, he grumbled to himself, muttering something he couldn’t even tell were threats or not. He made sure the glass doors shut before locking them with the key in his pocket, which he quickly realized he didn’t have his house keys with. Great. Just lovely. He sighed, shutting off the main lights to the little building, before making his way to the back door to go out the alley, his hands stuffed into his pockets.
The November air was crisp and cold. He’d probably need to start wearing his coat again soon, what a pain. Did he even know where it was??... He needs to check through his closet. Again. Whatever, that’s tomorrow Kevin’s problem.
He walked out of the alley, seeing that the large white van was already gone. Good, he didn’t want him lingering around anyway.
Luckily for him, he didn’t live too far away from the Candyclub. A ten-minute walk at most before he was at a tiny apartment complex that he couldn’t remember the name of for the life of him. Not that he really… cared to. At all.
The night was quiet aside from the wind. Seems even the birds didn’t want to come out tonight. There are pros to living in such a small town; everything is close by, and it’s silent. But there’s also cons such as everyone is close by, and it’s silent. Eerily so. You’d think after… what, three? Four? Years living here he’d been used to it by now. But I guess when you experience a new horror near weekly, that’s a little hard.
Still, despite the silence he pressed on, circling into the lot of the apartments. They weren’t… great or anything, but they weren’t terrible either. Soon he was walking up to apartment 1007, wiggling the door handle just in case he forgot to lock the door in his rush this morning. When he found it was locked, he sighed in annoyance, pulling off that stupid hat he was forced to wear for work, and pulling out a pair of bobby pins he kept on it.
7th grade science teacher taught him two very important skills. How to pick a lock, and how to hotwire a car. He didn’t exactly have friends in middle school. Then again, who did?? Endless you were friends in elementary, you didn’t really keep middle school friends until high school. Least, that’s how kev knew it.
With a couple tries, the lock gave in with a satisfying click. He exhaled a breath he didn’t even know he had been holding.
It creaked tiredly as he pushed the door open, the interior just as unremarkable as he remembered. The standout features being the brown shelf-wardrobe-desk thing against the wall that he had gotten from his parents (that he used to hold his crappy old TV that might as well be a glorified computer screen), a yellow couch that came with the apartment, and a fuzzy pink blanket on the couch because he slept more on his couch than his own bed. Oh, and the not one, not two, but THREE ant farms he had. Harvester ants, black garden ants, and European fire ants. All three of which had tape on their sides with the colony names he had picked. Katrina, la nina and el nino. Yes, they were named after weather events, sue him.
He sighed, pulling off his uniform and tossing it away, leaving himself in his pink sweater. He also tossed off his pants, leaving himself in his boxers which- god hes a joke. They’re white with red hearts. Finally, he faceplanted into his couch, laying there for a solid moment before shimmying onto his side into the direction of the TV, reaching for the remote to click on the TV, putting it onto a random cable channel before pulling the blanket on the couch onto himself.
God, he was a joke.