✍️ Write based on the line prompt above

Albert looked around the store warily, hands in his jacket's pockets as he paced down the aisle. He swerved around countless people, keeping his eyes forward. This place was always packed. The deals were good, there were plenty of all items, and the workers were nice. All because of that redhead worker of theirs, the kiss up that's always trying to be friendly. But he wasn't here today to keep an eye on him.
So naturally nobody would notice if a few items were stolen, right?
It started with a small pack of candy, then expensive medicine, yogurt, produce. They all fit so snuggly in his jacket, as if they were MEANT to be there. It was like he was being praised for stealing. And why shouldn't he? He's struggled while this place flaunts its fanciness. They could lose half the store and still stay afloat! No, he DESERVED this. All the work he's done? All those applications he's turned in? It was about time someone gave something to HIM.
As Albert fit a can of soup into his pocket, he was hit with a sudden feeling. An alien wind that sent shivers down his spine, and the undeniable feeling of eyes on him. He spun around. No one was there. No customers, no workers. He looked up. The cameras, maybe? No one ever checked that sh-t, though. Calming his breath, his shifted his jacket around and hurried to the door. Maybe that was just a sign for him to leave.
There was a crowd of carts and families walking in and out of the large doors. The workers waiting there were all preoccupied with small talk with other customers. The perfect chance to escape.
Albert picked up speed, tossing a small smile at a few random people. Nearly there, almost free...!

And then time stopped.

As though a wave rolled through the area, everything gradually lost color until there was nothing but black and white and different shades of gray. Albert looked around, mystified. All of the other people were frozen, too, stuck in the middle of their average day.

"What's that you're holding? Come here, show it to me." 

Albert shivered. That voice, it wasn't normal, wasn't human. It was like several deep voices talking at once, the tones altered as if through a machine. Before he could react any more, he found himself lifted off the ground. At a speed rivaling a roller coaster's, Albert was yanked backwards, flying through the store. He flailed and cried for help from an audience of mannequins.
Then he stopped.
It was abrupt, but he was still grateful. He tried to walk off, only to find that he was still floating. What invisible force pulled at him turned him, and he whimpered as he was now face to face with the manager of the store. It was that redhead, that goody too shoes, but at the same time it wasn't. He was... taller; bigger. His eyes were a piercing and demonic red. The ones on his face AND the five floating eyes behind him, all of which stared at him. Large, black horns protruded from his head, and a black tail swayed lazily behind him. The kind - annoying, even - smile was replaced with a bemused frown, and those cheerful eyes now held animosity.
Albert yelped and flailed in the air, struggling to free himself from his invisible captor. Reggie didn't respond. He merely lifted his arm and flicked the wrist. Immediately, as if they had a mind of their own, the objects Albert had stolen flew out of his jacket and floated around the manager.
"Stealing," Reggie mused as he glanced at each item. His eyes finally landed on the customer frozen in fear. "I thought you knew better."
"I-It was just an accident!" pleaded Albert. "I-I didn't mean to, I-"
"Just an ACCIDENT?" Reggie hissed. The invisible grip holding the man up snaked its way around his throat, tightening until he was coughing and gagging for air. "So you just ACCIDENTALLY put all of these items in your jacket?! Do NOT make yourself seem innocent. I saw EVERYTHING!" All the eyes floating behind him immediately fixed on Albert.
"I'm... sorry..." he wheezed.
Reggie only stared at him, seeming to be interested in the different colors showing on the man's face. Finally, he released him, turning as he heard the loud thump of the man crashing on the ground.
"I really despise people like you. So lazy, thinks everything should be handed to them, cries about inequality while looking for the easy way out. Don't you dare come back to this store. If you do-" He turned his head, monstrous eyes glaring at the frightened man. "-I'll end you." He turned his head again and walked off. The only thing Albert could hear beyond his heavy breathing was the clacking of the manager's shoes.

Just as the world had become black and white, color began to reemerge. People began to move and talk again, and a plethora of sounds filled the area. Albert blinked and looked around frantically. He was in front of the doors again. He spun around, expecting to see the manager there. Nowhere in sight. Albert exhaled slowly. What happened...? His mind was fuzzy, and he felt light-headed, like he had just woken up from a nightmare. He paused suddenly and pat his jacket. The items he had stolen, they were... gone!
Feeling his blood run cold, Albert warily looked around then hurried out of the building.
He could still feel those eyes on him.

A phoenix soared through the sky. They were orange with blue head and tail feathers made from fire, which help them to steer. On their chest was a blue marking shaped like a flame, with the flames near the bottom a cyan color. Their wings of fire were three times the size of their body, with the color mainly being blue with cyan tips. They flew majestically over the earth, looking down at how Mother Nature’s changed over the years. They smiled as the air flowed through their feathers, only feeding their fire oxygen to make the flames bigger.

They heard the faintest of cries from somebody down below, and they stopped. They started to fly down in the direction they had heard the cry. As they got closer to the ground, they saw a gray spot contrasting to the grass. They flew down until they could see what the gray spot was: A fluffy caterpillar with vivid green eyes. The caterpillar held some weird orb and was curled up in a small ball. The phoenix landed in front of them and asked, “Hello? What’s wrong?”

“Go away,” the caterpillar said, only curling up into a smaller ball, “I want to be alone.”

“Please talk to me. I only want to help you.” The phoenix transformed into their normal form, which was half cat and half phoenix. They looked like a cat version of them, with their feathers and wings still there.The phoenix scooped up the caterpillar into their paws and asked, “What’s your name?”

“Nebelung.” The caterpillar flipped over, revealing their eight tiny green legs. Wait… the phoenix thought. Caterpillars don’t have 8 legs… They have 10 prolegs, but Nebelung doesn’t have any of that. Given, the back pair of legs- Which I assume are for walking- are so small you can’t even see them from the sides… Does that mean- The phoenix stopped their train of thought after realizing that Nebelung was still waiting for an answer.

“Like the cat breed?”

“Yeah, like the cat breed.” There was a small quiver in their voice, almost as if they didn’t want to mention it. Nebelung shuffled the orb to the left 3rd arm from the right. They seemed as is they didn’t want to have it, but they had to.

“What’s that orb?”

No response was given, except for a swallow from Nebelung.

“Oh, I haven’t introduced myself, have I? Well, I’m Kalayo. Nice to meet you, Nebelung.”

Nebelung paused for a moment. They looked up at Kalayo with a sheer look of pain and horror.

“Hey, what’s wrong, little buddy? Come on and tell me.”

Nebelung looked back at the ground and shook their head.”

“Do you have any friends?”

“Yes, but… You won’t be able to see them. They’re all asleep.”

“How many of them do you have?”

“Technically, 6. Just technically.”

“What’s their names?”

“Amicizia.”

“Okay, what else?”

“That’s it.”

“...” Kalayo looked around to find a spider with a TV as its head. Its “tail”- The plug-in to the television- was plugged into an outside outlet. It showed 6 eyes on its screen, but they were all closed.

“Why’s he asleep? Isn’t it noon?”

“I’d envy them if I were you.”

“What, why?” As Kalayo investigated the caterpillar’s face, they had dark bags under their eyes. “... How much sleep have you gotten lately?”

Once again, no response was given from Nebelung.

“Come on, you can tell me…”

 Nebelung looked up at them with a very solemn face and whispered,”Why does nothing make sense anymore?”

Kalayo sighed and brought the caterpillar closer. “Well…”

Nebelung interrupted, “You should leave. Please.”

“What… Well, alright.” Kalayo started to fly off in the direction they were going. “Stay safe, okay?” They turned their head to Amicizia, to find that they now only had 5 eyes. A conure was flying away from the spider. Then Kalayo turned their head to Nebelung, who was now with a blue beetle. The beetle was holding a note and giving Nebelung a bottle of something that looked like Listerine. Kalayo watched helplessly as the small caterpillar drank it.

"Oh, trust me, I'm not waiting." 

Lucas almost shivered at her cutting tone, but continued to towel-dry his hair. His client sat begrudgingly across from him, both hands firmly gripping the box. "I was told this would be a professional service" the woman hissed as she tensed against the light rock of the boat. He made eye contact with her briefly, eyebrows raised and smile bared as he slowly folded up the salty towel. He then slowly glanced behind her to the back of the ferry, where the little metal railed dripped with rain that obscured their voices from the rest of the passengers.

"And what gives you the impression it's not?" His voice was still friendly, as tempting as it was now was not the time to go making enemies, especially of customers like her who didn't mind the eclectic terms of business. He placed his own box on the table and slid it across to her with the top opened up. She softened as she lifted the first necklace out with the utmost care, evaluating weight and every other aspect of her payment and humming a low note in approvement. 

"Did you even think about how hard that would hit her?!" Leon yelled at his father. His voice was hoarse and low from all the crying he had been doing, and he had no intention to hide such a thing from his father: if anything, Leon wanted his tears to guilt the man. 

"This isn't a concern of children!" his father yelled and aggressively swung his hand. "What your mother and I do is not something you should or need to get involved with!" 

"But she is my mother!" Leon insisted so angrily his teeth where showing, as if he was an angry dog. "And if you say these kind of things to her she is going to be upset, and it will affect me too!" 

Father's eyes widened, and he stopped on his tracks, momentarily seeming like he was entirely lost in his own thoughts. 

"There was... There was no need for you to tell her that!" the boy shouted and raised his fist. "You only did it because you wanted to make her feel bad! You're disgusting! The worst!" 

"Leonhard, it's not like that."

"Then how is it?!" he screamed and made his own throat hurt so much it felt like it was bleeding. "Tell me how is it! Tell me why you had to go out of your way to tell mother that kind of thing! Justify yourself, father!" 

The last words were spoken spitefully and with much disdain, and it didn't go unnoticed by the adult either. He sighed, let his shoulders shrunk and he sat down on the sofa, covering his eyes and forehead with his large hand. 

"... you're right," he finally groaned. "I did it out of spite. But these are adult matters, Leon. Your mother and I will deal with them."

"You better!" the boy murmured and clenched his fists. "You have already made mother's life hard as it is; you should just leave her alone."

"You can't just write that!" Pep burst out, aghast. 

"Yes I can, and I have. The dumb community board deserves what's coming to them!"

"Juno... I-i know you want to keep Elcott safe, b-but you can't write threats just because they aren't looking into the burglaries!"

Juno frowned. Had Pep dragged her into this stupid protest-letter writing thing just to tell her not to protest?

"That stupid kid mugged your house! I can say what I want."

"L-let's start over...Dear Community Board of Elcott, we appreciate your service-"

"We're here to kick butt, not kiss up to them," Juno said, throwing Pep's paper out of her wings.

"Um, how about some tea?" Pep nervously shifted in her seat, glad to change the subject.

"What manner of creature is THAT!?" Skeeter hollers, briefly forgetting that he and Ren do, in fact, live in an apartment and that said apartment is, in fact, among other apartments, and the walls dividing said apartments are each about as thick as one singular Keebler®Town House® cracker. He probably woke someone up, but that doesn't quite occur to him in the moment because there's just this big, hulking, fur-frankenstein standing before him by the side of his roommate and he's scared out of his mind.

"What 'manner'? You mean...what 'kind'? You giant nerd?" Ren gives an exhausted half-chuckle, tone keeping to the playful side as not to urge on any further negative response from the cat. But that's for naught, because the only thing that would subdue the tension in the air would be the removal of the cryptid beast she was guiding into their living space from the equation. "Hush, we have neighbors."

"Godgodgodgod, you KNOW how I feel about this cryptid shit, Ren, I told you--"

"Relax, he's friendly."

"He's FRIENDLY so it's FINE?!"

"I would think so?"

"WELL," Skeeter exhales deeply. "Well, Ren, not everything you THINK is fine, is actually fine. Y'know, I really would've liked you to at least, y'know, call me, or shoot me a text before you decided to bring this hulking...thing, into our household."

"Short notice. Couldn't do it. Both hands occupied with pushing this boy in the right direction." Ren rolled her shoulders, ushering the ferocious feline toward the closest couch and patting the seat...but only getting a hollow stare as a response. "...Mmkay."

If Skeeter had a space between his eyes, or two eyes for that matter, he'd be pinching that little space at the bridge of the nose that he also happens to not posses. So instead of doing that thing that he can't do, he presses a palm to his forehead, tightly shutting his singular cyclops eyes and grunting in frustration. There was a certain anxiety rising in his chest on account of this situation, and he was trying desperately to push it back down and not freak out. He didn't want to make himself look like more of a fool in front of Ren, or risk spooking the monster. 

"What...what on Earth happened. Where did you find him and why is bringing him here a good idea." He finally inquires after sorting his head out. 

"Oh, uh, Ouija needed me to keep him somewhere and she didn't have a place available so--" Ren was quickly cut off by an agonized sound that she suspected to come from the cryptid...when it in fact came from her roommate instead.

"You're doing this for that chick?!"

"Yeah, why?" 

"My god, Ren, she's literally...a demon. She is manipulating you. She's a frickin' seductress." 

"No, no she's not! She...she likes me. I'm doing it for her 'cuz we like each other. Right? Yeah." Ren sounds panicked, like she's trying to convince herself more than she's trying to convince Skeeter. Her ears wilt, and she squints in no particular direction, as if briefly cutting away from the conversation to think about her own words and the authenticity of her relationship with Ouija. Once seeing this, Skeeter softens up himself and, albeit cautiously, approaches Ren and the monster; but mostly Ren. 

"...Look. I'm--i'm gonna be lenient. He can't stay in the apartment, there's just no room and I don't want him to break stuff. You pushed him all the way here, though, so, i'll...i'll help find someplace to put him. As long as I don't have to like, get close, or touch him or whatever." Skeeter regrets his words, but only briefly, as a hopeful look comes across his previously distressed companion's face. With a small period of silence between them, Skeeter adds a question as an afterthought. "Sound good?"

"Y...yeah. I'm. I'm really sorry. I do dumb shit on impulse." 

"We've been roommates for two years, i'm well aware." A small fit of giggles shared between them, they now had to tear away from personal quarrels to deal with the elephant in the room. Or rather, the giant cat monster in the room...

"I swear, it wasn't open when I left the room!"
Reggie sighed through his nose and rubbed the bridge of his nose. A customer had been screaming about getting a discount on goods that hadn't been taken off the shelves despite being out of season. He knew full well they had all been taken to the back room, and he confirmed it when his employee explained to him that the doors to the back had been closed. The customer had no doubt either hidden the items or found a way inside the back. What was the right thing to do in this situation? The customer was obviously in the wrong- morally, that is. Technically he could be right. Reggie absolutely despised rewarding scum, people that played this "game" of shopping, but his hands were tied. Everyone was watching, too, and no matter how kind they thought of him, he was still the Big, Bad Corporate Man that was out to steal their money.
A defeated sigh left his lips. He raised his hand to override his cashier's work when a loud voice stopped him.
"Hey!"
Everyone turned to see a young man in a blue suit in line, his expression both impatient and furious.
"Argue on your own damn time. You're wasting mine, and I'm not going to stand around and wait for you to get ten cents off your box of Twinkies!" Jet snarled.
Both Reggie and the customer stared at him in astonishment. The customer reacted almost instantly.
"Hey, f-ck you, man! Go to another line!"
"I'm not moving just because you can't handle paying anything over a dollar. If you're that desperate for treats, go to the damn corner store instead of causing a scene for the sake of saving a penny you're just going to end up spending on fast food anyway!"
The customer bristled. He looked around at all the eyes staring at him, his face turning red with humiliation. Yelling profanities, he threw the item at Reggie and stormed out of the store.

"You didn't have to help me, you know," Reggie sighed when he closed the door to his office.
"Of course I did," Jet said, sitting down in the first seat he could find. "Several customers were waiting for an opportunity to walk out. They looked new, too, so I bet they just wanted some drama. You would've given it to them if you denied that guy, and we would've lost profit. I'm used to being the bad guy. Besides, I hate sh-theads like that. Wasting my time, jeez." He let out a long sigh then looked at the manager. "You can't solve every problem by scaring the customers with your real look, you know."
"I know," Reggie murmured, rubbing the back of his neck. "And I wasn't going to."
"Right. And you'd make us lose profit."
Keeping his eyes on the floor, the manager bit his cheek. Jet was right, and he hated when someone as greedy as him was right.
"I'm surprised you didn't defend him," he admitted with a small smirk. "Someone that's trying to save money in a dirty way? That's usually up your alley."
"People like him give me a bad name," Jet shrugged, his fingers tracing the brand over his left hand. "They save money just to spend it somewhere else. They throw their pride away for the sake of a penny. I love money, but I love showing it off much more, and I can't do that with a dollar box of junk food." He got up and walked towards Reggie, smirking at him. "Don't worry about it this time. Just think of it as you owing me." Something flashed in his smile before he left, and Reggie couldn't help but shudder.