Checkout Lane 9 — Fluorescent Flicker Loop

An 8-second retail-uncanny horror short, 16:9, phone footage: a supermarket's lane 9 light flickering in a pattern — and the cashier growing less human with every cycle. The hook: the receipt itemizing REGRET, 1 x YOUR NAME, SLEEP, TONIGHT.
0-2s: Supermarket, closing time, the camera in a checkout queue. Lane 9's light flickers — not randomly, but in a pattern: three shorts, three longs, three shorts. The cashier is cheerful, scanning items, greeting the customer. The customer films, uneasy, as the flicker repeats.
2-5s: With each flicker cycle she changes: her smile widens past comfort, her blinks slow, her head tilts a degree further. By the fourth cycle, her eyes don't reflect the fluorescent light at all — two matte black ovals. By the fifth, her scanning hand has too many joints, items passing over the reader in a blur, the beeps accelerating.
5-8s: The receipt prints: a foot long, itemizing things the customer didn't buy — REGRET, 1 x YOUR NAME, SLEEP, TONIGHT. The flicker pattern spells SOS, over and over. The cashier looks directly into the lens and mouths: lane 9 is closed. The lights go out. Cut on the dark.
Craft: the subjects are the cashier (cheerful, then not) and the customer filming; the lane-9 light as the metronome; the receipt as the evidence. Camera: shaky phone footage, a held shot on the cashier's changing face, a receipt macro. Lighting: flickering fluorescent, receipt-paper white. Atmosphere: retail uncanny — the store, closing on you. Style: phone footage, fluorescent realism, receipt detail, 24fps, 8 seconds, 16:9.