There were a few options open to me after finding the unconscious body of my schoolmate. The first and easiest would be to confront my co-worker, who could have possibly been involved in this. Though, we’re jumping the gun a bit with that conclusion and there are honestly more important things than pointing fingers at the moment.
“Pull him out, quick!” I shouted to Elise, for once she was left speechless. Eventually jerking herself into action, she pulled away the curdled fluid from Mullet, as I hoisted from torso. The milky white goo ‘psshed’ as she tore openings into it.
I pushed away any dubious questions floating around in my head, racking up any first aid techniques I could. I pressed my head against his chest lightly. There was a light wheezing, and judging from the conditions he was found under, I told Elise, “There’s water in his lungs. You’re going to have to perform CPR, I’ll walk you through the steps if you can’t perform it.”
I’ve looked into the matter a little further since then, most of the sources I found said not to do this if they are breathing. I’m not a doctor, I can’t know how to handle every situation.
Elise argued, “Why can’t you do it?”
I put an arm on her shoulder, “Two reasons. I’m too strong for this. If I do it, he’s guaranteed to get a broken rib. The other reason is that, well I feel stupid only just realising this now but, I’m losing quite a lot of blood.”
My body was so numb that I’d forgotten I even had injuries, only now realising due to a slight light headedness.
I considered phoning a hospital at this point. For Mullet, not me. One downside to being tough enough to fight the things that go bump in the night, is that your local ER isn’t going to have much luck closing your wounds with stiches.
I know a guy who provided… an alternative option. As you’ve probably guessed, sketchy supernatural means of recuperation can’t exactly be bought with a minimum wage. I had to work for it.
I made a mental bullet point of every injury I’d sustained thus far, although I couldn’t gage the severity of any of them, the fact that my body hasn’t given out yet has to count for something right?
My left hand is still shaking after beating the red guard dog, along with the damage it did to my sides and back. A few minor scrapes from the thing in the store room, not really worth mentioning.
Seems he was all talk after all.
The sickle fingers caused the most pressing issues, the fiend having cut my side, and hurting my good hand when I punched him in the teeth.
I’ve gotten to this level of injury before, survived worse, but that was after weeks of continuous fighting, compare that to a night that hasn’t even ended yet.
After searching for quite some time, longer than you should have to spend looking for a first aid kit, I finally dug one up from behind the counter. The two take aways from it were the disinfectant, and a conforming roll of bandages.
I sat on the counter, rolled the wrap around my torso, and watched Elise. She’d gotten Mullet to cough up bile, and rolled him on his side to stop him from choking.
She knew I was watching her now, instinctively hidding her face.
I got the feeling she was scared and she was right to be. If I was right.
At that point, I only had ifs to make judgements on, worrying because I didn’t know how I was going to handle this.
That’s the real reason I sat there for a few minutes, making a mummy of myself.
To think, to rationalise.
“I’m not angry,” I told her, “-I just want to understand why you were shaking when you found out Mullet was still alive. Sorry if what I’m going to say sounds… accusatory, but that’s because I am accusing you, to what degree, I’m not sure, I’ll wait till after you make your case.”
“Your story, it’s bugging me. You told me that Mullet had been killed while outside, presumably by the guard dog, rule 1, but here we find him in the monster from rule 2’s skin hump-sack. I made a mental note earlier on- it’s strange how many monsters have coalesced in this town, stranger still that they’re all at this gas station. That led me to a few separate conclusions, two of which matter now. Perhaps these monsters have some sort of mutual relationship, that they somehow benefit from these conditions, but I’ve lost faith in that theory. It doesn’t explain any of their strange behaviour. Why doesn’t the sickle monster just cut through the store room door to get to you? Why does the tentacle monster only appear at a concrete time? Not to mention the fact that they only come to this gas station. Why?”
She turned to me, the look she gave me told me she was baffled, at a loss for words, no doubt she was biting her nails waiting for me to get to the point.
“So, no. I don’t think they know each other, or work together, the opposite. They run on set tracks, like a rerun of an old show, or a random encounter in a video game. They don’t really exist outside of here…”
I was getting ahead of myself; I’d ask her that question after I ask this one-
“Just tell me Elise, the sickle finger took Mullet, this creature that is programmed to only appear when condensation forms on the windows; how is it that you didn’t notice anyhting? For you to have survived, you would have had to hide in the store room.”
She was slowly beginning to grimace. I took that as an answer. “So, Mullet went to smoke, or for a piss, whatever it was. You notice the condensation on the windows. And you follow the rules.” I dropped off the counter, my feet only just catching me. I paced over to her. I stood over her, and asked the penultimate question:
“Did he beg for you to open the door? Answer me honestly. If you lie again, if his story conflicts yours, then I might just do something we’ll both regret.”
The words passed my tongue like barbs, this girl that I had been protecting, breaking my back for, might have led to a man disappearing, his girlfriend shutting herself off, his parents mourning his death, and all the anger festering in my gut right now.
She choked out; the very sound of her voice brought me to frown. “I- I d-didn’t… didn’t know there was anything I could do… I thought if I broke a single rule I’d- and now you’re here and- and everybody else is…”
Her voice quivered, “He did knock. He… screamed. Is that what you want me to say? That I killed him? I ki…”
She bit her tongue, her sunny face was torn and twisted, now drenched in tears and snot.
And I hugged her. It made me uncomfortable.Internally I was screaming out.
I pulled her face into my shoulder and drenched it in snot, her wiry hair scratched my face. The most glaringly of all, there was always the chance she was just a very good liar, that this was another façade.
I swallowed my doubts, once again ignoring any danger, “I don’t like the course of action you took. I'd rather die than do the same. But maybe that’s the thing about the paranormal. There is no concrete way off tackling it, you can’t punch every problem, you can’t always be as strong as a hero should be. You kept yourself alive for longer, and now there is someone you can still save. It won’t make up for the other lives you’ve ignored, but it’ll be a start, won’t it?”
She didn’t reply to anything I’d said, she continued crying, I’m not sure when she stopped, if she ever did stop. I never did say the real question out loud, the heaviest, the one I couldn’t bring myself to ask her in that state.
Did you make these rules?
I don’t know how long it was until Mullet woke up, maybe 30 minutes. He was groggy at first, then he was screaming. I crouched down beside him, trying to calm him down, but he only cried out louder and crawled away from me.
“NO, NOT YOU! ANYONE, BUT NOT YOU!” I had forgotten me and Mullet’s relationship. Despite knowing each other at school, he had no clue who I was under this mask. The one time I’d encountered him with it on, was when I caught him smoking pot, broke his bong and told him drugs are bad.
I waved Elise over, telling her, “He seems lively enough for us to move him. Calm him down a little, then we’ll take him to a hospital."
She shushed him down, but it was just for a moment, he began to shout once he saw the monster corpse that had begun to slump in on itself, much like the old man had.
It was at this point that I thought I heard a series of electronic beeps, one every two seconds.
I looked around the store, failing to find its source.
I told myself it was an illusion brought about by the blood lose.
While they were getting ready, my eyes passed over the window for only a moment. What I saw shattered my confidence. I crouched down, sneaking over to my allies. Mullet looked at me wide eyed, before accusing, far too loud for our current situation, “Don’t trust this freak Elise! Fucker's probably their master or some shit! Think about it, this bastard is a-” I solemnly put a finger to my mouth.
They both went quiet, Mullet regardless of his thoughts on me, still knew to listen.
“There’re more than one, the red guard monsters.”
I kept Elise from looking, but just outside that window, two more were sniffing around, I saw them prodding the sack of expired meat, and their dead friend. I blame myself for overlooking the possibility, thinking that the only monster that might repeat was the sickle fingered one.
There really was only one option left to us. We had to wait, camp them out, and pray to God that they weren’t attracted to the monster corpse in here.
Mullet’s memory seemed foggy, and knowing how erratic he can be if provoked, I put the questioning on hold, not wanting to fan any discourse between our little group.
If I were given the choice of who to bring into this situation, it would never have been these two, Elise fidgeted like a rabbit caught by the tail, and Mullet was in no condition to be sitting around on the floor, he needed medical help.
That, and the fact he tends to talk when he is delirious.
While I was trying to think, even as hours passed, he’d still probe me with pointless questions and non sequiturs.
It must have been 2 or 3 in the morning by the point one of them had finally left, the other soon following.
I gave the all clear, and my co-workers rocketed up.
“Thank Fuck!” Mullet cried, “The shifts nearly over!” he pointed to the clock; my eyes didn’t follow.
Elise informed him, “Mullet, you’ve been missing for a week. You’re not getting paid for the last shift’s pay, let alone this one.” He made up some argument that didn’t make any sense, though I only half listened in on it, my mind was elsewhere.
What were they doing out there? They did take the body and the bag, but they were there for hours, it’s strange they didn’t do it sooner, or quicker.
It was almost like they knew we were going to leave soon, like they were keeping us here for a set amount of time.
That notion was further supported by The next customer to show up, and they weren’t a minute later than when the guards left.
I leaned over to the sickle fingers lying on the floor, placed my foot on the monster’s knuckles, and began plucking them one by one.
Elise was the next to notice them, she asked, “How are we going about this? We could just sit tight, laugh at them, do what they want.”
I passed the fingers across the floor to her and replied, “I want to try something. This is the last rule, I don’t see any reason not to break it when we’ve broken all the others.”
Mullet interjected, “Hey, Elise told me we’d die if we did that. Made me stop smoking inside because of it. So yeah, you are trying to get us killed!” I ignored his semi-valid point and threw the other sickled thumb over to him.
“Give me some figures Elise, how many are there?” She responded quickly, “It varies, most I’ve seen come out of that car at a time is ten, though there might be more than that, that’s sorta the point of a clown car.”
“Damn it…” I muttered.
“Right, here’s the plan. If I weren’t injured, I’d handle this on my own, but it’s been a rough night, so I’ll need you guys backing me up.”
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Both of their eyes widened, especially Mullet’s, “-And I do mean backing me up, Elise, you’ll stick a few passes behind me, hit any stragglers that try to circle around me, I’ll do 90% of the work.”
I grabbed the brush and took off its head, before fixing one of the monster’s middle fingers to the end of it, with a combination of tape and bandage wraps. I tossed it to her, “Keep the gap between you and the enemy as wide as possible.
Mullet began to shout, “You ARE trying to kill us!” I finally acknowledged him, “Mullet, I don’t want to do this, but would you prefer I let these things live? I’m not just trying to save us; I’m trying to keep the people who’ll work here after us safe too. That’s the new rule, and it’s the only one that matters. You’re in a worse state than me and you don’t have my strength to keep you going through a workout like this.”
Honestly? I was bullshitting him.
I wanted to see what would happen if i broke all the rules.
He let out an exaggerated sigh before I informed him, “You’re going to be our spotter. Keep a track on how many are still alive, tell me how many are on my left and right, stuff like that, ok? I’m leaving you with a few weapons, if any of them get past us, holler.”
He looked at me dumbly, then tried to piece everything together in his head.
I focused on Elise again. “You ready?” I asked.
She stiffened her lower lip and nodded.
After taking a peek, I assessed the situation. Outside was a car, smaller than a beetle with the roundish shape to match one, but this thing had ovular wheels, and in the fluorescent lights, you could see the gawdy multi-coloured poke dots. The front of the vehicle, seemed to have eyes in the place of its headlights, at the time I thought I was merely seeing things. The door hung open, and in contrast to its paint job, the interior seemed like a void, it was only after I noticed that, that I noticed something was pressed against the windows, the car bulged like it was stuffed to the brim.
At the gas pump stood three clowns, one filled the car up, another was energetic, jumping around. The third was smoking, starring right at us. He had a bald head, the others had variations of foam like afros stretching from their skulls, but his was featureless. It creeped me out. Before they could finish filling their tank, I fashioned another scythe out of the mop, and while I did, I talked to Elise quietly.
“I’ve been thinking about what you did. I think you still need to face some sort of punishment.” Her expression didn’t change, her eyes were still wet.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” she replied, “-I don’t think I can keep doing this for much longer, keep living like this.”
I thought for a moment then decreed, “In a normal job, what you’ve done here would be under workplace endangerment, you can face jail time due to that. But I’m not a court, and I don’t think they’d believe this story. So, given that these are extreme circumstances, I think it’s best that I decide the punishment. The lowest charge for endangerment, is dismissal, so let’s go with that.”
Her mouth fell open a little. “In your next job, try to be a good co-worker. Maybe put in some earphones when you’re watching a video.”
The door dinged open, and I walked out. I looked back and they were both in position, Mullet by the door, Elise following.
I shouted at the clowns, “You and I’ve got a lot in common. We both wear costumes, we're both clumsy, and we both have great smiles-” I grinned as wide as I could, shirking the burning in my sides.
“And we both hurt people. But I never enjoyed it. It's an itch. When I see things like you, human or not, I feel disgusted. I become violent. Because that’s the only language you maniacs speak, isn’t it?”
The one that was smoking twiddled his cheap cigarette. Then two more clowns climbed out of their little car, and then came another pair from the other side.
I jumped, pulling my left hand back, and spinning my right hand after it.
And the smoking clown’s hairless scalp fell to the floor, and his body soon followed.
The energetic one cartwheeled over to me, I jabbed at him twice with the butt of the stick, he was knocked of balance, and I brought the blade down on him, taking my left hand from the stick to grab another bladed finger, and stabbing just above his red nose. It squeaked as I pulled it back from him, the four clowns from the car had now gotten within five feet of me, and another set were already getting out.
Realising I needed to do this at a faster rate, I grabbed the clown at the pumps by his head, and flung him at the four on my right.
I gritted my teeth and jumped after them, swinging widely, slicing through torsos, arms, head and throat. The stick was becoming flimsy quick, I discarded it after three more swings.
Elise swung as hard as she could, and got the tip stuck in one that was lying prone, leaving me open to assault the new hoard that was coming in from the car.
“Two behind you, three on your left, seven on your right,” Mullet shouted. Thanks to him, I didn’t have to waste time keeping track. I just attacked anything that was on two legs and honking.
Eventually a whole crowd of them had formed, numbering in the twenties. Although I was increasing the rate at which I was beating them down, more and more came out of the car. Elise was safe enough at this point, she maintained a distance, and they seemed more concerned with me anyway. I lost three of the five sickles I had at my side, they took too long for me to pull out of after a stab.
For the most part, these things functioned like humans, though they were fairly gymnastic, and I think their rubber noses were a part of their bodies, they were nowhere near as powerful as the previous monsters I’d fought. At one point I snuck a glance at the car, it’s windows still being pressed against.
How many of them are in there, I wondered. I wasn’t keeping track, but by this point we had to have killed twenty-something, and that same number was standing.
I needed to clear them all out at once somehow.
I considered actually entering the void from which they emerged, but decided against it.
Obviously, I’d do worse in there than I was doing out here.
But still, for all I knew there were a hundred of them, and my bodies last reserves of vitality could give out if pushed to such a limit.
Then I had an epiphany. I kicked myself into the crowd of clowns. They struck me, kicked me, beat me with bowling pins. Durability and strength mean nothing when you’re bleeding and outnumbered, I knew that much, but it was the quickest way to get to where I needed to be, they closed in behind me I was cornered against them, and a shiny pokka dotted frame.
I don’t typically lift cars, the square cube law has put me off trying it, but this thing was tiny.
I wedged my fore arms under it and shouted for Elise to run away. I rose from a squatting position; my fingers were sunk into the mechanics of the car’s underside.
I could have thrown it then, but I wanted to check that Elise was out of the way, and that I was actually hitting the clowns with it. I fumbled with it till it was above my head, something trickled from the machine’s guts, water coolant, or maybe, if this thing was alive, some kind of blood.
A few were still falling from it when I threw it as hard as I could at the crowd.
As my muscles exploded in that moment.
I couldn’t sense much of anything, but that electronic beeping showed back up, from where I don’t know.
Then there was an explosion of red when the car crashed down to earth.
I remembered the world going still before I looked down at myself.
I felt like a leaf swaying in the wind. The white bandages were stained red, and the blot grew larger.
I woke up inside, the beeping was gone now. I couldn’t actually rise immediately; all I could do was groan until Elise showed up. “Sham? Are you alright? Can you move? Can you hear me?”
I pushed out an affirmative. Looking up to her, I could tell she’d been crying again. I managed to lift my hand up, and turn to my side.
Raising myself up I asked, “Time?” Mullet was the first to answer, “4:50, you crazy asshole.” I smiled wide, glad that we were done.
This hade been a great night’s work. I not only kept a person alive, I saved someone. Elise told me to lay down, but I ignored her, walking over to the door. At this time of the year, the sun rises at five.
I don’t think I’d ever seen a sun rise before.
There was no more pitch black, and those annoying lights were off now. The sky was nice and dim, the fields were now visible under the slight blue hue of the world.
I sat myself down, the same place me and Elise had drunk that horrible beer earlier.
They eventually followed me outside, and I told them, “This is what I wanted. I don’t usually win fights. Against normal people I do, but in situations like this-”
I stopped myself before starting again, “I’ve failed to save so many people. So many dead, so many on the wrong path. I’ve held so many broken bodies in my arms, I... am so happy to have saved you both. No matter what you do, no matter what comes next, I’m so glad for this moment.”
I didn’t see either of their faces, my gaze was fixed on the horizon, the part where the light was emanating from.
Mullet remarked, “You’re so damn weird.”
He waited for five before leaving, he’d cleared up quite a bit, though he still made his way to a hospital, I’m sure.
Elise stayed with me until the sun rose, as she left, I wished her good luck finding work. She only half smiled, before walking down the country road.
After a while, I felt it was my time to go, so I picked myself up, and…
Was I forgetting something?
The thought that I had, came to me suddenly.
That beeping returned as I went back inside the store.
I glanced over every inch of the store, from top to bottom, before finally coming to my senses.
No, I didn’t bring anything.
As I was leaving, I passed the note on the counter, again hearing that beeping.
I grabbed it with hesitation, tracing through all the rules.
This is what I was forgetting.
The actual question. Not what happened, not who was responsible, I came here to find out why. Why Mullet was gone, why these monsters were here, why they functioned under such human scenarios-
Why is there such a crappy set of rules along with it all?
I pocketed the note, and for the last time that night the door dinged open.
And there were no golden rays to meet me.
No white clouds, or blue skies, just an endless void of night, and the cold illumination from overhead.
I looked behind me, and the store was gone, I looked back in front of me, and the lights were gone now too. I lifted me hands to my face, and they were completely visible.
There was that beeping again, I could hear where it was coming from now. I followed it, limping lamely, my body gradually gaining its stamina. Then he spoke from the void itself.
“I have been watching,” It said, “I have been reading you like a book. That is how I've began to perceive you, you and your associates. They are entertainment to me. I have seen you smile, cry, rage, despair, and I have only been slightly amused, if not displeased. You don’t seem to understand, so allow me to enlighten you: there are rules to be followed, a script to be played. You have defied the bare bones of this genre, what with you destroying the set pieces. You’ll be glad to know that none of them were sentient, real, if anything ever is. But they were needed for the plot, and you have ruined its course. Come, little green thing. Find me, that which is most me in this void that is not.”
His words drilled into my mind, as the beeping became louder, and I imagined a light in the distance. I was running now, and suddenly specs growing, bubbling larger, formed in the distance as I approached.
“This night, this night that has made you so proud of yourself, that has brought the little meaning playing hero can give a man, is but one of any nth number of nights, across the world-”
I realised that they were no specks at all. “- and in every little shop, office, restaurant, there is a chance of that place becoming the stage of nights festering with monsters.”
He was wrong. I hadn’t fell into despair earlier that night.
But before me, in that void, there were well over a thousand monsters, there were more than I could count. I dodged them, or at least tried to, but all at once they were on me, the stronger of their number crushed the weaker just to get at me, their roars caved my ears, their forms were diverse, they were uncountable, unquantifiable.
Infinite.
I heard his voice along with that beeping, clear in my mind over the carnage. “And I am the master of this night, I bring order to these entities, they are my puppets, my actors, they exist for my pleasure- and so do you. Your friends and family. You are all mine should I want you. And when one actor steps out of line, goes off script, as the director and producer I must quell your wilfulness.” They stomped me into the ground, squeezed me flat.
And then eventually, I was gone, and so was his voice. But not that beeping. At first, I thought I was dead, but I don’t think you can hear a heart monitor when your dead.
I finally placed where I’d heard the sound before.
When my father had died.
I wallowed through a mire of creatures that hadn’t yet been made, and soon I had become real again, my body had returned, and I could see only one star in the distance. There was a human shaped shadow, lying on a white hospital bed. It squirmed in every direction, but it was completely paralysed there.
“Have you been hospitalised before?” It asked and I answered, “I broke my leg and nose once when I was a kid. But I recognise the sound from my fathers stay. They had him hooked up to stuff like this.”
It paused for an age before continuing, “Imagine that, stuck in your bed, you can’t move, but you also can’t see, you can’t think or feel, you can’t speak or eat or hate or love-”
The voice was no longer that of a void, but a human being. “That seems like an existence worse than death, doesn't it? They stayed with me for a while, my family, they would come and read to me, I couldn’t make out most of the words they said to me, but it brought me some sense of solace. This, what you see before you, is my entire world, outside of the rule setting. All that I am afforded. As you can see, there is no one but me, and the machine.”
I tried to think of something to say, I tried but I couldn’t.
“My name is Paul Baker,” The man in the bed said at last, “and I fell into this void when my life was completely empty. It was maybe a decade before I could interact with the outside world, whatever that is now. I can set rules for those who agree to contracts, and I have set them for hundreds of locations across the world.”
I said earlier that this situation was hopeless, but still, deep in me there was a need to keep going.
I shouted at this dark thing, that had so easily crushed me with a handful of its monsters, “You twisted fuck! How can you do this?! How can you torture people? Kill them? Because you’ve been done dirty? What’s the point of this?”
He answered slowly, “I’d say I’m bored, but we both know that’s not true. No, I’m here for the same reason you are. I am hateful. If there is a god, (and it isn’t me), then I want nothing more than to destroy the world the bastard who did this to me built. I’ve watched you, you’re no different, are you? I’ve seen how you interacted with my creatures, your needless brutality, you relished in beating them down. You broke the rules even when there was no need to do so, if you are a good person, then why did you risk their lives without reason? Tell me, if you hadn’t found any monsters last night, you would have used your power on normal people for offences such as theft, or drug possession. You don’t do this because you want to make the world a better place, you do it because you want to destroy the things that annoy you.”
I reeled myself in at last and asked him, “Why am I here? Aren’t you just going to kill me already?”
“There is a rule against breaking rules.” He said, “This situation is the result of breaking every single one on a note. Now that you’ve broken that secret rule, the prerequisite rule, I can now set a new rule, just for you.”
I looked into his shifting surface, “Go right ahead.”
“I’ve been thinking about it since you got here, how about…”
“‘Rule 6: If Shamrock does not work the 9-5 shift on a Thursday, then a random person will die.’ Yes, I think it’ll be fitting, don’t you? Seeing as you spent so long protecting that woman you weren’t particularly fond of, and that you were so quick to go searching for a person who hated you, I’m sure you won’t risk killing someone who could be a major donator to a charity or whatever it is you value. The monsters are back every night shift by the way, so either you fight against them again, or you bend the knee, submit to the script.”
After thinking it over, I smiled pleasantly. “That sounds just fine! Thank God, I thought you were going to make a rule where I had to kill people or I’d die, something like that! I’m guessing you knew I’d rather die than do that. You want to see me suffer, play out a plot.”
I could feel the beeping getting distant, and so I told him, “You know Paul, you could still use this power for good. You’ve done bad things but that doesn’t mean-”
I was back in the real world.
...
I’ll catch you up with what’s happened since then. I’ve worked another two shifts since then, both with a pay rise, thanks to the boss believing the story I made up, that the damage was from a gang attack.
Since my encounter with Paul Baker, I haven’t broken a single rule. I did as I was told, I took out the trash, I hid.
But still, this isn’t right, is it? I’ve been looking for ‘Paul Baker’ online and in some hospital records I scraped together. No luck on that front, he probably doesn’t live in Ireland.
But I mean, he wants to die…
Right?
I’ve considered finding him and pulling his plug, but until then I’ll just keep working here part time. Who knows if that’ll even stop his monsters.
Another thing I’ve considered is, what happens when this shop closes down? What’ll happen when I die? It has to happen someday. And like I said, this guys a sadist, he wants to see the suffering, it’s not about the kill count for him.
Did you know that gas stations keep the fuel underground in large tankers?
Right under the store in some cases, I’ll have to find the blue prints for this place, check if that’s true in this case.
Out here in the country side, there aren’t many people passing through in the late hours of the night, like I said in the first post, few structures.
Did you also know that petrol is even more explosive in closed conditions?
Just a few interesting facts to leave you with.