Kat tattered her fingers on the counter as I pinned my nametag into my shirt. She couldn’t wait a second longer to get out of here.
I clicked my tongue and said “So, why’re you ditching me again? You really should’ve given more of a heads-up.”
“Hal, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
“What is? Music so loud your throat feels the bass vibrations, dozens of strangers potentially screaming in your ears, drinking too much making you feel like you ascended a mountain-?”
“Yes, you just described a party.”
I took a broomstick off the wall. “Kat. That’s lame.”
“Theresa Wilcox is gonna be there!”
“Yeah, but…”
Kat looked at her watch. “It’s getting late. Hugs!”
After we quickly entangled, I jokingly ordered “Out then!” as I forced her to the door with the broom.
“Ow. Don't do that,” she mumbled.
“Yeah, you can’t say that with you leaving me alone all night in the station on a barren stretch of highway.”
“Whatever. TTYL.”
“Kek.” I rolled my eyes and sighed.
As Kat trotted to her car, I began the nightly sweep of the gas station’s storefront. The clock above the cash register read 11:07.
Cool. So just absolutely too many hours to go. Alone. Fun.
*
A couple of trucks rolled next to some pumps as I finished sweeping. While they got their fuel, I started restocking the ‘lost’ items from the ‘found’ basket. A commotion commenced when I got halfway done. It sounded like arguing.
Great.
Putting the last few cans of beer back was when the commotion changed to shouting.
Oh, really great!
I tried to ignore the fuss, but when I looked up for a second as I finished my task, I saw two people approaching the front door looking not too keen on being jolly. Mildly groaning, I made my way back to the register and set the basket on a shelf behind me. The pair of Super-He-Bros. entered the store grumbling obscenities to each other as they paced down the isles snatching up various items. After a minute or so, the larger dude of the two who looked like he could shatter a bone of mine with a simple poke was the first to get to the register. The other guy, who looked more similar in build to lil’ me, stood near a back corner seemingly debating on what kind of sweets to get.
“This everything?” I asked the big man.
“I should hope so…erm…” He paused to squint at my nametag. “...Hal. That’s an uncommon name for a young fellow like you - ahem - can I ask you something?”
I shrugged my shoulders and responded, “Er, I guess…” while I punched the man’s item’s cost into the register.
“We’re from a couple of states over and my friend over there - you must’ve been hearing us. I apologize. He keeps insisting on taking the wrong road to Sommerville. At the end of the highway, we should take a left, and not a right, right? His stupid phone keeps getting to him instead of his own wits.”
I handed the nice brute the bag of his items after he finished paying with his card.
“You’re right. I don’t know what he’s thinking.”
“Thanks.” He slid a two-dollar bill to me before flipping off his friend while leaving the store.
I stared blankly as the friend approached me, having finally decided on a box of Twinkies. He muttered a “Hi…”.
“Hey.”
After an awkward silence while I rang him up, he cracked his knuckles before saying “You all alone here, tonight?”
“No…my co-worker’s on her break in the back.”
“That’s good. Um, my map-”
“Is wrong. Sorry. Your friend’s right. Left at the end of the far west intersection gets to Sommerville faster. One of my friends is there at a party.”
“Well, damn to both of us. Bet you’d rather be there than here. Least you have company to keep the boredom and spooks down, right? I’d hate to work graveyard in a place like this.”
“Yeah. It’s all good. Have a nice trip.”
“Thanks.” He flipped me a fifty-cent coin before joining his buddy.
Two-and-a-half-dollar tip in basically one joint? New record!
I watched the guys peel out of the lot a little too loudly for my liking while I tittered and tattered my fingers on the counter. Taking note of no one else approaching, I took the time to head into the storeroom and look for the restock items. To think I’d still be afraid of coming back here after three months is admittedly sad, but it’s not my fault it’s so dreadingly built. Walking through the maze-like storage shelves is like an endless liminal nightmare, but luckily this time I only had to grab some stuff from the front shelves. After I set the dried fruit and other healthy snacks in a basket, I traveled to the awful security camera display. It’s awful because it’s inside a little inlet where someone could easily sneak up behind you, even with a camera pointed at the inlet. Seeing that each screen looked clear, I made my way back to the store door and immediately froze after opening it when a loud BASH! sounded from the depths of the storeroom.
“Nah!”
I pushed through my freezing fear and locked the door behind me. Looking through the small window, I didn’t see anyone or anything. No other sounds were heard afterward.
“What the hell…?”
Regretful thoughts of forgetting my switchblade at home made their presence known. After another minute of silence, I hesitantly and quietly started to restock. It had been quiet before, but the silence now was deafening in my mind. Each rumple of bag and creak of display hook made me wince further. It felt like each little noise against the silence was a crime against humanity. In the end, nothing else happened for the time being.
Once restocking was complete, I decided to flip the stereos back on to relinquish some prosperity back. Almost like clockwork, the second I turned the switch on was when a car pulled into the lot. Not getting gas it looked like. The car parked right at the front doors and a woman wearing animal pajamas made her way in, talking on the phone. Even if she paid me no attention, her presence made all my stupid worries go away. I opened a little game of 2048 on my phone; my eyes shifted between it and the woman leaning down and looking at item prices a little too closely. I don’t think it was because her messy black hair kept falling in front of her vision, but because it looked as if she couldn’t read from even an arm’s length away. I shook the worry of if she should even be driving and focused on multiplying my blocks. When I made my first 1024 block, the woman approached with a spatula, a pie server, and an ice cream scooper. She had finished her phone conversation by this point.
“Midnight sweets party?” I asked her, noticing from a front perspective she was still pretty gorgeous even if she looked like Anna waking up at the beginning of Frozen.
She nodded and clicked her lips. “A slumber party with the girls makes you go to the weirdest places. What better way to celebrate graduation?”
I grinned as we made our item and money exchange.
The woman soon asked “You okay in this weird place alone?”
“I’m not alone.”
“There’s no other car in the lot besides mine and what I assume to be yours.”
“My co-worker and I drove here together. She’s cleaning up the storeroom.”
“Ah. Okay, then.” She paused to scratch her neck. “Well uh, I’m going to be forward with you…Hal - I just left a truth or dare with my girlfriends, and…”
I almost choked on air. Oh, no.
“...W-what’s the dare?” I asked with a hand itching my arm.
The woman opened her phone to her camera and said “I have to ask a random guy out and show proof of me doing it. I didn’t want things to be too weird, so I gave you a heads up - and I am not in the mood to actually ask anyone out at this point in my life anyways. Play it cool.”
Oh, that’s not so bad.
I bit my tongue. “Gotcha.”
It would’ve sucked that she’s not on the market if I lived in a world where I was into girls. How can she look so disheveled and pretty at the same time?
I soon gave the woman an awkward thumbs-up before going into an idle position of looking at the register screen. Through my peripheral vision, I saw the woman toss a ring to the left of me in a corner, back up down an aisle, press record, and put her phone in the chest pocket of her sweater. I heard her quietly say things along the lines of “Next time, one of you has to ask someone out behind the gas station…” and some other things.
She soon approached and said “Hey, I uh, I think when I dropped my ring it rolled behind the counter. I think it’s in that corner.”
I perked my head up I think just enough to be convincing. “Oh. Lemme just get it real quick…” I walked to the corner and bent over, happy to finally show off my aerobics progress, even in such a, let’s say, unique scenario. I heard the woman fake-oogle into her phone mic. After picking up the ring, I eyed it to catch its nonexistent beauty as I slowly stood up fully before turning around.
“Here you are, ma’am.”
“Thanks.” She put the ring on in front of the camera as I stood a tad fiddly. “Y’know, you’re not bad lookin’. I wouldn't mind seeing you around again.”
Trying not to laugh through a sly smile, I replied “I wouldn’t mind either.” Taking hold of a pen, I was in the process of writing a fake number when startling BANGS! erupted from the storeroom, sounding as if the metal shelves were being knocked over. My jump of surprise caused me to scribble across the paper and onto my arm, while the woman’s jump caused her phone to fall out of her pocket and onto the floor.
“What the fuck was that?!” she asked. “Your co-worker? That got us good. She must be clumsy.” She chuckled a little.
“Heh, probably…”
There was a moment’s standing of discomfort before the woman bent down to pick up her phone, whispering “Oh, thank the lord I have an Android.”
“You want to start the video over?” I inquired.
She stopped the recording and thought for a second. “I guess. Good thing you can’t actually be into me or this would be a million times more awkward.”
“Huh?”
“I vaguely remember you from high school. You were quite the theatre kid.”
I tried not to let my jaw drop as I thought, Did I really just get read like that on the job?
**
Writing down the fake number completely this time, I handed it over and asked “Hear from you soon?”
“Oh, definitely.”
I think that was a little too seductive of a tone.
With that, the woman made her way to the doors, stopped recording, and turned around to say “Thanks, Hal.”
“You’re welcome-”
“-Vanessa.”
“Vanessa. Hope you and your girlies have more funny and eventful graduation shenanigans.”
“Ha. Me too. Try not to get bored to death the rest of your shift.”
“I’ll try.”
Something else is going to get to me first.
When Vanessa made her exit, I quickly marched to the storeroom door, unhooking a stray shelf hook along the way. I didn’t want Vanessa to get too far in case something happened, so I unlocked the door briskly and bolted into the room attempting to assert dominance by clanking the hook around and loudly saying that the customer outside was waiting with the police. I didn’t care how stupid that made me look with most likely talking to empty air. I just needed to feel better. Nothing did pop out as I persevered around sketchy corners. I made my way straight to the back door, which of course, was open slightly ajar. Tearing through it, I escaped into the calming summer night and saw Vanessa backing out of her parking space. I looked down and aimed my phone’s flashlight into the mud, thankfully only seeing my footprints. I let out a sigh of relief and said “Okay. I’m good. Surely.”
After I watched Vanessa roar down the highway, I begrudgingly convinced myself to go check out the bathroom door, just far enough down the side of the building to make it not a place to be, well, ever. There were no lights back there, nor did any lights reach that far. Shia LaBeouf’s “Just Do It!” speech echoed in my mind as I approached the door, feeling some more relief by discovering that it was locked. With the keys on me, no one could be in there. I started to softly hum as I made my back inside and locked the door, the hum turning into a small berate on Kat for giving the opportunity for someone to sneak in.
When I trucked through the parts of the maze I hadn’t been to yet, I came across two shelves that had fallen on the ground, contents spilled everywhere - fortunately no liquids or the like.
“Least it’s something to do…” I shrugged.
I wasn’t sure if I should let the tension out of my shoulders yet. Before I started the clean-up, I made my way to the cameras to check what had happened. Thankfully no customers were seen to be showing up in the lot cams, so I went to rewind the footage of the storeroom and saw that apparently a shelf fell on its own, perhaps from being so old and unkempt, and knocked over another. I placed the item hook in a pants pocket and was about to go lock the front doors and turn the sign to Be Back Soon! when I realized I should make sure the back door being open was actually Kat’s doing.
After the footage was rewound, I saw that it was Boss Burns and Kat being their oblivious selves a little before I arrived. Comforted by the fact, cleaning could finally commence.
See, brain? Nothing.
I bit my lip.
Yet.
***
Nearly finished within fifteen or so minutes, I left to go take a real break of my own. I sat down at the cams once more, which still showed nothing, and started to browse Instagram. I soon came across Kat’s first collection of photos from the party. Just as I thought; way too many people. Since the party had more or less only just begun and full drunkenness had yet to settle in, the photos were mostly just simple selfies with friends and strangers in various poses. One picture took me aback when I noticed that behind Kat and the bountiful Theresa Wilcox was a man who looked much older than everyone else smiling through the porch window. It could be the homeowner’s father being a dad, but I of course let the intrusive thoughts slip in.
There was hardly anyone on the porch and the porchlight was off, and the man’s smile looked scarily fake. I shook my head to rattle the stupid thoughts away. Sliding to the last photo, there was a somewhat scandalous selfie of Theresa and Kat in what looked to be a bedroom. And wouldn’t you know, there was a person in the window behind them. But it was an older chick this time. The mom, maybe. My spine tingled looking at the middle-aged woman’s creepy grin. Her eyes looked to be not just looking at Kat’s phone camera, but at me. I slid the picture away and tried to reassure myself that the parents were probably pulling a little joke or something. But still…
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
To let it go, or to call Kat…wouldn’t hurt to make sure…read my fair share of Reddit stories like this…
Just as I was about to call, not one, not two, but three whole-ass cars parked in the lot. I sighed and quickly messaged Kat on my way to the front doors;
Hey, those two photos with creepy adults are staged, right?
I pocketed my phone and unlocked the doors for the strange, large amount of folks walking in. It simply turned out to simply be a family and friend’s road-trip gas and bathroom stop, so I handed the key over and waited for Kat’s amused reply.
*
After the three cars had left, there was still no message back. I opened another game of 2048 to pass the minutes leading up to midnight.
“Holy - it’s not even midnight yet…! Jeeze louise…”
***
1 A.M. came. Nothing else sparked my paranoia, thank the lord. Well, besides Kat not getting back to me yet. With the only person showing up in the last hour just getting gas, I was able to finish the storeroom cleanup - mostly. I leaned the broken metal shelf against a wall and squeezed its contents on the nearby ones. After I dillydallied around the storeroom attempting to reassure myself it’d truthfully be not that hard to notice someone hiding in here, I came out to the main store and noticed a luckily an innocent-looking minivan and not a creepy panel van had parked right next to my car. Strange, but not the strangest thing. I had seen them park a few minutes ago on the lot cam, and it looked like no one had come out still.
Probably just getting some rest or something. Hopefully.
The minivan was off and dark inside, so I couldn’t see exactly who was in there. I went to sit at the front counter in case someone came in, but after some more minutes no one did, so I turned on a playlist to jive to until something happened. That something occurred quicker than I thought. I had only gotten through two and a half songs when the minivan’s engine and headlights turned on. That of course is nothing on its own, but it stayed like that for an entire song duration. Then another. And wouldn’t you guess it - another one. By this point, the feeling of being watched really set in. I know what you’re thinking;
“Ooh, an idle vehicle. So scary!”
But it’s different when you’re the only one around in the middle of nowhere. And yes, nothing had happened all my shift yet. Just innocuous things where I let my imagination run wild. But at this moment, I thought This is it. This is the climax. This is what I’ve been subconsciously waiting for.
The loud interruption of my notification sound startled me back to reality. I was relieved when I saw it was Kat. My eyes darted between my phone and the minivan outside as our conversation occurred.
Meowth: I knew you’d say something.
Halle Berry: So they’re both staged?
M: Uh, you trying to get something out of me now? Jack’s mom, the homeowner, agreed to one photo and that’s all.
H: What about the guy?
M: Guy? Hold on -
While I waited for Kat’s return, the minivan finally decided to move. To a pump. At first, it made me relax a little, but then it stood idle there for a minute. It didn’t turn off. And no one got out.
What in the hell…if this also turns out to be nothing, I swear…just give me something already…
Two more songs played before my phone started ringing.
I picked it up and asked “Kat? What’s-”
“Hal. That guy - I don’t know him.”
Her voice had a slight drawl from being tipsy.
“So you don’t know who he is?”
“No one does! Or at least, the handful I’ve asked so far.”
“Where’s the homeown-”
“I don’t know, nor do other people, or even Jack. His mom just disappeared. Now, I don’t want to sound like you and your wild imagination, but-”
“You think there’s a connection-?”
At this moment, the minivan left the pump. Instead of leaving for the road, it U-turned and headed back to near my car, and then to the side of the building out of sight.
“Hal? Wha-?”
“I - may be having my own horror story right now, too. This minivan has been sitting idle outside for a while, and now it’s going behind the building.”
“What the fuck? Your first graveyard shift and you get a weirdo? None of mine had anything eventful. Hope it’s nothing, like whatever is happening here.”
“Where are you?”
“Theresa and I’re in the sunroom with a couple of others. The other hundred are blazing it out elsewhere. Jack went looking for his mom after I showed him the picture. I’m glad I haven’t drank too much just yet - some of these guys are getting a little annoying.”
I started to pace down the aisles as my adrenaline decided to kick back into gear.
“Could the guy be a neighbor just sneaking in a weird stunt?”
“No. There’s only one other house down the road a little ways. It’s a sweet old couple. I’d feel a little better about the guy if we were in the suburbs…where’s the minivan?”
“I don’t know. It hasn’t circled around yet. I couldn’t exactly tell from your pictures - are all the guests our age?”
“Yeah. Maybe it’s one of their parents having fun or being creepy, but when Jack come-s oh, he is back. With Jeanne - his mom. Let’s hear it…”
I heard Kat stand up and get closer as Jeanne began to speak. The minivan was still nowhere to be seen.
“...I scared him off into the forest, yeah.”
“Do you know him?” Theresa asked.
“...I-I’d rather-”
Screams echoed from elsewhere in the house. What sounded like gunshots horrifyingly followed.
“Steve-!”
“Mom, what the fuck-?! Come back!!”
It was difficult to decipher what came next. It sounded like Kat and her friends whimpering and whispering obscenities under their breaths before making their break outside. The nightmarish sounds of what I could only picture as the man intruding and shooting any partygoers in his way thankfully fainted as Kat and her group scurried somewhere. Soon, silence followed with only quick instances of covering up sniffles and cries.
“Kat! We have to leave!” Theresa exclaimed.
“We can’t-!”
“There’s nothing we can do!” another friend cried. “Let’s go!”
“I’m calling the police!” Theresa’s fading voice called. “Go!”
“Theresa, come back-! Fuck! Hal, are you-?!”
I heard Kat and a couple of others clamber into a car. “Y-yeah, are you alright?”
“My mind isn’t. Oh, fucking, fuck, fuck, shit! Jack’s still in there!”
“Look!” a friend yelled. “Jeanne’s talking to that psycho!”
Kat shifted around and gasped. I could distantly hear others peeling out and running away.
“Zoom in more - what the hell…”
“Kat, what’s goi-”
“The psycho man and Jeanne are talking. He’s waving his gun around. Jack’s in front of her like a shield…oh my gosh…she’s pleading for him to get behind her…”
In the corner of my eye, I could see the headlights of the minivan finally coming around the building, very, very slowly. Every few seconds or so it would rev its engine.
“Oh, come on. Not now!”
“What? The minivan?”
“Uh, huh. It’s rev - no, it’s zooming off into the street now. Aaaaanndd, it’s gone. Of course it was just a stupid fucking prank.”
“Lucky you - oh, shit - NOOOO!”
Before I could respond, my phone rang a dreading sound and shut off.
“Fuck! Great.”
I walked back to the front counter to grab my charger, but it wasn’t there. Not on top or in any shelves or drawers. I sighed and made my way to the storeroom. After the bone-rattling call, the room didn’t scare me anymore. I fast-walked down the maze of shelving and got to the security station. No charger there either.
“Seriously? I know I brought it…but I guess I don’t really know if I actually brought it in…”
A few moment’s look at the cameras showed nothing ominous anywhere, so after traveling all the way back around and into the lot, I was aghast to come across what I had been dreading the past couple of hours. From the low amount of light reaching my car from the pump’s pole lights, I could just barely see someone hunched over in the cargo space of my car. I had no idea if they saw me before I sprinted back inside, heart and stomach mashed together like a third-grade volcano science project on the fritz.
“Oh, well why not? Just why not world?”
I immediately locked the doors and headed to the storeroom, locking that door too. I thought it was a little funny this scary place was my safe place now. All my worries couldn’t prepare me for the actual moment. My brain was too cloudy to think. The trembles didn’t help either. I stumbled my way to the cameras and saw that everywhere was supposedly clear. The thought of the landline came to me, but just as I reached for its spot on the wall I remembered;
“Wait, fuck! That was removed after my first week!”
I ran my hands down my face and ruffled my hair before I rewound the footage to see the person who snuck into my car. My fingers rapidly tittered on the desk and keyboard. The few-minutes-ago-footage revealed to me a man coming from the side of the road to the left of the station and going up to my car. He hunched down, felt around under my car, probably looking for a spare key. I didn’t have one, so the man took something out from his pocket, fiddled with a passenger door lock for a few moments, and somehow successfully got in without sending off the alarm.
“Cool. Nice to know I need a brand that actually alerts.”
The waiting game soon commenced. I wasn’t about to confront someone bigger than me, let alone them potentially being armed. I knew I could outrun the man if I simply wanted to escape down the highway, but I wasn’t going to exit the station until I knew I had to, or a customer came and the police could be called. I sat there staring at the cameras for minutes on end, waiting for the man to get bored and find some new prey. He was probably waiting for me to get bored. I knew the likelihood of a customer around 1:30 A.M. was super low, but I still held out hope someone would show up. But the minutes ticked on, and no one did. Two vehicles did pass by the station, though. My heart raised and sank so fast both times. Finally, nearing 2:00, someone on a motorcycle came into view. I smiled hard when I saw that they pulled into the lot.
“Yes!”
I fast-walked out of the storeroom to greet the customer and tell them I was in danger. I came into the storefront just as the motorcycler walked in.
No!
It was the man from the party. The man gave a friendly “Hello” and started to walk around the aisles, picking some items up along the way. It was too late to retreat and raise suspicion. I knew he must have had a gun. I thought maybe he wouldn’t hurt me if I played it cool. And he wasn’t being hostile.
But how did he get out of there?
I replied to the man with a nod and made my way to the front counter. I felt around for the panic button, finally remembering that was a thing. If he tried anything, I would at least have that. The party crasher, as I’ll call him, grabbed some candies and a soda before making his way for me.
“Must be pretty bored, right?”
I gagged a little before I could respond. “Y-yeah. F-first graveyard. Not sure what to really make of it.”
“Ah. I’ve been there. You’ll get used to it. Now, could you…?”
He pushed forward his items.
“Oh. Yeah. Right.”
As I scanned the barcodes, I thought Should I use him to get the person out of my car? Ugh, son of a bitch. How much longer can I wait? No. I won’t do it.
When I handed his goods and change back, I gave a quiet “Have a good night.”
Please get plowed by a semi.
The party crasher smiled. “You too-” He paused to read. my nametag. “-Hal.” He placed his snacks in his biker jacket and finally exited the store, letting my muscles relax again. They were so sore from being strained it felt like I had done a crossfit routine. I watched the party crasher walk to his motorcycle and stand there drinking his soda, taking the night he had ruined for so many people. I didn’t watch him the whole time to conjecture anything. The fourth time I looked back, I saw that he was coming back inside.
Oh, no.
When the doors opened, the party crasher said “Hey, I think there’s someone in your car. I don’t think they’re supposed to be there, right?”
I choked on my spit and tried to reply as convincingly as possible “Oh, shit, really?”
“Yeah, I can help you out. Let’s go.”
Uh…
“G-go? Help? Can you call the police? I can’t. My phone’s dead and I forgot my charger.”
The party crasher took out the gun I had heard earlier.
“Woah, you don’t have to pull that out-”
“Yes, I do. I’m gonna teach you how to handle things the cops can’t. I’m Jay, by the way. You should know that if we’re going to be a little team right now.”
I almost made my lips bleed from biting them so hard as I watched Jay skip gleefully out the doors, set his bag on the curb, and usher me to follow him. I pressed the panic button and prayed I wouldn’t die. But it didn’t work. It didn’t budge.
Fuck.
I begrudgingly went to meet up with Jay. There was nothing else I could do. Jay told me to press my car alarm button on my keys. At the sound of the deafening blares, the fucker who broke into my car zipped open the cargo door and was about to charge until he saw Jay aiming his glock at him.
“You messin’ with a poor young man on his first night shift, huh? Pick on someone your own size, you fucking creep. Get down on the ground!”
The creep poorly whimpered behind his ski mask as he sank to his knees and put his hands behind his head, one of them holding a hunting knife.
“Drop your weapon. Right fucking now.”
The creep obliged. I stood frozen in a shaking pile of dread, not knowing at all what the fuck could come of this. While Jay inched toward the creep, I glanced to my right and saw a motorcycle parked by the side of the road.
That thing’s hella quiet. Oh, jeeze, what did he do with Jack and Jeanne? What’s he going to do with us?!
Jay came within two feet of the creep, barrel aimed square at the center of his forehead. Truth be told, it was a little funny seeing the creep whimper flat onto the concrete.
“Slide the knife over bucko.”
When he did so, the party crasher caught with his boot. Then he kicked it over to me. I picked it up immediately. Even if this was along the lines of ‘bringing a knife to a gunfight’, I still felt a lot better. Jay stepped forward over the creep, turned around, and stepped on his wrists. He then pushed the barrel against the creeper's head.
“Seriously, can’t we call the cops?!” I wailed in a frenzy.
“Not until we give this guy a taste of his own medicine. I mean, look at him! Who knows how many other people he’s done horrible things too!”
“Dude, no. Please. You already got him. We can just tie him up-”
“Look, boy. I can do what I want. The police won’t find me after this anyway. You sayin’ you don’t have it in you to kill someone even if they meant you or others harm?”
I gulped and only let out a stuttered grunt as a response. Jay tskd and turned the gun around so he could give a couple of blunt whacks at the back of the creeper's head, who let out anguished grumbles.
Damn it. I know this fucker probably deserves it, but I don't have a personal vendetta against him. Or with him. So why should I care if he’s hurt? Oohhh, why does cold feet exist? Should I jus-
The gun blasting took me out of my thoughts. The creep cried in writhing pain as I saw blood coming from near his feet.
“How’s the lead feel huh? Not great, right? Come on, boy. Sink that blade into this sad sack of shit. There was a chance it was going to be the other way around, so now’s your chance to do the favor to him!”
Jay’s crazy eyes looked through mine and into my skull. I could almost feel his voice attempting to grab my brain stem and pull me over.
“Come on. This creepo hasn’t even said a word to us since we got him! I mean, how pathetic!”
I stepped forward and tried to put on an intimidating voice. “Y-yeah. Why haven’t you said anything, huh? What are you, really? Your silence might make me join your torment.”
“Please-”
BANG!
Jay shot the creep’s other leg and laughed as the other sobbed. I jumped back, making the former laugh even harder.
“How do I know you’re not going to hurt me?!” I shouted.
“If I wanted to, I would’ve already done it. Now get your skinny ass over so we can hurry this up already. I’ve got somewhere to be. Hop to it, Hal.”
I quietly whined to myself as I slowly walked over, trying to think of the best way to get out of this.
If the stars are in my favor, I could kill two birds with one stone. But if it fails, I’ll most likely die. But like, it would be pretty cool…
I gripped the knife’s handle tightly as I made the final steps to the distressing scene. The creep was given another whack to the head before the party crasher keeled down, making this easier than I anticipated. I stepped above the crying creepo practically sinking into the cement at this point.
“Here comes more, sweetie,” Jay teased. “He’s all yours, Hal. Slide the blade somewhere good and then give a nice, slow piercing to the bone.”
I huffed and thought a little slice wouldn’t be so bad. So I did just that, and gave a slash to both sets of the creep’s knuckles. I squirmed hearing his cries and pleas.
Seriously, why is this so difficult? He’s a bad man. Even without anything happening to me yet…Come on, sissy!
“Oh come on, sissy,” Jay unknowingly repeated. “If you’re gonna slice there, at least slice down far enough to cut off the fingers.”
“I’m sorry. But this is psychotic behavior. Like I said, we tie him up-”
Jay shook his head. “No. Make him feel that cold, sharp steel against his tissue and veins. A bad man deserves it.”
“Is this not bad?”
Jay groaned. “To some. But being a vigilante is needed sometimes. Like here. Now stop shaking and fucking stab him! Stab him right fucking now.”
“FINE!”
I swung the knife up and deep into Jame’s eye socket, almost throwing up in the process. Knowing what would come next, I rolled onto the red, wet pavement and maneuvered the creep’s body over me as Jay spun in a frenzy and shot all the remaining bullets everywhere through his distorted vision.
“FUCK! FUCKING FUCK! YOU REALLY ARE A SICKO!! YOU RUINED-”
“You’re the fucking sicko!”
Feeling the creep’s body twitch over me as he became full of lead was repulsive. He choked, gurgled, and moaned when the deed was done. I felt something pierce my own rib cage. Adrenaline thankfully let the bullet pain stay low so I could get away. Jay’s blurred sights caused him to trip over the car creep’s body, buying me time to scramble to my car. Jay recovered before I could get the car reversing with my viscerally shaking hands, and he tried to shatter the door’s window with the now empty gun to stab me with the knife. I backed away just as the window completely shattered, throttled into drive, screamed at the top of my lungs, and rammed Jay into the stone wall. My head bashed against the steering wheel and sent me into a woozy state of fading in and out of consciousness. Pinned, Jay convulsed and groaned while yelling incomprehensible things. With Jay’s body mostly stuck in the bricks and me trying not to throw up once more, I pressed on the gas more as I slowly fell asleep to his screams.
***
I didn’t fully wake up until I was already tucked into a hospital bed. A twisting pain in my torso when I tried to sit up let me learn I had indeed been shot when I lifted up my gown to see the finished work of a bullet extraction. No one was in the room, which was harmoniously lit by the sun basking through the large window. Unlike what I have heard about what it was like to be in a hospital room; torture, dreary, and drab, it felt liberating and almost cozy. Maybe because it was my first memory past the horrors of the previous night and knowing I wouldn’t have to stay for long that made me feel this way. Semantics and all.
I looked to my right and was incredibly thankful my phone was there and plugged in. Opening it, I went to my camera to see the damage to my forehead. A huge, nasty welt was present along my forehead along with some scratches I assume to be from windshield glass. Looking into my texts, I saw Kat and her group were first to my scene. She had spent most of the previous hours with me but had to leave to be with those lost at the party. At the time, I was left in suspense if Jack or Jeanne had been part of those. I couldn’t tell if the last text she sent about going to therapy for the summer months was a joke or not based on how it was written, but I knew I would need to hop on that train in the coming weeks. A message from my parents sent around dawn said they would be at the hospital by noon. The clock read 9:18
Deciding what I should do to pass the time, I settled on going to my notes app, and began to write down the escapades of my first graveyard shift.