I had just finished my tuna salad sandwich when the clock struck one a.m. Watching that hand tick over to the one was the sign that I'd made it halfway through my shift and the rest of the night was likely going to be a breeze. People almost never traveled the road after one a.m. so at the most I would probably have two or three more people over the next four hours looking to get some gas. The hooker and vampire crowd rarely made their way to my place of employment (Earl's Gas n' Stop in the middle of bumfuck nowhere) which was fine by me.
I snagged a pack of Reds from the cigarette rack behind me and tossed a five and couple of quarters in the register to cover the cost before walking over to the front door and stepping just outside. The cool night air hit and sent a chill up my spine and to the base of my neck, just above me the neon sign hummed, interrupted by only the occasional pop. I looked up at it while it cast it's dim red and blue glows down on my face.
EARL S
GAS N ST P
The “O" and the two apostrophes long dead, at least as long as I’d been there (which at that point was pushing somewhere around three years.)
"Fix your fucking sign, Earl." I mumbled to myself with a laugh as I held the cigarette between my lips. "You lazy old bastard."
Earl was never going to fix the sign though, Earl never fixed anything. There was a shelf inside that if you bumped it just right it would come crashing down. It probably would have only taken a couple of screws to fix it and Earl refused.
"Stores fine!" He'd say in his crotchety old man voice. "You act like it's falling apart or something." His tone becoming clearly more accusatory with the second part of his statement.
"I'll fix it." I'd say to him only to be dismissed with a wave of the hand and grumble about liability insurance. The shelf instead remained stocked with paper goods to avoid any potential breakage and I eventually gave up the argument.
I was only three puffs into my cigarette when dark red Honda came rolling up the road and pulled into the station. The car was coated with a layer of dirt that shone prominently underneath the harsh fluorescents that hung above the pumps. I couldn't see the driver through the windows, the light simply reflecting the world around the car rather than giving me a glimpse inside.
The car sat idling there for a few moments, the buzz of the lights and the sound of the grumbling engine being the only sounds cutting through the otherwise quiet night. I felt an uneasy vibe in the air as I watched the mysterious new arrival, I could see stilted movements from inside the car but was unable to make out any defined shapes. Suddenly the engine shut off and after a few moments of silence I heard muffled shouting and saw the car rock and back for a few moments.
I threw my cigarette down ready to go check on what was happening, the feeling of unease replaced by very real anxiety. As soon as I took my first step away from the front of the store though the driver’s side door swung open and a man stepped out into the light.
He was probably in his early forties; his hair was thinning on top of his head and stubble framed his wide cheeked face. He was wearing a striped button down shirt with short sleeves and a black tie dangled loosely from his neck. His sunken eyes caught mine and he froze for a second suddenly becoming aware that I’d been standing there the whole time.
"Hey, you all right man?" I took another step forward as I spoke. The man looked truly disheveled and as he walked around the front of his car this became more apparent. His clothes were caked with dried mud that flecked off his khaki pants as he walked past the pumps and in my direction.
"I'm...I’m fine." He spoke in a low and timid voice. "I've just had a long night."
He avoided my eyes as he walked past me and into the store. I noticed even more dried mud on the back of his shirt and his skin. There were little rips in his clothes and I could see scratches on his arms, one of his hands looked as if it had a makeshift cloth bandage - just a piece of torn shirt wrapped around the palm. I could see blood staining the edges. It looked as if he'd had a long night, hell it looked as if he'd just fallen down a rather steep hill and gotten in a bad fight with every rock on his way to the bottom.
Sparing one last glance back at his car. I followed him into the store.
As I walked over to my spot behind the counter the man weaved his way to the coolers in the back and pulled out a bottled water. He cracked it open and drank the whole thing in just a few seconds. He took out two more and walked back up to the counter, spilled water still dribbling from his chin.
"And a pack of lights." He said, dropping the waters in front of me and fishing out his wallet. The look in his eyes was tired and defeated. I felt an urge to ask again if he was okay, but held back. Whatever had happened to him it probably wasn't something he wanted to discuss with some shitheel gas-station clerk in the middle of the night.
"$9.45." I said, grabbing his pointed-out brand of cigarettes from the rack behind me and handing it to him directly. Something told me he was going to need them handy. "anything else for you?"
He shook his head and dropped a 10-dollar bill on the counter before rummaging through his pockets and bringing out a handful of change, he counted out 45 cents and handed it to me. I dropped it into the register without making my own count and handed him a one dollar bill. He nodded at me with an odd look of relief. He shoved the dollar into his pocket and gathered up his cigarettes and the bottles of water.
Before I could even thank him, he was walking towards the door, his mind seemingly already a few steps ahead of him and dragging him along. I expected to hear the doorbell as the man headed back out to his car but instead he stopped just short of the door and looked back at me. He stared at me for a few seconds, his eyes full of what looked like guilt...it made me feel uneasy enough to say something.
"Can I help you with something else, man?" My hand went to the mini bat that Earl kept below the counter. Just in case.
"No, just...." He stuck the cigarettes in his pocket and used his now free hand to wipe his brow. He looked exhausted and scared, not threatening. "Just be careful working out here at night. Okay, kid?"
"You got it, buddy." I nervously laughed at his sudden concern. Not sure what else to say. The whole situation was starting to get under my skin and honestly, I just wanted him out the door.
"Yeah..." He spoke to the night as he turned towards the door and opened it. I watched him every step as he got to his car and got in. I saw the spark of a lighter for a second and then the engine started. I waited what felt like an eternity for him to pull away from the pumps and head on down the road. I could feel him looking at me from behind the reflection of his windshield, just staring, I couldn't see his eyes...but I knew.
When he finally drove off and vanished down the road I realized I’d been holding my breath and gripping the bat with white knuckles. I let out a huge sigh of relief and forced a laugh even though the general unease of the guy’s presence had yet to leave me.
I dropped my ass on the little stool behind the counter and put my face in my hands. Perils of the night-shift...sometimes you get a weird customer I thought to myself. At least it will be a nice little anecdote for my friends later. I laughed into my palms and shook it off finally lifting my head and opening my eyes.
I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw someone standing in front of me.
He had come out of nowhere. The bell over the door never rang when he entered. I didn't hear a car pull up, no footsteps through the store as he walked up to the counter, not even that itching feeling of presence when someone is close to you. He was like a ghost. The way he looked certainly didn't help in dampening the shock either.
He was tall. Well over six feet if I had to guess. He stood with his head bent down towards me and his hands flat on the counter. There was not a single hair on his head or face, not even eyebrows. I could see the fluorescent lights reflect off his cue ball like skull. His skin was pale and veiny, just on the verge of looking translucent. It looked as if you had stuck him under a black light he would glow.
He was dressed in a black turtle neck and black dress pants, something told me that if I looked below the counter I would see well taken care of dress shoes with a mirror shine that equaled that of his head.
The strangest aspect was the expression he wore on his face. An unsettling stiff smile stretched up the corners of his mouth, yet he kept his thin lips in a tight line. Even stranger his eyes were closed, yet his head tracked me as I got up off the stool and kept away from the counter far enough that I could feel the price boards for the cigarettes against my back.
"Can I help you?" My voice cracked as I spoke and my eyes flicked to the front windows. No car was out by the pumps which just tracked with every other element of this freaks sudden appearance. I tried to tell myself that he was just part of the late-night hooker and vampire crowd, out for a stroll...at nearly 2 am....a minimum of 10 miles from anything in either direction.
He tapped his fingers against the counter and slowly turned his face towards the pumps before slowly turning back towards me as if he was looking at me through his eyelids. He raised a hand from the counter and pointed down before slowly shaking his head "no."
"Listen man, if you don't want anything I’m going to have to ask you to leave." I didn't even sound brave to myself, let alone to anyone else.
He pressed his pointed index finger against the counter and again shook his head "no." My eyes moved below where he was pointing too and saw the mini bat...
Is this guy warning me not to go for the mini bat.... How? What the fuck? The realization swirled in my head as I attempted to swallow my heart back down into my body after its sudden jump to my throat.
He cocked his head to the side and his smile went crooked for a moment before he turned his back to me. I saw his hand go up towards his face heard something like a hiss of air proceeding a wet crunching sound. I stepped forward to grab the mini bat and his other hand shot up from his side and his finger wagged back in forth as if to say tsk tsk. Another wet crunch came followed by what sounded like spitting and laughter at the same time. The man quieted himself and turned back towards me.
That same oddly stretched smile was on his face, but blood leaked out of his closed left eye. He held up the hand he had to his face and the tip of the finger he'd previously pointed down at the mini bat was now missing. Blood streaked down over his hand and down the sleeve of his turtle neck. I shrunk back at the disgusting sight as he aggressively knocked everything from my counter top onto the floor, the look on his face never changing...even as various nick knacks scattered the floor and the register spilled cash and change out at his feet.
He ran his still intact hand over the clean white counter-top and nodded yes. Not to me, but to himself...satisfaction with a job well done. I knew what he was about to do and all I could do is watch in curious and horrified silence, frozen with my back against the cigarettes.
IT'S HERE
The words scrawled crudely by the mutilated finger, more quickly followed.
HE TOOK IT FROM US
The man raised his intact hand again for another tsk tsk gesture to signify that taking from “them" was probably not a good idea. His left eye flicked wildly behind his bleeding eye socket, it looked as if it were pulsing.
"I don't even know who you're..." I jumped in attempting to defend myself before I even knew what the fuck was going on. A pointless effort. The man held up the intact finger once again and put it to his lips...that stretched smile never changing yet I could somehow still hear him shush me.
The man lowered the finger and his lips began to part, revealing that there was something in his mouth. Something large that appeared to be the cause of his silence. His eyelids opened as well slowly revealing dark voids beyond. My eyes went again to my mini-bat...but there was a wonder if it would even do any good.
Something that looked like a tongue quickly shot from inside the darkness of his left eye socket and cleaned the blood from around it. An involuntary reaction struck me causing me to attempt to climb away on the cigarette display for a second out of pure revulsion...a feeling that would wash over me increasingly in the coming moments.
His mouth opened fully revealing what was held inside. A single massive eye flicked back and forth between the thin lips and his eyelids curled upwards in smiles revealing small rows of pointy teeth. Individual tongues licked around the eyes (mouths) like a normal person would lick their lips.
Confusion and horror froze me in place as I watched the body of the thing in front of me twist and contort. I managed to unglue myself from my spot long enough to make attempt for my weapon while it was distracted with whatever the hell it was doing.
The hand missing a finger darted over the counter and grabbed the small bat before I could reach it. Its arm bending in odd ways - and making horrible breaking and cracking noises as if defying its own design - as it swung the bat once in front of me and then threw it across the store. I could hear one of the glass cooler doors shatter.
The eye in the mouth fixated on me as I stepped back again and watched the rest of its transformation in horror, to scared of how quick it had been to even try and make a move. It turned its back to me but quickly bent its spine and neck causing its head to fall lazily backwards like the neck had been snapped. Its arms bent oddly the fingers twisting and the shoulders rotating so the elbows bending the wrong way became more like the right way. Its remaining fingers found purchase on the counter.
A split began to form at the top of its head - the top now facing down towards the counter - and thick soupy liquid with the dark red color of blood began to leak out. The mouths laughed as the crack got longer and wider, splitting them apart and stopping just short of the smiling eye. White points began to jut out from the edges of the seam like small teeth and a large tongue lulled out slapping itself against the counter as the two small mouths alternated between hisses and giggles.
It lurched forward and scrambled over the counter, it's legs seeming to come ahead of its arms. Out of instinct I dodged out of the way of the horror now coming at me and it smashed full force into the display of cigarettes sending unopened packs sprawling across the floor. As it scrambled to get back into its odd crabwalk position I darted forward and leapt over the counter to make for the door. It managed to turn just in time to catch my foot with its mangled hand and trip me up. I slammed down on the other side of the counter smashing my shoulder on the floor.
As I attempted to recover myself the thing crawled over the counter getting between me and the door, blocking my route of escape. I slid backwards on my ass across the down one of the aisles and towards the coolers in the back hoping I could find the mini bat. I worried if I took the time to get to my feet the thing would pounce forward again, but as it slid backwards it instead stalked me. The giant cyclopean eye mouth watching me intensely, the tiny cruel mouth eyes chattering and hissing, and the wicked tongue flailing back and forth from the center of its face.
It jumped up on the shelves, crawling across them like an insect keeping slow pace with me as my back moved ever steadily towards the cooler behind me filled with tall boys and malt liquor. I could hear it laughing, it was toying with me, relishing in my fear as it defied logic with its movement and existence in general. I slid out of the aisle to see the broken cooler, sodas spilled all over the floor and the mini bat laying among them. It was a few aisles away and I knew I was going to need to get to my feet to make it over there.
I looked back to the thing as it moved towards me, still crawling over the shelves like a spider moving through its web towards a fly. Suddenly it's hand gripped a shelf I knew very well, a shelf filled with paper towels and plates because it couldn't hold much weight. As it shifted its weight the shelf came free and the creature which had been displaying a disturbing grace suddenly fell sprawling to the floor with the contents of the shelf spilling down on its deformed body.
I sprung to my feet without thinking and tipped the whole damn shelving unit over on it as it attempted to flail itself back to its feet. The heavy unit came down with a thud on its body trapping it, I could hear it screaming and the tiny mouths shouted what sounded like curses in some language I couldn't understand. It pushed itself up against the weight now pinning its body to the floor. I dove towards the mini bat and snatched it up from a cold pool of soda.
The thing had pulled its body halfway free as I ran back over to it and brought the tiny Mt. Dew soaked club down on its arm. It howled in what I could hope was more pain than anger and reached out for my leg, I stepped back and brought the bat down repeatedly. Two more times on its arm and then two times on its hideous head. The seam widened and the more of that viscous blood like liquid leaked out onto the floor. I could see tiny teeth fly out from the small mouth eyes and the skull cracked. Finally, with one more brutal blow the eye mouth popped like a balloon and a puss like liquid squirted out over the floor and mingled with the soda dripping from the bat and the oil like blood.
The thing fell still.
I poked it a couple of times with the bat wondering if I should hit it again or just run out of that store. It didn't move and judging from the chunks of brain matter and skull scattered over the floor I decided it was dead. I stepped over its body and around the knocked over shelves on my way up to the counter. I needed to call somebody, the police maybe? What would I even say?
It was as I crossed in front of the stores front windows that I noticed them. Standing beneath the harsh neon’s of the sign outside and backlit by the fluorescents that hung over the pump. There was at least a dozen of them standing perfectly still like statues outside, the lights gleaming off their bald heads. Each of them was dressed the same as the thing that I’d just killed. Their eyes were closed, and their pale thin lips were pulled tightly closed into half smiles. The closest one stepped forward and opened the door, and the rest followed closely behind him.
I gripped the mini bat tightly in my fist feeling the blood of the one I’d killed drip down over my knuckles as I backed away. They funneled through the door in a wedge pattern the leader walking steadily closer to me. His eye mouth opened to reveal a black iris and pupil shifting beneath his lips for a few seconds before it looked over towards its fallen double.
I backed away my feet kicking change and bills from the fallen cash register out of the way as I moved, the thing kept pace...the other ones behind it were now opening their eyes and their small mouths began to whisper and laugh.
"Come one then!" I found myself screaming at them. Now so certain I was going to die that some kind of bizarre calm that replaced my fear was translating to bravery. "I'll fuck you all up. Who's first, huh!?"
Two of them broke off from the back and walked towards the fallen one to lift the shelves off its body. The ones still approaching me began to split from the top of their heads, their seams opening to reveal their long-pointed tongues. The ones in the back began to twist and contort into their more unnatural spider like forms as the leader walked through the change at his feet.
Suddenly it raised a hand and they all snapped back into their mock human forms in an instant as if their transformation was on a rubber band that had pulled them back into place.
I stood their holding the bat out in front of me as if it would keep them from lunging forward and tearing me to shreds. They did not leap forward though, they stopped dead in their tracks in fact - all but the two who had lifted the shelf from their dead and were now carrying the limp twisted corpse back towards the door.
The one in the lead knelt down among the money sprawled out as his feet and began to pick through coins with its slender pale fingers. It tossed them aside one by one until it found what it was looking for. It plucked a quarter from the pile and held it up to the black eye behind its lips as if studying it.
Out of curious instinct I lowered the bat and leaned forward to see that the small silver coin was not a quarter, in fact it was like nothing I’d ever seen. It shimmered with different colors as it turned in the light. Purple, green, red, and blue - all the matter of a single twist of the wrist. The thing closed its massive eye back into an unassuming tight lipped smile, seemingly satisfied with its examination. It dropped the prism coin into its palm and closed a fist around it before standing back up. The others behind it began to shuffle out of the door behind and all I could do was stand there puzzled as the what the fuck was happening.
The others had nearly all left the store when leader turned its back to me and walked over to the counter, pointing down towards what the first one had written there
IT'S HERE
HE TOOK IT FROM US
The change the man had given me. It clicked in my mind...I hadn't even bothered to count it, I just dropped it in the register without looking at it. Whatever he'd stolen from these things he'd given to me.
To throw them off his trail, to hide it, to just fuck with me? It didn't really matter. They had found what they were looking for.
It pointed its other finger towards the mess from where I’d killed the first one that arrived and I could see it shake its head yes...in approval. It set the coin on the table for a moment and without turning to face me it gave me a slow soft round of applause...
The fucking thing was clapping for me because I’d killed one of its kind...
It picked the coin back up and walked out the door joining the others. I stood there confused and terrified as I watched the bald twisted creatures walk out past the edge of the gas station lights and into the darkness.... I stood there then and long after.
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