A couple more days have passed, and it was your first weekend as a college student. And what were you doing?
Working!
You had gotten a job!
At a gas station!
As one of the only night shift workers!
What could possibly go wrong?
Now while this was very shady and quite possibly very dangerous, this was the only one who had answered your job application and you didn't have time to wait for a better job opportunity to come up.
Money is money.
Besides, you have your pepper spray that your mom had got you before you moved out. So, you weren't defenseless!
Thankfully, this gas station is very unpopular so not many people come to it. Just a few customers that come and buy a drink or a late-night coffee.
It was around midnight when a guy with dark hair and a blue mask that covered his face completely walked in. You had barely noticed as you were in the middle of solving a couple of math problems for homework.
The guy raised his eyebrow(?) at you as he watched you hunched over your laptop. Simultaneously typing on the laptop, punching in numbers on the calculator, and writing down notes. He watched you for a bit as he pretended to be picking a snack from the aisle.
Finally, you had solved the problem that you and been stuck on for a while and cheered softly before going onto the next problem.
Having enough, the man grabbed a honeybun and a water and walked to the counter. He cleared his throat softly and watched carefully as you sat up straight immediately.
"Oh! Hello! So sorry about that, I didn't even notice you coming in."
He hummed. "Homework?"
You scanned the back of the honeybun and placed it into the plastic bag before doing the same with the water. You turned back to see your homework still shining on your laptop.
"Ah- yeah. I am really not supposed to be doing it right now since I am working but I got bored."
He hummed again. "What is it? Math?"
"Finance. So, yeah math." You rang up his total as he handed you a five-dollar bill. "It's not too bad. My professor doesn't explain things very well, so I am trying to teach myself the lessons before class. That way I can follow along."
"You sound like a good student."
You laughed slightly. "I wouldn't say that. I just try not to procrastinate often. My parents made sure I never got in that habit, and I don't want to break it now." You gave him his change and then his bag. "Plus, it is just the first week of school. Got to stay on top of it, y'know?" He nodded. Been there, done that. "Well, that's everything! Have a good night!" You waved as the man walked out. Turning around on your stool, you went back to doing some finance.
Weird. The man thought. Did she not see the blood stain on my pants? Did the mask not freak her out? He walked across the street into the woods.
He walked through the woods listening to the sounds of leaves and sticks breaking under his boots. The sound of a stick breaking behind him lead to a raspy voice.
"Jack."
He turned around to see his co-worker. White hoodie now covered in dark red.
"Jeff."
"Whatcha got there?"
"Water." Turning his body around to face him fully, he held up the bag. Looked at it and then back at the hoodie man. "And a honeybun for Sally." He grinned as Jeff deflated at the fact that the snack is not for him.
"You walked in? Like that?" He pointed to the blood stain on his pant leg. Jack shrugged.
"Worker didn't notice. Was too busy doing homework. Barely noticed me walking in."
Jeff nodded and did a two-finger salute. "Well Jackie-Boy, I am on my way to kill a witness. Have fun playing babysitter or whatever the fuck you do." The white hooded man walked past Jack as the latter watched him disappear into the night.
~ ~ ~
After you failed to notice the masked customer come inside, you decided to close your laptop and actually do your job. Since no one was there, you decided to take that time to restock and mop the floors. The sooner you get that done, the sooner you can go home when your shift ends.
You had just finished mopping half of the store before you took a break to clean the countertops. With a wet rag in one hand and a spray bottle in the other, you hummed to the song playing in the store while you worked.
The humming stopped as you began to feel uneasy. Something felt off. The hairs on your arms began to stiffen as you felt like you were being watched. You switched the cleaning spray bottle with your pepper spray and waited. It didn't take very long for the sound of the bell over the door to ring. A shiver ran down your spine as you whipped your head around just to come face to face with a man with a smile ear to ear. Literally. His smile was cut ear to ear. His eyelids were scarred causing his eyes to look large and quite scary, the black hair on his head was long and obviously matted with dry blood. What should've been black eyebrows and eyelashes, were gone. Signs of fire scars covered his pale skin.
While you took him the sight in front of you, your eyes were immediately drawn to the bright stain that was soaked into his pale hoodie.
His mouth opened to speak, and a raspy voice spoke. "Go to sleep." He pulled out a rusted and bloodied knife and you decided enough was enough.
Finger on the trigger of the pepper spray, you raised it up in front of your face and pulled it. You squeezed your eyes shut as the man screamed profanities. He scrambled backwards as he tried to rub it out of his eyes, failing to do so and making it worse instead. Doing so caused him to drop the knife on the floor in front of the counter.
Without hesitation, you jumped over the counter to grab the knife and hold it out in front of you protectively.
"You motherfucker!" The man crashed into the newspaper stand making him fall to the floor, the stand crashing down with him as well. "Why the fuck did you do that? You bitch!" He screamed and rubbed his eyes profusely.
"Fuck- I'm sorry! You snuck up on me! This is your fault!"
"Shut the fuck up and help me before I murder you!"
Feeling slightly bad, you ran down an aisle and grabbed a bottle of baby shampoo and a water bottle. You dropped the things in front of him along with a towel and held the knife out once more.
"Take that and go wash it out your eyes. The baby shampoo will help remove the oil. If it doesn't work, let me know and I'll bring you milk."
"Milk? What the fuck do I need milk for!" He removed his fists from his eyes, so you could finally tell just how red his eyes were. If he kept rubbing them like that then he was bound to pop a blood vessel or something.
"It flushes the pepper spray out your eyes dumbass!" The knife was still pointed at him as your back bumped into the counter.
"Don't call me a dumbass, dumbass!" He inched slightly closer before going back to screaming and clawing at his eyes.
"You're taking a lot of shit for someone who is trying to help you." You scoffed and watched as he looked up at you with red eyes. Still screaming. "Dude, seriously. Stop screaming. You're going to get the cops called. It's my first night so I would rather not get fired today."
He didn't stop. If anything, he got louder. "You sprayed me with fucking pepper spray! Shit burns!"
"I will let you get a free slushie or a snack if you just shut the fuck up! Please!" He calmed down slightly but still cursed out some profanities at you. "Now then." You nudged the shampoo and water closer to him. "Take this and go to the bathroom. It's in the back of the store by the soft drinks. The shampoo can get rid of the oils and its tear proof so it shouldn't irritate them anymore. Do not rub your eyes hard. You're going to pop a blood vessel or something."
He grumbled out some not so nice words before standing up and marching to the bathroom. You waited and listened to the sound of running water. Air filled your lungs as you took in a deep shaky breath. That was scary. While you waited for the crazy guy to get out of the bathroom, you cleaned up the newspaper stand to calm yourself down.
You debated calling the cops, but your shift was almost over and honestly, you didn't feel like staying a second over your clock out time.
Your ears twitched at the sound of the sink being turned off and a door closing. You forced yourself to turn around and look at the man. He looked pissed but not as pissed as a couple minutes ago.
"I am not paying for the soap or the water." He rubbed his face which was red from irritation.
"I wasn't going to make you do that." You rolled your eyes and walked towards the counter and gave him an empty cup. He raised his non-existing eyebrow. "I said I'd let you have a free slushie for your troubles."
"Thought it was to get me to stop screaming." He scoffed but grabbed it anyway and walked to the back.
"That too." You called out. Making your way back behind the counter, you dropped the knife into a drawer. "So, can I ask why you decide to scare the absolute shit out of me? And what is which the blood? You are serial killer or something?"
You heard a manic laugh come from the back of the store where the slushie machine was. "Yeah sure. Something like that." You saw the top of his head over the aisle and watched as he walked towards the snacks. He grabbed a honeybun and looked at you. "I'm not paying for this either."
You rolled your eyes. "Yeah, sure okay. What do I get from this? Trauma? You going to come back tomorrow and try and kill me again? Just let me know. I'll bring a taser next time."
"Yeah, no thanks. You were not supposed to be the one working tonight. What happened to the other guy?" Other guy? You tilted your head as Jeff caught onto your confusion. "Fat guy with brown hair? Looks like he hadn't showered in a couple weeks? He usually works at this time."
"I have no idea who you are talking about. I just moved here a week ago. Today is my first day." You jumped up to sit on your stool while the man leaned against the aisle.
He laughed, "Fuck, I forgot you said that. Wow. What a shitty first day." You could just huff as he laughed at your traumatic experience.
"You're telling me. No offense man, but you're scary as shit." You hoped that wouldn't offend him. The worries you had faded as he laughed again.
"I will take that as a compliment. It helps in my line of work."
You were about to ask what he did for work when an old pick-up truck pulled in. "Ah, that's my relief. You might want to get out of here before he actually calls the cops on you." You jabbed your thumb towards the truck that parked. "There is a back door. It says that an alarm will go off but that's a lie. It's by the bathrooms."
"Thanks princess." He sent a thumbs up as he sipped on his slushie.
"My name is Y/N."
"Jeff." Jeff waved as he turned down the aisle and to the backdoor. "See you later."
"Hopefully next time won't have pepper spray involved."
Jeff let out a loud sign causing you to giggle as the backdoor slammed shut.
heheh part 2
these chapters are gonna be short bc im just introducing the characters that will be in the story. I have around 11 chapters planned out already but if you have any ideas pls comment them! ill be happy to write whatever :)
have a wonderful day <3
Feb. 22. 23