Last night I had a late night shift at this fast food joint called the Cheesy Hut. Yeah, the place is disgusting as it sounds. A coworker of mine, Dennis, was supposed to be working that night too. But when he went out for his routine smoke break he never came back. When I tried checking in the back alley for him I couldn’t find him. It isn’t uncommon for him to slack off during work. So I just shrugged it off as him being annoying. I pushed through the night serving demanding customers cheesy, greasy, slop. When closing time finally struck I tied up a bag of garbage and made my way to the back door.
When I cracked the door open I could hear movement. Suspicion began to creep in the back of my mind. I grabbed my phone from my back pocket and turned on the flash. Slowly with a low creaking noise I pushed open the door. Shining my light down the alley I was able to see Dennis, still wearing the red t-shirt uniform with our gaudy fast food mascot. He was making out with a woman who had auburn hair. I recognized her as his girlfriend, Clarice.
“Dammit Dennis, you can’t just leave during our shift.”
Neither of them reacted. A low groan emanated from them. A cold shiver ran down my spine. I kept the light fixed on the couple.
“Hey asshole I’m talking to you!”
He pulled away from Clarice, she began to go limp. Slowly she became visible in the light as she leaned back. The white’s of her jaw caught on the light of flash. Her face revealed a bloody, visceral aftermath. Then my eyes looked up at Dennis. His eyes were glazed over, blood smeared around the corners of his mouth. The garbage bag spilled onto the ground as I made a run for it.
Dennis’ pounding footsteps echoed behind me. After a few minutes of running I could feel my legs start to give out. I made a quick turn into a side alley. Cautiously I stepped around broken glass as I hid behind a dumpster. As he turned down the alley I could hear his labored breathing. My hand clutched around the cold, glass neck of a discarded beer bottle. I closed my eyes tight, focusing on the sound of his movements. Then for a moment he stopped moving, everything was quiet.The dumpster rattled as he kicked into the metal. With my free hand I covered my mouth, holding myself back from screaming. My grip around the glass only grew tighter, shakier. Tears pricked in the corner of my eyes, a hot lump grew in my throat. I felt myself collapsing in on myself trying to make myself smaller. Small enough to disappear. Then I heard the sound of Dennis’ footsteps begin to trail off. Still trembling in fear I finally opened my eyes. I let out a sigh of relief.
My phone lit up, the sound of a notification echoed through the alley way. Dennis made a low grunting noise in response. I could feel my blood run cold. He ran over to the dumpster and with one quick motion he pushed the dumpster out of the way. He lunged at me with a crazed hunger in his eye. I raised the bottle in front of me. Dennis’ face crashed into the jagged edge of the bottle. He fell to the pavement. As I got up to run I could hear pained wailing, similar to a wounded animal.
I should be back at work right now for my next shift at the Cheesy Hut. But I haven’t worked up the nerve to leave my bed since I got home. I think I’ll spend today job hunting, or try to finally get out of town. I’m terrified and don’t know what to do.