On the outskirts of town by the old obsolete highway is an old crappy restaurant. It is open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, sometimes longer or shorter.
If you were to go inside you would see old worn-down tables, chairs, menu boards, a stained floor in the lobby, and paint chipped walls.
We also have a drive-thru and if you were to go through the drive-thru you would see chipped and cracked pavement, grease stains, old menu boards, and old signs. Most of the customers come through the drive-thru, but the brave ones still go into the lobby. After eleven the drive-thru is closed and people can only come into the lobby. We do this because after eleven there is at most two people. We also must let the drive-thru system reset every night. People in town have heard the stories of this place for example how we have shadow people
Well to be fair there is one and we call him bob. Bob is known to stand at the edges of your vision and watches you. Some people even claim that he takes their food when they are not looking. Bob is harmless though he just enjoys watching.
If you were to go through the drive-thru you might hear a mysterious voice over the speaker. The voice is described as a very deep gruff male voice. This voice is known to ask customer what their favorite color is and even pretends to take their order. The worst part is that he will ask customers if they want items that we do not have hotdogs and chili. So that’s always fun trying to explain to a customer that we do not have those items even though a voice over the speaker asked them if they wanted it. The voice just enjoys pulling pranks on us and messing with us.
I have worked at this restaurant full time ever since high school so about five years and many oddities occur here.
Hi, my name is Gunner, and I am the night shift manager. I oversee the night shift, but half of the time I am by myself. I take orders, make the food, unload truck delivers, make sure the place does not burn down, do maintenance on the fryers, and the store. I decided to start writing a journal about all the strange stuff that occurs here. I think I should mention that I have serve sleep insomnia. Which means on most nights I get 3 hours of sleep and some nights I do not sleep at all so the nights kind of blur together. Hopefully with this journal I can keep track of the strange things that happen. I usually bring my laptop at work so I can surf the web when I am not busy so that works out with me making journal entries.
Most nights I do have at least one person with me until 1am. Most of the time it is Jason or Alex. We do have the occasional part timer that works a night shift but most of the time it is these two. Jason and Alex are both cooks that work in the kitchen. Jason is a chain smoker and tends to indulge in drugs, but he is a cool guy most nights. He tends to have a I do not care attitude, but it is the night shift so that is the motto around here.
Alex is a quiet guy who tends to keep to himself. He does seem to talk about anime frequently.
They both are cooks and tend to stay in the kitchen, but sometimes they help me with cleaning the lobby and handing out food to customers. I work with those two all the time and have become friends with them. They have also seen many of the strange things that happen here.
Before you ask why I chose to work night it is because, it is more peaceful and quieter and this time at night. You can do whatever you want most of the time. I read books, go on my phone, or watch YouTube videos. The owners know this, and they have yet to say anything to me. It might be because I have been the night shift manager for three years that is longer than anyone else. The past night shift managers or workers do not last awfully long. The average year of employment for night workers is a year. I heard the last night manager still will not leave his house.
The night shift is not for anyone. It can be crazy, dangerous, strange, or most of the time incredibly boring. The long hours from nine pm to five am feels almost like an eternity somedays, but I am what you call an expert on the night shift. I have seen it all, but the most important thing is to not care or just think not my problem. You hear cries for help in the forest two in the morning not my problem. Bloody clothes in the parking lot well time to throw them in the trash and forget about them. Ice that appears out of nowhere. I do not see cleaning that up in my job description.
Before I post any entries from my journal, I will tell you a story I think deserving to be my first story. I call it the midnight truck driver.
So, this story happened one year ago. It was a dark and stormy night when I got to work for my night shift. When I got there the afternoon manager Ruby told me that truck never showed up and never called. It was Wednesday night, and we needed the truck supplies for the weekend. I just figured that the truck was going to come tomorrow and thought nothing more about it. We were running low on supplies, but we should be fine for a day or two before we start to run out of supplies.
At 9pm I took over and all the afternoon workers went home. It was a slow night. I got some work done I emptied the grease traps, cleaned the parking lot, and cleaned the ice machine.
It was around eleven thirty when I got a call on the store phone. I answered the phone. “Hello, this is Gunner how can I help you?” A gruff, old voice responded saying “I’ll be there in thirty minutes.” “Is this the truck driver calling?” I asked. “Yes” said the voice over the phone. “Why are you coming at midnight?” as soon as I asked the question, he hung up the phone. I did not mind him coming so late, because of how slow it was. I had fifteen customers since I got here. I was confused on why he was coming so late. I do know that the truck drivers work twelve-hour shifts and sometimes they are late by a couple of hours, but I have never heard of a truck coming eight hours late. At this point I was by myself. Jason went home early since how slow it was. I was going to keep him here to unload the truck with me, but he kept asking me to go home so I let him.
After getting my work done, I sat on a chair by front counter, watching YouTube videos on my phone. I kept seeing bob on the edges of my vision, so I went into the kitchen and made him a cheeseburger. I put the sandwich on a booth table in lobby then went back to watching my YouTube video. I learned that if you give bob something to eat, he will leave you alone. I think he is simply curious and watches from affair, but he was annoying me. I looked at the booth where the plate was and now it was empty, but what I saw surprised me. There was a semi outside in the parking lot seemed to be the one truck drivers drove. I never herd it pull into the parking lot or seen it but then I walked outside to start unloading it.
When I walked out the first thing, I noticed was how old, beat up, and rusty the semi looks. It looked to be ancient probably around thirty years old and never had a car wash. I just figured that it was a spare old semi that they had laying around. I walked to the stock area and opened the door so the driver can bring the supplies in. He was already unloading the boxes, but the strange thing was that there was an ominous red light coming from inside the truck. Also, the boxes had blood and mold on them. The thing that really creeped me out was that one of boxes had a label on it that said fish nuggets. Like what who in their right mind would eat fish nuggets!
There was a foul smell coming from the truck. The truck driver appeared walked out of the loading area of the truck and looked at me. He wore a large trench coat and blue jeans. They looked worn out like he had owned them for ten years and never washed them. His face was hidden behind his hood. He then proceeded to ask me to come inside the truck and help him lift a box since it was too heavy for him. I stood there for a minute and realized all the red flags, then I heard a scream coming from the truck. I yelled no thanks and then ran inside and locked the door.
I hid in the freezer for around ten minutes and only came out after I started showing early signs of frostbite. I looked outside and the truck was gone, and they were no traces of the truck ever being there. I looked on the cameras and the cameras facing the parking lot just stopped recording for thirty minutes and never got the truck on film.
After that night, the midnight truck driver has called at least ten times at midnight. I have learned to ignore the truck and it will leave. It only comes when I am alone. I just added it to the list I started about the oddities at the Restaurant.
Oddities at the restaurant: The New Moon Paper
At least once a month I find a newspaper by the front door. It appears at midnight and has a strange story in it. It is weird but interesting. I have no idea who keeps delivering the paper. I thought they were just random stories until a New Moon paper had a story in it that came true. The story was about a man named Kevin Addams that worked at a factory and lived a normal life. He found out his wife was cheating on him, and he went through a terrible breakup. She always made the food, and he did not know how to cook besides heating up frozen foods. He went out to eat every day. One day he went to the shitty restaurant to get lunch. He was in the lobby and died of a heart attack. I thought it was a messed-up story, but nothing more. That changed when a man named Kevin Addams died of a heart attack in the lobby during lunch. He worked at a factory and was going through a terrible breakup. Ever since then I started to wonder if all the stories were true.
Not everything in the paper came true but about half of them did. The New Moon paper only ever got delivered once a month during the new moon phase of the moon. Also, on the paper it called itself the new moon chronicles.
Oddities at the restaurant: The Thing in The Forest
Right next to the restaurant is a forest. In the forest there are creatures you would expect in a forest in the Midwest bears, cougars, deer, etc. There is also something else in there and we are not sure what it is. We have found claw marks on the trees and footprints by the restaurant that are too big to be bears. At night you could see a large creature with glowing red eyes on the edge of the forest. It seems blacker than the night sky. All it does is watches. I have been the only one to see it and it seems to happen when I am alone.
Oddities at the restaurant: The basement
In the back of the restaurant there is a door that is always locked. Only a few people have the key to open the door. The door leads to the basement. In the basement there is the water heater, a boiler, and the oil tanks that hold used cooking oil. The basement is always freezing down there.
After the incident we are not allowed to talk about happened the door got locked and only a few people have access to it. I am one of the few who has a key since I do have to go down there sometimes to do maintenance on the equipment and make sure everything is working fine.
There are even some old arcade machines for example Pac-man and Donkey Kong down here. One of the arcade machines that’s down here is called Super Donkey Kong. It seems to be a one-of-a-kind machine, and I can’t find anything about it online. I have been restoring them in my spare time and I got Pac-man up and running. There also is an old creature from the black lagoon neon sign down there that still works. There is also a popcorn machine down there. I have no idea why those arcade machines are down in the basement. Looks to be about thirty years old.
There is also an old bar down there next to the arcade machines. There are some bottles, but they must be moonshine because some of these bottles have labels on them that I have never seen before for example moon’s tears, blackout, snake’s venom, and vodka beer just to name a few. I have never tried any yet.
The one very strange thing about the basement is the giant hole in the middle of the ground. No one knows why that hole is down there. Maybe it is an old well or a sinkhole. Sometimes you hear voices coming from it. It’s about twenty feet wide and seems to bottomless. I shined a flashlight down the hole, and I never seen the bottom. I tried throwing a rock down it and I never heard it hit the bottom. I waited twenty minutes for it to hit the bottom. I left and came back and the same rock I threw was sitting by the hole like it was spit out.
Sometimes you can hear voices talking and it seems to be coming from the hole. It only happens when I am alone. My mind is not very stable these days, so I am never quite sure if what I am hearing is real. The voices say join us, be with us, it sleeps here, and the scariest of them all your fly is down. When I hear this, I look down and my fly indeed is down, so I zip it back up and continue on my way. Like the other mysterious voices, I tend to tune them out.
The basement is completely sealed and the only way in is the locked basement door. A couple of weeks ago I went downstairs, and I found a note that said hello Gunner XOXO-Lilith. I then seen a bat chilling by the hole. It seemed to be the Hoary bat. Those bats have long pointed wings with mixed grayish and brownish fur with white tipped furs. I know this because the bat colony that lives by the restaurant is the Hoary and I read a lot of animal books when it is slow at work. The only way I can figure how the bat got in here was from the hole and I had no idea what that letter was about and who Lilith is. So, I just went back upstairs and locked the door. Ever since then I have been finding letters in basement talking to me and its always signed by Lilith. Most of letters just say hello and how are you today. One letter Lilith had written on their that I was cute. I gave the hole a nickname. The bottomless pit.
Oddities at the Restaurant: Monsters in the mist
During the summertime at least once every four years sometimes more the mist comes. The mist comes after a very heavy rainstorm, and it is so thick you can’t see more than five feet ahead of you. So, we are basically trapped in the Restaurant until the mist lifts. No customers come so we usually just sit around until the mist is gone. While the mist is present, we lock the doors and stay in the back, so nothing sees us.
I am not sure what is in the mist, but there is some sort of creatures in it. They growl and sound very unnatural. You can hear them walking outside and sometimes they bang on the doors and windows. They also are known to wreck cars parked outside. When this happens, I do what I always do. Ignore them. I sit in the back room and watch tv with headphones in. The creatures have tipped over cars before, so they do have the strength to break down the door, but they never have. Also, for some reason they leave my car alone every time.
After the mist is gone there are damages all over town and even a few missing people are reported each time. The locals know how dangerous this is so when the mist comes, they stay inside and stay put. It’s the outsiders that don’t believe the warning and go out into the mist and never come back.
That’s most of oddities I can think of so far. I have started to make daily journal entries and maybe in the future will post them on the internet.
Daily entry June 11th
I came to work at 9pm and took over the store, it was night and when I walked around the lobby to pick up the garbage left by the customers, I found a pair of shoes just left there with a little bit of blood on it. I added it to the bin of other shoes or pieces of clothes I found in the parking lot.
At 11:03 pm
the bear guy came into the store and ordered four hamburgers and fresh coffee. I call him the bear guy because he wears a pelt of a bear on his back. He is nice enough, but a little weird. He always asks me what my favorite bear is. He says the brown bear is the best.
At 11:57 pm
Jason complained of seeing blood dripping from the walls. I helped him clean it up. It does that sometimes.
At 2:19 am
I saw a man standing in the parking lot staring at me. He had a big fedora on his head and all I could see was that he was smoking a cigar. I closed the blinds and hoped he would leave. I have seen him a couple of times, but I never see him come or leave only standing there.
At 3:00 am
I heard talking coming from the freezer. It sounded to be someone was talking, but very muffled. I went into the freezer, and no one was there. That has been happening a lot more often.
At 4:40am
Alex came into the lobby to get something to eat. He just got two cheeseburgers with no pickles. I asked what he was up to. He said he was at a graveyard party. Whatever the hell that is.
Daily entry June 12th
When I pulled into the parking lot before my shift started, I saw a cloud of bats fly by. Great the bats are back. I am going to call the exterminator again. there is a colony of bats that live in a cave by the restaurant. They tend to swarm around the store at night.
At 10:00 pm
I went in the basement to grab a tool for cleaning fryers that I left down there, and I see a letter in a black envelope. I opened said letter and it was a note from Lilith. She said I was looking for good today and we should talk soon. I just grabbed my tool and the letter and went back upstairs. Not sure who Lilith is and so far, I have been ignoring the letters. I think maybe soon I should try talking to her in the basement to see if I get a response.
Midnight
It has been busier than usual. I barely had time to sit around and do nothing. If we had more night people it would be better, but we are always understaffed.
At 1:50 Am
I heard scratching coming from the walls again. We just turned the store radio on to drown it out.
At 2:30 Am
The man with the fedora is standing outside smoking a cigarette again. I checked the cameras, and he is standing in a blind spot. I watched him for five mins before I went back to work.
At 4:01 Am
The Goth kids came into the Restaurant and got something to eat. They asked me if we had any gluten free buns and of course we do not. They have asked five times if we sell blood. This night I just looked at them and said not yet with a serious look on my face.
Those kids have to be seventeen or eighteen. I asked what they are doing out so late and aren’t there parents worried about them. They said they were out partying, and they don’t care what their parents think. They then sit in the lobby smoking E-cigarettes and using there iPhone 13’s. Was I that angsty and cringy when I was that young?
Daily Entry June 13th
Nothing strange happened today. Sometimes that happens.
Daily Entry June 14th
While driving to work I realized I only slept 5 hours in the past 3 days. It seems to me that my insomnia is getting worse. The journal is helping me keep my memories in order.
At 9:00 pm
Ruby told me when I got to work that the second fryer is not working. So, I tried to see what was wrong with it. I found a red substance on the pump. I could not remember if that were there already, so I decided to leave it and try to fix it later.
At 12:12 Am
At the restaurant during the night shift there is a lot of oddities, but one of the strangest is the live ice. It is ice that appears out of nowhere on the most random spots. I have found ice in the lobby in tables and chairs, on the roof, and even on the grill. Jason just found a lot of live ice behind one of the grills.
At 1:00 am
Alex just asked me if I knew how to get out of a mental asylum. I said “no” then he said “just act normal” he started to laugh creepily and grin.
Jason told me he has been acting strange lately. He found him in the freezer starting at the wall and whispering to himself. I think it has something to do with the graveyard parties.
At 1:30am
Rick came into the store. He is a customer that usually orders a sweet tea and a crispy chicken sandwich. He was talking to me about the werewolf he sees in the woods around his house. He is known for his strange stories. He lives alone in an old farmhouse by the woods.
At 3:00am
Oddities at the restaurant: the freezer
The freezer in the restaurant is very strange. Live ice appears all over the store only at night though. We think it is coming from the freezer somehow. We also hear a lot of weird sounds coming from it. Sometimes it sounds like someone is talking inside, but when I go inside there is no one. Boxes just randomly disappear and appear inside the freezer. I once found a box of pizza in the freezer. We do not sell pizza. I did do a taste test and it taste amazing. Also, when I go into the freezer, I get a strange feeling like someone watching me. I just ignore it and get back to work.
I felt I should write this down because I just walked into the freezer and there is ice that is in the shape of a hand. Just froze on the wall. That is strange.
At 3:30 am
I just went into the basement, and I see live ice on the celling that’s below the freezer. There’s no way that should be happening. Then there is ice around the bottomless pit. The ice stops five feet away from the hole and forms a perfect circle. There is a black envelope right next to the edge of the pit. I open it and all it says. Do you see the Ice to? He is getting restless. from Lilith.
At 4:40am
I went outside to the dumpsters to throw away some garbage. I heard someone calling for help from the woods. I just walked back inside. I would have gone to see what was happening, but for the last couple of months I have heard the same voice calling for help in the same spot. It only happens when I am alone.
Daily Entry June 15th
I finally have a day off!
Daily Entry June 16th
11:00 am I was alone with Alex tonight. He has been acting weird. He said that he barley slept because of the graveyard parties. I finally asked what a graveyard party was, and he stopped walking turned to me very slowly. He cracked a smile a said in a creepy voice he will show me sometime. He then proceeded to walk into the freezer and was in there for ten minutes.
1:32 am
I walked into the freezer, and I see a door covered in ice. How long has that been there and I have never noticed it? Or did I notice it and just forgot about it?
3:33am
Alex just asked me if I heard it. I asked what the hell he was talking about, and he just said “I’ll hear him soon” then he walked away.
3:55 am
I just went outside to throw some garbage in the dumpsters and seen a herd of jackalopes! There are rabbits with antlers. It seems to be a herd of them live in the forest by the restaurant.
4:15 am
I went on the roof to clean the grease trap and I slipped on some live ice on the roof and almost feel to my death. I see some bats chilling on the roof. Thank God no health inspector even seen them on the roof. I looked over to the woods and seen the Creature in The Forest starting at me. I just went back downstairs.
Tonight, I was cleaning the lobby. It was a slow night and Jason was cleaning the grills trying to leave early like usual when Gus came into the store. He orders some fries and a fish sandwich. He sat by me while I worked and was talking to me. Gus was an old man that was genuinely nice but seemed to be lonely, so I never minded talking to him. Gus used to do a lot of hunting in the area and even worked in this very same restaurant many years ago when it first opened. He would tell me about his hunting stories and even about the old days at the restaurant. Back then the store was a lot nicer and more popular.
“Have I ever told you about the incident that happened here?” Asked Gus. “No, I said” “what happened?” “Well, many years ago when I worked at the restaurant, we had a manager name Matthew. Everyone called him Matt though. Matt was an overnight manager and worked for many years. Slowly he started to go crazy. He would say weird things and stand in the freezer. One day I came to start my morning shift at five am and he was nowhere to be seen. I looked all over, but after ten minutes of looking I finally found him in the freezer. He was all purple and laying on the floor. I called an ambulance, but they pronounced him dead at the scene. He died of hypothermia. Looking back at the cameras he went in there at three am and never came out again. No one knew what happened and the autopsy found no evidence of foul play. It was labeled as an accident and nothing more. I always wondered why he was so obsessed with the freezer.”
“What do you think happened to him Gus?” “You worked with him for many years so you must have some idea.”
“This was kept a secret, but I found a note he left. I cannot remember exactly what it said, but it went like him saying He keeps telling me to join him. The scratching is getting very loud. I see him in my dreams it feels very cold. He said he can save me, but I must join him. I think I will.”
“Why was that kept a secret?”
Well said Gus “The restaurant was only opened for five years by that point and the owners felt that would ruin its reputation, so they swept it under the rug.”
“Well eventually everyone in this town knows the stories, but I never herd that one. Why are you telling me this now?”
“Because I like you” said Gus “You should know stuff like that about this place” “You remind me of me back in the day” “I say this next part out of kindness, but you seem too good of a kid to be stuck working at a dead-end job. Why don’t you leave and find a better job and get out of town?”
“I don’t mind working here and I am kind of stuck after my dad passes away, he left me his house and I don’t want to abandon it. It’s where I grew up.”
Before Gus could say anything, else Jason walked up to us and spoke.
“That is a neat story, but I need your help. There is blood coming from the walls again.”
So, I wished Gus a goodnight and went to go and perform my night shift manager duties and clean up blood from a wall.
I could not help, but to think about the story Gus told me. It sounded eerily similar to Alex. I have known him for years. I did not want him to end up as Matt. Next time I work with him I was going to have a chat with him.
After we cleaned up the blood dripping from the walls Jason left. It was one thirty and he said he had stuff to do and was not going to take no for an answer, so I let him leave. After that I was sitting in lobby reading a book. Then I blacked out and when I came to, I found myself standing in the freezer. That has been having for the past couple of weeks. Only when I am by myself.
The next day I was working with Alex. I had planned on talking to him about what was going on with him, but I did not have the nerve to start a conversation with him just yet. I was going to wait until we were alone.
1:00 am
Alex just told me something very strange also, Simon just came into the store and got something to drink. I think he’s an albino. He has very pale skin, blood red eyes, and snow-white hair. He told me he hates the summer and the heat. He loves to be cold. He then walked out of the store. I could not help to notice when he comes by live ice forms on the floor where he walks.
2:05 am
so tonight, Alex told me he had joined a “club” it was not actually a club but more of a cult, but when I asked if it was a cult, he was very adamant that it was not. They called themselves the guardians of the dead or simply Guardians. He said they aim to understand and protect the undead and cryptids. They were supposed to have extremely limited human contact and live in the forest away from the cities. He said they have graveyard party’s so they can talk to the deceased and try to learn from them. He said ever since he joined the, he feels complete and exited for the next day.
I asked him how he even joined the Guardians. He said he was on a walk late at night and bumped into some members by a graveyard. Why he was walking by a graveyard in the middle of the night is beyond me. They convinced him to come to a graveyard party and they managed to convince him to join. He said it was one of the happiest days of his life.
I asked him why he was still working here if he is not supposed to have contact with humans. He just said “You’ll find out soon enough” after that he went back to work and acted like nothing ever happened.
The night continued how it usually did. Slow and not a whole lot to do. Alex was beginning to unnerve me. I just took my mind off things by talking to the customer and getting some cleaning done.
I pulled the fridges out to clean behind them, and I see a block of cheese with legs run away. I wiped my eyes, and it was gone. Maybe I’m seeing things since I’m not getting a lot of sleep. I did only get six hours in three days. Ever since I have been getting those dreams my sleep schedule is even worse than before. After I got done cleaning behind the fridges Stan came into the lobby. Stan is a county deputy and is the one who comes and checks up on us. I have his personal number and had to call him a couple times before. I once had to call him to help me catch a deer that ran into the store.
Stan got a cup of coffee to drink and a fish sandwich to eat. He sat down in lobby and was reading a newspaper. He asked if the New Moon paper kept showing up. I said it was, but not very often. I told Stan about it, and he said it was best to keep it to ourselves.
I asked Stan what he was up to tonight. They have been getting reports of a cult having meetings in the graveyard and desecrating graves. He was on a stakeout tonight, but they never showed up, so he decided to come grab something eat and check up on me. Stan usually was the deputy who came here whenever we need the police. I like Stan he tends to mind his business and was a good listener when I needed advice. He is one of the few people I consider a friend.
I knew he was talking about Alex and his Cult, but I did not want to tell Stan yet. I am going to try to talk to Alex before I tell Stan. Alex is a good guy, but it seems he might have fell into with a bad group of people.
Stan finished his meal and said goodbye before leaving. He said he will probably stop by again tomorrow again. As soon as I left Alex was giving me the evil eye. I asked if something was wrong, and he just walked away. He looked pissed, but whatever I only got an hour left anyway.
I went home after work and watched some tv before heading to bed. I actually slept around five hours. When I was sleeping, I had a very peculiar dream. I was at the restaurant, and everything was covered in ice. The floors, walls, tables, and even the grills somehow. I walked around the store and seen that the freezer was open. There was a bright light in it. A deep male voice told me to come in and join him. That he can save me and all I need to do is trust in him. He will show me the path to salvation. All I needed to do was join him and his warm embrace. I said no thanks I am fine over here. The building started to shake and not before long the whole restaurant collapsed in on itself. I shot up in bed sweating. I thought well either I am going crazy or its actually real.
I decided to drink a monster instead of going to bed and write this up and post it. It’s my first post ever since I started keeping a journal, so I hope you guys find this interesting. Let me know what you think so far. Is this real or am I going crazy? I’ll be sure to post again real soon.
Oddities At The Restaurant Part 2 : ChillingApp (reddit.com)