I just moved into a new city that I will keep redacted, but let’s just say it’s pretty hectic.
My first week moving in, I wanted to get a head start and see what it was like driving around compared to the city I came from. The driving is decent, and the people here are not really the type to want to start trouble. Applying to places has been a little difficult since the city offers minimum wage and I already applied to multiple places, who unfortunately never responded. Although unlucky, I’ve always been the type of person to find ways around my situation to make it benefit me. DoorDash was one of those ways.
I started DoorDashing my second week moving in and although I’ve been all over the place, I still earn about as much as a regular store wage offers. The best part about this is I can choose when and where I want to work (this isn’t a promotional thing by the way, just my opinion). A little explanation of how it works. You get sent an order though the app, and you can choose whether you want to take the order or decline it and wait for another. Once accepted, you make your way to the store, and pick up any items the person bought. From there, you’re given an address to go to, and following the person’s instructions you proceed to hand them the order. Simple.
There’s one day in particular I remember getting a bunch of weird orders. Picking up balloons, medicine from CVS, and more retail orders than usual. That day I was trying to make upwards of $200, so I was taking any orders I could receive. But there was one order that I had to bring some food to a hotel in the middle of the day. Thinking it was routine, I accepted the order and head out the door.
I had just finished picking up the food, and made my way to my car. A little bit of backstory though, there are a lot of homeless people in this city. The unfortunate drug abuse and addicts are the only thing that make this city dreary. As it so happens, a homeless person was sitting on a bench outside next to my car before I went in for my food and was still there when I came back out. I clicked my key fob to unlock my door, and put the food in my passenger side. I was the type of person to look at everything around me. Multiple times. It was just the type of person I was. I saw the homeless man looking and gave a friendly smile. He smiled back and I went on with the rest of the order. As I’m backing out of my parking spot, I looked back to see if the homeless man was there. And he was. But he changed. I couldn’t put my finger on exactly it was, but the way he looked had changed. His glare, demeanor, and persona seemed like a totally different person. A little creeped out, I put my car in drive and sped off.
As I’m pulling into the parking lot of the hotel, a weird thing I noticed is there was a lot of random trash near the curb of the sidewalk. It was scattered, but I was confused. I’ve been to this hotel before and the staff pride themselves on keeping their facility clean. It came to a surprise but thought it was too big of a deal as I had more important matters at hand. Paying my rent. So I shut off my car, opened my door and stepped out. The second thing about me is I almost always look down at the ground before I step out. Always. As I’m stepping out, I noticed a polaroid picture on the ground. It was face down so I couldn’t see exactly what it was. I thought it was cool because back in the day it used to be the main camera everyone used. Until smartphones came out, and they went extinct for a while. Nowadays I know people invest money into them for the nostalgia, which I can’t blame them for. I went to my passenger side door, grabbed the food, and headed inside. I gave the receptionist the food, and headed on my way.
They say curiosity killed the cat, and to this day I still believe that to be true. Fortunately I’m a human. Not the smartest though, hence why I thought it was a good idea to see what kind of picture the person took with that polaroid. I went to pick up the picture. I grabbed it. Flipped it over. And almost had a heart attack. I put the picture in my pocket and practically jumped back into my car. I threw my car in reverse, tossed it into drive and screeched my tires as I peeled out.
I went straight home. As I was getting out of my car, I was fumbling trying to get my house keys out to get inside. I got inside and put every lock from top to bottom on. I jolted upstairs to my room and locked my bedroom door. Shut my blind, checked outside, then shut them again. Locked my windows, and slowly sat on my bed. I reached inside my pockets, dreading my own actions. With both my hands shaking, I lifted the picture up and still cannot believe my eyes. As I’m looking at this picture my eyes are widening by the second. Confusion and terror were one emotion. The picture showed me stepping out of my car at the hotel.