Bradley sat down at the small desk they had set up in the staff room. He turned on the ancient computer and waited patiently for it to boot up.

He’d cleaned the room before sitting down, but the desktop was still sticky. He made a mental note to spray an air freshener before the staff started coming in.

Finally, with the PC awake, he opened up the mail client and started going through his email. He tried to send team emails every week, and he read the night staff’s logs daily.

He wasn’t surprised to see Rodney had not left a log from the night before, but he did see a short one from Daisy.

Hey Bradley,

Please check up on Rodney when you get a chance.

Bradley swallowed hard. If he’d been there the night before, would he have noticed something was happening?

He’d slowly begun neglecting the night staff. Relying more and more on email to keep up with them.

He could have done something if he’d just…

He let the thought pass. It was too late now either way. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly before reading more of the message.

He was staring at me all night. The boy’s always been a bit off, but he was being a real creep last night. He was freaking out Lucy, too. She kept coming back to help me, and you know it wasn’t work ethic doing that! She was in the back making garlic bread just to stay away from him.

The one time I was near him, he made my skin crawl. I don’t want to be mean, but I don’t think he’s showered in days. Just talk to him, okay?

-Daisy

Bradley leaned back in his crusty old office chair. Zero lumbar support, just like he liked it. If it were comfortable, he wouldn’t feel the need to get up and move.

He wondered if he should email Daisy directly but figured the group email would suffice. He cracked his knuckles and got to typing.

Hello everyone,

There is no easy way to say this, but we had to let Rodney go.

There was no point in making them worry or mentioning the police. He knew for a fact that none of the staff were close enough to Rodney to hear about it when they found him.

I know some of you saw his strange behavior, and in the end, he made off with the cash from the register on his way out.

Bradley was pleased with himself. He was technically telling the truth; if questioned later, this would line up with everything else.

I know it’s rare that we ever close up, but he made a bit of a mess last night, and I want to make sure everything is in order for our evening staff.

Moreover, in the next few days, you’ll be meeting the new night shift cashier. Please make sure they feel welcome.

He sent the email and then opened a new message for Sophie’s new hire. After double-checking the email address that Sophie had texted him, he started typing again.

Hello and welcome to the team!

 My name is Bradley, and I’m the general manager of Crossroads Convenience. We’re the area’s number-one gas station, convenience store, and pizza place! We’re really at the center of commerce in our community.

He laughed to himself. Calling it a community was a bit of a stretch. They weren’t just in the middle of nowhere; they were in the middle of the path going nowhere. There were less than a hundred people living within a fifty-mile radius of the station. It was just a well-traveled route to the rest of the island. Most of the staff had to drive nearly an hour to get there or had to utilize the unreliable bus route that traced the highway through many of the region’s small towns.

Nestled at the cross of Highway 525 and Hermit’s Road, we service a variety of commuters venturing from every corner of the Island. It’s a major commercial, residential, and even tourist traffic route. So, we take our unique position in the comings and goings of Birch Island very seriously!

He hated spinning it like this. Unique wasn’t the word. He wouldn’t have stopped coming by after dark if it were just unique.

As everyone who’s worked here in the evening knows, the night shift can be a lonely and often stressful experience. That is why we encourage night shift staff to communicate with each other via email logs sent either to the whole team or just me, if you’re shy. This is a good way for us to keep up with one another and let each other know what duties or problems they have to look forward to. It’s also a good way for us to connected even if we rarely see each other. While log entries by day staff are appreciated, they are only expected for the night shift. Please see this not only as a way to communicate with your coworkers but as a way to engage with them as human beings.

Rodney rarely left logs. It was a major point of contention between them. Bradley had struggled to enforce them because he rarely saw the night staff. It seemed clear Rodney knew that, too. He understood he’d get away with incomplete or shoddy work if no one were ever around to call him on it.

Also, while all new staff go through a brief daytime orientation and then shadow their base shift before working alone, I feel the need to clarify a few frequently asked questions.

Bradley sighed and scratched his left eye. This is where all the problems started. But he knew from experience that gossip always happened, and it was better to just get in front of it.

Question number one: Is Crossroads Convenience haunted?

Answer: No, the gas station is not haunted. I’ve managed this establishment for fifteen years, and no one owned it before Sophie Cruz. I don’t know what your definition of haunting is, but if no one has died here, it can’t be haunted.

He hated answering this question. Some would call him a liar. But it wasn’t that simple. He didn’t know what was going on, only what he believed…

Question number 2: How do you get to the basement?

Answer: there is no basement. I’m not sure why this keeps coming up, but there is no basement in the gas station.

That one was purely the truth; there was no basement. There was storage in the back, behind the coolers, but the convenience store held no secrets besides that room and the office. It was just a long rectangle. Nothing more, nothing less.

Question number 3: What are the scratching sounds beneath the floor?

Answer: I don’t know. No one on the day staff has ever reported scratching noises. As I said, there is no basement. There is a small crawl space beneath the gas station. It’s possible that raccoons have gotten under there. Report it if you hear it, but don’t be alarmed. The same answer would apply to any sounds from above the ceiling. It’s probably just raccoons.

He wasn’t even trying to be dismissive with this one. He had no idea what the noises were. He set traps all the time and caught nothing. Not a rat, not a mouse. And certainly nothing as big as a raccoon. He also never expected to. He’d heard the scratching himself… it wasn’t something he was going to make sense of. 

No raccoon was big enough to make those noises.

Further questions? 

Answer: If you have any questions about your work, please email them either to this thread or to me personally. There’s no such thing as a stupid question unless you’re asking me about ghosts!

Have a great first shift!