AI Summary
5 min readA first-time night shift worker at a gas station finds himself trapped between two impossible choices: stay inside and die, or walk outside and join a crowd of hollow-eyed people who seem to be waiting for him. A mysterious caller named Angie, who claims to be a former employee, urges him to leave before something inside the store kills him. But as the night wears on, he realizes her story doesn't add up—and the real danger may be the one thing he cannot see coming.
The setup: a night shift that feels wrong from the start
The narrator took the gas station job out of desperation. He had been saving for a move to Minneapolis and a six-figure opportunity, but couldn't find the funds. So there he was, alone on his first unsupervised night shift, cleaning bathrooms and restocking freezers. The supervisor, Jada, had repeated the same instructions over and over—"No phones. If you got a slow night, make yourself useful"—as if she had forgotten he wasn't that new. The place had a high turnover, but the narrator didn't yet understand how high.
While looking for his name tag in the manager's office, he found a box full of them. At first he thought they were all blank, but as he went through them, he realized they belonged to previous employees. Hundreds of them. "This was ridiculous," he thought. But he pushed the unease aside and returned to the register.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (02:00) **Protagonist Begins First Night Shift Alone** - A man working extra hours at a gas station is left unsupervised for the first time, setting the stage for a strange encounter.
- 2 (03:45) **Discovery of the Name Tag Box** - While retrieving his name tag from the manager's office, he finds a box full of tags for over a hundred previous employees, hinting at an impossibly high turnover rate.
- 3 (04:50) **The Staring Man at the Door** - A man with bloodshot eyes stands silently just outside the front door, refusing to leave or respond, and the automated doors fail to open for him.
- 4 (06:28) **The Mysterious Phone Call from "Angie"** - A woman named Angie, a former employee, calls to warn him that he is in mortal danger and must leave immediately.
- 5 (09:04) **The Crowd Gathers and the Doors Lock** - Looking outside, the protagonist sees over a dozen more hollow-eyed people emerging from the woods, and the front door refuses to open, trapping him inside.
- 6 (11:00) **The Trap is Questioned** - The protagonist confronts Angie about the unlocked back door, arguing that if the entity wanted to trap him, it would lock all exits, making her story seem like a trick.
- 7 (14:10) **Proof of Isolation: All Communication Fails** - Following Angie’s suggestion, he tries to call the police, his mother, and friends, but all calls meet dead silence, and his phone’s background turns black.
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Show Notes
Workers at night keep going missing
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