Late Night Convenience

I've worked at Max's, a small convenience store in Dayton, Ohio, for about five years and in all that time I can tell you I have only had one bad experience. I wasn't hurt, I wasn't robbed, nothing like that, no, but I was threatened in a sense. Now, I'm fairly certain that this was not a prank, because I defininitely don't see a punchline or even HOW they could have pulled it off, but I'm also not a religious man nor one to believe in the paranormal, so I won't claim to know for certain what happened the night of April 8th, 2000.

It was about 3:00 a.m that Saturday night, and I was stuck on the nightshift, which wasn't all that bad considering I barely had to deal with anyone and much preferred it that way. Of course, it wasn't as if I wasn't used to a few night-owls wandering in around that time so I made no fuss when two middle-aged gentlemen entered the stores and forced me to turn off my game of Pokemon to pay attention. However, I did find it weird that they did not arrive by car, considering there wasn't a single one parked in the lot and these two were definitely not local folk.

The men looked a bit odd, one of them looking as if he was just rolling around in the mud. The man on the left, a very serious looking man, must've been about six foot two, and had a stomach to match his height. Just a massive character in all. He wore faded blue-jeans and a light green button-up dress shirt whith a pair of black cowboy boots and a fedora on his head. I thought his dress was quite strange until I began to examine the second man. This guy was short, he may have looked shorted considering the size of the first, but I'd say he was only five foot five about. He was a redhead, sort of like a ginger considering he really pale skin but lacked freckles. Unlike his friend, he didn't look serious at all, he almost looked lost, maybe even scared, his eyes darting around the store and his head snapping left and right. He wore a black leather biker's jacket and a pair of blue jeans with white sneakers, all of it covered in mud. The short guy snapped his view to me and nearly ran over to the counter.

"Toothpaste." he said, staring in my eyes and then allowing his vision to dart above my head as if the guy was on some serious drugs, which I had concluded he must have been.

"Uh, yea we have that. It's over there in that isle." I said pointing. The short guy scrambled towards our toothpaste selection.

"I'm sorry about him sir" the taller man said with a grin "He doesn't mean any harm. We were wondering if you had a bathroom we could use?"

"Yea, there's a door in the back. It's right in the hallway behind it." I answered, trying not to sound creeped out by the first guy.

"They have the toothpaste and the scissors Eddy!" the short guy squealled with glee.

"Good job Sam." The tall guy, Eddy, smiled back. "Come on to the bathroom buddy."

I was getting creeped out, and rightly so I think, there was something definitely wrong with this picture. But, I decided to let it slide and just hope the sooner they got done doing whatever the fuck they were doing the sooner they'd leave. I began pondering what sort of things can be done with toothpaste and scissors, drug-related or perhaps even.... sexually, as I watched them pull open the door in the back, walk into the hallway, and then disappear into the bathroom. I shook my head and decided it would be better to turn on my Gameboy to distract myself. I doubted these guys would file a complaint if they caught me anyway. So I loaded my copy of Pokemon Yellow and got lost in the game.

I'm not quite sure how long had passed, but it was indeed more than ten minutes. I likely would have left the two men alone for longer, being as lost in the game as I was, but I was interupted by a series of screams. I jumped up, almost dropping my Gameboy and looked around. The screams continued and eventually I figured out they were coming from the bathroom.

"Are you guys ok in there?" I asked, more frightened than caring whether or not they were ok. I put my Gameboy down on the table and grabbed the baseball bat kept under the counter, there was no way I was going back there unarmed. "You guys ok?" I crept back slowly, cautiously, the screams getting louder as I approached the back door. I opened the door as gently as I could, making sure that they didn't hear me so they couldn't get the jump on me if something was indeed happening in there. Why I didn't call the police is beyond me, but it didn't even occur to me. So there I was, standing face to face with the bathroom door, screams pouring out from inside. I took a deep breath and opened the door, instantly wishing I hadn't.

The second the door opened the screams ceased, and I came face to face with the two men, now completely silent and staring at me. The tall man, Eddy, was standing over Sam, the little guy. Sam lay on the changing table we had set up back there, his jacket off and his chest bare. Toothpaste covered his stomach and chest, toothpaste that was no longer white, but red from the blood that gushed from an open wound in his chest. The three of us stood there, not making a sound, for what seemed like an eternity before, finally, Eddy spoke up.

"Can we help you?" he asked.

I looked at him shocked, I wanted to scream and run away but I couldn't. "No, it's ok." I said quietly.

Eddy smiled and backed off Sam, who then zipped back on his jacket and got up off the changing table.

"We were going to pay for those, we still will." Eddy said as he approached me. I tried backing up, and remembered I had my bat. "Here," he said, pulling out his wallet "How much was that stuff?"

"Get the fuck away from me!" I shouted, raising the bat in defence.

"Well that's not very nice now, is it Sam?" Eddy frowned.

"No, not nice. Not nice." Sam said quickly, obviously barely even listening.

"I guess I'll just leave then." Eddy said.

"What the hell were you doing here!?" I shouted.

"We were leaving, weren't we Sam."

"Yeah, yeah leaving, yeah."

With this Eddy raised his hand, holding it above his head and snapping his fingers. The lights went out the instant he did. I began to freak out naturally, swinging my bat every which way, but it wasn't long before I heard another snap somewhere in the darkness, when light returned to the store. I began to spin around, looking for where the fuck Eddy and Sam went, but I saw them nowhere. That's when it first dawned on me to call the police, so I sprinted to the desk where I found a crisp, new ten dollar bill laying on the counter next to my Gameboy. It looked as if Eddy and Sam paid and left, but how the fuck did they get past me in the bathroom door, put money on the counter, and leave in roughly three seconds? How did Eddy control the lights? I never did get an answer, nor did I ever see either of them again.

I quit my job sometime after, and no one who works at Max's now, nor Max or his former employees, claim to have ever seen these men besides me. I figured those two weren't from around Dayton, and likely were long gone. But whoever they were, I'm just glad they didn't hurt me. Still, I wish I had an explanation. So that's my story, it may not be the best of any stories, but it is definitely one I will never forget.