Ethan

I was 19 when this happened, and I was working overnights at a gas station outside a town most people only drove through because there was nothing else there.

I'm not going to say the real name of the place, mostly because my old manager still owns it, and I don't want people bothering him.

but it was one of those highway gas stations with four pumps, a tiny attached store, and a sign that buzzed so loud you could hear it from the ditch across the road.

It sat about 20 minutes outside town, right where the highway went from regular two-lane road to long, empty, dark stretch.

During the day it was normal.

Construction guys came in for coffee, moms got gas on their way to the lake, and old ranchers stood at the counter talking about weather like it was breaking news.

At night, it was a whole different place.

The road got quiet, the lights over the pumps made everything look washed out and fake, and every car that pulled in after midnight made me look up from my phone because there was always this feeling like nobody should be out there unless something was wrong.

I took the night shifts because I was young and dumb and I wanted the extra dollar an hour.

I had just finished my first year at community college and moved back home for the summer, and I thought working from 10 at night to 6 in the morning would be easy money.

Most of the time it kind of was.

I stocked cigarettes, cleaned the coffee station, mopped the bathroom, and watched videos with one earbud in until somebody came in.

My manager Rick was the kind of guy who looked like he had slept in the back office since 1984, but he was good to me.

He told me the first week, don't be a hero.

If something feels off, lock the door and call the sheriff.

The money in that register is insured.

You are not.

I remember laughing because I thought he was being dramatic, but he looked at me dead serious and tapped the glass next to the little silent alarm button under the counter.

He said, people get weird after midnight.

The gas station had cameras, but they were old and grainy, and only some of them actually worked right.