Convenience stores are aptly named as such because of how convenient the place is. It’s small, it’s easy to find, and most importantly it has a lot of options to choose from. It can be a bit expensive, however, but it provides the necessities needed for the time being.
It was April 21, 2019. Elizabeth “Liz” Collins was just starting her night shift at Lolo’s 24/7 Convenience Store when her manager called her up to check on her progress in arranging the food items in each aisle.
“Hello Liz. Are ya done dealing with the goods?” asked the manager, with a voice as raspy as a rough car engine.
“I just got here sir. You can’t expect me to just immediately do that--“
*CLICK*
Just as quick as the call began, the call also immediately ended. Bothered by the lack of patience her manager had, Liz tried her best to let this kind of event slide again. As difficult as it was for her to control her own temper, she still managed to not break the phone after sliding it off from her hand unto the table, to which the phone was dropped with an audible thud.
With a sigh, she fumbled towards the cash register and patiently waited for a nightly customer to arrive.
Some minutes passed by, and the store was still just customer-less. Empty lanes and aisles, the near-quiet store tunes jingling throughout the premise. Usually on nights like these, some hungry patrons would come in at around 11 PM just to buy a hotdog in a bun, paired with a usual cola. Some would buy potato chips to sate cravings. And sometimes it’s just Liz buying from the store itself by adding her own money into the cash register.
‘It’s always like this.’
With no customers in sight, especially none outside, Liz decided to take the time to relax a little and turned on the radio to tune in to the Late-Night Magic radio and let it play for a bit. Her favorite station often had some piece of news before playing some nightly songs.
“Time check it’s eleven-twenty in the evening and we just want to remind our listeners to please, get home safe and remember to get some sleep! Next song is dedicated to the Dunwright family after the tragic—"
The radio announcement got interrupted by the store bell. The first customer of the night had finally arrived, and Liz officially began her work by making sure the customer wouldn’t steal food from the snack aisle ‘like they always do.’
After some time, the fussy patron finally picked his snack and went over to Liz to pay.
“Thank you for buying from our store. Please come again!” Liz smiled pleasantly as the customer left the store. The customer gave a polite nod on his way out. It was an easy and quick transaction, the type of thing Liz always liked.
With the store emptied again, Liz went back to relaxing. This time, she checked on her phone for some new messages.
1 new message!
It was a message from the store manager, Lolo. Upon seeing the notification however, Liz immediately wanted to throw her phone down simply because she didn’t want to deal with her manager’s incessant check-ups on how the store was.
‘The old man has GOT to start trusting me more!’
2 new messages!
The phone rang again. A new message popped up, still from Lolo the manager.
‘Good God Lolo, I have been working here for three months… ‘
And with a heavy groan, Liz rolled her eyes and checked the message preview.
OUT…
Despite seeing the message with just a single word in it, Liz already knew what it might be about. She put her phone down and went off to throw out the garbage. But even before she could do that, a ring could be heard once again. This time, it was the store entrance bell.
The customer who had just came in looked drenched. Water puddled the clean store floor and she didn’t even bother to stop and dry off her shoes at the store mat. Liz never noticed that it had rained, then again it was dark out, and she had been listening to loud music.
“Excuse me miss, please dry yourself off a bit. You might slip.”
The customer didn’t respond and continued walking down the aisles. But instead of stopping at the food or necessities, she went straight to the store’s restroom.
Liz was a bit baffled by this. She checked outside for rain, since she can’t seem to hear how heavy it was.
‘It’s not… raining.”
Liz became a bit more concerned by this, but before she could go ahead to the restroom to check on the woman, she decided to clean the floors first.
‘Someone might slip, and I’ll lose my only job. I can’t lose this job after losing the last few because of irresponsible customers again…’
After she finished mopping up the floor, she then made her way to the restroom to see how the customer was doing. Liz was particularly worried, but at the same time irritated since she did want to use the restroom.
A good 5 minutes passed, and Liz was beginning to become a little more impatient. She wanted to go. She wanted to use the restroom. But the customer was there, and she can’t just simply knock. But it’s already half-past midnight, and she believes she has some right to at least try her luck. Liz headed over to the restroom door and knocked twice.
“Excuse me, miss? Are you going to stay in there for a longer time?”
Liz waited for a response, but none came.
“Miss?”
A troubling thud suddenly sounded from within the restroom.
Panic began filling her chest. Liz tried to open the door, but it was locked. She frantically ran to the pay counter to look for the keys for the restroom.
‘WHERE ARE THOSE DAMN KEYS!?’
She opened the cash register and found the key-holder. She grabbed the keys and amidst her frightened search, she accidentally cuts herself from the key’s sharp edges. She winced from the pain but still immediately began making her way over to the restroom door, only to find that it has already been opened and emptied. Liz stands outside the restroom, just a few feet away. There were no signs of anyone having been in the room before, but the floor was just puddled with water.
Liz stared at the empty restroom in disbelief; wondered if she was just seeing things. Since no one was there anymore, Liz decided to just finally go. Just as she was about to go in the restroom, a ringing could be heard from the distance. It was her phone, and judging by the ringtone, it was going to be a call from her manager. She groaned because she can’t exactly hold it anymore. So, with that, she walked over to the counter to quickly pick up her phone and walked faster back to the restroom, closed the door, step on the wet puddles, and just finally let it all out.
Finally taking a breather, she answered the call.
“Hello?”
“Plea… …. L…. T”
“Hello? Sorry you’re cutting off; the signal’s getting bad.”
“Please…”
*CLICK*
The call ended, and there was nothing she could do about it. The night had been strange up to this point, and she felt as though something was wrong, but she couldn’t exactly place it. She turned her phone on to check the time, and it was apparent that it was already midnight. Liz still had three more hours to go until her shift ends. She finished doing her business in the restroom, washed her hands, and suddenly, a loud thud could be heard from the wall on her left. Her heart nearly left her throat from the abrupt sound, she stared at the wall where the sound came from.
There was nothing there.
The phone rang again.
Liz nearly dropped it the moment it vibrated, but she quickly answered it.
It was the manager.
“Lizzy, I have been tryna’ call you for the past thirty minutes. Why haven’t you been picking up my calls?”
“What are you talking about? You called me just five minutes ago! I answered it but the signal was bad. And sir I have a concern--“
“Keep quiet for a sec will ya? Listen I wanted to call you about the air conditioning in the store. It turns out I turned it off before leaving. Be a deary and turn that thing on. I don’t want customers complaining in my store on how hot it is”
“The store’s cold already I think the air conditioning is still on.”
“That’s a load o’ bull. I know my memory well enough to know that I left it off! So just head over to the back and turn the damn thing on already.”
The manager hung up at the very last word and Liz was beginning to get more and more stressed as the night went on. She just found it strange as she was sure the manager called her just five minutes ago. The list of recent calls on the phone however, showed that there wasn’t any phone call that took place during that time. Instead there were dozens of missed calls, all from Lolo. She then checked for text messages that she received earlier on, but there were none.
‘If Lolo never sent me messages, and he’s been trying to call me thirty minutes ago… Then who…?”
The phone rang again. Liz, this time, checked to see who was calling. It was an unknown caller ID. She hesitated…
...And answered.
“H … Hello?”
“Please…. L E T … ME…. OUT … “
A loud banging started to fill the room. It was coming from the same wall where Liz first heard it. Liz screamed and backed away as the banging became louder, and louder.
A terrible shriek can be heard from within the wall.
“WHO’S THERE!?”
Liz tried to call 911, but somehow, they couldn’t be reached. Liz stared, horrified, at the wall while the banging became more and more rapid. She was now outside the room, but she couldn’t move.
A crack had formed on the wall, the loud pounding increasingly became louder, and chaotic. Water suddenly started gushing out of the small crack, and Liz finally, immediately, closed the restroom door.
The noises finally stopped.
Exhausted by the turn of events, Liz decided not to open the door again. But knowing that the water was gushing out of the crack, she had to check for damages.
“No that can’t be there.”
Despite her instincts telling her that there’s none, she also didn’t want to lose her job because of a leaking wall.
She trembled and hesitated. She didn’t really want to open the door, until water started seeping from the bottom of the frame to which she immediately opened the door.
And there was nothing there.
Everything was clean. No leaks, no cracks, no strange occurrences. It’s as though nothing had really happened. From this she breathed a sigh of relief. She turned around, headed back to the cash register, and sat down on the chair. She might’ve just been tired; watched too many horror movies. Her heart was still beating quite fast, the night was getting to her. So, to feel a little bit better and relaxed, she turned on the radio that was already tuned in to her favorite station.
“Time check! It’s now one in the morning. To our night owls out there, especially our workers working their way through the night shift, keep on goin’! Grab a cup of coffee, tea, or hot cocoa if you prefer. Tired? Might be time to open that energy drink that’s been sitting in your fridge. Hungry? A small late-night snack won’t hurt. And now for our next song of the night, this will be dedicated to the daughter of the Dunwright family, who had been missing for the past ten days. To identify her, based on the description her family added on the paper, she has long blonde hair, fair skin, and is in her 20's. She was last seen wearing a blue summer dress. God bless you, Samantha, hope you get found!”
‘Poor girl’, Liz thought…
But then, a realization struck her. Liz remembered the girl that came in the store much earlier at midnight. The girl also had long blond hair, and fair skin. But she looked drenched up, even if it wasn’t raining in the first place.
Something was terribly wrong, and Liz felt a crawl on her spine.
Just then, the sound of dripping water could be heard from the distance. It could be heard from where the restroom was, and the loud banging on the wall started again.
Liz’s chest felt as though it was filling up with fluids. She felt like vomiting her heart out. Her anxieties began filling up her mind, becoming more and more uncertain of what’s happening. It became harder to breathe, like she wanted to claw out her own throat.
She can’t breathe.
Being unable to take it anymore, she called up her manager on the phone. What was supposed to be a few seconds, felt like minutes for her before Lolo finally picked the phone up.
“Lizzy? That’s unexpected. What are ya calling for?”
Elizabeth began sobbing, she was scared out of her life and felt a bit of comfort from hearing her manager, even if she disliked him quite a bit
“Sir please, help, I think there’s something behind the back end of the restroom wall, and I can’t contact 911. There’s a loud banging there and it’s been getting louder. What can I do? Should I just open it up? I think someone’s in there and… I just don’t know what to do now…”
Silence.
“Liz, don’t you think you’re too old for shit like that?”
“W-What?”
“Prank callin’ me like it’s April Fools. What is wrong with you? One more call like this and I’m firing you on the spot. And don’t you dare do anything to vandalize my goddamn store, ya hear me!? If you fuck that wall up, I’ll have you fired IMMEDIATELY.”
*CLICK*
Liz was, once again, alone.
The banging never stopped, and at this point she’d stopped caring. Her manager was abusive, and never once respected her for the past three months that she’s been working in the store. She couldn’t take it anymore.
Hence, as her first and final act of transgression, she grabbed the fire extinguisher from behind the counter, and marched on towards the restroom. She lifted the extinguisher up to her head and smashed it unto the wall. Water gushed out from the crack like a geyser; highly pressurized, but warm.
“I must’ve hit a pipe.” Liz thought.
She continued to break the wall with the extinguisher, until the banging noise was finally silenced.
The hole she made on the hole was very hollow, water was pouring out from it. Since it was still a small hole, it looked as though there was nothing in there. It was far too dark, but at the same time, it felt as though it was also far too deep to be just a small foundation behind the wall. Without any second thoughts, Liz made the hole a bit bigger, and pulled up her phone, to light up the hole with the built-in flashlight.
There was another room in there. It had no windows, nor doors. But there was a large drainage, and beside it was a trapdoor that may have been the entrance. There was no light, let alone a small floor lamp that was right beside a bucket with some water left. There was also a steel bed in the dark, musty room. There were no blankets, nor a mattress, and it only had a single pillow. Clothes could be seen in a corner, piled up.
And on the floor laid a woman, all tied up, who looked as though she was in her 20s. Her skin was pale, and she looked frail. Her hair was cut, but it was clear she used to have blonde hair.
It was Samantha Dunwright. And she wasn’t moving.
An hour had passed since Liz called 911, and 30 minutes had gone by since the police and ambulance had arrived. The police had just finished putting police tape around the crime scene. Liz had been answering questions from local authorities as detailed as she could, and even identified “Lolo”, whose real name is Frank Hurtz, who is a registered sex offender.
Samantha’s body had been placed in a body bag and brought into an ambulance. It turned out she may have already been dead for three days already. The paramedics identified her possible cause of death as drowning.
From there on, Frank had been charged for the kidnap, sexual assault, and murder of Samantha Dunwright. After knowing that that man she so disliked had been put behind bars once again, Liz finally felt a bit better about herself, and even opened a flower shop business. It may take time, but it’s good business.
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