Starting a Night Shift Part-time Job at a Convenience Store.

Anyone would be astounded when an object unexpectedly dropped in a quiet space, in the absence of anyone, without anyone touching it. Tonight, all kinds of strange things kept arising. Or perhaps I was simply exhausted. What fell was a cup of noodles on the center display shelf. It was roughly in the same position as where the shadow had been.

The thought of it instilled an overwhelming sense of foreboding, nevertheless, I couldn’t pretend to not notice, so I picked up the noodle cup and stepped out from the counter. Nothing looked out of the usual despite my inspection of the display shelves, leaving me puzzled as to why it had fallen out.

…That was uncanny. With trepidation, I picked up the fallen cup noodle and attempted to replace it on the shelf.

“What…”

A slippery sensation was felt. I was so shocked that I detached my hand from the cup noodle. My left hand was stained with what looked like muddy water.

Why was this… What was taking place? How could there be muddy water in a cup of noodles?

“…Aah… Aah… Aah… Aah…”

Without warning, a voice resounded in my ear, bringing my thoughts to a halt. It was more like a low, muffled moan than a voice that sounded as if it were in distress. I wasn’t mishearing or anything, it was a subdued voice that spoke in my ear, yet I could distinctly recognize it as a human voice.

It was not that of a normal human being, nonetheless. I intuitively thought so.

[That place is seriously dangerous.]

[Stop it.]

[It’s screwed up there.]

[Things frequently broke out.]

[You might get possessed or start seeing things.]

The posts I had viewed on the Internet during the day flashed back to me in a flash. My shoulders began trembling uncontrollably, and this time I felt a bit of coldness.

“Something” was placed on my shoulder.

“――”

That awakened my eyes.

When I turned to look around with a start, I found that I was not in the store, but in the small back room that I had become so accustomed to. There I was, seated in a round chair. The cigarette I had placed in the ashtray had burned out and turned to ash.

I came to the realization that I had been dreaming all along thanks to it.

Involuntarily, a sigh of relief was released. Perspiration was beading on my forehead. Apparently, after smoking a cigarette in the back room, I had fallen asleep against the wall.

That was why I had a nightmare. Even after wiping the sweat from my forehead, the memory of that sickening nightmare could not be easily dispelled. It was vividly present in my mind.

I had experienced an eerie dream. Strange occurrences had been plaguing me lately, and even when I slept, I was still exhausted, so perhaps that was why I was having a bit of a mental breakdown.

Good grief… I can’t believe I dreamed of such a horror movie-like performance.

Both of my shoulders felt heavy, probably due to the bizarre dream. Accompanied by a yawn, I made a broad, vertical stretch.

Understandably, that alone wasn’t going to refresh me but it felt like I had drifted off to sleep for quite a while and Takenaka was probably awake by now, so it was time for him to take a break and switch places. At this point in time, despite the unpleasant feeling I was experiencing, I wasn’t overly concerned about it. Whether it was indeed a dream or otherwise, or what was caught on the security camera, I figured that the day would end like this.

I assumed that today, again, would pass until morning without me having to figure out the enigma.

Nonetheless, I was wrong.

Today marked the one-week period that I had been working here as a newcomer. Things were not going to end like that.

My body, which was complaining of a sensation of lethargy, ached as my legs and back struggled to lift me up. A sudden, painful ringing in my ears assailed me subsequently. It was followed by a headache so severe I thought I was being pummeled.

An incessant “tsuー” sound persisted, disorienting me from the flurry of changes in myself.

“W-What….”

Not good, dizziness was creeping up on me, my pulse was racing, the ringing in my ears wouldn’t relent, and both sounds sounded like alarm bells to me. What used to be a blurred color image on the TV next to me turned instantly to a black-and-white screen.

Eh…

My gaze rested on the TV as I was perturbed by this strikingly abnormal phenomenon. The moment I set my eyes on it, I couldn’t tear my sight away from it.

After all, that black shadow reflected on the TV screen. On the monitor, the black shadow was standing on a display shelf in the center of the store. It was not facing the shelf, but facing the camera in my direction. It was focusing on me.

Again, when the screen blurred drastically, the camera zoomed in by itself, and the figure grew increasingly in size. With each zoom-in, the figure was more distinct. Facing the camera was a man, approximately in his fifties, with a thick beard around his mouth, an ashen complexion… and an expression lifeless reminiscent of a dead person.

His mouth was moving constantly, though, as if he were muttering something, and his two staring eyes were fixed on me.

Terror―

For the first time, I genuinely felt that way. This was not a living person. Something was out of the ordinary, something was abnormal.

Was this a dream? Was this another dream or was I still asleep? I had to wake up at any cost, so I made a move to stimulate some part of my body and attempted to move my hand.

It wouldn’t move… Not only that, I couldn’t shift my eyes away from the TV monitor. My neck couldn’t move even a few millimeters and my body wouldn’t budge in the slightest.

Hey, what was happening?

Through the CRT, the man with a pale face locked eyes with me, and I couldn’t detach my attention from him. I wanted to avert my eyes, yet was unable to do so. My throat rattled. Even my voice failed to come out.

The TV reflecting the man’s image became distorted again, and started to create a sandstorm. Noises emanated from it as if it had malfunctioned.

What would happen this time… at the time I wondered that―

The face of the man screaming in lamentation flooded the screen.

[Uaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh]

My eardrums were pounded by the man’s shrill, wailful voice.

“Hie―”

Even though my body was immobile, my heart skipped a beat and I felt a layer of tears forming over my eyes from an unprecedented terror. It was then that the firm spirit I had retained within me collapsed and burst all at once.

The TV displayed the man’s face for several seconds before reverting to a sandstorm.

“A-Ah―”

Please no more.

Stop it.

I didn’t want to see it. I didn’t want to hear it.

Not anymore.

Somebody, please save me. Even as I struggled to articulate these words, nothing but faint breaths escaped my mouth.

Even so, the terror was not over yet. Panic overcame me as if to hunt me down. Tsu―. The ringing in my ears had been replaced by a mysterious noise that sounded like a piano wire strained to its limits.

It was nauseating.

The sound was so insistent that it lulled me into the illusion that my brain was being constricted.

It was discomforting.

Then, accompanied by the sound of water, I felt a small shock on my right shoulder. 

Something landed on me.

If only I had fainted there, how fortunate I would have been. The coldnes spreading to my shoulder kept me absolutely conscious.

The coldness sweeping over my shoulders was something I never wanted to see. Something crawled up, and the next moment, it came into my sight.

Fingernails, discolored to an unbelievable shade of color. Blistered, soft, and thick fingers.

On my right shoulder was a pale, soaked hand that no longer seemed to belong to a human being.