A Gas Station at Night

tw: this is violent. sorry!

The gas station clerk approached the car and the man greeted him with a smile.

“That’s the first thing I remember” he later recalled “he had pearly white teeth, like he just went to the dentist every day or something.”

“And the lady was with him?” the man nodded.

“Yeah, she had her earbuds on, and sunglasses... Yeah, round ones, really dark.”

“Hi,” the pearly white teeth said “I want 20" the clerk nodded, looking up, briefly, at the man from the next car over. He finished his replenishing, and looked at the car beside him, curiously, spotting the woman inside.

“She really was something, even with the glasses” he later recalled, licking his lips nervously “She... She had this weirdly shiny hair. I thought it might be a wig, so I stared at her way longer than I should trying to figure out whether or not it was a wig, y’know? Her earbuds were so loud, you could hear it even through the small opening of the window. And then the guy looked at me.”

“Hey!” the guy screamed “What are you staring at my daughter for?!”

“Oh, I’m not, I’m not...”

“Then he left the car and ran at me, and I mean RAN. He was small and overweight, so you’d be surprised, as I was I guess. I didn’t think he could be so quick.”

“And what did you do?”

“I went up to them of course!” the poor clerk, thin as a lamp post, recalled shakingly “He was... Deranged. Yeah, that’s a good word, I guess.”

“That’s what he said? Yeah, it’s accurate. Deranged.”

“I wasn’t starring at your daughter! ” the man from the other car screamed, pushing the disgruntled father away from him as much as he could.

“Yeah, c’mon man!” the clerk intervened, even though he kept his distance. He wouldn’t stand a chance against any of them.

“Don’t stare at my daughter like that!” yelled the smaller man, pointing his finger aggressively up. The victim shrunk “Don’t you... I’ll have you skinned! I swear to God!” as they argued, another car made its way to the gas station.

“Oh, yeah...” the lady began, with a weak smile “Yeah I... Uh, I was approaching the gas station, my tank was... Barely there at this point,” she bit her lips before continuing, trying to recall as much as she could “So I... I saw the fight from afar, yes, and I was scared, I mean, of course. Gas station, at night and me being... You know” she looked down “Anyway, it was a desperate situation for me so I stopped anyway. It’s kind of a blur, you understand”

“Yeah, the lady, I remember seeing her” the man from the other car said “She was approaching from behind, while that... He was STILL screaming about the daughter, so I wasn’t surprised when she went to check on the girl. You know women these days they kind of stick together.”

“Yeah, that lady was really a saving grace in a way, I mean... In a way. She was careful” the clerk said, looking down. “I was watching her and she went to the car and...”

“...And I entered the car, sat on the driver’s seat and...”

“DON’T YOU DARE LOOK--” the screams were interrupted by louder ones, and the three men turned around, the smaller man slowly, while the other two in a panic.

“Oh my God!” The lady screamed “Oh my God!” she repeated under her breath “Help, someone!” the clerk rushed to her as fast as possible and when he opened the passenger seat, the girl fell.

“The blanket was so full of blood, it looked red at that point but I doubt that it was before. And the wig, her whole scalp, I can’t even...” she said, refusing to look up.

“And the eyes” the clerk said, almost in shock “She didn’t have them. No eyes. And not in a gruesome way, it was more like they’d never been there. That’s how precise...”

The three stared, in shock, at the body. Behind them, the sound of a car starting cut the night, but even then they didn’t flinch. The shock only fell to the ground when the father had completely taken possession of the other man’s car, riding fast into the night.