Spookyness

Three Terrifying Tales

By Wiperoo on reddit

The past six years I've been working at a Mcdonalds. Last night was the worst I've ever had.

I'm going to get straight to the point here; I've seen some shit at work that I don't think was of this earth.

The first thing I think I should do is introduce myself. I'm Bill, a twenty year old McDonald's Manager, working out of a small suburb in rural Sydney, Australia. I've been working here for roughly six years now, a manager for almost two. They've been uneventful, boring years. The monotony of the job has the phrase 'Hi, may I take your order please' robotic in nature, and order taking itself has gotten to the point that by the time the car has driven from the initial order point to my window, I have no recollection of the details of the order. It's in the drive-thru that my ordeal takes place, as a matter of fact. I've yet to go to the US, so I can't compare drive-thrus, though from what I've heard, it's a single lane that stretches around the outside of a building, with an order-point, a cashier and a third point where the food is actually handed out. This is the basic structure that ours conforms to, however, where it differs from most is that there are two lanes, rather than one, at the order-taking point. Essentially, provided there are two staff available to take orders, we can take twice as many orders in the same amount of time. This system is far more cumbersome and slow for some customers, however; unless the actual sensors are calibrated correctly, as well as working security cameras, some cars are simply ignored by the system while other customers in the other lane are served first.

So, mini-explanation over, I'll elaborate as to the creepy shit that occurred just last night.

As I've already stated, I manage the night shift on Friday and Saturday nights; what this involves is myself and another crew member catering to the whole store's needs from 10pm til 5am, from serving in the drive-thru, to food production to even serving on the counter once it re-opens at 5am. Provided the crew member I'm provided is experienced, the night shifts tend to go off without a hitch. Last night, however, is where trouble started.

The first thing that initially went wrong was the failure of my crew-person to show up. 10:30 is the offical start time of crew people, managers typically half an hour before as to ensure that the previous crew have done their jobs and left the store in an acceptable condition. When it crept around to 11pm and my crew member hadn't yet turned up, I sighed inwardly, picked up the phone and dialled his number. I was counting on him to show up; an issue with the rosters had caused all my other crew to finish at 11pm, instead of one or two at Midnight.

Ring... Ring... Nothing, there was no answer.

Resigning myself to a long and lonesome night (even the longest shifts are brightened by someone else being in the store) I started to turn around and prep the store, when I was startled out of my wits by the phone ringing again. I eagerly picked it up, answering with the standard " ______ McDonald's, William speaking..."

I gave a few seconds, hoping to hear the voice of the crew member that hadn't arrived, apologising for their tardiness. A few more seconds of silence, then suddenly

Click.

The phone went dead.

Now when I say dead, I mean dead. The handset died, as did the dial. I couldn't even get a tone out of the thing. I grabbed my mobile, intending to call the head manager and warn them about the dead phone and truant crew member.

No signal. This night was only going to get better.

Annoyed by the circumstances, plus the fact that I would probably be blamed for the broken phone and missing member, I bid farewell to the last closer off at 11pm and shut the front doors. The way our McDonald's worked is this; a dual lane drive thru, open twenty four hours, with a front counter only open from five am til midnight. For small term shifts, like weekday overnights, a sole manager is typically allowed to run the store by himself if the secondary staff member can't make their shift or there's a conflict of rosters. For the next five hours until the cafe crew arrived at 4am in time for the breakfast rush, I would be alone.