Worth

1.1 Fear

That all happened a few months ago. I was right about the ribs and about Rachel (The girl I was dating... WAS dating). Shortly after I was better she noticed that something had changed within me; she didn't like it. She craved control and, after the accident, hated to feel her it slipping away. This led to the inevitable end for our relationship. I was sad about it but I soon found it to be for the best.

I had been home from the hospital about a month then. It felt like I'd been bedridden much longer than four months but time flies right? I was finally ready to go back to work. I worked at one of those highway gas stations, the ones that never close. But I suppose my past isn't worth anything now. Every time I received a long overnight shift I had plenty of time to think... About everything. This shift was different though. Since the car accident I hadn't had any excitement in my life but soon, that was all about to change.

I started up the old, green Toyota my parents gave me and started off towards the gas station. The weather was overcast and the sky a dark navy. I chuckled about it being an omen of sorts.. Little did I know it may have been. As I pulled into the station and parked up I noticed the freeway was not nearly as busy as the usual 11:00 traffic. I shrugged and went in to start.

--------------------------------------------------

It was around two by the time the rain picked up (It had been sprinkling since midnight). The rain was extremely dense and the sheer quantity of it sounded like a jackhammer on the roof of the building. I was getting excited. Heavy rain is my favourite weather to watch whilst sitting safely inside. Once the lightning started the power soon went out; leaving myself in an almost pitch-black room alone. My spirits were diminishing by the second and soon, just like the power, they had been put out by the storm. I knew where the generator was, I knew it was protected from the storm... So all I needed was the courage to turn it on.

Being a typical summer day earlier I was only wearing a black T-Shirt and shorts. Squinting through the darkness I scrambled to and adorned the poncho in a nearby cupboard as I prepared to travel into the storm. Once I placed my hands on the cold, metal door I took a deep breath and pushed hard. Immediately the sound invaded my senses as a deafening drone. I cleared my mind quickly and focused on my goal. The rain hitting the ground and myself with such force was causing a foggy mist to rise up and block my view of anything beyond 20 feet.

I hugged the wall of the building and made my way to the generator shack while maintaining as much time under cover as possible. Once there, I was relieved to find it dry. I then pushed the electric start to find it unusable which caused me to move on to the manual pull start. After a few pulls I held my breath as I unscrewed the gas cap... Empty. And lying next to the generator was a gas can. Picking it up I was relieved to find it half full and dumped the contents into the generator. After one pull, light was restored inside the main building and the pumps were lit up once again. And then I saw it, my first glimpse of sheer horror...

--------------------------------------------------

Its eyes reflecting the numerous flashes of light with a reddish hue; its mouth twisted into a hideous snarl. This.. Thing, was not human. It saw me... And, for that instant, I could tell that it sensed my fear and I knew it was going to attack. I quickly glanced behind me to look for a way out. To my dismay I realized I was cornered if i didn't run soon. I looked back towards the horror at the pumps to find it gone. Relieved and still soaking wet with nervous sweat and rainwater, I sprinted back inside the gas station whilst making sure to secure the door. I then moved a chair to the corner and checked my watch: 2:03... It must've stopped working around the time the power went out.. Weird... I sat down in the chair, flipped back the poncho hood and ran my hands through my hair.

What was that creature? Why did my watch mysteriously stop and most importantly.. What the hell is going on? In an attempt to answer these questions I decided it best to call for help. With the power back on I could clearly see where I left my cell to charge in the corner. I quickly scooped it up and pressed the unlock button. My phone screen lit up a portion of the office and also read the time 2:03. It had been at least five minutes between checking my watch and grabbing my phone so how come no time had passed? My watch still read 2:03... Puzzled, I attempted to call my house: No dial tone. Then 911: No dial tone. Finally I went to call Rachel and received an answer. Surprised at this, I was too nervous to say anything and became worried when the noises coming out of my phone speakers weren't those of Rachel's soft voice. Instead it was the repetitive sounds of someone's shallow, hoarse breathing. Before I had a chance to say anything the line went dead. Calling back repeatedly had no effect. Thus rendering phone communication useless.

Soon after I placed my phone back down, I began to hear a faint tapping that seemed different than that of the rain. It was coming from the back exit near the washrooms. At first it was very slow and faint but, as I went closer to check it out, the volume and frequency of the tapping increased until it sounded as if someone.. Rather, some-THING was trying to break down the door. Getting close enough to pull up the shudders I was perplexed to find the tapping gone. Opening the door revealed nothing but a dark, cold, wet forest behind me that smelled of a musty wood scent.

Looking out into the distance I could just barely make out two glowing lights beside each other. As I squinted through the fog to get a better view they blinked. This, along with sending shivers along my spine, sent me running back to the front desk of the gas station. I could no longer trust the back door or the dark forest that lay beyond it.

The layout of the gas station is quite similar to most. Beside the four gas and two diesel pumps lies the main building. This contains all the snacks, the front counter and washrooms. The counter I sat at was directly across from the door and about 5 feet away. To my right (facing the door) lay the aisles of food and drinks and on my left, a short hallway with washrooms on the left and a door at the end. Being beside the freeway on the opposite side to the nearby town I was at least a mile south of reaching a reliable source of help. My car was directly across from me and lay just out of visibility on the other side of the gas pumps. Very nearby to where the creature I saw earlier was standing. Was it worth it? If it meant getting out of this mess I agreed on doing it. I got up from my seat, approached the door and pushed hard.