Never done this before

Chapter 1

Nights come around too soon now. I rested my head against the pillow, staring at the peeling paint on the ceiling, trying to ignore the orange sunset ripping through the blinds. A quick glance at the illuminating green numbers, next to me, let me know that I only had an hour left before I had to be at my job. The job I was supposed to call and quit sometime this week, but keep putting off. 

The alarm on my phone went off. "I hate my fucking job" I yelled to someone who was not in the room with me, and reluctantly peeled myself off the bed. 

The normal outfit consisted of a green button up shirt, with the company logo on the sleeve, and black pants. My dinner was a meatball hot pocket, which I tried to balance in my mouth as I retrieved my keys from in between the couch cushions. 

"Bye Opie." I yelled to my sleeping dog, as I closed the door and headed toward my car. 

At work, I did the usual standing and waiting. I worked at a corner store, which was almost never busy. The most action I've had here was someone breaking the nozzle on the ICEE machine. You'd think that as much as corner stores get held up in movies, I'd have at least had one burglary, but no. 

About 3 or 4 customers wandered in my store, only one actually approaching the counter to just ask for directions. 

This corner store also happens to be in the middle of nowhere in my town. My town isn't small, its actually pretty big, the area where my store is just in the middle of nowhere. If you drove from one side of this town to my side, you'd think you were in another place. Unfortunately, not. 

I scanned the parking lot for any other cars, but only my car was remained. Only an hour left before I was off. 

It was like the bell went off before he opened the door, because I was already looking in his direction. I watched him hastily stumble into the building and close the door behind him, like someone was following him, but a quick glance I realized there was no one behind him. 

He appeared in front of me, out of breath and clutching the front of the counter as if his life depended on it. I scanned his face to see if he was drunk, or any tell-tale signs that he was dangerous. Instead, I found that he looked younger than me, no more than 16. His black here was flattened against his forehead, and his mouth hung open trying to catch his breath. "Are you o-" He darted from the counter and grabbed an unopened pack of dish washing gloves. He tossed them on the counter in front of me and started digging through his pockets.  

"I- Do you carry any box cutters?" He asked me. His voice was raspy from the exhaustion, and I wondered how long he had been running, and why. I scanned the pair of gloves and began to put them in a plastic bag. "No don't bag them." He held out his hand and I handed them to him. He tossed a crumpled 20 on the counter in front of us. "I'm assuming not?" He asked. I was confused at the question until I remembered he was asking about a box cutter. 

"W-we don't carry those here." He clicked his tongue while running his fingers through his sweaty black hair. 

"Thanks" He took the gloves and dashed out the door. 

I got off about 30 minutes earlier, the night was slow and I was tired. My last customer, the young boy, kept coming up in my head. I kept asking myself the same questions I had when he was standing in front of me. 

I closed up and got to my car. 

~

I didn't get home till about 3 am, and didn't fall asleep until 5. When I woke up, I found I was spread out of the couch in front of the TV. The news was on and my dog Opie was laying across my legs. 

I yawned and stretched, finding that I was still in my work clothes. 

"...Breaking news, police are currently investigating a murder that took place last night in the location of local corner store..." My attention was on the TV as my corner store appeared on the screen. Smashed between two other vacant buildings, the unkempt building stood wrapped in yellow caution tape, with police standing guard. "Witnesses are encourage to call the local police station as soon as possible. This is not the first, and has been made clear that this will not be the last murder incident by this killer. More information when we come back..." The dark news report was interrupted by a commercial about yogurt and I turned it off.