Night Shift at the Wildlife Reserve

"That's a mighty fine gator you got there." came the voice from behind the metal bars on the platform above the reserve floor. It was hot and humid, as it always was during August in the backwoods of Florida. This particular day, the heat index was higher than ever recorded, and it showed. The people got slower, tempers got shorter, and the pools filled slowly but surely. When the heat soared, the foul odor of swamp grew almost unbearable in its grossly intoxicating smell, which made some want to leave and never return. Such was not the case for Hector P. Laney, who was bouncing slightly just beyond the barriered platform that kept the people out of the part of the reserve specifically for animals. Today was his first day, and he was here early, five hours and three minutes early, just to get a feel of the land, like any sane person would do if they were to be working night with creatures that could rip you to shreds.
Supervisor Stephen Irving, who was supposed to give Hector the tour of the facility while it was still daylight, was hunched over the dock in the gator pit. Stephen Irving was a stocky man, just shy of 5'8", with sandy blond hair that hung ever so slightly in the way of his vision. He wasn't attractive, per se, but he was aesthetically appealing in the way a well-dressed dad is appealing to other dads, in the way that they don't feel compelled to date him, but can appreciate his new suit jacket and how finely tailored his pants are. Stephen seemed to be talking to the gators briefly before he was interrupted by Hector and his proclamation of how nice the gators were. Stephen turned to his future colleague with a warm smile, then spoke with a butterscotch-rich voice.
"You must be Hector that I was told about," he stood as he spoke, walking to Hector before extending a friendly handshake. "I'm Stephen, I'll be your supervisor, but I hope to be more than that." Hector wasn't expecting to find someone so nice in charge of the more dangerous animals, but never judge a book by it's cover, right? Hector accepted it gladly, and was amazed at how soft the hand he grasped was. A million thoughts ran through Hector's head, questions to ask- how long had Stephen worked here? is there a dress code? what moisturizer did he use?- all of them irrelevant for now.
"Pleasure to meet you, sir, when can we get on with the orientation tour?" he simply responded, smiling more out of courtesy than genuine happiness to see his future supervisor. Hector was here for the animals, not Stephen.
"Ah, eager to start?" he paused to laugh slightly. "We needed someone as energetic as you to work nights. It gets kinda down around here when the sun goes down, we need some fresh meat." At Hector's concerned expression at being called 'fresh meat', Stephen laughed. "Not fond of the term? It won't be there for long."
And with that, the orientation started. Along the different paths, explaining where each path led, and past a few doors that were simply explained as "Never to be opened unless explicitly told. You don't want to know what happened to the last guy who opened it without asking." and a joking smile. The tour ended just before Hector's shift was set to start.
"That's about it for around here, any other questions before I throw you into the deep end?"
"Just one," Hector looked around nervously, the first emotion beside pure and utter joy he had expressed while on the site. "If something goes wrong, how will I be able to get anyone's attention?"
"If anything goes wrong, use logic. You'll be the only one on site tonight, sorry about that," a vaguely sheepish look, before he quickly reassembled himself. "If you truly need anything, there's a walkie talkie in your box."
"Oh."
"Well, have fun! Watch out for the gators, they like to cuddle." Stephen winked and then chuckled lightly. "I'll check in around 4 A.M."
As he walked away, Hector watched him stroll confidently out the door, laughing about something random, probably his gator comment. It was almost an unsettling amount of laughing for someone in the open world, and the more Hector pondered over it, the more he realized Stephen's laugh didn't sound like a normal laugh. There was a slight tinge of insanity only found in science teachers and people too invested in their job, but maybe that was just his nerves talking. And the sun was setting over the reserve as the newest recruitment got his things that he needed from his box, then went out into the backwoods along the path, cicadas and bullfrogs singing a sweet duet of summer's closing.
The first few hours were boring, just Hector walking around the reserve, making sure everything was as usual, until around 3:30. He approached the fork in the road that connected the southern side with the area that was more swampy, usually filled with gators. As he was about to leave the south pathway and go grab a drink from his box via shortcut, a sloppy slap hit the platform behind him, although a distance away. Hector swung around with his flashlight beam pointed to where he thought the sound was coming from. If he squinted, he could've made out the rough shape of a lump in the middle of the walkway, but Hector decided he wasn't going to be a horror movie protagonist and he walked quickly to his box. Unfortunately, the slap slap slap of the figure followed, but Hector was borderline running to the safety of the main office. He arrived in the office, then locked the door and got his newly issued walkie talkie from the box and dialed it into Stephen's channel.
"Stephen. There's something following me. I'm concerned that someone's in the reserve with me-" but he was cut off by the sound of that same, hintedly insane chuckle rattling in through his walkie talkie.
"That's just Beth, I told you they like to cuddle. She won't bite, but take that red cooler by the printer-" scraping from his end, "and grab a piece of chicken from it. Lead her back to the gators and she'll be fine."
"If you say so. This just feels... suspicious. A bit too close to being a set up."
"What can I gain from a set up this intense?" The insane chuckle once again. Hector swore on his mother's casserole that if Stephen chuckled one more time he was going to beat him with the chicken leg in his hand.
"Fine." Hector responded flatly. "Going away now. Thanks, totally." And with that he dialed down the volume and threw it in his box.
Slipping out the door, 'Beth' was waiting patiently for the chicken. Now that he could see her, 'Beth' didn't look like any gator he had seen before. Nonetheless, Hector held up the chicken, then started walking to the gator area. And behind him was the faithfully monotone slap slap slap of her steps. Though, it seemed odd that a gator managed to get up onto the platform with him, but decided to keep these thoughts to himself before 'Beth' decided to lash out for the chicken or his hand, whichever she preferred to eat first. When they did approach the gator pit, Hector waited until 'Beth' had caught up, then threw the leg in. Unsurprisingly, 'Beth' didn't follow the leg in.
"Oh come on, get back into the pit."
'Beth' tilted her strangely human-like face, which was looking more and more familiar to Hector. Why was that, he wondered, that this moss and water covered creature looked like his old neighbor. Oh, what was her name, he couldn't remember for the life of him. Hector was now lost in his mind, falling all in his thoughts about his old neighbor and when she disappeared, and how this had to be just sleep deprivation, yet 'Beth' seemed to be getting closer, standing on her hind legs and placing a humanlike hand upon his hand, as the other one covered where her mouth should be, eyes locked with Hector's.
When he came out of his mind adventure, the name occurred to him. Her name was Elizabeth, and the longer he gazed into the now panic-filled grey-green eyes that were so very familiar, he came to the terrifying recollection of what she was doing before she disappeared. She has told him she got her first job, the night shift at a nearby wildlife reserve, which was in desperate need of new workers. In front of him was Elizabeth, tragically misshapen by whatever happened that didn't allow her to leave. He backed away in horror, Elizabeth falling to the floor on her hands and feet, her eyes screaming to run.
Hector turned to run, but ran straight into Stephen, causing Hector to hit the floor and look up at Stephen in fear and panic. He laughed loudly, significantly more crazy than before.
"I see you've met Beth, my greatest employee. You'll get to know more later, good ol' Hector." He paused his monologue to pull out a container of a toxic looking substance, which didn't even move when he started gesturing. "Or, will you even remember anything? It's honestly a 50/50 when it comes to my-" He looked down at Hector and sighed loudly. "They're always criers. There's no need to become a blubbering mess," Stephen crouched in front of the now shaking Hector, then lifted his face with one hand so they'd meet eyes. The voice he used didn't match his eyes, really. All the warmth that was previously in his nice, dad-like eyes were replaced with cold, like a metal surgical table. He stood, dropping Hector's face for favor of reaching into his cargo shorts and pulling out a syringe.
"This won't hurt, just like a bee sting." Too frozen with fear to move, Stephen easily slid the needle into Hector's jugular vein. The last thing that Hector saw before he lost consciousness was a look of pure glee upon his former supervisor's face, the face of someone who was just gifted exactly what they wanted for christmas. It was a funny sight, considering the circumstances. The sound of the man's insane laughing coaxed him into the coma-like state, never to return to himself again.

one person asked for this. I hope whoever finds this enjoys it. I sure had fun writing it.