Sinister Stories

Double locks in the petrol station

"And the manager will come at ten to the hour to help lock up and to walk you back to the main store."

"So what do I do until then?" 

"Well once the door is locked, fill shelves, clean and make sure that no one fills up anything they shouldn't. Wrong containers, incorrectly labelled ones or if any underage teens try to."

"Right. And if they do?"

"There's an arm option on the til which stops anything coming out the pumps."

"Alright. Got it."

"Okay. I'll wait just outside the door when I go to make sure that you've locked it."

"I think I'm capable of locking a door."

"Well there's two keys for the door now. The store fob lock won't matter until the manager is down, he'll sort that. Do you want me to show you how to lock the door?"

"No, I'll manage."

"You must make sure it's done properly. Why don't I just show you to be safe?" 

"Jesus christ woman I know how to lock a door. Two keys just means two locks I've got it. Why are you being so condescending?" 

"It's not that I don't think you are capable. It's just that after the incident a few years back-"

"What incident?" 

"You haven't heard?" 

"Well, I don't normally work down in petrol so no."

"How long have you worked for the store?"

"A year. Why? How is that related?"

"It was all over the news."

"What was?"

"The reason why everyone refuses to be down here til midnight."

"Go on then if it's clearly so important."

"In the spring, five years ago now, there was a tragic incident which happened to one of the women who worked in the petrol station. 

She went to work that afternoon at three. The woman on shift with her left at eight. They spoke about leaving all the shelves to be filled for after eight so that the worker could have something to do even if it was only for the first hour or so when the other one left. 

As usual there wasn't too much to go out. 

Mainly just pop and a few sandwiches. So when it came to eight, the lady who stayed locked the door. At the time, there was only one lock on the door and it wouldn't have made any alarm sounds if someone tried to push it in. Still, it locked and both women checked it. From the outside of the door the other colleague waved goodbye and said that she would see her the following week when they were both back in together. 

The first thing that she did, as she did on every midnight shift was to make herself a drink. So she went into the back and boiled the kettle. While waiting, she went back to the front of the store and took photos of the shelves that needed filling so that she knew what to bring out from the back. 

Having made her drink, she scanned the staff fridge. Taking from it one of the colleague sandwiches to eat. Leaving one half in the packet on the table in the back, she began facing up the sweets and chocolate as she ate the first half. 

Little did she know that she would never get the chance to eat the other half of her sandwich. 

Her drink, that stupid peppermint tea, it too would remain unfinished.