Horror webnovel: I started working the night shift at a convenience store (Ch.2 pt3)

-

 I started working the night shift at a convenience store (Ch.2 pt3)



Chapter 2: Aoyama, Hirai, and Takenaka. (pt.3)

That same feeling again... it felt just the same as last time.

I shifted my gaze towards the glass wall. There was nothing there. No one. Nothing but pitch black night. It was as if my eyes had been drawn there. As if I could sense someone was looking at me.
Truth be told, saying I felt like someone was watching my every move might have been more accurate. For some reason I could feel someone's gaze weighing on me, and every time that happened the same part of my head would start pounding.

I had only recently made the change from a diurnal lifetsyle to a nocturnal one. Could it be that my body was already failing me?

As I mulled these thoughts over, the doors opened.

Oh... A customer must have been right around the corner, or so my guts told me.
And just like last time, the doors had opened on their own, even though there was no trace of anyone nearby.

"Welcome—"

This reaction was bred-in-the-bone, like some sort of Pavlovian reflex.  I'd been taught to say it, so I would say it.

But... Strangely enough, the store should have been empty save for me, yet I could still feel a faint presence in the air.
Something else was here with me, and that something was making its way through the store. 

Then, I felt as if it had just stopped right in front of me.
It was close, really close. It felt like—

"Urgh— ! Aah—"

I was in front of the counter when my entire body suddenly stiffened.

My neck... it hurt, it hurt so much.
I started choking. I couldn't breathe.
In the blink of an eye, my breath had been taken away from me.

"Wha— urgh!"

I was gasping for air. I really wanted to try to take a deep breath, but knew I'd be better off trying to do so.

But it hurt so much.

As if someone was wringing my throat with all their might, as if they were tightening their grip around it.

"Wh-What's going on?! What's happening to me?" I thought to myself. Coughing my lungs out didn't help in the slightest either. I could feel cold beads of sweat running down my nape.
"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?! WHAT'S HAPPENING?!" I thought. My mind was in a frenzy. I couldn't breathe, but I needed to! I couldn't think straight anymore—
I couldn't make sense of anything. I just knew that I was shaking, a lot. More than I thought was possible.

"Argh— *gasp*..."

A faint voice left my lips. Just that hurt so much. 
Deprived of oxygen my mind eventually started fading to black... 

"Ah... So that's what losing consciousness feels like?"
I thought to myself, right when I heard an all too familiar upbeat ring, in total contrast with what was happening to me. 

The automatic doors had opened once again. I saw a girl enter the store. She had big eyes, and long hair. She was very small, and her face looked just like a kid's... yet she was smoking tobacco. 

"Urgh!"

A client just came in—

"Oh no! I can't even say a single word right now or move an inch... She's gonna think I'm some kind of weirdo!" I thought.

My mind was in turmoil as I tried my hardest to get even but a single word to come out. The girl made her way towards the counter, an innocent look on her face, eventually reaching me, a cigarette hanging between her lips.
She seized it with her fingers before blowing a huge puff of smoke my way, and then...

"Move it, you're in the way," she said.

She looked annoyed and was glaring somewhere around my neck.

The very moment she said this the pressure around my neck disappeared into thin air, and my body loosened up. 
I immediately placed my hands on the counter, taking deep breath after deep breath, again and again as if I had just ran for dear life.

Finally, oxygen was making its way into my lungs again. I could move my head around once more.

What was that...?

I was clueless, unable to make sense of what was what anymore. What had just happened to me...? I made recovering my breath the absolute priority. 

The girl made her way behind the counter, a determined look still coloring her face. I started panicking, trying to think of ways to explain what had just happened to me.

"Huh?!"

That's when it first hit me. Could she actually be...

"A-Are you Hirai, by any chance?"

Rather than answering my question, she turned to me, squinting her eyes, an unhappy look on her face.

"Scratches..."
"Excuse me?"
"You've got scratch marks on your neck."

Scratch marks...?

I'm not sure why, but hearing her say that sent shiver down my spine. My hands moved subconsciously to my neck. I could still feel the pain I had just gone through, and the hopelessness that came with it.

"Hey, rookie."
"Y-Yes?!"
"I wouldn't look over there too much if I were you," she said.

That girl I assumed to be Hirai took another puff from her cigarette and pointed at the glass wall with a swift movement of her chin.

"Some girl with bloodshot eyes is always looking this way, but if you cross her gaze too much she enters the store like just now, got it?"
she said, before entering the backroom. She didn't seem to care about any question or answer I may have had.

"..."

I was only getting more and more confused. A girl with blood shot eyes, watching this way from over there? And then entering the store?
No could do, I couldn't put two and two together.

What had just happened to me?

Just now, remembering that feeling of something moving through the store with a mind of its own had my hairs stand on end.

It wasn't something I could brush off easily...

"Seriously, what the hell was that..."

I wiped the sweat still beading on my forehead, nose, and face. My body wasn't shaking at all anymore, but just thinking back on what had just happened was enough to send shivers ripping through my spine.

That aside, Hirai is, like... She's like a thug! She's a bad girl!
She's got such an innocent-looking face, yet her eyes would remind anyone where they belong! She was late, and yet she entered the store smoking nonchalantly as if everything was normal. She looked kinda scary, like, just a bit.

I was fairly sure she could kick my ass anyday. 
Shivers made their way from my neck through my back.

Just as these thoughts crossed my mind, Hirai, a baby-faced thug left the backroom and joined me again behind the counter.

I hadn't noticed it earlier but... she sure was rocking a nice some boobs there! Her uniform was holding on for its life. 

A childlike face and big boobs... talk about a match made in heaven!

"Ah..."

I shifted my gaze to meet her eyes again.
Oh no... I couldn't just stay silent, I had to say something. 
The moment our eyes met I straightened up my back and assumed a more serious look.

But...

It wasn't anger that I could see in her eyes, and she wasn't throwing daggers at me either... she was nothing but smile.

"Sorry for being late! Teehee! ☆"

She stuck a teeny bit of her tongue out, slightly bumping her head with her hand. 

"..."

Whaaaaaaat?!

This is how Hirai and I first met.





See you next time, take care!

Source: https://kakuyomu.jp/works/1177354054880681711
Original author: 天野　アタル  (Ataru Amano)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Horror webnovel: I started working the night shift at a convenience store (Ch.2 pt1)

-
Image
I started working the night shift at a convenience store (Ch.2 pt1) Chapter 2: Aoyama, Hirai, and Takenaka. (pt.1) "Hey, wake up! It's already noon!" "Hnnng... tone it down!" I groaned, wrapping the futon around me, tossing and turning. "I said wake up, big bro!" God she's so loud... and what's with the shaking? Stop it. I was in a bliss and fast asleep only moments ago, but my little sister's annoying laugh, some clicking sound that wouldn't stop, and the deafening sound of a cicada that had somehow found its way to the balcony had snapped me wide awake. I had decided to sleep until 4PM. The thought of waking up did cross my mind, but I decided against it. I won't let this much change my plans. "Hey! Come on!" "Just cook yourself noodles if you're hungry and leave me alone." "Huh?" "Don't you 'huh?' me. Let me sleep some more, I need it." "Tsh, I swear you're lazy eve...
Read more

[Horreur Expresse (trad)] La chambre rouge:

-
Image
  La chambre rouge: C'est l'histoire d'un homme ayant quitté sa campagne pour s'installer à Tokyo dans le but de continuer ses études à l'université.  Il lui fallut s'adapter à cette nouvelle vie. Les heures devinrent des jours, les jours des semaines, et les semaines des mois. Quelques mois après s'être installé dans son nouvel appartement, il se rendit compte qu'il avait une voisine dans celui juste à coté du sien.   Il finissait toujours ses journées de travails tard le soir alors que l'horloge indiquait presque deux heure du matin, et, ces soirs là,  il croisait invariablement cette jeune voisine alors qu'il montait les escaliers jusqu'au deuxième étage, où l'attendait son appartement. Elle avait de longs cheveux, et une silhouette élancée, et bien qu'elle semblait quelque peu maussade, il était sûr qu'elle était de toute beauté. Il n'avait cependant jamais vu son visage, ce dernier faisant toujours face au sol. Un jour, i...
Read more

Horror webnovel: I started working the night shift at a convenience store (Ch.2 pt2)

-
Image
I started working the night shift at a convenience store (Ch.2 pt2) Chapter 2: Aoyama, Hirai, and Takenaka. (pt.2) From what I gathered listening to my sister, spirits came and went to the store. That much was fine. But some particularly strong or wicked spirits could also possess or haunt clients and workers alike, eroding their psyche in the process. Spending much time in a place oozing with such a negative aura would be a risky endeavor for psychics, let alone for your average joe. It could turn out horribly for them... or so the story went. "Turn out horribly? What's that mean?" "Like I'd know." She finished eating her caramel pudding, and turned around to face her computer again. "I don't have the slightest clue of what she meant. And no one really knows why but the surrounding woods seem to be the scene of tons of accidents every year. Just the other day, a motorcycle flew above the guardrail only to fall down a cliff. And that's not even ...
Read more