"What the...?" I muttered, standing in front of the mirror and staring at my neck in disbelief. The claw marks that had been there the previous night were gone—completely vanished, as if they'd never existed in the first place.
My fingers grazed over the skin, searching for any trace of the pain I'd felt or the scratches Kristoff had mentioned. But there was nothing. No tenderness, no scabs—just smooth skin.
Had it all been a dream? No. I distinctly remembered Kristoff's serious face, his warning, and the way he had told me to treat the wounds. That hadn't been my imagination. But now, standing here in broad daylight, it felt surreal.
I frowned, turning my head from side to side, trying to make sense of it. "This is weird," I murmured, pressing my fingers into the spot where the claw marks had been, half-expecting something to happen.
I decided to ignore the strange disappearance of the marks for now and went on with my day. Heading into the kitchen, I made myself a quick, late breakfast—just some toast and scrambled eggs. My mind was still buzzing with questions, but I pushed them aside. Whatever happened at the convenience store, I had other things to focus on.
After eating, I wandered over to Nasha's room. She was probably in the middle of one of her streaming sessions or lost in a game, but I needed to borrow her PC for a quick search. Knocking lightly on her door, I waited for her reply.
"Come in," she said in her usual cool tone.
I poked my head inside and saw her leaning back in her chair, her dual monitors flashing with game stats. "Hey, Nasha, can I borrow your PC for a sec? I need to search for something."
She tilted her head slightly, looking at me with mild curiosity. "What are you searching for?"
"Nothing major."
She shrugged and pointed to her secondary monitor. "Go ahead, I'm not using that one right now."
I thanked her and sat down at her desk. As I pulled up a browser, I hesitated for a moment, unsure what exactly I was looking for. I typed "888 Convenience Store haunted" into the search bar, feeling a bit ridiculous, but after everything that had happened, it didn't seem so far-fetched anymore.
A list of results popped up, and as I clicked through the pages, strange stories and rumors began to surface—mentions of eerie occurrences, unexplained disappearances, and, of course, ghost sightings.
I randomly clicked one of the pages and as I scrolled through the page, a flood of comments and personal accounts poured in—most of them seemed exaggerated or downright bizarre.
But among all the chatter, one thread stood out to me, almost as if it was highlighted by fate:
"I used to work at night at the 888 Convenience Store, A young woman would always arrive there exactly 12 AM. I developed a crush the first time I saw her since she looked so pretty even though she's not wearing makeup. I would watch her for a few minutes and she would only roam around the store and leave without buying anything. I was a little disappointed because I at least wanted to have a little chat with her. Since she would arrive exactly at 12 AM I began to get suspicious of her, every time I would approach her to ask if she has trouble finding anything, she would only leave. Then one night, I had a bad premonition about her, she would always stare at the ropes and a bucket. The woman I had a crush on finally bought those to the cash register. Upon closer look at her, she looked so pale. 'This is bad, why did she order only these two?' I said in my head. I wanted to ask her what she would do at those but she left. Something didn't sit right with me so I left the store and chased her. I don't care if I would get fired, all I thought about is that I need to stop her from whatever she's gonna do. I caught a glimpse of her entering the woods, I yelled at her to stop but she ignored me. I followed her inside the woods, I don't know how long was I in there but I didn't stop searching for her. I was exhausted, I sat down on one of the tree and was about to call for help when something fell from above. I froze when I saw a black high heel in front of me—it matched the ones she was always wearing. When I looked up, I stared straight at her bloodied eyes, her clothes were torn and old, blood was dripping all over her body. Maybe because of exhaustion or from the terror I was feeling, I lost consciousness but the last thing I heard was, "Thank you for finally finding me."
The username was just "User656873426" and it was posted 3 years ago. There were 1000+ replies beneath the original post but one comment caught my eye.
JustRyuk12: This is is true. It was even shown on television. According to the reports, she didn't commit suicide instead she was raped and only disguised it as a suicide.
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Another comment caught my eye, this one from a user named Depressed44:
"Actually, I dropped by the convenience store there the other day. I was with my friend, who has a knack of seeing supernatural beings saw something and said to me, "A slit-necked man was outside the store, and he was looking through the window at the female clerk inside. There are so many of them in and out of those places.'"
▼697 replies
I quickly closed the website, clicking the X in the top right corner. My heart raced, and I felt a slight chill from reading all that. What was the point of seeing such things? I didn't even know these people, and they could say whatever they wanted online. Trusting faceless commenters on the internet was foolish. How did I let myself get sucked into reading all that?
Taking a deep breath, I tried to shake off the unease that had settled over me. It was easy to get caught up in spooky stories and rumors, especially when I was already feeling paranoid from working the night shift. But the rational part of me knew better. There was no point in getting worked up over baseless claims.
"Why did I even waste time on that?" I muttered, leaning back in my chair. The idea of ghosts and strange presences haunting the store was ridiculous… wasn't it?
Nasha glanced over at me, her expression curious. "Find anything useful?"
I shook my head. "Just a bunch of nonsense. Nothing worth taking seriously."
I thanked Nasha for letting me use the computer and stepped outside her room, the strange thoughts still swirling in the back of my mind. Shaking my head to clear them, I made my way back to my room.
Climbing into bed, I pulled the covers up and closed my eyes, forcing myself to relax. 'Just a few hours of sleep to gather energy for later,' I reminded myself. The faint hum of the city outside eventually faded into the background, and before long, exhaustion won over my restless thoughts, and I drifted off into a dreamless sleep.