[ WP ] For the last two years you have worked the graveyard shift at one of those 24 hour gas stations . On your breaks you lay on the hood of your car and check out the moon . Something is off tonight though . When you lay back and look up you see the Earth staring back at you !

`` Huh,'' I said finally. 
 
 The Earth shined back at me in response. 
 
 I took my phone out of my pocket and sent out a call. 
 
 `` What?'' Merle asked sleepily. 
 
 `` Go outside and look at the moon,'' I said. 
 
 `` No,'' Merle said and hung up. I redialed. 
 
 `` I'm serious man, I have to work tomorrow, stop fucking with me,'' Merle said. `` I'm not interested in finding out how high you are.'' 
 
 `` I'm not high,'' I said. `` Not since yesterday. Seriously dude, just step outside and look at the moon, I think I'm losing my fucking mind here.'' 
 
 `` For fuck's sake,'' Merle said, and I heard him moving. I continued watching the blue ball of Earth shine back at me. 
 
 `` It's the moon,'' Merle said. `` Fuck off and good night.'' 
 
 `` Are you absolutely sure it's not the earth looking back at you?'' I asked. 
 
 `` I'm shutting my phone off now. Go get some sleep and stop smoking pot at your job, I'm not letting you move in with me if you lose it.'' 
 
 `` I'm not-'' but the line went dead. I checked the time, 1:30 a.m. I sat up and went back into the store. I glanced once more up at the Earth before going in, and it was still there. I looked around, same Shop'N Rob on a lonely highway in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night in the middle of my lonely shift. 
 
 I closed the door behind me and walked behind the counter, taking my spot on my stool. I sat there, thinking about nothing I could vocalize, got up and stepped outside to check the sky again. The Earth looked back at me, almost smugly. I returned to my stool. I spun around on it and faced the security monitors, one showing a fullscreen image of whatever monitor I chose, the second showing the grainy feeds of the four other cameras. I rewound the feed to my last break, then fast forward, looking for... something. I was n't sure what. I saw tonight's only customer, an elderly man in a bowler hat and gray suit turn to look at the camera. That was a little weird, everybody usually ignores them unless they're planning on robbing the place. 
 
 Outside was a flash of headlights. I blinked at them and returned to the monitor, the older man gone. The doorbell chimed behind me and my eyes found the feed for the camera overlooking the counter. The shape where a customer should be was not a customer, but a dark, shapeless mass, I squinted, trying to make the low resolution of the camera sharpen, and static filled the feed. 
 
 `` I'm going to be really honest with you,'' a woman's voice said behind me. `` You really do n't want to turn around.'' 
 
 I licked my lips. `` What would I see if I did?'' I asked 
 
 `` Nothing ever again,'' the thing that spoke like a woman said, only now the sound was directly behind me, as if the speaker was a few inches from my ear, but I felt no breath. There was a feeling like the body heat of another very close to you, but that was n't quite right either. It was more like something was leaching the heat away from me. 
 
 `` Where am I?'' I asked, my voice cracking as I repressed a shiver. 
 
 `` It's best if you just tell yourself the truth,'' it said. `` You are in your little shop, working through your shift.'' 
 
 `` What do you want?'' I asked. *Anything*, I thought. *I'll fucking murder my mother if I can just go home right now. * 
 
 `` Maybe I wanted a new toy,'' it said playfully. `` Such an easy thing, to bring you to me.'' Something cold and dry and leathery slid across the back of my neck. 
 
 My eyes tried desperately to look through my skull, but my neck was locked tight, the old childhood defense of not looking at the scary thing. My eyes flicked to the edge of my peripheral vision, at the dull reflection in the window, seeing only me and... something shapeless but massive right behind me, something that draped itself over the counter and back out through the door. I tore my gaze away and back to the security monitor. I saw a figure there, in the camera feed that watched the back door of the shop. The old man, in his suit and tie and bowler hat, standing in the center of the camera and looking at the lens, cane in front of him. He raised a hand, put a finger to his lips, and made a hushing gesture. The feed flickered and he was gone. 
 
 `` I could show you the secrets of the universe,'' the thing behind me said. `` And you would then beg me to scoop out your mind.'' 
 
 `` Please, I'm just some schlub...'' I started, tears welling up. 
 
 `` Well, that did n't take much,'' it said. `` Hours ago, a man came in here. Tell me why. Tell me what he said.'' 
 
 `` He... he bought a pack of cigarettes,'' I said. `` That's all.'' 
 
 The cold, leathery thing was back, and it caressed my hair, feeling like a nest of spiders was crawling across my scalp. `` What did he say?'' 
 
 `` I do n't... I do n't remember,'' I said. `` Something about the weather, some bullshit like that.'' 
 
 `` Think hard,'' it said, tickling my ear now. 
 
 `` Uh, fuck, he said the moon was beautiful tonight!'' I shouted, the memory flooding back through me. 
 
 `` He said what!'' the thing shouted, the leathery thing freezing on my scalp. 
 
 `` I said,'' the old man's deep voice echoed through the building. `` The moon was particularly beautiful tonight.'' 
 
 Everything moved, like one sharp kick of an earthquake. The papers on the desk in front of me flew to the floor, the leathery thing disappeared and the cigarettes in their rack above my head fell out. A scream, the voice of the thing tore through the air, rising, gaining volume no human voice could echo. I clamped my hands over my ears to drown it out, but it reverberated through my flesh. The sound of meat smacking the floor and the scream stopped. 
 
 I sat, shivering on my stool, my ears ringing. I turned, slowly, terrified of what I would see. 
 
 The old man was there, on the other side of the counter, sucking the pad of his thumb like he was licking gravy from it. There was nothing else there, the racks of cheap snacks were askew and chips and candy bars littered the floor. 
 
 He smiled at me as he removed his thumb, tasting something on his lips. 
 
 `` Sorry about that,'' he said, and walked out the door, whistling a tune I had never heard. When my legs began to work again, I stepped out of the door, seeing no trace of the man, and looked up at the sky. The moon was back there, right where it should be.
