Six months before my trip in here, that's a year and two months ago in case you can't count, I worked at a Texaco outside of Yuma. Lets see that was around the beginning of March, so all the snow birds were still coming down from Utah and Colorado to spend some quality time at the lake and river in their fancy yachts. All I had seen that winter were tourists, but it was good for business. I was doing good, working full time and going to the Arizona Western College. Today I would've been on my last year to complete my B.S. in Criminal Justice. Now you're probably thinking how ironic all of this is, but life's like that sometimes. Anyway I always worked the afternoon shift since the weather would get cool in the evening and I got to go to school during the day. On one of those dark nights, a couple in a white van with Idaho on their plates pulls up to the pumps. The guy looked like a typical rich tourist, blonde with glasses, wearing a blue polo shirt and khaki shorts with a pair of white tennis shoes. The lady was a female imitation of the guy, except her blouse was white, probably to match her shoes. So they come in and start the "walk down every isle" bit looking for anything they would want to munch on while they were on their boat. I paid them no mind and continued to read some book.
Like any other counter person that knows his stuff, I knew right away when they finally decided to come up. They put down a big bag of Doritos, two sticks of beef jerky, and two big 24oz bottles of water. As I was ringing it all up when I happened to look into the guy's eyes. I saw a bright red where there was supposed to be blue, or green, or even brown. I did what any other person would, I ignored it. But it got harder when out of curiosity I looked the lady straight in the face and saw that her eyes had red in the irises too. Well, maybe I was imagining it all, I thought. But why were their eyes freakin' me out so much?
When I was done ringing it up, the guy said, "put another twenty on number five." I did and he paid cash. As they walked out with their food, I felt under the counter for the double barrel shotgun underneath. I've never used it, but it was always there just in case. Then what really hit me and made me do what I did next was the fact that besides the few things the guy said to me the store had been completely quiet the whole time they were inside. I had to find out if they were alright, so I walked out to see if maybe they wanted me to check the oil or their power steering fluid. I went around the van to the side facing the pump, the lady had already gotten inside. When I came around I was gonna ask the guy exactly what I had planned to ask him. I looked away from him so I wouldn't have to look at his eyes, and that's when I saw it on the darkened window. His reflection wasn't his, it was something that I can't even put down on paper, but it'll be in my nightmares for as long as I live. The thing was once human and I swear if I ever see it again so plainly, I'll shoot myself.
Instead of doing what I came to do, I went right back to the store and brought the shotgun out hidden behind me and came down to the van again. I got her from her side shattering the glass and blowing most of her head off. He went around and came straight at me with the most horrible look of hatred I've ever seen on a man. I almost froze, but I got that last shot into his narrow chest just before he reached for my neck. It just happened that Johnny, one of the sheriff's deputies, was driving in to get a cup of coffee at that moment. He got out of his cruiser with his six-shooter out, and before he even said a word I dropped the shotgun. The cop did his handcuff thing and put me in the back of his cruiser. But before he drove off with me as his trophy, another white van had stopped with another pair of tourists. Their eyes glowed red in the fading sunlight.
That's how I ended up here, tended by your tax dollars, and flushing them down the toilet too. I think maybe I'll just leave these pages hidden somewhere or toss them out my cell window. I hope that some normal person can find them and make sense of them soon, because I don't know what I'm gonna do now. I think that pretty soon I'll use my shoelaces for something else other than tying them. There's a night guard that's been coming around more often when I'm pretending to sleep. I saw the red in his eyes where there should be blue, green, or even brown
