Criminal logo

Night-Shift

Or, It All Counts When the Till's Closed

By Gordon JusticePublished 3 years ago 6 min read
Like
Maybe Alex

Sean, behind the counter, gas-station night shift, was counting the drawer. He really hated this part of the job, but was well aware it would soon enough be over. His partner, Alex was lackadaisically leaning up against the counter usually made things interesting. This night however, he had been in a kind of subdued mope.

Alex was playing with a Rubik’s Cube he had brought along.

It was the midnight to six shift, and one of the good things about it was that most of those who came in were regulars. Alex and him knew them well by now. However in the steady flow, it was easier when Alex was more jocular.

There was the old lady who drove an old-lady car who usually came in right as the shift started. Though painfully slow in paying for her packs of Virginia Slims with the contents of her change purse (mostly nickels), she was one of the easier customers of the evening. Once Sean had rung her up, and she had paid, Alex, a gentleman as always, helped by holding the door. Of course she didn’t regard the gesture at all, but Sean appreciated Alex’s heart nonetheless.

Returning to where he was previously twisting his colored cube calmly, Alex gave Sean one of his trademark, heart-winning smiles. Of course they were horribly fake, as Alex’s genuine smile was somewhat awkward and sideways, but they were nice to look at.

“So…”, he said, “What are we doing after this?”

Rolling his eyes and losing count, Sean sighed, “I don’t know Alex, what would you like to do after work tonight?” The question was a nightly given, as was the response, and then the counter reply. It was almost like a game or inside joke at this point, but it did sometimes grow tiresome.

“Something truly evil!”

As the moppet haired puzzle solver finished this sentence, in walked customer two, a non-descript college student who only drank malt liquor and on occasion, should anyone else be in the store, inquired as to the possibility of scoring some pot. As Sean finished up with him, Alex continued his usual “Antichrist” routine.

“You know, like steal candy from a baby… or drive down the street and hit every bike-rider we see with a baseball bat…”

“Oh brilliant, you psycho, yeah, and get arrested while we’re at it… you know if I didn’t…”

The sentence was interrupted by the jingle of the entrance, and both men looked up.

This was no regular, Sean knew, as a hooded man entered. His heart skipped a beat. Even with Alex there for back up, new people made him very nervous. Sean eyed him wandering the aisles too idly to actually be taking in the items or to know what he was looking for, and then stared him down as he approached the register.“May I help you?” Sean said, friendly as possible while closing the register, just in case.

“Yeah”, said the man, his face obscured half by the hood and half by its shadow. “I need you to…” A knife flashed. “…Give me the money…”

Trying to remain calm in the suddenly sticky situation, Sean glanced at Alex, who for his part had set down the Rubik’s Cube, but was otherwise showing no indication of action. It seemed the hood the man wore obscured Alex from his view. Best to keep it that way..

“OK. I don’t want any trouble.” His hand went to reopen the register.“

Wait. But first, let me see your hands!” the robber demanded.

“Of course.” Sean mumbled, lifting both hands to show that there was nothing to be hidden from the robber.

“Ok, good. Now hurry it up!” His eyes were flashing back and forth around the store. Sean looked down to get the money together, and so was unaware of the events around him for a moment. A second later though, the robber must have noticed for the first time that someone else was in the station. He spoke, addressing Alex.

“And you, pretty boy” he said, “I don’t want any trouble from…”

There was an ear piercing pop, and a rush of damp air.

“God damn it!” Sean yelled. “Was that completely necessary?” He wiped his face.

“What?” said Alex innocently, lowering the double barreled shotgun from his shoulder.

“You know what!” Sean was flicking his hands off trying to remove some grey matter and blood, “The heavy artillery! You know it’s all over the money now, not to mention my uniform.” He peered over the counter to see the body of the robber, but found he had to look a number of feet to the side. The blast had moved the man quite a distance, in addition to removing his head in almost every direction.

“So much for an easy night.” Sean groaned, and tripled his previous pace. “The take’s going to be less now too you know…” He could feel Alex’s shrug. “Well, the least you can do is put the body away, though little good it’ll do now…”

Obediently, Alex went over to the body, kicked it lightly a few times, and then grabbing it by the foot began dragging it towards the back of the store.

By the time he had returned, Sean was done counting and was about to stuff the money into the duffle bag that he had been keeping at his feet, soggy long before Alex’s bit of fun from ten minutes of soaking in the cashier’s pooling blood.

“So, we ready or what?” he said. Then, remembering his toy, he went over and picked up the cube which at some point had fallen in a separate pool of ichors. He laughed shortly. Sean looked up to see the rare and lopsided genuine smile of his partner, one hand holding up the cube. It was completely red.

“Guess it’s solved!” Alex said, and laughed again before tossing it over his shoulder.

Finally done, Sean wondered to himself why all the cute ones had to be such stupid psychopaths. He jerked his head indicating they could leave now. As they traversed the slippery entranceway, Alex, apparently noticing that Sean was a bit upset with him, tried to smooth things over, “ Come on teddy-bear, night-work… it’s so damn complicated, not to mention boring… I just thought I’d liven it up a bit.”

As they went out the front door, and he received no answer, he went on, “I know you told me to use the pistol for minor problems this time, and the shotgun only in emergencies, but I just couldn’t help myself…”

No reply.

“I mean, you got the fun of killing the clerk the old hag, AND the college kid, all I got was the stupid manager. Then I always had to do the heavy lifting of dragging the body back. You kill one, I drag the body back, you kill one, I drag the body back…” He was whining now a little bit. “I just wanted my fair share of the fun.”

Using the manager’s bloody key, Sean locked up behind them. Then, as he was about to chastise Alex for the millionth time that it wasn’t about the slaughter, but the money, he turned to Alex and saw the pouting look on his face. Much as he tried to remain angry, the expression on the face of his cold-blooded killer room-mate was too much for him, and he broke.

“All right, you win… I guess I was hogging all the fun stuff…”

“Yeah, and now that we’re out early, we can get another job done by day break!” There was a new skip in his step as he followed Sean to the cashier’s car that they were for the time commandeering.

“I don’t know…” Sean said, only half hesitantly as he turned the ignition. “Two in one night?”

“We can do it!” Alex almost exclaimed, now excited like he usually only got when Sean let him convince them to do a home invasion. “This time I’ll lead, and you can act the customer…”

"You know", Sean said. "I like this."

"Every cent counts when pocketing the till."

"Whatever the case," Sean looked lovingly over to Alex, "the numbers just work."

fact or fiction
Like

About the Creator

Gordon Justice

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.