3 Scary TRUE Night Shift Horror Stories
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#Horror #Story #Stories #Scary #Ghost # Haunted #Fright #Nightmare #Real #True #Paranormal
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00:00My name is Cadence. I work the closing shift at a small dive bar in the quieter part of my town.
00:16The place is right off the highway, but the parking lot also has a back entrance that's
00:21available to the general town. It's nothing fancy, just a dimly lit spot where the regulars
00:26know each other by name, and the jukebox has been playing the same rotation of classic
00:31rock for years. Most of our customers are locals, truckers passing through, and the occasional
00:36lost tourist looking for a stiff drink. I like it though. The routine is predictable,
00:42the tips are surprisingly decent, and I've learned how to handle the usual bar crowd.
00:47The talkers, the flirters, the quiet drinkers, and the ones who just want to be left alone.
00:52Weekends are obviously a lot more hectic, but the thing about working during the week is that
00:57I'm expected to work my night shifts alone. I don't even get a bar back to pop in now and again.
01:02Yeah, it's obviously easier work and slower during the week, but I miss the company of my co-workers.
01:08I tend to be pretty vigilant during my shifts because we do get the occasional bar fight
01:13considering the kinds of crowds we attract. That's why I clocked the guy immediately.
01:17It was sometime after 1 in the morning on a Tuesday when he walked in.
01:23If I had to guess, I'd say he was in his late 40s, but he was extremely clean cut and well-groomed,
01:29not the kind of look you'd expect from a guy his age in an area like this.
01:33He was wearing a black turtleneck underneath a black trench coat, definitely well-dressed,
01:38but casual about it. I'm not sure how to explain it, but he had this aura of sophistication about
01:44him that makes you think of money, real money, not the loud look-at-me kind. He glanced around
01:51slowly before walking swiftly over to the bar and taking a seat. I also remember him having
01:56oddly good posture, but that's neither here nor there. When I walked over, he glanced at the
02:02bottles behind me and ordered something top-shelf without hesitation. As I was pouring his drink,
02:08he asked me if I liked working here with a smile on his face. It was a normal enough question,
02:13so I answered him honestly. I told him yeah and smiled back. I then made a joke about being a
02:20bartender or something. I wish I could say I got a creepy vibe from him, but that's not the energy
02:25he was giving off. He genuinely seemed like a stand-up guy, kind of like the single dad at his
02:31kid's baseball game that gives the whole team a high-five. He chatted with me for a bit, which I
02:37didn't mind since the bar was pretty quiet at that point. Eventually, he asked me if I ever thought
02:42about doing something bigger, which I admit was somewhat bizarre. Again, though, not a totally
02:48creepy question given the nature of the situation. I gave him my standard bartender smile and told him
02:54I was happy for now. He nodded and sipped his drink, seemingly disappointed at my answer for
03:00reasons I didn't understand. After a long pause, he asked me what time I got off out of nowhere.
03:06That question surprised me. I hadn't picked up any kind of flirting from him whatsoever,
03:12so I was a little disappointed to discover that our conversation had just been another one of those
03:16empty attempts at getting my number. I smiled and gave him a vague answer, trying to brush him off
03:23in a friendly way without seeming uptight. Before he could answer, I busied myself and began wiping down
03:29the counter, but he didn't press. He just smiled like he already knew, then drained his drink and
03:35pulled out a crisp $100 bill, laying it gently on the bar like it was nothing. Then, without another
03:41word, he walked out into the night. I didn't really know what to make of the encounter. I know it sounds
03:47like nothing, but his demeanor was just so far off my radar that I was intrigued. Either way, I figured I
03:54was never going to see him again and got on with my life. As it would turn out, though, I was wrong.
04:00About a week later, he came back. Only this time, he wasn't alone. There was a woman with him.
04:08She drew my attention since I hadn't seen her before. She looked like she was in her mid-30s and
04:14was dressed in a way that didn't quite match her age. Trendy, but off, like someone trying a little
04:20too hard to blend in with a younger crowd. I watched her closely as the two of them approached
04:25the bar. Everything about her seemed calculated, from the way she smiled too easily to the way she
04:31leaned against the bar like we were already friends. As I was setting down napkins in front of them,
04:37the very first thing she said to me wasn't a hello or a drink order, but a compliment. She put on this
04:43overly joyful smile and said, you're so pretty. Her fingers brushed against my arm as she said it,
04:49lingering just a second longer than normal. I laughed and thanked her, but I could instantly
04:54tell that something was off about this woman. The man didn't speak, which I thought was also
05:00a little strange given that he had been so talkative last time. They ordered drinks and
05:05poured them, and that's when questions came flooding in. The woman asked me how long I'd been working
05:10here, along with how old I was and a bunch of other small talk questions like that. I answered in
05:16short, polite sentences, but I got the sense that this wasn't small talk. She was studying me.
05:22At one point, she looked over at the man, and it seemed like they were communicating despite not
05:27speaking. She looked back at me and told me that she ran an exclusive event club. She leaned in a bit
05:34as she said it, lowering her voice as if to prevent her being overheard by another patron. She told me that
05:41she's always looking for young, fun people for private parties, and that I'd make a killing.
05:46Ten grand for a weekend. I let out a small, forced laugh, and told her it sounded too good to be true.
05:53She insisted that it was real, and told me that a bunch of girls like me worked for them.
05:58Her smile never faltered at any moment, which was starting to creep me out.
06:02She steered the conversation back to the job, circling around the same words,
06:08fun, safe, exclusive. Then, casually, she said,
06:13you should step outside for a second. There's someone who can explain it better.
06:18My pulse kicked up. I wasn't playing around at that point. I didn't even bother pretending like
06:23I wasn't creeped out. I'm good, I said in a firm voice. No smile on my face this time.
06:30Just then, a group of customers walked in, laughing and talking loudly. The woman's
06:36expression changed in an instant, her friendly mask slipping just slightly before she turned
06:41to the man beside her. Without another word, they left. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't
06:48unsettled after that. Those random people had just propositioned me for god knows what.
06:54I told my co-workers and my boss about the situation, and we all agreed to keep an eye out
06:59should those people return. My boss assured me that he was always a 15-minute drive away should
07:04I need him, and the bar's security cameras were typically enough to deter any misbehavior.
07:10There wasn't really much I could do beyond that. It's not like those people had done anything
07:14illegal. I tried to push it out of my head, but a few nights later, after closing, I saw the car.
07:21It was parked across the street, engine off, just sitting there. I tried to tell myself it was
07:28nothing, but the feeling of being watched crawled over my skin like static. As I walked to my car,
07:34I kept my head down, my keys clutched tight in my hand. When I pulled out of the lot,
07:40I checked my mirrors. The car followed. It stayed back just enough to avoid suspicion,
07:46but every turn I made, it was still there. I took a random turn onto a side street,
07:52and it followed. Another, still there. I started freaking out internally. I knew it was then.
08:00I forced myself to stay calm, to think. Then, without hesitating, I navigated and pulled into
08:07the parking lot of a police station, gripping the wheel so tightly my knuckles practically turned white.
08:12The second I pulled in, the car sped off. Nothing happened after that for a while,
08:19but I knew it wasn't over. It turned out I was right. It was a slow weekday shift,
08:26barely anyone coming in. By midnight, I was wiping down the counter, half thinking about closing early,
08:32when the door creaked open. It was the woman. I immediately sent my boss a text as inconspicuously
08:39as I possibly could. I looked back up, and the woman was staring at me with that same artificial
08:45smile. She walked slowly to the bar and sat down with her hands folded neatly. I was debating just
08:52telling her to leave, when she said, thought I'd come check on you. My stomach started twisting,
08:58but I did my best to hide it. I told her we were about to close and that she had to leave,
09:03but she made this pouty face and asked for just one old-fashioned. I thought about denying her,
09:09but I figured pouring the drink would stall her long enough for my boss to arrive.
09:13So I turned around and got started, trying to keep my cool. And then I heard it. The soft,
09:20unmistakable click of the front door shutting. I whipped around. The woman was gone. I felt this
09:28awful pit in my stomach as I stepped toward the entrance. Through the glass, I saw it. A black van
09:35idling just outside. Without thinking, I locked the door as quickly as I could. But then, metal
09:43rattling from the back door. Someone was trying to get in. I didn't think. I grabbed the heaviest
09:49thing I could, a metal shaker, and clutched it like a weapon as I dialed 911 with my other hand.
09:55There was no way the police would get there in time, so I thought about making a run for it out
10:00the front door, but I didn't for whatever reason. I was bracing myself for a fight when I saw headlights
10:06pulling into the lot. It was my boss. The sounds on the back door suddenly stopped, and a few seconds
10:11later, the van pulled out of the lot with a screech. I embraced my boss and told him what had happened,
10:18and he said he had gotten the license plate of the van as it was leaving. When the cops arrived,
10:23my boss reviewed the security footage with them. It was worse than I had imagined.
10:28Just before the woman left, the cameras had captured two masked figures crouching near the
10:33front door, waiting. There was another person in the back who was banging on the door with his fist,
10:39clearly trying to flush me out to the front. It was downright horrifying.
10:43To make matters worse, the plate number my boss had caught turned out to be unregistered.
10:48It's been quite a while since this incident, but no progress has been made. The only good news to
10:55come out of the whole thing is that my boss doesn't make me work alone anymore. Despite that, I'm still
11:01extremely uneasy any time I'm scheduled for a night shift. I still question how they knew I'd be
11:06working alone. It doesn't make any sense. Even now, I often think about what would have happened
11:12had I given it to fear and run out the front door.
11:25I used to work the night shift at a gas station slash convenience store off a quiet stretch of
11:30highway. I say used to because after what happened to me a few months ago, I won't work a night shift
11:36again. It's a small station, the kind that barely gets any business once it gets late. Most of my
11:43shift was spent restocking shelves, wiping down counters, and occasionally ringing up a trucker or
11:48traveler passing through. I remember the whole thing vividly. It was just past 2.30 in the morning.
11:55By then, even the truckers had mostly dried up, and I was left with basically nothing to do.
12:00I scrolled mindlessly on my phone, trying to kill some time. At one point, I stepped outside for
12:07some air, rubbing my hands together against the cold. I exhaled a few times, watching my breath
12:13disappear in the cold. The parking lot was empty, just the pumps, the road, and the dark stretch of
12:19trees beyond. The neon sign flickered faintly, and I remember it being hazy out, like you could
12:25literally see the moisture in the air. Even with the highway not too far off, it was pretty silent
12:31out there. Right as I was about to walk back towards the store, I noticed something move out
12:37of the corner of my eye. I whipped my head around, and realized there was a person standing behind
12:42one of the pumps. How had I not noticed him earlier? He was wearing a dark red hoodie with a
12:48hood up, and he had both hands shoved in his pockets. There wasn't a car in sight, so he obviously
12:54wasn't fueling up. The only thing was, he didn't seem to be heading towards the store either.
13:00He was just standing there, half turned toward the store like he was watching me.
13:05At first, I figured maybe he was waiting for someone, but something about the way he moved
13:10rubbed me the wrong way. He was kind of shuffling about in this circular pattern.
13:15I entered the store, but made sure to keep an eye on him through the glass.
13:19I kept track of him while pretending not to, hoping someone would drive up and pick him
13:24up or something. But after a few minutes, he started walking toward the door, slow at
13:30first, then suddenly pushing inside like he'd made up his mind all at once. He walked up
13:35to the counter, but didn't say anything right away, just stared at me like he was sizing me
13:40up.
13:40Then, in a rushed, almost rehearsed way, he muttered that his car had broken down just
13:46before the pumps. He said he needed a jump or maybe just a little gas to get to the next
13:52town. I was literally shocked. He wasn't even trying to make his story believable. Like
13:58I couldn't believe he actually expected me to buy his BS story. I offered to call a tow truck
14:04instead.
14:05No, no, he said, too quick, shaking his head. He just needed a flashlight, maybe some help
14:11checking under the hood. Something was definitely off, that much was true. The way he spoke, the
14:17way he watched my reaction, it felt like a test. To be fair though, people walking into gas stations
14:24at that hour are usually a little strange, and I started wondering whether he actually
14:28needed help and was just an odd person or on something. I asked him where his car was parked,
14:35and he told me it was just beyond the highway entrance. I was obviously skeptical, but then
14:40he pointed at the monitor behind me. I turned to look at the screen, and to my surprise, there
14:46actually was a car parked out there. I thought to myself, oh crap, maybe this guy really does
14:52need help. And that's when it hit me. I had literally just been outside, and I would have
14:57remembered a car parked out there. I glanced back at the monitor, and saw the slightest
15:02movement near the car's back bumper. Someone was crouching just out of view. A cold wave
15:08of dread hit me. I forced a casual smile and agreed to help the guy, but not before telling
15:14him I needed to grab my phone from the back office. I turned slowly, not wanting to spook
15:20him. But the second I was out of his direct sight, I slammed my hand onto the emergency panic button
15:26under the counter. The alarm went off instantly, screeching through the store. I expected him to
15:32attack me, but what he did instead was even more unsettling. His nervous energy disappeared. No more
15:39fake urgency, no more shifting from foot to foot. He actually relaxed. His whole body language shifted,
15:46and then he smiled. Not a panicked smile, not an embarrassed one either. A slow, knowing grin,
15:54like he had all the time in the world. Like this was amusing to him. I was in shock. I didn't even
16:00have time to get physical with him. In one fluid motion, he turned and bolted. I ran to the monitors
16:07just in time to see both of them take off. Not toward the car, but into the woods behind the station.
16:13The car just sat there. Engine off, headlights off. No one inside. By the time the police arrived,
16:21it was exactly as I saw it. The car was still there, but the men were gone. No footprints leading
16:27away, no sign of them anywhere. And then one of the officers pointed something out. Something I hadn't
16:34noticed before. The front passenger door was open. There had been a third person inside the whole time.
16:40The police took my statement down, I turned over the surveillance footage, and that was that.
16:47A few days later, they followed up with me. They had the car towed and ran the plates.
16:53Turned out, it had been reported stolen nearly a week earlier, over a hundred miles away. No one had
16:59come forward to claim it. No reports of missing persons. No other crimes linked to it. Just an abandoned
17:06vehicle in the middle of nowhere with no explanation. That was months ago and still nothing. I don't know
17:12why convenience stores are such popular targets, but I can say for sure that I will never work
17:17another night shift again. This happened a couple weeks ago. I worked the night shift at Walmart.
17:33It's not the worst job in the world, but after a while, it starts to feel like you're just floating
17:37through time. The nights blend together. Same shelves, same routine, same dull hum of the overhead
17:44lights. Hopefully something better comes along. I usually hang out in and stock the electronics
17:50section, which is nice because it's quieter than the other areas. People don't exactly come rushing
17:56in at 2am to buy phone chargers and bluetooth speakers. Most of the customers are either night
18:02owls killing time or truckers grabbing last minute supplies before heading back on the road.
18:07That's why I noticed him. At first, I didn't think much of it. Just another guy wandering the aisles,
18:14probably waiting for someone. But after a few minutes, I realized he wasn't shopping. He wasn't
18:21even pretending to. He just kept appearing. Every time I glanced up, he was lingering nearby, hovering in
18:28the next aisle over or standing a little too still by the clearance section. He wasn't looking at
18:34anything. He was just standing there, watching me. I told myself I was overthinking it. The store is
18:40big and maybe he was just taking his time. But the way he moved, always just close enough for me to
18:46notice, never actually picking anything up, it set something deep in my gut on edge. I was waiting for
18:54him to just get on with it and ask for my number, but he never approached me. It was like he wanted me
18:59to see him, which didn't make any sense to me. I went to radio someone about it, but realized that
19:05the batteries in my radio must have been dead because it wasn't working. Eventually, I started
19:10debating whether I should go find a manager when I felt a hand wrap around my arm. I nearly jumped
19:16out of my skin, but before I could react, a woman's voice rang out loud, friendly, overly familiar.
19:24She exclaimed, there you are, before going on a little spiel about how she had been looking all over
19:28for me. I turned, completely thrown off, and saw a woman I had never seen before in my life.
19:36She was smiling, her grip firm on my arm, like we were old friends reuniting. Before I could say
19:42anything, she leaned in and whispered, her tone dropping to something low and urgent.
19:48That guy's been recording you. Follow me. My stomach dropped. I turned my head slightly, just enough to
19:56glance back. The man was still there, only now, he wasn't even pretending to browse. He was staring
20:03right at me. A cold wave of fear crept over me. I let her pull me. I didn't even question it.
20:11The way she grabbed my arm, the way she spoke so loud and casually, like we were two old friends
20:16reuniting. I clung to it. I was beyond grateful that someone had realized what was going on and put
20:22herself in an uncomfortable position just to help me. She kept up the act as we walked, rambling about
20:29something, maybe a trip she had taken, maybe an inside joke we supposedly shared. I barely processed
20:35the words. My thoughts were stuck on him. Had he really been recording me? That was creepy as hell.
20:42I wanted to know if he was still following us, but I couldn't muster the courage to turn around just
20:48yet. The woman steered me through the aisles, moving fast. I barely noticed where we were going,
20:54only that we were going, that the distance between me and that man was growing. In all honesty,
21:01I was kind of expecting her to quit the pretending to know me at some point, but she kept it up.
21:06At one point, it was getting a little uncomfortable, so I glanced behind me, and to my relief,
21:11that man was no longer following. The woman kept pulling me forward, though. I told her that we
21:17were good now, and that we should probably go find my manager, but she just squeezed my arm tighter,
21:22telling me that he was lurking somewhere. I thought to myself, so what? What's he going to do in a store
21:28full of employees? I was obviously worried at first, because no one was around, but now that I wasn't
21:34alone, I started realizing that there wasn't much of a point in being scared anymore. I told her this,
21:40but she continued moving. I told her I was serious and planted my feet, twisting my arm slightly to
21:47loosen her grip. You can let go now, I said, but she didn't. She smiled at me, but something in it
21:54was off. Come on, just a little further, she said, basically tugging me at that point. I glanced around.
22:01The store was basically dead. We had moved past the registers, past the self-checkout,
22:07past the aisles that saw the most foot traffic. The warehouse section loomed ahead, dimly lit and
22:13nearly empty. Beyond that was the side exit, the one without cameras, the one employees used for
22:20loading shipments. That's when it dawned on me. She was leading me straight to the exit.
22:26I didn't think. I screamed for help as I yanked my arm free of her grasp with all my might.
22:32She lost her grip just enough for me to pull free. I didn't waste another second. I turned and ran
22:39toward the front of the store. As I fled, she yelled out something behind me. She yelled for me
22:46to come back, followed by my name, which I hadn't given her. I kept running until I saw one of my
22:52coworkers who was running toward me, most likely reacting to my screaming. I told him to call security,
22:58which he promptly did. That woman was long gone though. By the time I told my story to the security
23:05guards, that woman and that man were nowhere in sight. They reviewed the security footage,
23:11and just as I suspected, the woman and man walked into the store together. She had been with him the
23:17entire time. The man's face was clear as day in one of the frames, but hers was always turned away.
23:23I had a feeling she was the mastermind behind the whole thing, so I was infuriated that the
23:29cameras hadn't picked her face up. Every second of it had been planned. The police got involved,
23:36and the whole thing went down as a failed abduction attempt. I'm still waiting for a resolution about
23:41it. That man should definitely be easy to track down given his face was caught on camera.
23:47I have no idea how that woman knew my name. That's what terrifies me the most.
23:51Those people hadn't just picked me at random. I was a direct target.
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