The Night Shift At My Haunted Lodge

I stood outside the single room in Diobu with my small Ghana-must-go bag and stared at the rusted iron door. One room, a tiny kitchen that was just a concrete slab with a tap, and a bathroom with a cracked mirror that made my face look broken in two. Fifteen thousand naira a month. In this Port Harcourt where even a self-contain in Mile 1 is fifty thousand, that price was not a blessing. It was a warning. I should have turned back. "Are you sure nobody died here before?" I asked the caretaker. He was an old man with a bald head that shone with sweat even though the evening was cool. He didn't look at me. His eyes were fixed on the key as if the key itself was afraid. He pressed it into my palm. His hand was cold and sweaty. "My daughter, just take it," he whispered. "But remember two things. Don't make noise after 11pm. No music, no shouting. And second... if you hear someone knocking from inside your wardrobe, don't open it. No matter how much it knocks." I laughed. A short, nervous laugh. I thought he was trying to scare me because I was a young girl living alone. "Uncle, you are joking, abi?" He finally looked at me. His eyes were red. "I have buried three tenants from this room," he said. "All girls like you. All looking for cheap rent." My blood ran cold. But my phone rang. It was my mother. Her cough from the other side was getting worse. Her drugs for this month were twelve thousand. My former sales girl job had just ended. I needed this cheap room and I needed a job today. I collected the key. That same day, I had gotten a night shift job at Daily Fresh Supermarket in GRA. It is a big 24-hour supermarket for rich people. The pay was thirty-five thousand naira for night shift alone, 8pm to 5am. For me, that was a miracle. It meant I could pay for my mother's drugs, pay this cheap rent, and still have small money to eat. I arrived at the supermarket at 7:40pm. The manager, Mr. Tunde, was a fat man who smiled too much. "Amara, you are a pretty girl, you will do well here," he said, showing me around. "Night shift is quiet. Just arrange the goods, stay at the counter, and watch the CCTV." Then his smile disappeared. "But there are two rules here too," he said. His voice dropped low. "Rule one: Don't eat anything from the shelf without paying, even if you are hungry and even if it's small. Rule two is more important." He pointed at the four small CCTV screens behind the counter. Cameras 1, 2, 3 showed normal things — the entrance, the drinks aisle, the back store. Camera 4 showed the Halloween aisle. It was full of white costumes, masks, and fake blood for the coming Halloween. "Camera 4," he said. "After 12am, it stops recording properly. It blinks. If it blinks, don't stare at it. If you see anything inside it that is not in the store, ignore it. Do you hear me? Just face front and pray till morning." I felt my stomach turn. Two houses, same type of warning. In my lodge: don't open the wardrobe. In this store: don't look at Camera 4. "What happens if I look?" I asked. Mr. Tunde had already walked away. At 11:47pm, the store was completely empty. The rich people in GRA were sleeping. Only the loud hum of the freezers and the cold white light. I was so tired from moving my things to Diobu in the afternoon that my eyes were heavy. To keep myself awake, I started folding the new Halloween costumes that had arrived. White long gowns, so white they looked like burial cloths. My hands were shaking because the air conditioner was too cold, and my heart was beating fast for no reason. At exactly 12:03am, it happened. From the corner of my eye, I saw a light blinking. Camera 4. Blink. Blink. Blink. I told myself, Amara, don't look. Remember what Mr. Tunde said. Just face front. But I am human. And the screen was right in front of me, glowing. I looked. On Camera 4, the Halloween aisle looked normal at first. Then I saw it. In the corner of the aisle, where in real life there was nothing, there was a man standing on the screen. He was wrapped in a white cloth from head to toe, and the cloth was soaked with blood dripping from his head down to his feet. His hands were folded. His teeth were gnashed. And he was staring directly into the camera. Directly at me. I couldn't breathe. My chest tightened. I quickly looked up at the real Halloween aisle, just five meters away from me. There was nobody there. The aisle was empty. Only the white costumes hanging. I looked back at the screen. He was still there. But now he was closer to the camera. He had moved even though I didn't see him walk. The blood on his white cloth was fresh and dripping on the floor on the screen. Slowly, on the screen, he lifted one bloody hand and pointed at me. Then he pointed down — at the floor directly under my counter, where my legs were. His finger was long and his nail was black. My brain screamed. I looked down in real life. My legs almost gave way. On the clean white tiles of the supermarket, there was a fresh trail of wet, bloody footprints. They were coming from the Halloween aisle, and they were forming one after the other, step by step, coming towards my counter. But I could see no one making them. Just the footprints appearing on their own. Each footprint was filled with thick red blood. Drip. Drip. Drip. The sound of blood dropping was loud in the silent store. The footprints stopped right in front of my counter. Right in front of me. I could smell something rotten, like dead rat mixed with perfume. And then, the entrance door bell rang. Jingle. Someone had just entered the store at 12:05am. From where I was standing, I could not see the entrance because the tall shelves blocked it. But on Camera 4, I could see the man in white cloth was now smiling. His teeth were all red with blood. And he was no longer looking at the camera. He was looking towards the entrance, as if he was welcoming whoever had just come in. He was happy. My hand was shaking so hard I had to hold my mouth to not scream. I wanted to run but my legs were frozen. A voice from the entrance shouted, a voice I knew very well. "Amara? Are you there? It's me!" It was my caretaker from Diobu. The old man who gave me the lodge key. What was he doing at my workplace at midnight? How did he know I work here? And why was the man in white on Camera 4 now standing directly behind him on the screen, with his bloody hands on the caretaker's shoulders, whispering into his ear?