This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/Manofmystery202 on 2024-10-01 05:34:20+00:00.
I decided long before I graduated high school that I wasn’t going to college. School wasn’t my thing, I was more than content just working whatever shitty job I could find. Work my shift, go home, and live week to week. So when I graduated I took a job at Walmart and I worked there until about two months after I turned nineteen. Then I got fired after I called a customer a dumbass. It wasn’t a perfect look for the resume I’ll admit. So I spent another two months looking for a job.
The job search wasn’t going well and I had to move back in with my parents. After about three weeks of staying there, my mom came into my room.
“Hey, Jackie.”
“Hey, Mom.”
“Do you remember your uncle Wallace?” She asked with an enthusiastic grin.
I had met him once at a family reunion when I was little, when my mom introduced me to him, I don’t even remember him talking. All I knew about him besides that was that he was rich and distant from the family.
“Barely,” I replied.
“Well I just got off the phone and he told me he has a motel about an hour away from here and he needs someone to work overnight. Before you say no he’s offering to pay you 25 dollars an hour not too shabby huh, and he said he’d give you a card you could charge gas on so you wouldn’t have to worry about that.”
I’d never worked overnight but with the job struggles I’d take anything and honestly, it seemed like a pretty decent deal, not bad pay and I didn’t have to pay for gas. Mom gave me his number but when I tried to call him the next day he didn’t answer.
I received a text shortly after that said
“I prefer to do these things by text.”
“Ok it’s Jackie,” I texted back
“I know.”
Mom must have already given him my number.
“Well, I like to accept the job.”
“When can you start?”
“Whenever is fine.”
He sent an address “ Be there at 11 pm tomorrow don’t be late I don’t accept tardiness.”
What a hard ass I told myself. But I needed the job. The drive up there was kinda creepy; it was already dark before I started driving, and by the time I hit the woods my nerves set in. You couldn’t see anything past the beams of my headlights. Even with my brights on it felt like I was consumed by the darkness. I was so scared of hitting a deer and at the time that was the biggest of my worries. My little Subaru struggled to get up the mountain. When I arrived at the motel I couldn’t help but feel how out of place both I and it felt. You drive in nothing but Forrest for this long and finally spot the ball of light. You’d think it was run down but no this place was surprisingly nice. All the lights worked, there were no spider webs anywhere. The parking lot was extremely well maintained and the place looked freshly painted. It was just for being in the middle of the woods. It was obscene how clean the place was. I saw a man in what looked like a janitor outfit getting in a truck as I pulled in.
I took a mental map of the place. There were 11 rooms out front and an equal amount of rooms out back. The office/lobby had a woman sitting in it. Next to the office, there were two vending machines, one for soda and one for snacks. The glowing sign out front read The Nowhere Motel, what a cheesy name I told myself. I parked my car and at the same time, the truck pulled out. I made my way towards the Lobby. I opened the door and there was one of those little bells that ding when you walk into like a gas station. The woman shot me a glance. She was a short redhead wearing a hat.
“You need a room.” She said with a little bit of an attitude.
“Um no I’m the new hire.”
“Oh, your Jackals.”
“Jackie.” I corrected.
“Alright follow me I’ll get your card and your keys and we’ll get you trained.”
She ushered me through a door that had a desk with a computer and a bunch of paperwork. Then she handed me a card and keys.
“Names Sam, by the way, the card there is for gas and food only. The boss gives you 20 bucks a day and he will revoke it if he needs to. I bought a scratcher once and he chewed my ass out. The boss said you were outta a job for a while so he gave you a 100.” It was then I began to notice the southern drawl in her voice.
“Do I have to pay it back, or does it come out of my checks?”
“Nope, just something nice he does since the place is so far out.”
“I was kinda expecting Wallace to meet me here.”
“Who in the hell is Wallace?”
“Oh um, the owner.”
“How do you know his name?” She looked extremely puzzled.
I didn’t wanna say he was my uncle so I lied and said he was a friend of my mom’s. The face she gave me made it feel like she didn’t believe me.
“So that’s his name, neither me Sergio, nor Philip knew it and I and Sergio have been here 9 years Philip even longer,” she must have seen I didn’t know who those people were. “They the other workers Sergio’s the manager he works in the office with me, Philip’s the janitor. You’ll meet me both tomorrow. Philip usually stays till one in the morning but he had to leave a little early tonight.
The rest of the night was all the boring job stuff, how to clock in and out, how to help guests with paperwork, how to make keys for guests, how to check and use the cameras, what to do in the event of a robbery, etc. The part that startled me was when she showed me the gun under the counter.
“It’s just a .22 meant for animals, calm yourself.”
After I calmed down I felt a bit of relief at least I’d have something to protect myself in case of an emergency.
“You know how to use it?” She asked.
“Yeah.”
“Good didn’t feel like teaching you, the last overnighter we had a fit when I showed him.”
I chuckled a bit and for the first time tonight, Sam smiled.
“You didn’t bring any food did you?”
“No, I haven’t had much money.”
“Well I have some pizza in the office fridge we can split.”
Sam lightened up a bit after eating.
“So you’ve worked here for 9 years huh.”
“Yep, you’d be surprised how many guests we get, at least 10 of the rooms are full at a given time. Don’t know how hard it is on nights I usually don’t work them unless it’s to train one of the overnighters. You are the only one at the moment. Place is supposed to be 24 hours but we have a hard time keeping the night folks.”
“Any reason why.”
“Place is haunted.” She paused. I got a little nervous when she said that.
“Just fucking with you, it’s probably because working nights sucks ass.”
The night went off without any problems. Before I knew it the next night came by I walked into the lobby to Philip and Sergio talking at the desk. They both stopped and looked at me. Philip was freakishly tall with long black hair. He left the room after I walked in.
“He doesn’t talk much till you get to know him, but you’ll work with him more than us so he’ll warm up to you.”
“Your Sergio then?”
“Yes, and you Jackie I presume.” I could already tell he was a much warmer person.
“Well we won’t work together much, just your first half an hour of your shift, boss only gave me and Sam a night to train you. Jobs pretty easy so you should get it all figured out if you didn’t last night.”
Sergio was also pretty tall, not nearly as tall as Philip, he had black hair with spots of gray mixed in with it. His voice was calming the type of stuff you’d hear from someone who makes asmr.
“Oh dang you brought food I made your burgers,” he said looking at the salad in my hands.
“I’ll just put it in the fridge for tomorrow.”
The night went off pretty similar to the night before. But Sergio took his time to walk me around the Motel and show me what some of the unoccupied rooms looked like. The rooms have an electric lock opened by a key card for the guest but can be opened with a key we keep on a keychain for the employees. Room 18 lock got stuck so he showed me the trick to open it. I also got my first guest around 2 am. The whole transaction went off without a hitch. Around 4 am we heard this horrible noise from the woods but Philip assured me it was an elk. Elk don’t sound like that. They make horrible noises don’t get me wrong but that sounded like grinding metal.
“Philip will be here till 1 am tomorrow he works Wednesday through Sunday so you won’t be alone every night and Sam we’ll be here to pass off the keys when you get here.”
With that Sergio and I drove off. Around 7:30 in the morning when I was driving back I swear I saw someone watching me in the woods. I slammed my brakes and pulled over to check on it but there was no one there. I told myself my brain probably just mistook a bush or tree for a person. When I got home and tried to sleep I couldn’t stop thinking about the person and the noise. Something about them both just stuck in my mind. It was Friday night my third night on the job and I’d have the weekend off. I felt very anxious once again, it was gonna be my first night working alone. I mean Sergio and Philip would both be there but only for part of my shift but after 1 am I’d be by myself. There were more cars in the lot than usual. Philip was power-washing the sidewalk, he gave me a nod as I walked past him.
“Hey Jackie,” Sergio said as I walked in.
“Looks like a busy day.”
“Yeah, we had a group of friends on a road trip come through, heading up towards Canada. They’ll be gone in the morning.”
We talked till he had to leave and he passed off the keys. I brought some of my drawing stuff so I’d have something to do. When it came Philip’s time to leave he stopped off to let me know.
“I’m heading out.” This was the first time I genuinely heard him speak. His voice was very …
Content cut off. Read original on https://old.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/1ftgs56/the_nowhere_motel/