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Station 395
Image: Source
This article was a photo I found, which I have wanted to write something about for ages, since I found it. I always wanted to do a creepypasta, but never knew what way to take it until Parawatch popped up a few days ago. Unfortunately, that photo is Non-Commercial licensed, so I couldn't use it. A conversation with T Rutherford helped guide the conception of this, and gave me some excellent ideas on how to finish it.
An article for the new and surging Parawatch Group of Interest.
Thanks to my reviewers: T Rutherford, Ellie3, Crashington, and Ihp who all helped this article get to it's current form.
View more of my articles here.


by stormbreath

lonesome-wanderer 04/23/15 (Thu) 20:53:32 #73839164

The gas station I saw.

I work as a professional courier in California. As a part of that, I do a lot of driving up and down, and often I'm on backroads, far away from the rest of the highway system. Most of the time, I'm the only person on the road, especially since I like to drive at night: I've always been a night owl.
So last week, I was driving back on one of those midnight drives when I saw a light in the distance. As I drove closer, there's a gas station off to the side of the street, with a convenience store and everything. But it was about 2 AM — there's nobody driving out here, especially not this late. The lights shouldn't have been on.
I did need gas, so I pulled off to the side despite my best instincts. I could probably have made it to the next station, but I didn't want to risk it that (this?) far from civilization. The gas station itself was larger than it had any right to be, with a general store that looked like it had a few outdoor seats. As if they could ever get the numbers for that.
Got the photo pulling in. Felt like I was going to have to start a thread here, and didn't want to be caught with my pants down.
The card reader on the pumps wasn't working, so I went in with cash. As I walked towards the front door, chills ran down my spine. I can't explain, but it felt like the air temperature dropped ten degrees immediately. The inside of the general store was freezing, cold as all hell.
The man at the counter was wide awake when I came in. He shouted at me, asking for how much gas I wanted as soon as I walked in. I paid him for the gas, and then told him I was going to wander around the store for a bit. Had to get some snacks for the road — I hadn't eaten for a few hours, and a gas station hot dog was beginning to seem a lot better than normal.
As I was trying to pick out what bag of chips to get, a screaming started. It sounded like it was coming from out behind the gas station. I couldn't make out what it was. I've always heard that foxes and coyotes sound like they have humans screams, but this wasn't anything like that. It was like a screech, totally inhuman.
The gas station attendant stood up and shouted at me to stay where I was. I was paralyzed with fear, and wouldn't have done anything different even if he hadn't asked. He turned and went out the back door, leaving me alone in the store. The howling lasted for almost two minutes, I think, and the attendant walked back in soon after.
That's when I realized I wanted to get out, as soon as possible. There was something weird here, and I didn't feel safe anymore. I went up with the closest bag of chips to me — I hadn't actually picked one out, and I had been distracted by the screaming. The attendant barely said a word as he checked me out, and I went to get the gas.
The air outside the station was even colder than it had been when I walked in. But as I stepped outside, I could hear the howling, fainter than it had been inside the store. I took a quick look around the back, and there was a small shack in the back, with a locked chain over the door.
The door was banging. Something was inside, slamming against the wall.
I didn't want to stay any longer than I had to. I'd already paid, so I ran back to my car, pumped the gas (keeping an eye over my shoulder the whole time), and then drove off as fast as possible.
The station is at somewhere a little ways off 395, I think. I don't remember where exactly, and I didn't get a name — there might not have been one?

limpfirebird 04/23/15 (Thu) 21:05:56 #87301432

Doesn't seem like much of anything to me. There's barely anything paranormal happening here, just a couple of weird events that all happened at once. I'm sure there's a logical explanation to all of it.
The gas station probably just gets enough late-night traffic on the road to stay open. Sounds like it's in the middle of nowhere, and there might be a nearby community or something you don't know about. Or that road you were taking is more even more active than you thought, or it was just a slow night.
The cold was probably just a trick of the mind. You were warm in the car, and you sound like you were already paranoid at that point, so you were looking for more things to be suspicious of. The cold from the store carried outside when you left, and you thought the air was colder on the second time. All that together led to you thinking something spooky was going on with the temperature.
As for the shack and the screaming, that is the scariest thing of what you described. But I think it was probably just a mistake — could have been a machine or something in the shack, and you just imagined the thumping on the door. Or it could have been a dog or something.

lonesome-wanderer 04/23/15 (Thu) 22:48:09 #73806555

I guess so. I've been on these forums for a while, and I've been wanting to find something myself, guess I was seeing signs where there wasn't much of anything. There probably isn't anything strange about that station. All of your explanations do make sense.
The screaming still bothers me: I haven't been able to forget it over the past few days. No way did a dog make it. And it was loud - had to be something huge.
I'm worried it could've been a person. Didn't sound like it, but…
You never know, do you?

ellie4 04/24/15 (Fri) 12:36:44 #91938461

I looked into finding the station that lonesome-wanderer visited, and one that matches the photo he posted actually showed up in the news a few days ago. The details are sparse, but there was a murder-suicide at the station just a few days ago. Even if lonesome didn't find something paranormal, it seems he had a near-miss brush with death.
The victim was making a 911 call at the time of the murder. The transcript is short, but it's pretty weird:

Dispatch: 911, what is your emergency?
Victim: I'm at a gas station on 395, thirty minutes from Exit 51, and there's a thing outside my car! I, uh, don't don't know what it is, but it's big. Big and angry.
Dispatch: Is it threatening you?
Victim: It's trying to get in. Please, please send somebody.
Dispatch: Can you identify it?
Victim: No, it really doesn't look like anything on - anything I've ever seen, it's getting some liquid all over my windows, I don't know what to do!
Dispatch: We've found your location, we're going to be sending help.
Victim: Oh, the station attendant is coming out! He's got a rifle, he's raising it…
Dispatch: Police have been dispatched.
Gunshot.
Dispatch: Did he kill it?
Dispatch: Hello?

Between that call and the police showing up, the attendant apparently set the shack in the back on fire, and then shot himself outside the front door of the gas station. The police couldn't find any reason why he would have suddenly gone slasher villain on a customer and then set fire to the shack. The owners couldn't say why either, and allegedly didn't even know he had a gun.
At the end of the day, they just chalked it up to somebody having a sudden and inexplicable psychological break.
But there is one last detail I found in the police report, that didn't get mentioned anywhere else: a trail of hoofprints and petroleum leading away from the ruined shack, around and onto the car, and then onto the road itself.