Be careful what you wish for in gas station bathrooms!!

Be careful what you wish for in gas station bathrooms!!

 It might just come true.

I know how this sounds. That title alone is sketchy, and I know what I’m about to tell you is going to sound absolutely off the wall bonkers, but I need you to hear me out. I don’t think any of you are going to believe me, but I’m telling you right now, I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. Just… Give me a chance to explain myself.

It all started with an argument. But that was normal for Rhett and me. Well, correction, he did most of the arguing while I just sat there, defeated.

“Maddie… Come on!” he groaned, his hands flying up in the air as we slowed to a stop at a red light. “Don’t act like you don’t know what you’re doing going around in clothing like that!” His fingers pulled at the material of my dress before continuing. “I mean, look at you! You’re begging for attention! No wonder Spencer couldn’t keep his eyes off of you.” His hands slammed down on the steering wheel angrily, the action making me flinch.

“But I-”

“That’s my best friend, Maddie.”

“Listen, I’m sorry. I… I didn’t know what I was wearing would cause such a scene.”

In all actuality, I wasn’t sorry. In fact, I was tired. I was tired and fed up and done with all of his bullcrap. I was wearing a plain black dress. Sure, it hugged my curves, but there was nothing revealing about it in the slightest.

“Don’t freaking give me that crap. You knew exactly what you were doing.” The second the light turned green, his foot pressed down on the accelerator. Hard. The car lurched to attention as he gripped the wheel, his knuckles white and his jaw clenched.

“Rhett please… I don’t want to fight. Can we please just-”

A hard slap stung my face, the horrible cracking sound filling the silence of the car. I was dumbfounded. He hadn’t ever laid a hand on me. The stinging sensation made my eyes water. A small hiss escaped my lips as I winced quietly, the pain radiating across my face. And then came the warm feeling of something dripping from my nose and onto my new black dress.

“You deserved that.” Rhett sneered at me, almost like he was reassuring himself that his actions were justified. “Act like a whore and you’ll get treated like one.”

I just sat there, mortified. My hand swiped at the blood as my eyes fought to hold back tears. They were threatening to spill and the last thing I wanted was for him to see me cry. So I did the only thing I could think of.

“Rhett, can you p- please pull over at that gas station over there? I need to… I need to go to the bathroom.” I stumbled over my words nervously, hoping that he would listen.

I was surprised when he complied, his lime green Camaro skidding to a halt in one of the parking spaces near the front of the gas station. The second he threw it in park, Rhett looked over at me and said, “no funny business.” And then, he eyed the attendant working the counter. The guy was familiar - Aaron Rivers. He was in my occult studies and parapsychology class. “If I see you talking to him any longer than necessary, I won’t hesitate to come in there and get you myself.”

With a nod of my head, I went to open the door before he tugged me back down and grabbed my chin. My hands shook slightly before I realized what he was doing. He swiped a finger under my nose, cleaning up the evidence of his abuse before he glanced over at Aaron again.

“Hurry up. I don’t want to be out here all night.”

Choking back a sob, I nodded and hurried into the gas station. Aaron was quick to greet me, but I waved him off as I darted to the back of the store and headed into the bathroom. The moment I stepped in, I broke down. Wretched sobs wracked my body as I searched for a stall to sit down in.

The first stall’s toilet was clogged, toilet paper and feces floating around in the bowl like a thickened, brown stew.

The second stall was a mess, feminine products overflowing from the small trash can beside the toilet, bloodied tampons strewn across the floor like a crime scene.

And the third stall was… Surprisingly clean. A breath of relief left my lips as I hurried into it and locked the door. As I sat down on the toilet with my head in my hands, weeping like a baby, I was reaching for the toilet paper to dry my eyes when I noticed something strange.

The first two stalls appeared as if they had seen better days, the paint chipped and the hardware broken or damaged. They were also painted a muted color of blue, and unlike the first two, the one I was in was painted a bright shade of firetruck red. But that wasn’t what really caught my eye. It was the number and message staring back at me from the stall door.

“Wish you may, wish you might… Call this number and wish things right.”

The number below those strange words stared back at me temptingly. As I wiped the last of the tears from my eyes, I contemplated calling it, my sadness slowly melting into anger. I ripped my phone free from my purse, thinking about all the times Rhett had made me feel stupid, humiliated me, made me feel like an object, like I was just something that he could use and then toss when he was finished. I thought back to the interaction we had five minutes ago. The way he didn’t even hesitate to slap me.

I punched the number into my phone, gripping it tightly, my hands shaking as I waited for an answer. I knew exactly what I was going to wish for, the words fighting to push past my lips. I just didn’t know how I wanted to word them. The second the phone was answered though, I paused, a whisper floating over the line.

“Wish you may, wish you might… Call this number and wish things right.”

The fluorescent lighting of the bathroom flickered for a moment as a chill settled over my body, goosebumps crawling up my arms.

“I wish that Rhett Kellers would-” My voice wavered as I fought to grit out the words between clenched teeth, my anger simmering dangerously close to rage. “I wish he would…”

Frustration bubbled up and overflowed as I punched the stall door and screamed into the receiver, “ I wish he would freaking trip over a fork and die or something!” My voice rang out harshly, echoing off of the grimy bathroom walls and spiraling all around me.

The moment everything went quiet, my chest heaving as I fought to control my breaths, I noticed the light above my head flicker again. A crackle sounded over the phone, my hands fumbling to hold it closer to my ear. I waited for only a second before I heard it.

“Wish granted.” And then the call disconnected.

I pulled the phone away from my face, took a deep breath and leaned up against the stall. I knew that it was probably just some stupid, fake, pre-recorded message or something, but now that I’d gotten that off my chest, I did feel a lot better.

With a turn of my heel, I reached to unlock the door and froze. The number and the cryptic message were no longer there. In fact… The door was perfectly clean. And blue. ‘What the…’ My mind was spinning, but I didn’t have long to think about that before Rhett’s name flashed up at me on my phone. My eyes darted to the time.

11:11 PM.

Shoot… I’d been in there for way too long. Fear coursed through me the second I scrambled to answer, an apology already dancing on the tip of my tongue.

“Rhett I’m so-”

“Hey, I came in to get some nachos and I realized I forgot my wallet at the party. Spencer said he would bring it to me tomorrow, but I need you to spot me a couple dollars.”

A sigh of relief blew past my lips as I shoved open the stall and walked towards the bathroom door. “Sure. Yeah, I can do that.”

The second I stepped out, I dug through my purse for a couple of dollars before heading over to Rhett. He was standing at the cheese machine, a heaping mountain of liquid gold glistening upon layers of chips.

“Hey.” He turned, his finger pointing towards the packaged plastic utensils. “Can you grab me one of those? This gas station cheese sticks to your fingers like cement.”

I handed him the money, nodded and grabbed one of the packages. I started to unwrap it for him before he yanked it out of my hands and turned to head up to the cash register.

Before he could make it though, I froze, stunned when he turned and slipped on a puddle on the floor. A bright, yellow wet floor sign glared up at him as he slid, almost dropping his nachos in the process. He did, however, drop his utensils. I waited for a string of curses to fly from his lips before he stepped forward and tripped… Again.

And once again, I stood there in stunned silence. This time, not because he tripped, but because of what he tripped over.

Horrified, I watched the gruesome scene unfold before me, my eyes as wide as saucers and my brows raised. One of my hands flew up to cover my mouth. It was like it happened in slow motion.

In one fell swoop, his foot tripped over the fork, catapulting it up into the air for a second, the prongs facing towards the sky before Rhett landed on it with a loud, meaty thud. The second it pierced through the vein in his neck, it was a bloodbath. Crimson splattered up like a fountain before pooling around him. There was no way anyone would believe this. But then I remembered… Aaron.

Standing across from me, Aaron glanced at me and then at Rhett. Fear coursed through me as I watched Rhett choke and sputter before he finally laid still. That should have been impossible… What were the chances?

Aaron was quick to rush to my aid, my legs suddenly feeling like jello. I’d never seen so much blood… The second he guided me to the office in the back and sat me down, I passed out cold.

I don’t know how long I was out, but I awoke to Aaron’s voice gently coaxing me awake. Once I finally peeled open my eyes, I noticed that he was crouched down in front of me, but no matter what I did, I just couldn’t rid my mind of the image of Rhett’s blood seeping into the grout, staining it red. It wasn’t until Aaron gently patted my leg and spoke, that I’d realized… It was all my fault.

“Maddie,” he said, his voice smooth and soft.

My eyes met his warm brown ones, that horrible sinking feeling in my gut beginning to spread as thoughts ran around my head like a train, all of them flying off the tracks. I’d brought this upon him. I’d called that number. I’d made that wish. I’d-

“You know,” he started, his voice breaking me from my hysteria. His hand came up to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. “It serves him right, really.”

My brows furrowed and my breathing stilled. “What do you mean?”

“It’s what you wished for… Isn’t it?” His eyes gleamed up at me mischievously, all of the comfort from before replaced with something much more sinister. Dread.

“I- I didn’t mean…” I stuttered. But I did… The number on the bathroom stall. The words I’d uttered in a fit of rage. The wish. Had… He been the one to do that? And if so… How?

“Don’t worry about it,” Aaron whispered, “I’ve already taken care of everything. The blood’s on my hands, not yours.”

Confusion clawed at me, twisting and curling around my mind until I was finally able to push what I’d been thinking past trembling lips. “What… What did you do?”

He opened the office door, pointing towards the trash bags sitting just outside of it. “Remember what he told you in the car?”

“How would you-”

“Act like a whore and you’ll get treated like one.” He paused. “Does that ring a bell?”

Anger and embarrassment burned at my cheeks. I didn’t know what to say. How he knew that was beyond me, but hearing it once was bad enough. Hearing it twice was like getting slapped all over again.

“Listen,” Aaron started, hand coming up to cup my face. His thumb lightly brushed over my cheek, the same one that Rhett slapped, the skin angry and red.

“Act like trash…” he whispered, the corners of his lips tugging up into a wicked grin. “And you’ll get treated like it.”