I've never believed in urban legends.

The hype In the small city I live in, there had always been one legend that has been around for generations. The legend of The Rotter. This urban legend dates back a long time and tells the tale of a man who was a murderer. He basically would wait until someone was alone and at their most vulnerable and murder them. Granted, different stories have been told from the Rotter kidnapping, murdering, and even worse to his victims. But.. why is he called the Rotter? Because legend has it when the townsfolk caught wind of where this monster would stay, they essentially grabbed him out of his home, bound him, and threw his body into a sludge bath. He drowned to death, but comes back to 'haunt victims that are out alone.' Apparently, you hear his screams before you accept your death...

His story has been told to every single child in this city to keep them essentially from sneaking out at night. My friends and I never believed in it because we tried hunting it when we were teenagers. Honestly, once you hit adulthood- you forget about childish stories like that.

Until something you cannot explain happens before your very eyes.

Something had happened when I covered a shift for someone, and I.. I still don't know what I had witnessed that night. All I know is I will never, EVER work at night again for as long as I live.

So, I work at a small convenience store that also has about 4 gas pumps and I've been here for about 3 months. We sell normal things like tea, coffee, energy drinks, and cigarettes. I'm a Shift Manager, so I normally work in the very early morning, normally at 5:30 AM. As a Shift Manager, one of my responsibilities is taking over a shift when someone calls off and they cannot find a replacement. Granted, it was during my two days off and it was a third shift, which is overnight for us. My first thought? 'Hell yeah, I get to sleep in!'

I really wish I would've stayed home that night.

While I waited for my nightshift to come, I basically laid around all day at my house, even taking a small nap to keep myself awake overnight. We didn't really get a lot of business during the night, just the occasional straggler getting a drink or something to smoke.

I came in for my shift about 15 minutes early to get the previous person out of there sooner, since she was a bit younger than me and I knew she had more of a social life than I did. I was all smiles until she left, along with the last few customers in the store before I grabbed a chair out of the backroom and plopped myself upfront with my phone.

I'm a smoker, and every two hours of my 8-hour shift, I would go out for a quick smoke break - usually lasting about 10-15 minutes. At this time, it had been around 3 am, which the store was basically dead during this time. My coworkers and I had deemed this time as definitely 'the witching hour' because everything outside was so silent and the street was only illuminated by the store lights by the gas pumps.

I'm not used to working overnight, so I really started to feel sleepy after a few hours of work. It was 3:14 and I basically said 'fuck it' and went outside for a smoke to wake me up a bit. The store was dead, I had already done my daily tasks, so what else was I to do? I gathered up my jacket and threw it over my uniform shirt, shoving the pack of cigarettes into my pocket - the store phone in my other pocket. We had a loud buzzer that would go off every time someone stepped inside, so I knew I would hear it because of how dead the streets were. Taking a step outside, I looked around the empty lot and listened for any cars approaching and heard only the sounds of crickets and wind, so I turned to my left and walked around to the side of the building.

My store had a designated smoking spot for the smokers so we would basically be out of view from customers during the day. The spot itself during the day was honestly beautiful. There was a lot of overgrowth of plants and trees with a small creek running in between. Just beyond the creek was a small bridge. It wasn't really an open bridge underneath, it more resembled a large pipeline of sorts that was made of cement. The water would run through the pipeline and through the small creek. Honestly, it was soothing to hear the flow of water during my smoke breaks. Even with one light above me, you could still the flowing water down the small hill toward the creek.

On the side of the building, we had milk crates from our deliveries set up, so I grabbed one and flipped it over, sitting down on it. Putting the cigarette to my lips, I took my lighter out and sparked it, taking a deep inhale of the smoke through my mouth - slowly exhaling through my nose. I took out my phone and began scrolling through Facebook as I enjoyed the rest of my break. I began to play a video on my phone and when it started, it basically echoed throughout the empty lot, making me scramble to turn the volume down.

"Jesus.. that was loud.," I mumbled as I began to play the video again. I'm not sure what made me pause the video, but I had suddenly felt like something was off. Locking my phone to stop the video, it finally occurred to me why the echo was so loud.

There was no sound. Not a cricket, not the trees moving with the wind - but even that made me furrow my brows. The trees and grass were moving, but I didn't feel any wind. But I think what made me the uneasiest was the fact that through the light, I saw the water moving below me, but I couldn't hear the sound of the water splashing against the rocks as I normally would.

"What the fuck.." I stood up from the crate and took a couple of steps toward the water, looking down. The water was rushing through the small creek, and no matter how close I got, I could not hear a damn thing. Taking one last hit of my cigarette, I began to walk back toward the store still staring at the water until I turned the corner.

My eyes widened when I turned the corner because I had 4 cars in the parking lot and people waiting inside. I immediately pulled my phone back out and saw that I had spent the last 25 minutes outside and my heart dropped.

"Oh shit!" I yelled, throwing my cigarette butt behind me without a care. I began to jog to the store and threw open the front door, profusely apologizing to everyone waiting in line. I swore to myself in my head, damn well knowing if my managers looked through the security cameras, I'd be fucked.

After ringing everyone up, I began to get a few more people in the store so it kept myself and my mind busy for over an hour. When I finally had a break in between people, I sat back down in the seat I pulled out by the registers and put my head in my hands.

"I am losing my mind.. How the fuck did I not hear the cars?" I said to myself, shaking my head. "How the hell did I stay out there for that long?!" Taking a deep breath and looking at the clock on the register reading almost 5 am, I knew the sun would be up soon. But something still was not sitting right with me...

Why would I not be able to hear anything? Am I reading too much into this and I'm just losing my mind because I'm THAT tired? Shaking my head, I decided just to go sit in the back and pull up the security tapes.

I've seen way too many movies and read too many stories for me to just ignore what just happened, so I decided to see if the cameras had picked up anything from my smoke break.

We had a camera that sat right next to the light outside, so the view was above my head - but still had the water and the bridge in the frame. Fast forwarding the tape of me sitting outside, 7 minutes into my break the video went fuzzy for a couple of minutes. When the video popped back up, I was already standing on my feet staring down at the water. I let the video play at a normal speed and it was the moment I began to lose time. But what had truly frightened me and I began to shake at the computer monitor was what I saw next.

I watched myself turn around and look straight up into the camera and just...stare. I felt my breath hitch in my throat as I stared back at myself through the video.

"What the fuck.." I mumbled, my breath still shaking. I began to fast forward the video and watched my face with absolute horror. My mouth began to twist into an unsettling smile.. one that was too wide for any human to have. My eyes just looked as if they were pools of white through the grainy camera and I honestly felt a tear sting at the corner of my eye.

During the video, you could see the cars pulling into the parking lot because the headlights would shine against my jacket a bit. But when the last car pulled in, I almost fell out of the computer chair.

Off to the left, between the overgrowth and under the bridge, I saw what had looked like a hooded figure crouching back under the bridge. The light only shined on one part, and it was a long, extremely thin leg - like the leg of a human being.

"You've got to be shitting me..." I fast-forwarded the video until there was another fuzzy moment, but at that point, my back was to the camera and it was when I realized there were cars in the parking lot. I immediately began fast-forwarding the video up until now. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary until I switched back over to the live feed and I felt my heart drop to my stomach.

There was a man standing in the middle of my store. They were wearing a hoodie and a pair of cut off jeans that showed how pale and how slender their legs were. I knew I KNEW it was whoever the hell was in that pipeline and it shook me to my core.

Immediately, my hand went to the store phone in my pocket, ready to dial 911 in case I had to. It doesn't matter who walks in, the buzzer ALWAYS goes off... so why the hell didn't it go off?! I made the video full screen so I can just watch him. He had his body turned toward the 'Employee's Only' door and I slowly began to walk toward it, quietly locking the door as I made my way back toward the computer.

Letting out a loud gasp, I immediately put my hand up to cover my mouth. He was staring straight up at the camera a few feet closer to the door with that.. unnerving grin that I had seen before.

"S-sir!" I stuttered, calling out as I kept my eyes on the screen - darting back and forth between that and the door.

"I'm sorry but if you aren't purchasing anything, you need to leave the store. You cannot solicit...." My voice trailed off as I watched this... thing move closer toward the side where the counter was, and where our second door was wide open.

I nearly jumped across the back office reaching the door just in time to see him leap across the counter effortlessly, almost like an animal would leap toward its prey. Stumbling backward as this... thing stood before me, I felt myself tremble in fear.

He was inhumanly tall...almost touching the store ceiling as he towered over me. I was frozen, I couldn't move.. I couldn't breathe.. I could only stare and try to comprehend what my eyes were telling my mind I was seeing.

His skin was sickly looking.. as if his skin was slowly decaying from the inside out. There was a black sludge-like substance oozing from the orifices of his face as he grinned down at me. I quickly glanced to my left to see a bottle of our window cleaner in arms reach and I kept that mental note.

"What...what the fuck are you.." I stuttered, speaking with a fearful voice. It took a step closer toward me as I mimicked the step backward - making sure I still had that cleaner in arms reach. It extended its hand out toward me, sludge dripping from its fingers as he tried to grab at me.

I stumbled backward and fell, smacking my head against the computer desk as I stared up in horror as this thing would lean down into the door frame. Its long fingers would curl around the door frame as he smiled down at me, only being a few feet away.

"I said what the fuck are you?!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, making it tilt its head at me in a menacing way. It opened its mouth to speak and sludge poured out of its mouth, making a god awful rasping noise as it spoke one word.

"Death." Without hesitation, I grabbed a pen holder off the computer desk and threw it right at the fuckers head, making it let out an inhuman screech. It pulled itself back to charge at me, but I hooked my leg around the door to kick it shut. Pulling myself to my feet, I immediately locked the door and threw all of my body weight against it.

The creature kept kicking and hitting the door, making noises that sounded like a human wailing mixed with a creature growling. I covered my ears and pulled my knees to my face, crying my fucking heart out and begging for it to stop. I truly felt as if this thing would bust through any minute and kill me where I stood.

"PLEASE STOP IT!!! PLEASE!! HELP ME PLEASE!!" I screamed, the loudest I have ever screamed in my entire life. I didn't know what was happening outside of the doors but I just wanted it to stop, I wanted it to stop. I just want it to stop.

I don't know what to do at this point. My phone is saying it's 4 pm already. It's been almost a full 24 hours and no one has come to help me.. but it has only felt like 20 minutes to me. The screaming hasn't stopped.. my ears are starting to go numb... I had felt my nose drip and I thought it was blood until I saw in the light it was too dark to be blood.

I can feel myself getting heavier and heavier with each passing moment... I know I'm going to give up.

It's 11 pm.

Help me, please.