An Encounter With The Lurker

After a late shift at a small-town burger joint, a group of friends decides to make a stop at a nearby fast-food place. What starts as a regular night quickly spirals into something far more unsettling—something lurking just beyond the glow of the menu boards, waiting for its next victim.
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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Scary Story Podcast. The listener of our show,
Adam Underscore ninety seven eighty nine, asked me about making
stories in my old style, just like several other comments
on Spotify and through email. So here's one. It's about
a group of people who work in fast food restaurants
by the edge of town, and I hope you enjoy it.

(00:22):
My name is Edwin, and here's a scary story. We
had gotten off of work at the burger restaurant a
little early. Something in the freezers had failed, and we
had to tell the regulars that we couldn't serve them
because of the freezers. The first few said that they
didn't mind and wouldn't tell anybody about it. We knew

(00:44):
almost all of them by name, like for example, Greg
and the girl he was cheating on his wife with.
They had shown up to park by the trash cans again.
They did this every couple of weeks, and I saw
I wouldn't have cared about that jerk getting sick from
our burgers thawing out before it was time to cook them.
My friend John showed out to pick up Neil and
myself right after our shift, asking if we could sneak

(01:06):
out a burger. Neil explained the freezer situation to him
as we were passing by the mess going on in
the car by the trash cans. You can't get sick
from meeting thought meat, John said, looking back at me
in the car. Neil answered for me, saying, I know,
but our new manager shut it down. It had happened
before well, when the power went out completely and nothing,

(01:27):
not even the sign that lit up our menu was working.
We had to go through half the menu for those
that were pulling up to the window still and all
the lights were off. Imagine that, and we still had
to make it work. It was that what happened, though,
to Jane Jane Gonzalez, the manager, she was the best
and actually gave us rides home when we were still
in high school Christmas gifts. Nobody deserves to die like

(01:51):
she did, though I guess nobody is really sure if
she died. She disappeared and eventually the authorities assumed she
was dead somehow. Always there in the back of our minds,
John asked us what we wanted to do, and of
course Neil was going to want to go to Chicken
Jill by the edge of the road. Lucy used to
work there, and he wanted to go see her, or

(02:13):
at least make his presence known, as he used to say.
They had just hired a new guy that had been
texting Lucy about more than just work schedules and whatnot.
So he pulled up around nine thirty or so. No
one was in the parking lot and the place looked deserted.
Through the large windows, we could see Lucy and the
other guy, a tall dude with frizzy hair, standing next

(02:34):
to her. They seemed to be having a good time,
which was enough for Neil to jump out of the
car and go straight for the door. John and I
kind of laughed about it as he was going up there.
The two weren't even dating Neil and Lucy, I mean,
she was stringing him along ever since they went out
to watch one of the new Saw movies. It was
all Neil could talk about for a couple of weeks

(02:56):
of how Lucy grabbed his hand and how that must
have meant something. I had to listen to him at
work for hours, deciphering every second of it and even
watching the movie again. Eventually I got really into it
and try to analyze it as much as possible to
see if she really liked him or whatever. Imagine that,
and it all started as a joke. My conclusion was

(03:18):
that she was just doing it for attention, along with
the other dozens of text messages I got stuck deciphering.
But of course, as a good friend, I told him
that it seemed like she was into him. That was
a mistake. You see. That night we got out to
order something. Instead of passing by the drive through, the
other guy had just gone to the back while Neil

(03:40):
and Lucy were talking about something serious that we interrupted.
Lucy used it as a chance to get away from
the conversation and asked us if he wanted anything. They
never had chicken strip so late, but I decided to
ask for them anyway. Quickly, she reached for a paper bag,
skipping the box completely and added two pieces in the Immediately,

(04:00):
standing the bag with oil, I heard her tell Neil
that she didn't want to talk about it anymore and
that they were about to close that she just needed
to finish off the floors. It was insane and very awkward.
Neil was quiet angry. The other guy finally came up
to us, rushing and telling us to lock the doors,

(04:22):
and I got to see his name tag Michael, assistant manager.
Neil's eyes fired a beam so dense towards this guy
we could feel it. When Michael realized that no one
was paying attention to him, he rushed toward the doors
and locked them, placing a bar that was behind the
trash can over the door handles. He ran back to

(04:42):
over the counter, turning off every light, although the menu
stayed on and Neil had it moved. Lucy went up
to Michael and asked him what he had seen and
if it was in the back again. He stayed quiet
and looked at us before speaking up, it's back there.
I saw it this time, I have video of it.

(05:04):
The light of his phone shined on Lucy first, who
was looking at Neil in the dimly lit fast food restaurant.
Michael waited for his rival to him closer, but instead
he just stood there in silence. Michael press play. After
a few seconds, Lucy gasped. She leaned closer to the screen,

(05:24):
her elbows on the counter, looking down at the phone.
There was something menacing about watching Neil standing there. Though
the guy was otherwise a normal person, he wouldn't take
anything too seriously until Lucy came along. But now I
was feeling the urge to tell this new guy to
not turn his back on Neil. I leaned closer from

(05:44):
the other side of the counter to see the phone screen.
Michael immediately started it over for me to see. The
recording was of the brown tiles of the kitchen floor,
his black shoes squishing against the puddle as he went
over the drive through window that looked across the street
from the dark woods. Private property more so, they used
to say, But my dad and I went over once

(06:07):
to get to a river, even during the day it
was dark. I don't remember any private property signs, and
I knew what they were because all of our neighbors
used to display them like trophies. But as the video
pointed out toward the woods, a set of headlights started
shining on the trees, and out there an abnormally tall

(06:28):
and thin figure dashed across the trees. Michael gasped and
opened up the drive through window, stuck the phone out
to get a closer look. But just as he stabilizes
the phone, the thing begins dashing across the street and
straight for the parking lot of the restaurant, and it
didn't run like a person. It stopped and started jerking

(06:49):
forward in unnatural, twisted movements, and when it paused, it
almost looked like it was listening. Deciding Another car passes
said that instant, and the figure waits for it to
pass and then rushes back to the woods. A text
message notification showed up on his phone. It was from

(07:09):
Margaret saying to not call the police, to stay inside
because the message cut out, so he took his phone
with Lucy, asking him what Margaret said. I assumed it
was the manager of Chicken Joe, And just then John
shouts and points toward the windows. What the hell is that?
He said, walking slowly toward us. We could all see

(07:32):
it from the parking lot, this tall figure, like a
spider with only two legs, pale a color of raw chicken.
He had a small head after a long neck, and
I knew we were all thinking the same thing, that
this wasn't happening, that it must have been some type
of prank. I one hundred percent expected for Michael to

(07:53):
act like the hero and defend Lucy, save her life,
and then drive off into the night. The guy was
freaking out shaking and hiding behind the counter. Now John
was next to us, ducking next to the ice machine,
while I stood completely still, afraid to move. Neil wasn't
having any of it. He was quiet and looking out

(08:13):
toward the window and then looking back at Michael and Lucy.
It went back, Let's go, John whispered, rushing toward the
door and looking for a way to unlock it. Michael
went behind him, and Lucy and I followed, except for Neil.
He was standing in front of the order encounter. Lucy
got in with us in the car, and Michael ran

(08:33):
to the minivan across the lots and drove off. Where's Neil?
Get Neil? I remember John shouting at Lucy. Lucy opened
the door and screamed and waved that Neil for him
to follow, but he didn't budge. We could all see
a silhouette standing in the restaurant against the lights of
the menu board. I asked if we could lock the door,
but we all knew nobody was going to want to

(08:55):
get out of the car. And that's when the figure
appeared in the woods again across the street, slower this time,
and we all got a good look. John put the
car in reverse, Neil. Lucy yelled crying. John changed it
into drive now and the figure was approaching us fast.

(09:17):
We drove toward the opposite side of the parking lot
and then onto the road. Lucy was screaming and kicking
the seeds, watching Neil silhouette standing there, refusing to move.
The figure was approaching. Put it slowed down. Didn't have
to run anymore, and we didn't either. It had found
a victim, It had already won. John was flooring the

(09:42):
gas pedal now, and even though he was in a panic,
I knew that he was unsure if he should keep
on driving or go back to get Neil. The last
thing we saw was the thing going toward the front
of the restaurant. We went to drop off Lucy first
and stead in the car, fighting about what we did
or what we should have done. This whole time I

(10:05):
had been calling Neil and the call connected but was
never answered until after a call saying it was the
last try for the third or fourth time he picked up.
Lucy yelled at the phone, asking if he was all right.
I'm fine, he said, calmly, nothing to be afraid of.
What are you guys up to the call went out.

(10:29):
Then Lucy's phone buzzed, it's Neil. He's asking what we're
up to. She tried calling him, but he didn't pick up.
When Neil didn't show up to the Burger place the
next day, we called the police. His parents showed up
to the closed fast food joint. We had met them

(10:50):
a few times. They didn't say hi. They didn't have to.
We all agreed to tell the truth, but nobody believed us.
The detectives that reached out two weeks after that happened
to mention that he had heard something similar before that
it must have been something else because it made no sense.
I knew it made no sense, But all of our

(11:12):
stories lined up. We had all been there two months
after that. Neil was presumed dead. That's what the authority said.
All of our tries to talk about what happened got
shut down. Not even the tiny newspaper that we had
wanted to ask us anything about it. That just wrote

(11:33):
it out as a strange incident and disappearance. Of course,
I have my theories. Jane Gonzalez, our old manager from
the Burger place, disappeared the same way, and that was
enough for stories to start circulating at the time that
she had been taken by kidnappers or some more out
there stories, which honestly seemed much more likely now that

(11:57):
a thing had come out of the woods and taken her.
I thought of everyone around that town and how life
would just continue as always, Greg and the girl parking
by the trash cans, Lucy going back to Chicken Jill
because she needed the money. Michael, he quit and went
to another place. When John and I hang out, all

(12:19):
we do is talk about what happened that night. He
eventually found something online that would help us, or at
least offer some guidance, even though we could have all
been made up. It was a post from a trucker
we had typed it out in an obscure overlanding forum,
his conversation with a man he met at a gas station.

(12:39):
Here's what it said. Locals don't have a name for it,
but watch out if you're passing by I eighty three
around Central Birchtown. A lurker a figure that appears at
gas stations, diners, and fast food places. I know this
sounds crazy. I saw it while I was pulled over.
Freaked me out out so much. I drove right through

(13:01):
to the gas station and asked about it. Teenagers supposedly
encounter it when they stand by the woods. People freeze
when they see it, something like a manifestation of wanting something,
those who want something they can't have. Others claim it
was a person once, someone who spent too many nights
watching someone from afar until it became something else. They

(13:23):
say it's tall and impossibly thin, clammy pale, as if
it hasn't fully formed yet, small head sunk in with
a long neck matches up with what I saw. It
never truly enters the light, and headlights won't ever reveal
its face, and that was it. The user had stopped

(13:49):
using his account years ago. That's all we have. What
did you think of the story? I used to tell
stories like these all the time, multiple stories per episodes,
sometimes about things that could happen to us. And even

(14:12):
though I like that style that I've started developing based
on your comments and ideas, I feel like I will
always love this style more first person, mysterious, lingering thoughts
that remain. But some people say that they want an ending,
you know, a solid closure to the story. Either way,
I'm interested in finding out what you think. You can
always DM me or email me at edwinatscarystory dot com,

(14:34):
or through Instagram and Facebook. My details are in the
description of this episode. Anyway, if you're following the show,
I will tell you another story next week, and yes,
it's going to be longer and more of our regular style.
Thank you very much for listening. Keep it scary everyone,
See soon.