[Scary Stories] Terrifying Tales That Aren't a Joke "The Part-Time Job That Pays 3000 Yen Per Hour"

A story about how people's reactions around me were scary.

This happened nearly 10 years ago.

At that time, I was a foolish student, not attending lectures and spending most of my time working part-time jobs and playing slots.
As a result, I had to repeat my second year twice, and even in my fourth year, I had to attend lectures from Monday to Saturday, leaving me no time for job hunting.

I was working as a night shift staff at a 24-hour restaurant.
I worked from 10 PM to 9 AM, then lined up for the morning opening of a pachinko parlor, collected the morning bonus, went home to sleep, woke up, went back to the pachinko parlor to check the stock, and then went to my part-time job again. That was my routine.

This is a story about that restaurant.

The restaurant had a history of a fire that resulted in fatalities.

It was located on the first floor of an apartment building near the station, but after the fire, any business that moved in quickly withdrew.

The owner at that time eventually sold the entire apartment building, and a company that managed restaurants bought it.
The restaurant I worked at was the one they opened on the first floor.
I started working there about a week after my university life began.

One month after I started working, I became the chief of the night staff.
All the senior night staff members who were working at that time quit simultaneously.

I asked the senior who taught me the job about the situation.
"Well, you know... That place is bad news. It shows up. You saw it too, right? Can't work there."
Apparently, the person who died in the fire would "appear" in the office.

But I hadn't seen anything like that, and I had never seen such things before, so I found it hard to believe.

The seniors were fed up with seeing it every day.
It would appear when they were changing clothes, during breaks, or when they went to get ingredients.

By the time I joined, the restaurant had only been open for about two months, but in those two months, all the seniors had grown to hate going to the restaurant.

They felt it would be unfair to just quit and decided to hire new part-timers, teach them everything, and then all leave together.
That was the plan. What a bunch of terrible people.

And so I was hired.

"What exactly appears?"
I asked fearfully.

"You seriously haven't seen it? That's weird. A burnt black old man appears."

Apparently, all the seniors had seen the burnt old man.
They took his presence as a given fact.
They treated me like a weirdo for not seeing him.

After hearing that, I decided to quit too.
I hadn't seen it yet, but I didn't want to.

However, the owner desperately tried to stop me from quitting.

The owner had seen the old man too and considered me, who couldn't see him, to be a valuable asset.
He offered to triple my hourly wage if I stayed.

At that time, my hourly wage was 1000 yen. In an era when working at McDonald's paid 680 yen, 1000 yen at a restaurant was attractive for a poor country boy like me.

Tripling it meant 3000 yen per hour. Working 9 hours a day, I'd earn 27000 yen a day.
If I worked every day for 30 days, that would be 810000 yen.

So, I decided to stay.

Apparently, no one during the day shift had seen the old man.
Given full control over the night shift, I decided to hire part-timers. I couldn't do everything alone.

When I raised the hourly wage to 1200 yen and put out a job ad, I quickly got applicants.

However, everyone I hired quit soon after.
Their reason was always "because it's scary."

There was even a time when someone froze during an interview, staring at a spot just beside my face. Apparently, they saw it.

I still didn't see anything.
I don't know why I couldn't see it.

I thought maybe I wanted to see it, but then again, I'd probably be scared if I did.
Maybe I was just insensitive.
Or perhaps I was being protected by a guardian spirit or something.
I don't know.

Persistently continuing the recruitment, four people remained.

A housewife with issues, T-san.
A freeter, M-san.
A man aiming for a life turnaround, N-san.
And S-san, who had a boxing license.

Apparently, my restaurant had become famous locally as "the place where it appears" and "if you can't see it, you're weird."
They wanted to see it if it appeared.
And getting paid to see it was a bonus.
They applied with those intentions.

All of them were "people who could see," and they seemed used to such things.
They were crazy.

N-san would wave and say "Yo" to the corner of the office.
T-san would ask questions to the air in front of the lockers.
"He disappeared when I blew smoke at him," said the heavy smoker, N-san.

S-san seemed a bit scared but said, "I don't feel fear from humans anymore. It's been a while since I felt this."

The heavy smoker was M-san... My bad.

I ended up working there for six years.
During that time, a few people applied for the job, but they all quit soon after.
It was just the five of us, including me, for six years.

In those six years, I saw the old man just once.
While I was entering sales data into the computer, I saw a face in the corner of the display.

Huh? I thought and turned around, and for a moment, I saw the old man.
He was wearing black clothes, glasses, and was a chubby bald man.

And then he disappeared.
That was my first paranormal experience.

He looked to be in his 50s.
He wasn't burnt.
The restaurant was designed in a way that customers sometimes mistakenly entered the office instead of the restroom, so his presence felt as normal as a customer who had wandered in by mistake.

When I asked T-san, "Does the old man wear glasses?"
"Oh, yeah, he might. It's hard to tell because he's all burnt, but I think he does," she said.

Because of this, I haven't had many paranormal experiences, but hanging out with this group of part-timers led to many strange occurrences.

I might write about other experiences if I get the chance.

I read on a summary site that if someone has a strong spirit attached to them, they can't see other spirits.

I wonder if that's the case with you, part timer.

>>375
All my part-time buddies at the time could see spirits, but none of them ever said I had anything attached to me, so probably not.

I used to spend money recklessly back then, but now I've started my own business with what was left.

Going to sleep now.
Sorry for cluttering the thread.