Creepypasta list of rules for my night shift

[galileo2333]

My employer downsized the location I'm at and moved me to the night shift all alone. They left me a list of rules to stay safe.

I work for a fairly large but not extremely huge corporation that produces electronic components. My role is to test products prior to shipment in order to ensure they meet precision and quality standards. It's in a two story building. The company has been announcing that due to skyrocketing rent prices and some downturn in the number of orders we're getting,they'd be consolidating the whole facility into the first floor. Some employees had been laid off, but my supervisor said that I specifically wouldn't be let go in the foreseeable future.

They spent several months reconfiguring the facility onto the first floor once they gave up the lease on the upper floor of the two story of the building. Most of the second floor was office space and most of the laid off employees were office staff. Improvements in computer technology and AI meant that the office operations could occur with less employees and less room occupied by computers.

Once the whole facility was settled into the first floor, I didn't feel much difference. Work was still steady in my responsibilities. Then one day the manager called me into the conference room, a much smaller room than the company had prior to the downsizing, and what used to be a testing lab.

At first I was thinking I'd be getting bad news or even that I'd be let go next. But instead it turned into good news. The manager said I'd be getting a substantial pay raise if I'd be willing to work overnight. I would be the only employee in the building. They said the increased cost of paying me more was nothing compared to the cost savings the company gained by renting only one floor, perfectly understandable given how expensive every form of rent and real estate is in the city I'm in. I was happy for some higher pay for just that reason, my small apartment is really expensive to rent.

The manager told me I would not be able to start my lone night shift until I received a packet with a list of very important rules and protocols to keep myself safe. The envelope was to arrive at my home by certified mail to ensure I got it.

I worked the day shift until one evening I arrived home to a tag on my apartment door saying that the mail carrier couldn't get a signature for a certified mail delivery and I'd need to get it at the post office. The next day after work, I went to that post office and signed the certified mail label on a thick, heavy manila envelope. I stuck it in a bag hanging on the handlebars of my electric scooter and rode home.

I opened the packet and there were some papers saying “Rules for your night shift: Read and understand this entire document”.

Rule 1: Starting your shift. As you approach the building do not look into any of the windows on the second floor. That space is completely vacant. Use only the door closest to the machine shop to enter the building. There should be a night light on. If it's off, turn it on. If it will not turn on, take the night off. Let the manager know and you'll get paid for the night regardless of whether you've got any paid time off.

When you enter the lab, check in the conference area of the building. The lights should be off except that the light in the conference room bathroom should be on. The bathroom door should be closed and you should be able to obviously see the light on in the bathroom shining out under the door. You may not under any circumstances use this bathroom or open its door during your lone night shift. All other bathrooms in the building are generally safe for you to use. If, upon arrival or at any time during the night you discover the bathroom door open, and/or there's no light visible from the bathroom, leave the building immediately. Tell the manager and you will receive full pay for that night with no cost to your paid time off.

Next, enter the break room and refer to Rule 4 pertaining to the refrigerators. One of the refrigerators has a special condition you must verify prior to every night shift.

Check the electron microscope room and the XRF spectrometer room. Make sure the lights are ON in the electron microscope room and OFF in the XRF room. If lighting in either of these rooms is other than that, leave immediately, go home and you will be paid in full for that night, no cost to your paid leave. Although you don't operate either of these pieces of equipment, there are conditions regarding those areas you must be aware of and act appropriately. Refer to Appendix C regarding the electron microscope, and Appendix D about the XRF spectrometer.

Rule 2: Your shift, general procedures.
If you use any device that plays audio, be sure to follow a specific rule. Other than that, you may use any music player or podcast etc. as long as it doesn't distract you from getting your work done. The rule is, that between midnight and 1 am you must never allow any device to play “tiptoe through the tulips”, the song by Tiny Tim. This is serious enough that we suggest that between those hours you do not play any music devices that you don't control exactly what song plays at what time, and that the device does not contain “tiptoe through the tulips” in any storage medium. For instance if you're playing a radio and that song happens to come on, no matter how quick you change the station, it's too late.

Rule 3: The girl in the orange and blue hijab. You will notice throughout your shift a young girl who looks about seven years old,in a Muslim outfit in various places in the building. She wears a bright orange hijab and dark blue and purple abaya and jilbab. Her face is normally uncovered but occasionally she wears a niqab covering her face except her eyes. She has Somali features. Her eyes usually appear normal but sometimes are completely black and very large. Sometimes when she's in the niqab, her eyes are bright red. Her hands and feet look normal except her fingers occasionally will start to look like tree branches or roots that extend into the floor and out and away from her. She should be harmless to you and the reason for these rules is to ensure she stays that way.

You should not approach her or try to interact with her, except as provided in Appendix D, if she's observed playing with the XRF spectrometer. She might try to interact with you but as long as you ignore her she'll leave you alone. You might hear her giggling even when she's not in your view.

If you see her go into the bathroom, immediately leave the building. Escape by a route that gets you as far away from that bathroom and as quickly as possible. Go directly home. Contact the manager in the morning. You will be paid in full for that night's shift, with no cost to your paid time off.

If at any time you go to the bathroom during your shift, you might notice the little hijab girl in the mirror behind you. She is preparing for taraweeh, and she wants to make wudu. If this occurs do not under any circumstances look at her directly. Keep her in sight in the mirror and push the soap dispenser three times, firmly and aggressively. This is a signal for her to make wudu somewhere else, and will cause her to disappear. Remember that this will work just fine regardless of whether or not there's any soap in the dispenser. If this scenario occurs more than once in a night, we suggest you call it a night unless you're sure you can complete your shift without another bathroom break. You will be paid for a full shift, no expense to your paid leave. This is because the third time it happens, pushing the soap dispenser will not make her go away.

If while you're working, little hijab girl gets close beside you and cuddles up to you, immediately leave your desk and go to the break room and take the action described in Appendix A.

Rule 4: Your breaks and lunch periods.
You should take your standard break periods, 10 to 15 minute paid breaks before and after your 30 to 60 minute unpaid middle of the night lunch. You must never use, touch or open the second toaster oven on the right, (as seen when entering the break room from the lab). All the other toaster ovens, microwaves and coffeemakers are safe.

You must never open the door of, or touch the refrigerator at the far corner adjacent to the window EXCEPT as provided in Appendix A.

The refrigerator at the far corner adjacent to the window should have a tamper evident seal on the door. Inspect the seal at the beginning of every shift. If the seal is missing, broken, or the date on it is more than a month old, take the night off and notify the manager in the morning. You'll be paid for the night with no cost to your paid leave. The other refrigerators are okay to use, but as common courtesy, please don't leave anything in the fridges over the weekend.

If you intend to break or lunch period, NEVER enter, approach or look inside the break room if there's a smell of cooking. The aroma might become overwhelmingly delicious and enticing to the point of it being extremely difficult to stay out. You must resist. The scent will suddenly and completely disappear within absolutely no more than 8 minutes of when you noticed it. At this time it's safe to take your break. The delicious smells that occur from the break room originate at the second toaster oven on the right, when the little hijab girl is cooking. If you enter the break room while this is in progress, you're cooking.

Rule 5: The basement.
This building has no basement. You might notice a doorway that wasn't there before, and inside there's a stairway descending. Avoid the temptation to go down the stairs or explore.
We recognize you might give into curiosity, so we have some extremely important procedures for you to follow if you happen to venture downstairs, described in Appendix B.

Where the doorway to the stairs down appears varies and we cannot anticipate where it may appear on a given night. It normally doesn't appear close to the break room. The appearance usually occurs between 2 and 3:30 am. It seldom occurs on more than 5 nights in a calendar year, although it can happen more than once per night (there's a critical bit of knowledge you must know pertaining to more than one appearance in a night, refer to Appendix B).

Rule 6: Weekends and the headless E-bike rider.
On rare occasions you might need to work weekends. At precisely 2:23 am every Sunday, a ghostly apparition of a headless bike rider will ride past the break room windows. He’s on an electric bike with the logo of a bikeshare company long since out of business. As far as we know he's harmless as long as you don't go out and confront him. He doesn’t care if you watch him through the window. If you don’t want to see it, simply close the shades or don’t look outside at that time. If you've followed all these rules, he shouldn’t appear any other day or time.

Appendix A: The refrigerator on the far corner of the break room, adjacent to the window. Inside this fridge there is nothing except a full two liter bottle of Sprite. It is for use only in the event little hijab girl tries to cuddle up with you and join you while you're trying to work. You are never to open that refrigerator or use that jug of Sprite for any other occasion or purpose. Leave your workstation immediately in the scenario described, she will follow you but lag behind you giving you time to deploy the Sprite as directed.
The procedure:
1.Open the fridge containing the two liter bottle of Sprite. Don't waste time fiddling with the seal on the door, just firmly pull the door open and the seal should break.
2.Fetch the bottle of Sprite from the fridge and remove the cap. Retrieve a drink cup if you can find one within a few seconds, but don't take any longer before the next step.
3.Stand in the center of the break room, holding the bottle of Sprite (and the drink cup if you were able to find one). Take a commanding posture and hold your head high. Inhale fully.
4. Pour the Sprite into the cup, overflowing it onto the floor, (or if you weren't able to retrieve a cup, simply pour the contents of the bottle directly on the floor), while singing loudly:
I GOT HO-O-O-O-O-O-OES!
This is similar to a TikTok trend from 2019, the “Spill the drink challenge”. You should look that up and become familiar.
Continue holding the word HO-O-O-O-O-O-OES as long as your breath allows. If you haven't finished emptying the Sprite bottle onto the floor by that time, take a deep breath while continuing to pour and repeat the verse I GOT HO-O-O-O-O-O-OES, the whole sequence as many times as necessary until the entire bottle of Sprite has been poured on the floor. If you poured into a beverage cup, throw that randomly.
If this procedure is done correctly, little hijab girl will completely disappear for the remainder of that night.
Don't worry about cleaning up. The janitorial staff have been notified of the possibility that they might need to clean up a large mess of Sprite in the break room, and they're prepared and happy to do so.

Appendix B: The downstairs.
Once you enter the foyer to the stairs leading down, you are committed to passing through the whole ordeal through the downstairs. Also if you drop any item down the stairs, even accidentally, you must enter and go through the process. If you go back upstairs, or don't enter after dropping an item into the stairwell, you will return to what looks like the world but soon you will realize it's not and you will be stuck forever. Do not look for the items you accidentally dropped if that's what caused you to go downstairs, they won't be there, and you won't get them back until after you go through the escape procedure.

There are eight rooms downstairs, seven walls between, one after the other. Each successive wall has three doors, a red door, a blue door and a green door. The side of the door by which you entered each room is black and closes behind you once you enter, and it has no doorknob on the inside so you can't open it. You must pass through all 8 rooms, via the red, blue and green doors in each of the seven walls by the following color sequence:
RED

GREEN

RED

BLUE

GREEN

GREEN

BLUE
When you pass through the last door, if you got them all correct, you will find yourself back in the lab and no time will have elapsed since the time you entered the downstairs. Any items you dropped will be on the floor as if you had dropped them by accident and the stairs leading down weren't there.

If you go through any incorrect door, the little hijab girl will be there, she will be excited to play with you, and it will get very, very bad for you.

Also, this escape code only works once per night. The second time there are no doors downstairs and no color codes, just the little hijab girl and her many, many friends. They all want to play with you. You'll never escape.

If the stairs leading down reappear that same night after you've gone through once, we require you to leave the building, staying as far away as possible from the stairs down especially if you're carrying any items, which you should set down far from the portal, gently and any round objects that might roll must be set so they won't.

Even if you know not to try to explore a second time, the risk is that you might trip and fall or drop something by accident that falls in, and the danger is too much for us to let you remain that night.

Generally you won't be disciplined but you will have to use your paid time off if you want to get paid for the hours you missed. This is because you gave into your boredom and made the choice to explore the downstairs the first time, and it's totally unnecessary to explore the downstairs. If you entered the first time because you dropped stuff by mistake and that committed you to the procedure, that's your carelessness and responsibility.

The implications of a mishap involving the downstairs are severe enough that we are requiring you to carry on your person at all times when you are in the building at night, a pocket sized quick reference card with the door color sequence to escape the downstairs. You will find this in an envelope on a workbench in the shop where the night light should be left on next to where you enter and exit.

Appendix C, the scanning electron microscope:
Little hijab girl will sometimes be seen operating the electron microscope. Do not disturb her or enter the room when she is doing so. She is an expert at using that equipment, a true child prodigy. It is especially important that you don't look at the screen or try to see what she sees. She's examining your soul.

You actually have a better chance of not being bothered at your work when she's using the electron microscope, because she'll be engrossed in that instead of frolicking about the facility making a ruckus.

Appendix D, the XRF spectrometer:
Little hijab girl is also a prodigy at using the XRF spectrometer, and, like with the electron microscope, she does so to evaluate your soul. XRF spectrometry is normally non-destructive, but she knows how to cause your soul to evaporate via the X-ray fluorescence, and doing that makes her feel good. If you find her using the XRF, look straight at her and tell her firmly and clearly DON'T PLAY WITH THAT. She will immediately turn off the XRF. This is the one and only scenario you should ever attempt to speak directly to little hijab girl.

So I arrived at the place at exactly 9:30 pm, like I was directed. The night light was on. I closed and locked the door and set my scooter up on its kickstand there in the shop room. On the workbench, there was an envelope, and in that was the card with the color code for the sequence of doors in the basement. Finding that was a reminder that this stuff is real. I slipped the card into my pocket.

In the conference room, the bathroom door was closed and I could see light streaming out under the door. I checked the break room. The fridge by the window had the seal intact, dated three days ago, still valid. In the electron microscope room, the light was on. In the XRF spectrometer lab, the light was off.

I began testing the product that needed to ship the next day. It's all the same stuff I did when I was on day shift. At 11 pm, I took my first break. I heard a cute giggle, and out of the corner of my eye I saw a hint of orange and purple flutter jump quickly past a corner then vanish at the other end of the lab from the break room. It was very dim there, most of the lights were off.

Nothing else remarkable. I took one bathroom visit, and she didn't appear in the mirror. At 1:30 am I took my 30 minute lunch and ate the food I’d brought from home and stashed in one of the fridges I was instructed was okay for normal lunch storage. I made some ramen in one of the microwaves that I was told was safe to use.

At 4 am I was about to take my second break, but I noticed a smell of prime rib like I've never experienced before. I knew to stay out of the break room until that disappeared. Exactly 8 minutes later the smell vanished and I had the perception of completely forgetting how delicious it smelled. In the break room there was no sign anything had been different. At 6am, I locked the door, hopped on the scooter and rode home.

Falling asleep to the morning sunlight peeking through the drawn blinds, creating warmth on my blankets, I was thinking that this just might be worth the extra pay

The second night, I arrived at work, much the same. Everything that needed to be checked for me to start a safe night was once again correct.

At 2:11 am, I noticed the lighting behind me was different than before. I looked and there was a stairway leading down. I decided to venture down there. It's just a few doors to pass through and I got the card out of my pocket and strolled down the stairs. Each room had greyish carpet on the floor and simple white plaster walls, and acoustic tile ceilings with LED panel lights. Behind the doors I could hear what sounded like a little girl laughing and there was a definite feeling of her presence. I followed the exact sequence of color doors to pass through, and at the last one there was a sudden flash of light and I was back in the lab. There was no sign of the stairs. It was 2:11:31, the exact time on the clock with the sweep second hand displayed when I looked at it as I stepped into the stairs.

Nothing else that night except the usual setting up of test fixtures, loading and unloading cards of components into the high and low temperature test chambers. No cooking smells from the break room that night.

The third night, I made my first mistake. As I tested some individual product by hand, very repetitive, I began to drift into my imagination about Tiny Tim and his 17 year old wife when he was 34. I was planning my next content creation in my activism to re-legalize underage marriage. In my mind I pictured “tiptoe through the tulips”, then suddenly realized I might have hummed or sang ever so softly under my breath a few notes or words of the song. I wondered if that would count as breaking the rule, playing that song, if it's between midnight and 1 am. I looked at the clock. 12:14. Across the lab, a chair moved itself away from a workbench. It tilted, just on the verge of falling over, then steadied itself upright.

The little girl in the hijab was standing about 20 feet away from me. She appeared completely humanlike, no enlarged or unusually colored eyes, no fingers extending like tree branches. Just a very cute pre-teen Somali Muslim girl in an orange hijab, and flowing purple and blue dress with subtle flower patterns and sequins. She looked at me with a face like she was frustrated like I was just about to do something she really likes but then didn't.

She turned and purposely and with her head high, strutted confidently and directly to the bathroom adjacent to the lab.

I knew I was to leave the building immediately for the night if she goes to the bathroom. So that's what I did. Only that as I walked toward the coat rack where I keep my jacket and helmet, the building seemed to stretch so that was a much longer than normal distance. It also felt like the floor was becoming inclined downhill towards the bathroom where the girl was and uphill to the shop room where I keep my scooter.

With some effort I reached my coat and helmet. By now I was envisioning myself as Pee Wee Herman making a heroic escape from his playhouse after the authorities wanted to persecute him for various activities. The activities that are illegal but shouldn't be. I powered on the scooter and was out the door, the electric motor whirring to life.

Just as I accelerated out of the parking lot, everything turned much darker than normal at night here. The parking lot has bright street lights and the surrounding urban environment usually makes it relatively well illuminated at night. But now the clouds looked completely black and it seemed like the street lights were on but they emitted a wavelength that was shifting out of visibility.

The streets were desolate as usual at this hour, but everything had a very ominous energy. As I passed an intersection where the crossroad went uphill, my scooter displayed an error message on the screen I’d never seen before. The motor stopped.

Looking up the hill on the crossroad, silhouetted against the full moon, was the headless E-bike rider. I could very distinctly recognize the heavy step-through frame bike with the rear fender skirt and the basket on the front, and the hub motor on the front wheel. It was the design of electric bike common to bike share programs. On it, a figure of a man with no head. After a few seconds he turned and vanished beyond the crest of the hill he'd been stopped at. That moment my scooter resumed function.

The scooter seemed to be running low on battery much sooner than is normal for a commute ride home from my work. It also sputtered a few more times and I caught fleeting glimpses of what might have been the headless E-bike rider, but I wasn't sure.

Arriving at my apartment by 12:50 am, I decided I'd report to my manager that I left early because I saw the little girl in the orange hijab go into the bathroom. I chose to leave out the part where I sang or hummed a few notes of “tiptoe through the tulips” between midnight and 1 am. I'm not sure I fully broke the rule, it seemed more like I just brushed against violating it and I stopped just in time. The rules said never to play an audio device with that song, and I wasn't playing any audio device, just humming it. Even then, I didn't even hum an entire sequence of notes. And I'm not Tiny Tim and I don't sound anything like him.

At 7:30 am I called the office and told them about leaving early due to little hijab girl seen entering bathroom at 12:14 am. Then I asked, “just out of curiosity do you know the origin of the headless E-bike rider ghost?” to the receptionist. The receptionist said they didn't know the origin of the headless E-bike rider ghost but that they'd notify my supervisor about my early departure last night and the reason. Then the receptionist said they'd try to find if anyone knew what caused the headless E-bike rider ghost and if they found any stories they'd tell me.

I woke up at 4 pm to a message telling me to get to my workplace 30 minutes early because my supervisor wanted to have a meeting with me before the shift. I had a feeling I might be getting reprimanded, perhaps they knew somehow I bent a rule.

I arrived and my supervisor was in the parking lot. Instead of looking like he was about to reprimand me, he gave a look of honest fear for my safety. He told me that the consequences of not following the rules of the night shift are dire. He added that because I almost crossed the boundary, the various anomalies might happen more often. For instance, the cooking aroma from the break room might become especially strong. It's more likely that the downstairs will appear or the little hijab girl will show up behind me in the bathroom mirror.

Just as I was about to enter the building, he spoke, “about the headless E-bike rider”...The headless E-bike rider was a well known social activist in a cause to legalize adult with child sexual activity. He had a cause to make it popular and ubiquitous for adult men to have child brides. He quickly infuriated the establishment. Some of his enemies were a feminist roller derby club. These roller derby girls hacked into an account he had with a bikeshare service he often used. They traced him one afternoon as he attended a prayer at a local mosque.

While he was in prayer, the roller derby members spread gravel on the pavement on a steep downhill and curvy road they knew he often rode to and from that mosque. They also reduced the pressure in the front tire of the bike and slightly bent the front rim of the bike, so the front wheel would have a wobble that would compromise the stability of the bike. Then they hacked into the bikeshare software in order that the specific bike they sabotaged would appear unavailable to anyone except their target, and to their target that's the only bike that would appear to him on his app as available to unlock. That would ensure that he and nobody else would ride the sabotaged bike, and it would completely look like an accident.

After his mosque prayer, he rode the bike and lost control and fell on the steep hill. He flew so his neck hit the edge of a street sign, cutting his head off. He was given a Muslim burial but his head was never found. Now he rides forever in search of his missing head.

The supervisor drove away, leaving me to enter the building. I started work as normal, checked everything, lights were in the safe conditions, and the tamper evident seal on that one fridge in the break room was untouched.

I happened to look up and saw movement in the electron microscope room. There was a feeling that little hijab girl's presence was less than normal close to me. 10:30 pm. I see some more movement. She steps out of the electron microscope room and into the adjacent XRF spectrometer room. I get up from my workbench and walk over there just as she's powering up the XRF machine. I looked straight at her and tell her sternly “don't play with that”. She powered down the XRF spectrometer, and with a slightly ashamed of herself look on her face, left the XRF room, turned off the lights in there, and walked to the other side of the lab out of view.

1:30 am. Normally my middle of the night lunch. I smell an intense aroma of delicious cooking from the break room. 1:38, smell vanished, safe to take lunch. Uneventful.

2:30 am. I sensed warmth while I arranged a batch of components on the test card to load into the temperature chamber. The little hijab girl was cuddling up to me, trying to climb into my lap. I left my workbench at once. Entering the break room I noticed a stack of clear plastic disposable cups next to the water cooler. I took one of those and yanked open the fridge by the window, breaking the seal and revealing the fresh, unopened two liter bottle of Sprite. I uncapped the Sprite, sang I GOT HO-O-O-O-O-O-OES while pouring the Sprite into the cup overflowing it onto the floor. It splashed all over my shoes and the bubbly fluid spread across most of the floor of the break room. Once the Sprite bottle was empty, I hurled the cup with a deliberately random fling of my hand. It hit the ceiling and splashed across the tables and walls.

The sensation throughout the entire building was completely different than before. It felt more like what it felt like when I was on day shift. It remained that way the rest of the night.

The following night I discovered the break room had been thoroughly cleaned and the seal on the door of the fridge by the window was dated that day. I made it to just about my first break time, then heard a door opening and closing repeatedly, like someone was turning the knob to open the door, then closing it, repeatedly. The sound was from the conference room.

I looked in there and it was the bathroom door opening and closing on its own. The light in the bathroom was off and the toilet paper was rapidly unrolling by itself into the bowl. I immediately left the building as I had been instructed in the event of the lights going out and or the door opening in the conference room bathroom. It was Friday night and that made for a nice treat I got to start the weekend early.

I've been on that night shift for a year now. I've had to deploy the Sprite three times. Had to banish little hijab girl from the XRF spectrometer at least three times. Almost every week she's using the electron microscope, often for hours on end. Downstairs has appeared twice, both times I've stayed away and not ventured down and I've been careful not to let any objects fall when the downstairs appear.


This is the first creepypasta made by galileo2333.

[Aspire6]

This was an interesting read! I liked how the consequences for not following the rules had a bigger impact than just some one-time thing.