Welcome to Creep's Cast.

I was a custodian in a sleep research facility.

This is why I quit.

Written by Beardify.

Custodian.

The official definition is, a person who has responsibility for taking care of or protecting

something.

But that wasn't what I had in mind when I applied.

I imagined that I would be pushing a mop bucket down vacant nighttime hallways,

changing fluorescent bulbs and empty rooms,

and performing simple maintenance on disjointed door hinges or leaky faucets.

For the most part, that was exactly what the job entailed, but it wasn't all of it, not by a long shot.

There was one clue in the job description, but in my desperation for work, I passed over it without a second thought.

Buried in the requirements was a single phrase, capable of working with an unusual schedule and conditions.

I figured that they were referring only to the work hours, which were from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. It wasn't until I arrived from my interview that I gave a thought to what the second part of the phrase might even mean.

The Surrulian Institute was located at the end of a shady, unmarked lane about 20 minutes outside of town. It was an ugly, bone-white structure perched atop a grassy hill that looked like it

must have been murdered to mow.

I felt suddenly grateful that groundskeeping wasn't one of my responsibilities.

Everything was clean, discreet, and obviously dripping with money.

But even after I had walked into the lobby, I still wasn't quite

sure what the place was for. The receptionist greeted me with a smile, buzzed me through a sleek,

frosted glass door, and led me into a small office. I was pretty sure that the way her azure outfit matched the furniture was by no accident,

...