So Melvin came to me with something that made the crow situation seem normal.

He said, “The crows aren’t the only things living in the parking lot.”

I asked him what he meant, and he said, “I’ve been documenting activity in the parking lot. Movement patterns. Sounds. Shadows. And there are other things out there. Things that only appear at certain times. Things that don’t behave like animals. Or people.”

I told him he was seeing things, but Melvin said, “No. I have footage. I’ve been recording the parking lot at night. And there are entities out there. I don’t know what they are. But they’re there.”

He showed me the footage. It was recorded at 11:47pm last Tuesday. The parking lot was empty. Then, at 11:52pm, something moved across the frame. It wasn’t walking. It wasn’t crawling. It was gliding. Like it was floating an inch above the ground. It moved from one end of the parking lot to the other in complete silence. Then it stopped. And it just stood there. Motionless. For seventeen minutes.

I asked Melvin what it was, and he said, “I don’t know. But it comes back every night. Same time. Same route. Same seventeen-minute pause. Then it leaves.”

Now I’m watching the parking lot more closely during the day. And I’m starting to see things. Shadows that don’t match the objects casting them. Movement in my peripheral vision that disappears when I look directly at it. Sounds that don’t have a source.

Melvin said, “I think the parking lot is a threshold. A place where things can cross over. The crows are the most visible. But there are others. Things that exist in the gaps. Things that only appear when conditions are right.”

I asked him what conditions, and he said, “Time. Temperature. Light levels. WiFi signal strength. I’ve been tracking all of it. And there’s a pattern. The entities appear most frequently between 11pm and 3am, when the temperature drops below 65 degrees, when the streetlights flicker, and when the WiFi signal dips below 50%.”

He showed me his spreadsheet. Dates, times, environmental conditions, entity descriptions, behavior patterns. The data was meticulous. And terrifying.

According to Melvin, there are at least four distinct entities that appear regularly in the parking lot. He’s named them based on their behavior.

The first one is “The Glider.” That’s the one I saw in the footage. It appears every night at 11:52pm, glides across the parking lot, stops for seventeen minutes, then leaves. Melvin has no idea what it’s doing during those seventeen minutes. It just stands there. Motionless. Watching.

The second one is “The Circler.” It appears around 1:30am and walks in perfect circles around the perimeter of the parking lot. Melvin timed it. Each circle takes exactly four minutes and twelve seconds. It completes seven circles, then disappears.

The third one is “The Stacker.” It appears around 2:15am and rearranges objects in the parking lot. Trash cans. Rocks. Sticks. It stacks them into precise geometric patterns. Melvin documented one night where it built a perfect pyramid out of seventeen rocks in under three minutes. By morning, the rocks were scattered again.

The fourth one is “The Watcher.” It doesn’t move. It just stands at the edge of the parking lot, near the treeline, and stares at the barbershop. Melvin said it appears randomly, but always between midnight and 2am. It never moves. Never makes a sound. Just watches.

I asked Melvin if he thought they were dangerous, and he said, “I don’t know. They don’t interact with people. They don’t approach the building. They just… exist. They do their thing and then they leave. But I don’t know what happens if someone interrupts them.”

Now I’m terrified to go to the parking lot at night. I’m terrified to take out the trash after dark. I’m terrified to look out the window after closing.

One night, I had to stay late to finish some paperwork. It was around midnight. I heard something outside. A scraping sound. Like something being dragged across asphalt. I looked out the window. And I saw The Stacker. It was arranging trash cans into a pattern. Three cans in a triangle. Perfectly spaced. Perfectly aligned.

I watched it for five minutes. It moved with precision. No hesitation. No wasted movement. When it finished, it stepped back, observed its work, then walked away. Not toward the street. Not toward the treeline. It just walked into the darkness and disappeared.

The next morning, the trash cans were back in their normal positions. Like nothing had happened.

Melvin said, “They reset. Every morning, the parking lot resets. Whatever they do at night, it’s undone by morning. Like the parking lot has two states. Day state and night state. And we’re only seeing the day state.”

I asked him what he thought they wanted, and he said, “I don’t think they want anything. I think they’re just doing what they do. Like the crows. They exist here. They have routines. They follow patterns. And we’re just… coexisting with them.”

But then Melvin found something that changed everything. He was reviewing footage from last week, and he saw something new. A fifth entity. It appeared at 2:47am. And it didn’t follow a pattern. It didn’t glide. It didn’t circle. It didn’t stack. It walked directly toward the barbershop. It stopped at the front door. And it tried the handle.

The door was locked. The entity stood there for three minutes, testing the handle. Then it stepped back. And it looked directly at the security camera. Like it knew it was being watched.

Melvin said, “That one’s different. That one’s aware. And that one wants to get inside.”

I asked him what we should do, and he said, “Nothing. We keep the doors locked at night. We don’t go outside after dark. And we hope it loses interest.”

But last night, I checked the footage. The fifth entity came back. Same time. 2:47am. It tried the door again. And this time, it didn’t leave after three minutes. It stayed. For twenty-seven minutes. Just standing at the door. Waiting.

Melvin said, “It’s learning. It’s figuring out our patterns. And I think eventually, it’s going to find a way in.”

Here’s What We’re Thinking

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Visit Venice Barbershop off US 41, next to the courthouse. We’re the only walk-in barbershop offering hot lather shaves. Walk-ins welcome Tuesday–Friday 9am–6pm, Saturday 10am–2pm. The parking lot has things in it at night. We don’t go out there after dark anymore.

Look dapper. Stay inside after closing. (Seriously.)