Tales from the Gas Station (Townsend)/Volume 4
from the Collection “Tales from the Gas Station”
Short summary
A small American town ruined by a chemical-plant explosion. Jack Townsend ran a gas station there and tried to stay unnoticed.
After he lost two days in a magical shop with his coworker, his clerk Rosa Vasquez kept the station running.
A plant-like mayoral candidate warned that a god of pain would come on Friday. Then Jack learned that Sabine, his childhood love, had died after years in a coma. When he tried to flee, armed men kidnapped him for his secret watcher, Roger.
Roger ordered Jack to stay. Jack was arrested, lost his house and fled with Rosa, who secretly hosted a weakened Dark God, while clown twins hunted them for black blood. Seeing others' memories, Jack learned that Roger's servant had caused the crash that left Sabine in a coma.
On Friday, Roger took over Rosa and came to the station for Jack's body. Jack had to act.
You gotta think fast. You worked so hard to stay under the radar. You can’t afford any more attention, can you? Another massacre at the gas station is completely out of the question.
Allies defeated Roger's soldiers. Roger jumped into an old enemy's body, whose possessed hand was cut off and locked away as the station exploded. Remembering his promise to Sabine to move on, Jack left town with Rosa and his friend.
Detailed summary by chapters
Chapter and section titles are editorial.
Prologue. The chemical-plant disaster and the town that settled for silence
A reported chemical-plant explosion killed twelve people and poisoned the town. Lawsuits ended in payouts, the mayor fled, and public outrage faded while unemployment and abandoned homes remained.
Jerry introduces himself as editor and warns that his notes are optional
The editor greeted readers, celebrated helping his friend, and warned that his informal notes were optional.
Chapter 1. A banned classmate returns and the cash register is destroyed
Gas-station owner Jack Townsend forgave a murderous classmate's duplicate, then sought a new register after his coworker broke theirs.
Chapter 2. The Shop in the woods trades time for goods
Jerry helped Jack take a register from a ruined shop that charged time for disturbed goods; they tricked a horned assassin hunting Jack into accepting their friendship.
Chapter 3. Two days lost and Spencer Middleton is found dead
Rosa kept the station open during their two-day absence; the sheriff reported Jack's violent enemy dead, while a mysterious thank-you note and restored goods puzzled him.
Chapter 4. Wendy arrives and the clay-turtle story resurfaces
Jack's foster sister arrived for their school reunion and entered their shared house without permission. Her teasing prompted him to recall striking a bully with a teacher's clay turtle after being publicly humiliated. Jerry withdrew quietly, leaving Jack worried about his friend's reaction.
Chapter 5. A guided meditation opens a corrupted memory of Sabine
Sabine appeared in a meditation memory of her first kiss with Jack, interrupted their childhood scene to warn the remembering adult that someone lied, and urged him to flee.
Chapter 6. Wendy's reunion afterparty and the thing under the station
His sister invited their classmates to an afterparty at their house. At work, Rosa demanded honesty about his disappearance; Jack instead invented a hospital stay caused by Jerry's supposed relapse. Outside, he secretly fed a clawed creature living beneath the station with expired dog food.
Chapter 7. Kieffer warns that the god of pain arrives Friday
Kieffer warned that a pain god would arrive Friday; Rosa's resident deity, their best defense, had wasted strength reviving animals, while supernatural visitors fled the coming war.
Chapter 8. O'Brien's ride-along and doubles at the crossroads
Sheriff Amelia O'Brien questioned Jack about a supposedly dead killer; he tried to restore her altered memories and glimpsed two versions of himself before reaching a funeral home.
Chapter 9. The morgue, Spencer's body, and Triss
Spencer Middleton's corpse apparently rose and cut Jack's palm before returning to the table; a fascinated mortician stitched his hand and then mistakenly expected a sexual encounter.
Chapter 10. Sabine is dead and Roger kidnaps Jack
A New York hospital reported that Sabine had died two days earlier after years unconscious. Devastated, Jack borrowed his former classmate's truck and tried to leave town. Armed men blocked the road, shot the truck apart, beat him, and abducted him on orders from his mysterious longtime watcher.
Chapter 11. Roger the puppet orders Jack to stay in town
Roger revealed himself as a living ventriloquist dummy, ordered Jack to remain for the coming catastrophe, and promised a farewell to Sabine before Jerry arrived with a puppy.
Chapter 12. Grief at Rosa's and the first Manus Capere
At Rosa's, Jack accepted comfort from the puppy, then considered resurrection; he described his initial helplessness:
There were only three days left until the end of the world, and I was lying in bed doing absolutely nothing to stop it. I didn’t read. I didn’t sleep. I didn’t do anything.
Chapter 13. The dark god refuses and the Mathmetists worship Jack
The Dark God refused to revive Sabine, revealed that an unknown power had resurrected Jack, and left him seeking answers among obedient, resurrected Mathmetists.
Chapter 14. A dream intruder, Chester Melnyk, and a cut throat
Kieffer identified a secretive resurrector before his guard knocked Jack unconscious. In a dream, a Spencer-like intruder imprisoned the Dark God and demanded judgment on an allegedly murderous amnesiac. Sabine cut the intruder's throat, ending the ordeal, and Jack woke with a broken nose.
Chapter 15. Arrest, the black archway, and the blinded demon
After the mortician treated him, deputies arrested Jack. Jerry deliberately joined him in jail, where both saw a black portal. The horned assassin emerged and identified Jack, but lost his glasses. Hiding them, the friends stayed silent while the demon seized their cellmate and disappeared.
Chapter 16. Archimedes' honesty aura and eviction from the house
Roger's supernaturally powerful servant secured Jack's release with an alibi for another killing. His presence forced honesty: he admitted being bound by a lethal oath, and Jack's foster parents admitted wanting money from selling his home. Under pressure, Jack surrendered his right to stay.
Chapter 17. Roger's forced assignment and Whitebeard's gun
Benji covered Rosa's shift during her grandmother's funeral and disarmed an armed racist; after Jack rejected Roger's compulsory spying assignment, a gas attack overwhelmed the station.
Chapter 18. The Bricks, the mimic bait, and the memory worm
Two Institute agents admitted abducting Benji, a mimic, as bait for a killer. Roger called through Jack's supplied phone, exposing their supposedly hidden base; Jack recognized Roger's alias in the killer's name. An agent blamed his altered memories on a memory worm before the base collapsed.
Chapter 19. The funeral, the Russian Radio, and Rosa already knows
Jack escaped through a door into the station and joined Rosa at the funeral. A supernatural radio warned that clown twins were collecting black blood and targeting her. Chained downstairs by the funeral director, Jack finally told Rosa the truth; she already knew and had willingly hosted the god.
Chapter 20. The twins harvest black blood and the hearse escape
Freed by Rosa, Jack watched the twins extract black blood from the mortician's corpse and kill the director. They escaped with the puppy in a stolen hearse. Unsure whether her grandmother was also a mimic, Jack tried opening the coffin; it rolled into traffic, scattering their pursuing relatives.
Chapter 21. On the run and the memory-worm song
In a deer stand, Rosa urged Jack to examine impossible memories and a remembered song from Sabine; he defended keeping painful experiences sealed:
Yeah, we’ve all got our issues, but I’ve got mine sorted into nice, neat, little boxes. Everything is fine as long as we don’t go looking inside of the boxes.
Chapter 22. The last argument and the horse that fuses skin
Jack recalled abandoning birthday plans with Sabine after an argument. Seeking distraction, he touched a black horse; his hand fused to its hide, and its thoughts revealed plans to drown and eat him. He refused to endanger Rosa by calling for help, but her approach terrified the creatures into releasing him.
Chapter 23. Mrs. Cromwell's Mancala and O'Brien's gun
An elderly childhood neighbor sheltered them, although Jack found her husband long dead upstairs. Another altered memory warned that police were coming. O'Brien arrived, and Jack's fake-gun bluff failed. With the neighbor aiming a shotgun and Rosa holding ammunition, he negotiated a short head start.
Chapter 24. Travis's bunker and the weenut butter
They borrowed the neighbor's car and hid at Jack's classmate's house. Following a cable, Jack found him alive with his dogs in an underground bunker. The clowns had killed his companion, explaining the murder suspicion. Jack and the puppy then collapsed after eating peanut butter containing THC.
Chapter 25. Rosa's childhood: possession, expulsion, and the exorcism
Jack experienced Rosa's past: childhood possession, bloody writing, and a school blackout after false accusations led to expulsion. Later, relatives restrained her for an abusive exorcism. The possessing force killed the exorcist and permanently disabled her uncle.
Chapter 26. A three-person army and the clowns at Travis's
The classmate proposed fighting the apocalypse together, but the twins attacked his house. Rosa summoned the Dark God, who remained too exhausted to help. The dogs distracted the attackers until their enormous weight collapsed the hidden bunker. Everyone escaped before the clowns could climb out.
Chapter 27. Miller Townsend and a toast to family
O'Brien warned that federal agents expected Jack to attack his reunion. Running out of fuel, the fugitives sought his abusive father's shelter despite Jack's objections. His father threatened their driver and harassed Rosa. Jack realized he no longer feared him, refused a fight, and poured drinks.
Chapter 28. The bounty, the rocket launcher, and the laundry-hole escape
An altered memory warned Jack that his father was selling them out. The twins arrived and attacked with explosives. Jack rescued their claustrophobic companion from the collapsing house and saw black strands rebuild his mangled face, confirming his nonhuman body.
Chapter 29. A prophet's guilt and the counterfeit puppy
After finding shelter with cultists, Jack returned to the station. Jerry revealed he had returned the puppy to its shelter: their companion was an impostor. It fatally drained the classmate before the hidden dragon killed it. Seeking Sabine, Jack took drugs and slipped into Jerry's memories.
Chapter 30. Jerry's memories: Mathmetism and the horrifying act
Rejected over his sexuality, Jerry founded a cult that committed horrors; he had reasoned:
I work it out with logic. I can make up for all the bad I put into this world. I can cancel out its effects, and then some. I think about what it really means to be good or bad.
Chapter 31. The hand-cutting tent and Roger takes the thralls
Remembering Sabine's warning through Jerry, Jack rushed back to the cult. Its followers were amputating their hands as offerings and nearly took his. Jerry stole the machete, causing chaos. Roger arrived with armed support and claimed authority while Jack's worsening hallucinations overwhelmed him.
Chapter 32. Kieffer's many lives and the foul-mouthed baby
Inside Kieffer's memories, Jack witnessed repeated growth, deaths, and impaired rebirths. Spencer eventually cared for a childlike version, who accidentally shot him. Roger's group arranged black-blood collection to revive Spencer. Sabine entered the memory, told Jack she loved him, and advised checking his pockets.
Chapter 33. Korgin, the cult set free, and Archimedes dies
A pocketknife helped Jack escape his bonds. The assassin demon seized the cult and had Kieffer's guard killed, but Rosa turned its followers against it and freed them. Dying, Roger's oath-bound servant confessed to forcing Jack off the road, implicating Roger in Sabine's disabling crash.
Chapter 34. Casey Love's werewolves and Jack set loose
Jack experienced a deputy's memories of discovering a town arrangement to feed strangers to werewolves. After losing his partner, the deputy slaughtered the creatures and threatened the sheriff responsible. Jack used this private knowledge to convince him a werewolf remained and secured release.
Chapter 35. A false happy life and the cabin Spencer
Jack shared a false married life with Sabine before she urged him never to give up. Waking on Friday, he followed Kieffer's memories to Spencer's cabin and found the childlike original confined there. The real Spencer arrived, shot a gun from Kieffer's hands, and regenerated after Jack struck him.
Chapter 36. Spencer's protections, proto-Kieffer, and the twins attack
Spencer claimed to have protected Jack and kept the original Kieffer as leverage over the candidate. The twins attacked for Spencer's regenerative blood; the three escaped through sewers. Jack's other Spencer identified himself as Jack's self-hatred, and Jack called O'Brien to surrender.
Chapter 37. O'Brien's conspiracy board and the copied plant
O'Brien revealed her investigation: the local chemical plant copied an old Romanian disaster site, and Roger linked the conspiracies. Jack explained that a fallen god's familiar, not he, had killed its master. He requested her help distracting federal agents while he attended the reunion.
Chapter 38. The reunion file and the memories Jack suppressed
School files exposed Roger's surveillance; restored memories brought abuse, guilt, the crash, and a resolve:
Sabine’s words came to me. *Don’t give up*. It wasn’t only a kindness. It was a command. It was my penance. And that was enough to make me put one foot forward.
Chapter 39. MEGA KAREN and the party that stalls Roger
Roger controlled Rosa and wanted Jack's rift-charged brain as portable power. He summoned successive monsters to consume the predicted destroyer and each other. A transforming weapon destroyed the dragon. Jack delayed Roger by inviting his reunion classmates to the station for free beer.
Chapter 40. Roger in Rosa and O'Brien's forced shot
After O'Brien cleared the party, Roger threatened Rosa and demanded Jack's body. Using a magically enforced favor, he ordered O'Brien to shoot herself unless Jack summoned the Dark God. Rosa summoned him instead, letting Roger command his vines, but the loophole left O'Brien compelled to fire.
Chapter 41. Spencer's explosives and the station burns
O'Brien survived. Spencer's explosives, Benji, and an Institute agent helped defeat Roger's regenerating soldiers. Spencer removed and bombed the puppet, but touching it transferred Roger into him. Jerry severed Spencer's possessed hand; Spencer fled, and the survivors escaped the exploding station.
Chapter 42. Sabine's promise to move on
Jack accepted an uncertain memory of being eighteen with Sabine, when he agreed to her request about life after her death:
“Promise me that you’d move on. Keep me in your memories, but don’t give up just because I’m not there. Have a life. Make new friends. Do whatever you need to do to be happy.”
Pre-Epilogue, Epilogue and Fake Last Page. Farewell gifts, Arcanumus answers, and the fake ending
Roger's hand was locked away. Jack, Rosa, Jerry, and the real puppy left after farewells. A god offered answers, mostly blaming aliens; Jack finally slept. Jerry's labeled fake ending invented dead friends and a spectacular new mission.