Willow the Seer

Chapter 1: Obligatory Grocery Store Vs. Werewolves in Suits

My crusty eyes were hard to open this morning. I rotated, slowly, in an attempt to not trigger a backache. The grating alarm from my phone caused me to fling my arm out too fast.

"Agh! Ouch!" I groaned.

Back pain triggered, I guess.

My phone's bright screen indicated I was going to be late if I decided to put any effort in for the day.

"Ugh. Fifteen more minutes..." I let myself rest back on my flat pillows.

I probably should have gotten up to apply makeup, because my blonde eyebrows were practically invisible; it didn't help my washed out face.

Twenty minutes later, I forced myself to roll out of my tattered comforter. There wasn't time to eat any breakfast, so I had to grab a protein bar after shoving my work jeans on over my pajamas. I threw my over large sweater on top; no one needed to know that I had two outfits on.

My two hundred dollar gate clanged shut as I locked up. It was one my many paranoid purchases keeping me trapped in a poor man's cycle.

My feet thumped on the carpet as I raced down the hallway lined with the doors of my neighbors. Being on the first floor had its privileges, I raced to my car parked right in front by the C building's mailboxes. I cranked the volume of my stereo so I couldn't hear the sound of my tires squeeling out the parking lot.

~☆~

"Hall! You're late!" Greg growled, as I passed him to clock in.

"Please, don't call me by my last name, sir," I muttered. Not all neckbeard's suck, but this one does.

"I need you on register five, Hall!" He brushed past me to help a co-worker struggling with a customer's absurd demand.

My teeth ground together as I mentally planned a visit with human resources, again.

I quickly passed the flickering lights at self-checkout, before a customer could flag me down. I stepped on the mat at the register and flicked the nearly dead bulb on, indicating its opening for business. Customers stalked me like vultures; my line filled immediately.

Rows and rows of customers steadily grew as me and my co-workers gave half-assed effort. Before my eyes could glaze over completely, something in my peripheral caught my attention.

Like stepping into walmart in a full ballgown, they stuck out like a sore thumb. All of them wore very polished looking, black buisness suits. Each of them wore sunglasses and they kept relatively close together.

There seemed to be a leader, a rather muscled looking person pulling the group into the store. Their physiques, and hair styles varied from one another.

From masculine looking with a shocking head of violently green hair, to a more feminine bodied person with a burgundy hair color, they looked like a cast from a movie making their way behind the registers.

That's weird. Where are they going?

Anxiety curdled in my stomach; my line started to plateau, but customers were starting to stare too as the group passed register two.

They can't be headed for me. They just want to see Greg.

Like an oncoming train crash, I couldn't take my eyes away as they made their way closer.

Closer.

They passed my coworker Terry on register four, then faced me at mine. I couldn't read any of their expressions, their mouths were set in firm lines.

The leader stepped even closer to me and I noticed they had very long, and very black, and almost blueish hair. It glinstened in the light like silk; I couldn't look away.

Terry stopped ringing to watch me with her blonde eyebrows raised.

"Hall!" I jumped violently. I was so focused on the circus, I didn't notice my manager creeping behind me, even with his heavy steps.

"And who are you guys? You're distracting my employees! Either pick up your groceries or get your asses out of here!" Greg was either drinking stupid juice, or he just did this to give himself Big PeePee Energy. Honestly, he always just exuded dumbass energy if you asked me.

One of the men tensed up, who had very strange vibrant green hair. He frowned at manager before being pushed back by the long-locked leader.

"We are here to speak with a Willow Hall." He spoke in a deep baritone that scared me and some of the customers. My line seemed to dwindle and move to other registers. Greg had no fear.

"Then show me papers! She's my employee and I don't know who you are! I need her on that register to ring up customers." He crossed his arms and planted his legs as if he was a huge immovable tree. The leader sighed and removed his sunglasses and moved closer to the man as if to show him something. Whatever it was scared, Greg. I could see sweat begin to firm as he almost stuttered.

"That can't be real... that.. you're not an authority and I can not send my employee with you." I was beginning to feel bad for Greg because at this point he was protecting me from what appeared to be a very high-class kidnapping. I was surpringly calm, possibly numb from shock; this hardly felt real

The green-haired man had, had enough. He stepped forward and pressed a finger into my manager's chest.

"How dare you! You see Orion before you and deny him? I've had it!" The man began a strange trembling dance that might've looked funny if the situation didn't seem mostly scary. A higher-pitched voice, belonging to a burgundy-haired woman tried to grab the green-haired man's arm to plead with him.

"No! Avery!-" It was possibly too late, as the leader had to rip her off of him before the trembling got so severe he fell forward and screamed in fury and agony.

Then the snapping began. Customers screamed dropping the belongings and purchases as blood-flecked and bones were shoved through skin as this man's form began to change.

Have you ever seen a flower bloom in fast forward?

Fur began to bloom all over the man pushing off remnants of clothes. The fur was a very pretty shade of green, darker than the hair on his head, almost close to black except under his belly.

His voice changed too, from screams to deeper and scratchier then snarls and growls and yelps. A wolf's golden eyes stared wildly around from the ground until its eyes alighted on Greg. It stood from the floor, its head right in line with his chest, I could see an almost lavender-colored saliva drip from its bared teeth before it pounced.

The hands reaching to hold it back might have been the wind, and the large wolf landed on my manager before tearing away flesh from his face. The rest of his friends in suits began to shiver; I caught a terrified glance from Terry who seemed frozen in place after all the customers had since run away.

A skinny pale arm appeared around my waist before I heard the words:

"And that's my cue to take you out of here!" I spotted the unhappy scowl from the leader who also began to shiver.

Everything before my eyes disappeared, and one last shot of pain searing through my skull told me I was forced unconscious.