A Beautiful Storm

01

It was just mid-way through November and the streets of Brighmont were already caught in a whiteout. Although it's no surprise that this part of the country gets an early winter, the snow this year was unusually heavy.

Looking out the window from a family diner nearby, I sat patiently, holding onto a hot cup of tea for its warm comfort. Unlike the afternoons, it was quiet here at this hour. A great place to just sit and do nothing actually. Just then, my phone lit up, showing a message from my grandma.

Hey honey so so sorry but I totally forgot I had an appointment with an old colleague. Raincheck on dinner? Love you :3

Heaving out a sigh, I sent a quick reply telling her it's alright. It's not like it's the first time this happened. Or the second.

Or the third.

Or the seven hundred eighty-sixth time either. 

.

.

(It's actually the seven hundred ninety-eighth time, but who's counting right.)

At least she didn't forget to add the cute emojis.

      _________________________________________

It was dark when I left the diner. Looking at the time, I decided to make a quick stop at the grocery store. 

As I rounded the corner, I noticed a couple of black SUV cars parked outside the lot. Brightmont was a fairly old-fashioned town. There weren't many cars around here– especially fancy looking cars that looked like they belonged to powerful, scary men in those action movies. So it's fair to say that it was odd.

As I parked my car next to the entrance door, I quickly ran inside before the bitter cold could get to me. Grabbing a trolley, I made a straight bee line towards the goodies. After contemplating whether I should get a bag of Cheetos or Doritos, I threw both bags in and pushed my half-full trolley towards the medical section. But just as I turned left, I came across several buff men –one of whom I accidentally 'slightly nudged' with my cart of goodies. Whoops. His head spun at me so quick I was surprised he didn't break his neck and died on the spot.

You know, in comics, this would be the scene where the big scary guy has fire in his eyes and snarls at you. Except nobody really does that in real life. Oh except for Billy back in 8th grade every time someone touched his lunchbox –but that's a different story. Anyway, he didn't really do any of those comical scenes, but he did glare at me.

Which was scary.

Really scary.

Instinctively, I looked down and mumbled a quick apology. I made my way pass him only to get all of his pals' eyes on me. Feeling v e r y awkward, I looked up at them briefly and mumbled out another quick sorry. 

"I'll just get some-". I slid some pads into the trolley and quickly dashed for the cashier.

Stealing a glance back at the scary men, I noticed they were all a mess. The guy I bumped onto had a nasty looking laceration on his forearm. The tall one had a black eye. The other had TWO black eyes. The other had THREE- ok that's just too much. I'm just exaggerating at this point.

Anyway, yikes.

The rest of them just looked mucky, with a few scratches here and there. It actually looked like they were attacked by some sort of mountain lion. Or some sort of scary rogue beast that lives deep within the forest. That would've been awesome.

Or MAYBE, they messed with some kung fu master in the streets, thinking he was just some homeless bum. That would be SO COOL. I mean, what else could've beaten the shizzle mizzle out of those big, scary, Italian mob-looking men in this quiet town? With three-fourths of Brighmont's population making this town look like one big retirement home, the last drama around was a tricycle being stolen. A broken tricycle.

"That would be $28.50"

I gave the 'my soul has been taken away from me years ago, please help me get out of here'-looking clerk the money and grabbed my groceries. Still waiting for my change, I noticed a couple of black figures heading towards my direction. Shit.

"Hey do you have 50 cents? We don't have the-"

Double shit. With my arms full, it would be very awkward and time consuming for me to put everything back down, rummage through my bag to look for a 50 cent coin that might not even be there. So I told her to keep the change and made a straight bee-line towards my car.

Placing the bags on the back seat, a loud noise pierced through the thin, icy air –scaring the tities out of me. It took me a couple of seconds to realize that it was my phone ringing and not the scary men knocking on my car window, demanding for my left kidney in return for hitting him with my trolley. Taking my phone out of my coat pocket, I answered the call.

"Hey Em! I need your help. Can you please cover up my shift? It's just a couple more hours anyway. Less even. It's just... an hour and twelve minutes more til closing time. You close up the clinic and I'll get the keys from your house first thing in the morning."

"Umm-"

"Please? Tim is leaving to Boston in half an hour and I need to send him off."

"I mean-"

"Thanks Emma, you're the best! Can you get here in 5 minutes? Thanks, I love you!"

And she hung up.

"Sure Courtney, anything for you", I said to no one in particular.

Courtney was a friend from med school. We didn't really know each other until we began working in the clinic together. She wasn't a douche so I didn't mind covering up for her. It was already late anyway. Hardly anyone comes during the day –more so during the night.

By the time I arrived at the clinic, Courtney was already long gone. I sat down behind the desk and brought out my Rapid Interpretation of EKG textbook to review them. Or so I planned.
It was already 10 by the time I looked up from my phone.
.
.
Well then.
Rapid Interpretation of EKG, maybe next time.

I put back all my opened textbooks and switched off all the lights.

...

Driving through the streets of Brighmont, I couldn't help but admire the landscape. Although it was dark, one could still make out the beauty of the town. The street lights illuminated the trees around, giving the whole view a soft glow.

Humming to an old song playing on the radio, I noticed a particularly large pile of snow ahead. Grinning, I stepped on the gas as I sped towards it. Well this is going to be fun.

Preparing for the soft impact, my grin vanished completely as a strong force knocked all the air out of my lungs. I lifted my head up from the steering wheel feeling utterly confused. Looking ahead, I noticed the pile of snow sitting a few feet away. Except after looking at it more closely, I noticed a pair of eyes. And a snout.

Shit.

Is that... a wolf?