Animal Nature

Chapter 27

Aaron Kim waved good-bye to the day shift guy, Mike Stuart, then pinned on his nametag. He didn't know why his boss made him wear a nametag for the graveyard shift at the Kwik Stop, since hardly anyone ever came in. This was Middlebury, the middle of nowhere. Aaron wasn't quite sure why Middlebury even needed a 24-hour mini mart. The Kwik Stop didn't have a gas station. It didn't have anything except scratch tickets, over the counter aspirin, and overpriced food.

He put on his headphones and hurried through his duties: stocking the shelves. On a good night, he could finish by midnight and spend the rest of his eight-hour shift studying for his college courses.

The last time a customer had come into the Kwik Stop during Aaron's shift was last week, a pale dude who Aaron hadn't quite been able to stop thinking about. He had really beautiful eyes. When said dude had paid for a pair of cheap sunglasses, Aaron's hand had touched his and it had been ice cold. And when the dude said, "Thank you, Aaron," his voice had sounded like melted chocolate.

Aaron locked the front door – there was a doorbell for when customers came while Aaron was in the back room – and headed to grab the inventory. He restocked the No-Doze and the energy drinks, which were the top sellers during his shifts, and then poured himself a cup of coffee from the machine, adding eight creamers and four sugars.

"Fuckin' Mike," Aaron muttered when he saw that the trash was full.

He put a lid on his coffee and took a long sip before pulling the trash bag from the bin and heading out to the dumpster.

It was the two-to-ten shift's job to empty the trashes, because there were two of them. The boss didn't like the store being left empty. Even though it was only a few yards from the back door to the dumpster, Aaron either had to remember his keys, leaving the store empty, or to prop the back door open with a cinder block, leaving the store empty and open. Aaron never remembered his keys. They were sitting on the counter behind the cash register.

If the Kwik Stop was anyplace but Middlebury, Aaron might have worried about drug addicts trying to break in and steal the medication or rob the register, but nothing ever happened in Middlebury.

He pulled the cinderblock over to keep the door open.

With his headphones on, he could still hear a dog barking somewhere, but it didn't sound close, so he sauntered over to the dumpster and swung the trash bag up and in. He turned to go back inside.

A dog stood directly in his path.

Not just a dog, this beast was huge. It looked a lot like a wolf, but Aaron knew there were no wolves around here. Except hadn't he seen something on the news about a wolf? He didn't watch the news. He'd only heard it as he passed through the living room where his dad was eating cereal on the couch. Heard it through the walls as he tried to sleep with the sun streaming in through the windows.

The dog growled, revealing wicked long canines.

"Nice doggo," Aaron said, trying to laugh at himself a little. It was just a dog, just one dog. He edged sideways a bit, thinking he could go around the animal.

The dog stepped forward. Its claws clacked on the pavement.

Most dogs didn't have claws like that, did they?

Aaron wasn't an athlete by any means, but he thought he could outrun it. Make a wide circle and get in the door and kick the cinderblock out and pull the door shut. He tried to imagine it in his head. Envisioning the future was the first step to making it happen. That was what his grandfather always used to say.

He envisioned narrowly escaping the wolf and getting inside, where he was safe. He even imagined calling Animal Control, and being called a hero in the paper because he had helped capture the wolf everyone was talking about.

He got three steps before the wolf caught him. He didn't even have time to scream before the wolf ripped out his throat.