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By Lauren Clair
Amber was sweeping the chip aisle of the 8-Twelve when she noticed the teenager wearing a sword at his hip. The setting sun from the front window reflected off the teen’s sword and flashed into Amber’s eyes. The blond was wearing dark blue jeans and a tattered royal blue tunic under a shiny silver breastplate. A sticker on his breastplate read, “Hi! My name is Cass.” Amber couldn’t tell what kind of shoes he was wearing because they were covered in dried mud. She hoped he had wiped his feet when he entered the store. The guy—Cass—was inspecting two different flavors of chips, so Amber tried to sneak a little closer as she swept.
Upon a closer look, his sword was metal and very sharp. Its hilt was plain yet solid with black leather on the grip, a golden golf ball-sized pommel, and a golden cross-guard.
Amber briefly wondered why it did not have a scabbard. Wouldn’t the blade damage or rust? She must have been playing too many video games with Ryan when the store was slow. Cass looked no older than eighteen, no older than Ryan. Maybe it was just a dress-up thing he was doing.
Amber realized she was staring and went back to sweeping. Cass didn’t look like he was doing any harm, anyways. He moved to the next aisle where the candy was. Amber slowly followed with the broom. Cass was staring intently at the sour candy and made a face as if he could taste it.
“Amber, could you help me with something, please?” The voice snapped her from her thoughts, and she had to pass the sword-guy to get to the front of the store.
When she got there, a woman stood at the register wearing a gray fur coat, and sunglasses sat on top of her dyed-blonde hair. The woman’s face was red with a deep scowl. Ryan’s eyes were wide as Amber approached.
“What’s up?”
Ryan gestured to the woman. “She wants to use this coupon, but—”
“I told this kid that I wanted to use my coupon for this snack, but he keeps telling me that I can’t!” Her voice was hoarse and deeper than expected. “He’s being incredibly rude. I can’t believe you let people like him work here!”
Amber took a deep breath before responding, and looked at the coupon placed next to a packet of trail mix and a bottle of water on the counter. She picked up the bright green 50% off coupon and noticed that it had their rival store’s logo on it.
“Oh, well you see ma’am,” Amber spoke gently, “this coupon isn’t for this store. Our system won’t let it go through.”
The woman huffed dramatically and her face turned even redder than should be possible. “Can’t you just put it through manually or something?”
Amber could see that this would take a while.
“Ryan, why don’t you head to the back and take a break?”
He nodded and silently sauntered past Amber and the woman and disappeared to the other side of the store where the backroom was hidden.
Amber turned back to the woman. “Ma’am, we can’t accept this coupon. It’s not—”
“You snooty little stores and your policies!” The woman’s face looked like it was starting to elongate, and her coat seemed to crawl up her neck and morph into her skin. She was yelling something, but Amber didn’t hear her.
She was too focused on watching the woman’s coat blend into her skin until she was covered in fur, her face shifted into a muzzle, and her hands touched the ground as paws.
The woman was now a giant gray wolf snarling and showing her sharp fangs at Amber.
Amber was not given a procedure for this circumstance.
She could feel her heartbeat in her fingertips and hear her own breathing as if it was someone else’s.
Crap! What was she supposed to do?
The wolf maintained eye contact with her and, still snarling, slowly crouched.
“Hey!” Cass from earlier was now holding his sword with both hands like a baseball bat and a store’s basket filled with snacks and candy dropped on the floor beside him.
The wolf whirled around to face him and barely hesitated to lunge.
Oh no. This kid was going to get mauled to death in her store, and Amber would be responsible.
Amber moved from behind the counter and grabbed a broom. She half expected the kid to be a wolf snack by now, but when she turned around, he smacked the flat of his blade across the wolf’s face.
She watched, frozen in shock as Cass dodged when it lunged, and the wolf leapt back when Cass slashed his sword.
They continued this dance through the store, knocking pre-packaged croissants off the shelf and cracking the glass in the ice-cream chest.
They had destroyed the front half of the store when the wolf swiped at him, and he screamed and grabbed his face with his free hand. Cass jabbed his sword forward, hitting the wolf between the ribs.
It yelped and fell to its side. Cass raised his sword above his head, and Amber looked away as he plunged it into the wolf.
There was another pained yelp and silence cut only by Cass’s heavy breathing.
When she looked over to him and the wolf, Cass’s sword was at his hip again, and he was watching her with surprise. Three claw marks cut through his right cheek. It was bleeding and started to swell.
“Are you okay?” Cass asked her.
“Me?” Amber raised her eyebrows. “You’re the one the wolf got to.”
His hand went to his face, and he gently held his bleeding cheek. A small smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.
“Yeah, that’s fair. Sorry to trash the store.” He gestured to the variety of pre-packaged food and shelves that had found themselves along the floor.
“Oh, it’s—I’ll get it. Don’t worry about it…”
Cass leaned down and picked up the basket he filled with snacks earlier that somehow wasn't thrown about during his fight with the wolf, and he set it on the counter. He looked over at Amber and pointed at the basket. “Could I still…?”
“Oh!” Amber rushed behind the counter and started scanning the items. “Yeah, for sure.”
Cass turned and stepped over the wolf mess, disappeared into an aisle, and returned with a pack of bandages and antibiotic ointment. He tossed them with the stuff Amber was scanning. She stuffed everything into a bag and announced the total. Cass tossed a wad of bills and grabbed the bag.
“Thank you.” He pushed the door open to walk out. “Oh, and sorry about the—you know.”
“Wait what am I supposed to do with this?” Amber flung her hand in the direction of the dead wolf laying on the floor.
“Oh right.” Cass donned a thoughtful look. “Um, I’ll have someone get rid of it later for you!” He waved and was gone in the night.
Amber stared at the wolf mess and sighed.
She stepped over a broken shelf and headed to the back room.
When she opened the door, she found Ryan sitting with his earbuds in at the little table they had set up for lunch breaks. He tapped furiously on his phone.
He looked up. “Oh hey,” he said. “That rude lady leave yet?”
Amber’s eyes bore into Ryan’s soul. “We will not be seeing her again.”
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