Big Bite Cont

Lucille left her store. Not really hers, just where she worked at the time. It was one of those big chain clothing stores, where all the teenage girls would get there low rise jeans and tank tops. Although business had been good recently today had been very slow, felt like the day would never end. Maybe it had something to do with the fact it was a Wednesday and always the slowest day. It really didn’t matter to Lucille because she was done now and was able to go home and relax.

She was a pretty girl, but also a shy one. She had one of those natural beauties, didn’t have to wear makeup and still she got looks from guys. But with all these looks it never got to her head, others would consider her very sensible. Hardly ever did she go out with her friends, and then she never drank. Some could look at this and think that she was missing out; to her though she was very content with the way things were going and never felt the need to be outrageous at parties or do something stupid. That is why she also went straight home after work.

Driving home was always uneventful; being kind of late at night there was never any real traffic and always a smooth ride. Her car was nothing special, in fact it may have been considered the opposite of special. It was older, like early 90s model car, and ugly shade of red that made it look even worse. It was usually broke down, and she always had to bum rides to work. Right now though it was working, and it was always nice to be able to get where you want to when you want to.

The radio on the way home was doing the news at that moment, so she really didn’t listen too close. Something they said piqued her interest though and she turned up the volume. “The biggest story going on now is the one of the missing officer. Several children from the town say that he was attacked and killed by a monster. They were both shaken pretty bad and are seeing treatment now from a specialist. When the police followed their story to where the incident occurred the only thing that they were able to find was a dark spot on the road. There was no body or any sign of one, or of the attacker. The officer’s sidearm was on the road with several empty casings. They believe that he may have actually been attacked by a bear. The animal being wounded and bleeding attacked the trooper knocking him down. They believe he may have been stunned and is now confused and lost. The story that the children put out has been attributed to shock and trauma, a young child trying to cope with a situation. The police ask if anyone sees this officer or has any information to please call….” She stopped listening as she continued to drive along.

Pulling into her driveway, she noticed that the neighbors were not home. “They were probably out enjoying a date or something, good for them.” She said to no one but herself.  Her place was small, just really big enough for her. She couldn’t have any pets, good thing as she hated cats and though she would like a dog she really couldn’t take care of it so much, too expensive. It was a typical one bedroom apartment, with a small living room and dining room, and a pantry type kitchen. Not much but all that she really needed in her life at this time.

Set all of her stuff on the coffee table and went to the bathroom. Looking into the mirror she couldn’t help but think how ugly she was. Course all females believe they are ugly. With a bright blue color in her eyes and jet black hair she was not anything close to ugly. She wore those dark rimmed glasses like librarians and had a smooth complexion. It was a sort of pale color skin she had, but she did have a slight bit of Irish in her ancestry, even if the hair and eyes gave none of that away. She wasn’t what you would call fit, she never worked out in her life, but she was small. She might reach 5’6” if she was on her tip toes, but she never let her shorter size get in her way.

Lucille went about her normal routine, making herself a dinner and settling on the couch. Her apartment was always kept quite clean, she could never stand to have it messy or cluttered. She turned on the news, hoping to catch the weather. She caught a few moments of a story about some missing people and a word about some murder, but she flipped it right over to the weather channel, a place she could really find the weather. Learning it was going to be a cloudy day tomorrow, she turned it on some movie and sat back and relaxed.  She started to doze and decided it was time for bed. Shutting all the lights off she went to bed, not looking forward the dreary day and work tomorrow. Suppose though there are worse things the day could bring.

The next day brought the clouds just like the men on TV had said it would. She flipped it on and immediately regretted it. All she ever found on TV was how there was a war here or these people were mad about something or theses other people were hungry. Never anything happy ever happened and this morning was not any different. It looked like there was some rioting in the area that the officer had gone missing and they had declared a state of emergency. The National Guard and stuff had been called in but it didn’t look like was going to end anytime soon.

Once she was ready she made her way down to her car and got going. The radio was announcing a lot of the same stuff that the news was, talking about some local unrest. What was going on in the world these days?  She just changed the station until she was able to find some music that she could listen to. The drive was uneventful, though it did seem that there were a few less drivers than normal. She supposed that with things going on a few people would take a sick day or something like that.

The parking lot was mostly empty when she got to work and parked her car. She had to park on the far side of the lot because her boss said that the closer spots were meant for the customers and not the employees. That sucked because when it rained or snowed or just was really cold she couldn’t park any closer to the store. As she pulled into the spot that she was going to take her car made some funny spluttering noises, but it didn’t quit. Lucille whispered a silent prayer hoping her car was going to make it.

Opening the store was totally uneventful, after closing it the night before she knew everything had been done and really didn’t have to do much beyond unlocking the doors and turning on the lights. Lucille didn’t really expect anyone to come in right away, it was still pretty early and not much business was ever done before lunch.

The day turned out to move even slower than the day before had. There were almost no customers and none actually bought anything just came in, looked around and then left. This would have alarmed Lucille if she actually cared. If it was a slow day then all she had to do was read her book that she had brought in. She still got paid by the hour and was not worried that the company would go under on one slow day. Just as she was thinking about how uneventful the day was and how nice it was to have such a slow day a couple of people burst through the front door and closed it quick behind them. One of them was bleeding pretty badly from their arm.