Tracey The Wolf

This is Fiction

The soda fridge was adjacent to the automatic doors. She walked over and pushed it forward with all her might. In her head, she imagined it sliding along the polished concrete and pressing against the entrance, preventing anyone, especially the police, from coming inside. Instead, it crashed to the floor in a heap, blocking half the entrance and the exit—enough for someone to step over and escape easily. The congregation inside the convenience store took notice of her aggressive behavior.

"What's your problem?" one customer asked, walking over to confront her.

"What's it to you?" she replied.

He had already reached into his pocket and removed his wallet. With a flick of his wrist, he flipped the flap open to reveal the gold-plated badge inside.

"Senior inspector Kavesh," he said holding it up to avoid ambiguity. "Why are you smashing apart the shop?"

The store manager walked out of his pin-code-secured register area and over to the scene of destruction.

"Oh great, why'd this have to happen on my watch? My boss is going to kill me!" he declared.

"Just step back mate, I'm a cop. I'll handle this," Officer Kavesh replied. "You want to be useful? Just go back to your register and look after these customers while I get a statement."

The manager nodded and trekked backward over to his register area. There was a line of three people deep waiting to pay for fuel and confectionery. All eyes were on Tracey who stood face-to-face with Officer Kavesh. No one had noticed the veins in her neck that had already begun to bulge. The moon was high in the sky completely uncovered thanks to a clear blue midnight sky.

"I'll ask you again, why are you trashing the store? Are you on drugs or something?" Kavesh asked.

Tracey's neck twitched. It was impulsive, against her will. She could not control her actions on nights when the moon exposed itself.

"Yeah, I thought so," he said, turning to the store manager. "We've got a tweaker here. High as a kite. I'm going to need some backup. Can you call up my precinct? I'm off duty… I need a uniform to take her in." Kavesh instructed. The manager picked up a landline and awaited the number.

"Six four five, ninety-three, ninety-three. Say you're calling on behalf of Senior Inspector Dev Kavesh, and you wish to speak to either McNicholls or Graham. Let me know when they're on the line and I'll take over,"

The manager began to perform as instructed while Kavesh addressed the customers.

"I'm sorry to disrupt your night folks, I've dealt with enough junkies to know the faster you act on them the less damage they will do in the long run. If you can just bear with me for a few more minutes, I'll try not to hold you up too much longer. You can then purchase your items and be on your merry way," he informed.

A surfer dude, shoe-less and holding a melting ice cream in his left hand nodded through curly dreadlocks. Behind him was a goth girl looking to buy a packet of smokes. She had a change of heart when the delay set in.

"I'll just go elsewhere, I only wanted cigarettes," she said as she headed for the exit.

"I don't blame you," Kavesh said as he turned to face Tracey. The goth girl approached the exit and prepared her leg to step over the overturned fridge when Tracey raced over to her and lifted her by the hair. She effortlessly flung her across the store where the girl landed in a freezer, smashing the glass as she crashed.

"No one leaves," said Tracey in an evil, sinister voice. A set of pointed ears appeared out of her hair as her human ears began to tuck back into her skull. She fought against the transition and addressed the officer with her last remnants of humanity.

"I didn't mean to... I needed to be alone. I thought this place would be empty," she said as her front face began to contort and protrude a snout. The pigmentation of her skin began to change into a shiny grey and dark hairs grew instantaneously. She was changing. She fell to her knees and her arms were elongated, twisting to a double-jointed position whilst at the same time bulking outwards.

"Officer Dev Kavesh needs you at the rest-stop convenience store on Montgomery and Oxford Street. We have a serious situation here," said the store manager. Kavesh looked over to him as he hung up the phone.

"I think you need to call emergency..."

The beast that once was Tracey lunged for the officer, pinning him onto the floor. Her jaws, the last to transform, opened up wide enough to allow for the canine razor teeth to emerge. They glistened like sharpened blades. They poked out of the gums at lengths of up to five centimeters. When they had fully protracted, she made a meal out of the man on the floor of the shop for all to witness. A panic ensued as the surfer man made a run for the exit before slipping on the pool of dark red that had spread out of the exit wound. The beast was too busy feasting on the officer to notice the second potential meal that lay by its side. The surfer panicked and scrambled to his feet. He raced out of the exit to the store - diving over the damaged fridge to escape. As he reached the car park area, he was confronted by a set of teenagers making their way inside.

"Do not go in there!" he yelled, as he ran off.

The goth girl woke from her brief slumber and looked up from her crashed position. She was ice cold and she could feel the cuts over her body where the broken glass had sliced at her. She witnessed the beast finishing its meal with what was left of the officer. She slowly lowered her head back down to rest—too much drama to deal with for one night.

The night manager slammed the glass partition of the register area from the customer area as the beat lept up onto the counter. The manager stood as far back as he could away from the monster, attaching himself to the counter where the cigarettes were on display. He patted down the bench areas looking for the weapon he knew that the owner hid for such occasions. He never had to draw from it before - but he was worried that the reinforced glass partition was for show only and that it would not hold back the full force of this monster if it decided to attack.

He felt the outline of the panic button and began to press it over and over again. The snout of the beast aligned with his face as it let out a roar. The beast then stepped down away from the partition and over by the aisles, as if bored by the idea it would have to go to so much effort for an attack. This put the night manager at ease - temporarily.

The beast was using this position to make a run for the glass - it bolted at a fast pace directly toward the night manager. He closed his eyes just as he realized what the monster was doing.

The last thing he heard was the smashing of glass.