Position Available Immediately, Must Enjoy Working With Animals
by Damien Hunt

Mark felt the bolt click down rather than hearing it. His mind wandered as he flipped the sign over to closed, the close of a long day in a new job. Turning, Mark surveyed the store one last time to make sure everything was in place. From up front the store looked like it was cramped and small. Things always look smaller when filled with stuff and the pet store wasted no space. Both side walls were packed with shelves of stuff and wall peg boards on which tons of pet supplies were hung. Two large metal shelving frames stood in the middle of the store, dissecting it into three isles of pet food, bags and cans of animal chow piled high. Along the back wall were shelves of cages and tanks holding an assortment of critters, birds and fish. Hamsters, mice and gerbils ran endlessly around their cages or in their steel wheels, eating, burrowing or just being critters. Birds preened their feathers or flitted from perch to perch in a vain attempt to stretch their wings a little. The fish in their aquatic world glided in and out of schools patrolling the boundaries of their home in an endless search of food. Nada, the large white Cockatoo, crawled around her cage, more like a monkey than a bird, crying out every now and then for attention. The only un-taken space of the back wall was a narrow hallway that ran into the back storage rooms of the store.

Mark began to clean up the front counter and count the daily cash for the records. In the repetitive boredom of the task he looked back into the day he had just completed. Each day he had a number of tasks to complete in order to keep the animals and store clean and healthy. Tanks and cages had to be cleaned regularly, and everything had to be fed daily. Customer service, while being extremely important to any store, was not the only concern in the daily routine of the pet store. Today's task was a little different though, it was a day for dusting. Everything had to be dusted and washed down. He was still puzzled by the number of strange worms he had found that day, all over the cans and bags of pet food. As this came into his mind he set aside the money and wrote a quick note to the boss, before he forgot again, informing him of the situation and asking his advice on what to do. The worms didn't seem to get into any of the food, just all over it. In every little crease or fold in a bag or in the crevasses of the can rims little pale yellow worms had appeared overnight wrapped in a loose webbing, almost like the start of a cocoon. Mark had no idea what they were or how they had got there so fast, he just cleaned off as many of them as he could find. It was odd.

With the cash counted and the last minute closing chores done Mark went out back to turn off the lights. A large, well-marked fuse box, perched in the back of the store, allowed the lights to be switched off without cutting the power to the air pumps, filters and heaters that continued to keep the animals comfortable throughout the night. As Mark pulled down the large black switches and the store was plunged into darkness, he thought again, as he had on his first day only a week ago, how odd it was that they didn't get regular switches put in at the front of the store. Then again his employers were not the most normal of people so he shrugged and continued turning out the lights.

Turning around Mark froze as the startling realization hit him that he was in darkness and could see nothing except the pale streetlight filtering in through the front windows of the store. Not being afraid of the dark, Mark stood still, not understanding what was making him so nervous. Tension crept throughout his body and Mark, listening, realized that under the soft hum of filters and air pumps there was nothing but absolute silence. No sounds of chirps or flapping wings, no tiny feet shuffling through wood shavings or the high-pitched squeak of the metal wheels. Nada stood silent in her cage, the huge bird's cries for attention silenced along with all other animal sounds, instantly with the fall of darkness. Silence held him still and confused, but with a growing comprehension that something was not right and that he should be afraid.

Terror clamped down on Mark's already growing panic as the streetlights outside failed, completely engulfing him and the store in total darkness. Silence roared into his ears as the power went off along with the lights and the pumps slowed to a halt. The abyss that now surrounded Mark was endless in depth and silence and filled him with dread. The sudden thunderous sound of the deposit bag dropping from his hands hit him like a slap in the face and he was able to breathe again. Looking around, his mind reeling from terror, but finally released from paralyzation, Mark took a step forward trying to see anything or find his way to the front of the store. A small light formed in the window of the store, a pair of them, small red lights like that of a car's brake lights. His eyes locking onto them he started forward, only to stop again in confusion as many more of them suddenly appeared, obviously not the lights of a car.

In mere seconds dozens of the tiny red lights had appeared in the windows up front. His mind, now a lump of useless flesh, failed completely and he fell to his knees in terror as the realization of what the lights were dawned on him. They were not outside images coming into the store through the windows, but a reflection of what was in the store with him. Each red light was a pair of eyes, the animal's eyes, moving forward to stare at him through the reflection of the windows, dozens of them, staring and waiting. Each pair glowed with a silent crimson hunger until it erupted in a cacophony of hatred. Howls, screeches and wails of feral rage roared out shattering both the silence and Mark's mind as it increased in savagery. A loud smashing sound led Mark's gaze up to the ceiling were, somehow, he could see a huge mass of pale yellow wormy tentacles flowing down to envelop him. The roar died down to silence, leaving nothing but the echo of a human scream mingled with half mad laughter. . .

The woman put the newspaper back down on the hospital table, making sure her daughter couldn't see the article it contained, so she could consol her grieving daughter who was bent over the prone form of her boyfriend, Mark. The daughter, her eyes still red and puffy from the last time, began to cry once more. Mark lay there staring, unknowing or uncaring, at the ceiling with a goofy grin on his face, eyes glazed over and a little trail of drool flowing down his lip. In the paper on the table, turned to the classifieds, was a small ad in the corner advertising "Position available immediately, must enjoy working with animals."

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