Chapter 9 Snap Shot

"I'm stuck, Lucky." Doctor Zack said while looking at photos of the night at the hospital. 

"It didn't change." He said.

"You mean turn?" Said Lucky, sitting back into the desk chair interlocking his fingers behind his head, gradually easing the chair backwards to the floor comfortably stealing a thoughtful moment from the light fixture without ever flinching in pain.  Doctor Zack peered through hard plastic frame glasses.

"Does it matter?" He asked.

"Yes it matters." Lucky answered, coming away from the lighting but keeping his head held in his hands.

"The guy didn't change into a pair of jeans.  A sweatshirt.  And sneakers to go take a walk before heading home to a significant other."

Doctor Zack squinted his eyes at Lucky.  Unsure if he had heard him correctly.  Lucky. Weird, Doctor Zack thought.

"This guy didn't turn back into himself.  Or herself.  Wait.  I forgot to check.  Lucky, make a note—Professor, check for gender.  The world's a big place." Lucky said.

Doctor Zack squinted harder, trying to figure out Lucky Rival's aspect of verbal personality.  Was it sarcasm? Or was he being himself? 

"Come in." Lucky said aloud to the knocking on his office door.

Damien entered with the 35mm still in his hands.  He looked past Doctor Zack and at Lucky.

"But you're hurt." He said, amazed to see his boss without the sling.

"If I hear another person scream I'm stuck, I'm moving to Lertsville.  Opening a glue factory and making sure that sticking it to the man isn't a part of my daily routine."

Doctor Zack sighed heavy, disbelieving Lucky's tone.  He turned around and looked at the man who just entered the room, wondering if he feels the same way about Lucky Rival and his strange choice of words.  Doctor Zack faced Lucky, quiet, frustrated at the comfortable conversationist in front of him.

"My family is waiting for me at home." Lucky said, bringing his elbows to the desk and shutting his eyes and holding his breath as the free arm rests on it.  His attempt to hide the discomfort is noticable.

"I know—" Damien said, stepping casually forward.

Lucky slowly opened his eyes.  The sudden admission by the new hire brings him closer by way of sight than what he had ever experienced before with anyone.  Suddenly the office was empty and dark.  The morning had turned to late in the day and it was stormy inside.  Thunder replaced the silence that had developed and every flash of lightning was in the office instead of outside with wind and rain.  Lucky was mad but docile.

Damien stood there with a newspaper in one hand and the camera around his neck, shuttering away in the other.  The flashes of the camera complimented the day that was being played out now.

Lucky didn't want his picture taken.  He wanted to know who this person of about a week on the job was.  He knew that he was brought in by the impartial judgement of Jan.  She liked anybody as long as they worked well with everyone but maybe with this guy she had made a mistake.  Maybe he had made the mistake of trusting Jan this one time.  Letting her be his eyes when his eyes were busy may have just gotten the better of him and what he had created—a company that no one wanted to recreate because it was hard work to capture creatures that proved to be nuisances moreso than pleasant beasts: butterflies, caterpillars, earthworms.  And besides, earthworms don't kill people, werewolves do.

Lucky stayed still and listened to the storm.  His eyes never blinked from the flashes. Instead, they stayed on his company photographer. The new hire that he just fed. The man that claimed to be a model citizen. Now in Lucky's eyes, he wasn't a model citizen of any place. He was someone he could treat with malice and shame in front of the nice and the not so nice citizens of Darteret. To Lucky Rival, the company photographer was no longer a person with a title, that one day would have a portfolio of pictures, to say to everybody what he did for a living. The company photographer was easy to place in his mind of scared crying siblings and scared angry parents and curious, scared neighbors. Everyday was special to Lucky Rival these days and had been since that night at the river.

The lightning flashed streak after streak with thunder accompanying it.  Everything Damien said, Lucky wasn't listening to.  He had no reason to hear what this person was mouthing. He cared no longer for words of his own because he had no words to say to him as the camera left Damien's hand and went back to hanging around his neck. He slammed the folded newspaper in his hand as he continued coming closer to the bewildered man behind the desk who was watching him.

The desk drawer opened slightly after Lucky sucked in his belly.  He kept looking at Damien who was oblivious to his boss and his actions. He grabbed the steel but didn't pick it up.  In his mind he placed Damien everywhere something in his life didn't go right. It was unfair to do and he knew it but it didn't stop him from placing  him in the yards of his clients as the suspected villain that always managed to grab the cat and the dog, never to see them again because half of them was left.  He placed him at great distances that made the sheriff question him, what's that making that sound. Everybody already guessed. Werewolf? They don't sound like wolves, Lucky thought, squeezing the trigger lightly.

"How is that?" Lucky asked Damien, the storm all around him still strong.

Doctor Zack slowly lowered his jaw, surprised at what was taking place across from him.

"I know you don't mind me chronicling this place. It would look good on the walls." Damien said, not really answering the question.

Lucky released the weapon and grabbed something else. Damien read the angered look on his face as ease after their productive lunch meeting.

"I shot you a couple of times Lucky.  Sorry, I'll get my other camera and shoot you again."

Closing the desk, Lucky nodded his approval. "You're good at not getting fired." Lucky said, playing his mistaken anger off.

Damien smiled brightly and left the office.

"Professor Zack," Lucky began, "We were talking about werewolves. Please do, continue."

Doctor Zack cleared his throat and squirmed in his seat a bit. "No.  Sir.  You have the floor." He said, giving all of his attention to the beast hunter.