The Store

The next morning, as early as the first flicker of dawn, I woke up, Drake was still asleep, he loved to sleep tight. I forgot to mention that the dreams he had stopped, he was no longer speaking strange words in his sleep, maybe because we were out of the woods, out of trouble!

"You are up early." Drake woke up soon, he smiled at me seeing the excitement on my face. I was happy to be doing something on my own for the first time ever in my life.

"It's gonna be an interesting day."

"Oh yeah! I will be down soon." Drake said and went into the bathroom.

I left for the stairs but before then, I searched for the car key. After a while, I found it inside Drake's brown bag. Also my father's phone was inside. Curious to know what was inside, I picked it up and left. This time I was putting on my father's black pants and one of Lisa's shirts.

"Morning Sam!"

"Morning Lyla. You are up already." Sam gradually warmed up to me and I was glad he did. Even though I was worried for their safety, I still hoped that things were going to turn out well.

"I will be outside." I said and went outside the house.

Getting to the car, I unlocked it carefully and went inside the driver's seat. Bending over, I pulled out the cover of the glove compartment and brought out the letters I had seen earlier, the thought about them was stuck in my memory since we arrived. Opening one of the four envelopes I gently pulled out the letter inside carefully. Strangely, it was blank. I couldn't understand how anyone could put a blank letter in an envelope.

I opened the rest of the envelopes one after the other and they were also blank. "Really!" I said aloud furious.

"What the hell!" What could be the meaning of these?

I knew something that I was missing something, maybe a clue or a piece of information, so I carefully looked at the envelopes and then I discovered something; they had seals that looked like the head of a wolf with strange inscriptions surrounding it. Probably some sort of ancient language. They seemed so familiar but I wasn't sure.

Honestly, I could rightly say I was frustrated. I remembered that I came inside the car with my father's phone, so I brought it out from my pocket and turned it on.

"Oh great! A password!" My face squeezed when I saw the indication on the screen requesting for a password. 'What really could the password be?' I thought engrossed with frustration.

'Kyle, Bardolf, Loretta, Anne, Lyla, MoonBlood, Wolf…'

None or the words I typed in matched. Soon I was locked out from the phone. 'Password tries repeatedly. Try again after thirty minutes!'

I dumped the phone back into my pocket and sighed, I just wanted an answer! No one seemed to have a clue regarding what really happened to my father.

"Hey you!" Came the tap on the window followed by Drake's voice. I pressed the button and the window rolled down.

"Are you ok?"

Drake had noticed the frustration written all over my face.

"I am fine." I said with a fake smile.

"Let me see those." He said stretching out his hand to take the letters that were on my laps. I handed them over to him through the space in the window.

"Strange!" He said going through all the letters in the envelopes and discovering that they were blank.

"These seem very familiar." He said softly referring to the inscriptions on the envelopes.

"Well we better hurry up so that we don't miss the early customers. They pay well you know."

Sam appeared from behind Drake. He was all dressed and ready for work, his black cowboy hat resting secured on his head.

Drake opened the door to the driver's seat and I stepped out to allow him go inside. I went through the back and got into the other seat at the front. Sam left us and went to get his bike.

The short ride from the house to Sam's store was a bliss. Drake rolled down the windows in front to air flow in freely. The fresh early air flowing across my face made my raven hair flow through my face. I soon let out my head through the window looking at the trees, buildings and polls pass by as we drove across, Sam driving in front of us.

Soon we arrived at the store. Sam went through the back and soon the metal gates were rolled apart to expose the glass doors. 'Sam's Store' boldly written on a board above the window of the store.

"Come on!" Sam said gesturing at me to come inside. Drake was still inside the car, I got down almost immediately he pulled up in front of the store, really excited.

The store was large, fully stocked and organized. More like a semi-mall. There were groceries, equipments, some home appliances, some clothings and other items for sale. They were all properly arranged in different shelves.

"Here, these are lists of items in stock and their prices just in case the price checker doesn't show the price." Sam handed over the stapled papers to me, there were over 1500 items and their prices listed on the papers. Soon Sam walked in holding three paper bags. He had gone to get the things we were going to eat.

"I see Sam has checked you in." He said handing over one of the paper bags to me.

Everything was set, I was ready to start my new job as a storekeeper. Maybe it wasn't really a job, more like we were helping Sam out for free. But it really didn't matter. We soon built a family together growing so fond of each other.

Soon customers started to troop in, Sam was really right, the early customers really rushed in and purchased quite a lot.

"I love your golden eyes." Said one of the customers. Am old lady who came to get some beverages.

"Thank you." I responded softly with a smile. Sam looked really worried that anyone could be suspicious about the color of my eyes but he refused to show it. I could see it written clearly beneath his smile.

"Can I have some gums?." Said another customer pointing at the container on the table where I sat close to. I learnt it was called a counter.

"Sure!" I gently lifted the container, uncovered it and offered it to the customer. She dipped her hand inside the container and took and some wraps of gum which she paid for.

"Thank you!" She said with a delightful smile. The lady seemed really nice. I particularly loved her outfit, she was really stylish at her old age.

A lot of customers also put some dollar bills in the tip jar,

"You look so much like Lisa. Such a lovely young lady. Poor Sam to lose her daughter to the wolf."

The words hit me like a cannon, I wasn't sure if I was to be glad or worried. The man paid for the items he picked from the shelves and left after putting a dollar bill in the jar.

"You are really doing well for your first day." Sam startled me. I was carried away in thoughts reflecting on the words the old man said before waking away.

"Are you ok?" Sam asked when he noticed that I was lost in thoughts. I gave him a smile, followed by a nod.

"All done." Drake cut us in. He was restocking some of the empty shelves with the items in the storeroom.

The rest of the day went well, customers came by and bought items, those who had complaints Sam handled their issues and settled it amicably.

I was enjoying the new lifestyle. It was free of violence; I didn't have to worry about any bounty hunters coming after me or clawing anyone and even sinking my canines into anyone.

The feeling of belonging crept into me and gradually, I was at peace with myself and Kira. She seemed not to be worried that she had not avenged her family. Maybe because it wasn't time yet or she had just considered it not to be worthwhile.

"It's late, we should lockup now."

It was past the 19th hour and darkness had befallen us. There were just few customers coming in to purchase one coming in to buy an item and the next coming after a long time.

It was time to lockup, I recorded the things on the computer as Sam had instructed and wrote a list of items that were lacking in our list from the requests the customers made. I was glad I learnt a bit of how to operate the computer back at MoonBlood Pack high school. One of the few things I benefited from their before my father's sudden disappearance.

"We are closed!" I said to the customer after I heard the bell ding as the door opened. My eyes were looking at the computer screen trying to finish up with entering some details.

I could hear heavy footsteps approaching, stomping the floor.

"We are closed Sir." I said again, this time a little louder than I had earlier, maybe he didn't hear me the first time.

"Oh that's a pity and I thought to get some packs of cigarette. I am out and I need some smoke."

"You have to come back tomorrow then." But the rough looking man seemed not to budge, instead he came right in front of me and glared at me, his brown teeth making a grin as he widened his eyes. He seemed like trouble!

"Well, it seems I am not at luck today."

The man picked up one of the gums in the container, unwrapped it and threw it inside his mouth. At that moment, I could feel Kira trying so hard not to give in to the anger building up.

"You have to pay for that sir!"

"Oh, but I have not money with me!" The man laughed sarcastically munching on the gum.

"Any problem here?"

Sam appeared from the storeroom, the man was taken aback, he obviously thought I was alone in the store.

"Nothing, I was just leaving."

The man gently took a few steps backwards, bowed in a funny way and left the store.