After Dark

"There was only one rule: don't open the door." My new boss had told me, and added, "After dark."

I peered through the window as a dozen puppies tumbled around the indoor kennel.

"Can I play with them?"

"That's your job, and collecting the little monsters poop."

*

Eleven gray pups rushed me with their tails thumping. I sat. They bathed my face with their pink tongues. I laughed,

"Ah, puppy breath. I can't believe I'm getting paid to do this."

An Albino pup lay alone in the corner, and I crawled to her. She shied away and whimpered. Urine trickled down my hands when I picked her up. Her shivering stopped when I stroked her neck, and she licked my hand.

After dark and overloaded with puppy-generated dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin, I met my girlfriend, Josey, for dinner.

"You're glowing," she said, "I want to see them."

*

Josey cuddled against me in front of the kennel window, and the Albino stood staring at me with her paws on the glass.

"Aw, she wants you."

The Grays attacked the Albino, and blood erupted from her white fur.

"Help her."

I rushed to the door and opened it. The night air transformed the pups into massive werewolves. Muscles bulged from their legs, and their daggered canines dripped drool. The Albino growled, "Dinner."

A Gray slammed me into a wall, and the Albino knocked Josey to the floor. The monsters ripped, tore, and swallowed the flesh off of my girlfriend's bones.

As Josey's remaining bones were crushed and swallowed, the Albino werewolf stood over me, huddled in the corner. Terrified, I shied away and whimpered. She licked my face with a blood-laced tongue as urine soaked my trousers, and the creatures scuttled out the door into the darkness.

***