“Oh pick up you motherfucker!” Tyler shouted at his phone. It was late, and he was walking home from his shop. He had classes tomorrow morning, and the fucking rat had never shown up to collect the keys.
His phone rang out. For the fifth time in three hours, there was no answer .“Filthy piece of SHIT!” Tyler spat as he stuffed his phone angrily into his pocket. Well, this is just great then isn’t it, he thought bitterly to himself. The new Trimester was starting, so he wasn’t going to risk pissing off the wrong professors by skipping the first class. But the damned rat who was meant to fill in while Tyler was at classes was avoiding him. Tyler ran through the next day in his head. Two in the afternoon. His store would be closed until he got there at two in the afternoon.
Tyler sighed in resigned frustration. Well, weekdays weren’t exactly the busiest, particularly mornings. But that was no excuse. His store was doing alright, on turnover it was turning a small prophet, but the bank overdraft was squeezing him. He couldn’t afford to have the store sit locked during perfectly good business hours. And this wasn’t the first time the rat had just wandered off.
He would have to get a more reliable assistant, he thought to himself as he cut through the parks and side streets that offered the most direct route home. There was no public transport to speak of, and a car was the rejected half of the car/discretionary spending dichotomy. So he would always have to hike the fifty minute walk to and from his shop, regardless of the weather.
And right now, the weather was looking ominous. It was much darker than it should have been in at that time in the evening, the scattered street lamps already the primary source of light as impenetrable sheets of dark clouds raced overhead. It wasn’t raining, but the constant distant rumbling and occasional flicker of lightening reminded him that things can change.
The warm air was mostly still, save for the occasional small, sharp local bursts that swept a layer of dust and leaves several feet across the street. There was an energy in the atmosphere, and everything about it suggested that Tyler was walking through the calm before the storm.
The purple drake picked up the pace, distantly adjusting his shirt as if to confirm that it was the only thing between him and the elements. He was still a good mile from home, so if it did start raining, there was going to be no escaping it.
A car slowly passed Tyler as he walked down the sidewalk of the seemingly endless residential estates. The purple drake wasn’t sure on exactly what happened next, but a sudden sound was the first thing that registered.
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