The Shapeshifter (Part 1: I Kept Noticing Extra Animals At The Pet Store I Work At.)

To start, the store I work at isn’t PetCo or PetSmart. It’s a mom-and-pop one. I like my job alright. Although it can be mundane at times, the pay is decent and the hours are rarely ever unreasonable. The best part of my job is working with animals. Sure having to clean their cages isn’t the most pleasant thing in the world but it’s worth it to play with them every once in a while. However, recently I’ve noticed things that are..disturbing, to say the least.

The owners left on Monday and have left me in charge until next week. Everything was going fine until I noticed something odd going by the bird section. There was one more bird than there was before. I counted them. There should have been fourteen but I counted fifteen. I checked to see if the extra bird was in our inventory. Sure enough, it wasn’t. The extra bird was a cockatiel and since we sell so many, I couldn’t tell which one was the new one.

I didn’t see how one could have possibly snuck in. My next thought is that maybe someone put it there. Although there are two reasons this is unlikely. One, you need a key to get into the display case and two, there is a rescue center up the street. Of which most of the pets we sell come from. If the person wanted to drop their bird off, why didn’t they just take it there, instead of going through all this trouble to sneak it into the store?

I called the owners and explained what I had found. They told me to double-check if it was indeed true and that we might have overlooked the extra bird. If I confirmed there was an extra bird, I was to add it to our inventory.

I double-checked to find that there were only fourteen cockatiels. I recounted twice just to make sure. I decided that I had been under a lot of stress. And must have imagined the other bird there. I closed the shop. Then headed home.

The next day, things once again started normally. Nothing seemed weird until I went by the aquatic section. There was one more goldfish than before. This isn’t unusual as they tend to breed but this extra one was fully grown. Needless to say, I was starting to get freaked out.

Once again, I explained what I found to the owners and they told me to double-check. I did and like the extra bird, I no longer saw an extra fish. It was at this point, I considered the possibility I was going crazy or that I had some form of schizophrenia I didn’t know about until then. I decided that if I noticed anything else similar, I would start recording it. The store doesn’t have security cams. Since we live in a relatively crime-free area but I did have some cameras at home. Which I could use to record footage in the store.

These were old cameras. So the footage wasn’t HD or anything like that. However, the footage they picked up was clear enough to make out.

The next day, I noticed we had an extra snake in our reptile section. I had the cameras in my car. In case something like this occurred again. Luckily, I had enough for each section. I made sure to strategically place them in ways where they wouldn’t be noticed easily. Hiding them behind items on the shelf and things like that. The only difficult thing was making sure the lens wasn’t obscured.

I hid the cameras, after making sure everything else I needed to do for closing was taken care of. Before I left, I went by the reptile section again and saw..there was one less snake tan before. I don’t mean that the extra snake had gone away, I mean that there was one less than what I thought we originally had. They were kept in separate cases. So it wasn’t like they could kill and eat each other.

The weird feeling I had before, began to turn into worry. I started to feel like I was in danger. From what exactly, I didn’t know at the time.

The following day, I arrived earlier than usual to collect the cameras I had hidden. When I stepped in, I was met with a grisly sight, passing by the cat’s cages. They had all been slaughtered. Well..shredded really. Bits of their flesh clung to the door of their cages and a trail of blood in the shape of cat paws lead to the hamster section. I already knew what I’d see there. The only thing left of the hamsters was a half-eaten head. The poor thing looked terrified.

I stepped out to puke and call the police. Then I went back in to collect the cameras. I had to see what they recorded. I got in the car, locked it, and made to leave it on. If I needed to flee, all I would have to do is switch to drive.

The cops said that they would be over as quickly as possible and to make sure I was somewhere safe. Since I was, I figured I could glance over the footage that my cameras recorded. I, of course, started with the cat and hamster footage. First the cat cages. It started with me making sure the camera was in place. I sped it up a bit and for three hours, nothing was out of place. However, on hour four, I caught a glimpse of something. Another cat, a grey tabby walked into the frame. It looked at the cats in their cages. Instantly, I saw the cats getting agitated. Their fur bristled and they hissed at the new cat.

Here’s where shit gets really fucked up. The cat’s cages are in their own separate room that we make sure to lock every night. The new cat seemed to be searching for a way in. I thought it wouldn’t find one. Until I saw it do something that made my heart stop. It started to stretch itself thin. I didn’t fully comprehend what I was seeing at first. However, I eventually realized that the cat was stretching itself thin like taffy. When it had gotten thin enough, it flopped on its side. Then slid under the crack of the door.

Now, the cats had gotten even more agitated than before. That thing stretched its head and squeezed it into the nearest cage. I could hear a pained scream from the cat inside. Followed by silence and what sounded like meat being ground. The thing masquerading as a cat pulled its head out of the cage. It looked like a normal cat again. But its face was covered in blood and it licked its lips. The other cats met the same fate as the previous one. Then that thing squeezed back under the door to get out of the room. Soon, it left the frame.

I immediately went to the footage of the hamster section. The same cat wandered onto the frame and the hamsters reacted the same way the cats had. This time, it began to shrink down and the shape of its ears changed. Soon, I was looking at a hamster. It squeezed into the hamster’s cases. Then they met the same fate as the cats.

By this point, I felt faint. I would have left the parking lot if it weren’t for the police arriving moments later. One commented on how pale I looked and asked if I needed a doctor. I told him that I’d be fine but that I was in a little shock. They took my statement. I didn’t bother mentioning the thing because I figured they wouldn’t believe me. I just told them that it was vitality important they view the footage on my cameras.

Before the police left, they called people to clean up for me. I was relieved that I didn’t have to clean up any cat or hamster bits. When the cleaners arrived, I called the owners and explained the situation to them. They were mortified but were glad I was okay. They told me that the shop would have to close for a few days. So that we could get this mess sorted out. I was going to leave. Then I remembered something. I had hidden cameras to view the back and front entrances of the store just in case it was someone sneaking in.

I had completely forgotten about them in the midst of everything. I know I should’ve given them to the police but, I was so exhausted, I decided to head home. After I calmed down, I took a look at the footage on the two cameras. Looking back, I’m glad I didn’t go to the police right away. The back entrance footage didn’t show anything. The front entrance footage, however, did, and even though what I saw was less gory, it scared me far more than what I had seen before.

Someone walked into the frame. It turned out to be me. I or I should say the thing that was posing as me, looked directly at the camera. Its eyes looked like mine except that there was this unusually gleeful glint in them. What disturbed me the most about it was its smile. It looked like it had layers of teeth. Even with the low quality of the camera, I could see it had three extra layers of teeth.

Now, I’m wondering if I should turn this footage in to the police. I know they should believe me. Since they viewed the footage on the other cameras but what if they just think that I messed with the footage? And since it technically shows me as the only person at the store during the time, there may be a chance that everything that’s happened could be pinned on me somehow. So, should I give it to them?

What’s gotten me even more worried, though, and caused me to constantly look over my shoulder, and lose sleep the past few nights is what the thing did before walking off frame. It spoke. All it said were two words to the camera.

“You’re next.”

“What the hell do I do?”

Author’s note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you did and want to throw some money my way, you can do so on either Cashapp or Kofi.