*not the prompt. Although sometimes I feel like a zoo animal that has gone missing…”

You were spinning on, like a cable. My hands were tied to the table

The way it looks They way it feels The way the light Hits the shadow

• it appeals

Scraping dark lines off, marks. Then there is the way my blood congeals

The way it looks They way it feels The way the light Hits the shadow

• isn’t real.

But the light flickering left, simply says ‘No location found’

I paused uncertainly. Surely the door hadn’t been open as I passed…had it? I was nearing the end of a long hallway of barred cages. This sector was known for its unusual creatures, discovered all over the galaxy.

Part of my duties were to check the cages to be sure that they were all locked up for the night. It was three am, and I was ready to go home. I turned back and stopped in front of the door. No way.

If I’d been tired before I was suddenly wide awake. The ship was eerily silent. It was also lit only by red leds that lined the floor. Of course they were red. They were always red.

Drip.

I tensed.

Drip.

I was gripped with the sickening realization that whatever was making droplets hit the floor was above me.

I squeezed my eyes shut; willing whatever was up there to disappear.

One, two, three.

I jerked my head upright and simultaneously jumped backwards. A leaky pipe. I almost laughed with relief. I hurried down the corridor, beams from my flashlight bouncing off the walls and floor.

I rounded a corner and slipped, falling on my back and sliding about seven feet down the hallway.

I paused to examine the substance I was laying in. It smelled horrible, like rotting flesh. My face contorted in disgust and I hastily got to my feet.

A low growl made the hair on my arms raise. My eyes flicked all around the narrow enclosure, and then my blood ran cold. There behind me stood the monster I’d been searching for.

It had four legs but it stood on two, jagged teeth bared and strands of saliva dripping to the floor. I reeled, jumping backwards as it lashed out at me. It looked like a cross between an alligator and a wolf, but it was huge. Like some form of perverted Godzilla.

I’d fallen again, now scrambling backwards across the floor as fast as I could go as the monstrous being stormed after me. It roared and the whole ship vibrated. Ragged screams reached my ears, and it took a moment to register that they were my own. I couldn’t stop.

I scrambled to my feet and darted into a narrow storage closet around the corner. I gasped, fighting to stay as quiet as possible. I closed my eyes as the creature neared the closet door. I focused on my breathing. In and out. In. Out. In……

I opened my eyes. Silence. The animal was nowhere to be seen. I wrung my hands, mentally preparing myself as I tried to form a plan. There was a chute that opened up into a vacuum sealed room in sector 12. It was my only hope for survival.

I made a mental note to quit my job when I returned to my home planet. I waited a moment, hand on the doorknob. Then it was time. I ripped open the door and jogged across the open space. A claw slashed out and caught my arm, leaving a red gash. I screamed in pain, clutching it and stumbling in my run. Blood spilled over my fingers and dripped on the floor, and I fought back nausea.

The monster had dropped to all four paws and was right behind me, snarling and snapping its jaws. I was almost to the turnoff and then there was one more hallway before I reached the chute. My arm was bleeding profusely and I gritted my teeth.

I could feel the creature’s hot breath and smell the stench as I rounded the final corner into the hallway. I knew I wouldn’t make it in time if I kept holding my injured arm, so I ripped my hand off of it, splattering blood on the wall.

Then it came: the final sprint. The chamber was open at the end of the hallway, and it would require me leading the monster inside and escaping through a slot under the door at the opposite end.

I poured every ounce of strength into my legs, heart pounding and adrenaline tracing every vein. Another scratch at my leg and I tripped, regaining my balance only barely. I entered the chamber, sprinting towards the wall with the creature right on my heels.

In the final second I dropped to the floor, purposefully falling as I slid on my back under the slot and jammed my foot into a button; sealing the monster away in the chamber. For good.

“ESTELLE! ESTELLE, WE GOTTA PROBLEM!”

Estelle rolled her eyes. This new guy really was the most dramatic custodian the zoo had ever hired.

“Whaddya want, Jiz?” she called back.

“I said—“ he panted as he ran over to the customer service desk where Estelle worked. “I said we gotta problem.”

Estelle flipped a page in the magazine she was reading. “Is it a real problem, or er’ you just flirtin’ with me like last week?”

“It’s a real problem!”

Estelle sighed. “And someone spillin’ all their caramel frappa-whatchamacallit doesn’t count as no problem. That’s your job to be cleanin’ up, you hear?”

“Yeh!” The new guy cried. He slapped his hand down on the customer service desk, making Estelle jump. “But listen to me, Estelle. This time, we gotta big problem.”

“You mean ‘you’ got a big problem?”

“No! I mean ‘we.’ Listen,” he leaned over the counter so he could whisper to Estelle. “It’s…”

“What? What’s up, Jiz?”

He lowered his voice. “It’s those damn giraffes.”

“Giraffes?” Estelle whispered back. “What’s up with the giraffes, Jiz?”

He shook his head. “I don’t wanna tell ya’.”

“Well, you gotta tell me now!” Estelle cried. She was too curious. She threw her magazine aside.

A few of the zoo-goers paused, glancing at the scene unfolding at the customer service desk. They only left once Estelle gave all of them respective death glares.

“As I was sayin’,” she said, agitated. “I wanna know about the damn giraffes. Cmon, tell me!!”

“Fine! Fine, I’ll tell ya. I came over here to tell ya anyways.” He blew out a breath, then lowered his voice to a whisper. “They… they escaped.”

“They ESCAPED?!”

“Shhh! Not so loud now. But yeh. Them giraffes escaped, and I’m the only one that saw em’ go. They just jumped right over the fence we put up— right over, if you can believe it, like gazelles or somethin’ — and now, poof!” He waved his hands. “Gone.”

“Good God,” Estelle said. She wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead. “Oi, I can see the story now. ‘Damn giraffes escape from New York zoo.’”

“So you believe me?”

“‘Course I believe ya’! I mean, yer a new guy and all, but I don’t think you’d lie to me. Would ya’?” She narrowed her eyes suspiciously at Jiz.

Jiz shook his head vigorously. “No!”

“Good, then. Righty. Well, I suppose we gotta figure out what ta do about those giraffes.” She huffed.

“Should we tell the boss?”

“Tell the boss? Are ya’ crazy?!” Estelle cried. “No, no. We’re supposed to be watchin’ the Savanna enclosures like a hawk. If he finds out about this, we’re dead meat for sure.”

“So what r’ we gonna do?”

Estelle bit her lip. She twisted her baseball cap tighter onto her head. “Alrighty, here’s the plan. We’re gonna lure ‘em back.”

“Lure ‘em? Well what the hell r’ we gonna lure ‘em with?”

“Leaves, obviously! That’s what those giraffes eat, ain’t it?”

Jiz thought for a minute. “Think so. Ain’t that why their tongues are purple n’ all that?”

“Probably. But, ah, I gotta find someone to work the desk while we do this. Shit. Whoddya know who could work the desk?”

“Preeya?” Jiz asked. “She’s over in the gift shop. It’s pretty slow usually. She could do it.”

“Hm. Can we trust her?”

“‘Course we can! It’s Preeya!” Jiz sounded a little frantic. He took a breath. “I’ll go get her.”

“And then we can find some leaves,” Estelle said.

“To lure the damn giraffes.”

“Exactly,” she told him. “And get ‘em back into the enclosure.”

“And then build up the fence.”

“Yeh. But the boss can handle that.”

“Good, okay. Righty then. I’m off!” Jiz slapped his hand on the customer service desk again. He was about to leave, but then he paused. “Oh, and hey. Estelle?”

“Yeh?”

“You don’ think I’m just… you don’ think of me as nothin’ just cause I’m new, right?” he asked. “Like all the rest of ‘em?”

Estelle hesitated. True, she did think that. But maybe she was starting to realize how capable he really was.

“Nah. Nah, I don’ think that.”

“Good,” Jiz said. He gave her a smile. “Right then. To Preeya!” And he ran off.

Estelle shook her head as she went back to her magazine. Maybe he wasn’t such a dramatic new guy after all.

Now all they had to do was lure back those damn giraffes.

I tightened the rubber band around my dark colored hair, hoping that my ponytail wouldn’t slip out while I was on my shift at the zoo. Then I heard a rustling, something moving. “WEE WOoO WEEE WOOO..” “Oh my…they’re at it again. Animals killing and attacking our workers, I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve seen coworkers of mine get bitten by a crocodile.” Aaron sighed for a rather long time. Then he turned to me, his face showing amusement. “Are you actually scared of the very animals we’re working with?” He smirked..as if he knew anything about me! I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I snatched his baseball cap from him. “We’ll..we’ll see who really is the scared one.” Ivan came up behind us. “You too are acting like kids. Go to your shifts! Aaron, Rey, you both act like this job is nothing but a place to hang out. Since you both are acting this way..Rey you get the shift at Joe’s pasture. Aaron will get your old one.” “What?!” I almost screamed, but still, please not that—that devil. Ivan just stands where he is and tells us both to go to our new shifts. Joe…”Why Joe..? Ugh…” I groaned for a bit, while slowly moving to Joe’s pasture. Amelia, a short girl with curly blond hair, who’s 15, volunteers as a helper. For some reason she was at Joe’s pasture, and it looked like she was panicking, while pacing around. “What’s happened?” I waved at the nervous fifteen year old. “It’s..it’s nothing.” “Ok..” but seriously, who’d believe this girl if they saw her, pacing around and being all nervous like. But then I saw something that actually distracted me from this whole scene. As I was looking for Joe, I spotted nothing. Joe’s here, right.? Joe’s gotta be here. He has to be here. I keep repeating it in my head. “Amelia. Joe. Did you see Joe?” But that’s when it clicked, Amelia just went frozen and couldn’t move her face for a few seconds. It looked like she was trying to speak but couldn’t. Then finally, Amelia spoke. “I’m..I’m sorry! Joe suddenly just got this—this bellicose look! His eyes were fiercer than before, I feared what he might do so I stayed for the next shift. And..He striked. Somehow he got out, I didn’t tell anyone, but I know it’s not you. Someone helped him escape.” She hurriedly said it all, then afterwards, Amelia started shivering and rubbing her arms.

Well…that changes things.

I told Amelia to try to keep it a secret to our coworkers for now, to try to keep a temporary secret.

I sprinted through our grounds, searching for a wild, dangerous beast. And also..maybe one accomplice.

Eventually, I spotted Aaron again. He seemed like he was too happy for no reason. He was grinning to himself, but not shouting his joys out loud like the usual.

“Aaron, have you seen Joe today?” “Haha, you didn’t..lose him, did you?” He grinned at me, but also seemed a bit too distracted.

“You did it.” I pointed at him. He dropped his hands to his sides. “I’m only trying to get my friend back. Honestly, why does this planet insist on keeping my friend trapped against his will here? I miss him..” he sniffled a little. Then I noticed something.

“You’re..one of those aliens, aren’t you?” “So is he, and..so is she. But then again..she is pretending to be someone she’s not. She’s scared, afraid, I tried to talk her out of it.” He sighed about the last part.

Who is he talking about?

“I see you don’t get it, well..Joe isn’t actually a lion, he’s a person. He’s a shapeshifter to be more exact. And..my best friend. Also..Amelia, when she started working here I thought she looked familiar and then a day later, I knew. Amelia isn’t human either, she’s disguising herself, she must be from the planet across from mine.” To you, we..aliens, I suppose.

He shrugged at the last part. Aliens. But somehow, I couldn’t quite get something. “Wait..why did you go to—“ Someone was approaching behind Aaron, his face was an almost translucent color but like a rock or mineral. There were cracks on his face.

“Bye.” Was all he said.

Then..they disappeared right in front of my eyes. Wait..what?!

Most days at my job are uneventful, just feeding the animals and making sure they were healthy. But one morning, something went wrong.

Walking though the snake enclosure I noticed that the boa constrictor was not in his cage where he was supposed to be. With no cleanings on the schedule, this was very bad.

I immediately reported it to the office while checking to make sure the other snakes were still locked away. Thankfully they were.

Shortly, men in armor, carrying nets and tranquilizer guns arrived at the scene, and soon began to spread out and search for our missing snake.

I tagged along with one of them, wanting to see this all the way through. Soon enough, we heard screaming coming from the bird sanctuary. It probably wasn’t smart to put it next to the snake enclosure.

When we arrive at the scene, we see a crowd of people standing in front of one of the displays, looking at our snake swallow a bird whole!

The man I was with called all of his co workers over, and they tranquilized the boa before bagging him up. Sad that the show was over, the crowd left to go to other attractions, and we were left with a tranquilized snake that had a bird shaped upper body.

What a day!

A man with a well kept beard entered a dimly lit room. On the far side were monitors, showing multiple animal enclosures. A tired looking woman watched the screens with little interest. That is until she heard the electric open up. Immediately, she straightened her back and did her best to look professional. The man gently put a hand on her shoulder.

“Long night, Rosa?”

“Yeah, little Damien keep me up all night before arriving.”

The manager nodded with understanding. “How is your little one?”

Rosa involuntarily yawned. “Sorry Mr. Sprez! I…”

Raymond Sprez put a hand. “It’s Raymond to you. I may be your manager but I’m also your friend.”

Rose took a sigh of relief. “Damian is having trouble sleeping still. He’s having bad dreams again. I have him on medication, so please pray that they work. Thank you for asking Raymond.”

“You’re son will be in my prayer, Rosa. Now, what did you call me down for?”

The thought hit her like lightning. “Oh yea! You wanted me to let you of anything weird happens, right?”

He nodded so Rosa continued on. “Well, you know know the plastic flamingo from hippo containment?”

Raymond chuckled. “Of course, they love that thing.”

“For sure. Apparently the eagles love it less.”

“The Eagles?”

Rosa knew she should get to the point. “The flamingo is somehow in the Eagle exhibit.”

Raymond frown. “That’s peculiar. How did it end up there?”

Rosa sighed. “That’s the thing. I have no clue. The security from the last few hours shows no way it should be there.”

Raymond pulled up a seat next to her. “Show me the feed.”

Rosa activated the archives, pulling up footage from the last few hours. Rosa then isolated the feeds from the hippo and Eagles exhibits, giving those priority screen. She showed footage from 10:00 pm to 2:34 am. The Pink Flamingo stayed in its place.

Raymond notes this. “Seems everything is fine so far.”

“For now. Keep watching.”

She rolled the old footage, at 2:36 am something happened. The flamingo now rested in with the Eagles.

Raymond had a concerning look. “What the hell?”

Rosa we was thankful she wasn’t crazy. “You see my point. There’s no way it got over within two minutes. They’re on opposite sides of the park.”

“Yes, the better is who moved it.”

Rosa turned to face him. “Should I report this to corporate?”

Raymond stood defiantly. “I’ll handle it.”

Without another question Raymond strode out of the office. He walked down a dark, quiet hallway. Passing rows upon rows of portraits. Once he exited into the park itself, Raymond made sure he was completely alone. When he was confident he was, Raymond closed his eyes and focused.

His right arm became mangled and spikes perturbed from grey flesh. Veins of fire were visible amongst cracked skin. His fingers extend into long and sharp talons. Raymond groaned in pain.

“Now let’s see what we’re dealing with.”

He walked with purpose across the empty zoo. Hatred and curiosity filled his eyes. In little time he stood in front of the expansive eagle cage. The birds approached him until seeing his right arm. Hence they squawked and flew away.

Raymond used a key card to unlock the front door. The moment he entered the containment, Raymond felt off. As if something was watching him. In the dark branches, no Eagles watches.

With bravery Raymond walked better into the containment, in pitch darkness his eyes glowed orange. He walked in silence, the darkness around him yet oppressive. Eventually, he made it to the end of a straight path.

Before him the plastic flamingo rested on a clean cut stump, three candles were lit around the figurine. Casting a ominous glow around the area. Raymond snarled a beastly growl at the figurine.

“There you are. Now what trap is this?”

The flamingo remained still as Raymond approached it, with his claw at the ready. With efficiency, he stabbed into the flamingo, upon impact it flowed a light blue. A enteral scream escaped as Raymond slashed through it. The scream increased in volume, filling the space around them. Until, Raymond cut it in half, ending the screams.

He took a deep breath, slowly is skin transformed to normal and his eyes last their glow. He glanced worryingly at the lit candles.

“Now, what the hell was that? How lit those candles? Seems things are just getting started.”

Raymond walked away with new purpose.

I like to think that I have some symbiosis with the animals I keep at the zoo. I’ve been here for more years than I can count paws in the tiger’s den. There were two tigers and a lion and lioness. Management had given me increased responsibility as my expertise and ability to know what the animals wanted became invaluable and irreplaceable.

I brushed through my bushy beard as I made my last patrol before my night shift was over. I went into the reptile section, these had amphibians, lizards, iguanas and snakes. Some were not shy but most hid in their coves and dens. I checked the aviary and there wasn’t much movement. This was expected and so I would normally do a proper check in the morning. There were sensors to detect when animals go to places they’re not meant to so I rely on this system to be my first response. I looked over the Safari section and again, most of them would be cosying up in their packs in comfortable and natural beds. However, my head count came short by one. It’s not big alarm bells when I can’t see one as they can get quite hidden within the set landscape but this one in particular was significant because of its size. The elephant was missing!

My heart escalated to a panic and I shone my torch over the usual areas it would be. His name was Duncan, which I named as it was the closest name to Dumbo that wasn’t Dumbo. I started calling “Duncan!”, as if I expected him to respond. I received back instead growls and decided against this method.

I ran to the control room and looked at the live cameras. They were set to night mode and showed everything in varying green. Nope, nope, nope. Where is Duncan? My brain demanded and my responded “How should I know?!”. And finally I pause on the the one room that I rarely look at. One that only one creature. The human being. The zookeeper. I had to address the elephant in the room. I turned my swivel chair ever-so slowly and there in his massive glory Duncan was looming over me. Through my years of experience, I fancy myself a bit of an jack-of-all-whisperers and those eyes told me... that he was expecting me.

One day on my rounds as a zookeeper, the day began in a strange way. I loved my animals as pets. I kept my keys on a ring in my shirt pocket and tied on a wire.

Our animals laughed and pointed south. I strolled my natural way and watched each enclosure until I came to the far end of the zoo.

The lion usually climbed onto a rock and slept, but today he sat on a tree branch beside the rock. It’s a hot day, I thought.

Our chimpanzee, played her drum to the beat of a war song. Bum bum bum…bum bum bum. Okay that’s interesting.

Our cheetah laid on his back with a smirk on his face. He must be hungry.

There are two black and white colobus monkeys. One hid on the ground and the other hung upside down from a wire just outside the enclosure. The wire is electric so we’ll have to check on that.

What is going on today I thought. I called for help by dialing 444 which is our alert number. “Hello, the Colobus monkey is hanging outside its enclosure on a wire. Please send help.”

Around the corner in a flash came Tommy with a ladder. I stood the ladder next to the enclosure while Tommy went to check the electric fence breaker to see if it was turned off. Sure enough the breaker was flipped off. Tommy climbed the ladder and sweet talked the monkey to jump on him with some leaves from the tree. Tommy fed the monkeys twice a day so they had a relationship. Tommy carried the monkey inside the enclosure then I flipped the breaker switch on.

“Phew that was close!”said Tommy.

When I looked down my keys disappeared. While we were rescuing the monkey from the wire, the other monkey grabbed my keys or the keys got unhinged from my ring.

“I’ll go grab them from the other monkey; see they’re in the shrubs,.“ said Tommy.

“Wow this has been a crazy day of rounds,” I said. “Thank you for your help.”

“It’s a pleasure. These monkeys are my friends.”

My stomach dropped through my shoes onto the paved paths; it couldn’t be, the hyenas were loose! True, they were scavengers of the dead but they would kill for fresh meat! It was early enough in the morning that there are only employees inside the park, but the gates will be opening in about…half and hour!

Hurriedly, I looked around for the special call boxes that we kept around for emergencies, but that was more for injured guests, we never thought that we would have animals get loose; we took all of the precautions! I ran to the nearest one and frantically dialled the head office and informed them of the escape and had to hold it away from my ear as I was being yelled at; as if this was my fault those spotted menaces escaped! The fault would lie on the ones in security who were supposed to check these things!

No, that may only be partially right, the fault should mostly lie on the scientists who thought that the solution to the problem of animals going extinct was to cross breed them with humans, because I would bet my life savings that they inherited man’s cleverness and that was how they escaped. Either way, we were in trouble as they were still technically cannibals…

Yaaawwwwn. Man, what a party last night. Who knew that Sophia could sing like that? A 70-year old woman singing karaoke death metal-amazing!

I’m usually alone, so it took some bravery on my part to go to the outing. I remember being so nervous leaving, I even forgot to say “goodbye” to Bast, the newest margay we had. The cat was a feisty one, indeed.

Wait, I did close her enclosure, right? Hmm.

---

Oh, crap. I didn’t.

---

Here kitty, kitty. No one has seemed to notice, yet, so that’s a good thing. (Hey, I never said this was a good zoo!). The director shows up in about an hour, so I have to rush. Where could she have gotten to?

Margays normally love trees, but Bast was a bit special. She likes to splash around in her water bowl—-oh no.

I rushed to the seal habitat. And there she was. A margay, chilling with harbor seals. Nature scenes that Nat Geo would never show.

Guests were lining up. I had to do something.

“Hello and welcome to the Seal Cove here at Tilly Zoo. Here you will see harbor seals. Our seals are rescues, and so need little extra care. Our resident margay, Bast, has stepped in the role. Her purrs seem to sooth our pinnipeds.”

Meh. People weren’t listening anyway. I heard them say something about “leopard seals.” Sigh.

The crowds dispersed, and as I tried to figure out my next move, Bast locked eyes on me. She stretched, and yowled. This set off the seals.

I heard my coworkers running over to see what the commotion was.

I am so getting fired.

This is why I am anti-social.