The dark room remained pristine, almost calm and eagerly waving good-bye and good-night to the sullen Serenity, as she glanced around at the little store she was leaving for the last time. The shelves and stands were fully stocked, ready for the next full day of business. The counters were clean, not a single paper out of place. The key in her hand felt impossibly heavy, as if the building was willing, pleading to her, to not go.
She turned around at the car in the parking zone, at her dear friend and den mate Mocha, turned around in the driver's seat and trying to cover up little Medley in her car seat. The passenger seat was empty, and Serenity sighed. Vengeance didn't want to be here for the last goodbye to this place. His anger was too much. The dragon's blood in him boiled at mere thought of it, so he stayed home, glued to his computer and phone with back-to-back calls concerning job placements. The stress of taking care of their family of four began to take its toll.
Serenity often felt like recalling the werewolf within her, so she could vent her feelings at someone, sometime. But even this desire to release, she repressed. It would help Venge none, it would endanger Mocha, and it would scare Medley. For the first time in a long time, she looked at those she considered family and thought about their well-being, denying herself something she had never thought she would.
The radio in the corner, Serenity noticed, was smashed. Venge stopped turning to that station, and refused to hear her name being spoken. A torn photograph laid on top of the broken contraption, and she knew now the two figures on it. One was Venge, gently enjoying music being played from his friend, in a calm wintery scene. A stark contrast to what she recently heard her lizard mate say about him, in a heavily-medicated fit of anger. Words she'd never ever think he would say, if he had control of his faculties.
It reminded her of the stories he'd tell about his own father...
Serenity shuddered, driving such thoughts out of her mind. After a minute of calming herself, she felt her fingernails retract and her fur smoothen. Her body had apparently begun to transform into her nocturnal rampaging persona, despite the afternoon sun shining down on her back. Intense emotion would do that. In the back of her mind, she hoped that Mocha and Medley weren't looking while this occurred.
The she-wolf looked down at the key again, rubbing it between her fingers. The meaningless "762" stamped onto it looking back at her as if giving a silent, tearful farewell. With a single last smirk, Serenity whispered into the store, "Thank you for all the good times, little mountain shop." She pulled the door closed, and the inside became silent as the mountain outside, save for the eventual sound of a car pulling out and away from the gravel parking zone onto the trail leading down and away.