Anna had to contain a giggle as she made her way over to Bishop's cage. The little rottweiler puppy was wriggling in excitement as she came closer. Anna leaned down toward his cage and extended a single finger inside, a finger that was happily licked and pawed at by the eager puppy. This time she did let herself giggle, a smile crossing her face as the puppy pulled at her finger, playfully growling as he did.

"Think you're tough, huh?" She questioned with mock arrogance.

She pulled against him until her finger plopped out of his wet mouth. She retracted it from the cage, only to have him give chase and push against the bars. He barked cutely at her and she could only give in by offering her finger once more. She must've done this for at least five minutes and yet the puppy never tired. The energy of youth she supposed.

"Anna!" A voice called. blue-green eyes looked up to see Mr. Hanson standing at the end of the hall. "I see you're done feeding the dogs." The balding man said, sounding irritated.

"Yes, sir." She responded somewhat meekly, eyes trained more on his boots than his face. Luckily he couldn't tell from the distance or else he might have yelled at her.

"Good, get started on the floors and then go home." He told her before stalking off elsewhere.

Anna sighed before looking at Bishop. "Sorry, buddy. That's all for today." She said somberly, pulling her finger away from the now whining puppy.

Anna worked at a pet shelter. She was often mistaken for a college student because of her age, being that of a twenty year old, but she'd never set foot into a college in her life. She'd never considered it really. She wasn't smart, something she'd come to accept. She barely passed highschool even after trying to get better grades. Her parents were poor and so they couldn't help her with college. She thought about student loans, but it felt like a gamble to her. What if she didn't do well in college and dropped out, her grades in highschool clearly showed that she'd be in for a challenge. Then she would have the loans to pay and would only be able to get a normal job anyway. No, she didn't like to gamble, especially with money.

So instead she'd found the first job she could straight out of highschool. At first it didn't seem like such a bad thing, she'd get to work with animals which she adored and she'd be earning a paycheck for it. What she learned was that most of these animals were not in friendly moods. Most of them seemed cautious or downright hateful of humans, no doubt having been mistreated by their owners before winding up on the street. She also learned that animals stunk, like a lot. The shelter smelled like... well like a bunch of dirty animals in need of a bath. They pooped and pissed in their cages, which only added something more unpleasant to the air of the place. Worst yet was that she had to clean it up. A job that sounded like fun at first, turned out to be a nightmare.

Her life wasn't entirely unpleasant just because of her unfulfilling job and low pay. She had friends just like other people, though she could count how many on one hand. She had loving parents who called her at least once a week to see how she was doing. Despite the low paying job, she lived alone and in a cheap apartment and therefore could afford a few luxeries from time to time. It really wasn't so bad.

So why did she feel so bad everyday when she got home to her apartment?

Anna did as her boss had instructed her too and cleaned up before waving just one more goodbye to Bishop and Derrik the late night security guard before leaving. She stepped out into the parking lot and walked up to her old beat up Honda. It was a gift from her father after she'd moved out. She rememebered how crestfallen he was that he couldn't afford to give her a brand new car. She'd assured him that she loved it and given him a kiss on the cheek. She wasn't lying, she did love the car, even if it often gave her more problems than she wanted to admit. She unlocked the door, got inside, and drove off at a legal pace back to her apartment.

While she drove she couldn't help but do the one thing she'd always wished she could do before she had a car. That was of course to control the radio. Her dad would groan in disgust if he heard her play pop music of today. She didn't care, she was a girl of this generation, and the last generation clearly didn't know what good music was.

She was sure her kids would say the same thing someday if she ever had any.

Halfway home and she had her music at an ear defeaning level. She couldn't help herself, blasting her music and singing along was the one thing she couldn't do but had always wanted to do when she was a teenager. Now she could, and it was one of the few enjoyable things she got to do on a daily basis.

"-ause i'm missing more than just your body!" She sang loudly. "Is it too late now to say soRRYYYY-" She screamed out the last lyrics when a body suddenly walked in front of her car from the woods on the side of the road.

She hit her brakes, but it was no use. She slammed into whatever poor body made its way onto the road, heard it slam into the front of her car and crack her front window as it rolled over the top of the hood. She skidded to a stop in the middle of the empty street. Her eyes were wide and her breath rapid as she realized that she might have just killed someone. The little glimpse she caught of the figure before hitting it was that it certainly looked like it was walking on two legs. While Justin beiber continued singing about how sorry he was, she jumped out of her car as fast as she could. She looked back at the dark road, seeing no other cars coming or going and wondered what misfortune she had to have to have hit someone now of all times when there was no one around.

Anna quickly ran back to where she had her encounter. Though it was dark, she could clearly make out a human form.

It wasn't moving.

"Oh shit... oh shit! Oh god!" Anna grabbed at her head, pulled at her strawberry blonde hair, anything to display just how distressed she was. "Oh god i've murdered someone!" She nearly sobbed.

It goes without saying that she felt the utmost relief when she saw the body twitch.

"Oh my god!" She fell down on her knees and went to rapidly shake them, but then realized that she'd just hit them with her car. Shaking them might not be the best thing to do. "Are you okay?" A stupid question that she nearly smacked herself for.

Though the body did not give anymore involuntary movements, she realized that they were in fact breathing now that she'd gotten closer. Anna reached for her pocket, taking out her phone. She needed to call 911. She was defintely going to lose her license and possibly go to jail for this, but she couldn't just leave them here on the road. She almost dialed the number... almost.

But the little bit of light from her phone illuminated the body before her. Disbelieving of what she thought she saw, she turned the phone around and shined it over the body. She audibly gasped, hand coming up to her mouth as she let the phone light linger over this... god, what was she looking at?

The person she thought she had run over was not a person at all. In the place of skin that normally ranged from shades of white to black, lied a being whose skin was a light tinge of purple... blue? Something in between. She spotted a tail, a set of horns, black nails in the shape of talons, corded muscle that belonged to an athelete and hair the color of pure velvet. This was not a human at all. Even the clothes suggested something otherworldy, well if you could call what they were wearing clothes. Looked more like some kind of armor maybe? She really didn't want to think this was what she thought it was but...

She had just run over an alien.

She couldn't decide if this was worse than hitting a normal person or not. What was she supposed to do with an alien?! She could call 911... but what help could they offer? And did she even want to call 911? Isn't this like a big discovery? The first alien, so far as humans knew of, had been found. This was big, too big. She needed to call 911, even if they couldn't help, they'd at least be better help than she was. But before she dailed the number, she had a terrifying thought.

What if they take it hostage and experiment on it?

She had seen enough alien movies to know just what humans were capable of when faced with the unknown. Could she give up this alien, knowing full well what might happen to it? She couldn't stand the thought. She never approved of testing products on animals, how could she even think to approve of what they'd do to this alien. Then what she thought to be a dumb thought struck.

Take it home

The very thought was ridiculous. How could she take this being home? She'd just struck it with her car, for all she knew it was dying. She didn't know how to nurse an alien back to health.

Wouldn't it be better to die than to be subjected to torment for the rest of your life?

Anna bit her lip before slipping her phone back into her pocket. God, she was making a mistake, she just knew it! With a grunt of effort, she grabbed under the arms of the alien and pulled. Holy cow! This thing was heavy! Regretting always half-assing in gym, she pulled and tugged and even stopped halfway for a breather before managing to pull the alien to her car. Completely out of breath and feeling like the most out of shape woman to ever live, she opened the backdoor and gave more grunts and groans as she lifted and pushed the alien into the backseat. Its legs were crooked and its face was face down against the seats, but she was too tired to care. She closed the door and went back to the drivers side. Getting in, she started down the road and realized that she'd left her music playing.

"Oh justin," She began wearily as the chorus started up again. "You have no idea just how sorry I am."