Bacon Bean Burrito

Written for Muse on Monday where David
asks us to write a story where the main
character finds something in his food.
Also for FOWC With Fandango where
the prompt word is “clerk”. Here’s
where the prompts took me.

Wesley was halfway through his gas station burrito when his tooth cracked.

He spat into his palm …. a bloody molar, root and all. Weird, since he’d just been to the dentist. He tongued for the gap.

Nothing was missing.

He felt around his teeth with his finger. All there. He looked at the molar again, rolling it between his fingers. Human. Definitely human. But not his.

His stomach lurched. He peeled back the tortilla.

Three more teeth tumbled onto the wrapper. Bicuspid, incisor, another molar; a gold filling winked under the fluorescent lights.

“Hey!” Wesley’s voice cracked as he approached the counter. The clerk was playing Candy Crush on his phone and hadn’t looked up once since Wesley entered. “There’s….there’s teeth in my burrito.”

The clerk glanced over, expression flat. “Shift change was ten minutes ago. Not my problem.”

“Not your…….someone’s teeth are in my food!”

“Then don’t eat it.” The clerk continued his game.

Wesley took out his phone to call the police, then noticed the missing persons flyer taped to the wall. Local college student …. went missing three weeks ago. The smile in the photo showed a gold filling.

Same freakin’ tooth.

The clerk watched Wesley as he stared at the flyer. He put down his phone and stood up, his chair making a loud scraping noise on the grungy linoleum. Startled, Wesley turned around; something in the clerk’s eyes made Wesley’s blood run cold.

“Look man, you either pay for the burrito,” the clerk said in a low voice, “or you get the fuck outta my place. I don’t care which …. just do it NOW!”

Wesley took a step back, turned, and ran out. He jumped into his car and sped off without looking back.

He swore he could hear the clerk’s sadistic laugh halfway down the highway.

This is “Heading Out To The Highway” by Judas Priest