Who's a Good Boy

Life has taught me that miracles exist. They happen every day, and to the most unexpected of people. Call me an optimist, but I’ve seen my fair share of the impossible. You spend your life praying for a miracle, and one day the Powers That Be decide, “Why not?” Those moments are enough to make a believer out of anyone. But what happens when a miracle isn’t a miracle at all? What if whatever merciful beings above poison the apple you thought was a gift? Yes, life did teach me that blessings are real, but Rover taught me that so are curses. 
Every morning, my alarm wakes me up just as the sun starts to rise. I hate nighttime, so the early start is perfect for me. Unfortunately, it’s not so perfect for my roommate, Crystal. When she first moved in with me four years ago, I thought she was a vampire because of how adamantly she avoided the sun. I can hear her through the paper-thin walls of our apartment, sleepily cursing my family lineage or something like that. At this point, it’s a standard procedure. I start going through my daily routine as usual. Make breakfast, get dressed, make sure Crystal doesn’t just roll over and go back to sleep, and so on. My routine hasn’t changed for the three years I’ve attended college. Well, that is, until my dog went missing. 
Rover was a gift for my fourteenth birthday. I had begged my parents for a dog ever since I knew what one was. When Rover finally arrived, I was ecstatic. I can still picture my delighted face when my dad walked in holding a little spotted Beagle pup. This puppy was my best friend, and I spent every second with him. When it was finally time for me to leave the nest, I refused to leave Rover behind. But, thanks to a little cash from Mom and Dad, my apartment complex allowed me to keep him. Crystal wasn’t too happy about this development, but no one can stay mad at Rover for long. He’s always been so well behaved. Which is why I refuse to believe he ran away on his own. 
One day, I came home, and he was just gone. I called Crystal in a worried panic, and we spread out to try and find him. We asked our neighbors, hung up signs, and checked the local pound, but nothing. Rover was gone. Everyone assumes he ran away, but Crystal and I know better. He’s not that kind of dog. But we never found him. For months, it’s left a gap in my life. Crystal was never the best at comforting words, so she just gave me some space. It may seem silly to some people, how emotional I’ve been, but they didn’t know Rover like I did. I find myself staring down at his red food bowl that’s been empty for months. I snap myself out of my trance just as Crystal appears from her room, still dressed in her pajamas. I’m too late though, and she notices. She pauses, and looks over at me, pity written all over her face. I’m so sick of pity. 
“Look, I miss him too, Wendy, but life doesn’t stop when your dog dies,” she says in an all too sympathetic voice. 
“Rover is not dead,” I snap back, a little too forcefully than I meant. Crystal flinches at my sudden anger, and I immediately feel guilty. “Sorry,” I mumble, shamefaced. “I don’t know what’s up with me today.” 
“How about you go get some fresh air? I’ll finish up this food.” Crystal doesn’t wait for me to respond and takes over the bacon I had on the stovetop. Crystal can act like she doesn’t care, but I think, deep down, she does. Without a word, I flash a grateful smile at her back, grab my coat, and head out of the apartment. 
The air is chilly, and I can feel the wind clawing at my cheeks and hands as I step out into the overcast day. The clouds are thick with the promise of rain, and I regret not snagging my umbrella. But I don’t turn back. I need to clear my head, and nothing does a better job of that than the smell of rain. My boots send ripples in the deep puddles that overflow onto the sidewalks. I turn corner after corner, wandering down the cobblestone alleyways of my school’s campus. The wind whispers and sighs on the stones, chilling me straight to the bone. I wrap my trench coat tighter around me, shivering. 
I don’t know how long I’ve been walking, but I’ve finally made it to the Green. The Green is a large park on the outskirts of campus. I used to walk Rover here every afternoon and watch him chase squirrels and butterflies. We would lay on the grass and look for shapes in the clouds. But today, there’s no grass, no Rover, and no shapes in the gray blanket of clouds above me. Not many people visit the Green even in good weather, but on a day like this, the park is completely silent and empty. I wander between the dead trees and abandoned benches, not knowing what to do with myself. I feel aimless, and the cold seems to freeze my thoughts until all I’m thinking about is the bitter wind and the ever-approaching storm.  
I’m suddenly wrenched from my empty train of thought by a blinding stab of light and the deafening explosion of thunder. The storm is here. The wind picks up speed, swirling my strawberry blond hair around my face. Freezing cold rain pelts my skin and threatens to sink in straight to my heart. Fighting the wind, I begin sprinting as fast as I can to the exit. I won’t be able to make it home in this torrent, but I plan to take refuge in a nearby campus building. Just as I am about to crest the last hill, a streak of lightning illuminates the sky, and I see the silhouette of a creature above me. The four-legged thing looks unnatural, crouching in a painful position. Its fur is so matted and muddied that I can’t even tell what color the thing is. It stares straight down at me with wild, yellow eyes and snarling teeth. An aura of wrongness radiates off this thing, and I’m hit with the stench of rot. My mind is screaming at me to run, but I’m frozen where I stand. Lightning strikes again, and the creature takes off down the hill, moving at inhuman speed directly towards me. I have enough time to scream before it pounces on top of me. My hands fly up to protect my face, but then, above the cacophony of the storm and my panic, I hear a familiar friendly bark. 
“Rover?” 
• 
I can hardly believe it as I fumble with the keys to my apartment. Rover is back! He sits next to my feet patiently waiting for the door to open. We took shelter under a bus stop until the storm passed. Then I bundled him in my coat and wiped away as much mud as I could. All the while, Rover barked and licked my face like he used to do whenever I got home from classes. I glance down at him, subconsciously worried that I imagined the whole thing, but Rover is still there, staring up at me with big brown eyes. I finally get the door unlocked, and I hear Crystal’s voice call me from the couch. 
“Wendy, is that you?” 
“Crystal, you’ll never believe what’s happened!” I close the door behind me and rush to get all the words out. “I was down at the Green and there was this big flash of lightning and I saw a figure-” 
“Can you sum this up?” 
“Rover’s back!” I say, breathless. As if on cue, Rover barks up at me and wags his tail. 
“What!?” Crystal rounds the corner, and her eyes widen at the sight of the beagle. “No way!” she exclaims. She’s smiling just as much as I am. Crouching down, she reaches out to scratch behind Rover’s ears. But to her surprise (and mine) Rover flattens his ears and lets out a deep growl from the back of his throat. It sounds nothing like him. It hardly even sounds like a dog. Crystal backs up, looking confused. “Rover?” 
“No! Bad dog!” I scold. Rover doesn’t seem to care and goes back to wagging his tail and panting as if nothing happened. Both of us stare down at him in confusion. “I’m sure he’s just hungry,” I say. Crystal eyes me skeptically. “C’mon boy. Let’s get you some food!” I duck past Crystal into the kitchen, Rover trailing at my heels. As I pass, I hear her mutter something about Rover’s eyes looking yellow. 
We don’t have any dog food, so I decide to leave some leftover chicken in his bowl. The second I set his bowl down, Rover tears through the chicken, ripping it with uncharacteristic violence. Bits of it go flying and land on the floor of the kitchen. The entire bowl is devoured in a matter of seconds. I recoil and realize I’m gripping the counter behind me in shock and fear. Rover turns to me, still smiling. I notice Crystal looking down at him as well from the kitchen entrance. She looks horrified. 
A few minutes later, Rover is passed out in his dog bed, and Crystal and I are talking to one another in low voices. 
“Wendy, he’s sick. Did you see him tear apart that chicken? He might have rabies!” Crystal whispers harshly, eyeing Rover’s sleeping form. 
“Give him a break. He’s been missing for four months!” I protest. 
“Exactly! He could have eaten something bad or hurt himself. We have to take him to the vet.” At this, a deep, distorted growl rumbled over from Rover’s dog bed. My eyes dart to him, but Rover is still sleeping peacefully, his ears twitching. I look back at Crystal, who is staring, eyebrows scrunched, at the dog. I might have imagined it, but I swear I could see a flash of fear in her otherwise hard green eyes. 
“How about we sleep on it?” I suggest, my voice quivering and dropping even lower. 
“If you say so,” Crystal sighs, not really paying attention to me. Her eyes locked on Rover, watching him as if he might jump up and pounce at any moment. I find myself wondering the exact same thing. 
Later, I can’t sleep. I lay in my bed, tossing, turning, and replaying the day’s events in my head. Replaying the moment when Rover’s body had been outlined by the lightning. He just looked so... wrong. I tried to convince myself it was just the storm or the wind, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right with Rover. Where had he been for four months? What had happened in that time frame? Is Rover still the Rover I remember? Or is he something more sinister?  
I sigh out loud into my dark bedroom. I’m sure you're overreacting. Just worry about it tomorrow, I think to myself. I pull the covers up to my chin and let my eyes drift into sleep. 
• 
I was walking down a long, distorted hallway. It rocked ever so softly back and forth, like the walls themselves were breathing. It felt like I was walking through T.V static, and my ears were filled with the sound of devilish growls and buzzing flies. The smell of rot burned my nostrils and sent sharp stabs of pain into my head. There was a door at the end of the hallway. It had a large metal road sign on the front reading “KEEP OUT”. My memories felt so fuzzy, so it took me a while to realize where I had seen it before. It was Crystal’s door. With slow, heavy steps, I made my way towards it. All the while, the buzzing in my head got louder and louder and the growls got angrier and angrier. I was cut with fear, straight down to the very bones of who I was. My heart was beating like a rabbit in a cage, but I had to keep moving. I was only a few feet from the door now, and the cacophony in my ears was so loud I couldn’t hear my own thoughts. I could see deep, vicious claw marks in the wood. The world around me was shaking as I placed my hand on the doorknob and swung it open. And there, in the middle of what seemed to be nothing, was the mangled, distorted corpse of Crystal. I screamed, but I couldn’t hear myself over the sounds of a familiar, friendly bark. 
I bolt up in my bed, sweat dripping from my face and heart pounding against my ribcage. My hands are shaking as I frantically glance around my room. No hallway, no corpse, no buzzing noises. It was just a dream. I exhale. Of course, it was. Yesterday just rattled you. But I haven’t noticed one thing. Rover is propped on the bed beside me, yipping and wagging his tail. My body freezes. This wouldn’t normally be an uncommon occurrence, but I had locked my door last night, leaving Rover asleep on his dog bed. But sure enough, looking up, the door is wide open, giving me a clear view of my pitch-black apartment. 
Am I going crazy? 
• 
My alarm clock screams, startling me, and I shut it off almost as quickly as it had begun. After that nightmare, I couldn’t fall back asleep. I put Rover back outside and locked my door, but every little sound made my head shoot up from my pillow. So, I sat up and glued my eyes to the door, waiting for that creature I saw in the storm to reappear. But nothing happened. My room remained as silent as the night, and I scolded myself for not going back to sleep. I managed to doze fitfully for a little while, but it’s morning now, which means I have another day ahead of me. I begrudgingly trudge out of bed and unlock my door. The second I step into the living room I’m greeted with Rover’s enthusiastic face and yipping bark. I bend down to scratch his head, but suddenly remember his behavior yesterday. I ease my hand away and begin making breakfast. Shortly after, Crystal stumbles out of her room with dark circles under her eyes. 
“Did you not sleep well either?” I ask as I hand her a plate of fried eggs. 
“Yeah,” she mumbles with a yawn. “I kept hearing Rover scratching at my door all night. But when I went to tell him off, there was nothing behind my door. He’s a sneaky little bastard alright.” 
Crystal is so absorbed in hungrily scarfing down her eggs that she doesn’t notice how frozen in fear I am. I turn my head slowly to her door and, sure enough, the claw marks match the ones in my dream. I am definitely losing it. 
A week rolls by with Rover back home, and things keep getting weirder and weirder. He refuses to leave my side and howls dramatically whenever I leave the apartment. Thank goodness it’s spring break because I’m not even able to leave his line-of-sight without an ear-splitting whine following me. Not to mention, he is showing uncharacteristic hostility towards Crystal. She used to be one of his favorite people, but now he growls low and threatening whenever she gets too close to him, or me for that matter. My week passes by in anxiety, with the same dream haunting every night. I always wake up screaming, and I spend the rest of the night with my knees huddled to my chest, watching my door and waiting. Saturday rolls around, Crystal is out of the house all day, and I’ve had enough. I need a break from this insanity. So, I distract Rover with some more chicken and quietly slip out the door. 
I plan only on walking around and calming my nerves a bit, but I find myself headed in the direction of the Green. The weather is slightly better today, but it’s late, so the park is empty except for the few people out on night walks. I stand atop the hill I found Rover just seven days ago and wonder. I wonder if what I saw wasn’t a hallucination. My speculations, however, are soon interrupted by a hacking chuckle behind me. I whip my head around to see a peculiar old woman wearing a long brown trench coat. She’s as tall as me with a slight hunch in her posture. Her eyes are white, so I assume she’s blind, but the way she looks at me is as if she can see straight through me all the way to my thoughts. 
“Looking for something?” she rasps. Her voice is filled with what almost sounded like mockery. 
“No ma'am,” I answer, brief and polite. 
“Of course not,” she chuckles. “It’s already found you.” 
Her manner of speech sends a shiver down my spine. I pull my turtleneck tighter around myself. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” 
“Of course, it had to use your little dog,” she continues, ignoring my statement. “But it found you in the end. And now, well, I doubt it will let you go.” 
I freeze at the mention of Rover. “What are you talking about?” 
“Your dog isn’t what you think it is. At least, not anymore,” Her voice is dripping with fake sympathy. I’m still confused, but my blood is running cold. No, this can’t be real. “Oh, it’s real alright,” the old woman cackles. 
A sharp noise suddenly breaks through her laughter. My phone is ringing, and Crystal’s name is displayed on the screen. 
“I’d hurry if I were you,” the woman sneers. “It doesn’t like that roommate of yours.” 
Fear strikes me to my very core. With shaking hands, I hit “answer” and hold the receiver up to my ear. “H-hello?” I stammer. At first, I can’t hear anything on the other end of the line. But I soon realize I can hear breathing. Shallow, panicked breathing. “Crystal? What’s wrong? Are you ok?” 
“Wendy,” she whispers. Her voice is so quiet, I can barely make out her words. She’s crying now, deep heavy sobs, tearing at my heart. “It’s not Rover. That thing, it isn’t him. It isn’t him.” 
I start to panic, my heart pounds against my ribs. “Stay there, Crystal. I’m coming to get you.” 
I’m about to put the phone down when I hear Crystal yell, “Don’t!” I pause. “Stay away, Wendy. Don’t let it take you.” Her sobs are abruptly cut off and replaced by an automatic voice message. 
“This line is disconnected. Please try again later.” 
Without a second to lose, I begin sprinting towards the garden exit. The old woman is still laughing, but I’m too panicked to give her a second thought. I tear down the cobblestone alleyways to my apartment building, tears streaming down my face. It’s not real, it’s not real, it’s not real. I throw the door open, not caring what the confused people in lobby think of me. I scale the building’s steps three at a time. Once I reach my floor, the smell of rot hits me. I gag, but I don’t slow my pace. I fiddle with my keys, hands shaking from fear. Finally, I manage to unlock my door and step into my apartment. 
The door creaks open, and the smell is so strong now that it burns my throat with every breath I take. The walls of the hallway are dripping a strange black ooze and insects buzz around it. Every instinct in my body is telling me to run, but I can’t leave Crystal here with that... that thing. I make my way down the hall slowly, my hand over my mouth and nose. The insect buzzing is deafening, but above it I manage to hear an unnatural growl coming from the living room. I turn a corner and freeze. 
There, just like in my dream, is Crystal. She’s lying dead on the floor, her blood pooling on the hardwood floor. Maggots and flies are already buzzing around her, and her face is mangled almost beyond recognition. And, just behind her, sits the creature I had seen during the storm. Its eyes are wild and yellow, and its teeth are stained with blood. Its anatomy is painful, and it’s hunched on four legs. Bits of its muscle and bone are visible beneath rotting skin and matted fur. Its eyes catch mine, and I step back in horror and disgust. It steps over Crystal’s corpse, razor sharp claws scraping on the floor. But instead of pouncing, it crouches down and begins to shift. Bones crunch and collapse in on each other. Its body shrinks and glossy brown and white fur covers the rotting skin. Its eyes turn from yellow to brown and its claws retract. 
I’m frozen in place, refusing to believe what I see. Tears flow down my cheeks in fear and sorrow. My best friend is lying dead on the floor, and in front of her sits Rover, wagging his tail, mouth still dripping with her blood.
Category:Beings
Category:Animals