Oliver is Buried Here

Not too long ago, my mother died, and it hit me harder than anything before. She was really old and had a life filled with joy. Still, it’s hard to see your parents go. We all know it eventually comes, but when it does, it just comes as a shock. Mom was one of my best friends for my entire life. I am a momma’s boy, and I’m not ashamed to admit this much. Mom, I love you; you were the best. Unmatched in every quality.

I needed a break from everything. I just packed a bag and drove off to the summer cottage my parents used to take us to when we were kids. That place holds a lot of pleasant and some terrible memories. For that reason, it’s the best place to heal my heart. I hadn’t been there in a while, but I knew I could unwind there. It’s one of those truly antique buildings with no wiring and no connection. A perfect place for solitude. Overlooking a beautiful forest from an evergreen hilltop. A beautiful place where I knew I could get the time and space to consider the next chapter in my life and digest the pain.

Arriving there, the property seemed older than what I had remembered. Much older, in fact, older than it had any right to be. It might’ve been unused for a good while, but it was always under the supervision of either my dad or one of my brothers. Strangely enough, it seemed like we had left it to rot under the battering forces of nature. The wooden walls seemed darker and weathered, the roof seemed like it was going to collapse under its weight. The steps leading to the front door had sunk under the pressure of some unseen force.

The poor state of the property led my mind into a sort of mental haze. Eerily reminiscent of the funeral of mum. Depression hits gradually and then very much suddenly. The fogs of sadness hung callously over me as I made my way onto the property. The steps creaked and nearly buckled under my weight, letting out sharp and jarred noises with each step I took.

Stepping inside, I felt a huge weight land on my shoulders, as if the entire world had collapsed right on top of me and was trying to crush me to death. The interior mostly seemed the same, somewhat untouched by the destructive temporal forces of the universe. The disconnect between the interior and exterior of the property surprised me somewhat, making my mind wander. Before long, the memories caught up to me. Memories I have of mom and the rest of the family, strolling around the cottage, on the verge of tears, I felt something race past me.

Something amorphous, almost like a barely visible shadow. I caught it at the edge of my vision. Not even that. The temperature suddenly dropped as my eyes drifted toward the barely visible specter. As I was following the perceived path I assumed the shadow had taken, I came across an old family photo hanging on the wall.

The emotional ocean finally broke through my mental dam as I broke down into an audible crying fit and stumbled towards my parents’ old bedroom. Collapsing onto the old bed they used to sleep in when we spent summers there, I clenched the photo close to my chest and cried until I passed out from the exhaustion.

Not even ashamed of crying myself to sleep. Losing a parent is hard, especially if the parent was damn near perfect. God, I was so blessed to have you, Mum. I’m glad dad’s still around. He’s doing good. I check on him every couple of days. I promise I won’t stop. We still spend a lot of time together. We even went fishing last week. Ugh… this is hard…

I woke up in total darkness. It was already nighttime. A loud knocking on the front door woke me up. Sore with headache, dazed, I grabbed my phone to use as a flashlight to illuminate the rural darkness. The banging wouldn’t stop, it only intensified as I slowly made my way towards the door.

I did not know who this could’ve been so late at night, but then again, might’ve been one of my brothers, maybe dad… drunk probably… judging by the frantic nature of the banging. I didn’t think about it too much until I was staring at the door, mere inches away, about to open it up.

Then I heard it speak, “honey please open up.”

It was mom’s voice.

My blood turned cold as the hair on my body stood upright. Every sense I have immediately went into overdrive. My brain wasn’t digesting whatever was happening. It couldn’t be. She was gone, dead. I saw her body. I buried her; I was there…

“Open up, please…” it trailed off again.

I felt myself shaking in place. The pounding on the door only intensified. The voice outside trailed off again, mocking my mother’s. Asking to be let in, tormenting me. It sounded very much human and lifelike yet, at the same time had a robotic monotony attached to the verbal delivery. An unnerving sonic dissonance that forced everything to spin inside.

Fear and anger flowed interchangeably in my veins. I stood there, petrified, pissed off. I didn’t know what to do or think. The voice went off again, demanding I let “mommy” in, and that’s when I finally lost it. I swung the door open and saw a pale, featureless parody of a human being standing in front of me. There were no facial features. It was a pale while human outline with a single slit running down the entirety of what I assume was its head. It didn’t even move, yet when I was about to throw a punch. I felt myself flying across the room. The slit had opened up on this anthropomorph’s head and an array of eyed tongues sprawled out. It let out a terrible whistling shriek that made the whole building shake.

The creature slowly approached me, each step feeling as if I was being pressed harder and harder into the wall behind me. Crushing me with its mere presence, the thing rolled its myriad of tongues into its head. I thought it was the end. I was sure I was going to be turned into a paste by this god-awful thing. It was getting too close; the pressure was getting painful. I felt myself straining not to yell in pain. I felt my insides becoming compressed and my bones aching, my muscles burned and spasmed, forcing me to scream. The creature opened the slit on its head once more, unleashing the same whistling shriek.

It was unbearable. I felt my skull boiling because of the horrendous noise and pressure. I was about to give up and allow myself to fade out of existence. Yet everything has come to an abrupt end. A low, guttural snarled echoed through the darkness, forcing the creature to stop its onslaught. Finally, free from the invisible force of the white death ahead of me, I strained my head towards the source of the sound. A shadow was twisting and turning visibly inside the darkness, a shadow far darker than anything I’d ever seen before. It was darker than darkness. Hawking radiation emanated from its flaming outline as it grew and grew, becoming almost too big to be contained in this cottage.

I saw a mass of shifting and pulsating flame-like darkness fly out of the lightless corridor towards the pale anthropomorph, swallowing half of it. An explosion of blinding white light emanated from the anthropomorph’s bisected form and shook the building once more. When the light finally dispersed, I saw a massive black dog standing in front of me. Made up of the matter of black holes, in the shape of dancing in flames.

Its massive paw rose, terrifying me yet again, but it landed gently on my chest. Beautiful memories of my childhood flooded my mind, memories of my childhood dog, Oliver. I relived memories of getting him as a pup, our walks, our games, his outbursts of energy, his love of car rides, his love for this place, his warmth, and the way he greeted me every time I came back from school even in his old age. Hot tears streamed down my face as I relived those memories. The last one was of me burying his still body right here, behind this very building. I was so caught up in the grief over mom that I had forgotten about this entirely.

The trip down memory lane ended with tears obscuring my vision and burning my cheeks in front of the darkness-shaped massive hound again. His paw retracted back to its form.

A child-like voice echoed inside of my brain, “we’ll meet again buddy…” The dog’s tail was wagging as I heard these words. After that, the black firestorm in the shape of a canine disappeared into the nothingness of night. I was alone with my sorrow... Thankfully still in one piece.

Oliver is buried here, he was always here, always by my side, always protecting me… He wasn’t a guard dog in life, but he became one heck of a guard dog in the afterlife. My guard dog. One day I’ll meet him again, wherever it may be, and we'll hopefully spend eternity together with the rest of our family.

I could never get a dog after Ollie’s passing. It just hurt too much, knowing I’d lose it shortly. It’s like losing a child. The heartbreak is unbearable… But I think I am going to get a new dog. After all, they’re heaven sent.