The Dog

I woke up to a dog barking. The clock read 3:33 A.M. I didn’t own dog and there were no neighbors anywhere close to me. I pulled on my robe and walked to the kitchen. I flipped the light switch, there was nothing. I kept flipping the switch instinctively. Nothing. The bulb must’ve blown. I grabbed the flashlight from under the sink. I could still hear the dog barking as I walked from the kitchen to the back porch. The sound was coming from the fields behind the house. The barking suddenly stopped and a whimpering replaced it. I left my shoes on the porch and started looking for the source of the noise. The field was overgrown, and no matter which way I walked or turned the whimpering always sounded the same distance.

Eventually the whimpering stopped. I realized I was lost. I had just moved here. I had no idea which way was home or how large this field was. I picked a direction and started walking. At some point I hit a road, the concrete was cold and there was a sudden wind. I suddenly heard a whistling and clicking. A man was digging in the brush off the road, I guessed he was trying to call the dog. I walked over to him to try to help. He said something about how my legs were covered in ticks. It was hard to focus on his words, my ears were ringing. Somehow he convinced he to follow him to get them off safely. We walked back to his house. He was explaining how he was a hunter, I think he just didn’t want silence. He stayed ahead of me the whole time, like he knew I was going follow him no matter what. When we got to the house the ringing in my ears got louder. If the man was still talking, I couldn’t hear or understand him.

He led me down a hall that seemed impossible long. The décor was unusual. Everything from bull skulls to rabbit skeletons hung from the walls and lined the shelves. Odd paintings sat next to the skulls, depicting the type of animal the skull belonged to or the hunt. The man continued to lead me down the hall. The farther we went the more unusual the skull and paintings became. The skulls became more human and the paintings depicted more blood and gore. I turned my attention back to the man before me. He was warped, his body long and thinner, his joints seemed more prominent. I turned around to leave the house. The hall was gone. I was facing a wall, a blank wall. I turned back around to be face to face with the man. He was much taller than before, his arms and legs longer. The hair had grown to his waist and covered half his face. His eyes were now a dark red color and were staring into mine. I could feel his breath on my face as he stared me down. His mouth stretched as if he meant to swallow me, and I could feel myself being pulled in. My vision went black.

I woke up in my bed.

The clock read 3:33 A.M, and a dog had just started barking.