Part of me felt like I was being ridiculous, because I’d grown up in this town and literally the worst thing that had ever happened was some stolen garden tools. Then again, there was a first time for everything, and another part of me felt sure there was a bogeyman right around the corner who was about to leap out at me.
The last part of me wondered if this had anything to do with my mother. But I pushed those thoughts aside.
Suddenly, while I was still walking along Main Street, I thought I heard a growling behind me. The black dog was there again. I gasped. I was positive my heart had just stopped beating.
My hope of avoiding him was dashed. I didn’t want to sprint all the way home. I didn’t want to show fear. But I was so scared I wanted to scream.
I looked behind me and felt like I was plummeting from the very top of a roller coaster, all fast panic and rolling stomach. There in the shadows was a pair of red eyes looking back at me.
Then they were gone.
Probably just a trick of the light. Right?
“I’m not crazy,” I said to myself. “I am NOT crazy.” I walked faster. “Don’t be afraid,” I ordered myself. For what it was worth.
I was almost relieved to have the mist come. It wasn’t exactly warm and comforting, but somehow I felt like it shielded me from the dog.
Only two more blocks.
I heard a snarl.
Despite my instincts, which kept telling me to stay calm, I started to run.
“Hi, Charlotte.”
So much for good intentions. I staggered to a stop.
Standing in front of me was Cale Marks. He was a guy I’d known for most of my life until he had graduated and left for college the previous year. No one in town had heard anything from him since. I remembered him as a nice guy who played a lot of sports.
He reached out and took my arm to steady me. I hadn’t seen him in a while, but I thought his face looked strained. He had a shock of red hair that was currently falling into his eyes, and a sprinkling of freckles across his nose.
“Hi Cale,” I said. I couldn’t help it. I looked over my shoulder. The mist was clearing a little. I didn’t see any sign of a massive dog.
“How are you?” Cale asked, still holding my arm.
His touch was distracting. “What?” I asked. “Oh. Fine.” Looking at him, I knew I should ask some penetrating question about the last year, like how was school or where had he gone, but all I could think of was that my friend Katie had a massive crush on him and was heartbroken when he left. I had to admit, he was attractive in a boy-next-door sort of way. I decided I liked the boy-next-door sort of way better anyway.
“Can I walk you home?” he wanted to know. He finally let go of my arm, leaving a warm spot where his hand had been.
“How did you know I was going home?” Typical me, arguing with someone who was offering to do what I had been wanting all evening.
He shrugged. “Nothing’s open. You live like a block from here. Where else would you be going?”
Good point.
“I guess,” I said. I wasn’t sure about having Cale’s company; we’d never really hung out in school, but at this point I would take what I could get.
“So, where have you been this last year?” I asked, remembering that I hadn’t even seen him around at Christmas.
He coughed. “Went to private school in Vermont.”
“How’s that?”
“Great, actually,” he said. “It’s been really eye-opening.”
“Like, academically?” I shifted so that I could see his face better as we walked and so that I wouldn’t be tempted to constantly look over my shoulder.
He grinned. “Yeah, that’s part of it, I guess, but also there’s a lot of…diverse people there.”
“I bet there’s a lot of argyle too,” I muttered.
“What’d you say?” he asked, leaning towards me so that he could hear.
“Nothing,” I said, looking off into the distance and trying to act cool.
“How have you been?” he asked, trying hard to continue the conversation.
I was getting the distinct feeling that he was waiting for something, but I had no idea what.
“Do you have somewhere else to be?” I asked.
“You like asking lots of questions, huh?” he observed.
“I like information,” I told him. “It helps me function properly.”
He threw back his head and laughed. “Do you have trouble functioning properly?”
“Only Sunday through Saturday,” I said under my breath. But to him I said, “Sorry. I won’t ask so many questions.”
“No, you should,” he said. “It’s nice to have someone be curious. Besides, I was actually hoping to see you at some point while I was home.”
“You were?” I asked, shocked. Cale hadn’t said two words to me for the entire time we were in school together.
“Yeah,” he said. “You were always nice to me and I was hoping to run into you. You were always nice in general, actually.”
“I’m only nice to people I don’t know,” I informed him. “Just give it time.”
That made him laugh again. “Oh, I see. So you’re really a tough girl?”
“Yeah,” I said, grinning. “Don’t mess with me.”
“You realize you’re only like five feet tall?” Cale asked, still smiling broadly at me.
I smiled back. “Yeah, but it’s not the size of the dog in the fight….” My voice trailed off. I’d been enjoying the banter with Cale, but now I had reminded myself of the dog I’d been “seeing.” More and more I was thinking that it must be some stupid illusion.
Seeing the sudden strain on my face, Cale asked me what was wrong.
“Nothing,” I said. The uneasy feeling I’d been having returned. We were now on my street, the one that didn’t have streetlights. I took a deep breath, trying to steady myself. Over and over again I told myself that it was no big deal, that I hadn’t even really seen anything following me. Who had black dogs with red eyes following them anyway? No one.
“Sorry if I’m a little distracted,” I said to Cale, feeling awkward and like I’d been bizarre the whole time.
“Don’t worry about it,” said Cale, smiling. “It’s part of your charm.”
We had almost reached my house when Cale said, “Hey, Charlotte?”
“Yeah?”
He took a deep breath like he was about to say something, but instead just let the air out slowly. “It was great to see you.”
“Yeah, um, you too,” I said. I couldn’t wait to get inside my house. Cale hesitated for a second, then wandered off down the street.
Before I could dash inside I heard a low growling noise behind me and froze. I didn’t dare look around, but Cale was gone, not that he would be much help against the flesh-eating monster I imagined to be hiding just behind the bushes.
Slowly, I turned around. For some reason, actually seeing the massive black dog standing there, foaming at the mouth as it glared at me, was not as terrifying as thinking it was following me but not being sure. Now, instead of being crazy, I was about to be murdered by a massive animal. It was a wonderful improvement.
The dog’s belly was almost touching the ground. Every muscle in its body looked coiled, ready to spring free. I recognized that position. I saw it all the time on TV. It was what an animal did before it leaped forward. The big black dog was about to attack.
I couldn’t move, couldn’t think. Running away seemed impossible. It was clearly faster than I was, and there was nowhere I could run to anyhow. In my mind I calculated the distance from where I was standing to the front door of my house; I would never make it inside.
All this went through my head in the split second before the dog launched himself towards me. But just before he plowed into me, the swirling mist came back in full force, slamming around me, blocking my view. I couldn’t see, I couldn’t breathe, I smelled the faint stench of something tangy and heard a high faint screeching nois
e.
I tried to shove my way through the mist. No way was I just going to stand there and get torn into tiny bloody pieces.
Through my confusion I could tell that the dog was now preoccupied. He was snarling in front of me, but it wasn’t at me. It was like he had completely forgotten I was there. He seemed to be trying to nip at something that he could never quite get his jaws around.
Meanwhile, the mist, which had been getting thicker around me, suddenly cleared enough so that I could see the dog, with a last ditch effort, spin and come towards me. He took me, and apparently the mist, by surprise as he hit me and knocked me backwards onto the porch.
I felt my head hit one of the steps, and my vision flickered out. The last thing I noticed before I blacked out were shapes crowding around me and someone who sounded a lot like Cale asking if I was all right. I tried to answer, but I couldn’t.
Then there was nothing.