It was a typical Moday summer night in my country home, surrounded by a series of long-abandoned farm buildings. It was just past midnight as I sat on the couch, watching AlChestBreach's review of Garbage Gurus, a Fallout New Vegas mod, as I often spend my nights without company. My laptop had died not 12 hours ago, becoming unusable. It was imminent, of course, seeing as how much strain I put on the used machine with my gaming.
"Damnit." I said to myself aloud, but in a hushed tone despite my being alone. "What the hell it wrong with my guys today?" I stood, and fiddled with the remote to my Blu-Ray player. I suspect the batteries may be dying, as you must hold it at a certain angle to get any response, and there is some seconds of delay before said response. After winning my battle with the remote, I then went to partake in another battle with my inconveniently over-active bowels. This would be the third time this night I had to go in there. My phone was nearly dead as well, but entertainment is a must when on the toilet. So, as I had done many times before, and will many times in the future, I stripped down completely naked (a strange habit of mine) and sat on my porcelain throne, unlocking my phone while pushing a chaff of the popcorn I had been idly eating up until this point around my mouth with my tongue.
As I browsed the web while 'doing my business', my phon reached 6% battery life, but despite the deceptive number, died right then. "Oh, what the fuck." I said to myself, immediately feeling strangely uncomfortable for complaining aloud on the toilet despite there being no human life within 2 miles of my house. In a much softer tone, I continued. "What's the point of having numbers below 6 of you're just gonna die at 6%?" Silently cursing my array of faulty electronics, I wrapped up my 'activities' and left the room, at which point I decided I was tired, and simply pressed the power button on the Blu-Ray player as I passed by rather than deal with the remote again. As I ventured back to the couch, I picked up the bag of white cheddar popcorn I had been eating, squishing all the air out of it as a responsible snack owner should and rolling it up tightly. Not wanting to search for a chip clip in the kitchen, I simply sealed the bag with a clothespin that happened to be laying on my coffee table. I left the bag, as well as my array of remotes on the table for tomorrow's use and headed to my bedroom, where I plugged my phone in to my iPod dock. This was the only way for me to chare my phone, as every cord charger was stolen by drunken and/or high friends of mine when they came over, and I simply lacked the funds to keep replacing them. Waiting for my phone to charge enough to turn back on for me to begin playing music, I undressed in preparation for sleep. I went to close my windows, as I had left them open to cool down my room, which happened to be the worst-ventilated room in the house. Cold in winter, hot in summer. The holes in the screen were just large enough to let the annoying insects inside which danced around my lightbulb, mocking me with their light taps against the glass.
As I sighed to myself and closed my windows, I heard something quite peculiar from the one facing the rest of the property. A strange, squeaky, pained barking that I had never heard from either of my dogs. Chaka, a chocolate lab-dominate mut had a district low bark while Nanook, a Husky-Lab mix never barked, but howled. She was a very vocal dog, but I had only ever heard her bark once, at another dog which was barking aggressively at me. Not knowing how a stray dog would reach my house, I immediately came to the conclusion that this pained barking must be from Nanook.
I redressed as quickly as possible, all while hearing her yelp and growl at whatever creature was out there, and grabbed a flashlight. Not bothering to grab a jacket on this summer night, I flipped on all outside lights on my way out, cursing my descision to stop paying for my massive floodlight outside. As I reached the porch, I found Chaka, my hunting dog, waiting on the couch. As I opened the door she ran inside, far more eager to re-enter the house than she ever had before. This scared me. I called her back out, not wanting to search for whatever creature that was attacking Nanook alone, and she reluctantly obliged. As I began to leave the porch through the garage, I motioned for her to go first, as the garage light was behind a door which needed to be moved in order to reach the switch, but the door was old and stuck to the ground quite well, the rusty hinges denying movement. As I began to battle for dominance with my garage door, I heard a short growl from Chaka, the instigator of said growl unseen to me in the pitch blackness. I raised my flashlight, but before I clicked the button a loud noise startled me rather much, a sort of banging and scratching, and my dog scurried back inside of the porch, myself following quite quickly.
I closed the normally open door leading to the garage, and gathered myself on the couch. My heart was still racing. It was then that I heard, or rather didn't hear something that filled my with a feeling if dread. Nanook had stopped barking. She was very good at killing things. Living in Iowa, the worst we ever got was raccoons, and she killed raccoons all the time. I didn't want to know what kind of creature was out there, but I had to make sure Nanook was okay. I left my porch through the back door, the quickest route to the building the sounds seemed to be coming from near, and shone my flashlight. What I ha not anticipated, however, souls be the lack of usefulness of the flashlight, as it only illuminated what I could see with my naked eye, not extending the reach if my vision. I kept it up anyway however, as it gave me a certain sense of safety. As I ventured out into the open, looking back over my shoulder regularly and obsessively, I felt a queasy feeling in my stomach. My heart was racing, my knees shaking. Why did this fucking dog have to get into this fight. Why tonight. "Nanook!" I called in a voice I realized was much to quiet to reach all the locations she could be, but I was quite nervous an for some reason did not want to potentially alert whatever animal was out there with her as well, despite my knowing that they would hear anyway.
I took a makeshift weapon I had constructed from a newby shed, a short pice of PVC pipe with a 'T' shape on the end, with a pitchfork head having been placed inside and secured to the 'T' end. I had practiced using it on a haybail, able to throw and stab with it accurately. I wasn't sure how that would hold up under pressure, however. As I kept walking I stopped calling her name. She would've heard it by now, and whenever I tried to speak nothing came out. As I approached a half-cylindrical metal building, a building I had heard strange sounds from before and a building that sounded closest to the noises, I heard rustling. Footsteps, not the carefully placed, light, and paced footsteps of a human, but just the occasional rustle of grass. I stopped dead in my tracks. My whole body was shaking. I turned off my flashlight and just stood there, wishing that I wasn't an Atheist so that I'd have something to pray to right now. I heard the noise again, much closer to me now, and decided I would just see what it was. I was in a large, open field of grass. There was no way I could outrun it. But there was no other choice for me. I clicked on my flashlight and pointed it towards the noise, and all I saw was a pair of glowing green eyes reflecting the beam. It froze with me, unidentifiable. Neither of us moved. I opened my mouth to speak, but only a faint, squeaky rasping came out. Eventually I mustered enough strength to speak. "N~n~Nanook?" I squeaked, nervously awaiting a response. Anything to show that this creature understood what I had said.
And I got one. It began walking towards me. I stayed put, ready to strike, but dropped my weapon as I saw the glowing eyes become blue, and her beige fur protrude from the blackness that surrounded her. "Nanook!" I said, both relived and angry. "Get inside! C'mon!" I ran with her back to the house, ushering her in to the porch while looking once more over my shoulder to make sure nothing followed us. I took her and Chaka inside, and sat with them on the couch, still shaken from the experience. I noticed Nanook licking her paws. I looked closer at her, and noticed many wet parts on her fur that looked much like bite marks, as blood on her paws. She had bleeding scratches on her face above her nose, not large, but larger than a raccoon's. I comforted Nanook and she did the same for me until I was calm enough to get to sleep.
And so I write this in the waiting room of the closest vet's office to my house, making sure nothing is wrong with her. Upon my return, I will investigate the area where I heard the noises, to see if I can find any evidence as to what could have caused this.
Mondays, amarite?
Log in to comment