Honey Have You Seen the Dog?

by Rhianna Vasquez © 2003

“Hi Sandy!” May Webster shouted from her dilapidated porch. She looked at her husband Ed, “Poor thing. I wonder how she feels about the wolf.”

“Now May, what in the hell kinda wolf you know of can break into someone’s house and eat their dog?”

“Well I don’t know Ed. The Sheriff said it was an animal though. I just fig-“

“That Sheriff don’t know what he’s talkin ‘bout. Ain’t no kinda animal that can get into someone’s house without breakin the window or door. I say someone let whatever it was in. I think it was that Peterson boy and his damned dog. That dog has been trouble since the moment it was born. So’s the boy.”

The Sheriff really didn’t know what he was talking about. He was going on logic and denial. The truth was too horrible to think about. The deputy and the mayor both knew the truth too. They’d seen that dead dog for themselves. Neither would admit the truth. All three of the town officials insisted that it was an animal that had gotten into Mary Jo Rasperton’s house and ate her Jack Russell Terrier. It was amazing what terror could do to the human mind. After a week had gone by the three town officials were resigned to their conclusion and no longer gave it a thought, except late at night. Then another one happened. The Farmer’s cat was eaten inside the kitchen. Tucker, Ohio was officially having a rash of killings. The townspeople wouldn’t listen to the Sheriff’s bogus story for much longer. This was a nightmare.

“Hey dummy! Ain’t you back in the nuthatch yet?” Sandy looked up from her book at Billy Peterson and his German Shepard “Crazy Eyes”. The dog barked and snarled furiously. Sandy just stared at them absent of fear or embarrassment.

“Quit staring at us you freak! Nobody wants you here ya know. Bad things has been happenin since you was born! Ain't you ever wondered why your parents burned up in that fire? It’s cuz god hates you! And now there’s a monster in Tucker! It’s all your fault! Go back to the Asylum!”

* * * *

“Listen, Sheriff Brighton, I’m not saying that we need to tell the people that there’s a real live monster in Tucker. But we do have to give them another story. No one believes that this is an animal.” The Mayor sat back in her chair.

“Well I don’t know of another story to give, Shelly. What I do know is that if this keeps happening the townsfolk are gonna believe whatever they want. What we need to do is find this monster and kill it!"

“You two can’t be serious!” Dave Reddington the deputy shouted. “Do you mean to tell me that you two honestly think this is a monster? You believe that this is something we should hunt down and kill?”

“Oh come on Dave,” Brighton said, “You saw that dog and that cat. And you saw the houses. Nothing was touched besides the animals. No trace of anything, not a footprint or a hair or a drop of blood anywhere! The way I see it is that anything that can do what that thing did has got to be supernatural.”

“It could be human.” Brighton and Reddington looked at Shelly Webster. “What I mean is that I was talking to my Dad yesterday and he seems to think it was the Peterson boy. He thinks the boy let his dog into the houses. You’ve got to admit that the dog is a vicious nuisance. I saw that dog go after a rabbit once, it was not a pretty sight.”

“See! So let’s go and talk to Billy Peterson.” Dave had a look of unease and not relief on his face.

Sheriff Brighton and Deputy Reddington mounted the steps of Shane Peterson’s ranch style house. Brighton looked at his deputy, “Alright now don’t be accusin’ him of anything! We just want to ask him some questions.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Reddington knocked on the door. Marla Peterson promptly answered. “Well hello boys! Come on in! I’ll get ya some iced tea.”

The officers of law stepped into the house and waited for Mrs. Peterson to come back. When she did the Sheriff quickly asked her if Billy was home.

“Well sure. Billy!” She yelled towards the back of the house. “What’s this about y’all? Billy come out here right now!”

Reddington spoke up, “We just have a couple questions to ask him is all.”

The three sat in silence for what seemed like an eternity. There was not so much as a rustle from the back of the house.

“He must still be asleep. I’ll go in and get him”

Dave knew something bad was going to happen. He could feel it. He wasn’t at all surprised when Marla Peterson screamed. He got up and ran to the back of the house. He peered through Billy’s bedroom door to see Crazy Eyes the German Shepard, or what was left of him, lying on the floor. Billy was nowhere to be found.

Brighton looked at Reddington, “Well, I guess it wasn’t the Peterson boy.” The manhunt began immediately.

* * * *

Sandy reflected upon the darker time in her life. The time she spent in that morgue after her parents died. Billy Peterson was right. God did hate her. Why else would a twelve-year old girl be trapped in a basement morgue while her parents burned to death in the funeral home upstairs? Why else would no one be able to locate her in the morgue for two weeks? And why on god’s green earth would it be possible for a twelve-year-old girl to develop a taste for the human flesh she had to eat to survive? Billy Peterson screamed from the trunk of Sandy’s car. She wasn’t hungry after Crazy Eyes so she decided to hold on to her next meal.

x x x




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