Bailey nudged Sarah’s arm with her paw, whimpering as she waited for her to wake up. Sarah looked toward her bedside table with eyes still clouded from sleep. She stared at her clock for a few seconds, recovering from the blinding blue light of the numbers. It was 3:21 a.m. Sarah shuffled through the motions, dragging herself to the living room and opening the back door, not bothering with the porch light as the full moon and bed of stars silhouetted Bailey’s every move. Bailey sniffed, running her nose across the ground, looking for a place to relieve herself when she stopped abruptly.
She stood not 10 feet in front of Sarah with ears pointed upward as she stared into the darkness, listening. Sarah watched her, noticing the sudden quiet that seemed to consume the entire forest. The two stood, watching the trees beyond, listening for a sound, even the hum of night to comfort them but there was nothing. Then, a crunch of leaves in the distance. And another, and again, like a throbbing heartbeat as the assailant ran faster, the noise growing louder as if heading straight for them. Bailey started barking, backing up against Sarah to shield her.
Bailey was now directly in front of her, her head bowed low as she growled and continued to bark at a tree not more than 20 paces in front of them. A creature stepped into the clearing; its shoulders massive as it towered over them on all fours with a tail of spikes that curled around itself. It looked almost feline in form with tight skin draping over its skeleton, accentuating every bone as it walked in silence. The head of the creature was filled with gruesome scars that snaked down its body as if it’d been tortured, each line carved closer to its heart.
The creature froze, its eyes bore into Sarah’s as if it’d known her, recognized her somehow. It didn’t move, didn’t make a sound, not even as Sarah inched closer to the door. Bailey continued barking, backstepping as Sarah opened the door and the two slipped inside. The creature’s eyes shifted to Bailey. Sarah could see the anguish that bore out of them before shutting the door, closing the space between her and the creature with the familiar eyes.
“Hello Sarah,” a shadow whispered inside the house. Sarah turned suddenly, searching for the intruder, reaching for something -- anything to protect herself. A light flickered on and a brute man sat at the dining room table. He too was covered with scars, a few fresh, that snaked down his arms over tattoos of foreign symbols and words she couldn’t make out.
“Who are you,” Sarah said, wrapping her hands around an umbrella she kept by the door. “What do you want?”
“What has it been, a year now and you’ve already replaced her with a runt?,” the stranger said. He looked at Bailey and smirked as he stood.
“A pity really,” he continued as he walked closer to the two. Bailey growled and snapped at him as he attempted to pat her head. “Andromeda put up quite a fight to protect you, tortured nonetheless so they could get a good cry outta you and how do you repay her, by replacing her with a cute little face I could strangle in seconds. Then again, I can’t say much. Seems to me they wiped your memories too.”
Sarah stared in disbelief, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Of course not,” he whispered, growing closer with every step. “But you will soon enough.”
Sarah lunged forward, umbrella clutched in both hands, prepared to break bone when everything stopped. She couldn’t move, couldn’t see and felt only the tears running down her cheeks as the stranger planted a kiss on her forehead and whispered,
“I think it’s about time we brought you home.”
Emily Radell is studying English at NMSU with a concentration in Literature, Language and Culture and a minor in Journalism. She currently lives in Las Cruces and is expected to graduate in the Spring of 2022. She hopes to be accepted to an MFA program post-graduation and aspires to pursue a career in publishing. Emily wants to become an acquisitions editor for a major or medium sized publishing house in YA or Contemporary fiction. She enjoys reading a variety of genres --- fiction, self-help, memoir, among others --- and listens to Ted Talks and podcasts in her free time on current events and social issues.
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