Dog Adoption: Dogs Aren?t Allowed in my Home Town. UPDATE

Here?s the first part for those of you wondering

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I don?t know how long it?s been now, I barely know what time it is so much has happened and I?m starting to wonder if I?m entirely insane. I?ll try to explain everything as best I can and in order.. so starting from when my dog, Jasper, vanished from my parents house. My parents implied that something had come and taken my dog, there was a considerable amount of yelling after that. They wouldn?t tell me what exactly had supposedly taken him, only blamed me for bringing Jasper to the house and in doing so, attracting ?It?. They were mad I had put them in ?danger?, meanwhile I was mad that they hadn?t even been honest with me and still weren?t being entirely forthcoming about what they thought was happening.
I left the house in a huff, slamming the door behind me and storming off into the night with my night gown wrapped tight around me and my phone as a flash light. Hours must?ve passed as I walked the silent streets, one thing about my home town is that at night it?s dead silent, no crickets, no rustling of night animals. In other towns you might see a stray cat or dog rummaging though the trash, not in this town. The only sounds where the soft scraping of my slippers on the concrete and the electric hum of orange street lights.
Occasionally I would softly call for Jasper and listen for the sound of padded paws coming toward me but there was nothing. It was all I could do not to spook myself as I walked, though I stayed out there until the sun began to rise clean and crisp over the sleeping households of the neighbourhood and just in time for my phone battery to die. I?m sure I must?ve looked crazed wandering about as I was in my pjs, my hair a birds nest of a mess on my head and scraped up slippers from the distance travelled.
When I made it home, my parents were making breakfast, to my surprise they greeted me pleasantly. Acting as if nothing had broken into our house and my dog wasn?t missing, as if we hadn?t argued and I hadn?t just spent hours searching alone for him. In fact, when I tried to mention anything about it, they denied any knowledge of it. Even going as far as to tell me I hadn?t brought a dog home. That they had never seen or heard of Jasper.
A new sort of anger boiled in me then, their way of dealing with this was to just pretend nothing at all happened? Deny even ever knowing about Jasper? I couldn?t believe it, but in my exhausted state I just muttered a moody ?whatever? and left it be. We ate breakfast in a tense state, they tried to make small talk but I shut it down at most opportunities and then went for a nap. While I slept I dreamt of Jasper. In my dream I saw him running through trees deep in the woods then being dragged down a large hole into the earth never to be seen again.
This disturbed my sleep when I sat up I was a little disoriented to see that it was dark in my room, I had somehow slept the entire day into the night. Worse was that in my confusion I noticed a shape in the corner of my room. At first I thought it was Jasper, in my half wakeful state the logic hadn?t caught up to me that there wasn?t any way he could have possibly gotten back into the house, let alone up the stairs and through the door to my room. Still the figure sat there, it was about the right size and facing my direction so that I could see its? eyes reflecting back at me through the dimness.
I called Jasper?s name softly but it didn?t move, the hair on the back of my arms started to stand on end as fear crept into my mind, if that wasn?t my dog, what was it? It was definitely an animal and the right general shape, or was it..? The longer we stared at each other the more I realised that although it seemed to have the high set eyes and round face shape of a dog, it?s silhouette was lumpy. There were too many limbs, it?s body too wide.
Slowly I began to reach for my bedside light keeping my eyes locked on the creature I heard the wet slop of it?s mouth opening and saw the pale mass of teeth as my fingers touched the cool metal of the lamp. It took a painfully long moment to actually find the switch as I fumbled with it, panic was setting in causing my heart to beat so fast that I could hear the blood rushing in my ears and that only made me more desperate for light.
However as I finally flicked the light on the thing in my room launched at me, I screamed and did the only possibly logical thing I could think of - pulled the blankets up over myself to stop it from getting me. I could feel its? heavy weight on me as it grabbed at the blankets trying to rip them off me, I thrashed wildly and fought back as hard as I could until I realised I could hear my mothers voice, ?Kate, Katelyn wake up, it?s me, stop-? she said firmly and I realised with confusion that I was still dreaming.
Gradually I calmed and pushed back the sheets to see that it was broad daylight and my mother was sitting at the end of my bed with a nervous expression, ?What day is it?? I blurted out to which she answered, ?You?ve only been asleep a hour.. We know you went on a little walk last night but your father and I didn?t want you to waste the day.? She explained sheepishly.
All at once my uncertainty evaporated, replaced instead by renewed annoyance, I was way too exhausted for this, ?You?re right, I have to go find Jasper.? I told her as I started to sit up.
?Oh right well..? She said awkwardly patting herself off, ?The Garnets will be stopping over today for lunch, best we be presentable and not mention such, radical, topics.? She warned none too subtly.
My mother always did have a way of dancing around her words while making the intent clear, I was to be home for lunch, dress nicely and not mention anything about a d o g or heaven forbid. Once she had left though I decided on making up some flyers and printing them off discretely. I figured that surely, in a town with no dogs, that someone would notice if they saw him. The good thing about living in such a small country town was always that most places are within walking distance, the downside of course is that everyone hears about everything.
As made my way though town putting up my flyers I noticed they were being taken down, in some cases almost as soon as I?d put them up they?d be torn down. People in the streets glanced at me as I passed, giving me an unwelcoming side eye and whispering amongst themselves. It was uncomfortable to say the least, though it wouldn?t dampen my determination or my anger. I felt that if my parents had just told me before hand that Jasper would be in danger if I brought him here, rather than keeping secrets l, none of this would be happening.
Of course though, I was also mad at myself.. I had wanted to show my family that dogs weren?t bad, that they didn?t need to be scared of them and that they were loving wonderful creatures. However in doing so I had put Jasper in a peril that I didn?t understand, let alone know existed. It was selfish of me and I couldn?t forgive myself but I was absolutely not going to give up on finding Jasper.
I continued on my task until I ran out of flyers and found myself to be wandering about without any real direction just calling for my dog. It was only when I reached the edge of town and the beginning of the state forest that I stopped. Above me the sun was starting to get high as midday approached and in doing so turning the day from pleasant to uncomfortably warm so I decided to take a break in the shade of the trees.
Initially of course I had only intended on walking until I found a nice log to sit down on, but I soon found myself walking deeper and deeper into the forest. The foliage was providing enough relief the despite there being beads of sweat on my brow the air was cool on my skin and this encouraged me onward. It?s easy to get lost in a forest, you lose yourself in the crunching of leaves, the songs of birds and the chirping of insects so that before you even realise you don?t know where you are, it?s already too late.
This is exactly what happened to me, between one moment and the next I became disorientated, so gradually that it seemed like no time passed at all. I knew I had missed lunch as I could tell it was now getting late into the afternoon and it was as the sun hung heavy overhead that I spotted something unusual a little ways off. It was a tangled cluster of branches in a circular formation around the entrance of a hole in the earth, it looked like a combination of a bird?s nest and a borrowing animal?s tunnel.
As I approached I felt a sense of foreboding, I knew this place, it was the same as it was in my dream. Was Jasper really down there? I approached it with caution though even in broad daylight there was something deeply unsettling about it. The way the branches were so purposefully twisted seemed wrong somehow while the flattened glasses and fresh soil around the entryway indicated recent activity. All of this combined with the now silent surrounds put me on edge.
I was caught in that moment of disbelief and mild panic just waiting for relief to wash over me as if I would somehow suddenly make sense of it, or see it for the harmless home of a rabbit or similar creature. But as I as I stared at it trying to make it make sense, trying to find a rational explanation I realised where there was none and no relief came. Instead I felt bile raising in my throat as I noticed distinctly black dog hairs caught on the surrounding branches.
Jasper was definitely in there and I felt a wave of guilt wash over me, I didn?t want to go in there after him, I really didn?t. I stared down the tunnel for a long time as I argued between my sense of personal safety and loyalty to my dog. In those moments of decision seconds passed as if they were years, then I heard it, the faintest of pained whimpers from within the abyss before me and my mind was made up. Taking out my phone I turned on the flashlight then crawled into the tunnel awkwardly holding the phone up in one hand so that I was more army crawling with my elbows.
The ground inside the lair was laid with sticks and twigs just as the outside had been but they had a damper quality to them making them softer to wriggle over and the air mildly humid. However it was the smell of the place that most sticks with me now. There was the scent of decaying vegetation, which was unpleasant but bearable, and then there was the more putrid smell of decaying flesh. I noticed small bones reflected back starkly in the light of my torch, they must have been old, though they all looked like animal bones I couldn?t say what kind of animal they had once belonged to.
That is until I turned a bend in the tunnel and came near face to face with a neatly assembled pyramid of dog skulls. It wasn?t a huge pyramid but it was clear that many dogs had fallen victim to whatever this thing is, that thought alone was enough to make me sick, though what I saw next will scar me for the rest of my life. I had by this time travelled a good distance into the den, I tried to keep a relatively straight path bypassing side tunnels in the labyrinth of openings so that I wouldn?t get lost while still following the whimpering as my guiding force.
After crawling for what felt like forever it began to open out into a cavern and I found myself looking down into a pit of animal remains, some half eaten while others were bleached with age. Surrounding them was a stringy black substance with what looked to me to be egg shells? As I peered over the edge cautiously I realised it wasn?t a long drop down and was confident that if I went down there I?d still be able to get back up so I began to make my way down slowly.
Upon stepping down into what I had assumed was solid ground I realised that the black ick I had seen from above and thought to be some kind of awful mould growing amongst everything, was in fact more like that of a giant spiders web. It had a sticky quality and stepping on it seemed airy in that you didn?t sink too far into it, but also never hit a solid foundation and instead sent ripples across it with each step as if it were suspended above water. This made walking difficult and I stumbled several times nearly dropping my phone in the process before I finally was able to locate the source of the whimpering.
It was to my relief and simultaneous disappointment, not Jasper. Instead it was a small Maltese cross of some kind, whimpering in fear and agony as it struggled in the sticky threads. The damp webbing stained its white fur in places and I wasted no time in trying to free it. However as I man handled the entrapping substance away from the poor thing it began to writh in an unnatural pain, I noticed beneath my hands and from under its skin I could feel souls lumps raising up until they bulged large enough to push up the fur. The lumps were about the size of gold balls and to my pure horror I realised they were moving. Something in the lumps was wriggling around.
Disgusted I recoiled slightly, I didn?t know what to do any more. That?s when one if the bulges popped, spraying a mixture of clear fluid and blood over the surrounding immediate area, including myself, and causing the dog to give a high pitched yelp of pain.
As the dog frantically struggled in vain to escape it?s pain I saw that something was emerging from the fleshy crater. It was small and grotesque looking, covered in fluid afterbirth it had six limbs. Two sets of which were in a normal position for a quadroped while the third set was perched higher up on the creatures rump, it?s head was rounded with a short snout that opened straight into a mouth as if it had a hair lip and it didn?t seem to have a nice.
I froze in terror as the thing seemed to look around, it?s eyes were small and forward set but still closed. Somehow I still feared it would see me, but a second one popping out of the panic stricken dog caused the first one to shriek. It was a high pitches cry of displeasure as if it?s sibling was competition to it and it turned and began to feed on the dog, ripping mercilessly. At hearing the first one begin to eat the second creature also began to feast as more of the lumps burst open to reveal more of these things.
It was a bloody mess of screaming creatures and helpless wailing from the dog, with no way to help I turned to flee. Stumbling clumsily as I scrabbles to get away. I hardly noticed that the clear liquid I had been sprayed was by now turning black as it reacted with the air. When I did notice I felt a new surge of bile threaten to come up my throat, I was scrabbling though what was undoubtedly years worth of afterbirth and the remains of their first meals.
When I reached the shelf I had come down from I was just about to throw myself up into it when something caught my attention. The web was vibrating at even intervals with the foot steps of something large moving across its surface. I froze a moment as a new wave of terror filled me, it was approaching from somewhere in the darkness just past the reach of my phones light, I could hear it?s skittery wet, unnatural gait so clearly I could almost see it with my ears. Then I booked it.
Somehow my body had decided for me that I was going to run, I hauled myself up the small ledge and crawled like a woman possessed back through the tunnels. Looking back I realise it was pure luck that I went the right way and the cool night air met me with a refreshing gust of pine scented wind. I didn?t stop there though, I knew it was in there, probably realising I had intruded on its nest and it was now surely coming after me with vengeance.
Knowing it was probably coming for me gave my feet wings, I ran as hard as I could as far as I could until taking in breath burned my lungs and my legs felt like jello. In the distance through the trees I could see flashing red and blue lights accompanied by the smaller white lights of torches scanning the forest, I made that my target to reach and as I ran I realised they were calling my name. They were searching for me. Somehow in understanding that help was close at hand my body gave out on me and I feel into a crumpled mess hoarsely calling to them that I was there.
The following moments were agonising as I waited for them to find me, each time I called out my voice was getting weaker and the idea that they might not find me. That they could instead give up and go home leaving me there was worse than when you?re a kid and your parents threaten to leave you at the store. What happened next I?m not entirely sure of, I remember delusionally thinking I could hear a dog barking, then a seeing a bright light flashing in my face and feeling something furry brush up against me, then I woke up in hospital the following day.
I was later told that when I missed lunch my parents were mad, but when I didn?t come home by night fall they were panicked and called in the police to help them search. Apparently they had just had a bad feeling and being friends with the sherif for so many years had it?s benefits. However, they wouldn?t have found me if it weren?t for one thing, a dog, specifically, my dog. As they were looking for me, they had found Jasper in the woods instead and he had kicked up such a stink by running off barking and then returning to repeat the process that someone had finally followed him to me.
He was mostly okay which I?m still thankful for, a couple scrapes but nothing too serious. I myself was dehydrated and scratched up from running headlong into the brush though overall I?m okay too. I?m writing this now from the hospital bed as I?m waiting to be discharged, Jasper is by my side. Apparently everyone is still afraid of him so no one would come near him to remove him from the room.
Tomorrow I?ll demand that my parents tell me everything they know about then things in the forest. For right now though there?s just one thing now that bothers me.. When I reached over to pat him a moment ago my hand came back wet with just the faintest amount of an unsettlingly familiar black fluid..

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Source.