Bitten

Chrissy wondered how long he had been standing there, watching her. From the startled expression on his face, she could tell he wasn’t expecting to get caught. How many times had he done this before, uninterrupted? How many times had this little boy silently crept in through the window he had just darted out of and stood next to her bed while she slept?

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Chrissy’s alarm buzzed furiously on the bed side table, it was set to get increasingly louder and more urgent the longer she ignored it. Still it hadn’t woken her. Toni stormed into the room having been rudely awoken by the racket and shook Chrissy conscious, “will you turn that bloody thing off!” she marched around the bed and slammed her hand down on the alarm, threw open the curtains and yanked the duvet off from over Chrissy’s head as she desperately tried to shield herself from this unwelcome assault on her senses. “You’re late for work by the way” she huffed, “Again!”. Chrissy could just make out her sister, hands on hips silhouetted against the glaring sunlight as it streamed in through the window making her wince. Chrissy felt cold, but the sheets under her were damp with sweat. There came a loud sigh, then a bang as the door slammed behind Toni on her way out. Chrissy’s head pounded, but finally there was silence. She blinked her eyes, trying to gain some sort of focus and glanced anxiously over at her clock. Work was expecting her to walk through the door any minute now, instead she was barely awake and feeling utterly dreadful, like the life had been sucked from her body. ‘That bloody dog’ she mumbled, examining the bite mark on her forearm. It was red and throbbing, the puncture marks still fresh and glistening with blood. Chrissy put her hand to her head, she was burning up, ‘urgh! That bloody DOG!’ she swung her legs round to get up, but as her feet touched the floor her head became light, and a wave of nausea flowed through her. ‘Great!’.

Chrissy took a moment to lay back down and compose herself, before keying in the number for work. As the phone rang, she prayed that her manager wouldn’t answer, that was an argument she could do without. “Hello, this is Dog’s Paradise, Anna speaking, how can I assist you today?” the voice sang out,

“Oh thank god it’s you” Chrissy said relieved,

“Chrissy? Where are you, your shift started five minutes ago! You overslept again?” Anna’s voice dropped to a whisper and Chrissy could hear her sneaking away from the front desk into the office, “after you left yesterday, that dog got out and caused all sorts of trouble, Lydia is on the warpath”, Chrissy swore under her breath, “I can’t come in”,

“Chrissy, she’ll flip! I can handle the clean-up, but you can’t leave me to deal with her on my own!”

“Ah man, I’m so sorry, I can’t even get out of bed, I think that bite is infected”, there was no response, “Anna?”, there was a shuffling sound and muffled voices, then someone grabbed the phone,  

“Christina Ann Black, if you don’t get your ass to work in the next 30 minutes, I swear I will fire you”,

“Good morning Lydia”, Chrissy groaned, “I can’t come in, I’m sick”,

“Right, so yesterday you go against company policy and bring that stray dog here, giving half our guests fleas and making a complete mess of the day room, and now you can’t come in to help sort it out, how convenient” Lydia ranted. Chrissy buried herself deeper into the bed, her eyes tight shut trying to ignore the pain radiating from her arm. “I’m sorry” she said pathetically, “I think I’ve got the flu” she lied, knowing that if she admitted the dog had bitten her, she would never hear the end of it, especially if Lydia found out it had happened before she had even bought it to the kennels.

She couldn’t have just left him there though, the poor thing looked a sorry state, he needed some love and attention. There was a spare room at the dog ‘hotel’, and it was only going to be for one night, then Chrissy would get him all spruced up and take him home. There was no way her family would let her keep him in the state he was in. Who could blame the poor little thing for biting her, he was terrified, probably abused. All he needed was a bit of affection, someone to show him that not all humans are so horrid. “Any damage is coming out of your wages” Lydia barked leaving no room for argument, then thrust the phone back to Anna, “You can blame Christina for your double work-load today”. There was a brief silence before Anna spoke again,

“You still there?” she asked, Chrissy nodded before realising she would have to speak,

“Yeah, I’m here, I’m sorry for all this, I’ll call the rescue centre and get them to pick up the dog today” she promised,

“The dog’s gone Chrissy”

“What do you mean gone?” Chrissy feared the worst, Lydia was a dog lover, but only the finest dogs got her approval, the kind of dogs that would stay at her five-star retreat, with owners that would pay a pretty penny for poochy pampering. Dogs like the little scruff Chrissy had found were nothing more than street rats to Lydia, but would she really send him off to be destroyed? “After causing total chaos here he must have made a break for it” Anna told her, “no one saw how he got out, but we looked everywhere and no one could find him, all we found was his collar” Anna told her,

“Collar? I didn’t think he was wearing a collar” Chrissy said confused,

“Must have been hiding in all that matted fur, was definitely his though”,

“What did it say?” Chrissy asked hopeful, “We can let the owners know we found him”,

“Or report them for neglect” Anna said as she fumbled around in her jacket pocket, knowing she’d shoved the collar in there amongst the dog treats, “I gotta go Chris Lydia’s coming back, I’ll have a look. Get yourself to a doctor before you turn rabid!” Anna’s fingers grasped the metal tag just as she hung up the phone, ‘Tyke’ she said reading the name and chuckling, ‘he certainly was’ she thought to herself.

Chrissy meanwhile had closed her eyes and was laying in bed wondering if she should have just left that dog where she found it. At that second encounter she had desperately wanted to help the poor creature, but she wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice. She thought she could dash home to get a lead, or a box or something. Maybe add some extra layers of clothing to cover her arms. “You wait there, I’ll come back for you” she told him, the dog cocked his head to one side and whimpered, “don’t worry, I’ll look after you” she assured him, “even if you did bite me” she added under her breath. Chrissy head off towards home before glancing back to check her new friend was still there, but instead she saw him trotting along behind her, “Oh, you gonna come willingly this time?” she smiled to herself, but quickly realised that her plan had a vital flaw. Her family. There was no chance they would let her bring this flea ridden beast into their house, let alone allow her to keep him! Chrissy had a rare stroke of genius when she remembered that there was an empty kennel at work, she could keep him in there, make use of the pamper room, get him all cleaned up and looking dapper so her family wouldn’t be able to resist having him as a pet. She knew the policy, ‘No freebies: that means every customer pays and NO STRAYS’, but it was only going to be for one night, she’d be at work the next day, she’d sort him out and take him home. No problem, Lydia would never have to know.

But this plan went about as well as her first attempt at his rescue a few days earlier. She’d seen the scruffy little terror, scurrying around the park looking scrawny, it’s fur all matted together. It was an unusual sight in her town. In fact she’d never seen a stray dog before. This little fella had wiry black fur that crowded in around its face, it’s dark eyes peered out looking lost, drawing Chrissy in. She was a dog lover by nature, it was why she had chosen her job at the kennels, though she wished the place wasn’t so pretentious. It hadn’t always been like that, not until Lydia took over, when suddenly the walls were pink, the wash-room became a spa, and the ‘rooms’ were better furnished than Chrissy’s own. But it was the only kennels in town, and alternative options for employment were sparse for a girl with her lack of credentials. Chrissy knew how to handle a frightened dog, there had been plenty come through the kennels. The owners go off on some fancy holiday and dump the dog with them for a week, the dog has no idea what is going on and feels terrified and abandoned. Though at least with Lydia’s revamp of ‘Dog’s Paradise’, now the dog’s holiday was just as luxurious as their owners.

The park was quiet except for a little boy playing on the swing, Chrissy hoped nothing would suddenly appear to startle the nervous creature. She knew to approach the dog from the side, not the front, and to avoid eye contact. She held out her hand, and spoke quietly, “it’s Ok little guy, I’m gonna help you” she whispered. She waited for the dog to come to her, but it was frozen in place. Chrissy shuffled forward, slowly and cautiously, her hand still outstretched, “come on little guy, it’s Ok”, still the dog didn’t budge, but it hadn’t growled either. Chrissy tried to reach out with her hand and stroke the trembling ball of matted fur when it sprung forwards, its teeth sinking deep into her flesh and blood gushing out down her arm. Chrissy leapt back, “bloody dog!” she yelped, grasping her arm. When she looked back up, the dog had gone, she scanned the park but it was empty. Chrissy pulled a tissue from her pocket and held it tight against the wound, then head home feeling very sorry for herself. She hadn’t got far before the blood had saturated the tissue and began to trickle down her hand. Picking up the pace she made the decision to cut through the cemetery, only narrowly avoiding adding to her problems by tripping into a freshly dug grave. Chrissy was too preoccupied to remember she’d been standing in that exact spot just a week ago.  

Her friend Sam had been at her house for a routine catch up, he was showing her an old book he’d found dropped in the church graveyard. Chrissy was sceptical as to whether that really was where he’d found it, but she’d listened with curiosity regardless. Sam was what Chrissy would describe as a goth, though he was adamant that he was a witch and would frequently dabble in the occult. So of course it would make sense that he would be the one to stumble across some creepy old book in amongst the gravestones. He told Chrissy that when he found the book it was open, face down, laying on top of a grave. “Don’t you think someone might have left it there as a gift to the deceased?” Chrissy asked shuddering, she was not overly superstitious but if there was one thing you didn’t do, it was stealing from the dead. “Unlikely” Sam told her, “this is not the kind of book you want the dead getting their hands on, unless…” his voice trailed off, “Nah, no one is that stupid”, there was a long silence as Sam seemed to be contemplating some deep thought, “What is it?” Chrissy prompted, he was starting to give her the creeps. “The book was open on this page”, Sam held it out and pointed to the title, “Reanimation” Chrissy read, confused, “What does it mean?” she asked, though from the helpful step-by-step pictures drawn in rough sketch on the page, she could hazard a fair guess. “Someone’s been trying to raise the dead” Sam said, his dramatic tone causing Chrissy to snigger. “It’s not funny!” Sam protested, “If they really did try this, there could be some undead corpse roaming around looking for sustenance”,

“Like a zombie?” Chrissy laughed, “Brains! Brains!” She held her arms out in front of her and rolled back her eyes. She did love Sam and his supernatural quirks, but she just couldn’t contain herself. Sam seemed untroubled by her reaction, “I’ve gotta go” he said as he began gathering his things, “Wait, where are you going?” Chrissy jumped up, she knew he was just being dramatic, but this was likely the most interesting thing going to happen that day. “I’ve got to go back to the graveyard” Sam mumbled, he seemed flustered as he rushed off with Chrissy in tow, though he was several paces ahead of her by now. Luckily the church wasn’t far from Chrissy’s house, as she had to half run to keep up with Sam’s long strides and was quickly wearing out. He marched them through the tombstones before suddenly stopping dead in front of a headstone, “This is where I found it” he said, “this is Toby’s grave”,

“Toby?” Chrissy asked a little weary now. The name was not immediately familiar, but the grave seemed to be relatively new. The gold leaf still fresh on the carved writing, “Was Toby that little boy who was hit by a car last year?” she asked, thinking back to some vague recollection of the incident. Sam nodded his head, “his brother never got over the loss, he said he’d do anything to get him back” Sam explained, “it was tragic, they both died on impact,”

“Both?” Chrissy asked confused, she only recalled hearing about one kid at the time. Sam pointed to the writing on the headstone carved just below Toby’s name, “Forever by his side in life and death” she read aloud, “Tyke, a boy’s best friend”.