Chapter 7 – he wants revenge

The street leading down to the bad place looked the same as it did the night I left. I sat at the top of the hill and stared at the two story frame house. The off white color of the walls made my skin crawl. It looked normal to humans but I knew better. It leaned to the left. There was a sinkhole in the yard next door. The hole was large enough to drop a car into. It was a gateway to Hell.

The humans in the neighborhood never noticed that, either.

People came and went out of that big office building next to me. I sat in the parking lot. I looked like a big shaggy brown dog with floppy ears.

Nothing to see here folks. Move along now.

Dean was right. Pretending to be something else felt better when I did it to be sneaky, not because I was ashamed of myself.

The woman's brown car sat at the curb in front of the house. That was how I knew she was home. At this time of day I was pretty sure the daughter was still at school. Didn't matter. I wasn't leaving until my business here was finished.

I stared at the house. Didn't matter that the day was warm and the sun was out. I felt cold inside.

I felt cold because I remembered.

I remembered the metal taste of fear in my mouth. The heavy knots in my stomach. I remembered how I felt as I ran that night.

"HERSHEY! HERSHEY! YOU GET BACK HERE DAMN IT!"

I swear that voice was so loud it pushed me forward. I ran so fast and so hard my feet barely touched the ground. I ran up that street. If I stopped and came back I knew she'd hurt me even more. I was a bad dog then.

I ran faster.

I ran past the top of the hill. A block away there was a wide street that was filled with lots of traffic even at that time of night. I wasn't paying attention and I ran head first right into the side of a bus. The bus was stopped at a red light and it rocked back and forth on its wheels when I hit it.

People came to the windows and looked out to see what was going on. Several of them pointed at me. "What the hell is that!"

They could see the real me. I forgot to hide.

I backed up and looked at the large dent in the side of the bus. I wasn't hurt. I sat down on my haunches, threw my head back and howled at the moon. Then I ran around the front of the bus. Behind the bus cars skidded sideways to a sudden stop.

I looked up and snarled at the driver even though it was my fault I hit the bus. She sat frozen in her seat, wide-eyed, pale and shaking. I saw red. I wanted to hurt someone, anyone, just like I'd been hurt. I thought about jumping up, crashing through the windshield and ripping her throat out but I didn't. I knew if I did that I'd never stop killing. I'd kill everyone on the bus.

"HERSHEY!"

I jerked around in the direction of the voice. The woman and her daughter were coming up the hill.

I couldn't go back to that place. I just couldn't.

So I ran. I ran until my legs hurt. I ended up hiding in a vacant house miles away.

The memory held onto me for a moment or so. I could still smell the dusty stale air in the basement. I blinked when I came back to myself. That was then. This was now. My insides felt funny. Hot and cold, jittery and quiet at the same time. I could see the mailbox on the fence. From that distance I saw the letters painted on the black metal: Bleeddry.

That was it. That was their last name. The woman's name was Diane and the daughter's name was Carmen. I realized that I'd thought those dreaded names and nothing bad happened to me.

Huh. I grinned to myself, a wide doggy grin. Well, this was enough, right? I could go back home to Dean. Tell him that I didn't want to do anything else. I could do that.

And it wouldn't fix anything. I'd still be scared. That's why I left before Dean could follow me. He'd done more than enough for me. This was something I wanted to do by myself. For myself.

I glanced at the other side of the street. There was a wooded area, another side street, two more houses, then the bad place. I couldn't go up to the front door and ring the bell. Going through the woods and the backyards and jumping over the fences was a good plan. I grinned to myself as I stood up and crossed the street. Sneaky did feel mighty good.

The damn back door creaked as I opened it. I froze, head cocked. Nothing happened, so I pushed it open more with my nose. I stuck my head inside. My nostrils flared. Ugh. The place still smelled. She always used a lot of disinfectant to hide the stench of sulfur. The back room was empty except for a table and a few chairs. The door to the basement was closed.

So far, so good. I stepped inside. I didn't close the back door. As soon I was all the way in I heard sounds.

The first thing was a slap. Hard. Sounded like a baseball bat. The memory of being hit rose up in the muscles of my back along with all the pain and fear. I clamped my jaws shut to keep myself from whimpering out loud.

"I told you to come here, didn't I?"

It was the woman. That Diane.

The pup whimpered again. "Don't hurt me any more. Please, don't-"

I crouched down and growled deep in my throat. As soon as I did I froze. That was really stupid. What if she heard me? I stayed that way for a moment. I listened.

Nothing.

The fear melted away. I heard another hit, another yelp from the pup, and all that was left inside me was blood red rage. It was happening again, only to someone else. I felt a bright stab of pure hatred towards Hell's trainers and pack masters, even towards King Crowley for allowing this to happen again.

I padded forward into the kitchen. Halfway in I heard something squeak. I couldn't tell where it was coming from. I was distracted, focused on the woman up ahead. My claws didn't make any noise on the tile floor. At least, I didn't think they had. I heard squeaking from the basement below. Mice. They sounded afraid.

I didn't realize where the noise really came from until it was too late.

I stopped by the kitchen table. The place was just as foul as I remembered. Dirty dishes in the sink, rotten food in the oven and the microwave. Flies buzzed in the air. Roaches crawled in and out of the cabinet drawers. The windows were dirty. So were the yellow curtains. Past the kitchen was the tv room. Beyond that was the front room and the stairs that led to the second floor.

The woman and the pup were in the hallway near the front door.

She hit him again.

"I'll be a good boy. I will! Please stop -"

She screamed at him again.

"You're gonna mind me, y'hear?"

Another hit. The pup yipped.

"You're a bad dog. That's why they sent you to me."

I stepped into the hallway.

It was a hellhound pup, all right. Couldn't have been more than two months old. Chubby little thing. White fur. His big pointed ears and long bushy tail were tipped in black. He had light blue eyes. Another runt of the litter. Just like I was.

"I'll teach you to mind me!" the woman raised the bat.

I lost it then. But I didn't make a sound. I didn't growl. I wanted this to be a surprise. And it was. The front room wasn't carpeted. The floors were hard wood. I leaped out into the room and then leaped up before she had a chance to realize I was behind her. I sank my teeth into her wide flabby ass.

The Diane bitch threw back her head and screamed.

She tasted nasty but I didn't mind. I would have grinned if my mouth hadn't been so full. I planted all four feet on the floor and shook my head from side to side.

"AAAARGGGGGHHHHH-"

Blood flew. She dropped the bat. The pup backed into the far corner next to the window. At first I thought he was staring at me. He wasn't.

I turned just in time to see the daughter behind me. The bitch had a shovel. She was in the basement. The squeak I heard was the door as she came up. She must have heard my footsteps down there.

I let go of the mother bitch but I was too slow. The daughter brought the shovel down on my back. My legs nearly went out from underneath me. It hurt but I was too pissed off to care. I turned and grabbed the shovel in my jaws and tried to jerk it out of her hands. At the same time I saw the woman lean down and pick up the bat again. She'd already stopped bleeding. Damn.

As soon as I let go of the shovel the Carmen bitch swung at me. I jumped out of the way then I backed up next to the pup. He pressed against my side, shaking and moaning.

The daughter laughed. "He bit you in the butt, Momma."

Diane hissed at her. "Bitch, didn't I tell you never laugh at me?"

Things got a little weird after that.

The back door slammed shut. By itself. Diane and Carmen looked confused. That made me think they didn't have anything to do with the door closing.

Diane moved funny. By that I mean she jerked with every move she made, like a puppet with broken strings. She swung the baseball bat and hit her daughter alongside the head so hard Carmen's neck snapped. Her chin hung down to her chest.

She wailed. "Momma!"

Diane shook her head from side to side. "I didn't – that wasn't me-"

Carmen moved with the same jerky motions. She took her shovel and whacked Diane upside her head. Wham!

"I'm sorry-I'm sorry-"

I didn't know what the hell was going on here. I grabbed the pup by the scuff of the neck and lifted him up. He yelped. The closest way out was the front door or the nearby window. I wanted to take him outside and then come back inside and finish this.

I headed for the window.

I stopped short as though I'd run into an invisible wall. Something was wrong. The windows and walls were warded. We couldn't get out.

The demons kept hitting each other.

My mind went blank for a moment. I flicked a glance at the stairs. The only way out of this was up so I charged for the stairs with the puppy in my mouth.

The woman shrieked. Her eyes bulged out and so did the veins in her forehead and neck. She strained to move against something I couldn't see. She hit at me with the bat. She missed. I moved so fast by the time she raised the bat again I was halfway up the stairs. My paws made scrabbling sounds on the hardwood.

I hung a left at the top of the stairs. There were only so many places we could hide up there. The room on the left was the woman's bedroom. I couldn't see the floor because of all the clothes and shoes scattered around. I don't know why she did that. It was the same when I lived there. I slipped and slid on the clothes but we finally reached the bedroom.

I slammed the door behind us.

Down below the woman screamed so loud the house shook. I couldn't make out the words. The windows rattled in their frames and so did the doors.

I put the puppy down. He slid down onto his stomach and cried.

"Hey," I told him.

He wasn't listening to me.

I raised my right paw and tapped him on the head. "Hey!"

He jerked back, his eyes wide. "I don't like it here. I wanna leave this place."

"I know you do. We can't leave. Not yet." I nodded at the closet behind us. "I want you to get in there." I made a face as I walked on the clothes to get to the door. I had to push them out of the way to open the door. The place still smelled funny. Body odor and rancid oil.

I pulled the door open. Inside the closet there were piles of clothes and shoes that would have been chest high on a human.

"Come on!" I turned and nudged him to his feet with my nose. "I want you to hide. You don't come out until I tell you to, okay?"

"I don't like it here."

"I know. I don't like it here either."

"You gonna get us out?" His eyes were wide and round.

I nodded. "I'm gonna get us out. Go on now."

I cocked my head to one side and listened for sounds outside the door. The bitch wasn't screaming anymore. It was quiet. I was sure that was not a good thing. I watched the pup waddle forward and burrow underneath a pile of clothes in the back. When he turned around to face me he still looked worried. I grinned at him.

"It's okay. It's all right." I didn't know if it really would be but I wasn't going to tell him otherwise. I reached in and pulled some of the clothes over his head to cover him. I pushed the closet door shut.

My heart pounded against my chest like it wanted to get out. I was scared. But I was happy too. That sounds weird, doesn't it?

My days of hiding were over.

I opened the bedroom door.

TBC