A Collar

First of all, this is not my best work and I'm aware of that. This was simply some kind of experiment to improve on my sense of detail in these kind of stories. Secondly, enjoy...

A collar
“Are you having any luck picking that lock?” I overheard from across the street. Some fellows dresses in dark clothing were attempting to enter a jewelry store. I reached for my phone in my front pocket and called the police.

“We’re on our way”, the chief said.

I feared that they would arrive too late though, since the thieves had already managed to get inside. Somehow I was going to have to keep them busy. I approached the store slowly, because I didn’t want to get spotted. What I was about to do might had been a bit risky, but I decided to do it nonetheless.

I looked around and spotted a rope, one of the things I needed for my plan to succeed. I now just had to find two objects that could serve as a hook. I laid my eyes on a box in an alley and opened it to find two fish hooks that looked fairly durable. I didn’t really need quality material to stall these men for only a minute or two. I began working as fast as I could on attaching the hooks to the rope. After about half a minute, my plan was ready to be executed.

I started moving towards the door, my hands reaching to the handle, and closed it. Luckily the door seemed to have been oiled lately, because as I was doing so, the door didn’t make any noise. I remained unseen by the robbers. Next I hung one of the hooks over the door handle and attached the other one to a nearby car that was just in the right spot for my plan to work. The door was now closed in such a fashion that no matter how hard they would pull, the door could only be opened by cutting the rope from the outside. There were other exits though, but I figured this would stall them long enough for the cops to arrive on time.

I smiled at the thought that almost anyone in a similar situation would have ran off after calling the cops, instead of trying to stall the burglars until the police arrived. My smile immediately though, when I heard cold scream and the roar of what seemed to be some kind of ferocious beast. My eyes widened as more screams and even gunshots echoed. The sound of a sharp object impaling its victim disgusted me. I could only imagine what monster was causing this sheer pain to those men. After what probably was less than a minute, but felt like an eternity to me, the horrifying noises slowly faded away.

To make matters worse, as I was trying to cut the rope with the primitive tools I had, I heard the sirens of various police cars nearing. I was desperate. What was I going to do? I might have been innocent, but I was going to have a hell of a job explaining how some kind of wild animal or something, mauled those thieves. I didn’t even know what the beast looked like. I decided to do what anyone would have done when cornered like this: I ran. I had already disappeared into an alley, my telephone thrown in some bushes, so that they wouldn’t be able to track me down, when the police arrived at the store.

I passed my neighbor’s house on the way home, an ordinary house, dark blue roof and orange-bricked walls. Nothing special, except for maybe the fact that there were no lights burning. Strange, I thought to myself. Most of the time he was up until 10:00 PM. He could have had a tiring day, so I decided to ignore this “abnormality” and held my steady pace home.

I tried to open my front door as I was standing in front of it. I put the key in the keyhole to realize that the door was already unlocked. That’s odd, the door wouldn’t budge. I took a look at our driveway; the car, a simple, red one, was still there. For a moment though I thought I saw something, a shadow. I wanted to go inside as quickly as possible. I kept pushing the door in a desperate attempt to finally get it open and eventually, it did; only for an inch though. I took a few steps back and opened it further and further as I kept on bashing into it with my entire body. My shoulder was starting to hurt like hell because of the continuous waves of pain rushing through my body each time I hit the solid object in front of me. One more time, I promised myself. I ran, bashed into it once more and heard the sound of a heavy object falling flat on the ground. My ears were ringing because of it. It took me some time before I could think clear again.

I entered my house through the opening I had made that was just wide enough for me to slip through. I looked around the place. Everything was a mess; objects smashed, lying on the ground, shattered. I saw a huge bookshelf which I figured had blocked the door just a few seconds ago. At first I thought people had broken in here until I noticed marks on the wall, claw marks. A blood trail leading to the living room; I followed it and what I found at the end of it, shocked me to no extent.

Both my brother and my sister were lying still on the ground. My brother seemed to have been continuously clawed, according to the many marks on his body. My sister even had a whole chunk bitten out of her torso. I fell to my knees as I looked at their blank expressions. Open, lifeless eyes, a gaping mouth. Tears rolled over my cheek; they felt warm, but I was cold, shivering; the feeling you get when someone close to you has died, that typical feeling that, no matter how hard you try, you can’t fit into words. But the horrors didn’t end there. I may have found my siblings, but what about my parents?

I looked around the house, all over the ground floor. I dashed up the stairs. My heart was racing, adrenaline was being pumped through my body. When I reached the upper floor though, it felt like my heard had stopped. My parents lying at the end of a hallway. Dead, I assumed at first, but then I noticed, how fade it may have been, their chests moving up and down. I was so glad. I reached towards them with my hands, when suddenly a howl, a flash and I was pinned to the ground.

I could now clearly see it. A giant four-legged beast, covered in dirt and dried blood. I could see muscles that were exposed, bones sticking out of its body and then that face, pitch-black eyes, huge teeth filling a wide mouth. It was now really close to my face. The claws it was using to hold me grounded hurt so bad. I felt that they were about to impale my stomach. The thing came a little bit closer, close enough for me to see something hanging from its neck. It then lifted its paws from my chest and ran off via the stairs. I was lying there, paralyzed, trying to comprehend what had just happened. That what was hanging from the beast’s neck, it seemed so familiar and that’s when I realized it: the object was a collar, the exact same collar I had given to my dog, before he passed away.