Poor Puppy

Robby peddled faster and faster down the steep hill at the end of his street, enjoying the rush of the wind and the excitement of being out alone while the rest of the town was asleep. These nighttime bike rides had become an almost daily ritual for Robby these past few months, being only ten years old this was one of the only times he was unsupervised and felt free to do anything he wanted and with the hot Arizona summer just beginning, the cool nights we’re a huge contrast to the sweltering heat of the days. Slowing down at the bottom of the hill Robby made a quick left into a small dilapidated playground and leaned his bike up against a rusted see-saw. Though this playground was almost abandoned at this point and most of the kids in town preferred the much larger one near Kearny elementary, Robby had always loved it here, the ancient broken swing, the monkey bars that seemed to creek even when no one was near them, it all held the feeling of mystery and magic

Slowly Robby walked the perimeter of the park, letting his hands graze the twisted metal of the small fence that surrounded it, memories floating through his mind like visions in the darkness; his father taking him here years ago, when he must have been only three or four, the two of them playing in the grass with the family dog, Ralph. These we’re some of Robby’s most treasured memories, especially since his dad had left a few years ago.

Suddenly Robby’s thoughts were interrupted as his hand brushed against a hole in the fence and felt something small and soft stuck inside. Pulling the object out of the fence and turning to look at his hand Robby noticed he was now holding a small, off white, crumpled piece of paper. Curious, he carefully un-folded and smoothed what he could now tell was an old dry cleaning receipt. Straining his eyes in the darkness he saw that there were three small words, written in bright red on the piece of paper “please help me”. Instinctually Robby turned and looked around but it seemed he was still completely alone, the park silent except for the slight creek of the see/saw and the high pitched hiss of the wind. Looking forward past the fence Robby could see the slight dip only a few feet away that signaled the beginning of the long pitch-black arroyo that ran behind the playground.

Without so much as a second thought Robby quickly climbed over the small fence and began moving slowly, down into the arroyo. It was almost five minutes later when Robby made it the bottom of the incline and suddenly stopped in his tracks. Why had he come down here? It was as if he’d had no control over himself, as if he had no choice in climbing that fence… Shivering, Robby slowly moved forward into the arroyo, looking around as much as he could in the darkness. Feeling his shoe touch something solid in front of him Robby stopped and knelt down, looking closer he saw what looked like a mass of black fur, carefully rolling it over Robby instantly jumped back and screamed. Staring back at him was the face of a large dog, or at least that’s what it looked like, it was missing both of its eyes and its jaw was torn back in what looked like an insane bloody smile. Unable to control himself Robby set off running past the dog, bolting into the pitch black darkness through the long arroyo.

After a few seconds of running Robby snagged his sneaker on a root jutting out of the desert ground and tripped, sprawling face first into the dirt. Pausing for a moment Robby began to pull himself up when he heard something, at first it sounded just like a whisper carried along by the wind but then it became louder and louder until Robby recognized it as an ear splitting, blood curdling and undoubtedly human scream. Quickly dragging himself fully to his feet Robby spun around looking for the source of the noise but the wind made it seem like it was coming from all around him. Then as quickly as it had come the scream was gone from the air, replaced by a silence more complete than any Robby had ever felt before, even the wind had died down completely, the only sound he could hear was his own soft, quick breathing. Realizing now that he was staring down at his feet Robby raised his eyes and there standing in front of him, as a clear as day even in the darkness was a small boy, not much older than him, holding the dead dog by the scruff of its neck with one unbelievably strong hand. His other hand was clenched in a loose fist and as Robby stared, frozen with fear reached out towards him and opened it revealing the dog’s eyeballs, covered in blood and viscous fluids, a look of horror and pain frozen in them forever. The small boy then began to speak in a halting deep voice “Help me…. I broke him…. Help me fix him….”

This caused something to click inside Robby and finally he turned and bolted back in the direction he came. Robby ran as fast as he could towards the fence and disregarding the horrifying screaming that once again filled the air, he scaled it as fast as he could, almost falling off the top. Quickly grabbing his bicycle he peddled home faster than ever before and locked himself in his room sobbing but not before checking and finding as he expected that the family dog, Ralph, a large black lab was no longer sleeping soundly in his doghouse…