The Nameless Dark Story #6

I promise I won't come inside. I really won't. I promise I won't come inside if you leave the window open, I won't go all the way, just a little. All of you are so soft, you're so soft and I really won't hurt you, I promise. I just want to look at you a little.

Curtains. Please don't replace the blinds, it was hard to get them open, and I promise I won't be around too much if you'll just let me come and look once in a while. I just get lonely. I just get really really lonely and it would mean so much to me if you'd just leave the blinds broken where my face is. It won't even bother you, it's too high up for you to see anyway.

Really, you won't even notice me. I'm quiet. I really am sorry about the dog, I know he's not supposed to be outside but it really wasn't his fault, I didn't want to hurt him so I put him out of the way. I'm really very nice. I can introduce myself if you want.

I'm Tag. That's what she called me. Tag.

That was her idea. I liked it so I let her but usually I don't. And she was very nice but no one really liked her much you see because she and we we're both just a little different is all. But we're very nice once you get to know us. And this girl, I think her name was Molly. And I lived above her bed and I watched her sleep because that's what she made me for was to watch her sleep. But one night I got too far away and now I'm a little different, is all. My head doesn't hurt at all it really doesn't it just looks funny and for a while she called me 'Sockhead' but then when I got good at running she called me Tag.

But then Molly went somewhere and I can't find her. I'd really like to find her but really I just need you to see me just for a second. I know I'm a little different but I promise I'll just watch you for a little while and you'll think you were dreaming. I really don't want to hurt you. I just don't want to get more different, you understand right? I really don't mean to be a bother but...

...can you please leave your curtains open tonight?

---

I think it's a bullshit excuse and if you use it to get out of something you did I'm going to think you're a dick. But that being said, I really honestly do not know how this happened.

There were a lot of other dogs that I liked more. I passed over him three times before I saw him sitting in the darkest corner of his kennel. I literally could not see him until the light reflected in one of his eyes and I stopped.

"Holy shit..." I mumbled. I crouched and got a better look at the dog.

It was a little black Pomeranian, and it was sitting rigidly in the corner watching me. It appeared to be covered in some kind of growths. Odd things bulged out of every surface of its body.

"Jesus." I said. "The hell's wrong with it?"

The attendant shrugged. "Dunno. He just came in today. Can't get near him, and if you try to touch him he bites. Honestly I wouldn't-"

But I was standing up, my eyes locked on the dog's. It watched me with curious intensity.

"I want him." I heard myself say. I was surprised, but I had to admit there was something... weirdly endearing about the ugly dog. The attendant reluctantly opened the cage, and the dog got up and walked calmly out and sat at my side. It looked up at me with its weird black marble eyes and I bent down. I wrapped my hand under its hind legs, supporting it in one of the only places the tumors hadn't grown. The attendant just started at me until I turned and walked calmly to the front of the shelter. I bought him for $150 with the understanding that I was fully responsible for anything that might go wrong with him. I put him in the front seat of the car, buckled him in, and we drove home.

I really, honestly do not know what happened.

For the first few days he acted like a normal dog. Whoever had owned him before had clearly trained him very well. He was smart. I didn't have to force a leash over his lumpy neck because he never left my side. He kept close, always in my shadow, and even when squirrels crossed our path he never budged.

He ate like a horse, though. I could not give this dog enough food. I worried about it at first and I tried to cut back but he'd look at me with those weird eyes and I'd watch myself give him a double serving. He never put on weight but the tumors seemed to grow. As with the eating, though, it didn't seem to concern me.

But I noticed other strange things too. I was missing a lot of time. I came home from work and in what felt like an instant it was time for bed. These episodes always seemed to be preceeded by the dog coming into the room and sitting at my feet.

God he was an ugly thing. Barely dog shaped anymore, the tumors took up most of his body mass. His skin was black as well, so it was hard to notice the hair loss, but it was there. I never really looked at him when I could help it. I decided there definitely was a correlation between the missing time and the dog. I just didn't know what to do with the information. I couldn't explain it.

That is until one night when he walked into the living room, sat at my feet, and spoke to me.

I was watching the weather and there was a tornado warning in Topeka. I felt bad for their big grain silos that were currently hurtling through houses and barns. The dog came and sat at my feet, and I ignored him until the television went out. He was watching me with a somehow much more casual demeanor. He cocked his head and spoke in a deep baritone voice that I heard as much as felt.

"I apologize for taking up so much of your time. I understand you live tragically brief lives. How cruel."

I blinked at him and opened my mouth but he continued.

"When the others come, I trust you will be as hospitable. It will prolong your life a great deal."

A completely foreign sensation rippled through me and I grabbed my skull and tried to keep it from coming apart at the seams. I managed to open one eye enough to see the growths on the dog tear open in great sprays of a thick yellow-gray fluid that soaked what little fur it had left. The tumors uncoiled themselves and, trembling, rose to hook onto the air itself and tear it apart. Behind reality I saw endless flashing shapes in every color that could ever be and to look at it made something in my brain pop until I fell to my knees and passed out.

When I woke up I was alone, and there was no sign he'd ever been there. It's like he never even existed. It's been about a year since then and I don't have any other animals, but every time I leave the house I can't help but think about what he said to me about being hospitable. It also occurs to me that he never specified who those others were. I wonder when the next one will show up.