Chapter 1 Shae
Heavy rain beats down on my windshield as I drive down the backroad that leads to my small home. Driving in the rain has always made me a little anxious let alone heavy rain. My shift at the restaurant tonight was exhausting, as it always is on a Saturday night. Brooke’s Grill is only one of five restaurants in my small town so it tends to be slammed on the weekends.
I am about 10 minutes from my home when the rain finally starts to ease up. I’m just about to drive around a curve when all of a sudden a large animal steps out of the woods and right into the road. I slam on my brakes and they squeal in protest. I shut my eyes, afraid of the impact I would make with the creature. However after a few seconds I realize there never was an impact. I open my eyes and then widen them at the sight in front of my car. A large dog with short dark brown hair stands right in front of me. He looks as if he were a wolf. With my head lights shining on it I can see it has amber eyes that are staring straight at me. I just sit in my seat for a few moments studying the large dog before I notice it has tilted its head to the side as if studying me also. I wonder where he came from seeing as I have the only house on the old dead end road. I decide I need to see if the poor thing has a collar with a tag with its owners information.
I pull on the door latch and step out of my car, still
watching the dog. As I go to walk around the door a breeze sweeps over me and I notice he lifts his head and sniffs. He then lowers his head and widens his eyes. His eyes are so bright they are almost mesmerizing. I have never seen a dog with such a unique eye color. I stay beside my open car door and crouch down “Come here
sweetie. It’s okay” I coax the dog. He’s dripping wet and I worry someone may have just left him on the road side or he is simply lost. As soon as the words left my mouth he comes straight to me. I stretch out my arm for him to smell my hand but he ignores it. He walks straight to me, staring into my eyes the whole time. He comes to a stop a few inches from me. With me
crouched down, he is taller than me.
I tentatively reach up to his face and lightly brush my fingers over his head and down to his neck. He leans into my hand and I feel more confident in petting him. As my fingers comb through the short hair on his neck, do I realize there is no collar. I sigh in frustration as I am unsure what to do to help this poor animal. As soon as the noise leaves me he nudges his muzzle against my cheek. “I guess you’re going to have to come home with me for the night bud. There’s no way I can leave you in the middle of no where” I tell him. I brush my hand over his head again and stand. As soon as I am standing I hear a low rumbling growl from the trees to my right. I look as hard as I can but see nothing in the darkness. Instantly the huge dog in front of me turns to face the creature in the woods. He is snarling and then making a similar yet deeper growl. His hackles stand straight up and instantly I feel anxious. Even though his reaction is not towards me, he looks very menacing in the moment. His eyes shift to me as he sees me back away a few steps before he shifts them back to the darkness.
The growling from the woods ceases and the fierce looking dog in front of me also ceases. He straightens up and his ears perk up as if listening to something I am unable to hear. All of a sudden he growls once more before crouching down and leaping completely across the hood of my small car and running into the darkness. “Hey comeback here!” I yell worried he has gone after the other animal that was growling. After a few minutes of waiting I never hear nor see another sign of the large wolf like dog. I let out an annoyed sound feeling much more tired than I was only twenty minutes ago. Reluctantly I climb back into my car and finish my ride home.