Day 390

There hadn't been a dog in the house for years but they still kept the bowl.

The last one was something special, you don't get many like that.

Jo and her dog were as close as twins, damned inseparable.

Whenever she called her dog would come running.

It didn't matter if she was at school or her grandparents - the dog followed her everywhere.

The last time it followed her was across a road, dogs never know when to look.

Poor thing hasn't talked about it since, refuses to even look at dogs.

She seems happy though, like she's finally coming to accept it at last, after countless nightmares.

Still sometimes she calls its name out in her sleep like they're still playing.

That dog did love to hide under her bed like a kid playing hide-and-seek.

About two years after its passing she called her dad into her room, screaming like the devil was out for her.

Kept yelling BAD DOG, BAD DOG, OUT JESSIE, OUT! when it was just her in there.

When her dad entered he saw nothing out of place but his daughter curled up on the bed screaming

at a dog that hadn't been there since she was six.

His blood ran old when she said dad, Jessie's under my bed and he won't go to heaven.

She told him that Jessie had always been there and they'd played in secret all this time.

But Jessie was changing now and he wasn't her dog any more, he was a monster.

Taking a deep breath, reassuring Jo that there was nothing there and Jessie was in heaven he crouched.

As he crawled over right up to the bedside he heard a faint panting noise, the same one Jessie made

whenever he was excited and especially when hiding under the bed.

Lower and lower his head went, moving fearfully slow and praying that it was empty.

It wasn't.

Jessie's eyes peered from the back corner of the bed, far larger than they had been but still Jessie's.

Voice shaking he called Jessie like he always had when they played this game.

C'mon Jess-Jess, come on out ya silly pup. Playtime's over, we have to go to bed.

Jessie began to crawl forward, slower than he had when he was alive, more like a predator now than friend.

He paused before his old human, tongue hanging out as he panted.

The man took in the sight of his former companion after two years of death had taken their toll.

Where fur once was now maggot covered, bloody, pus-ridden flesh remained.

And those eyes, only so big because the meat had dissolved away.

The white's of his eyes blending perfectly with the bleached looking bone.

His nose had gone altogether as had his lower jaw leaving his tongue lolling limply.

Before Jo's dad could gather the breath to scream Jessie lunged out, predator in every inch of his rotting form.