Evil of the Night

Angie didn't know why she couldn’t stop crying. Just because Justin hadn’t shown up for dinner didn’t mean anything had happened to him. Since it was getting dark, she called Dipper, her black Lab, grabbed a flashlight and headed into the forest at the edge of the yard of their little cottage. She knew she should have changed from her shorts into jeans as branches scratched at her legs, raising little red welts. Slapping mosquitoes, she continued into the woods calling her boyfriend’s name at the top of her lungs. Surely, he would hear her. Dipper bounded ahead of her, overjoyed at the prospect of a good run. When Angie heard Dipper yelp, she sprinted to his location and found that his collar was tangled on the branch of a small pine tree. After disentangling his collar, she checked him to make sure he was not picking up any ticks. It was spooky that night without any moon lighting their way which led to her becoming confused and afraid. Sitting down on the ground, she rested with her arms around Dipper. Dipper was always there for her whenever she had a disagreement with Justin, consoling her with his warm licks, looking sorrowfully at her. She really believed that her dog was her best friend and confidant. “He seems to have empathy for my feelings,” she told herself.

Flashbacks began to overwhelm her as she remembered the terrible fight she had with Justin before he stormed out of the house. She had been bugging him about marrying her so they could start a family but he had vehemently yelled that he didn’t want to be tied down. He liked things the way they were but she needed more of a commitment. “If you keep it up,” he threatened, “I’ll leave you and you’ll never see me again.” He had picked up a chair and broken it against the wall before tromping off to cool down.

“What if he never comes back?” she lamented to herself as she sat forlornly with her dog. “What if something has happened to him? I would never be able to forgive myself if this was the last time we ever saw each other!” She brushed the blood from her lacerated legs, stood up and continued searching, ignoring the blisters beginning to form on her feet.

Bad thoughts began swirling around in her mind as she headed first in one direction and then spun off in another. It was difficult to keep track of Dipper because he tended to run in a straight course like an arrow honing in on its target. “Dipper, where are you?” she screamed, beginning to panic. His blackness was hidden by the dark. What if there were bears or wild dogs lurking in wait for her? What if evil spirits were spiraling around her unseen, waiting to invoke harm on her? What if karma remembered all the crummy things she had done in her life? “I don’t want to die!” she wailed as she whirled around trying to find a landmark. “I think I have seen this little pine tree before,” she lamented.

All of a sudden, she could hear loud tormented barking in the distance. Was Dipper hurt or after some animal she wondered? What if something happened to her best furry friend? She hated to admit it but she would rather lose Justin than Dipper. How could she be so unfeeling? At that moment, she knew that she really did not like herself that much. Sometimes when Justin became angry, she wished that he were dead. Oh no, she didn’t really mean that. He was the love of her life. She was so conflicted and so desperate at the thought of losing him forever that she could hardly think rationally. She began thrashing through the dark, encroaching trees toward the sounds of her pal, Dipper. At least, he will stay with me forever,” she thought. “Unless something happened to him,” kept banging away at her. Her trembling legs became weak and barely able to support her. Evil voices seemed to blockade any balanced thoughts. “Leave me alone,” she shouted as she flailed helplessly at the unknown, punching the vacant air around her. “I hear you but I’m not going to do what you tell me to. I refuse to die out here alone.” She began to become delusional, thinking that she was sinking into the deep muck of the forest floor.

“I’m not crazy!” she shouted at the voices. It felt as if the darkness was closing around her, threatening to squeeze her in its vice. Her doctor had advised her to try to think pleasant thoughts whenever she felt assailed and helpless. But he had never experienced the horror that she had. How could he know what she went through every day trying to still her mind and cope with life?

Dipper continued barking, breaking her reverie of fear. Once again, she wobbled toward his reassuring sound. She crawled into the clearing ahead to see Dipper yowling at a dark, bloody form splayed on the needle carpet.

“It must be some animal,” she reassured herself. “He must have killed it.”

Even so, it was difficult for her to force herself further into the opening where her dog was howling frantically. Dipper ran to her and then turned, trying to persuade her to follow him toward the bloody mess on the ground.

“It’s all your fault,” sang the demonic voices. “Why don’t you take a look at what you have done?”

“I didn’t do anything, you’re wrong, wrong, wrong! If it’s Justin, it must have been an accident. But it’s not Justin! It’s something else, not a person. I won’t listen to you. Go Away!”

Angie fell to her knees and crawled the last fifty feet to the black object. She now saw that it was dribbled in red, maybe more than dribbled, in fact; it was painted in great splashes of crimson paint. She couldn’t look as she dipped her fingers into the red liquid and sniffed it. It smelled metallic. It tasted salty to her tongue. “It can’t be Justin,” she screamed, as she forced herself to look into the mutilated face of her lover.

And then, she remembered what she had done!