Decathect (Niall Horan)

Minutia..

After working on my room all morning, it was about 2:30 on this lovely Thursday afternoon. I ran down my ladder as fast as I could with my headphones in hand.

“Hey daddy!?” I yelled through the empty house. I heard clanking of dishes, so I moved to the kitchen.

“Can I have some money to go school shopping? I need a new wardrobe.” I said, laughing while looking down at my outfit. I was wearing black skinny jeans, with an oversized TOMS sweater. Dad looked at me and smiled.

“I thought those were grandma Ellen’s.” He said, pointing to my attire. I ran over and pounced on him all playful like. I got all serious and stood up.

“But seriously. Give me some money.” I said, holding out my hand. He rolled his eyes and grabbed his old leather wallet out of his back pocket. One of the things I’ve noticed was all of dads pants have a worn out rectangle on his back right pocket from his wallet being there all the time.

He pulled out a wad of cash and handed it to me.

“Knock yourself out kiddo.” He said, kissing me on the forehead. I smiled and grabbed the keys from the rack and ran outside. Hopping into the car, I stopped and looked to where I saw that dog earlier. I just ran the memory through my head and remember how fast he/she was running. I snapped out of my déjà vu and slid into the driver’s seat.

“This is cute.” I whispered to myself as I ran my fingers over hangers and hangers of cute sweaters. I loved wearing sweaters and shorts. I heard one time, that if you wear a mix of season clothes, you’re depressed. Like, wearing sweaters and shorts. But I wasn’t depressed. At least I didn’t think so.

I grabbed my 3 pairs of pants and shirts I had, and made my way to the dressing rooms. I looked around and saw that the little room was decorated in flyers. There were some about missing dogs and cats. Band events and art shows. But one caught my eye. It was at the very top of the wood. I grabbed the little black chair sitting by the mirror and raised myself up to get a better look at it.

“Monster footprint, found in the backyard of an Irish country home.” It showed a big footprint. It looked like a dogs, but way, way larger. I studied the black and white picture more and more, finding it very familiar. The foot (dog) print was next to a piece of lumber in the backyard of whoever’s house this was.

I paid for all of the clothes I had wanted and carried the bags to the Range Rover. The article still in the back of my mind. I couldn’t get the picture out of my head. Did it have to do with that old Irish myth? I knew it would be in my head all the time until I learnt more about it. Which would mean googling it tonight.

I had been to many different clothes stores and bought out all the money my dad had provided me with. I had spent practically all day in Belfast shopping for school next week. It was around 7:30 and it was getting dark out. I started driving home, taking the old country mile. I turned my old 90’s CD in and began singing along.

I stopped singing as I looked over and saw a large animal running along the side of the road. As if it was challenging me to race it. It looked like a dog. A huge dog. I sped up, scared and drove home as fast as I could.

When I got home, I noticed something different. I felt like I was being watched, or something was on my house.

I shrugged it off –even though I knew I shouldn’t have- and walked inside.