strays

Chapter 1

Tripp

Fireworks are beautiful, aren't they?
Simply, beautiful.
For people.
But certainly not for dogs.

They're loud, ear piercing even. The sudden bangs add up to the already terrifying experience, resulting in a living nightmare.

Why am I on about this, you may ask? Well, let's just say, fireworks ruined my life.

It was sunset. I was in bed, chewing on my bully stick. My family was on the sofa, watching some kind of movie.

I'm not sure exactly what day this was, for me it felt like any other ordinary afternoon, but for my people, not quite so.

For starters, there was a table full of food that they made sure I wouldn't get into, of course I wouldn't, I'm a good boy!

They also played many games and watched many movies, a bit like they had nothing else to do.

Like come on, they had me to play with.

Not some stupid card games.

It honestly felt like it was the last day on earth, they were all snuggled up close and didn't even spend a mere second away from each other.
Seriously though, what's wrong with them?

Sure, I also prefer being around someone at all times, but that's just me. Everyday me.
My family, however usually spend their time in separate rooms, alone. So why was this day different? I have no clue.

The amount of attention they gave each other started to worry me.

Because I wasn't included.

I howled and leaped onto the already cramped sofa, trying to get to them.
I don't care if the sofa can barely fit all 4 of them, they must include me too.

"Tripp, get down!" Father groaned, pushing my face away.

Rude.

They seriously expected to have a once in a year family gathering without me?

No. Absolutely not.

I started to lick mum's face. She gasped, turning her head away from my reach.

"My makeup! Tripp!"
Oh, so what about your makeup? I don't know what it means, but surely I'm more important?

I'm not one to give up, so I pushed through to lick her again, I just knew she loved it when I did that!
She tried to push me away again, unintentionally dropping her glass of whatever liquid was inside.
There was a loud crash, and the glass scattered into pieces within mere seconds.

I soared down, carefully avoiding the sharp remains of the glass. It smelt weird, quite honestly, but if mum drank and enjoyed it, why wouldn't I?

Right before I could reach the liquid, father grabbed me by the collar and dragged me towards the backgarden.

"For God's sake, what kind of a beast are you? Can't even leave us alone for a couple of hours!" He muttered, as we exited the house.
He left me at the porch and shut the door in my face, hopefully louder than intended.

I never knew he could get that angry. What have I even done wrong?

I didn't make any sound, or stare at them through the glass door, I simply lay down on the sweet smelling grass and waited.
Soon, I had fallen asleep.

Until the living nightmare began.

BANG!

I woke up with a jolt, my ears set back and my eyes dazed with both curiosity and fear.

What was that? I stayed frozen, listening for more sounds but nothing happened.

Relaxed, I placed my head back down and closed my eyes, ready to fall back into a deep sleep and- BANG!

This time, I yelped, springing to my paws. I spun around, but there was nothing there, what on earth could have caused that terrible sound?

As my brain was processing, there was a huge flash of bright light up in the sky.
Looking up, I saw something I couldn't explain. Among the stars were even more stars, combined together. Only they weren't hanging, they were falling!
At me!

I raced towards the door, scratching at it, howling with absolute terror. I could see my family, dancing around and cheering. I'm not sure if they even noticed me, but either way, before I could do anything else, another bang erupted through my ears.

My poor ears.

Even more stars were falling, nevertheless, before I could take in what was going on, another 3 bangs came.

I couldn't do this anymore, my ears were ringing, my eyes were blurry with fear and confusion. I whined once more, soon realising that my family simply didn't care and decided to take matters in my own paws.

I ducked under the table, but I still felt vulnerable.
Whimpering, I ran towards the gate, leaping over it and racing down the street, not looking back.

I didn't know where I was going, I wanted to run away as far from the sounds as I possibly could, not caring about my soon aching paws.

Suddenly, as I sprinted across yet another dark road, I bumped into an immense figure.