I Among Dogs

Chapter 28: A Spooky Night

 I waved bye to the adult Heelers as they drove off into the night with their kids in the back seat. Halloween, one of my favorite holidays had finally arrived and the Heelers had decided to celebrate it with the adults going to an adult get together whilst the kids would be joining their friends to go trick or treating.

Of course, the last time I ever went trick or treating was when I was twelve and I felt like I had completely grown out of it, so I chose not to go. Thankfully, Bandit and Chilli had given me the okay to invite some of my friends over to hang out for the night, just as long as they didn't leave the house a complete mess.

As I waited for Mia, Captain, Hachi and Digger to arrive, I decided to carve a Jack-o'-lantern for the occasion, deciding to go for the traditional triangular eyes and goofy smile with a square tooth, mainly because I didn't want to accidentally scare Lucky's little brother, Chucky or any of the other nearby kids by giving the lantern a more intense design.

The deep orange sky was already halfway turning into nightly darkness as I placed the lantern down, deciding to put it on top of their mailbox so the others would get a better view of it.

That was when I heard the sound of several small things hitting the side walk as I turned and noticed a bunch of apples and some plastic canisters rolling to a stop at me before looking up to see a new face.

She appeared to be a Spitz with black fur asides from a white muzzle and a few light red highlights, specifically on the tips of her ears and the strands of fur that stuck out of her forehead almost like hair, there was even a long bunch of it at her left side fashioned like a ponytail. And last but not least was a pair of white rectangular glasses that rested on the bridge of her nose.

It only took me noticing the grocery bag with an open hole in the bottom in her hands to figure out that they belonged to her.

Strangely however, the second she saw me, she suddenly tensed up and froze on the spot. Perhaps she had not been given the news about me being here or had just never seen a human before.

I looked down at the apples and canisters again, the latter of which were labelled as protein supplements before kneeling down to pick them up and approaching the Spitz, only for her to briefly take a step back as I did so.

...Was she afraid of me?

Trying to look as friendly and harmless as possible, I held the dropped groceries out to her. The awkward silence between us must have lasted ten seconds before she swiped her purchases out of my arms and back into the bag, wrapping it up into a ball to stop them falling out again before giving me another anxious look before rushing past behind me.

However, she immediately stopped in place and hastily turned around and bowed, throwing her body forward so quickly she could've ended up giving herself whiplash.

"I...I-I-I'm so sorry!! So sorry!" She squeaked out before turning and running off again, vanishing down the road.

...What on earth was that all about?

My train of thought on that odd spitz girl didn't last long as the group I was waiting for had arrived seconds later and I proceeded to let them in, wondering what we'd be doing first for the scary festivities.

...

We were all just slouched in the living room, the amount of ennui we were radiating was enough to be practically infectious. Captain and Hachi would often check their phones perhaps to see if anything interesting had come up on the web.

"So much for a bonza Halloween..." Digger exclaimed in a very bored tone. I was about to nod in agreement until I spotted the bookcase under the stairs to the upper floor, which suddenly gave me an idea.