Real Encounters

*The Dog in the Road*

This particular event happened almost a year ago, someday in mid-October.

A couple friends and I drove out to visit an old friend of ours from high school, George, who now lived about an hour out of the city. We spent the whole day with him and it was really late when we finally decided to start the drive back home.

My friend Lisa was passed out in the passenger seat. She had had a few drinks and decided to spend the ride home asleep. My other friend Sam was sitting in the back seat behind Lisa and was playing a game on her smartphone. I, of course, was driving.

I was following the GPS's instructions back to the freeway. At that moment, we were driving down a dark street with thick trees bordering both sides. Everything was pretty peaceful with the only sounds I could hear being that of the car moving along the road and the radio on low volume.

Suddenly, my car let out a loud jolt and it felt as if I had hit something. Sam let out a shocked scream while Lisa remained dead asleep. I slammed on the brakes and the car came to a halt.

I was breathing heavily when I asked what the hell had just happened. Sam peered through the back window and gasped. She turned to me with an angry look on her face and shouted that I had just hit a dog. I looked through the back window and, sure enough, a dog was lying in the road a few yards behind the car.

Sam is a pretty big animal lover so I wasn't surprised to see her get pissed at me. She was about to open her door and rush to the animal's aid when I stopped her. Once I had gotten over the shock of running over a dog, I got a feeling in my gut that told me that something was off.

I'm no braggart but I consider myself to be a very attentive and safe driver. My eyes were on the road at all times and I distinctly remember not seeing any dog in the road prior to the car jolting. Yes it was dark, but I was sure that I would have at least seen the dog in the headlights before hitting it.

I looked through the back window and took a closer look at the dog, or at least as much as I could make out in the reddish light coming from my tail lights. It was a fairly big dog. At least a Golden Retriever or something like that. One particular detail caught my attention. I could see the dog's tail wagging. Now, I'm no expert on the mannerisms of animals, but I was sure the last thing a dog would do after being hit by a car would be to wag its tail.

After a moment of thought, I pressed my foot down on the accelerator and sped off. Sam snapped at me and ordered me to go back but I told her that something was wrong with the whole situation. She continued to argue but she fell silent as she turned back towards the back window. She asked "What the heck?" with a shaken voice.

I looked in the rear-view mirror. Though it was dark, I was able to make out the silhouettes of three large figures emerging from the trees on the side of the road. The dog was now up on its feet and jumping around joyfully. The three figures looked in our direction as I pressed my foot down on the gas harder and sped off.

Sam and I remained silent for the rest of the ride home. It wasn't until a few days later that we told Lisa about it. We've been back to visit George a few times since then but we always make sure to leave before sunset.

Still, I dread to think about what would have happened if we had gotten out of the car...

Credits: Reddit, TheFacelessWriter