Between the Constellations

The Goat

As I wake up, the first thing I see is the sky - full of twinkling stars that shine down on me like diamonds. I admire how beautiful they look for a minute until I realize why I passed out in the first place.

I jerk up with a start and scan my surroundings. Everything looks as it did before I passed out, except for the goat that is watching me from the corner of the fence.

We stare at each other for a minute, I don't know why I'm not surprised - I should be. We never had a goat and probably never will. But more shocking than that: how did it get there? The tall fence that outlines the perimeter of our backyard would prevent anything from trespassing.

Eventually, the goat turns its head toward my parents, who lie dead still on the ground. They aren't dead though, their chests are still moving up and down - they're breathing. My head snaps back to the goat who is now gazing at my bow and quiver. The quiver currently holds fifteen arrows - how? I have no idea.

I wonder for a minute if the bow can actually kill. The way the goat's glassy eyes are fixed on the quiver, almost begging me to shoot, leads me to believe that it can. My parents are still breathing though and I can suddenly see the flash of blue light that exploded in front of my eyes when I shot them.

The goat saunters over to me and bows its head down to my quiver. I wrench backward, afraid its going to munch on one of my arrows. It freezes and its eyes lock with mine.

It slowly begins to lean down to my quiver, keeping eye contact with me. It opens its mouth and bites down on the end of the end of the arrow then backs up, pulling the arrow out of the quiver. It turns its head so the arrow is pointing at me. I hesitate, then take the arrow from its mouth.

The goat turns around and walks across the dirt to the other side of the small yard and faces side ways. Shoot me. I hear a whisper say in the dead silence that falls over the yard. I have to take a double take, but for some reason I am not scared or shocked. It seemed natural - almost like a second nature. I take one last look at my living parents, they survived the arrow, maybe the goat can too.

But if I fail...if I fail its blood will be on my hands. I weigh my options for a minute before deciding. I breathe in and load the arrow.

I pull back the cord

It won't hurt it, will it?

I rest the expanded cord next to my ear.

Only one way to find out...

I let go

I don't realize I closed my eyes until I open them. The blue light surrounding the goat dies down and I see a figure. Not a goat.

A human.