Prompted Shorties

Lost Dog

Prompt: The family dog has been missing for weeks, and everyone is devastated (except that one family member, of course). Suddenly, the dog returns, showing up out of nowhere. (Most of) the family rejoices. But as time goes by, it becomes clear that something isn't quite right with the beloved canine companion...

Story:

It's been four days since we moved to this new house, a little old and creaky but very much affordable. Plus I really do appreciate the convenience of travelling from this house to my new job. I've heard weird rumors about this place like the place is haunted or something, but so far the only weird thing about this place is that all the clocks that came with the house always stops at 3:07 every day and that our dog has been barking at the window kitchen every morning.

My wife noticed them as well, but we both shrugged it off. We decided to get rid of the clocks, then got new ones and concluded that Rosy is getting old. Our neighbor's kid doesn't like Rosy, he was very blatant about it the first day we moved in. Odd kid.

The next day my two kids immediately noticed that Rosy was gone. Disappeared without a trace. Thankfully it was a weekend so I helped my family look for the dog, but we never did find her. Later that evening while having dinner, the kids told us that they suspect the kid from next door must've done something, but I was skeptical – my wife as well.

After dinner, I calmly and nicely asked the kids' parents if they saw our dog, sadly they didn't. My kids were upset, the other clocks kept stopping at 3:07, the faucet broke, the heater was cold and the thermostat stopped working. It was getting colder every day and winter didn't helped one bit.

After a few days, my eldest girl saw Rosy, casually walking towards the front porch. Everyone was excited, we missed Rosy. She was immediately fed by the kids, while my wife checked her to see if anything was wrong. It seemed that Rosy was fine, no scratches, wounds or anything. I can't help but to feel something's different though.

I shrugged the feeling off until the third day she came back. I saw her outside from the kitchen window, near at the fence that separates my house and our neighbors'. I noticed a weird behaviour from Rosy, she just stood there staring at the fence, tail tucked between her legs and body frozen as ice, then I saw what she was looking at. It was the neighbor's kid.

So I went out and called for Rosy but she didn't respond. I've never seen her so still before.

I walked up to her as I kept an eye on the kid. His eyes were glued to Rosy, like he's talking to her or something, but as I walked closer to Rosy I knew something was wrong. As soon as I touched her collar, she fell on the ground and started spazzing out, shaking violently. I fell to the ground and I looked at the kid, it looked like he was torturing Rosy but how? His hands were on the fence while he gave Rosy a terrifying look and was at least 20 feet away from us.

"S-s-stop it!" I yelled at the kid and just like that Rosy stopped. I turned to look back at the kid but he was gone and Rosy looked like nothing happened to her. She just stood up lifelessly and straddled along inside, so I followed her.

As I was about to set a foot at the steps to the front porch the door slammed closed. I thought it was the wind until I saw three figures at the kitchen window. They were all covered in white blank sheet used to cover old furniture.

It was the imitation of ghost figures like the ones you see on TV that kids watch.

Then I remembered that my wife and kids were out to go get groceries.