One afternoon Lily was walking home from school when she spotted a puppy out of the corner of her eye. It looked lost and alone, with no collar or anything. Having a soft spot for animals, Lily picked up the little yellow lab and carried it all the way home.
Lily became very attached to the puppy, and named it Spark. However, she knew she had to put up flyers in case Spark was really someone else's. She thought that if she loved the puppy so much, the actual owner must be missing him incredibly.
It wasn't long after Lily put up the flyers, only two days, that a man rang her doorbell to claim Spark. The moment he saw Spark he almost burst into tears. Lily thought that if a man could care so much about an animal he must be very kind. She invited him in and told him to make himself comfortable while she made him some tea. After the tea had been made, the two sat on the couch and talked about Spark.
About ten minutes later, the doorbell rang again. Lily told her guest it would only be one moment. She raced to the door and was surprised when the police stood before her. They held up a picture of a man and said, "Have you seen this man?"
Lily froze. It was the very man that sat on her couch right now. She nodded and shakily pointed a finger in her house and told the police to be quiet. Three officers pulled out their guns and made their way into her house.
Lily waited outside with one officer for fifteen minutes, thinking how stupid she was for inviting this man in her house. What did he do, anyway?
Finally the police came back out and said they had not found the man or the dog. He must have escaped and stolen Spark with him. Lily asked why they had been looking for him.
"This man has been claiming lost dogs to get inside people's houses and kill them," an officer told her. Lily shivered. Lily asked the police to stay with her until the man was found, and they agreed to stay outside the house overnight.
Comforted by the fact that the police were there to protect her, Lily started getting ready for bed. She brushed her teeth and when she went to put on her pajamas she saw something odd.
There was a paw sticking out from her closet. She went over to investigate and opened the closet door. There, laying dead on the floor, was Spark. A pool of blood surrounded him. Lily let out a shriek. Underneath his paw was a blood-stained note:
You're lucky it wasn't you.
