It’s in the middle of the night when I’m jolted out of a
deep sleep. I take a second to blink my heavy eyelids and try to clear my foggy
mind. Blinking, I glanced at my clock through blurry eyes to read the bright
green numbers, 3:30 A.M. Why am I awake?
I was having a good dream, too. It was Christmas again, despite it being April,
and the trees were decorated in lights.
BARK!
The yelp immediately puts a knot in the pit of my stomach. That
bark came from my miniature schnauzer, Patches, and I knew what it meant. Now,
I love my dog, but any dog owner will tell you how annoying it is when your dog
wakes you up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.
“Patches, shut up and go to sleep,” I mutter.
BARK!
I exhale a sigh and roll my face in my pillow. The worst
part about taking my dog out to go potty is that I have to go out with her. We
don’t have a fenced in backyard, and I don’t trust my dog to just run off, do
her business, and come back to me. The whole thing is just a hassle, and having
to take her out in the middle of the night frustrates me to no end.
BARK!
I growl as I toss my pillow aside. Her last bark had a sense
of urgency to it, and she’s whining at the door now. That’s it; I have to take
her outside. I don’t want an accident in the house, as I’d most assuredly step
in it in the morning in my bare feet. I slide out of bed and put my clothes on
in the dark. I can tell I’ve put my shirt on backwards, but at this point I
don’t care. If all goes well, I’ll only be outside for a few minutes.
I open my bedroom door to Patches, who then hops around my
feet in utter excitement. She races to the front door and swivels her head
around to make sure I’m following her, anxious that I might not understand her
need. It takes a few moments to get the harness on her, my sleepiness not
helping my reflexes in settling down a hyperactive dog, and a moment later
we’re out the door.
We made our way to the backyard, Patches dragging me around
as I shuffle like a zombie learning to walk again. I hoped she’d go somewhere
near the front of the house, but these feelings were futile. The back of the
yard with the low hanging trees and bushes is undoubtedly her favorite place to
explore. Patches buries her nose in the ground as she sniffs for just the
perfect spot, and I tap my foot in the grass impatiently waiting for her to
make her choice. This process can take anywhere from a quick thirty seconds to
an excruciating five minutes, and I’d rather it wasn’t the latter for the sake
of sleep.
“Just pick somewhere and get over it,” I plead with a yawn
escaping my mouth.
Thankfully, Patches didn’t feel the need to go exploring,
and she did her business. At last, now we can go back into the house and back
to sleep. Just before she finishes, there’s a soft rustling noise in the
bushes. It sounds like the wind at first, but I start to get concerned when I
don’t feel the breeze on my skin. Patches, having finished her business, is at
attention with her ears perked at the bushes. She lets out a growl, but I’m not
seeing anything, which is freaking me out. The last thing I want is for Patches
to get into a fight with a wild animal.
“Come on, let’s get back into the house,” I say as I start
to tug on her leash.
Patches lunges a bit towards the bush, but I hold fast and
keep in place. Then in the darkness, I see something emerge from the foliage. I
could barely make out the shape of the creature, but the body was darker than
anything around it. Even stranger, the creature seemed to be covered in
feathers, but the shape appeared more snakelike than any bird I’ve ever seen.
The only spot of color I could see were the eyes, piercing emerald eyes that
glowed like small colored lights in the night. The rustling noise started
again, but the bushes weren’t moving. The beast made that noise as a promised
threat of attack. I could feel the tension in my leash loosen as Patches
whimpered in fear.
In a flash I tug on the leash and sprint towards the house
as fast as my tired legs can take me. Patches stumbled from the unexpected
pull, but she recovered and got back on her paws in an instant. It didn’t take
long for Patches to catch up and run past me, a wild look of fear in her eyes.
I didn’t look back; I couldn’t. No way did I want to see how close this abomination
was to me. We reach the porch and I’m fighting the screen door to get open,
fully regretting my procrastinating in getting it fixed. I take a glance to see
how close the creature is to us. This creature was doing a weird slithering
motion towards us, not as fast as a run but with an unnatural speed. I could
see now that what I thought was plumage on the creature now looked like wavy
black smoke that moved in motion with the beast. With another desperate yank I
finally get the screen door open and the two of us race inside.
I bolt the door and duck down, my heart literally pounding
like I’ve had way too many espresso shots. I know that seems silly, but I
didn’t want the creature to know where we were. Patches ran under the living
room table, dragging her leash behind her. As my rapid breathing returned back
to normal until I heard the thing outside loudly sniffing the bottom crack of
the front door. My body froze in place as I waited for this creature to lose
interest in me, hoping it couldn’t find a way inside my home. After what felt
like eternity, the sniffing stopped and the silence of night returned to my
home. After a few minutes of silence, Patches emerged from her hiding place and
tried coming to me, but the leash was wrapped around the chair legs. I smiled a
bit and came to her rescue, untangling the mess and freeing her from her
harness. She immediately climbed in my lap and nudged my hand, demanding some
comforting pets.
A few minutes later, we returned to my bedroom so I could
get back to sleep. Normally I don’t let Patches sleep in the room with me, but
after the scare we had, it would seem cruel to leave her out there. She hopped
onto the bed, and I crawled back in under the sheets. I looked back at the
clock, 3:46 am. Did that really only take fifteen minutes? I sigh and lay on my
back, now to work on getting back to sleep and Christmas in April. I shift onto
my right side and look through the curtains into my window when I see them.
Christmas lights, countless green Christmas lights in the window, more of an emerald
color than green.
