My phone rang only a few hours after I filled out the application. I picked up my phone with a sigh.
“Hello? Who is this?” I asked with the friendliest voice I could.
“Hello. This is Mrs. Smith. Is this Nancy?” The older woman on the other side said. I smiled my awful mood lifting. I applied for a new job working for a rich older couple who had 3 dogs. I had to dog sit them.
“Yes. It is. Thank you for calling me back.” I said with genuine happiness. I was struggling with college debt and needed this job. The couple was paying me 800 dollars an hour to watch their dogs and follow their rules. It seemed pretty easy.
“Ok. Good. Our last dog sitter didn’t follow their rules so we had to fire them. We’ve been struggling to find the right person. You seem perfect though.” Mrs. Smith said with a sigh of relief.
“So, do I have the job?” I hopefully asked.
“As long as you agree to the rules why not.” Mrs. Smith said with a chuckle that at the time seemed lighthearted. I later learned it wasn’t.
“The rules are as followed:
Ignore any welts, marks, or cuts. The dogs do like to rough play.
Ignore any yelping during the times you stay overnight ignore it. As I said the dogs like to rough play.
Don’t feed the dogs we do it as the dogs are very… picky about how they eat.
Don’t go into the master bedroom. It’s our private room.
Ignore any noises coming from the master bedroom.
Ignore any voices you may hear I promise you it doesn’t exist.
Ignore any strange smells coming from the master bedroom.
The house is old and creaky so any strange noises are normal. Nothing to be concerned about at all not in a bit.
Take the dogs on 3-mile walks each day. After work, we don’t have time to walk them.
Don’t let them on the furniture.
Brush the dogs on a leash a couple of times a week and bathe them once a month unless dirty.
They are reliable off-leash so you can take them out off-leash.
Sometimes Sunny, our XL American Bully, will not be there. Sometimes we take him to work to hang out with the other dogs.
These are all the rules. Do you understand them all? If not it’s probably best not to take this job. We surely don’t want what happened to the previous dogsitters.”
“Yes, I understand the rules,” I said. I was mildly confused about the rules but thought they were fairly simple.
“Ok so as you know Sunny is a 7-year-old red American Bully, River is a 3-year-old blue merle Border Collie, and Indigo is a 6-month-old Belgian Malinois. Sunny is fairly low energy but enjoys the 3-mile walks. River and Indigo are the troublesome duos. They enjoy playing fetch and wrestling around.”
“Ok. When do you want me to come to your house?” I asked.
“Be here by 8 at the latest. The house is at XXXXX Rocky Road Street. You will know the house when you see it. It’s large.” Mrs. Smith explained. We talked for a few moments clarifying pay, schedule, etc. When we finally hung up I sighed in exhaustion. I wasn’t exactly a people person. It wasn’t my kind of thing.
I headed to bed at around 8:30 and set my alarm for 6:45 so I could be there a little earlier than 8. Slept came easily to me but it didn’t stay. I kept getting crowded with nightmares of a girl warning me away. She was horrifying looking. She had previously blonde hair that was stained in blood and took more of a red tinge. She had gashes all over her body and was in the early stages of decomposing. Bugs buzzed around her and her body was caked in dry blood. She warned me to leave the job. Stupidly though, I didn’t listen. Who would? I assumed it was just a dream. I woke up after an awful night of sleep. I dragged myself out of my warm, comfortable bed and got dressed. I dressed in semi-casual clothes but I wanted to make an impression on the couple. I got ready and began the drive there. I arrived at 7:30 and headed to the door. I reached to knock on the door but stopped when I saw the note.
It read:
‘Hello Nancy, we’ve already left but the door is unlocked. Go in and you will see River and Indigo. We decided to take Sunny today as he does love it there.
From,
Mrs. Smith’
I turned the doorknob and went in the house looked even bigger on the inside than the outside. It was a nice house despite the creaks and groans. Thankfully, I wasn’t staying the night here. River and Indigo trotted in. River had beautiful blue eyes and had a seeming dullness to her eyes. Indigo had her ears pinned and was carrying a slobbery tennis ball. I grabbed it and threw it, and she ran after it and leaped in the air to catch it. I sat down with my stuff which was just my bag and phone. I sat on the couch and turned on the TV. I threw the ball a couple of times before deciding it was walking time. I leashed them up and took them out.
The next few weeks were fairly normal besides the cuts, marks, and other stuff. They seemed to get thinner each day but I chalked it up to the long walks they got daily. That was until one day. I stared aimlessly at the TV when suddenly I hear a woman’s voice behind me.
“Get out of here. Take the dogs and leave. It’s for the best.” I froze at the urgency of the voice. I slowly turned around and nothing was there. I chalked it up to my lack of sleep. The dreams had been getting worse this time with me in a room with rotten corpses. I looked over at the dogs who were sleeping peacefully. I had started to notice the Smiths were kind of odd. Sunny always came back with roughly patched-up wounds after going to work with them. I didn’t know why I just assumed he rough-housed with another dog and it went too far. That’s what they always said. They seemed to tense at the question though. Tonight, was a night I was sleeping over here. They were working a night shift and had to stop at a friend’s house afterward.
I went to bed fairly early that day and had a different dream. This time the girl was in worse shape.
“Tuesday go into the master bedroom. It will be safe then. You’ve noticed the smells, the strange noises, etc. Get help here. Please.” Her voice had the worst pain to it. It made me seriously want to do it. I had to. Right?
I woke up and headed home as they arrived, we said our good mornings and have good days. I went back home and researched the other dogsitters. Very little came up, so I shrugged it off. Why should I be so paranoid over a dream?
I arrived back at the house on Tuesday the dream was still vividly in my mind. She wasn’t letting me forget it every night leading up to today she came to me. She repeated the same stuff except not promising safety and to be careful. She kept apologizing to me. I didn’t understand though. She told me to do it.
In a dazed state, I approached the master bedroom. The dogs were asleep and not paying any mind to me. Sunny, thankfully, now here. I opened the door, and I gagged in disgust. The dead bodies of what I assumed were all the previous dogsitters here. The bodies were all decomposed in various stages; some were even mutilated. I recognized one though. The blonde-haired girl from my dream. She was the latest one. Cautiously, I approached her. In her hand was her phone having the number 91 in it. I rushed out, closing the door and leashing all three dogs. I needed them all out of here. I wasn’t going to let them die. Their abuse came clear now. I knew it. How could I have been so stupid? I had them all leashed and had my shoes on when I heard a familiar voice.
“Look out.” I heard her urgency and turned around just in time to duck a flying ax. I flew out of the house clutching the dog’s leashes. I wasn’t very active, but adrenaline gave me the energy to keep going. The dogs followed with ease and no trouble whatsoever. Despite being severely underweight they were great runners. I heard the Smith’s Angry shouts and I used that to keep going. Despite the burning in my lungs and my legs feeling like wet spaghetti noodles I kept running. I nearly fell many times, but I kept going. I couldn’t give up until I got help. I left my phone back at the house, so I had to find the police station. It didn’t take me long to find it. I entered out of breath and incoherent.
“Ok. Calm down sweetie. Tell me what’s going on.” The young police officer said handing me a glass of water. The dogs were panting and tired.
“I got hired by Mr. and Mrs. Smith; they live on XXXXX Rocky Road Street. I was given a list of rules to follow. Well, I broke one of them and went into the master bedroom. There were decomposed dead bodies and even mutilated dead bodies. I’m pretty sure they also abuse their dogs. The dogs are underweight and have welts and cuts. Sunny goes to their work and comes back with bite marks. I-I think they might do dog fighting. Well, when I got caught, they tried to attack me with an ax” I explained.
“By any chance do you know if their names are Charlotte and Michael?” The policewoman asks in a panic state.
“I-I don’t-” I trail off.
“Nancy listens to me this is very important. You are in grave danger if they are.” The policewoman said. I thought very hard and finally, something came.
“Yes. They are. I remember. I walked in on a conversation and those were the names I heard.” I finally said. The policewoman nodded and left.
I was in there for what felt like hours before they came back.
“Thank you, Nancy, for your help in this case. They have been on the run for a while in many missing people cases. We hope to get the bodies identified and sent to their families for a proper burial. We also found out they are in an illegal dog fighting ring. We don’t quite know what to do with the dogs though.” The policewoman said. I hesitated.
“I’d like to keep them,” I said stroking Indigo’s head. Her eyes had started to dull too. They weren’t the same. I was going to make her better. She was going to be one good dog.