Part 4: https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/12ly5qk/my_dog_is_acting_weird_and_i_think_the_end_is/
A bark from Captain made me turn around; other dogs had gathered behind me, ready to rip me to pieces, but they seemed to have frozen in place, reacting to Captain’s order. At least that’s what I wanted to believe, because the alternative was he summoned them to attack me and they were just waiting the green light. Four bullets were not nearly enough to get out of this alive. At that moment I thought about using them to put an end to the agonizing, half-dead people that were still holding on as their pets tore them apart. I could free three souls, and mine, or I could try to kill my dog, and see if that would somehow make things better.
I turned again, facing Captain, and understood it wasn’t a rock, but some sort of seed. The one that he dropped in the pool full of gore beneath him was sprouting fast. Tendrils, roots or branches, whatever they were, going through the pile of corpses resting under the dog and, like giant veins, pumping their gatherings into whatever horror laid at its core.
“It grows”, said Captain.
“It grows”, said the other dogs, in a single, haunting, horrid voice.
I was too late to spare anyone the suffering; everyone around me had died. Had I acted faster, I could have made something good before dying, but I was hypnotized by that utterly alien thing. They were all resting now, or so I told myself. Which was clear now was that Captain wanted me alive for some reason. I was the only human still standing, still breathing in that skate park and, as such, I was the only living thing there that could still make a difference.
Full of courage, I raised the gun, aiming at Captain. Both hands on the grip, and still shaking like I had Parkinson’s, but what else could I do? Knowing that I was going in circles around the same idea over and over only made me even more shaky, seeing as I was unable to actually make the choice and take action. Time was pressing and, no matter how much I thought killing Captain must have been the right choice, I just couldn’t kill him. He was my puppy, my friend, all that was left in my life. The reason I got out of bed these last three years, and didn’t let me throw my life out the window. I had to take care of him, even if it was just an animal, a pet, a dog. I turned the gun on me, muzzle against my temporal. This choice I felt I could take. I could get me out of this nightmare.
“I tried, Emerett, I’m sorry my son”, I mumbled between tears. “And I’m sorry I couldn’t help you, buddy”.
As I was about to pull the trigger, a huge mastiff grabbed my arm. The shot missed, but not by a lot, leaving me with a screeching pain on my right ear. I dropped the gun and fell to the ground, caught by surprise and unable to fight the strength of the beast.
“It’s okay, daddy”, said Emerett’s voice, coming now from the Mastiff that was still holding my arm. “You are going to be its host, it’s a huuuuge honor!”.
“Emerett? How are you…? What is going on?!”, I broke crying like a baby. I just couldn’t handle it anymore. I didn’t even raise my eyes, my forehead against the concrete floor, my arm twisted in a way that seemed impossible.
“It’s much more than you deserve, dad”. Now the voice came from a different dog, I could tell because it was on my left now. “If you are to be the host, you have to understand”. Pulling my hair, they raised my head until my eyes were leveled to see the shattered skull of a woman. “See? Brains are weird. They are too difficult to use, and a full tummy at all times because they need a loooooot of energy. It does not have one, it works on instinct, so it needs the host not to fight it to learn how that weird wrinkly-gooey stuff works”.
“Oh my God!” I cried in anguish, eyes still on the splattered remains of a head. My own brain, overclocked trying to process the fact that my dead son was asking me to be the host of some nightmarish seed. I was so powerless, defeated even. If Hell was real, then this was it.
“Don’t cry, dad. You couldn’t help me when I was sick, but you can now! See, all you need to do now is… take a nap, and just stay asleep! It’s just like being dead, dad, maybe we’ll be together! Look daddy, it likes puppies ‘cause they are obedient, but they are DUMB! It…” He continued, as if looking for any kind of confirmation from my end, as if he, or it, was afraid to take action and ruin it. It sounded quite desperate and scared, just like this was its only chance.
“H-how will it happen…?” I asked.
“Your puppy will bring it, and you’ll fall asleep, you don’t have to worry about anything!”
It came to me. I had a plan. I finally had a damn plan that seemed like could work. Maybe I could end this. I looked towards Captain; beneath him there was something akin to a rose bud, slowly unfurling its petals and revealing tendrils coming from inside. The tendrils… they crawled into Captain’s orifices, all of them, burying themselves inside the dog’s body. Then the bud withered, petals fell on the bodies in the pit. It was now inside Captain. The dog was advancing with clear difficulties, it seemed like a painful task for him, and then… a whimper. And for all I knew up until now, those things, they don’t whimper. Could it be?
“You’ve been chosen, dad. It’s such an honor to be its host”. Said the mastiff now. “The one who was found by the mother-seed chose you. From all other humans here, you were the one that lived to bear its fruit. Your puppy loved you sooo, soooooo much!”
“It’s okay, I’ll do it”. I said, faking some sense of acceptance. “Let me go now, please, I don’t want my last moments to feel like my arm is about to be torn apart from my body”.
The dog let go, and I moved my body slightly towards the gun. It was still out of my reach, but I was positive I could reach it fast if I didn’t mess up. So I just laid there, still surrounded by dogs that didn’t seem to want to kill me, but would not hesitate on mutilating me. Captain was still walking towards me, not that he was far from me, but he just couldn’t move any fast than he was. My poor dog, tumbling around, like he was waking from anesthesia, like he hadn’t eaten in two weeks and just couldn’t muster enough strength to walk straight.
As soon as Captain was close enough to me, as soon as those wicked tendrils started burying themselves on my body, I would push myself towards the gun and blow my head. Those were my thoughts, my master plan, the only thing that made sense to me in that moment, that seemed like could actually work.
“Why Emerett?” I asked, something in me needing to know the answer.
“Because he was to you what you are to your dog. The thing you loved most, what you needed to protect at all costs”. Replied the mastiff, now in a completely different voice. I guessed the act had came to an end now that I had agreed.
When Captain was so close I could almost touch him, I noticed his distress. He was trying to get out, to stay away from me. I could hear his whimpers, muffled, but there. It was Captain, the real Captain. I understood the need for a human host then, the need for rationality, conscience, agreement, as it could pull the strings but not take full control of the host. And Captain was trying to resist his own strings pulling.
“It’s okay, buddy, come on…”
But he still refused to come any close. I could tell he was exhausted, more exhausted than I’ve even seen him. Captain was using his everything to stay away from me… to protect me. I looked around, and other dogs seemed to be struggling as well, uncomfortable looks all around. The seed, it might have lost strength on its grip once it was out of that bud. It was time to act; I pushed myself, using the mastiff’s legs to get some impulse, and grabbed the gun. I had no time to see if the other dogs were reacting or not, so I just went to Captain and hugged him.
He had an extremely uncomfortable look on his eyes, pulling his head out of mine as hard as he could. Tendrils started to come out of his mouth, his nose, his eyes, his ears, slowly towards me. And Captain started to whimper, howl, desperate. Tring to close his mouth, to catch the tendrils, to close his eyes. He just couldn’t.
He just couldn’t put me in danger, make me suffer. He was trying so hard to protect me.
More tears, so many I could barely see, and I pulled the trigger.
Captain fell dead besides me. The tendrils dropped flat on the ground, seemingly dead without an active brain their host. The dogs in the park flew from there like the place was on fire; others stood beside their owners, hopelessly waiting for them to wake up. It was the other way around in my case. I lost track of how much time I spent there, next to Captain’s body, the pit of corpses, and the rest of bodies that surrounded us. In the end, I still had 2 bullets to spare and the obligation to live and honor Captain’s sacrifice for me.
I don’t know how much the government knew about what was going on, or what actually happened. All I know is they relocated all of us that were left, which wasn’t many, to a different town. I lost all my belongings, my pictures of Emerett, of Captain, clothes… Everything. The official story read as some sort of chemical leakage paired with a rabies outrage? If I’m being honest, I don’t really know. I just want to leave it all behind me and forget this nightmare.
Though I doubt I’ll ever forget what happened.