I’ve been living in the same house since i was a kid, in a calm neighborhood. There’s a lot of pet owning families, including mine, we own a little black cat.
I always stayed up late watching movies or talking on the phone, never afraid of the dark or anything.
It just happens that everyday, around the same time, all the dogs in the street bark. First, they all bark together, then, i can hear the sound of the barking getting far away, as if they’re following something walking down the street.
But, obviously there is nothing in the street. If anything happened we would know, because the neighbors here really love a little gossip.
Yesterday, i was almost falling asleep, when i heard the barking start. I was so mad because of the noise that i went to the balcony to see if there was a crazy homeless guy messing with the dogs.
There was not.
All i could see was the dogs, inside the gates of their houses. Their eyes were empty looking, staring at the street with fear, but worst, hunger.
I wondered what was happening to those pets? At day, sweet, playful, well-trained dogs. At night ghost-like animals.
But they didn’t seem dangerous, so i knocked if off. I went to school the following day with huge dark circles, all my friends and classmates were asking me if i was okay. I said i had a bad case of sleeping late and told them not to worry.
To be honest, it was hard trying to focus on anything. All i could think was the weird dogs living in my street, and worse, knowing they would bark again in the same time.
I decided to look for some answers, so i visited a neighbor that lived there longer than i did.
“The door is open.” She said, as i was preparing myself to knock, trying to sound like a sane person. “Oh the dogs are barking!” I would sound dumb and unserious.
I entered her house, and she was sitting in a chair, cats all around the house.
“What bothers you, sweetheart?” She said, in a voice almost motherly. I explained what was happening and she started laughing, i felt like i really went nuts.
“Well, for me dogs themselves are bad omen. But, what you saw interest me.” When she said that, i felt like i would finally get answers. But her words explained nothing about the situation, she said some nonsense about how animals see what humans don’t.
I tried to forget it again, but later that day, around 1:27 pm i knew what would happen and it scared me.
When it started i rushed to the balcony, and watched the dogs barking like crazy again. But, this time, one of them noticed i was there. It looked at me right in the eye and barked, louder than i ever heard.
As soon as this happened, all of them looked up. The barking, that not long ago was directed at nothing, was directed at me.
I have no idea of what to do, i just entered my house and tried to sleep, but the sound of the multiple dogs went straight to my head. I cried, trying to make little to no noise in my bed.
I cried myself to sleep, and had nightmares about what just happened. The whole thing felt like a loophole, waking up, normal routine and then dogs.
dogs,dogs. dogs. dogs.
I couldn’t get rid of it. It held me hostage of my own thoughts, it wasn’t loud until that moment, and now every night it got louder. I got stressed, scared and violent even. I couldn’t even hear the words dog or barks.
After a week in agony, i decided to walk down the street. 1:26 am i grabbed a knife and went downstairs, opened the gate. As i was walking, it started, shouting right in my ear. I was determined to kill whatever it was, making the dogs go crazy.
But as i saw nothing was there, i laughed. There was nothing. I laughed and laughed while i stabbed all the dogs through their gates, hoping that, that way it would stop.
When i took the life of the last animal, i felt relieved, even though i knew my neighbors would come after me. So i grabbed the keys of my grandpa’s car, and drove off to another city.
I slept for hours straight. I woke up, fearing that the people from my neighborhood would chase after me. I refused to eat, or do anything, i just sat there, waiting for the worst to happen.
It was only around 1:28 am i heard the damn barking start all over again.