A Halloween Tail

Since it is Halloween soon, and that also happens to be one of my favorite holidays, I thought I'd share a story with you all.
A little background for the story. Doc is a vampire-hunting dog and the stories are told from his point of view. He's a Border Collie. Doc hunts with his human, Kevin. This story assumes you are at least sort of familiar with the characters (hence the brief intro), and if you enjoy it, you are welcome to check out a few other stories on my website here: http://writerjacampbell.wordpress.com/docs-stories/


Doc's Halloween

I looked ridiculous.

And I wasn’t happy about it.

“Oh, come on Doc, it’s fine.”

I flattened my ears against my head and sulked, refusing to walk in the stupid human clothing. My human said I was a bat. I wanted to tear the fake ears from my head and the cape from my back, but I would leave them on to make Kevin happy. He’d been so sad recently.

My human was dressed in a similar cape with fake dead-thing fangs. I thought he looked stupid too.

“Let’s go Doc.”

I stared in horror as he went out the front door. He couldn’t possibly expect me to go out in public like this? What if Nelli found out? I snorted at that thought, Nelli had no idea who I was, but that didn’t mean I was going outside.

“Doc, come.” His voice was stern, and I had to obey. I slunk across the floor “Let’s go.”

I whined in protest but I followed him outside. I couldn’t even look at Rose, the poodle next door, as we walked past but I thought I heard her snicker. I wasn’t even comforted by the familiar surroundings of our park when we arrived. It was full of people who looked just as dumb as we did.

Kevin walked to a table and handed me a piece of meat. I grudgingly accepted and followed when he started talking to other humans. I knew some of them, some of them I didn’t, but I ignored them all, even when they tried to pet me.

“He’s not happy about being a bat tonight,” my human said.

I whined.

“I’m going to take him to the edge of the crowd for a while. I’ll be back.”

I followed Kevin, happy to be out of the crowd. He leaned against a tree and I leaned against his leg, anxious for the night to be over.

The only warning I had was a faint whiff of garlic and then my human crumpled to the ground, trapping me beneath his body.

* * *

“Doc!”

I lurched to my feet, staggered, and fell down.

“If you’ve hurt my dog!”

“Your demon you mean?”

“Look you stupid twits, I am not a vampire. It’s Halloween, this is a costume. My dog is not a demon.”

I heaved, and puked all over someone’s feet.

“Demon venom! It’ll infect me!” a human wailed.

I winced as the sound pierced my head.

“You poisoned him. Of course he’s sick.”

I heaved one more time and then lay down at Kevin’s feet and whined – then stopped when the sound rattled my head.

“You and your demon dog will be cleansed by the light of the rising sun.”

I didn’t know what the stupid human was talking about, I just wished he would shut up. He was hurting my head.

“What have you guys been smoking?” My human sounded more annoyed than afraid, so I guessed whatever had happened to us couldn’t be that bad.

The other humans didn’t answer Kevin. They did start chanting and placing candles all around the room. I watched until they lit one of them then I had to shut my eyes to avoid more pain in my head.

“What are you doing?” my human asked.

“Preparing for the ritual cleansing.”

“Don’t stop chanting!” The other human snarled at the first.

“Sorry,” the second muttered.

The chant continued and I started to feel better. In fact I started to feel down right thirsty, so I got to my feet, and stayed there this time. I cast about for some water and saw a bowl by one of the human’s feet. I wagged my tail and trotted over to him. He screeched as I stuck my nose in the bowl. There was a small amount of water and I lapped it up before going back to lie at my human’s feet again.

“The demon, he didn’t react to the holy water,” one of them whispered.

“Of course not,” Kevin said. “He’s a dog, not a demon.”

“Maybe we should just stake them and get it over with.” The other human slammed his book shut.

I could smell the first hint of fear from Kevin. He tried to get up from his chair and growled when he couldn’t.

“Come on kids. I’m not a vampire.”

I tuned my human and the other humans out. The things they said meant little too me, but I was starting to understand that Kevin and I didn’t want to be here. I saw the door, it was close but my human was stuck to his chair. I scooted around behind him and saw rope on his hands.

Inspired, I started to chew.

The humans noticed eventually, but it was too late. Kevin jerked his hands free just as one of the other humans cried out in alarm. Kevin stumbled forward and both he and the other human toppled to the ground, extinguishing some candles in the process. Kevin lurched to his feet and the one on the ground cried out.

The other human wasn’t a dead thing, but he did hold a big stick and he was swinging it at Kevin. I barked a warning and threw my whole body into the human’s chest, sending him to the ground. He hit his head on the table as he fell and didn’t move once he was down.

The other human moaned from the ground.

“Come on Doc, let’s get out of here.”

I followed and we raced out of the basement and into the early morning light.

“Now I think I might know how the vampires feel,” Kevin said softly as we stood in the driveway.

I woofed quietly.

“Ok, let’s call the cops. And next Halloween… we’re staying home.”

I wagged my tail happily when my human removed my stupid costume and ruffled my ears.

“What would I do without you Doc?”

I grinned.