| About the author: | I live in Belgrave with my partner Rick and cat Misty who make do with the long silences while I write. The day job is teaching English at Leicester College, five minutes walk away. Having tackled several courses on story writing, last year I completed an online Pg. Dip. in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University. But the most positive influence has been the Leicester Writers' Club, a community of writers who meet weekly to develop each other's work. With their help I've been submitting stories and poems to competitions and currently have another story short listed by the Dutch dance company, Retina, who are looking for writing to inspire new choreography. |
The dog loomed in, a massive head pushing against walls and ceiling. Silent jawed, eyes with moons in them, it was the colour of night when street lights have blown out. Ruth remembered the Black Dog from childhood but she was 32 now. What had it come back for? 'Bad dog,' she said. It moved. Now it was over her bed, in her face. Up close, it stank of damp earth and carcasses. Its shark teeth opened to reveal a mouth boned like a rib cage. She thought of it eating field mice, a chance road kill, turds in the hedgerow. When it lunged, the shock of its incisors digging under her was electric. One side of her body rolled into the slimy flesh of its throat. Its lower jaw scooped up under her armpit while the upper one clamped on her shoulder. In one movement it was through the window with her. At their landing, she had a sickening image of its bite crunching into her. Better go limp like a submissive prey. Letting her neck drop, she felt blood rush to her brain. Puddle-spattered streets slid into the place of the sky, buildings loomed downward, take-away signs erupted in a frenzy of lights, words, colours. A red moon flashed urgently under a green one. As they lunged into the road, she saw wheels speeding towards her head. She shrieked but there was no sound, no horn blaring. They were invisible, they swerved into an alley. She passed out. |
