Prince’s cellar was open.
Katie heard the door slam against the side of the house and immediately bolted out of bed, stopping only to pull on her rain boots. She could have sworn she’d locked the door, but, sure enough, when she got outside the latch was undone and the door was hanging wide open. Cold panic ran through Katie’s belly, as she remembered what her dad said earlier that year when she’d begged him to let her get a puppy.
“A pet is a big responsibility.” he said, talking to her like she was a kid (she was almost 12!) “You have to feed it, train it, walk it. We can’t even get you to clean your room! ” It was so dumb! She knew that she would do all those things, but her dad said no in that infuriating “because I said so” way parents have that meant the conversation was over.
She decided to play it cool, excused herself from the table and went into her room. She’d get a dog, alright. She just had to figure out how.
::
Katie had been playing near the old Brockway Chapel since spring that year. It was pretty far out into the woods, but she liked it. A lot of kids were afraid to go out there because just about everyone agreed that it was haunted. Some said it was built on an Indian burial ground, and one day about a hundred years ago there was a fire that killed everyone. Others said a witch that ate kids lived out there and summoned monsters. But Katie wasn’t scared of those stories, and that made her feel cool and brave. It also meant the treasures there were all hers.
The Chapel was falling apart, so there were lots of beams of wood and loose stones from the walls that she used to build some really cool forts. At first they were small, no bigger than the pillow and blanket forts she’d make in the living room on a rainy day, but over the summer she’d learned how to make walls and eventually little houses.
By the end of the summer, her fort was now more of a castle. It had everything: four walls with towers at each corner, and a grassy courtyard that surrounded the castle within. She’d even started a mote, but it would never fill up and just made the work muddier than it already was. She also couldn’t actually go inside the towers because they were just rocks piled on top of each other, and the castle itself could only fit two or three people if they scrunched together. But still, not bad for an eleven-and-a-half year old.
Near the beginning of fall Katie was walking towards the Chapel, puzzling out how she was going to make the spires on the towers really tall and pointy, when she heard it. Coming from the courtyard of her castle was some rustling and grunts, she thought. She stopped, and listened carefully. Yep, definitely grunts. Normally she wouldn’t be scared, but whatever it was making those noises was already inside the castle walls. If whatever it was had barred the gate, she’d have a heck of a time getting inside – it was built it to be impregnable! Ignoring the irony of the situation, she decided to see if she could peak over the wall and figure out if whatever was making the noise was a friend or an enemy. When she saw what it was, her lips spread into a wide smile as tears filled her eyes.
It was a gift from God.
Nestled in the dead grass, like a bird in a nest, was a little dog. He was kind of mangy, and kind of ugly, sure, but to Katie he was perfect. She crawled through the front gate of the castle then sat on her knees a few feet away from it. The dog shot to its feet immediately, bared its little fangs and growled, but Katie knew it was just scared. She read somewhere that you can’t be afraid, and you need to let dogs smell you so they’ll trust you. She already wasn’t afraid, so she held out her hand and made calm, soothing noises. She did this for about a half hour, until the dog finally stepped forward and touched his nose to her hand. Then a pink tongue poked from its lips and licked her fingers.
This was the happiest moment of Katie’s life.
The poor thing must have been alone for a long time, because what few patches of fur it had smelled terrible and it was covered in black goop. It was so skinny too. Katie could count each little rib through the fur and scaly flesh, and see knobby hips bones poking out around its butt.
She so desperately wanted to take him home with her, but she remembered what her dad had said about her getting a dog. “A pet is a big responsibility. You have to feed it, train it, walk it.”
And that’s when she got the idea.
Her dad didn’t think she was responsible enough? She would prove she was! She’d get a bunch of blankets and keep him in the outdoor cellar for the winter, where her parents kept the gardening tools. She knew they wouldn’t be in there until spring, and by that time she’d have taught him all kinds of tricks. They’d have to let her keep him!
“You’re going to come home with me.” She said, with her nose pressed to his smelly fur. “What am I going to call you?” She thought for a while, then looked around the castle she’d built, remembered how she’d wished every night for a dog, and how this little guy had finally made her dream come true. She smiled and pressed her cheek to his in a crushing embrace.
“I’m going to call you Prince.”
::
“Prince…? Prince?” She called out in a shaky whisper. The night was cold, but luckily it was a full moon, and bright enough that Katie didn’t have to sneak back inside to get the flashlight. Her dad would catch her if she did that. But even if it was pitch black and storming, she would have gone. She had to find him. No matter what, she knew she had to be brave and find her dog.
Katie walked into the cul-de-sac.
It was pretty spooky out. The branches of the naked fall trees made the shadows look like long, thin hands, and the leaves scuttled across the ground like bugs. She was in a hurry and had forgotten to put on her coat, and her PJs weren’t thick enough to keep the cold out, so she had to hug herself to keep from shivering. Prince would keep her warm when she found him, she knew. That made her feel better.
She remembered all the time she spent taking care of Prince. She’d eaten only half of her meals at dinner so she could take them down to the cellar and feed him. One time she even brought a pizza down there to share, but he ate the whole thing! He’d gotten big fast. Really big. After a while it became hard just cleaning up his poop so her dad wouldn’t see.
Walks were also tough. She didn’t blame him of course, he was cooped up in the basement all day long, so it was no wonder he wanted stretch his legs. The problem was that first, it had to be at night, and second, he’d take off into the woods and was so fast Katie couldn’t follow him. In a few seconds he’d be out of sight, and she’d have to wander around whispering-yelling his name so her parents wouldn’t hear. Some nights he’d be gone longer than others, but he’d always come back and throw his head into her, and they’d head back home, side by side.
Katie realized that she loved Prince because of all the hard work she put into raising him. It was like her castle at the old Chapel. Maybe it wasn’t what she imagined, maybe the towers weren’t real and she couldn’t get the moat right, maybe others wouldn’t think it was all that great. But it was hers, and that made it special. So it was with Prince. He was big, smelly, and pooped a lot, but he was hers. And to Prince, she wasn’t the weird quiet girl that liked to play out in the woods alone. Even though they had only spent a short time together, they had connected. They couldn’t speak to each other, but she could tell in his eyes that Prince recognized her. And that meant more to her than all the castles in the world.
The thought was interrupted by a noise. It came from the open door of the neighbor’s house. Maybe Prince had gone in there to get out of the cold. Katie poked her head into the dark house. She couldn’t see anything, but inside she heard that same noise. It was squishy and wet sounding. It reminded her of the time she accidently ripped the wet sheet her mom had set outside on the clothes line to dry.
I have to be brave. She thought.
She stepped inside, feeling along the walls of the hallway, that noise getting closer and closer. There was a smell that she didn’t like either. She wanted to turn back more than anything, but she loved her dog and needed to get him home. What if there was something bad in here that wanted to hurt him? Her courage had almost given out when her hand found a light switch. Whatever was making the sound was right in front of her, almost close enough to touch.
She took a deep breath, and flipped it on.
There was blood everywhere. Even the ceiling was spattered in red. There were two chewed up bodies as well. It was a man and a woman, but beyond that, Katie couldn’t tell who they were. She guessed it must have been the Hendersons.
The creature was crouched over the bodies.
If standing, it would have been three times as tall as Katie. Gleaming white teeth, snout and the wiry hair of its mane were all covered in gore, and held in its huge clawed hands was what was left of a dog. The creature ate from its midsection as if it were a slice of watermelon. Katie recognized the dog.
“Prince!” She yelled. The creature looked at her, yellow eyes gleaming, spade shaped ears pointed back. It leaned forward, its nose inches away from her face as strings of bloody drool dripped from its fangs. A long red tongue darted out of its mouth quickly, lapping the frothy spittle from its lips.
“Bad dog!” Katie bopped Prince on the nose and he yipped. “Drop!” His head cocked to the side in hurt confusion. “Drop.” He looked at her bashfully, then let the neighbor’s dog slide from his grip. “You know you’re not supposed to be out without me!” Katie put her hands on her hips and shook her head in exaggerated disappointment to cover her relief. “Come!” She pointed to her side. Prince whined and obeyed, his gigantic head lowered in shame. “We’re going home. Now.” He pressed his nose into her, and attempted to climb into her arms, nearly knocking her over. She playfully shoved him aside and threw an arm around his neck, trying to stifle a smile.
It was because of these little accidents that Katie loved Prince so much. You had to enjoy the tough times, because there’d be a lot of them. The hardest part was poddy training him, and if she could teach him that, she could teach him anything. Him getting out of the yard was just one more challenge she was excited to tackle. True, Prince still wasn’t ready to meet her parents yet, but it was okay. He was getting there, and in the meantime Katie was enjoying the work.
And when she did finally show her parents, they were going to be so surprised. She could hardly wait to see their faces.