Morning Comes

It took a long time for morning to finally come. Maria found it impossible to get back to sleep after that nightmare.

In the cold light of day she could not recall any details of it, only an impression of being….taken.

She decided to head into the office early, files in toe as she walked out to her car. She cast her eye around and caught site of a dog that was sitting at the far end of her street.

Normally she would not think anything of the animal, strays and runaways where hardly unusual after all. This was not a normal day however and she was not a normal person.

The dog looked like some kind of sheepdog to Maria with a long shaggy coat. It sat and watched her, seeming to not care that she had noticed it.

After putting her things into the car Maria decided to take a risk, pulling her knife from the glove compartment she slipped it into her pocket and started moving towards the dog.

Again it didn’t move a single inch as she approached, sitting on its hunches and watching her with mild interest as she got closer. She scanned the area around her, expected something or someone to come leaping out of some portal to hell at any moment to grab her.

That never came and soon she found herself looking down at the dog. Keeping a hand tight around her knife she crouched down in front of the dog. She had hoped to maybe see something in its eye, creatures that are being used by something else tend to have something in the eye that can clue you into the thing controlling them. However this dog seemed to have nothing but the normal dark eyes of a dog.

The only clue was the collar around its neck. Maria reached out carefully to pull it around and read the words on the dog tag. Once again the dog simply sat and let her do what she wished, not so much as flinching away at her touch.

The words on the collar only served to create more questions for Maria as she read them. She had hoped for maybe a home address or phone number, something that she could work with.

Instead the collar simply read.

“Club Kitsune”

As soon as she was done reading the words the dog pulled away from her, darting off down the street at a dead sprint that she had no hope of keeping up with.

Maria watched the animal go, the realisation that this meant she had been marked made her blood run cold.

Yet she had a clue now, even if it most likely would lead her straight to a trap.