Welcome to Dogtown

        Dogtown was definitely an appropriate name for Caroline’s new home.  Mangey, untamed, and covered with a thick layer of fleas.

        “I’m telling you, we can flip this entire town!” Dylan exclaimed.  He always got obnoxiously excited when he got an “original idea.”

        Most of the time Caroline didn’t know why she was even dating Dylan, but then he did things like buy an entire town just to flip it and she remembered what it was she liked about him.

        A stray dog passed them on the street.  A big, brown mutt with white patches on his scruffy face.

        Caroline jumped back.  This was the fifth dog she had seen in town, and she had barely even been there ten minutes!

        “It’s just a dog,” Dylan groaned when he noticed Caroline’s reaction.

        “It’s disgusting.  Don’t let that thing anywhere near me.”

Caroline hated dogs.  Everyone seemed to think they were the greatest thing in the world, but all Caroline saw was that they were loud and needy and drooly and made a mess wherever they went.

A few seconds later, a greyhound came trotting out of one of the abandoned houses.

Dylan laughed like this was adorable.

Caroline felt like she was going to throw up.

What was even more uncomfortable was the way the dog looked Caroline straight in the eyes.  It was like he was trying to tell her something.

“I do not like that one.”

For the rest of the day, Dylan and Caroline set up their things in an abandoned house that seemed to be a zoo exhibit for termites.

“And I was thinking we could turn that old barber shop into a pharmacy.  Oh, and the contractor said that if we want to beautify the lake, we should just drain what’s there now and then refill it.”

Caroline couldn’t have cared less about what Dylan said to begin with, but she was particularly uninterested because of what she saw on the wall.

There was some sort of bizarre carving in the stone of the house.  It definitely wasn’t English, and some letters in it weren’t even in our alphabet.  It looked like some kind of cult thing you find at the scene of a blood sacrifice.

Home, sweet home.

“What do you think?  Caroline, are you listening to me?”

“Yup.  Drain the barber shop and fill the pharmacy with water.”

“Caroline!  This is important.”

Caroline strongly disagreed, but she decided it was best to go along with it.

“You’re right.  I’m just tired, and I’ve been sitting for so long.  I think I just need to walk around for a while.”

“Okay,” Dylan sighed, “just be back soon.”

Caroline made a mad dash for the car.  Dylan could do whatever psycho things he wanted, but she was not staying in this filthy, dog-infested town for another second.  She could start her life over.  Best case scenario, Dylan died and she got his inheritance.

Caroline sidestepped several dogs (with more caution than necessary) and was all the way back on the outskirts of town when a huge canine stopped her dead in her tracks.

It was that same greyhound.  The one that had been staring at Caroline earlier.  He was looking at her again now, that same freaky intelligence in his eyes.

Caroline, despite her intense fear, decided to get a closer look at the dog.  She saw that his collar said Edgar on it.

Who in this century would name a dog Edgar?

That was when something really strange hit Caroline: why would a bunch of mangey strays be wearing collars?

But, sure enough, as Caroline looked around her, every dog she saw had an old, worn collar with their name dangling from it.

That was when she saw the shadow.

She could only barely glimpse the figure, but one thing was for sure.  It was not a dog.  It looked like a human enveloped in a dark cloak.

Caroline could feel her heartbeat in her throat.

“Hello?!”

The cloaked figure turned and ran back into the town and out of sight.

Caroline was only a couple yards from her car.  She could leave now and never return.  But suddenly, Caroline didn’t want to leave nearly as bad as she did a few mere seconds ago.  Something inside of her was inexplicably drawn to that person in the cloak.

Caroline followed the figure back into town.

Well, she wasn’t so much chasing it as much as stumbling blindly in the direction she thought it went.  Eventually, Caroline realized she had wandered into a part of the town she had never even seen before.  And this section was somehow even creepier than the last.

Occult markings were everywhere.  Sigils were carved into the walls of abandoned homes, and the writing (that Caroline had become fairly certain was Latin) was popping up more and more frequently.  For the first time since arriving there, Caroline wondered why it was this town was abandoned in the first place.

The worst part was the dogs.  If she thought that there were a lot of them before, she had no idea how to cope with this.  They lined the streets and covered the sidewalks.  She had to tiptoe around paws and tails just to get to a destination that she wasn’t even sure existed.

But she pushed forward.  If there was another human in this creepy town, then Caroline had to find her.

Just when she thought her day couldn’t get any weirder, Caroline arrived at a house that seemed as out of place in Dogtown as it would be on Venus.  The great, oak structure was, unlike the rest of the buildings, completely in one piece.  A little stone path wound the way up to the house where it was greeted by white marble steps.  The building was a shade of green that Caroline never would’ve considered painting a house, but looked surprisingly welcoming.  There was even a little garden in the front where dozens of herbs and spices (some of which were remarkably strange-looking) were being grown.

If there was another person in this town, this was where they lived.

Caroline was about to enter the garden when, once again, her path was blocked by dogs.  Four of them bustled their way in front of her and stopped her from moving.  Once again, Caroline noticed the strange intelligence in the dogs’ eyes.  They were calculating; almost afraid.

The dogs bared their teeth at Caroline.  She realized with horror that, except for a path that had opened up directly behind her, she was completely surrounded.  They were going to eat her alive!

“HEEL!”

Immediately, the dogs backed off.

Caroline’s eyes darted toward the direction of the voice.  The cloaked figure was standing on the porch of the green house.

She removed her hood and for the first time, Caroline saw her face.  She was a kind-looking woman who seemed to be about five years older than Caroline.  She had bright red hair, and big, soft brown eyes.

She turned her kind, pink face to Caroline and smiled.

“Come on in.”

Caroline, immensely confused by the interaction but willing to do anything to get away from the dogs, followed the strange woman into her house.

“Thank you,” Caroline told the woman as she shut the door behind her.

“Don’t mention it, dear.  Would you like a cup of tea?”

“Uh… sure.”

Caroline didn’t usually didn’t drink anything that weak, but she didn’t want to seem rude.  Especially after this woman had just saved her life.

But, as the redheaded woman poured hot water from a kettle into a small teacup, Caroline found herself more and more intrigued by her.

        “Who are you?”

        The woman gave Caroline a warm smile as she pulled a spice jar out of her cabinet.  “My name is Thomazine Younger, but you can call me Tammy.”

        Tammy sprinkled a handful of the spice into Caroline’s cup and began to stir.

        “How long have you lived here, Tammy?” Caroline asked.

        “All my life.”

        Tammy handed the cup to Caroline, who had to control her nerves to not to drop it immediately.

        “This town has been abandoned for the past two-hundred years.”

        “Not by everyone.”

        Tammy sat herself down on a black armchair and gestured for Caroline to do the same.

        “Have you been living here all by yourself?”

        “Not all by myself,” Tammy replied as she brushed a strand of fiery red hair out of her face, “I have Hex.”

        “Who’s Hex?”

        Tammy whistled and a giant black lab came bounding into the room.  He sat down beside Tammy, and she began petting his thick furry coat.

        “You have a dog.”  Caroline felt very uncomfortable once again, and nervously began to drink her tea.

        “I love dogs.  Hex has been by my side for so long.  Loyal, brave, kind; in a lot of ways dogs are better than people, wouldn’t you say?”

        Caroline kept her mouth shut.

        “People have a tendency to ruin everything.  Take Dogtown, for example.  This used to be a reputable place.  Then all the riff raff came in and, excuse my language, the whole place went to hell.  Soon enough, people stopped coming.  Well, until you that is.”

        Caroline finished her tea before responding.  “We… um, my boyfriend and I… we wanted to remake the town.  You know, make it a little friendlier.”

        Tammy smiled her warm smile at Caroline, but she didn’t exactly seem happy.

        “You want to remake this town, do you?  Invite people to come live here, again?  I’m sorry, missy, but I can’t have that.  I like my companions to be a little better than humans.”

        Caroline put down her cup.  She had found something in this town to be more afraid of than the dogs.

        “It’s good tea, isn’t it?”