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DAMNED DOG

By Emmanuel Williams

September 23, 2026

The run was going swell for Mrs. Wellerson, who appreciated a good jog after the morning cup of joe. The sun was just about to come out, and the park near the river was moist with dew and void of anyone else just yet.

Suddenly, a labrador retriever can be spotted running on its own. But something’s off about it, besides its lack of a walker. It must have seen her because it’s making its way over. 

As it approaches, something is obviously wrong with the poor creature. There’s no sign of external trauma, but its neck is snapped! As Mrs. Wellerson wonders how the dog’s head can stay on like that, she pulls out her phone and starts looking for the number to Animal Control.

That poor dog!

It barks, but it looks painful to watch. As if the head jumps back onto the body to produce the sound from its belly, then flops right back over the side of it. Freaky…

It starts to trot away, it looks scared, but Mrs. Wellerson isn’t letting it get away. It needs help, poor thing. And she’s just got the local Animal Control on the phone.

“Yes, hello? My name is Annie Wellerson, and I’m following a dog with a loose neck down in Monaway Park. Can you send someone please?”

“Ma’am? Can you repeat that ma’am, what’s the problem?”

“I’m at Monaway Park, and there’s a dog with a broken neck walking around like nothing’s wrong. It must be in so much pain, please just get someone down here quick.”

“Ma’am what you’re talking about is impossible. Dogs cannot survive a broken neck. Would you be able to?”

“I know that, but you have to believe me.”

“Next time you wanna prank animal control, get your shit straight, lady.”

Click.

“NO! Oh my god,” cried Mrs. Wellerson. Trying to keep up with the dog, who by now is into the park’s many trees. If she didn’t have to duck branches she could keep up better. “Where are you going, honey?”

She ducked one last time, and there was the broken pup. Sitting still, staring at her from what looked like upside down. 

“Hey you poor thing, oh how are we gonna help- what the puff balls??”

Mrs. Wellerson had to step back. The dog’s shoulders were widening, and for a moment she believed the dog was somehow healing itself. That the head lobbing at the side was about to be restored with a sickening crunch of resocketing an arm. But this was far from the horrible truth. Something was coming out of the shoulders, out of the neck, and it was coming right at her!

Suddenly the dog’s head tore off and in its place was the head of a very very large, very very long python. All that remained of the dog’s body, arms, legs, paws, everything was absorbed by the new python. A sickening transformation that was the last thing Mrs. Wellerson saw as the snake surrounded her body, squeezed, and began swallowing her head first…

*

What Kind of Deer…

By Emmanuel Williams

September 23, 2026

There I am driving deep into the Rocky Mountains. Not a care in the world, I’ve gotta get to my parent’s house for the holiday season. I’m just hoping it doesn’t snow on me once I start climbing the curvaceous highway the range is notorious for. 

I’ve been driving all day, and as the moon starts to rise, I’m coming up on the turn for Pike’s Peak, and a deer shows up in the road. Not wandering into it. It’s already smack on the median, facing oncoming traffic. Thankfully I’m the only traffic around, so I plan to go around the fucker. 

As I got closer, I saw its eyes. They got brighter as I approached and were blindingly bright… red. They seemed to pull me into the creature. It was bigger than a normal deer or elk. Somehow it took up more of the road then I had originally thought. I grew worried, and at the same time curious at the phenomenon of it. 

So I stopped in front of it, and honked. No motion. It stared at me harder, like some twisted Rudolph the Red-Eyed Reindeer. I decided to take a picture, but when I brought the camera app up on my phone, nothing was there. It just showed the road and the large rock slabs beside it. I put my phone down, and the beast had indeed disappeared. 

I put my foot on the gas, but I was t-boned by someone. My car flew to the right of the road, tires skidding, and my ribs bruised. It completely winded me. 

“Ah… fuck,” I moaned. Then I looked out the window and Rudolph was charging at me! It hit me dead on in the same exact spot. I thought I was going to die right then and there. That hit shattered what glass was left on my driver side window, and I don’t think I could have moved if I wanted to. I was in a pinch, a pickle, and a dilemma.

The beast came back again, this time, it stuck it’s head into the window and grabbed hold of my arm with its jaws. Twisting and pulling me in its grip, it took the arm!

I watched in agony as it chewed on my missing flesh, crushing bone in its teeth and generally not giving a fuck. 

I searched for my phone, but it was lost in the wreckage. Then it came in and went straight for my face. He bit my jaw off, then came back for the rest of me.

I saw him eat the rest of me from high above the wreckage.

I can only hope heaven accepts me…

*