The Criminal

  I am not one person to be messed around with. My teeth have become blood stained by the flesh of my last victim. But, no one knows what a good person I am……I was. I am not some downer girl who tries to commit suicide every five minutes. So if you decide to see what a horrible person I am and leave this horrible story then I’m not stopping you. My name is Riley and this is my story.

     Well here it goes, it all started on the fifteenth of July when I was two weeks old. I was about ready to get adopted to my home, my owner.

     I was different from my brother and sister. I didn’t know why then, but I surely know now that I am not a normal person. Any ways, my sister was the first to be adopted. Her name was Olive. She was my best friend. Then my brother, Shasta was adopted to a lady with a baby. I was left alone with mom and dad, in a box, in the cold. Hours past till a kid showed up in a musher hat. He was about thirteen and had an adorable smile with freckles going across his face. He smiled at me and said, “You’re a cute one.” He said. He carefully picked me up by my under arms and held me close to his face. He had blonde hairs coming down from his hat. I smiled and licked his face. He laughed and put me his book bag with a blanket at the bottom. I poked my face out and waved to my crying mother. She waved back.

***

We walked about a quarter of a mile out of town where there was a hill with a small cabin at the top. It wasn’t big, but it was homey. At the top, we stepped inside and he pulled me out of his bag and set me down on the ground. He pulled a light blue strip with a silver circle attached to it. It had the name ‘Riley’ on it and underneath that said, ‘owned by Jack Martin’. I figured that was his name, and that’s where I got my name. He wrapped it around my neck and buckled it in place. I was happy then and I knew this was the beginning of a wonderful friendship.

At the same time I noticed that we were the only people home. Surely he would have parents, but they strangely weren’t home. It was odd, but it didn’t mind me one bit. Jack walked in the kitchen and pulled out a food bull with my new name also engraved on it. It was filled with the puppy formula I was supposed to eat (gags) how someone could eat that, I don’t know. I didn’t mind when I was younger.

It was around eleven thirty when we went to bed. His room was at the top of the stair case. Inside, he had two massive windows overlooking a lake and a meadow. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, but of course it would have been prettier at daylight.

He lied on his bed, which was big enough to fit three people! He lied me next him with his arm around me. I was a happy puppy, thinking that my life would be perfect with a loving family……..I was the most stupidest dog I had ever seen

At midnight, I heard a door slam, and stomping across the ground floor. My first instinct was to start growling and barking, but there was a problem or two. 1. I was a puppy am I sure I would sound like a pipsqueak 2. I don’t want to give off the impression that I was a bad dog. So I lied quietly, trembling as the footsteps got nearer and nearer. I looked at Jack, and he was wide awake looking at the door. It was so close that I could smell the alcohol that the person had been drinking. It was the most horrible smell ever. Then it stopped and I could feel the person at the door. It turned and walked to the next room I think, but it certainly did leave after that. Then I surprisingly fell asleep in the hands of my owner, Jack Martin.             

***

        I woke up the next morning to find Jack gone. The door was wide open and I could hear the sound of a fight going on down stairs, I looked down stairs and saw Jack cowering at the floor he had a bad bruise and was on the verge to tears. It was a horrible scene to watch, because I couldn’t get down the stairs without killing myself. Then a huge giant-like man with a long black beard came into view. He was intimidating and looked fierce. Then I yelped when he lifted his hand to slap Jack across the face. He turned toward me and then his horrible yellow eyes stared straight through me. I froze, and Jack snuck away from his clutches ran up to me and wrapped me around his arms.

“Aww, so, there is the dog you were talking about.” He growled, “Bring it to me you ungrateful little brat.”

Jack held on to me tightly and walked down stairs. I was terrified of the man. He wore the most horrible grin I had ever seen. He grabbed me from Jack’s arms and he looked at me once again.

“A female, I thought you were getting a male.” He said in a calmer voice.

“She was the only one left, and also I favored her from all the other places I’ve been to.” Jack replied, looking worried that he was going to hurt me.

He looked at me and spat in my face. He just scowled then his horrible grin crossed his face.

“even better,” he said giving me back to Jack. I nuzzled my head into his chest. “But you better not get her spayed.”

I had really no idea what he was talking about, but I was still scared.

“But she could get hurt, plus she’s my dog.” Jack replied

“How would you like saying that in an orphanage, you worthless peace of work. Now get,” He said

***

        Besides the whole ‘jerk face’ thing, Jack and I were best friends. He taught me the basic dog tricks like, ‘sit’, ‘lie down,’ but then I amazed him by doing advanced tricks like ‘roll over’, or ‘play dead’. Jack was now fourteen and was a yearling, the wildest part of a Dog’s life. I didn’t get into too much trouble, but I was still only one. Jack’s father still watched me with a grin. He brought over his ‘bar’ buddies to meet me and then say something about puppies. I thought then that they meant that they were getting more dogs, but as usual I was wrong.

  In the cold afternoon of a February night, Jack had me on a leash and walked me too the forest line. Jack wasn’t allowed to go in there by the law of his dad, but we went as far as we could. That was the night that changed my life forever.

His stupid dad came running up and shoved Jack away.

“What the heck are you doing,” Jack said

The giant smacked him across the face and he fell on the ground. I saw him fall and then I heard his laugh, “I’m going to rich with these pups.”

Then at the cabin I could see a bull dog, a male bull dog. He was leashed to one of his bar friends. He called back, “I can’t wait to sell the little suckers!”

Then everything came to me. He wanted that dog to, well you know. And then he was going to sell the puppies I was going to have. That’s why he forbade Jack to get me spayed, or the reason why his bar friends kept coming over to look at me. That’s the reason that jerk was keeping me around, to make him rich. Then I saw Jack on the snowy ground. There was a tear going down his face.

I looked at ‘him’ and started growling. He looked at me by surprise and tried to me but I dodged. I shook off the collar and growled more. After his buddy saw that he was in trouble, he unleashed his dog and he ran toward me. After then it was a blur, I remember getting clawed in the face. Then my vision was back and I remembered ‘him’ knocked out on the ground and the bull dog lay unconscious. I finished off with a triumphant howl.

Jack ran up to me and hugged me and I licked his cheek. The bull dog’s owner must have ran off because he came back with police. Jack and I must have gone crazy because we ran away from the sheriff into the forest. One minute dog and owner in a house, then next, Bonnie and Clyde on the run.

***

 We ran about a half a mile, until we both got too tired to run. Jack’s shirt was torn by passing bushes with cuts on his face. I helped him sit down, and then I noticed we were literally in the middle of nowhere.

I bet Jack thought I was a monster for knocking out his dad, almost killing that other dog, and then ruining his life by making him run away from the cops. His life was ruined; my life was the least of my problems.

Jack was sweating, which was hard to do here in Alaska during winter. He looked as if he was going to pass out, but I didn’t know what to do, but I wasn’t going to let him take off his jacket in the freezing cold at night.

Then he looked at me for the first time and smiled, “I knew I made a good choice, by selecting you as my dog.” Then he stroked my ears. I couldn’t believe it; he still likes me even though I ruined his life. I jumped up to him and licked his face. We decided to sleep where we tonight, by making a den out of logs, leaves, branches etc. but the problem was how was Jack going to get warm? Yeah, he already had three sets of coats on, but here in Alaska that’s not nearly warm enough.

I ended it up sleeping on top of him. It didn’t keep him as warm as I wanted it to be, but he managed. I had no problem with the cold, nor the night, so I was really in paradise. I looked up at moon it was full with a yellowish color. I then did the most unusual thing I’d ever done before; I started singing (as in howling). I didn’t know what I was singing but I kept doing