Chapter 8 But Muffins

The black *asphalt road stretched far and wide in a linear path between the paved sidewalks which lead into an unknown place hidden behind the horizon. There were many driveways and smaller pathways which converged at the roads' margins. It was like

*tributaries entering into a river stream.

Tall wooden light poles covered small portions of the paved sidewalk with a dull yellowish - orange light. The areas in which the light did not reach, were left bare with only shadows to paint over them.

It was relatively cool with only a slight wind in the air to blow away a fallen fragile leaf every now and again.

Under the gaze of the expressionless *wooden sky, Nathan walked towards the unknown horizon.

There was nothing special about it or any good reason to go there but Nathan just felt that he had to see what was beyond the horizon of the asphalt road.

He had never been in that particular direction before, so who knows what he could possibly find? (besides me of course and maybe him, because this did take place in the past after all).

On his way down the poorly lit sidewalk Nathan came across some rather haunting trees. There appeared to be no other structures built near them, and the paved sidewalk had opened up into a sheer dirt pathway leading astray past the trees.

Their bare branches stuck out like wrinkled arms ready to snatch whatever dared to walk too close. The decomposing bark on the tree trunks created an illusion of a face by leaving behind impressions of eye like pictures on the trunk. The little leaves that managed to stay intact on the wrinkled arms presented themselves to be very fragile as they crumbled with even the slightest push from the breeze.

The trees had an aura about them.

It wasn't just the sense of them looking back at Nathan or the feeling that they might snatch him away. It was more of a mental uneasiness.

They had eerily reminded him of something...

It was from a dream that he once had.

Nathan couldn't tell from which dream or what they were doing in his dream, but they were *indelibly marked into his consciousness.

Nathan didn't want to believe that dreams had any sort of meaning.

For if they did, then he would of been falling off of a building a long time ago, he thought to himself

Peering closer behind the haunting trees, there seemed to be some sort of inception. It was too dark to tell, but it appeared to be an open field of flowering plants and smaller hills.

Nathan might have felt like a superhero, but there was no way that he was going to continue past the rotting trees and into the complete blackness of what he could not yet see.

Instead he carried on walking straight ahead and back onto the paved pathway.

There were many houses which he passed. They all looked the same. Just a square shaped double story house with a triangular roof top. None of them had any lights on besides the street lights, so it was very difficult to see more than that. While most of the houses looked the same, there was one house which had caught Nathan's attention.

It was still square and a double story house with a triangular rooftop, but if you looked hard enough, you could see just a bit of a red shimmer on the roof panels. And out of all of the houses which Nathan had passed thus far, this was the only house with a room light on in the top right hand side - room floor.

"I wonder who else could be awake at this hour...", Nathan thought to himself.

There was also a relatively large sign board which was hanging from a chain attached to the closed mailbox, just outside of the front black gate.

It was too dark to examine the sign from Nathan's current distance, so he got closer, stepping partially onto the cement driveway.

The sign board had a slight shine to it as the dull street light touched it's surface.

It appeared to be made of stained - light brown varnished wood. The wooden board was rather well kept, for something which was presumably left outside for the duration of it's lifespan.

There were words carved into its varnished surface. The carvings left a much darker wooden impression on the lighter - colored shiny wooden face.

The bold font on the wooden sign board read;

"Welcome

To

The Morvans".

Nathan thought for a moment...

That name sounded very familiar to him.

But he just couldn't wrap his mind around it. Where had he heard it before? It sounded like a stranger's name, and an even stranger name but why did he feel even stranger things?

All Nathan knew is that it was tied to a feeling of dread. It was something which annoyed him.

And that is when he remembered.

It was supposed to be his neighbors from down the road who were going to come over to his house for dinner on Friday.

Nathan could feel himself getting just slightly anxious and annoyed at the thought of having to eat at a table with complete strangers.

Feeling just a little irritated he continued down the last bit of road. He was finally going to see what was at the end of the horizon.

As he got closer he could make out four street lamps standing in a circular pattern around the end of the road.

"It must be a dead end.", thought Nathan.

And he was right. It was a dead end with four street lamps encircling it.

Though, it wasn't just any dead end, it also appeared to be the neighborhood's dumping site. There were many blue colored dumpsters and green recycle bins which encompassed the sidewalks in a circular formation. However, it wasn't all that hygienic.

There were also plenty of fallen trash cans and bin bags strewn across the area, including on the asphalt road.

While most of the fallen trash cans allowed closed bin bags to escape, some bin bags were torn open and dropped to their sides.

Watching their gaping mouths, one might say that, it was like they died in horror as they watched their litter escape into the streets.

The dumpsters combined with the open waste material created a foul stench. It smelled like sulfur mixed with used baby *C9H9N.

Nathan was slightly disappointed. He might never admit it, but somewhere in the back of his mind, he had hoped to find something more. He didn't know what "more" was or what he was hoping for, but he just wanted something.

"AAaaHHWOOOooo!"

A loud howling noise shot through the silence of the dark neighborhood.

Nathan froze in his thoughts.

The howl had dispersed in many different directions so it was difficult to tell the exact location of its origin. It could have been a distant cry from far away but it was simply too loud to be a howl from an animal in the woods. The howl had to have come from something which was right here.

"Ssshhh!!!", the sound of metal being dragged on tar could be heard in a stereo effect booming from all directions.

Nathan frantically looked in all possible directions as he tried to gain an orientation of the sounds.

The impasse in front of Nathan appeared to be clear of any danger.

That left him with only one more area to check.

But it meant turning around. And Nathan watched enough horror movies to know that you never want to turn around. It's like a trigger for killers to carry out their will.

"Ssshhh CLANG!", The metal sound was getting closer.

Nathan couldn't help but look.

A pointy eared creature emerged from over the horizon. It cast a large and muscular shadow over the asphalt road. It seemed to be walking on four legs with some sort of metal cape hanging from its back.

By the way it scampered over the horizon, you could tell that it was suffering.

Nathan couldn't tell if it was some sort of dog or a werewolf.

He felt a paralyzing feeling take over him. It was like his heart was digging through his chest cavity in an attempt to escape.

His every instinct told him to run, but he forced himself to wait.

Maybe he would get a closer look.

The creature was too tall to be a dog and too skinny to be any wolf, let alone a werewolf.

The creature got uncomfortably close and was now clearly visible under one of the dull lit street lamps.

Upon closer inspection

Nathan could see where the metal sounds were coming from. There was actually no metal cape at all as Nathan had thought he saw before. It was actually the creature's head that seemed to be stuck in a piece of fence or wire netting which only looked like a cape from a distance.

The creature did appear very dog-like with dark brown fur covering its face and a short fluffy tail following behind it. Yet it didn't look like any dog that Nathan had seen before.

It had pointy ears, scantly visible blue eyes, tiny paws, a fluffy face and tail, barely any hair on its body and a very thin and tall build. It was almost taller than Nathan's waist. One could describe it as a mixture of a Great Dane, a Husky and a poodle.

Hesitantly, Nathan got closer and reached out to the dog.

He didn't feel too afraid anymore.

The dog didn't flinch either.

It picked up its wet nose and sniffed Nathan's hand. Nathan took that as a safe sign to continue. He ran his hand though its thick soft fur on its head and felt where the fence was coming from. The wires appeared to be chewed on and stuck in some of the thick brown fur by its neck.

Nathan touched the wire just slightly and the dog pulled away while whining.

"Look I'm just trying to help buddy. I know it hurts but please stand still.", empathized Nathan.

The dog stood still again allowing Nathan to examine the wires intertwined within its brown fur.

"How do you even manage to do something like this?"

The dog looked bewildered and whimpered at Nathan.

"Okay okay, it's fine... This won't hurt.", Nathan reassured the confused animal.

Nathan was able to get his fingers between some of the knotted wires and loosen them, but the fence-like structure still wouldn't come off. He needed something to cut them.

"Wait here...", Nathan told the dog as he took off, violently *digging in one of the open trash cans for any instrument which could possibly assist him in removing the wire.

He found three most likely to work items.

These were :

1.) The top of a metal can.

2.) A piece of cardboard.

3.) A pair of scissors which was missing a handle.

First he tried to use the piece of cardboard by sliding a bit of it in between the wire and fur. His idea was to use it as sort of a make-shift lever, but failed because the cardboard was too flimsy.

Next he tried to use the metal top from a can. It's edges were sharp enough to cut his fingers but too smooth to create any sort of friction to cut into the wire.

That left him with only the broken pair of scissor blades. With that he was able to carefully cut away small bits of the dog's hair with his right hand while petting the dog with his left to keep it calm. It was difficult to cut with a scissors which had no handle with only one hand, so it was a really slow process for everyone involved.

Nathan had somehow managed to loosen the wire just enough to pull it off.

But it was obvious that he was going to have to use a little more force.

"Okay buddy, I appreciate your cooperation, but do you know what sticky bubble gum in your hair feels like?", asked Nathan

"Woof." barked the dog

"Me neither, me neither.", Nathan patted the dog on its head.

"Now this might hurt a little..."

The dog continued to stand still and watch intently with it's blue eyes as Nathan got ready to pull the wire off from its neck.

Nathan placed his fingers between the wire netting and tugged on it as gently as possible. The dog never winced even once.

"Okay just one pull.", Nathan mumbled to himself.

Without warning, he pulled the piece of wire netting completely out and over the dog's head.

The dog whined a bit before jumping on its long back legs and onto Nathan, licking his face with its long and pink tongue.

The dog didn't appear to have any collar on it.

Nathan happily petted the dog,

"I'm going to call you muffin mix."

___________

DEfiNitIoNS iN tHiS ChapTER:

*Asphalt - A mixture of aggregates, binder and filler, used for constructing and maintaining roads, parking areas, railway tracks, ports, airport runways, bicycle lanes, sidewalks and also play - and sport areas.

*Tributaries - A river or stream flowing into a larger river or lake.

*Indelibly - In a way that cannot be removed or forgotten.

*C9H9N - Skatole or 3-methylindole is the main organic compound found in the feces of mammals and birds. It is also the prime contributor to fecal odor.

___________

nOtEs :

THE WOODEN SKY

*The sky, of course, was never made out of actual wood (sorry for disappointing you) . It is just a description for how blank and expressionless it appeared to be on that night.

DIGGING THROUGH TRASH instead of going home for some more appropriate tools.

*Some might wonder why Nathan didn't just run back home for a pair of pliers or a proper scissors to free the dog. I don't know exactly how Nathan thinks, but I've been watching him long enough to know that he was probably worried about waking up his parents, or that the dog wouldn't follow or wait for him. There is also a chance that he was just caught up in the moment and forgot about that option entirely.