Always Return {One-Shot}

Always Return

I remember when the phone call came in that night. No one spoke a word that snowy December. Everyone, myself included, was in shock. We all couldn't believe what we were hearing come through the telephone line. She was in the hospital, she was hurt, and she was dying.

I couldn't do anything that day but lay in the kitchen floor, staring with empty eyes at the food dish at my paws. I felt empty inside. She was my life. She was my joy. Yet there I was, about to lose her. I was about to lose my best friend.

I remember the night she brought me home. I was only a puppy then, scratching at the store window in hopes that someone came to get me. Weeks I waited, crowded in a pen with ten other puppies my size. They were all more social than I was, playing around with the other dogs or playing with the people. I was never really good with people, but she was different. With one glance, I could tell she was. She didn't gawk at the playing puppies like the other kids did. Instead, she watched me with a soft smile. She didn't care about the other dogs, who leaped and played amongst themselves. She cared only about me, and me only. She took me home that day, and we were inseparable ever since.

Until that night...

They were saying something about the park bridge, but that's just crazy. She would have never gone to the park without me. She never would. Yet she did, and ended up on the verge of death, in a hospital I wasn't allowed to enter.

I didn't know what to do. She was all alone, and all I could do was lay there like a mess. And that was just what I did.

*le break*

It had been five months since the accident, and she still hadn't come home. I knew what had happened when her mom came home in tears. I felt my heart shatter in my chest. She couldn't be dead, right? She just couldn't be! But she was, and the last time I saw her was with a knife in her hand, crimson blood running down her arm. I didn't understand what she was doing at the time, but I was no less eager to be by her side while she cried that night. I was always there for her. I didn't understand why she couldn't return the favour. But it didn't matter. She used to tell me she would always return, but I had no hope of that now...

*le break*

The funeral was horrible. I was trying so hard that day to keep my mouth shut, to keep the whimpers of pain to myself. The open casket sat in the front of the room, and in it was her. She looked beautiful, all dressed up. Heavy makeup had been applied to her face in an attempt to make her look more alive, but we all knew better.

I had been allowed to attend the funeral, very reluctantly by the owner of the building. But he understood. My paws felt like lead as I walked forward with her mom. She just looked so... normal. She was no longer the broken down girl who faked a smile for everyone.

Everyone but me...

When I got up to the front, I jumped up and rested my front paws on her casket. Her mom made no move to swat them off. My muzzle rested on the rim, my nose mere inches from her cold, stale-scented hand. I couldn't take it anymore! I just couldn't!

Without warning, I leaped up with powerful hind legs, clearing the rim of the casket. I could hear the gasps of the people from were I laid, curled up beside my master. But I didn't care. I had her again.

As quietly and delicately as I could, I shifted my position beside my master, now laying like I used to five months ago. I nuzzled my head into the crook of her neck, a habit I always did when she was upset.

But it wasn't her upset this time...

The people who passed by gave me a pat on my head. But I didn't care then. I didn't even stir.

It occurred to me that this would be the last time I would ever see her. I would never get to go to the park with her again. I would never get to lay down with her again. Most importantly, I wouldn't see her in pain, and that was the reason I was willing to let her go. But I always remembered our promise. We would always return to each other.

Two months later, that's exactly what I did...