The Alpha's Dungeon

Chapter 9

"Here you go, Mrs. Carlence. Gerald was good today and he enjoyed walking a lot. We went to the woods." I said, handing the old woman her dog back.

Mrs. Carlence was the neighbor next-door. She was old and she owned a beautiful husky. I usually took him to walks around the area, couple times a week, whenever Mrs. Carlence felt tired or sleepy, in return, I got a few bucks and a peace of mind.

"Thank you, Marissa." She replied, taking her dog inside her house. "Do you want to come in?"

"No, not today, I've a few things to do."

I intended to complete a couple things tonight but I knew the second I hit bed, I'd pass out. The entire day, I stayed away from my bed, too afraid to push myself into another awful nightmare from hell.

Mrs. Carlence peeked out of the door and into my house. "Felica is having night shifts again?"

"Yeah,"

"If you ever feel alone, you can always come and sleep here, I won't question." She placed her comforting hand over my shoulder and I nodded in return.

I had crashed at her house most of my childhood—or whenever Dad showed up and tried to fuck up our lives. Those days were terrible and they left a dark memory in my soul.

I shared a smile with Mrs. Carlence and just right she was about to the close the door, I stopped her.

"Oh, no!" I gasped.

"What?" She spun around and glared at her dog. "What happened?"

"Fu—shi—his collar is gone, it must've dropped somewhere on the way." I didn't really realize my mistake until I glanced at Gerald who had been barking around without a collar.

"Oh, that's bad. Do you know where it could've dropped?" Mrs. Carlence wasn't angry, instead, she spoke calmly with me.

"Maybe. I'll check out the woods—" My mind flashed to the trail I took. It was closeby, I could go there right now and find it before it got too late.

"Not right now, darling, it's eight o'clock." She argued.

I took a deep breath and backed away from the porch. "No, no, it's fine. I'll just check and be back!" I hurried out of the house and went on the same path I took with Gerald.

Pfft. It wasn't late for me at all—just eight. The collar Gerald had was precious, it had ashes of Mrs. Carlence's dead husband hanging from it and the last thing I wanted to do was loose it.

She'd hate me for the rest of her couple years.

Ugh.

I torched my phone light to the pavement as I walked by it. There were puddles of water collected around the area it had just rained but no glimpse of the collar.

Come on.

I clasped my phone tighter in my hand and went further, this time, into the woods nearby. The woods weren't long, just a couple miles but the darkness was troubling for me. I couldn't see well.

"Looking for this?" A voice erupted in the silence.

I gasped and looked up to see who it belonged to. I spun around in circles, trying to find the source of the voice but there was no one. My whole body went stiff and taut.

"Who's there?" I took a careful step forward while my other hand wrapped around the umbrella I held in my beg. The clouds weren't showering anymore but the edge of the umbrella could be helpful in smacking someone's head off.