Starting Over

He smiled. “It’s in Griffith Park. You need to go check into the claims.”

I groaned, “There’s no one who can go out there who’s already on patrol?”

He shook his head, “It’s a very busy night.”

It was true. Calls had been coming in like crazy and everyone on patrol was looking into something, somewhere. We couldn’t afford to lose funding. Not now.

So I drove out to the park. It wasn’t very far, but it definitely was out of my way.

I was almost to the observatory turn off when I saw it. Off the road was a spot where the vegetation sunk in, creating a void. It was a sign of disturbance, that’s probably where I’d find the poor kid. I hoped, even prayed that the kid was going to be huddled up in a ball, crying because it’s lost.

In the pit of my stomach, I knew it wasn’t going to be good news. I didn’t want to continue on, but it was my job.

When I got there, I was sickened.

It was a child alright. His poor body was battered and beaten like nothing I’ve ever seen before. There was blood all over the place. You couldn’t get within 20 feet of the body without contaminating the evidence. I knew I couldn’t get any closer.

There were lacerations all over the kid’s arms. It looked like the kid had been attacked by a wild animal.

I didn’t need to check for a pulse. His throat being torn out was a very good indication that this child wasn’t alive anymore.

I called it in and waited for backup. I felt my paperwork double now. I’d have to wait here until everything was released and the CSI’s and ME were content because I was first on scene.

I searched around the area in case someone was waiting out there. The lights on a cop car travel very far.

I heard a growling that could easily belong to a dog. The report did mention that the child could have a dog. There could be evidence in its teeth since dogs are very loyal companions. Plus, we didn’t have very many wild animals out here.

Maybe this dog had tried to fend off the boy’s attacker.

I got out of the cruiser and whistled. All dogs tend to come to whistles. I used my flashlight to search the area. I couldn’t see a dog, anywhere.

I didn’t even see any paw prints in the dirt.

Then I heard it again on the opposite side of the body. I looked over with the flashlight again, but could only see the reflective eyes.

“Come here boy.” I whistled again.

This dog really didn’t trust anyone else but this kid. The dog growled at me again.

He obviously thought I was a threat to the kid. This was a good way to get bitten. So I un-holstered my gun and turned the safety off. I wasn’t going to get rabies because of some crazy dog.

I tried luring the body out with whistles and kind words, but nothing. The dog retreated again.

“Great job Alexia.” I muttered to myself. “Can’t even get a damn dog to come to you, how are you ever going to get a guy?”

I hadn’t had a boyfriend in a long time. The last one I had was my partner. But a year ago our relationship became everyone’s news. Internal Affairs decided that we couldn’t be partners anymore because it affected our job.

So once he got transferred to another city 12 hours driving away, he decided that we shouldn’t be together anymore. A long distance relationship wasn’t going to work.

Too bad he called me when my plane had just landed. I was going to surprise him, but that turned around and bit my ass. While I was there, I played detective. I found out that he’d knocked some girl up his first week at his new job. She often visited him at work, bringing him lunch and cookies for the department.

Go figure that the man I thought I loved turned into a complete jackass.

Another growl, closer this time, brought me back.

I whipped my gun and flashlight over to see the hugest freaking dog I had ever seen. It had the markings of a Husky and the size of a Great Dane. It was baring its teeth at me and was ready to attack. I couldn’t help but think the bullets weren’t going to do much good against this gigantic dog.

When it lunged at me, I shot at it and I jumped out of its way. It barely missed me, but that probably had something to go with the bullets slowing it down.

It landed then turned quickly and leapt again. This dog was extremely agile and incredibly fast. I never thought something so big could be so fast. The dog saw me as a threat to this kid.

I emptied my gun into the dog and it kept coming. I knew I needed to get to my car, where I could shut the door and wait it out. There was no way this dog was going to figure out how to open a door. Plus I had a couple shot guns in the center console.

When I was out of bullets, the dog turned into a wild animal. It was like it knew that I was shit out of luck. I leapt, knocking me to the ground, pinning me there. I felt its sharp claws digging into my skin.

I reached for my ankle strap. I had my backup strapped there.

I pointed the .38 Revolver right at its tender belly and shot twice. It would hit the important stuff.

The dog jumped right off of me and quickly got away from me. It didn’t want to take another hit like that.

But oddly, the dog didn’t go far. I had 4 shots left. I needed to make sure this dog was dead.

When it got close, I’d shoot. I hit the damn dog with every bullet in the gun. When I was out of ammo, I knew I was out of luck.

When it came down to bite me, I put my arms out in front of me defensively. The dog bit into me, I felt my bones shatter when it shook its head violently with my arms still in its mouth.

When the dog circled me, I had a chilling thought. Maybe that child had been running from this dog in terror. Maybe this dog had hunted down and killed that child and was planning on doing the same to me.

Was this animal protecting its kill?

Was this dog even a freaking dog?

Did I see delight in the animal’s eyes as it circled me?

The animal would nip at me, breaking skin before dashing away from me. It was playing with me like a cat plays with a mouse. The poor thing knew it was going to die, but still held on to the hope that maybe it was going to escape.

The animal bit into my leg when I kicked at it. When I tried to pull away, it bit into my leg more, anchoring me there. If this animal was going to try to kill me, I wasn’t going to make it easy.

The animal bit into my thigh and ripped out flesh. It didn’t toss away the chunk of meat. It swallowed the chunk of my thigh whole.

I felt bile rise in my throat. This thing attacking me was planning on eating me when it was done playing with me first.

I would’ve preferred that the animal broke my bones. Now I was going to bleed out.

My eyes grew heavier. I was losing too much blood. He probably ripped out an artery when he tore flesh from bone. The animal stood over me like it was proud of its kill, like it knew it had killed me; it just had to wait for me to give up.

I was conscious enough saw the animal lean down, probably planning on ripping out my throat. But then shots rang out. It sounded like thousands of shots.

I was delirious. This must be what it’s like when you know you’re going to die. You start seeing and hearing things.

My delusion was a rescue. I saw hundreds of cruisers and lights here to save the day.

Then I passed out.