"Toxic Honey"

Abandoned house dark, rickety and leaning losing its' battle with gravity one degree at a time. Yard over run with junked cars in various stages of erosion, the chaos of weeds strangling everything. The high pale moon catches the hint of light from a chain attached to the porch railing trailing beneath the tendrils of knee-high grass. A guttural growl from the darkness raises my heart rate, raises its’ hackles, stifles my breath stopping me still. I watch the saliva dripping from its' bared teeth like toxic honey from the mangiest dog I have ever seen. A creak from the porch moves one eye from dog to the door. A child with flaxen hair matted and tangled, body like a wisp of air with eyes like the moon Io emerges from shadows like death. She floats down four rotted stairs sitting in the grass putting her hand on the head of the mutt, teeth still shining like razors, both staring at me. Our eyes lock as she leans to the dog’s face and whispers “shhhh.” Aleathia Drehmer 2007 Upcoming Publication in Mystery Island's "13 Knights of the Apocolypse" Print Anthology