Kevin Wade Johnson
Goblin Hound This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this work are fictitious, and any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. @2015 Kevin Wade Johnson I got to say my hands were shaking a little bit when I put the leash on ol' Jonesie. "You gotta help me," I told my grampa's dog, "'cause we gotta go looking for the goblin hound." Jonesie just grinned up at me the way she always did, a smiling happy hound the way she was, except when she caught scent of a raccoon or heaven help us a skunk, and went haring off after 'em, flying over the ground like some jet airplane or race car. I was scared, I'm not afraid to tell you. I was pretty sure I knew what the goblin hound looked like, from nightmares I'd had, where this huge dark thing all cloudy-looking, cloudy like the worst storm ever, all gray and black and gunmetal blue like the farm shotgun over the back door. Red eyes it'd have, not red like blood, but red like the big ol' sunset I saw on my birthday last year, when I turned ten, a sunset all glowing hot and burning and searing, but red too like the sun's last moments before it was gone, just gone. I wouldn't have thought this was any kind of job for a ten-year-old, but Gramma hadn't minced any words. "Only you can do it," she'd said. Grampa had said the same and more. So I'd gotten Jonesie and gone. Jonesie headed straight for the pump, of course, she loved her drinks of water fresh outta the ground, cold and clear with a hint of blue like the edge of winter. I pumped once and twice and three times and then the water came out into the trough, but the first water always tastes like or something, so I pumped a couple more times before I put her outside bowl down and let her at it. Maybe not the job for any ten-year-old, but now I knew what I'd always thought maybe was true, that I was special. Something about me was unlike anybody else, out of all the anybodies that could save us from the goblin hound. Maybe it was t
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