The Licked Hand

[MereMortals]

An old woman used to lived on her own in a isolated area of the countryside. Her husband had died several years ago, her only companion was her faithful dog, Toby. She went to bed the same way as always, her dog already asleep at the end of the bed. He was an old dog.

She woke with a start. Toby had been licking her hand again, she hated when he did that. There was a dripping sound coming from downstairs, “I must have left the tap on in the kitchen”, she thought. She went downstairs to turn it off then went back to bed.

She was woken up again by Toby, breathing heavily and licking her hand. There was a dripping sound again. She got back out of bed to check the bathroom sink. The taps were all off. As she was walking back towards her room, still feeling groggy from being woken up twice in one night, she noticed the light was still on in the spare room.

To her horror she found Toby hung upside down from the ceiling, blood slowly dripping from his throat. On the mirror next to her, written in blood were the words, “Humans can lick too”.