The Breaking of Bones

   I have two 50 pound dogs. They were litter mates and have always been opposites in many ways, like brothers and sisters often are. My girl dog is the shy, timid one, laid back... until it storms, then she's really quite annoying. But I love her!  

Here she is hiding in the bathroom after hearing a little thunder rumble.

She loves car rides, swimming, and is a piggy who wants to eat everything (like me)! My boy dog is the one who tugs me along on his leash, does not go near the water unless it's on his own terms, and is a complete spaz when it comes to car rides. I've even tried taking him to the park in the car, which he loves-- the park, not the car. By doing this, I thought he'd start to enjoy car rides, but no change so far.
   Anyway, my girl dog, Rolie, the one who is afraid of everything but car rides, belly rubs and food, was outside in the backyard one night. I think it was about 1 am when I heard a faint barking. I recognized it to be hers, but it didn't sound like she was in the back yard. I walked out onto the screened porch and scoped the fenced in yard.
   I pooched my lips to one side, then mumbled a few curse words. Once again, she'd found a spot to get out through along the fence's bottom. I grabbed the flashlight and headed up the driveway where there were woods to my left and across the narrow road. I could hear her in the trees about 50 yards down the road, incessantly barking at something.
   Past my driveway, there were no other homes, and in the night, the tall pines, red maples, and aged oak trees cast a darkness over the road from both sides. I was never scared to go out there in the middle of the night, even though it could easily be the back drop of a teen horror campsite flick taking place on a secluded lake. There weren't many homes along the road and some of them were vacant vacation homes, so there weren't many people in the area. However, I'd seen a coyote before and I'd read that black bears live in North Carolina, but both of those don't usually bother people, or so I'd read.
   So, as I approached Rolie, I kept calling for her to come, but she ignored me as she kept barking. It was unusual for her as both of my dogs aren't really big on barking that much. They have a brief bark for when someone is at the door, and they have a bark for when there's a critter in the backyard. I can tell the difference between both. This bark was not one of those.
   There was something there which I think she must've perceived as a threat. At least, that's what I got from her tone. As I got close, she darted out of the woods and looked back to where she'd just come from, then ran back in to where I couldn't see her again.
   I shone the flashlight into the trees, but it didn't go very far as it happened to be getting weak. Am I setting the scene for something scary to happen? Yeah, I was getting a bad feeling in my stomach, too. That was when I heard a growl, a low rumbling and heavy growl that vibrated through my ears. I stopped breathing for a few seconds to listen and to completely still myself. The growl hadn't come from my dog. She was too busy barking.
   I cautiously backed away a few paces, still hearing the creature's amplified warning. It was a deep growl and just inside the woods across from where I stood. My imagination didn't have to do any work. It sounded... big. As I wondered what it might be, I heard a loud, thick break, then several more quick snaps. Maybe the surrounding woods somehow intensified the sound, but it didn't sound like a canine crunching on the bones of a carcass. It sounded like the breaking of bones, or possibly branches, but bones was what I heard. I don't know how I determined that they were being broken, but I remember that thought going through my head as I started to get really scared. I told myself it was probably a coyote because that was a lot less horrifying. And though I didn't like the possibility that my dog could get attacked if she was going to hang out and bark at it, I wasn't going to stick around anymore.
   I backed away a few more steps, keeping my eyes on the trees where the sound was coming from, then I turned and headed for the fence at the top of my driveway. Once I got close enough to feel like I could make a mad dash to the house in time should something come out of the woods to chase me, I called for Rolie a couple more times, and thankfully, she came running home.
   After I closed the door and locked it, I went back to that sound. I kept hearing it in my head and it creeped me out. This happened not too long after I'd first seen the face in the trees. As much as it had stood out, I'd told myself that my eyes and imagination had just been messing around with me. But the more I thought about what I'd just heard, the way it sounded as if the bones had been broken by hand and not by gnawing, I had to ask myself what it could've been. It occurred to me that maybe what I thought I hadn't really seen that night, I really did see.
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