That was the absolute change I needed to put my troublesome past behind me once for all, my exact thoughts upon arriving in town. From living in a log cabin near a forest to moving in a house in the big city, the change in scenery was drastic.

Fortunately, I had moved with my dog Mace, a weimaraner I used to hunt with. Just like where I was staying previously, I chose to let Mace experience total freedom and explore the new environment as he would always return home.

Last year during one night, around 1am, I saw Mace bark at something in the street. I could not see who or what it was but I assumed it might have been a cat hiding behind the fence. The moment I was about to call him, Mace jumped over the fence and gave chase to the invisible intruder, but I remained calm and confident.

I found him the next morning, sleeping in the yard but covered in blood. I panicked at first, thinking he was hurt but it was not his blood at all and I feared for the worst, hoping that he really just attacked a fellow animal. He looked so tired that day and did not bark once.

After not seeing any alert concerning an animal attack or not having cops knocking on my door, the paranoia began to wear off but immediately rose to superior heights, when I noticed that Mace had vanished around 2am. He was out again. I spent hours waiting for him in complete panic mode and saw him come back around 4:30 am all clean except for wet and dirty legs. I sighed in relief and went to sleep.

The next morning, I woke up to Mace standing next to my bed and just staring, as he seemed to have watched me sleep. That cycle had then repeated itself for the next two weeks. I had started locking the doors and the windows to keep him in but to no avail. He would suddenly disappear at night for hours and mysteriously be back with dirty legs, before staring at me for hours whether I was sleeping or not.

What really terrified me up to that point was his behavior; no tail wagging, no barking, and his mouth always closed as well as an increased intelligence I could not comprehend. I started finding him hiding in strange places, such as inside very high and closed cupboards in the kitchen I know he could not climb or jump to.

One night, Mace raised the bar so high that I could no longer allow all that to keep going. He mysteriously disappeared again a few minutes after midnight as soon as I lost sight of him for like 5 seconds. He then mysteriously returned at 4am, emerging from under the kitchen table. I switched the light on to clearly see what state he was in but I fell backwards in fear when I saw what he had in his mouth. It was a human hand.

As if he realized that his game was up, he terrified me further by storming to a window and breaking the glass to escape. Even in movies, I never saw any animal perform that stunt. I did not sleep that night and waited for him until 7am. Mace came back without the hand which I assumed he ate and I yelled at him, asking him to tell me what he did last night as if he could just answer me like a human being.

He was only staring at me shouting, which angered me further as of course he could not realize the evil he possibly committed and its dire consequences for the both of us. I removed my belt to teach him a lesson, completely out of my mind, but as soon as he saw it, Mace lunged at me and I realize the power that he had. He held me on the ground, no barking, no growling, he just poured his new lifeless and emotionless eyes into mine, ensuring his dominance over me before he just released me. He then walked to a corner of the room, turned to me and stared. At that moment, I had decided to get to the bottom of the situation.

When the night set in, I went to hide somewhere near my house, hoping to not be seen by anyone. It was 12:47 am and I was waiting for Mace to come out. He did, at 1:58 am through the window he broke the day before, and in front of which I know I had placed a heavy furniture. For about one hour and a half, I followed him, covered with a special mixture to cover my scent.

It started to remind me of the thrill of hunting as old reflexes resurfaced despite the scenery changing from trees to buildings. Mace reached a deserted place and disappeared in some kind of hole. I ran to investigate and saw that it was not a hole, but one of those big sewer entrance with a gate. Using my phone flashlight, I followed, hit all along the way by the recognizable and unbearable smell of rotting flesh, until some painful memories from my past started to resurface.

All of it vanished suddenly when I saw a twinkling red light and heard several animals or people masticating. I regretted not bringing any weapon when I saw the horrifying spectacle before me: the glowing red light came from occult looking symbols drawn on the walls and on what seemed to be an altar with a dead human body on it. Mace, along with several other animals and two persons were busy devouring the body.

Before I could even react to such horror, Mace turned as if he had noticed me, his eyes glowing in red. I ran for my life, not pursued at first, falling in the dirty water and getting back up on many occasions until I exited the sewers. I then looked behind me in the darkness and spotted two glowing red eyes approaching at tremendous speed. Mace was giving chase.

Determined to save my life, I ran as fast as I could, reached a road, and crossed it bearing in mind that I would be better off being hit by a truck than to be devoured by my own dog. Mace attempted the crossing and a car ran him over. The car stopped for a few seconds, then sped off, taking advantage of the late hour to run the red lights.

I approached my dog, not knowing what to think and what to do. He was shaking, with a frequency that left no doubt in my mind when the monstrous sounds came out of his mouth at the same pace. He was laughing, or maybe something evil through him laughed at me until his glowing red eyes returned to normal and he expired.

Nobody ever believed what you just read, including the police. Nobody ever went to check what was going on in those sewers, or if some people did, they never lived to tell the story.

Due to many bad experiences and memories, this time, I moved to another continent this year, hoping to live a normal life and finally forget about my past entirely.