Charly

Hi, my name is Thomas, and I'm going to tell you how my brother Nicolas disappeared a few weeks ago. I'm 17 and I'm still at school, my brother was 19 and began college last year.

The story begins the day I found this little dog, a Rottweiler, in my village. He was young, but especially weak and thin. Certainly abandoned by some family. I adopted and took care of him. As time passed, the dog (I named Charly) showed more and more hate toward my brother Nicolas: always barking and growling at him. Charly even bit him one day. It was five years ago.

This summer, we would had been gone for two months, in Spain. We would have stayed longer, but Nicolas had to come back home earlier, because he had exams to take. Charly has been run over by a car, in front of our house, a week before we left. He didn't die on the hit, but days after at the Vet. I was devastated and I didn't want to go to Spain anymore. But I had no choice, and staying alone at home wouldn't have helped me.

Holidays were great, even if I was still sad for Charly. But one day, I think it was around the 18th of August, my father received a call. It was the police, telling that neighbours complained about the dog we left at home. They told the police that every night, he was crying and barking in our garden. Apparently they thought we left him attached in our garden. My father told them it wasn't our dog because he passed away more than a month ago. Nicolas said he would check it out, his flight was two days later. The day after Nicolas came back home, we asked him by phone if he heard something. He told us he didn't, and he began to speak about the weather, the new houses they are building in the village,... It was the last time we got news from him.

My parents were very worried, so they bought new tickets to come back home earlier. When we arrived, we saw that the door leading to the garden was wide open. Freaked out, thinking to some robbery which turned wrong, they called the police. I went upstairs, to my brother's room to find his laptop, which was on. The battery was almost dead so I plugged the laptop and I checked what my brother did on his computer. It was a .txt file he wrote, a kind of diary I'm going to paste here:

21 August : the neighbours were right, a dog has barked this night around 3 AM, it came from the bottom of the garden. Barking seemed familiar to me: was it Charly ? It's impossible. Dad is probably going to call me later, I'll tell him I heard nothing, no need to worry them with that.

23 August : nothing the previous night, but this night, the dog came back. I didn't look at the time, I went downstairs to look in the garden. As I turned the lights on, barking stopped. I know it is impossible, but I'm sure it was Charly: he barked so much to me, I can recognize him... I can't study anymore, I'm always thinking about Charly...

24 August : It happened again. This time, I checked my phone: 3:07 am. The barking stopped before I put a foot on the floor.

25 August : I saw that fucker! When I turned the lights on, I saw him in the middle of the garden! He was looking right into my eyes, with the same hate he used to have toward me. How is it possible? I love Stephen King's books, but this is real! Better close all doors and windows before the night ends.

26 August : I was too freaked out to move from my bed tonight. Charly seems to come closer and closer: he scratched the door as he was used to do. I checked this morning: scratches are deeper than the ones there were before. Creepy as fuck...

27 August : He entered in the house ! He didn't wake me up, but I found the door opened this morning. I'm not sure if I closed it before going to bed last night... I'll double check this evening and I'll close my bedroom's door.

28 August : It's 3:09 AM and some weird noise just woke me up, it was like dog steps I closed the door ! I'm sure of that, how did he enter ? He is still walking into the house... Fuck it, I take my baseball bat and I'll show this motherfucker who is the animal and who is the boss here! I'll leave my computer running with that file opened, so someone will find it if something happens to me. Oh God, please help me, I'm so freaked out