Chapter 1

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“I’m going to kill him!” I screamed as my eyes flew open. The guys, a name which I had given our four-legged family members Oz and Annie, raced out of our bedroom as their earsplitting bark echoed throughout the house. I cursed the day Marti’s damn brother, Chris, moved to the valley. The man knew no boundaries. I glanced over at the clock as my feet hit the floor. “Two A.M.” I muttered under my breath so as not to wake up the love of my life. He had no common decency or respect for our privacy and if he didn’t take his finger off the doorbell soon, I’d happily break it. With each step, the madder and madder I got. He was about to get a mouthful of Wes. But when I flung the door open and shouted, “What the hell is wrong with you…” My voice trailed off. Instead of Chris with his finger frozen on the doorbell there stood a frightened, frail 

Carrie, our next-door neighbor in her late sixties. Her small frail old body was shaking violently, and she looked as if she had seen a ghost. The panicked expression on her pale face meant something had frightened her. We had been close friends since the first day I moved in next door, and I had never ever seen her in such a state. Usually, she was a spunky little old lady in her late sixties filled with lots of energy, but not tonight.

“Wes, Wes, Wes,” she stuttered as I helped her inside. After taking a couple of deep breaths to regain some sort of composure. “Wes, there’s someone in my house.”