Initially written during a writing sprint in a Writer’s Pen meeting

Katie & The Night of the Unseen Forces

by Rosemary Gooding

Katie had been acting very strange all day. I had taken her for her usual walk but she kept stopping and I had to yank the lead to make her walk on. We ended up coming home much too soon. She sat on the sofa with her head down and I wondered if she was ailing. When I went to bed she became restless and would not stay in her basket so I reluctantly took her upstairs and let her sleep on my bed. I am OK about that as she does it quite often and I enjoy the company.

However, in the wee small hours I awoke and there was Katie with paws on the window sill, touching my iPhone and making it switch on and off. I could not believe it. I guess she had watched me come in at night and put the light on in the dark. Katie was not fazed by my awakening, she kept pressing the iPhone on and off, on and off, on and off. I crawled out of bed not knowing if I was in a dream or not. The curtains were half drawn and I could see another light intermittently going on and off in the distance. What on earth was going on? It seemed like messages were being sent. I tried to reach for my iPhone but Katie growled fiercely and even bared her teeth. I had never seen this side of her. I tried to stroke her and say come on and let’s go downstairs for some biscuits. She could not be persuaded and her paw was firmly on the iPhone and she would not let go. I was frantic, the dog seemed possessed, nothing like this had happened before. The flashing lights kept going, Katie was growling and her tail was wagging. As soon as I tried to reach for the iPhone she snarled. I was totally on my own. The bedroom was cold, it all felt weird. I had heard that the house was possessed and that strange happenings had occurred before I had moved in.
I decided to leave Katie to her own devices and put my coat on and go outside, even in the dark. I knew there was a bucket of rain water by the shed and I had been told it was an antidote to strange happenings. I brought the bucket into the house and grabbed my iPhone and plunged it into the bucket. It went dead Katie stopped growling and curled up on the bed and went to sleep.

I shall never forget that night, I shall never be able to explain this to friends and family. Anyway, how can I because my iPhone is not working; it’s completely soaked.

February 2024