Maya squinted through the glass, puzzled. The dog wasn’t moving around—just standing at an odd angle near the fence, its body turned halfway, barking nonstop. It looked like it was trying to move but couldn’t. Something about the way it strained its neck made her feel uneasy.
She stepped away and shuffled quickly to the hallway, opened the drawer, and pulled out her glasses. Back at the window, she slipped them on and looked again. That’s when she saw it—some sort of vest on the dog’s back, and a harness snagged tight against the fence.
Her heartbeat jumped. The dog was trapped. It twisted and barked, trying to pull away, but the strap held firm. Maya glanced up at the sky—dark and heavy, the trees thrashing now. It didn’t have long out there before the storm came raining down.
She hurried to the kitchen to grab her phone, nearly knocking over a bowl of oranges in the process. Just as her fingers curled around the phone, the lights snapped off with a soft pop. The sudden darkness made her freeze in place. “Ah, crap,” she muttered under her breath.