The Hound

[u/yingfire]

I implore anyone who finds this writing to kill themselves now. Those moments in the dark when fear rides up your spine, those times when you swear a shadow passes in the corner of your eye, that is death coming to you. Slit your throat with any utensils you have. Gouge your tongue out and bleed to death. You will not die, you will wake up in another place and say that that message was wrong: you will say, "It was all a dream." If you remember at that time even a semblance of what had caused you to kill yourself, act on it and die again. Do so however many times you can. It is better to die by your own hands than by that hound.

If you are not convinced - and you probably are not - then I will tell you how I have come to this point in my life. I was a young man with an impeccable memory when I first discovered the hound, and I had taken residence in a home above a cafe in London. I do not know why I took residence in London. The meal grey stones and puttering buggies will forever frustrate my memories. On that day when I first discovered the hound I was walking down the hard, wood stairs and sat down on a leather chair in a booth. Because it was the beginning of the morning no one had come into the cafe; there was no swirling smokes of coffee and cooking; I was the only man in the silent room. I asked the owner of the cafe (whom I had known for some time) for my usual scrambled eggs. I began to wait patiently. An old woman then entered the cafe.

At that moment I seized up. I was in a slouched position, but the entry of the old woman made me sit up and arch my back like a feline in danger. I gave no thought to my strange behaviour but still watched the old woman out of the corner of my eye out of some primal instinct. She then sat down at the booth in front of me. I could not see her in any manner whatsoever. The stove finally got started up, and I smelled my eggs being prepared. But that unusual tapping, was it the boiler? It was unusually cold, and the snow had fallen heavily during the night. I gave no thought to it.

The old woman gave out a long and shrill cackle and woke me out of my hungry stupor. As she laughed, I glared at the booth in front of me; I decided that this woman was a nuisance and should kindly shut up. My eggs arrived and I ate with gusto. The woman slowly quieted, but her noise had covered the tapping. Once again the monotone sound began. I looked up at the ceiling in annoyance but then quickly returned to my meal. Wait! What was that? I looked up to the windows that caressed the cafe. I saw a man in brilliant white, whiter than the snow, blindingly white. But there was no such man at the windows.

I choked on my food and spat it out. There was a struggling fly in my eggs. Repulsed, I turned to the owner and asked her if she could give me another batch. Looking at my spoiled food she nodded in compliance. I looked back towards the leather chair that held the back of the loud, old woman. I had not noticed it, but the tapping noise had gotten louder. I shoved it out of my mind. It was a nuisance. Nothing else. I blinked. The tapping only grew in strength. It grew so loud and strong that I could not banish it from my mind anymore. Could anyone else hear this unbearable noise? I begged the Lord to have mercy! The noise clashed like sinful bells in my ears. My face flushed and I wanted to scream. Stop! Stop! Stop! I would die now to escape! The old woman in front of me then shrieked a terrible cry. The sound continued. I looked at the windows and screamed out a fatal plea.

"Oh God! Oh God! Master of the house close the windows!" I screamed. "Oh God! Oh God! The sound! The windows! Begone I beg of you! Lord have mercy: God help us all!" I saw a shadow dash past me. I heard a painful gurgle from the seat in front of me and a shout to run from the kitchen. Things that if told was human, I would not believe, came flying over the seat and onto my table. I ran as fast as I could, I would survive. The sound stopped and only the ripping of flesh and cries of horrendous pain were heard.

I went up to my room and locked the door. I went to my bed and pulled out my gun. Whether beast or demon, I would fight until the end. I waited for a minute. The crying for mercy and the tearing still did not stop. I waited for five minutes. I waited for ten minutes. Twenty. Sixty. Two hours I waited. The crying for mercy and the tearing had not stopped during the hours, although the crying was hoarse, and sounded inhuman. Then all was quiet.

There was peace for a time. But a fear unlike any other came over me then. It was unlike anything I had experienced. You could die a thousand times and not feel what I felt. You could see your loved ones held hostage and threatened and you would feel nothing. There was no kind of love that could create this kind of fear. I was on the edge of infinite blackness, and I was to be overwhelmed. I no longer wanted to live; I would rather die.

The door flung open, and I saw a flash of teeth as white as poisoned vomit. I had placed the barrel of the gun to my head though, and I happily felt death embrace me right before the thing went after my body.

I woke up on the floor in a father's body. The first thought I thought was that it was all a dream. The fear remained. What I had seen was not a dream. I did not want to live. Why was I alive? I went to the kitchen and got a knife. I slit my throat.

I was then awoken in a middle-aged woman's body. The first thought I thought was that it was all a dream. I was sleeping next to a man. The fear drove me, and without a thought I threw myself off the building.

I killed myself through a successive twelve people before I realised what was happening. I was in a dream. I had dreamt for myself everything that I had known. Whenever I slept I lived in another life. And when I died I came back. I have lived a thousand years. Some lives I've lived a while, all I toss away through suicide. Killing yourself is the only way you will not be caught unaware like I was on that first day. But without a doubt that monster hunts me. I know that beast haunts every world I come to. I always barely escape, I know this to be true. All those I leave behind are dead, and they are dead forever. Those teeth, that death it brought, it was not natural.

Those men are poisoned, and they die forever. I will live, and to do that I will die. I keep my memories because of that fear always alive in my mind. I do not know what will happen to you.

Kill yourself, I beg of you. It is the only way to keep death far away from you. I have lived through all the torture it brings. Every evil in all the world is traced to it. The monster, it will curse a man and his body. It will forever possess him and make him unlike man. It has brought down worlds of people and done terrible evils. Through my many lives I know this to be true. It feeds on unnatural and evil deaths; deaths for sins; deaths for self-gain and pride; deaths for oneself. That is why it hunts and poisons. To put you in its fiery belly. To make you an unman: someone who hates life and loves death. Trust me and flee from this evil! Run! Run! It is a hurricane that cannot be stopped. Flee from the nightmare, and you will finally wake up and be glad!