At some point in their lives, our pets are A-holes. Elliot’s pet is a monster. Enjoy this creepy paranormal short.

~ Fiona

Summer never made the best choices. Traveling to her friend's house this late at night had brought nothing but weirdness. The town was quiet and ghostly. She debated whether she had entered an alternate universe or was just exhausted. The point of the trip was to mourn the ending of her marriage with her best friend. Have someone tell her that it was for the best. Summer still loved Elliot to distraction, but he just couldn’t give her the space and independence she needed. His overprotectiveness had driven her to divorce.

Unfortunately, so had his hateful dog. The little mutt terrorized her in her dreams and had been the final nail in the coffin of their family tragedy. Small and fast, the animal had both vicious teeth and attitude. She rubbed the scar on the back of her leg from a childhood dog attack (at lease she thought it had been a dog). Summer looked through her daughter's toy binoculars she had found in the bottom of her oversized purse.

The tiny creature sat in the driver's seat of her recently abandoned SUV. The little hellion had chased her around the parking lot the minute she opened the door after coming back from her friend's unanswered apartment. The dog had hopped onto the leather seat once Summer’s feet were in the grass.

She’d had no one else to call besides the babysitter and the girl couldn’t drive, yet. Elliot's car rounded the empty parking lot and stopped two spaces away from her vehicle.

Summer’s palms heated and her heart pounded. She hadn’t seen him for a few weeks. He got out and she tensed. As sexy as ever. Damn, she knew it was superficial, but she loved his gorgeous body and what he could do with it. No. Erase that. Her feelings weren’t superficial. She loved everything about him. Now, she’d have to live the rest of her life without a partner. Her choice. Freedom was more important. Raising Luna to be independent was more important than having a protective he-man as a dad.

Elliot walked around the red vehicle and looked inside. He looked right at her and shrugged. His coming to her rescue was nice but irritating because Summer loved the knight act to her damsel. Although, she should've been able to rescue herself, especially, from a Chihuahua.

Summer stood and knocked loose grass from her knees. She took a wide path around her sport utility vehicle toward Elliot. He leaned against the door, crossed his arms over his impressive physique and tapped his foot. His gaze always blazed a flush of passion through her body. The man was like a sex god in the flesh, magic power included. A blush flared hot in Summer's cheeks.

Elliot smirked and winked. "Why did you really call me? You miss me, don’t you?" He wiggled his eyebrows.

Summer narrowed her eyes so as to not smile. Her ex-husband would think that she needed an excuse to see him. "No." She missed him desperately.

Elliot strode over to peer inside the open driver’s side door.

She stood behind him squinting through the SUV's tinted back windows. "He's in there."

"There's nothing inside.” He caught a strand of her hair as it fluttered over her mouth.

"He chased me all over the parking lot. Then guarded the damn door."

The smile on his face made her fingers itch to slap him. He laughed. "He’s a Chihuahua. A little, itty bitty dog."

Summer nodded. They’d had this conversation about one million times. "Will you take me home?" Because after this incident she didn’t want to be alone.

Elliot stalked around the machine and yanked open all the doors and the hatch. Summer waited for the small bundle of fun to leap out and get her. Nothing happened. She wanted to sink into the ground from embarrassment.

Elliot stopped in front of her and grasped her chin. "Of, course. I'll take you home. We'll leave my car. I can come back for it later." He caressed her cheek. “You should consider coming back to the house.”

Heat fanned from Summer’s midsection all the way to her sex. She placed her hand over his, but eventually pulled him away from her. “That’s a recipe for disaster.” Every time she visited him in their old house they ended up in bed. She couldn’t resist him. That’s what made the divorce so heart wrenching. She never wanted to leave him. Maybe the dog had been in her imagination. An excuse to see him alone while Luna was with a babysitter.

He studied her with his gaze. “You don’t know how much I miss you.” He walked around the vehicle.

She followed the same path he had around the SUV. Again. Nothing was inside. "I'm not crazy." She stopped and he ran into her. “Missing each other isn’t our problem.”

“I know.” He gestured to the passenger seat. "Get in."

She crawled onto the leather seat.

After Elliot jumped behind the wheel he gazed at her. His eyes flashed black for a second and she jerked back against the seat. The little Chihuahua, with the same black eyes, jumped to the console between them.

“Ahh!”

"Good boy." Elliot petted the thing’s head. He gazed at Summer with a forlorn expression. "Sorry for the scare. It was the only way I could get you alone. I'm taking you to my world now. Hopefully, you’ll listen to reason there. I should’ve had the talk with you a long time ago, but now I think you’ll only believe what you see.”

“Listen to reason? What in the hell are you talking about? Luna’s babysitter can only be out until midnight. I need to go home. To my apartment. And where did that a-hole dog come from?”

The Chihuahua looked like an evil creature shoved into a dog's body. He yipped then opened his mouth in a yawn. The extra sharp teeth flashed at her.

"He’s a sweetheart. You’ll see. Don't worry he won't bite, but I might." Elliot smiled.

For a moment Summer thought he had the same predator’s teeth. Yes. It had definitely been a bad decision to come here. “You trained him to terrorize me to get me in bed?”

“I’ll bite too, Mommy!”

Summer whirled to gaze into the backseat. Her daughter sat in her booster seat. “Elliot, how did she get back there? Everything was empty.”

He just smiled at her and started the vehicle. “It’s time you knew the truth.”