SCBryce.com - The Thing at the End of the Leash Fiction Excerpt

When the doorbell rang at 7:30 on a Saturday morning, I knew immediately
who it was. I cursed, fumbled into my frilly bathrobe, and stumbled to the door
where Tino sat, wiggling his entire backside in excitement. He gave a deep,
stifled bark and a little gurgle of impatience.

"Emily," I said, pushing Tino out of the way and opening the door.

There she stood, her pudgy arms struggling with boxes of magic tricks, a thin
black cape draped over her shoulder, and a novelty "invisible dog" leash
twitching as it dangled from her wrist, the end doubled-back on itself to form a
loop secured by a snap-hook. As always, Emily seemed overwhelmed.

"Back from the yard sales early, aren't you?" I asked, eyeing her treasures.
From the looks of them, they would be gifts for her nephew. As a sixth grader,
he was going through what his parents called "a phase" (and what I called an
obsession) with magic tricks. As a good aunt, Emily indulged him.

Tino sniffed the hovering loop at the end of the short leash. The lead jerked
madly, suddenly hissing and screaming. It yanked on Emily's wrist and with a
little "oh!," her yard sale finds spilled from her arms onto the sidewalk. The
boxes splattered cards and dice and plastic gadgets. Emily stumbled as she
fought with the leash, the magician's cape now covering half her face.
Howling, Tino dashed past me and back into the house.

I laughed. "I think your invisible dog is more like an invisible Tasmanian devil!"

Emily yanked the cape from her head. Her short brown hair was askew; static
from the cape pulled bits at odd angles so that she looked even more disheveled
than usual. She had both hands on the leash now and stared at it warily.

"Jeremy is going to absolutely love that!" I said, bending down to pick up the
spilled boxes.

"I don't think—" Emily began, but she was interrupted again by the leash.
The loop at the end lunged at my hand like an attacking dog. It screeched and
snarled, the nylon twisting and flipping in the air.

I winced at the noise. It was, after all 7:30 am and I'd just woken up. "Geez,
Emily, can't you turn that thing off?"

"No!" Emily practically screamed. "I can't! The thing is vicious—"

I cut her off mid-sentence, waving her emotions away with an authoritative
hand. "Where's the battery?"

We fumbled with the jumping leash, running our hands up and down the nylon.
But the leash fought back, and the three of us ended up in the grass wrestling. A
sedan slowed as it passed the house, Mr. Rodriguez gaping out the window at
the screaming novelty leash, the spilled magic boxes, and two women rolling in
the front yard.

"Let's go inside." I tried to smooth my bathrobe.

Panting, we pulled the hissing leash into the house. Emily snatched it from her
arm and threw the thing into the powder room near the front door. She yanked
the door shut with a bang. Leaning against the wall, she let out a sigh and
rubbed her reddening wrist. I heard Tino scramble out the dog door and into
the backyard.

"I tried to tell you," she breathed. "There's no battery."

I rubbed my face and walked to the kitchen. "Well that is a trick," I called out.

"You want some tea?" By the time I put the kettle on and returned to the foyer,
Emily had wedged a chair against the bathroom door and was sitting tensely on
it, her ear pressed against the paneled wood.

"Shhh," she whispered. "Maybe it'll settle down."

I frowned. "You mean it keeps going if even you're not holding it?"

"It's wild, I tell you! It hardly stops for a moment!"...

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