NERO
by Dino Lorenzo
There wasn't a better dog to ever walk the earth than Nero, or a bigger one. He stood damn near to my elbow, and if he raised up on his back legs, he was taller than I am. I weigh near to two hundred pounds and I ain't at all sure that he didn't weigh half as much as me. He ate more than me, that's for sure.
Nero used to belong to Mr. Turley, this rich dude from the east side of town. Sometimes he would come over to the poor areas to play cards with us common people. I guess with a dog like that with him, he figured he was as safe as he could be even in the roughest neighborhoods. One day, we was taking him pretty good and he ran out of money right in the middle of a hand. I was the only one still in when he said he would put up Nero to balance the rest of the pot. I didn't know how much a dog like that was worth, but I figured he must have had a hand and a half to be risking him like that. I was just gonna fold when I looked over at Nero. He was looking at Turley's cards and I swear to you that dog was sneering. So, I stayed in and it turned out that Turley was bluffing the whole time.
I don't even know what kind of dog he was; we sure didn't have no dogs like that where I grew up. Turley told me once but I never could say it right. All I knew was that he was big, he was white and I was glad he was on my side.
Anyway, I never had a problem feeding a dog that ate more than most grown men. Seeing as how I didn't have a job at that time, I couldn't exactly afford to buy dog chow or anything like that; but the thing was, the place I was living in wasn't exactly the high rent part of town, and it sure didn't hurt for people to know that the biggest dog in the world was living in the same building they was. So, everyone who lived there would save scraps and bring them down for Nero to eat. Sometimes after dinner, he would go out and sit on the front step, and he would look just like one of them statues like they have on the building fronts over on the east side. He had this way of sitting there that made you feel he thought he owned the whole building, and when I thought about it, I wasn't so sure he wasn't right. I didn't think Nero was ever afraid of nothing, and I always felt like nothing could hurt me when he was sitting there.
There was this one time when we was on our way home and we took a shortcut through this alley. Behind the alley's buildings was the Sluice-way, an artificial channel that was made to steer excess water into the river. As we were walking past it, these three big guys jumped out and started waving knives in my face. Nero started growling way down in his throat, and I mean it made your teeth hurt just to hear it. His ears were all laid back and he was standing in the shadows with his teeth showing around his mouth, and it looked like his eyes were glowing all by themselves. I remember thinking that if I ever saw anything like that and it was growling at me, I would just die of fright right then and there. Them guys just started backing off real slow, and all of a sudden they took off running. I never seen anyone run faster than them three guys did that night. Anyway, it always seemed like Nero never knew what it was to be scared, and that's what makes what I'm gonna tell you so hard to figure.
It all started when was on our way back from the market. Old Mrs. Cameron, she lived right above us, had given us some money for groceries. She was an elderly widow and couldn't get around much anymore, so she would buy us some groceries if we would pick up hers. We was just coming around a corner when all of a sudden, Nero stopped. He was crouched down low and all his hair was standing up. It was like he was growling and whining at the same time. He started backing up real slow and growling louder and louder. Now, I could see down the whole street and there wasn't nothing I could see to be afraid of. Far as I could tell, the place was empty.
I started to walk past Nero, but he just growled louder and got in front of me. He was really acting scared and since I had never seen him like that before, I started to get scared, too. I figured if anything could make Nero look like that, I didn't want to be in the same place with it whether I could see it or not. So, we backed off and went the long way around. All the way home, Nero kept looking like he was ashamed of himself, but he never stopped looking all around and his body never did relax until we were back in out little room with the door locked.
It wasn't until the next afternoon that I heard about the guy they found cut up all over the sidewalk. When Bob told me where they had found him, I felt cold all over. They found him right in the middle of the street that Nero wouldn't let me walk down.
Whoever he had been, the guy sure wasn't the last victim of the "Mangler", as the press guys took to calling him. Four men and three women were found butchered in the next month and the cops never did come up with any leads. I didn't tell them about what happened to me, 'cause I really didn't need to be seen down at the statioon in those days. Not that I did anything bad, you understand, but just 'cause I hung around with people that wouldn't think much of me if I associated with police types.
Our town wasn't that large of a place, and this was, for sure, the biggest thing that had ever happened here and our police department really wasn't big enough to handle it. So, before the first couple of bodies had become old news, the whole place was crawling with feds. All of the killings seemed to take place on our side of town, which most people figured was 'cause of what they called the "poorer element".
On the night of the next killing, Nero and I were asleep in our first floor apartment when I was woke up by the sound of him growling. He was facing the window which opened out to the street, and as he started sounding more scared, I don't have to tell you that I was too frightened to move. Nero just stood there, backed all the way against the wall across from the window, growling as if there was something out there. I still couldn't move as I watched his eyes follow something passing in front of the window from right to left.
When I thought that whatever it was had past by, I forced myself to get up and look out the window. Nero was still scared and wouldn't come any closer to the window, but when I looked out, I couldn't see anybody anywhere.
I figured I wouldn't get anymore sleep that night, but it wasn't more than an hour before I did. Suddenly, Nero started that whining growl again and I sat up. This time, he was looking at the other side of the room - at the side with the door. I was so scared that I almost couldn't breathe... and then the doorknob slowly started to turn.
Nero almost went crazy when the door started to open and sprung, flying across the room and slamming the door shut. Whatever was on the other side of that door tried to force it open, but Nero was strong and scared stiff. I was wide-eyed with fear as I watched him trying with all his might to keep that door shut. Just when I thought he was going to give in, the door slammed the rest of the way shut. Nero didn't stop though, he was sticking to that door and there wasn't nothing that was gonna get him away from it. He stayed that way all night, even when we heard the screams from upstairs and on to the morning when the cops came. It took me nearly twenty minutes to get him to let the police guys in when they came to the door. Finally he slumped, let out this big sigh and went over to his spot and laid down. Wasn't no time at all until he was sleeping like a big dog will, sounder than anything.
Well, them cops weren't too taken with my story, especially the part about the killer almost forcing the door open past my, like they said, humungous dog. They kept trying to find some connection between the other stiffs and Mrs. Cameron, who wasn't going to be buying us anymore groceries. They weren't letting anyone in her room upstairs, but from the smell, I didn't think I much wanted to go in there anyway.
They took us all downtown for questioning, and that's the only time I recall Nero acting like he was glad to be away from that building. The feds were real nasty to me, like they thought I was hiding something. I guess the way things turned out, they kinda did.
After they let us out of the station house, we went over to Bob's for a couple of beers. Bob let me buy my beer on tab, and I always took whatever money I happened on into him - the part that was left after my landlord took my rent anyway. I was kinda like famous at Bob's that night, having lived just below the latest victim and being there at the time and all. Guys kept buying me beers and wanting to hear my story, and one of them even bought Nero a beer. This other guy said he would give me five hundred bucks for Nero, but I wouldn't have sold him for a million dollars. that dog saved my life more than once, and I figured I owed him whatever I could do for him as long as he lived. Anyway, we kinda forgot the time, and it was near to two in the morning when Bob told us we had to go home 'cause he was fixing to close up for the night.
Even with my dog with me, I didn't feel too safe that night, so we stayed on the streets that had the most lights. We was halfway home when Nero started to shy away from the side of the building we was passing. Since he wasn't growling, I figured it was probably safe to take the shortcut through the alley, past the Sluice-way and we'd be home in minutes. I had only gone a little ways in when I smelled the stink. It was almost as bad as the one from Mrs. Cameron's room.
I was about ready to turn and run when I saw the legs of a young woman sticking out from behind a trash can. I ran over to see if she was still alive, and when I saw the rest of her it was easy to tell that there wasn't nobody that could have helped her. The smell was so bad I was almost sick. I ran past the Sluice-way and down the alley towards home so I could call the police, but I was only about halfway there when I ran into Nero. He was backing up, growling real loud and looking more scared than I ever saw him before. He was staring at something coming down the alley towards us, but I couldn't see nothing nowhere. I backed up with him until I almost slipped, and when I looked down I saw I was standing in the poor girl's blood. My heart was beating so fast I felt like it was shaking my whole body.
Then, Nero jumped into the air right in front of us, in full attack mode. While I backed up against the wall, he was thrown against the back of the building, almost ten feet away. His whine while he slid down that wall was the worst sound I had ever heard in my life. Somehow, he got back up and sprang back into the center of the alley. His head snapped to the side and big gashes, three of them, opened up all by themselves on his neck. Blood ran down the side of his head and stained his white coat. He went down in a heap. I stood there, frozen, as more cuts appeared in the side of his body.
I had to do something, anything. I owed him my life, and I just couldn't let him die like that. I felt something under my foot and when I looked down, it was a knife. I guess the girl had tried to defend herself while she still could. I grabbed the knife and started running toward my dog. A box on the ground between us was swept away like in a high wind, but there wasn't even a breeze. I held the knife in front of me, but I still couldn't see anything to stab. The first thing I felt was a blow to my side; I felt my skin rip apart and I wondered what it would feel like to die. Then, something hard struck the bottom of my chin and I flew backwards against the building. I lay there and waited - there wasn't anything else I could do.
I was about to close my eyes when I saw Nero. I'll never know how, but he had gotten up again and was attacking the air about three feet in front of me. What happened next was probably the most awesome fight for survival there ever was. Lots of times, he fell down, but he just get getting back up and tearing at whatever it was, blood - that wasn't his - beginning to stain his snout. Nero was biting and snarling and gaining ground, backing whatever it was toward the Sluice-way. For a second, I thought I could see something. It was big. Really big. It looked like it was made out of all claws and teeth. The whole area seemed to be red, then I figured it was my blood running down into my eyes. Nero sprang one final time and caught the thing in it's neck, savagely ripping out it's throat. The creature grabbed at it's fresh wound and teetered on the edge of the Sluice-way... and then, it fell and was gone.
Nero lay still for what seemed like forever, then looked over at me. He dragged himself over to me on the three legs he could still use and licked my face. I hugged him to me as he slumped to the ground with his head in my lap. He let out one last big sigh and lay still. I held him there, knowing that he was dead and that I was alive because of him. And that's why there never was a better dog than Nero, and never will be.
The cops found me there like that, with the bloody knife next to me and my prints all over it. When the knife turned out to be what had made at least some of the wounds on the girl, they figured they had all the proof they needed. They figured they got the "Mangler". My story? All that got me was an insanity defense. At least that's what my high-falutin' lawyer guy called it.
So, that's why I'm here, and that's why I'm gonna ride that chair tomorrow. For the murder of ten people and one dog. Since there haven't been any more killings, everyone figures it must have been me, but I know better. I don't mind being in here; after what I've seen I really don't want to be alone at night anyway. And I don't even mind that I won't be alive after tomorrow; that means I only have to make it through one more night with my dreams.
The only thing I hate is... I just wish that everyone could know what Nero did for me, and what he did for them, even when it killed him to do it.
THE END
