Cheating Death

When Peanut’s life is in danger, Thomas gallantly comes to her rescue. But when you do a deal with death, it doesn’t always go the way you planned.

Will the Grim Reaper get away with his cheating ways?

Will Boris-the-Boyfriend finally confess?

PREFACE

Thomas lay in bed. His eyes were open, and his arms were flung over his pillow, hands clasped under his head.

He was thinking about Peanut, his Labrador.

As he, his mum, and his sister, Beth, had sat in the vet’s consulting room that afternoon, he had stroked Peanut’s ears and whispered to her that everything would be OK. All the while, the vet was explaining to Mrs. Jackson that Peanut was far from OK.

“I’m so sorry, Mrs. Jackson. That’s as much as I can do,” the vet said consolingly as he took off his latex gloves. “I think we’re just delaying the inevitable though. Take her home and make her comfortable. Make her last few days ones full of fun, not sadness.”

They returned home in the car in silence, each deep in their own thoughts. Peanut slept peacefully on the back seat with her head lying in Thomas’ lap. The traumatic visit to the vet already forgotten in her doggy head.

Thomas had found some extra blankets from the linen cupboard and added them to Peanut’s bed in the kitchen, and then she trudged over to them slowly and lay down gently after a cursory sniff. Hesky, the family’s other Labrador, sniffed around excitedly at all the fuss.

“Two or three days.” Thomas was thinking back to the conversation going on above his head at the vet’s surgery. He was only nine, so his mum and sister had tried to make light of the vet’s diagnosis. But, Thomas knew what they were talking about.

He huffed and sat up, rubbing his hands up and down over his face for a moment. Looking around his room, he decided he would take his bedclothes and spend the night on the kitchen floor with Peanut and Hesky. If she only had a few days left, he wanted to be there for as much of that time as possible. He pulled the duvet off the bed and bunched it under his arm as he slipped his feet into his slippers.

He padded out of the room and headed for the stairs, dragging the bedding behind him and trying not to wake the rest of the house.

He quietly pushed open the kitchen door, his eye to the gap, watching in case Hesky woke up and started jumping around Peanut.

As the door opened, Thomas could see Hesky in the far corner of the room, cowering and quivering in fear. He was panting hard, tongue out, and drool was spilling down his fur  Thomas frowned and pushed the door open wider with his free hand. As the other side of the room came into sight, Peanut’s bed was obscured from Thomas’ view by the kitchen table and chairs.

Thomas stepped into the room just as a hooded figure rose up slowly from behind the table, turning its head towards him. In the dim light of the moon, the creatures pale face shone, and its red eyes cut through the darkness and bathed everything in the color of blood.