I had sat down at the unfamiliar table, not knowing how I arrived there. The host was friendly but I did not know her. The birthday girl was excited and full of glee as she helped herself to a large slab of cake. She sloughed off the icing as though it was evil, then she looked up at me with a fearful smile.



The icing hit the floor but it did not splatter. Instead, it was strange as it held it's form, it started moving. I thought to myself perhaps, it was a surprise that was hidden in the cake, like when I was a child and my mom baked a cake full of coins and the odd silver dollar.  I picked up the form, washed the icing off and found a dog collar. 



I placed it on the table and it began to hover, as though a dog was wearing it. The ladies jumped back from the table and the dog collar fell into my lap. I thought,  it is just some new technology  unfamiliar to me.



Looking down,  the collar now held a neck and on either end of that a little dog head and the body with a tiny tail. It was a stuffed  puppy dog wearing a red collar.  The two ladies were in shock as I picked up what I thought was a simple toy dog. I brought it up to my chest, smiled reassuringly at the two ladies and gave it a pat. 



To my shock the eyes of the stuffed animal opened. They were very sad eyes, not the cute playful eyes of a pup, but painfull sorrowful eyes, black deep pools of sadness, regret and pain. I then knew the pup was a curse and now I held it. My children ran down the stairs full of excitement to hold and play with the little black dog. 



It was hard to resist my children's pleas to hold the little creature, but I knew they too would be cursed, so I ran off and hid. I am now awaiting my fate.