THE WARDROBE’S BEST DRESSED: EXCERPT FROM SARAH TOURJEE’S GHOST

DOG

We hunt. We are deadly. We gather birds, rabbits, squirrels, possums, cats, and stragglers from intruding packs. We drag the bodies back to our den, leave the kill in the yard for our leader. She is pleased, she lets us eat. She tends to our young, cleans our wounds, provides shelter from the night. We protect her. We circle.

Our leader rubs her face to mine, scratches my neck, lets me lick. But now something comes between us, something hides her. Where mouth should be and eyes, something covers, attacks. I growl, bark, frighten it away.

Now it pulls me, tightens, attacks from within, then is gone. So is she. We will find it. We will kill any threat. We move in circles that widen, we cover all ground. We will empty this world out for her. We will be all that’s left.

This excerpt appeared in Sarah Tourjee’s book, Ghost, available from Anomalous Press. Purchase yours today!

Sarah Tourjee lives online at sarahtourjee.wordpress.com and on land in Providence, RI. Her short fiction and prose can be found in Quarterly West, Conjunctions, PANK, The Collagist, Wigleaf, Everyday Genius, Anomalous, and elsewhere. She is currently at work on a manuscript entitled Sam Says, Sam.

This week’s Wardrobe Best Dressed was selected Nicole Oquendo. Nicole Oquendo is an Assistant Editor for Sundress Publications, and the Nonfiction Editor of Best of the Net. Her most recently published essays and poetry can be found in DIAGRAM, fillingStation, Storm Cellar, and Truck.