Jason woke up the next morning with a slight ringing in his ears, and a general sensation of discomfort. He also woke up to the rather monotonous droning of Greg who was apparently talking to himself in the other bed. Jason raised his head a bit to see what exactly Greg was doing, a part of him wishing that Greg would shut up so he could sleep some more.

     Greg was sitting cross-legged in his bed, an open book in his lap, whose sides he was holding firmly. His face was intently fixed upon the book, so much so that every feature was angled downward. He kept repeating fervently, "Matthew 15:26,'It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs'". Jason then saw that Greg held the Bible in his lap, and was focused on that passage. Jason was too sleepy to remember exactly where it came from, but it did sound familiar.

     It wasn't until about five minutes later when Jason was fully awake and out of bed that Greg stopped repeating his mantra. Jason looked at him, never before had he seen Greg this shaken up about something. Of course, Jason had never seen a woman turn into a dog either, but, wait a moment. Why was he giving credence to Greg's delusions? Because he wanted them to be true? This question sank into Jason's heart deeply. He had tried to turn himself into a dog last night, and though he failed, he still didn't know why he had even tried.

     What is wrong with this town, Jason wondered to himself. There seemed to be an overriding influence by dogs on the way the town operated. Jason wondered just who really ran the show here in Barken, the men or the dogs? Suddenly another insight struck him. The name of the town itself, Barken, sounded an awful lot like bark, something dogs do frequently. He wondered if the town was named deliberately so. Still too many questions he had.

     Jason left Greg in the room, and went down to the breakfast area, where John and Nathan were already sitting. Mrs. Brumfield came and served him some flapjacks, which were very delicious. Nathan and John both looked quite distant, and Jason wondered if he wasn't bearing the same expression himself. Unable to abide the silence for any longer, he spoke. "So what are you two thinking about?"

     "Well, honestly," John leaned in closer to them and whispered, "I think this town is downright bizarre."

     "How so?" Jason asked.

     "Well, there are simply so many dogs just wandering around town, without leash or collar. And you want to hear something really strange? At the mall the other day, there was this guy feeding a dog milk bones, and eating them himself as well. When I looked there about ten minutes later, there was an old woman doing exactly the same thing."

     Jason nodded. "That is peculiar."

     "Well, I found something interesting this morning.", Nathan added. " Have any of you ever seen a dog in this motel? I haven't, but there's dog hair all over the floor though, and most of it from the same breed, if not the same dog."

     "How can you tell?" Jason asked him, amazed at Nathan's assertion.

     "I live on a farm, Jason," Nathan remarked. "You have to know your animals by any means possible."

     "Well, Greg has seen something that sort of puts it all into perspective," Jason said. " A warped perspective at any rate."

     "What did he tell you?" John asked, his interest piqued.

     "Well, I think I'll let him tell you that," Jason smiled. Then his face turned dour and serious again, "What do you think is going on here?"

     "I have no idea," John stated unequivocally. Nathan simply shrugged.

     "Well, whatever is about this town, you can definitely say that it has to do with dogs. What that is, I don't know; thoughts however have been going though my head that I never have had before, sensations that I can't completely describe. I don't know whether it's wise for us to stay here or not. The people are quite friendly though, it's odd, more friendly than most are. They're so laid back as well, I kind of wish I had what they had," Jason rambled on, not sure what he was trying to express.

     Suddenly a thought came to him, "Where are Allison and Emily? And where's Reverend Brandemas? He's usually up before us all."

     "Oh, Allison and Emily went to take a walk around town again. They didn't say why," John replied quickly.

     "And we haven't seen the Reverend all morning," Nathan added.

     Jason sat back, taking in another mouthful of the delicious flapjacks. Just they heard a large crashing sound coming from the direction of the parking lot. The three jumped out of their seats, and looked out the door of the motel, where they saw several dogs running away from the side of the building. A few moments later, a trashcan lid rolled out from behind the edge of the building, and then spun around on the asphalt and lay there as the rattling subsided. Nathan and John turned back in the motel, muttering about stupid dogs and trashcans, but Jason stayed and watched for a few more moments. He then saw moving quite briskly towards the mall, a familiar figure. It was Greg, and Jason did not wonder for too long where he was going.

     Greg hurt all over, mostly from the fall from the balcony, but it was the only to get out of the motel without anybody noticing. However, they had probably all noticed, and anybody not awake most certainly was now. There was no recourse but to walk casually as if he belonged there. He wasn't quite sure what he was doing, or why he was doing it, but he had only one thing in his mind at the moment. That girl, that demon-spawn, had invaded his dreams again last night, and he remembered with shame all the inhuman and feral things that he had done at her behest. He had run with the dogs, eaten as a dog, pissed as a dog, everything as a dog, and all because of her. She was trying to turn him into a dog, it was obvious, but then why was he desperate to see her?

     He stopped in his tracks, a rage ensuing in his mind. If she was indeed trying to turn him into nothing more than an animal, then why get anywhere near her? The best thing to do would be to get out of town, run away from it as fast as possible. He could make the next town in half-a-day if he was lucky. What was it called, Cherry? Yes, he could make it to Cherry, and hopefully there would be people who would understand his predicament. The devil was trying to trap him here, that was for certain, why else would all these circumstances that caused them to be stuck here have occurred otherwise. It couldn't have been a simple random accident, Satan himself must have been behind it.

     Then he realized something which made him change his mind about heading to Cherry. He was in the desert, and he was used to life in flowing fields, and he would not survive the walk in this blistering heat. No, he would have to confront her himself. Why should he be worried he reminded himself to no avail, he has Jesus on his side. Now decided on his mission, he began to stride towards the mall again. It was much nicer to be in the air-conditioned mall, but he had something important to do. He made his way to the book store where she worked, and made ready to confront her, and cast her out of his life.

     As he turned the corner and saw her, he suddenly felt the grip of fear on his heart. She hadn't seen him, and in fright he turned back around the corner. Why couldn't he face her? It made no sense. She was not an object to be feared, she was demon-spawn, and like Jason had pointed out, Jesus had given him authority over such creatures of filth. Yet he simply couldn't face her, there was something about this whole town that permeated everything, and for him it was focused on her, and as he watched her, he found his resistance to her diminishing.

     Tearing his eyes away from her, he forced himself up against the wall, his heart beating rapidly, his stomach groaning in hunger. His was breathing heavily, and was in danger of hyperventilating. He forced himself to calm down, which took several minutes, but he managed to do so. He remained against that wall for some time, simply staring at the wall opposite him, his mind floating in and out of reality, unable to decide what to do.

     Occasionally he would turn to refresh his memory, and would gaze upon her visage once more. Thoughts of her flooded his mind, and many of the dreams he had would resurface, much to his dismay, especially since a part of him was beginning to like what he saw in those dreams. Greg tried to repress that portion of himself, trying not to give into it, and for a time succeeded. However, he could feel it ever strengthening it's position for a time when it would take over, and Greg knew that the real him would be relegated to obscurity. Greg knew he had to defeat these evils, and the first thing he had to do was to get rid of this girl.

     As he turned to face her once more, he saw that she was collecting her things and leaving the store. Greg darted out of sight, so that she wouldn't see him, then glanced at his watch. It was just before noon, he couldn't believe that the time has flown so quickly. She must be going out on her lunch break, Greg figured, and once he was sure she was at a safe distance, he began to discreetly follow her.

     She left the mall, and began to walk down the street. Greg followed at a distance, watching her every turn. It took her only a few minutes to reach her destination, a place Greg could only assume was her home. It seemed the typical home, though it did sport a false-brick facade. Split level Greg could see as he stayed behind the fence line watching her open the front door, and head up the stairs. Stealthily Greg snuck around to the side of the house, and saw that there was a small ledge that he could stand upon if he was careful and peer in the upstairs windows.

     He quickly pulled himself up, and peered in the first window, it looked like a young boy's bedroom, with blue motif, and several banners of the Houston Oilers hanging from the walls. Nothing here that he wanted to see, so he carefully moved along the ledge till he came to the next window. Immediately he noticed the fluffiness that reminded him of his sister's room, the bedspread dappled in pink, the array of stuffed animals spread about the room, the various pictures of Fabioesque men pinned up to the wall, and the sets of make-up and jewellery sitting on the dresser. Just then he saw the door open, and he ducked beneath the window. Holding his breath he looked around the yard, nobody was there, nobody had seen him here, he was still safe.

     Greg carefully peered over the rim of the window, and caught a sight of her back. It was indeed her back because she had just taken her shirt off. Greg stood all the way up, looking in, a part of him interested, a part of him repeating, "Do not defile yourself by lying down with an animal." He watched her intently as she carefully removed every last bit of clothes, first her shirt, then her pants, then she unbuckled her bra, and then her she slipped her nighties off, and deposited them on the pile of clothes she had made on her bed. Greg licked his lips, trying to control his hormones, and his intellect. She was demon-spawn, and of course she was trying to seduce him, he must resist her tempting body.

     As Greg watched, something else happened, and his heart quickened because of it. Her body began to rapidly grow fur, and her face grew into a snout. Her hands melted into paws, and out from her back grew a tail. She was a chocolate colored labrador, a very pretty one at that. She stretched out her body on the bed, and Greg watched, partly amazed, and partly afraid. Then she jumped to the ground behind the bed, and Greg lost sight of her. Irked, Greg began to peer through the window at different angles to see if he could catch sight of her, standing on his tip-toes for maximum leverage. Just then a huge face appeared in the window, that of a chocolate labrador, and barked once at him. Greg in shock pushed away from the window, and then felt himself flying through the air a moment, and then he felt a sharp impact all across his body as he hit the ground. The sharp pain dulled quickly, but so did his vision and consciousness as everything went black...