[ WP ] A man living with just his dog in a cabin in the wilderness is awoken one night by his dog 's unceasing growling . To reassure himself he takes his torch and sweeps it across the tree line . There 's something there .

The cabin was rather small; the man had lived there for years with his trusty black lab. He lived simply, as most cabin-dwelling men do. He would take the several mile trek to town when he required that which he could n't make, but did little to make acquaintances with the townsfolk. He would spend his spare time sitting on his porch in his homemade rocking chair, listening to the pulse of nature, with his dog. On clear nights, when the moon was bright enough, the shadows of the trees would slide and stretch across the grass field between his home and the treeline. But on others nights, the darkness would be deafening. Even the stars above would seem a little farther away - as though they were hiding, afraid of the darkness. This ubiquitous darkness would be the last type of night that the man would experience. 
 
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 When his dog began to growl at nothing that night, the man had no fear. The lab aged just like all things, and surely his senses were not what they used to be. A few moments more and the incessant growling would surely stop. It was curious, however, that the growling seemed to ebb and flow. After moments of listening to the dog's rumbling, the blackness seemed to pulse with the droning grunts. The man still had no fear. Surely this was a trick of the mind. It was just a manifestation of the most basic human instinct: fear of the dark. But the growling did not subside. Neither did the pulsing of the darkness that was growing stronger. The man witnessed a blackness so deep at the treeline that he questioned his own vision. The man knew fear. He rose from his rocking chair slowly, with the creak of his aged body crying in protest. He took an unlit torch out of a nearby sconce and lit it with a lighter from his pocket. 
 
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 The light illuminated the darkness and the man understood much too late. Lying at the treeline, was the mangled corpse of a black lab. His black lab. He turned back to the animal sitting on his porch, who was now visible. The unfamiliar creature of the night was not growling at the treeline as previously thought. It was growling at him.
