The beach was very dark and cold and quiet. Only nature made music here. It was a symphony of birds and waves and wind. The footprints were one set walking along the beach but the footprints were also two sets. One set adding itself to the other.

The footprints of a human walking alone. The footprints of a dog were appearing beside the other set of footprints as the invisible dog followed the trail.

Two years had gone by since that fateful day when Reese and Yoshito had become reunited over years of strife and resentment. Once they had a friendship and were part of the same academic covenant. Now the covenant was gone, sunken into obscurity.

The dog was hunting the man. The man inside the dog wanted the hunt to happen. There was something left unfinished. Foam had formed around the beast's lips where visible fangs trod the air where only gray light illuminated.

The home of Yoshito. The dog could not have come here on its own. Especially since it was now a mad dog. An invisible dog with the mind of a great scientist implanted and insane. The dimensions of the monster were so convoluted that even its invisible deformed body was barely appropriate to contain the chaos inside its wormy brain.

Hot rage drove it onward, pawprint to footprint as it made its way up the beach.

Yoshito had sat with cooling tea, watching the morning storm passing from the shelter of his glass porch. He fell back asleep, an odd moment for such a disciplined and alert man. But his sleep came with a warning, a dream of the past, a nightmare.

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He heard the steps of the big animal coming up the wooden stairs from the beach. Then there was its breath on the glass. A wooden walkway wrapped around his beautiful beach home and the beast followed the elaborate structure to where it led into the side parlor, a place where the sunset could be viewed in winter. Here it found its way inside and left black wet marks where it stepped.

Yoshito had the vantage point from where he sat, sleeping, dreaming he was awake and meeting his creation here at home. A great mirror of silver and carved palo wood stood from floor to ceiling, reflecting sunlight throughout the day into different parts of his home. Now it failed to capture the reflection of the bloodthirsty creature. It walked right past, leaving marks where it stepped and its rabid drool dripped and its fangs gleamed, but the dog cast not reflection. The mirror did not show the image of the horror in his home.

The dog was coming for him. He could smell the wetness, the soggy dog smell. It had come inside from the cold and some of the cold air was around it like a blanket rolling off of it. The chill of its clammy skin was something felt in the change as it entered the room.

The sound of the growl of the invisible dog came like the low roll of distant thunder and then grew to the menacing vibration of a snarling monster. Yoshito dropped his teacup and it shattered. Steam arose from the puddle of broken comfort as it lay cooling on the floor. A paw mark appeared there as the dog neared.

With its breath was upon him, Yoshito felt sick. It was like a dead rotting thing. He could see its eyes this close, shimmering evilly with the malice of man and the merciless hunger of the dog as one being. It was no longer a dog and a man. It was always both of them now, in madness and in torment. Pain and wickedness were its true names.

Now it had come home to its true master. Now the dog had come home and to become a master. Now the man, as a dog, had come to kill the man who made it. Now it would have its biting and tearing frenzy it would call revenge.

Yoshito awoke.

He had dreamed all of it. He looked down to the beach with binoculars he had there on his tea table.

Only his footprints from early this morning.

Only his.