The Order of the Inu - Attack at Provincetown - Original Short-Story Fiction
The Sacred Inu is a special breed of canine that over the centuries, has been tasked with protecting the most important of all human beings. Royalty, religious and spiritual leaders, gifted musicians and artists, anyone that has been touched to influence the human race has had a blessed member of a mythical guardianship called The Order of the Inu enter their lives. Many of the humans have often stated: "The dog just seemed to find us," when elaborating on how the beautiful animal became part of their lives. The Order of the Inu includes two separate variations within it's creed; the Akita Inu and the Shiba Inu.
The Akita are the leaders of the Order, masters of power and influence. Strength is the vitality that beats in their heavy hearts, both physically and mentally. With their thoughts, the Akita can lead other Earthly beings to do and say as they wish. Through this power, they mentor the Shiba to carry out the Order's Decree: protect the gifted one you're attached to with your life.
The Shiba are the sturdy, nimble-footed cousins of the Akita. Their keen senses are what make them a very powerful force and through this heightened sensibility they're able to establish the unbreakable bond with the gifted one they're touched with. Where the Akita can influence others, a Shiba are able to sense and alter a being's emotions. Make them happier or sadder with only their thoughts, but also bring to the surface, their deepest memories.
Attack At Provincetown
The early morning fog rolled in from the breaking waves of the ocean and masked the fading beachfront foliage. Kya rounded the corner of the boardwalk that lead from the beach house to the top of the hill at a frantic pace. The tri-color Shiba Inu galloped with determination, her nimble paws tapping away at the weathered decking of the boardwalk. Atop the wooden walkway, she darted right and headed along the fence line that led to the part of the beach where Alica was. Kya's senses were keenly aware of her location and she was adamant about reaching the gifted one before the evil she sensed did her harm.
Alica Kuznetsova is a Russian pianist and progeny that ventured to Massachusetts while waiting for the Fall term to begin at Juilliard in New York City. She'd been staying with her adoptive "Aunt" Cassidy Meadows at her oceanside home in Provincetown for three months. Alica had been studying under Cassidy, a Juilliard alum herself, honing what could be world class piano talent. Though not related, both women had grown to consider each other as such and Cassidy was soon to ask Alica to stay on with her at Cade Cod permanently, beyond Juilliard.
Alica's home life had been horrific in Moscow. Her Mother had died when she was six years old and her Father, a rampant alcoholic physically and psychologically abused Alica ever since. His grief getting the better of him, he turned to vodka and resentment for his daughter's talents, a direct reflection of his late-wife own musical prowess. Alica may never have been discovered to attend Juilliard had it not been for a vacation Cassidy took there two years ago in the summer. By chance she was in a local bar having drinks with some Russian friends. She barely noticed a skinny, young girl quietly enter the bar and sit down at a piano at the back. She noticed the instant she burst into Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3, the rendition far better than any she'd ever heard, including her own.
Kya bounded down the grassy hillside, stopping in a burst of sand and fury. Her eyes wild with intensity she stared down upon Alica sitting on the beach in her usual spot. The evil she sensed, an evil she'd been born to sense took the form of a handsome young man kneeling in front of Alica, staring directly into her eyes. Kya could read Alica's thoughts which turned from that of a young woman's flirtations to immediate fear. Alica tried to back away from the young man and raised her hand. He grabbed her wrist harshly with his right hand as his left flashed a little in the sunlight. Immediately Kya bolted into action, flying down the remainder of the hill in savage bounds and a dead on run toward his beloved Alica once on the flatness of the beach..
Kya's vision became a tunneled blur with the two humans struggling being the only thing in focus. She projected her thoughts to Cassidy, far away in the beach house. Despite the distance being too great to hear the commotion on the beach, Kya made Cassidy hear her own barking and Alica's screams, as if they were just outside the window. Without realizing why, Cassidy grabbed her cell phone and dialed the 911, demanding the police be sent immediately. Her Niece was in grave danger!
Kya's attention focussed in on the evil man's left hand. In it, was a syringe and his intensions, the bolting Shiba Inu began to sense, were a deviltry straight from hell. Kya zeroed in on the left hand as she soared toward the vicious scene.
Maybe it was the years of abuse at the hands of her drunken Father, or the lifetime of Moscow street toughness, but Alica gained a footing and began to fight back against her assailant. She rolled over on her right side, used the grip he had on her wrist as leverage and kicked him square in the stomach. The aggressor turn docile as he doubled over in an exhale of breath. It was the slight delay that Kya needed to get close enough to subdue the evil one.
Alica continued to feverishly kick the man all the while he held his grasp on her arm, but he suddenly let loose and slumped down onto his knees in front of her. Staring aimlessly at the sand before Alica, he began crying, then sobbing uncontrollably. His arms fell to his sides, dropping the syringe as he stared to the sky and begged his Mother's forgiveness, screaming "Mommy!" over and over.
Alica was shaking with her own tears when she was startled to notice Kya standing directly next to her. The Inu was eerily calm amidst the hysterical scene, staring intently at the would be killer. With a gentle tilt of her head, she drove the evil man to his feet. He began a somber, silent walk toward the hill and the subsequent street where the police would be waiting.
In reality, the man was Jeremy Allen Kline, a serial killer that was being actively hunted by The FBI and several local police authorities throughout the Northeastern states of Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts. To date, Mr. Kline had murdered eleven young women very much similar to Alica, who was to be his number twelve. Upon being taken into custody, the police would discover his nearby minivan that would produce an orgy of damning evidence; shoes, clothes, sunglasses, purses, tufts of hair, fingernails, and countless personal affects of his victims over the past two years' killing spree.
Alica reached out for her closest companion and pulled Kya close. She stared out into the oncoming ocean waves and squinted from the increasing sunlight bursting through the morning haze. She snapped her head back over her shoulder to see the evil man still walking away, getting further. Relieved to be free of him, Alica couldn't rid herself of the impression of Kya staring calmly at him and the man completely losing all sense of reality. She gave Kya a heart felt kiss on the side of her face, and a reassurance, "I love you so much sweet baby."
Two days before boarding the plane for America, Alica had spent the entire day shopping in Moscow for clothing and necessities for her extended journey. It was the first time in her life that she had been able to buy such nice things and she was over-joyed but exhausted at the day's events. The day before, a registered parcel arrived, containing welcome information for Juilliard, as well as a pre-paid Visa card valued at $10,000 American Dollars. There was a handwritten letter from the mysterious Cassidy Meadows in America telling her how much she believed in her and that she should go buy whatever she needed to make a new life in Massachusetts.
While she sipped an iced coffee at an outdoor cafe, she noticed something again that she'd been spotting all day. A beautiful dog, resembling a husky staring at her from further up the block. The dog seemed to pop up everywhere and now Alica lowered her had without thinking, gesturing for the dog to come over to her which it did. As soon as she began rubbing the dog's ultra-soft ears a wave of confidence flowed over Alica. All of her fears and doubts left her consciousness and she knew she was going to become everything she knew she could be. A vision of the ocean, of the beach, of a wonderful musical score she would someday compose became suddenly clear in her mind. This would be hers. Alica Kuznetsova's Opus.
Alone on the Cape Cod beach with just her dog, Alica pondered how glad she was that she saved the $900 American Dollars on the Visa that it cost to crate and ship Kya aboard the plane to America.
Kya looked off into the distance, further down the beach and up atop the hill that led down to it. On a crested knoll, a grand image appeared only to Kya. It was her powerful mentor Syncai, Order of the Inu Akita Master. The majestic dog stood alone and gazing out toward the open sea.
Kya heard the kind wisdom of Syncai's voice, "You have done well small one. We always knew you would honor your decree by saving the gifted one and ridding the world of that foul evil."
"Thank you Akita Master. I only did what you taught me," Kya replied with her thoughts.
"The gifted one's music will be integral to shaping the human's world in the coming peace. They will need the beauty that flows from it. They will need her future child as well. That evil man would have destroyed all of it in an instant," Syncai stated meaningfully.
"What am I to do now Akita Master?" Kya asked.
"Stay with her little one. Stay with her for the rest of your days. To lose you would harm her more than we can afford," The grand dog replied.
Kya buried her face in Alica's bosom affectionately.
