Dino Attack

Maddie gripped her husband’s arm, shaking in their examination of the back window. The heavy bush shook back and forth as if something shook it, but no wind moved any of the other vegetation.

“I’m gonna go see what the hell that is,” John said.

Maddie shook her head. “Don’t go out there. It could be anything! It could be a…” She wracked her brain for a possible solution but she couldn’t rationalize what could be shaking the oversized plant.

John removed her hand from his arm and squeezed it. “I am confident it’ll be fine. Just lock the door behind me, in case.”

She did as advised, crossing her arms over her chest and pinching the skin beneath her fingers. Her eyes followed her beloved to the bush in question. He shone his flashlight into its thick leaf-covered limbs and jumped back.

A big, fat cat charged out of the greenery, yowling and hissing as it chunked along. A startled cry burst out of her.

When he spun and came face to face with a raptor, he stumbled backward. Light glinted off something sharp and shiny.

She unlocked the door, throwing it open, screaming at the carnivore, “Get away from him.”

John glanced over his shoulder, clutching his stomach. “Get back inside.”

The dinosaur slashed at him. He tried to grab the bloody arm of the dino attacker. “Run!”

Terrified, Maddie dove back into the house, clutching her cell phone to call the police. When the receiver picked up, she bawled, “My husband’s been attacked by a dinosaur.”

Outside, the killer smugly removed his inflatable raptor suit, grateful for the dark and hysteria adding to his guise. John groaned on the ground, bleeding out and too out of it to recognize his neighbor slipping out of the backyard.