You may have heard about the folk tales of a very special type of dog, a demon dog. I am here to tell you they are all true.

Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful princess who lived in the freezing land of the Arctic Circle. She ruled the land in her infamous castle of Norticus. Never heard of it? Well, that’s because there was an evil curse put upon it, and anyone who escaped the walls of the castle would become a slave to the devil. Only one creature ever left the castle: the princess’s favorite husky puppy who escaped by the skin of his teeth.

He ran and ran until his legs couldn’t carry him any longer. A strange feeling came over the husky, but he couldn’t put his paw on what it was. All of a sudden, a voice called out to him from the ground, “This is your greatest nightmare. I am the devil. You must do as I say. If you don’t, there will be consequences.”

The little husky got very frightened but knew that he didn’t really have much of a choice. He waited cautiously for the voice to tell him his first order. “You must kill the ones you love.”
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“Mom, we are going to be late!” Anna warns her mother, while she runs down the staircase.

“Do you really want to go to this thing? It’s not very important, and I’m sure you have better things to do with your time,” her mother says.

“No, I actually don’t, and all of my friends are going.” They are all going to see a movie in town, and Anna doesn’t want to miss it.

“Fine, get in the car. Maybe I can get some of that grocery shopping I need to do out of the way.”

On the way to the movie theater, Anna spots a creature rummaging through their neighbor’s garbage. Since it is so dark, she can’t really see what it is, but it looks like a little husky puppy, the dog she has desperately wanted for a long time. He looks weary, as if he has been traveling for a long time. “Wait, stop the car!” Anna tells her mother. When the dog realizes that they have paused and are watching him, he runs into the bushes. Anna, puzzled, continues to the movie theater with her mother. All throughout the film, she cannot stop thinking about that strange little dog by the garbage. When her mom picks her up, she can tell that Anna is unhappy, but doesn’t ask why.

In the morning, Anna walks into the kitchen, yawning loudly. “Did you sleep well, honey?” her mother asks.

“I was thinking about that husky all night and couldn’t get any sleep,” Anna replies.

“Well, I have a surprise for you. We are going to get the dog!” her mother exclaims. “I have looked everywhere for it and I finally found it! He’s in the garage waiting for you. The strange little creature had ice all over its fur. Strange because it’s boiling outside.” Anna cautiously walks toward the door to the garage, full of excitement, but trying not to scare the puppy. When she enters the room, all she sees is a box with a huge hole in it. There is a sudden flash of grey and white, and the dog appears at her feet. He wags his long tail vigorously, but at the same time, he looks like he is holding back a little bit.

After praising the dog, petting and hugging it, and some talk about Anna’s responsibilities as a pet owner, they decide to name it. “I would like to name him Rex! It means king and he looks like he belongs in a palace,” exclaims Anna. So they name him Rex, and they live peacefully with the little husky for three weeks.
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During the third week of Anna taking care of her new puppy, Rex is lying in his dog bed thinking about how lucky he is. He is starting to appreciate all the attention and loving care he is getting. Suddenly, he hears a familiar voice call to him from the ground, “ It is time.”

I must be going mad because Anna is sitting on the couch right next to me and she didn’t even flinch, Rex thinks to himself.

“Did you hear me? It is time!” Rex listens again. All of a sudden Rex gets a horrible feeling. He remembers what this voice is talking about and a foreboding comes over him. “You know the consequences!” Out of nowhere a force slams into him and he whimpers. All of a sudden he feels as if something terrible has possessed him, and he turns into a different type of dog, no longer the sweet husky puppy. He starts to feel really mad, then madder and madder, until he is enraged and vicious like a living monster and he can’t stop. He pounces on Anna with all his might, and she cries out, betrayed. All the good feeling and warmth he felt for this human is gone, and now all he feels is fury.

He’s just about to sink his teeth into her neck when he hears a gasp. He turns his head to see Anna’s mother standing in the doorway with her mouth wide open. A look of horror spreads over her face and she jumps to Anna’s side, flinging Rex across the room. He falls on the glass coffee table, shattering it, and he feels a sharp pain in his back. Everything becomes blurry and the world turns black.
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When Rex opens his eyes, he’s in a metal cage with bars surrounding him. Dazed, he leans against the bars and looks out. He’s in a completely white room with people in white lab coats working at white tables. He hates the color white. It reminds him of a dream that he keeps having of a castle surrounded by white snow, a place where something very bad happened.

The scientists in their white lair are also very puzzled. When they examined the puppy, they discovered ancient bits of ice embedded in his fur. The curious thing is that the ice will not melt. They do blood tests and take x-rays, but the dog seems perfectly fine. Then, one of the scientists who has done some research on old animal bones suggests something rare and unspeakable. The next day, the headline in the paper reads: Demon Dog or Abused Puppy? Reporters wait anxiously outside Anna’s house, eager to interview her and hear her side of the story. Some accuse her mother of abusing the poor puppy to the point of aggressiveness. Others claim that Rex is possessed by the devil, and that they have finally found the lost demon dog of the Arctic Circle. Although Rex is famous himself now, he is lonely and scared, trapped in a cold cage. All he wants to do is go back to the warm, loving arms of his human, Anna. And all Anna wants to do is prove to all the haters that the vicious demon dog in the news is just her sweet little husky puppy, Rex.

Determined, Anna decides that she is going to get to the bottom of this mystery and figure out what has happened to her sweet little husky. She reads every thing she can get her hands on, from libraries and online, about demon dogs. Finally, in a long-forgotten, decrepit volume, hidden on a bottom shelf in the town library, she discovers what she has been looking for: the secret code to reverse the evil curse that turned Rex into the devil’s slave.

During her next visit to the lab, she whispers the code through the bars to Rex. It almost looks as if he understands what is happening as the ancient ice begins to melt before Anna’s eyes. She knows that Rex is cured because she has reversed the curse put on the castle of Norticus long ago. Rex is the last of the demon dogs, and because of Anna, he will live out his days as an ordinary husky loved forever after by an extraordinary girl.