The beads of sweat were trickling down his forehead and his teeth were so tightly clenched together his jaw felt sore and swollen. He sat bolt upright and dared to glance in the corner of his dimly lit bedroom. There it was! He rubbed his eyes as if he was trying to remove the spectacle that greeted him. No good… still there. The black figure in the corner had started to edge its way slowly towards him. Its hackles were raised. Its face which he could now see was contorted into a snarl. Its eyes which seemed to bore into his very soul were fixed, spiteful and showing a flicker of amusement. It was the black dog!

Since his teens this beast had haunted, taunted and tormented him. Its presence seemed to ooze into everything he did. It had followed him through school, through his parents breakup and now as his marriage had collapsed around his ears, it was trying to menace him again.