His name was Hunter, and he was the best dog I ever had, of course I say "was" because on the eve of his 5th birthday he was shot.
Shot by uncaring men in black masks and bodyarmor that made them look like evil black insects seething over the ground, destroying all in their path.
They claimed that he was attacking them, disrupting "Their Very Important Investigation".
This investigation also apparently gave them full legal rights to trample through the house, smashing furniture and knocking out my uncle with a shot in his leg, and of course shooting Hunter, who was sleeping on the foot of my bed.
And my dad.
They tranquilized him and then they trampled out of the house, and he was gone, according to the medical records they produced, he had died of a heart attack two weeks before.
Of course they were faked, only the cover story, only an attempt to justify their behavior and make sure that no one asked any questions.
And those who did ask questions, well, they soon stopped asking, voices silenced by an invisible and terrible force masquerading as Justice.
Four years later I can still see Hunter's corpse, thrown back against the wall by the bullet that stole his lifeforce and soul, and the same men who fired that bullet still lurk in the shadows.
They never gave us an explaination, beyond the fact presented to us in a threatingly worded letter that if we ever told anyone what had happened that shadowy night, we also would disappear, and the golden seal stamped at the bottom of the sinisterly worded parchment gave it terrible authority.
Authority that I had not questioned.
Until now.
Now as I sit at my familar wooden desk, covered in messy papers and books, typing at this forbidden statement, I question their words, their claim to be protecting our freedom, to be the good guys, fighting against evil.
But they have lied, they are the evil ones.
And my dad had threatened their authority.
And now he is gone, bundled away into a dark van and driven into the shadowy tendrils of eternity.
He was a great man, campaigning for less goverment control, trying to prevent the descent of this great nation, formed under freedom into the police state it has become.
People go missing every day now, of course they don't actually disappear, it's always from natural causes, heart attack, drowning, cancer, victim of a hit and run attack.
Lies.
Tomorrow I will send this letter along with a transcript of what has happened thus far to every major news agency based outside of the US and thus outside of the goverment's control, this will be a last act of freedom, one last attempt to stop the fetid corruption of our once noble nation before it grows too deep.
Wake up.