Humans Can Lick Too

Here's how this tale (sometimes alternately titled "The Licked Hand") goes:

A teen girl lived with her father, mother and faithful pooch in a pleasant suburban neighborhood. Feeling that their daughter was finally of age (15) to look after herself while they went out for a few hours of entertainment, the parents left the daughter home alone. They instructed her to lock all the doors after their departure, and left all appropriate emergency phone numbers written down for their daughter to use if necessary.

After the parents left, the teen did some homework then watched some television and had a rather ordinary evening. Later into the evening, however, even though her parents hadn't returned home yet, she faced a small dilemma: appear confident and capable to her parents and just go to bed or else watch and wait up for her parents to arrive back home. Although the teen was a bit nervous about being alone, she didn't want her parents to find this out and, perhaps, not trust her to be on her own again. She decided to go to bed and not wait up for them. After all, she really wasn't TOTALLY alone. Her dog was with her and this was comforting to her.

Off she went to bed, her pooch settling beside the bed, laying on the floor as he usually did each night. Nervous or not, it wasn't long until the teen fell asleep.

The teen stirred from slumber briefly, hearing a noise sort of like a dripping faucet from down the hall. It was slightly annoying but of little concern to the sleepy teen. It probably meant that her parents had returned home and had used the bathroom faucet recently, that's all. She reached a hand down beside her bed and the dog comforted her by licking her hand, so she put any worries about the noise aside and allowed herself to fall back asleep.

Pretty soon, the teen stirred again, hearing the dripping sound some more. Affected by a strain of apprehension, she wondered why her parents hadn't stopped up the faucet yet. She reached down her hand and felt the dog lick her hand again, but really was getting too warm and comfortable under her blankets to think more on the matter. Besides, her pooch was beside her for protection. She went back to sleep.

The teen awakened a third time, still noting a dripping noise nearby. Annoyed this time, she looked across to her alarm clock on the bedside table. The time glowed from the table: 3:30am. She decided to go tighten the faucet herself in order to finally get some uninterrupted sleep. She noted that her dog wasn't beside the bed when she swung her legs down from the bed.

As she walked to the bathroom, the dripping noise sounded more clear, so she was glad she decided to just get up and fix this problem....

...until she turned on the bathroom light to find her way around!

What she saw was horrifying!

There, hung by the shower head was her beloved dog! The dripping noise was the sound of blood droplets dripping from the mutilated animal. She was so overwhelmed that she gagged instead of screaming. She turned to run away but was stopped in her tracks when she glanced at the mirror...

Written in big letters, from the dog's blood:

Humans Can Lick Too

A little girl had a dog that slept under her bed every night. This comforted the girl because anytime she was afraid at night, she would reach her hand under the bed and thus, know that she was not alone when her dog would lick her hand. This measure of comfort would allow her to feel safe and fall easily and quickly back to sleep.

One night, the girl went to sleep but was awakened in the middle of the night by a strange noise. She lay awake listening, but heard nothing further that was of concern. She could clearly hear a familiar sound - that of a dog panting, so she assumed that, perhaps, her dog had just recently bumped into something in the night, causing the noise that had awakened her - before returning to lay under her bed. She reached her hand down and under the bed. In a few seconds, she felt the dog lick her hand, so she was comforted and fell back to sleep.

Some time later, the girl woke up again. This time, it was because she was hungry. She got out of bed and went to the kitchen, and as she entered the kitchen, she stopped because she heard a noise...

...it sounded like a dripping noise, so the girl went straight to the sink, the kitchen vaguely illuminated by moonlight so that the girl felt no need to turn on the lights.

But the faucet wasn't dripping at all...

When she peered into the sink basin, she saw a bloodied butcher knife and thought it strange that her parents hadn't at least rinsed something like that off and put it back away properly. She felt suddenly frightened by the sight and also became aware of the dripping noise again. In her anxiety, she backed up against the fridge, scanning the poorly moonlight room with eyes darting nervously. All the while, she continued to hear, "Drip, drip, drip, drip..."

Finally, she spun and opened the fridge door to shed some light on the situation...

AND SCREAAAAAAAAMED!!!

There, hanging inside the fridge was her pet dog, freshly butchered.

On the dog a note was pinned:

"Humans can lick too"

This Humans Can Lick Too urban legend is also called "Doggy Lick," "Humans Lick Too," "Licked Hand," "People Lick, Too," "The Licked Hand," and similar variations and word combinations referring to "lick," "hand," "humans," and "people."

Along with slightly different titles, there are slight variations in details which make this urban legend very interesting. Below are possibilities for this urban legend.

Person Home Alone:

• the person who is home alone is a teenager
• the person who is home alone is an elderly person
• the person who is home is in her early 20's (for the US, this is still considered "youth" and age of minority in most states, so the persona is still at a "risky" age)
• I have not yet come across a version of this urban legend where the person home alone is male
• I have not yet come across a version of this urban legend where the age of the person home alone is under teenage years - however - there's a "home alone" urban legend with two siblings, one of which is pre-teen, called, "Knock Knock Knock" and it's pretty scary

Details About The Dog:

• the dog gets locked in the basement and is unharmed - the girl has been trying to sleep and hears noises from outside her room, somewhere in the house. She puts her hand by the side of the bed and her hand is licked. This repeats several times until the noises she hears are a bit louder. She gets up to investigate, follows the noises - to find out the noises are the dog scratching at the basement door, trying to be let out of the basement...realization hits that the dog has been downstairs a long time but something or someone has been licking the girls hands, several times, over several hours... creepy!
• in many versions, the dog is beheaded
• dog beheaded, head found on floor
• dog beheaded, head found in fridge
• dog beheaded, head found in freezer
• dog beheaded, head found behind the couch
• dog beheaded, head found in girl's bedroom closet
• you get the idea... probably any location a dog's head is found separated from the pet's body is going to be particularly gruesome in any version of this urban legend
• dog's body found under the bed when the girl tries to call the dog out from under her bed and the dog doesn't respond
• dog's body found in closet
• dog's body found behind couch
• I'm sure you get the idea here, too - again, finding a dog's body separated from the head will be particularly awful and create a lot of shock value in an urban legend
• perfectly healthy dog is found hiding under the couch - the girl's room-mate is dead (in versions which incorporate youth or young adults... a combination of "The Licked Hand" and "Aren't You Glad You Didn't Turn On The Light?" (also called "Don't Turn On The Light" and "The Dead Roommate" among other similar titles)

The Girl Wakes Up/Sleep Interrupted:

• commonly, there is a "drip, drip, drip" sound which wakes the girl up repeatedly
• sometimes a noise in another part of the house awakens the girl - repeatedly
• sometimes a noise under the bed awakens the girl - she thinks it is the dog stretching - repeats a few times
• the drip drip drip is the water faucet - and the girl goes to turn it off and then finds either her dead and bloody dog or a message on the bathroom mirror
• the drip drip drip is the dog's blood, dripping from a body part, handing somewhere in the bathroom, bedroom, etc

The Message:

• "Humans Can Lick Too" or other variation with similar message - sometimes left on a paper which is sometimes from the girl's own school notebook - left right next to her bed or at the desk in her room or a bedside table
• People Lick, Too
• It's Not Only Dogs That Lick Hands
• Humans Lick Too, My Dear - or "My Darling" or some other endearment term
• sometimes the message is written on blood on the girl's bedroom wall or above the headboard of her bed (this, sort of rare - more common in the "Don't Turn On The Light" urban legend)
• message in blood (the dog's) on bathroom mirror
• message in blood on the fridge, freezer, another wall in the house, etc
• just ONE TIME - I heard this story had "Humans Lick Too" OUTSIDE in blood at the front door...the whole family and dog, as well, was murdered...the killer wrote Humans Lick Too on the house, above the door, and the neighbors read the message once the sunlight came out enough to see the message... a particularly macabre, horrific version, indeed

:(