Here's how this tale 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"