The small grey dog curled up tighter against the cold stone as the rain slammed down. The wind tore at it's fur and tried to tear it away from it's marble bed. It whimpered, old promises running through it's head. The dog, hardly any more than puppy, cried out as lightning shattered the sky and bleached everything into perfect whiteness for a fraction of a second. The storms used to terrify the poor thing, but now they seemed so much worse without Master to hold it close. The puppy had only known Master for a short time, but it had loved the human with all of its small being, the same way the human loved the dog. Through all the thunderstorms that came and all the little illnesses that small creatures got so often, Master would be there until the grey pup was better.

The puppy cried out again as the sky was split by another fork of devil's fire and the whole world seemed to crash down around the animal's ears, the noise deafening to its keen senses. The demonic force of the wind picked it up and threw the pup a few feet away from its former place. Limping, barely able to walk from the abuse it had suffered before Master had taken it in, it fought its way to the stone it was formerly on. It curled up with it's nails dug into the dirt to keep it from getting thrown away again.

Master was the only one who loved it, the only one who had never hurt it. During its whole short life, Master was the only one who had ever cared about it. When the puppy didn't feel good, Master would stay by its side until it was better. And now that Master didn't feel good, the puppy would stay by his side until he was better. The sky was lit up again, giving the scene the eerie grey glow of nighttime lightning. The grey dog sobbed and howled with it, waiting for Master to wake up and be better again.

. . .

In the morning, a boy was wandering though the cemetery when he saw the dog laying in a soaked heap of fur. The thing looked ragged and could hardly move. The boy, who had worked with animals before, could tell it was deathly sick and had no chance of surviving for much longer. He made his way to the puppy, which didn't even open its eyes to look at him. The boy crouched down and read its name tag. "Strange name. Are you Near?"

The dog opened an eye to look at him. The boy took this as a sign of hope and picked it up. He started the carry it away, but the dog squirmed out of his grasp and somehow dragged its battered body back to the grave. The boy had heard of animals staying near their owner's graves until they finally were killed by exposure and understood that the grey puppy was like that. He looked at the grave and shrugged off the somewhat strange name engraved in the stone. It seemed fitting for the puppy to have a strange name when its owner had such an unusual name as well.

The boy looked at the dog. "Was your master's name Mello? Are you missing him?" Near looked at the boy with such sad eyes that he knew there was no way the animal would live for very much longer. It seemed the dog welcomed death if only to see its Master again. The boy shrugged and walked away from the puppy, leaving it to be in peace.

Near thought back on its promises. He would stay by Master's side forever. The dog yawned. He was so tired... It would just take a short nap, and Master might be awake when it woke back up...