PA 3.5: End of a Tail

Chapter IV Part IV

The Basset-Robbins was only five or so minutes away from her house, but it was deeper in the town, along its commercial strip. While easy for Dell to appear there, she knew it'd be a different story for Patches, as he was away from the suburban parts of town.

Dell worried if the dalmatian would even show as she passed by the small parlour. Patches wasn't in there, but the reason for that was made very apparent; she had only now just realized an ice-cream shop might not be open at 8 AM and groaned in frustration at her own incompetence; she genuinely wanted something frozen at this hour.

"Aghh why am I so dumb?!" she exasperatedly whispered at herself. "He's not gonna sh-" Dell felt someone tapping her shoulder and froze up, surprise clutching her heart for a moment, before she spun around into the welcoming gaze of the dalmatian she had met last night.

"Hello puppy!" he said in an excited tone. She was speechless for a moment, trying to grasp the concept of what words were, before finally speaking.

"He-Hello!" Dell had sweat pouring down her face from the sudden surprise, and her mouth was wide open, with the sides of her lips pursed into an awkward smile as she searched for more things to say to the taller dog.

He waited for a moment, smile sustaining but fading as they both stood there waiting for the other to say something.

Patches broke the silence. "Riveting." He rolled his eyes. "Class starts in ten minutes, so you had better hurry up and tell me what you wanted me out here for." Patches took up a spot in the doorway of the parlour, finding the solid sides to the entrance proving a good enough cover just in case anyone coming down the street might spot him.

"Well... I... uh..." She had a lot to say, but he was right; there was barely any time to do it before she had to be in homeroom. "Okay, okay, so, your.. uh... friends? They told me what happened and... even if what they said is true, I don't think I can forgive them. Or, I mean, her."

Dell watched as the dalmatian maintained his jovial demeanour, leaning against the door while looking at a nonexistent watch.

"I mean, I don't think most people at the school remember that the black cat killed them, and I don't think they remember you were the one that brought them back, but I do."

Dell closed her eyes, body shaking, as her thoughts went back to the fateful day where the school's halls were filled with screams and splatters, remembering Mrs. Aussiepom scrambling for the door's lock as a ghostly paw cut through the door, slicing her head clean in two, and terrifying the room.

As it floated past her corpse, its disfigured face stared down the nearest student, screaming in gibberish as it cleanly clawed through their attempt at retaliation with a desk chair. Many of the students thought to flee or hide, but there was nowhere to go in the small, cramped room, and Dellanor simply watched wide-eyed as all the classmates she had known were cut into pieces. She barely registered a paw grabbing her by the arm and tugging her out of the way of one of the ghosts.

"Of course, I died in a classroom, but... one of... my only friend, Cujo, grabbed me and ran behind the teacher's desk, he told me to stay still, and then..."

Patches was still listening, mostly, but was counting the seconds leading down to the ten-minute mark. This dog was exceedingly slow at telling her story and glanced off towards nowhere occasionally. He could only grin as she told her story.

"The ghosts slashed through everyone in the room. Some of them tried running for the door, but something was holding it shut from the outside. I- I remember crying, I was terrified- a ghost barreled past the door, it was so fast- I-" The dog frowned, lifting up her right arm and clutching her chest with the paw. "Cujo pushed me out of the way of it. He was just-" She was shaking now, and she brought her left paw up to her chest as well, clutching her heart as her arms shook. "The ghost collided with the desk we were hiding under, and it... the desk exploded into bits and pieces, all over me. I couldn't move, and I was buried for... I don't know how long. It took such a long time, and I couldn't even scream. Once everyone was dead... the door opened, and that- that thing, that cat-"