PA 3.5: End of a Tail

Chapter XXXI Part VII

The breathy crackle froze his smile. He messed up the delicately grown bob of hair as he peered between the strands and at the snaking form of a lithe, ugly bastardization of a cat.

"Ugh, you again." He clenched Mitt's wand. "Would it kill you to be useful to me?"

It ignored the dead cat and dying wolf, and through the translucence of the demon, he saw a tan-furred feline adorned in the usual Kemono Woods whites and pinks. The blood covering her was little comfort to Patches as she stared him down in horror.

Riley's eyes were torn between the demon and Patches, but the corpse just in front of her popped out as notable through its sheer horror. She stood there stunned, observing how the lifeless eyes gawked up towards the sky, and the few remaining teeth in the cat's upper jaw stuck out like adorning jewels. The lower jaw had been crushed from some resounding force- strong enough to break it, even though it was clear the impact had been made at the collar bone- splintering the neck like someone had taken a sledgehammer to a stalk of celery. The fibrous mess barely clung to the body, making Riley retch again, coughing as there was nothing left to give.

A searing white bolt startled the turkish van, bringing her eyes up towards Patches as he scowled, and ducked underneath a swipe from the bloodied demon cat. With so little room to move, he darted out of sight- past the intersection and down one of the halls. The monstrosity slithered after him with a cackle and grin, chasing away the dalmatian much to Riley's relief.

The respite was short-lived, however, as a raspy breath sliced through the horrific atmosphere, and Riley caught a glimpse of a wolf- Echo, sprawled against the left side lockers, a dozen or so meters away from the dead cat that Riley desperately tried to ignore. She went to him, stepping over the viscera and kneeling aside him, then pressing against the wound with her paws, head feeling light as they squished.

Radiating an amalgamation of a breathless howl and pathetic wimper, Echo's eyes shot open, darting to Riley as the only bit of warmth in this situation. Tears began to well, the cat curling her lips as she sniffled.

"I'm s-sorry, I'm so sorry," she cried.

"Choco," she could hear the blood at the bottom of his lungs, "is he ok-kay?"

She hesitated, studying the dying dog's intensity. Her ears swivelled in fear as her tail shot out. Oh, oh dog. She couldn't do this; she couldn't tell him what happened to Choco.

His paw on her wrist brought her back to reality, shaking the lingering drops from the van's eyes. His claws dug into her fur, still wildly stronger than she would ever be, but his strength faltered as he inhaled, sputtered, and then clutched at his side in pain.

Her heart was wildly pounding away in her chest, halls fading into obscurity followed by the lockers and tiled floor. She forgot the cat, the wolf, even about Patches, so consumed with the sudden thought spiral. The ground fell away, her fur bristling against open void, until that too departed alongside her extremities. For a moment, there was only herself and Echo, and then he disappeared too.

Pinpricks of light tickled her body; taps of sound washed over her skull and rattled it. 'This is real,' she thought, 'Choco is dead because of me. I'm a horrible cat, and I'm going to die here.'

---

"Hey, dude?" Echo asked, stutter growing slowly with his nerves.

Choco turned his eyes towards Echo, hurt evident as he rubbed at his bruised cheek. His sniffles curbed the omnipresent anxiety that came with being in the halls while they were so rampantly populated.

The wolf clutched at his chest, fondly looking at the chihuahua while he tried to strangle his heart, fed up with the secondhand pain it put him through. "You're not ugly, you're beautiful, okay?"

The smaller dog sniffled again, curling his head back into his arms, the genuine words ineffectual.

Echo exhaled, frustrated at himself. He scooped the aviators off of the floor, dusting them off with a digit before forcing a smile and gesturing to Choco with them.

"Stop," was the solemn reply.

"But, you look so cool with these on?"

The dog growled at the perceived mocking, "they make me look like a tool," he said.

"Choco," he nearly demanded, "you know that's not true."

"It is," he said, "I'm done with trying to do what I like, and I'm done with you pretending like I'm not a freak."

Echo felt pressure rising in his chest. He paused, gritting his teeth as he pondered on his next words. "What can I tell you," he began, "what could I tell you to convince you-"

"Stop."

The wolf seethed at the demand, blowing air from between his teeth. He couldn't stand it anymore- the pain in his chest. "Choco," he exclaimed, uncaring of the souls around him and the growing commotion, "I'm sorry, I can't- I don't care if you end up hating me, you need to know."

He swallowed, opened his eyes, and watched as a crowd of students spread around the hall, making way for some sort of horrific apparition that had ascended from the floor, shrieking as its broken face observed the dogs around it. Echo realized how close it was to them- how it was barreling towards their direction with its arms whirling like the blade of a blender. He draped himself over Choco in the moment he had before it made contact, trying desperately to save the chihuahua and failing.

---

It confused Riley, opening her eyes to see Echo's closed, but his chest still rising and falling. He was mouthing words she couldn't hear, speaking as if nothing was wrong like he was dreaming. Some anxious part of herself hoped he would just fall asleep so she could carry him somewhere safe and avoid the question. When she realized his breathing had stopped and his body had gone slack, she gasped, letting go of his wound and letting it settle. She only then realized the amount of blood caking her knees and the hem of her skirt.

She jumped out of the puddle reflexively, staring at the stains and then trailing towards Echo, her stomach pumping again as nausea came back. It was horrifying- seeing the sheer amount of blood a body could hold made her realize how permeable- how objectified people became with just a few cuts. She thought of herself in Echo's position, then cursed her mind's wandering.

Riley turned from the corpse, inadvertently staring at the de-necked and somehow not beheaded cat just a few meters away. She winced, swallowing spit, and then noticed something just outside of the corpse's reach. It almost seemed like a piece of fencepost, but Riley had seen what its ilk looked like. She recognized it as a wand, something that could maybe break the seals on the doors, something that gave her direction in this grim horror.

She could get out of here and save the students inside with this thing-

If only she knew how to use it.

--- AN:

Had a lot of fun writing this chapter, although it took a while and it's ultimately nearly 7k words long. I hope it was a fun read, and as usual, let me know if I should change anything! Thanks for reading!