Not Alone - Foxy's Return

Chapter Four

༻Bad and Worse༺

The days went by. Slowly, they dragged on and on.
Foxy kept expecting Niki to come bursting through the doors any moment, a smile on her face. But it didn't happen. A week went by, then another. Still he stayed, hoping the little girl would return.
At the beginning of the third week, Foxy had started to wonder if she'd either forgotten how to get there, or forgotten about him entirely.

It was strange. He never really cared whether the kids remembered him, since there were always so many. But now, Niki was the only one, and the idea of her forgetting about him or not wanting to see him again made his ears droop.

It was midday on Wednesday, and Foxy was half asleep, curled against the lighthouse, when the distinct sound of foot steps coming fast down the hall startled him awake. He was in the lighthouse in a matter of seconds, door shut as he stayed still and silent, listening. He heard the door to the cove open and shut, and quiet footsteps walking to the middle of the room.
He only relaxed when he heard a familiar voice call his name.
"Foxy, are you still here?"

He opened the door and emerged, seeing Niki in the room, dressed in jeans and a small grey hoodie. She looked over when he opened the lighthouse door, and he saw that her expression looked sad and dull, and her eyes were ringed with red as if she'd been crying.
Concern showed in his bright yellow eye as he kneeled in front of her.

"Are ye alright, lassie?"
Niki shook her head. "My mom was really angry when I came back to her after the day I visited you again. She grounded me and wouldn't let me come back, until today. And then today she said I couldn't go wander off and had to stay with her while my sister played. I almost couldn't even come, but I snuck away when she wasn't looking."

She looked on the verge of tears again as she added, "She was mean to me this week. She got really loud and angry. It was..." She paused before saying in barely more than a whisper, "Scary."
She looked down as a few tears managed to get through, and she quickly wiped them away with her sleeve, not meeting Foxy's gaze.

He felt a mixture of sympathy for Niki and annoyance towards whoever was the person making her feel this way. He lifted his eye patch so she could see both his eyes.
"Well... Ye here now aren't ye?" He asked, trying to cheer her up. "She can't be mean to ye when I'm around, or she'll be walkin' the plank!"

Niki giggled at this, which was exactly the reaction he'd hoped. He stood up, giving her a kind look.
"Ye can have all the fun ye want 'ere, lass. And ye always welcome."

Niki grinned, drying her eyes. "Thank you, Foxy." She murmured, wrapping her little arms around his waist as best she could, being small. He ruffled her hair with a gentle paw, before watching as she darted off to investigate the little ship structure, which was surrounded by an octopus cutout. She clambered up the ladder to stand on the metal ship, spinning the fake wheel as if it were a real ship at sea.

Then she glanced down at Foxy, who had settled against the small couches that were nearby.
"What happened?" She asked. "That made them want to take you away? Why did you run away?"

He was surprised by her abrupt question, hesitating. He pushed away the bad memories that threatened to take over.
"I did something bad, by accident." Was all he said.
But Niki didn't seem satisfied with that as she climbed down the ladder and ran over to sit in front of him. "What did you do?"