The Appreciation (Extended)

Chapter 5: Wish You Were Here

A while later he arrived at the park, feeling worse than ever.

He was cold, hungry and miserable, and all alone.

He looked at the bench and sighed.

"I guess I'll have to sleep outside..."

He laid down on the bench shaking and shivering, ears flat against his head and closed his eyes as fresh tears began to pour down his face as he began to cry.

Usually, in situations like this, he'd have Darwin or Anais or Penny or someone to help him, but not this time. For the first time ever he had no one to turn to. No one to help him. No one to come bail him out. No one to comfort or reassure him. No one to hug. No one to cry to. He was completely and utterly alone.

He was so, so scared. He didn't know what to do. He'd thought he be able to handle looking after himself just fine, thought he'd know exactly what to do, where he should go, but he was wrong. Add that it was really dark outside and there were a bunch of unfamiliar noises and he was absolutely terrified.

He began to whimper and cry harder.

Right now he just wanted to be with his family, more than anything else. He'd give anything, anything to have Darwin here with him. To hug him, comfort him, assure him everything would be okay, they'd work things out, everything was gonna be just fine.

He felt the touch of Darwin's fin on his paw, felt it being squeezed. He looked up but no one was there. He went to touch his paw, feel Darwin's fin but the feeling disappeared.

He'd do anything to see Anais' smile, hear her laughter, and feel the familiar warmth of her hug.

He heard Anais giggling and couldn't help but smile slightly. Knowing his little sister was happy hearing her laugh and seeing her smile, never failed make him happy too.

He felt the warm sensation of her hugging him and looked down but again no one was there and the sensation faded.

He'd wanted nothing more than to feel his Mother's warm, soft fur embrace him, hear her soothing voice reassure him. Anything to hear his father's laughter, anything to bury his face in his large, warm, squishy stomach.

Now he heard his Mother and Father softly calling his name and felt their embrace as his father chuckled. He looked but again, he was just imagining it.

They began to repeat over and over, Darwin, Anais, Mom, and Dad. It began to get overwhelming.

"No...no stop it!"

They began to get faster and faster. "No...stop! Stop it, please!"

Now they began overlapping each other, getting louder.

"Stop, stop, stop!" He held his head and began shaking it as he closed his eyes, squeezing them shut.

He could barely hear himself think, his head hurt as their voices flooded it. He heard a voice faintly telling him to wake up in the background.

"STOP, PLEASE!"

"Wake up!" There it was again, getting louder, more so than the other voices.

"AHHHHHHHH!" He screamed in pain as it became unbearable.

"Wake up!"

He shot up screaming and breathing heavily, before realising he'd fallen asleep on the bench.

He looked up and sighed when he saw it was still dark out. He couldn't have been out of it for more than an hour or two.

"Sir, you can't sleep here. I have to ask you to move." The donut cop asked him.

"Aww, come on, please!"

"Sorry, it's the law. You have to move."

He sighed. "Oh, alright..."

He slowly got up again and began to walk away, not caring where he was going, too focused on the pain he was in.

He held his stomach as it growled for food yet again and he began to cry again.

He was so, so hungry, cold, scared...

...and alone.