PA 3.5: End of a Tail

Chapter II Part I

"Evening," 

The dalmatian pinched his fingers, tipping a hat towards the sky as the sun healed his wounded pride. 

"Ah... Sun is nice, but, I wish I could just get that nice," he shifted his back against the aspen digging its young bark into their back, "fuzzy feeling from the smell of blood. It'd be fun finding a random corpse out here..." he ignored the grumbling in his midsection, "... Maybe with a lunchbox in its backpack..."

 He sat under one of the last clusters of flourishing trees in the forest. The scenery reminded him of a simpler time when all he had to worry about was motivating himself to study boorish, non-bloody topics like maths or science.

He briefly wished he would've had the opportunity to snag a book from the library or his locker; it was going to be a long while before Coco and the others stopped looking for him, and he'd have plenty of time to waste between now and then. Patches stared up at the dull blue sky, only somewhat visible from beyond the canopy of oak leaves.

A light chatter stirred him from his solace, voices of more dogs returning home.  Although sluggishness kept it down, Patches was able to move his sore body with some coaxing, adopting a crouch behind the tree. Immediately, his heart began to beat with the irregularity of seeing more of the ex-zombies, and he observed them with the hope they weren't cast into the forest with the hope of finding him.

"Why did I have to drop that *dogdamned* wand," he hissed at himself.

He continued circling the tree, keeping himself out of sight while the thoughts of gutting and flaying all of the group bubbled up, leaving a smug sensation that made the corners of his vision feel fuzzy. 

"I could just- lure one away, kill them, then grab another to use as a hostage and then..." His thoughts bloomed in a way they hadn't since-

"Uh... sorry, I-"

Patches' fur nearly lept off his body. He quickly spun around, stumbling over an exposed root and crashing to his butt. He heard the dog gasp, then loom over him alongside the canopy above.

He quickly sized up the dog, tired eyes scanning the thing for weapons, before calming down somewhat. "Yes?" he asked, sass bleeding through his voice, "What do you want?"

"I- Sorry I was just lost, and I was wondering if you were too? I- I don't know where I am, and you- are you okay? You look like you're h-hiding from..." the dog trailed off.

It was just now that Patches saw the pup in full; it was some rat terrier, brownish fur bleeding from the black splotches that surrounded her yellow eyes, streaming down her overgrown hair and down to her muddied paws. Her coat was a dirtied white from the tip of her muzzle down to her neck and likely down to her stomach.

The dog folded one of her ears forward and the other one backward in apprehension, both painted in the same brown that adorned her cheeks, trickling down to the light brown bob that curled up in front of her face. She had a brown-white paw raised to her cheek in worry and another one idly at her side.

Her clothes were still torn, ragged from the week the dog had spent as a corpse. Aside from the typical pants and shirt uniform combo, she wore a filthy purple zip-up hoodie adorned with an enamel canid skull pin over their heart. "I'm sorry... you just seem familiar," she added.

Patches wanted to taunt the dog further, but held restraint. He wasn't feeling like entertaining a dog with his kinder demeanour, but his habits demanded he do it anyways. He frowned, blowing air out of his nose as he rolled his eyes. "Well, I'm sure I'm not the only dalmatian in this school, but I'm afraid I don't recall you. What's your name?"

"O-Oh, it's uh, but," the dog paused, looking Patches up and down, staring at his face for an uncomfortable amount of time, "are you sure we haven't met? Maybe when you were- well- you know?"

Patches cocked an eyebrow and folded his paws behind his back. "Dead?"

The terrier looked down at the floor, seemingly in shame, and began to fiddle with the strings on their hoodie.

The dalmatian widely shrugged in response. "I don't know why you're shy about dying; everyone does it sooner or later." He gestured with his paw, trying to see if he could edge towards his knife without the dog noticing it. "You should be happy! Some incredibly charitable and attractive person thought to put us back together; it's not often people get a second chance at life."

The dog furrowed her brow, seemingly conflicted.

"And speaking of people. You wouldn't happen to be with anyone else, would you?"

The dog shifted her eyes to the ground, uncertain of something. "I... No, I didn't know if-" the dog cut herself off, shaking her head, "no, it's just me." She reached out with a paw, almost as if she wanted him to take it.

Patches chuckled and rose to his feet unaided, "Well, you shouldn't be alone out here. The woods are dangerous, who knows what kind of creature might take advantage of a little terrier such as yourself."

The dog grumbled absentmindedly in response, staring at his pants and letting her eyes trail up to his chest in a rather unsettling manner.

Patches coughed in an attempt to catch the dog's attention properly. "Ehem, oh, but where are my manners? I'm Patches, and you are?" he put a paw on his chest to punctuate the sentence.

The terrier didn't flinch, still staring at the floor in deep contemplation.

"Well, I can see this conversation is going nowhere- the school is that way," Patches gestured in a southward direction, entirely away from the place he had run from. "I'll be heading there soon myself, but I need to relax for a while first; why don't you join me for a nice long nap?" he asked, gripping the knife's handle from within his vest, glad to have swiped it from the ground without her notice.

The terrier didn't immediately respond and still stared at the floor as her eyes widened. "Ghost- you were the ghost," they said calmly, "I remember you were the one that was with that bloodhound." She looked Patches in the eyes, "You- You made me a zombie." Most of her features were still slack, but her pupils held recognition.

Patches took a step towards the dog, irritation twitching his eyes narrower, until they were slits. "Cat's out of the bag then? Hehe..."

--- Author's Note:

Art by Nutella on the Pancake Puppies discord! Thanks so much to them for their talent in helping design and drawing Dell.

Additionally, I recently received this artwork as a gift. You can imagine this is Dell non-abstracted using the PA art style (and is probably closer to what she would actually look like as a result).

Credit goes to the amazing Jaq Daw Art on Deviantart: https://www.deviantart.com/jaqdaw-art

I just love the little sweat bead and the scuffs on her uniform in this image.

Thanks for reading!