PA 3.5: End of a Tail

Chapter V Part IV

"Hey Brownie!" The sudden, slightly deep voice of the tallest dog in school was unmistakable to Brownie, but Dell had never met the husky, making Dell feel very self-conscious about her height all of a sudden.

"Oh, hey Sparky," she said back.

For her part, Dell stared at him, then back to Brownie, and muttered something about getting going.

"Oh, where are you guys going to?"

"The library, I think. Didn't you hear that Ginger wants to speak to us?"

Sparky looked a little confused and crossed his arms. "I... Pretty much just spoke to her about 15 minutes ago, right after the assembly. What does she want to meet over?" Sparky looked to the side, punctuating his question.

Inhaling quickly, she opened her mouth and made it talk, "He- I mean, she found... she sensed someone hiding in the bushes outside. I was just about to go looking for you, actually. Rover is uh... he's working on grabbing everyone else, I think."

"Didn't you say we were going to discuss a change of plans?" Brownie asked.

Sparky shook his head and chuckled, patting Brownie's shoulder. They both just evaded the guilty look that came over their conversation partner.

The corgi sighed. "Well, I guess that does kinda count as a change of plans." She suddenly brought a fist to bear, emphasizing her words. "But why does she want us? I know we're her friends and all, but we'll just get in her way if they fight."

The husky's t-shirt crooked at the elbow, an indentation working itself out where his backpack strap burrowed into his black jacket. "I don't know... she kind of reminds me of myself back on Halloween."

"Sparky, that's because she was you."

"No- Brownie, I mean she looks stressed. I'm really glad she's asking for our help; if something bad happened, I'd want to be there so I could stop it." Sparky stopped rubbing his head, then gestured down the hall. "Let's talk about it on the way there, I don't want to keep her waiting If it is Patches, or someone working with him, then this is serious."

Dell, for the most part, walked behind the duo silently as they spoke. In exchange, loneliness projected a vast distance between herself and the air. She sucked in bits of oxygen through the holes in her atmosphere, but as they closed up, her thoughts came to her:

Even though her memory was foggy, she would never forget the cries and screams of Cujo, nor the sensation of her eyelids being wide open, but the pearl within squashed by a wooden chair leg. They didn't know that, but for a moment, she imagined they did, and that they would help her. 

"As I was saying, I think she's pushing herself too hard, I spoke to her earlier and she said she wouldn't rest until Patches was dead."

"Jeez. I don't think she meant that literally though; maybe just tell her to go to the nurse's office and catch some Z's?"

"I don't know... I think she blames herself for bringing Patches back from the dead."

Something about her body still ached, a phantom pain of her bones being bent backwards out of her body and her lungs failing. She always felt the weight of dead classmates on her arms, pinning her, forcing her to die slowly and stare at the golden retriever she couldn't get over.

"Well then we just gotta make sure to catch him now! I mean, that's what this whole thing is about, isn't it?" Sparky asked, turning around to face the terrier.

There was a moment of silence. Brownie frowned and spoke up. "Helloooo?"

Suddenly, the terrier was broke from her trance, shaken by Sparky after noticing her lagging behind.