PA 3.5: End of a Tail

Chapter XXXI Part II

With a smirk and a gesture, Echo grabbed his friend by the arm and walked themselves out of the bathroom, letting go once they were in sight of Riley, and greeting the van with a tiny wave. "Sorry for the wait, how much time do we have left?"

Riley kept her emotionless eyes fixated on her iPawd, dully listening to some sort of rock song. Just as Echo was about to comment, she spoke up and interrupted him. "It just started, we're missing it." The cat rubbed at her face with a paw, clearly unhappy with the delay- she almost looked sick.

"It's not too far away," Echo replied, "I'm just glad you were lucky enough to find a dog, you'd be totally lost otherwise- this school sucks."

Choco smiled, and Riley took her head out of her paw, murmuring a sarcastic, "tell me about it," laden with nearly inaudible voice cracks.

"Actually, hey," Choco began, waiting till he had Echo's attention before continuing. "Club just wrapped up and, uh-"

"If you wanna come along," Echo smirked, "we'd love to have you!"

Choco thanked him with a nervous smile, not noticing the upset murmurs and awry gaze Riley cast in their direction. She wordlessly followed, quickly outpacing them and listening in to their conversation about confectionaries.

In the midst of plucking her earbuds out, she heard something- a faint nothing that made her stop in her tracks. It was before the group. a couple of halls down.

"Hey, did you just hear something?" Echo asked, sweat beginning to bead.

"Uh," Choco said, looking over to his friend and murmuring, "Are you okay, Echo?"

"H-Heh," the wolf murmured, "Nothing, I'm just hearing things again, sorry."

Just as the two began looking uncomfortable, Riley spat out the butterflies in her stomach. "Just someone yelling. I heard it too."

With an intense frown, and total silence as the cat stared at the two dogs, Echo pried open his mouth with an unsure garbling of words. "It- It sounded m-more like a scream." He shot Riley with a sudden glare, making her curl her eyebrows just a tiny bit and back up at how creepy it was. "Are you screwing with me?"

"I-I-" Riley was so confused, was this dog about to attack her or something? His composure had changed so suddenly. "No, I'm not?"

As paranoid thoughts of the dog gnashing her throat out flooded her mind, he calmed his sharpened expression, and sighed. "Sorry, I meant- that came out wrong."

"Should we check it out?" Choco asked, concern painted across his features.

"Choco, it's a high school," Echo sassed, "It's probably just two kids running in the halls."

The chihuahua frowned. "I mean, that's true. You just seemed-"

The van's ears piqued, and her eyes changed expression for the first time since either dog had met her. She didn't need to tell them what she had heard, Echo whipped his head towards the sound, then spoke what Riley was too scared to utter.

"Was that a scream for help?!"

The van swallowed, staring off into space. It was Echo grabbing her shoulder that kicked her back into reality. He moved her forward, face militarily determined on marching down the hallway with both of them in tow.

The van grasped at Echo's hoodie before he parted with her. "A-Are you serious?" Riley barked out. "What if it's Patches?"

The wolf gave her a weird look.

"I'm serious!" she yelled, "What if?!"

"Then we'll run and tell the other volunteers, alright? We're going down there anyways."

Riley violently but briefly quivered. Then squeezed her eyes shut. She only opened them when a warm paw rested itself on her arm, and Echo tugged her forward, further towards the erratic screams.

"C'mon you two."

--- AUTHORS NOTE:

Thank you for reading! As always, let me know if you have any critiques! I'm really eager to know how I can improve. Thank you!