During The Hour Of Joy, DogDay finds himself trapped in a real nightmare; being imprisoned by CatNap and tortured for years.
He never knew what became of his friends. He never knew if they really died, as CatNap told him numerous times during his to...
Let's start from the beginning. Obviously, I thought the threat was directed at LuckyLlama. Since he, being the last Rejected Critter, was going to be taken away. I even thought they would take one of ours; to DogDay for being the leader; Bubba for being the smart one; to Kickin, as he seems to have gotten into more trouble by confronting them.
But I soon learned that was not the case.
When I came back with the others and explained the whole story to Bubba and DogDay, Crafty and I stood next to LuckyLlama, because the poor little guy was shaking with fear. He had been hiding in a nearby wall the entire time, and he had heard everything. I was afraid that something would happen to Lucky, and at the same time, that something would happen to us. If they ended up really attacking us, we were screwed. Only the blood, the pain, the cold, the tears, the loneliness came to mind. My biggest fear was thinking that we would suffer those horrible sensations.
So when Bubba suggested we go somewhere else, a wave of relief surged through me. I remember LuckyLlama taking my hand and sighing a little, possibly in relief, too. When we left for the old hideout, I was very close to LuckyLlama, and later to Hoppy, who for some reason had taken a little longer to join the rest. The vast majority of us were exhausted, and hunger attacked me again, but we didn't stop walking until we reached our old hiding place, which was still intact, just as we left it when we left. I almost felt like we were back at square one, when we were living with fear, paranoia and our own secrets.
When I arrived, the first thing I did was fall to the ground, almost fainting due to exhaustation. Still, Hoppy helped me up, and we made it to one of the box shelters we had built in the past. I saw Hoppy a little tense around me, a little overprotective of me. Before, any threat towards us was taken very defensively, but this time it was different. She was hiding something. In fact, she refused to leave the box shelter even when I insisted. Before we went to rest, Hoppy stopped me for a moment. She gave me a piece of paper from her jacket pocket, said good night, and left the hiding place. I held it in my hand for a long time, unable to open it. I knew it was going to change my life, and no, it wouldn't be for the better. But I had no choice but to open it.
I unfolded the note and read it.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The world fell at my feet. Wasn't it for LuckyLlama? It was...for me...but why me, dammit?! Fuck, fuck, FUCK! What the hell do I do now?!
How do I tell the others?!
...Wait a minute! What if I don't tell them? Although not telling them, in the long run, will be a problem...
I have to tell it to someone I trust, who I know that they are not going to tell it out there. Maybe Bubba can understand it...
...No, of course he won't be able to understand it, am I stupid? Bubba has suffered enough, I think too much. If I also tell him that they are going to take me, he will have a heart attack. I can't do something like that! But I can't keep it to myself, they deserve the truth, both he and the others!
