PA 3.5: End of a Tail

Chapter XXIV Part II

When the duo finally saw the estate cracking between the immense foliage surrounding it, there were still no words. She expected the house to be imposing, but she hardly imagined the atmosphere of cawing crows and rotting trees would play a part in the estate's surroundings.

"This looks awful," Dell said, regarding the death surrounding the place. She noted that the building itself was completely untouched by its surroundings- there were no vines grasping the bricks, no moss caking the underside of the shingles, and no spiderwebs occupying the doorway.

Dell looked over to Patches curiously, noting the dog was staring off in the distance towards the right side of the path, almost as if looking for something amidst the nearby foliage. She saw nothing of note, except for a tree which had splintered apart as if struck by lightning, and nobody seemed to care to clean it up.

Patches turned his head back to Dell. "I'm going to go ahead and get the runes set up. Just keep to yourself and don't touch anything." The dalmatian took out a marker from his pocket- one of Dell's own, she noted, but it'd be far too petty to call the dog out for marker theft when his crimes were innumerable already. He quickly trotted past the opened gate, drawing out a piece of blue parchment from his right side vest pocket, and studied the folded thing for a moment, then began scribbling a sigil onto the floor.

The squeaking of the spongy tip against the concrete stonework began to grate against Dell's ears, but what annoyed her more is the fact he had chosen her favourite marker to do this with.

"Hold on," she said, throwing her backpack off of her shoulders and taking a look inside. She quickly grasped a set of rather useless highlighters that had a dimmer colour than most. "Could you maybe use this one instead?"

Patches turned around, staring at the dog as she approached him with her arm outstretched. Patches was confused for a moment, hovering above the barely-formed sigil before he looked at her weirdly and asked, "Really?"

"Yeah. Those markers are expensive; I got them for christmas."

Patches could barely contain his bemusement and looked at the dog with addled eyes before capping the thing and sticking it out for Dell to grab. "If it makes you happy," he said. She meekly took it in her paw, stowing it away in her pocket before quickly handing off the highlighter.

It didn't take long for the rune to get finished, and Patches stood up from the ground, admiring his handiwork for a second, before beckoning Dell over. "Ladies first," he said with a gentlemanly gesture.

Dell crossed her arms. The moment he had let those three words slip from his mouth, she realized just what he could do by having her alone on something as dangerous as a magical circle.

"What?" Patches asked, quizzical.

"Well... what if Coco's there?"

"Why would Coco be in the bathroom?" Patches retorted, cocking his brow.

"Is that a rhetorical question?"

"Pfft! But you're always saying how you want to catch her with her pants down," Patches chuckled.

Dell grumbled at the poor humour. "I don't think it's a good idea that I go alone."

"Oh don't lie to me Dell, you just don't trust me." Patches frowned, narrowing his eyes at the dog. "But fine! Give me a moment, and I'll step onto the circle with you."

Dell rolled her eyes, letting them rest away from the dog as he went about creeping up to Coco's door, then fiddling with the handle. She heard nothing from inside the house, and the only indication it was occupied was by the curtain-drawn windows being lit across the house.

"What are you doing?" Dell asked plainly, staring down the hunched over dalmatian as she realized he was scribbling something on the door, just by the handle and overlapping the doorframe. The dog finished his scrawlings, and as he pulled away from it, Dell could see that the dog had drawn on another barely visible sigil, adorned with fish and eyes much as all of them were.

"Just a precaution." Patches stuffed the highlighter into his pocket alongside the parchment, drawing out Mitt's beribboned wand and taking a step towards the circle.

Dell ignored Patches and pondered on the purpose of the sigil for a moment longer, then suddenly it clicked. Rather than complain about the door now being permanently locked and that which would it imply, Dell looked at the dalmatian frustratedly, then stuck her paws into her hoodie and walked onto the circle. Dell felt intensely uncomfortable this close to Patches- she was close enough to feel the warm air exiting his nostrils and hitting her long hair. The dog was still having difficulty breathing with his bruised rib, and she couldn't help but wince imagining the pain this dog had been through these past few days- and the pain he would make himself endure.

She thought back to the time she had clutched his body, and for the first time since then, empathized with the creature. She wondered what kind of drive could allow him to ignore his injuries and the cold, and seek out these people. She silently hoped things would end better than she envisioned but knew any outcome other than his death was impossible to pursue. Her thoughts made her sigh.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" she asked.

Patches almost chuckled, "Of course, Dell. We've both come so far... Do you want to back out?"

She stared at him from the corner of her eyes. She turned herself away from the dog, and they were side to side now, nearly back to back as they had to scrunch onto the sigil. She wondered if he made it so small just to torment her more with his presence.

Their shoulders brushed up against one another as Patches raised Mitt's wand, then quickly swirled the head of the wand about, making a light ringing noise as grey energy suffused the circle and began to emanate from it.

The light slammed into Dell- she could feel it taking her, rooting her into the rune, and tried to slip her paws out of her hoodie instinctively, only to find the light shining from it wasn't just there for show- it was as if it had pierced her like spikes, and held her in place. She was worried for a second that this was a trap and that she'd die at any moment, and tried opening her mouth, but the glow held that in place too. Although it only took a second, the strangeness of it shook her, burning it into her memory.

The sigil flared just brightly enough with dim light to encompass her and Patches, then grew dark as the drawn circle became faded, and neither dog was left to be seen in the cold autumn atmosphere.

--- Author's Note:

Oh GOD THE FIRST UPLOAD WAS SO BAD. 

Hopefully, now things are a bit better and less memey.

Sorry for the bad first reading experience, and I hope this is at least a bit better. 

Thanks for reading!