PA 3.5: End of a Tail

Chapter XXV Part II

"Olive," he spoke, "I'm saying this out of the bottom of my heart; if me never knowing what happened will make you happier, then I'm fine with it. I'm alright with living the rest of my life- er-" Sparky 'let go' of Olive, backing up to scratch the back of his head and look at his shoulder's blue tint, "un-life? Heh, I'm fine with spending the rest of my time not knowing, if it makes things better."

"It's okay...." they muttered.

Olive looked at Sparky properly, scanning his features with their big eyes. When their gazes met, Olive winced. "I just don't want to feel like this anymore." Their attention drifted the moment they finished their sentence, but after a shake that went through their whole body, they continued. "B-But this is my fault. Everyone's so upset or hurt," they stopped to sharply inhale and drive back tears for a moment longer, "I'm so sc-scared that Coco hates me for what I d-did, Angel is so angry, Ginger's hurt... it felt like you, Rover and B-Brownie were the only d-dogs who were still p-pawsitive, b-but..." They choked up, covering their mouth and squeezing their eyes shut while droplets plucked themselves from the corner of Olive's vision.

Sparky sighed, the words sapping away his willpower.

"I don't want to hurt P-Patchie! I want to b-believe he's still a good dog, and he just needs us to help him." Olive's teary eyes opened, then shifted to the floor, shame growing. "B-But I already tried that, and now everyone's hurt. I know if I trust him again, he'll h-hurt everyone, but I just want to believe in him! I-It makes me think I shouldn't be happy, and that if I try to make everybody happy, I'll j-just end up hurting them again..."

"Olive..." Sparky muttered, his whole body sagging with the news. He let his knees unfurl and hang lowly along with his arms, then shut his eyes and contemplated.

There was a sudden set of striking knocks at the door. "Captain? Captain please open up! You need to talk to me!" Rover demanded, voice muffled heavily and barely audible. He jiggled the locked door, trying to get in, then banged on the door again.

"Rover? I'm fine! Please, just... em... give me a second!" Sparky shouted, ignoring the barely audible words Rover would then spout off, and turned his head back to Olive. "Do you want to talk to him?" he asked.

Olive responded with a souring expression and a curt shake of their head.

Sparky grimly nodded, "Okay, that's fine. But please, can you go downstairs? I don't want to tell you what to do, but it's dangerous away from Coco. She has her, em, wand. I don't think anyone would be able to just-" he gestured with a paw, "appear in here, but it's better to be safe."

Olive let their eyes sink to the floor before pressing their paws against the basin of the toilet and using it as leverage to get off of it. They slumped towards the door, passing by Sparky on the way there, trying not to bump into him despite the fact there was truly no way to make physical contact with the dog.

"Wait." Sparky turned around just as Olive passed by him. He reached out a paw towards them somewhat dramatically, trying to get their attention by tapping their shoulder before he remembered what he was. "I... I just wanted to give a piece of advice, it might not help all that much, but..." he paused, retracting his arm and looking to the floor, almost unable to look at the red dog before him.

Olive regarded him, albeit barely. It seemed they were unconvinced of their self-image, but the paradoxical nature of it kept them from expressing any hope for change. If he was ever to say anything to ease their worries - he thought - it had to be now.

"Olive, you have family and friends who really care about you," he winced, shutting his eyes as it felt like his words were impacting against a solid wall of depressive emotions, "people who genuinely want to see you happy. And, I know it's not always easy to be happy, or heck, even to just be not sad, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try," he balled his paws up, then looked at Olive with hopeful desperation, "or that we should give up!"

A sharp whining noise made the husky stop and look at Olive to make sure they were okay. The dog seemed fine, raising a paw up to their muzzle and wiping at a few drops that would otherwise stream from the mutt's eyes. He wasn't certain of the nature behind the tears, but he knew they weren't the same kind as the desolate ones he witnessed before.

Sparky let a more sombre expression coat his features. "There are so many people out there who have it awful, and so many of them are lonely or sad or hurt. And sometimes, the idea that it's always been like that makes me feel like it'll never change, and that things will always just get worse. But things can get better, and they have! Cats and dogs are with one another now, for the first time in history! It doesn't matter - all the stupid, awful stuff we've done to one another - we forgave one another and started to make things better." He chuckles, "I never thought I'd attend classes with a cat, or be friends with a bunch of em!"

"B-But Patchie..." they mumbled, barely audible in between the husky's speech. "He just wants to hurt us... I tried making h-him happy but..."

Sparky stopped, took a deep breath to regain his constitution, then continued softly. "I don't know what made Patches want to... hurt me, but, it has to be for a reason." Sparky clenched his paws, raising one up to his head and cupping it. "Nobody wants to hurt people, and it doesn't justify what they've done, but... I guess I just wish I knew what we did to Patches." Sparky muttered, letting his eyes close as he crossed his arms. He forced a smile. "That's all. I just wanted to get that off my chest..." he paused, looking up at the mutt, "I'm really worried about you, Olive."

Another knock at the door was punctuated with Rover's voice. "Hellooooo?! Sparky? Blink twice if you're in trouble!"

Before Olive gripped the door and unlocked it, they looked at Sparky with inquisitive eyes but a face full of disbelief. They didn't seem any better at first, but when he made eye contact, they looked away from him, unsure.

He began to turn around, disheartened, but stopped when Olive spoke up in a murmur, "Thank you..."