PA 3.5: End of a Tail

Chapter XXVII Part IV

"Rrrgghhh!" Patches growled, rolling onto his chest and pushing himself up as fast as his terrible body would allow.

The chaos occurring just down the staircase became the least of his worries, as the sharp tones of an awful voice rang terror in his ears. "I'm sorry!" Olive yelled, meeting the dalmatian at the top of the staircase- stumbling back and forth.

Patches was barely able to turn to face the mutt and get off of his paws before the thing slammed into him head-first, clattering against his makeshift splint. His world was consumed by sore pain stabbing throughout his chest, leaving him breathless.

Once they were done rubbing at their head, Olive got into a kneeling position, spared a glance behind themselves, then turned back to see Patches rising up into a three-point landing, staggering to his feet.

The creature's elongated claws scratched against Brownie's fur- then were slammed hard against the wall and down the stairs as a thrumming whip snapped and light flew from Coco's wand into the creature's blob-shaped 'chest.' "Coco!" Rover shouted as he grabbed the nearby fire poker. She was holding her wand in both paws now, at such a length it looked like she was scared it was about to explode. The beam was growing weaker with each passing moment, and the beast's stupid face drooled in a sick mockery of pleasure as it stared Brownie down with its beady eyes.

The poor dog grimaced as she turned around, clutching the newfound flesh wound on her lower rear thigh and letting tears well up in her eyes. She sucked in air through her braced teeth as mucous began to drool from her snout.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Rover shouted at the top of his lungs, catching the attention of the destitute corgi. He slammed the jagged poker into the kitchen door, nearly getting it caught between the cracks in the wood before tearing it clean and walloping it once more. "GO!"

The moment Patches got up and onto his paws, he lazily sliced the wand upward, trying to salvage this failure with a lethal strike that would cleave the mutt before him in half. His wand fizzled and scabs cracked, seeping greenish desiccated blood as the tackle had opened them up. His vision rocked back and forth, while everything he wasn't staring at became blurry and unfocused. He could only glimpse half of Olive's face as they rose up and lunged towards him.

"Patches, stop, please!" they begged, latching onto the rod and trying to haphazardly tug it free from the dalmatian's paw. Were it anyone else, the wand would have left his grasp, but his strength was ultimately equal if not greater than the mutt's. He would've laughed at the attempt, were his lungs not just crushed by his own ribs.

Patches hissed something out between his teeth, then let his body fall backwards for a split second- forcing Olive forward, before he belted them in the chest with his elbow, then quickly followed up with a tug on the wand, which nearly got it free of their grasp.

"N-No!" Olive protested, finding their second wind and trying to twist the weapon away from him.

They both fumbled deeper into the hall, just in front of the open door to Coco's room. Brownie's head became visible at the top of the staircase, slowly crawling towards Olive with a wincing, agonized expression. She watched as Patches stood inside of Coco's room, then struggled to slam Olive's arm against the doorframe, freeing the wand.

"NO! PLEASE STOP IT!" Olive screamed, rushing forward into the room and grabbing Patches with as constricting of a hug they could muster. They felt warm blood tickle their red fur as they squeezed their eyes shut. Almost to their surprise, he hissed at the pain, then reciprocated the hug, wrapping his paws around their back before digging his claws into their uniform and tugging them back- causing the two to fall over onto the summoning circle at the center of the room.

"O-Olly..." Brownie groaned out, reaching with a paw before she sunk her claws into the wood, and crawled up the last stair and into the hall proper. She clawed in front of Coco's door, grabbing onto the frame and using it as leverage to slide her body across the floor and her head into frame.

The wand was already in the air- clutched by a white and black mottled paw. "Don't h-hurt them!" they begged, grasping Patches even harder as the rune below the two dogs began to glow. Patches' ugly, bruised face beamed with pride as the grey light engulfed the two, and then they were gone.

"Olive!" Brownie shouted, digging her claws into the floor and tugging herself towards the circle as it waned, then faded. Granules of chalk swept across the floor in streaks as an invisible wind carried them away.

A gurgling hissing sound was enough to draw her attention from the thing that had just happened. When she looked back down the stairs with wide eyes and fear in her chest, she saw the oversized modern art piece of a demon sizzling and melting under the weight of a pot-full of water. She could barely see Rover at the bottom of the staircase, splashing the container against the thing as its body groaned and sloshed before it let loose a wet, windy hissing sound and collapsed into heaps of congealed off-white semifluid.

Coco blasted the mess once more before the whole thing vaporized into the air. Rover might've been first to ascend the stairs, but his injury and Coco's worry ensured she was the first to stomp up the wooden thing.

"Brownie!" she placed a firm paw on her shoulder, "Are you okay?" She moved to hug the dog, but the wincing form of the corgi gave her pause- she didn't want to hurt her.

"O-Olly," she whimpered, sucking in air past her teeth as her thigh throbbed in pain.

"We gotta go after him!" Rover bellowed, still riled and ready to fight, even with his wound. "We gotta get Sparky back, then we gotta go after him!"

Coco and Brownie clasped paws, one lifting the other up onto her feet as she assessed the extent of the quarter-inch deep duo of slashes just below Brownie's rear, wincing as blood leaked from it and onto the corgi's baby blue shorts.

"Hey! Are you hearing m-"

The bombay returned a glare to the jack russell. "Brownie is dying!"

"Wait, a-am I?" she questioned with an almost comically mortified expression.

"But what about Sparky? Or Olive?!"

Coco clenched her fist tight. "I want to get Olive, but..." Coco hefted the dog in her arms, helping carry her towards the bathroom. "Brownie's bleeding, I-I need to take care of her."

"But- He'll get away!" Rover exclaimed, aggressively limping after them.

"He already got away," she said, shame washing over her features.

"Then- Then please bring back Captain!" Rover shouted, clenching his paws and bringing them up to his hips.

"Oh no..." Coco began to bring her paw up to her mouth. "Patches banished him..!?" The realization made her face drop and her eyes become like saucers.

"Um," Rover fiddled around with his fire poker, taking a second to lean it against the right side wall before continuing. "I- I don't know. Patches used the portal thing- the thing you did when you brought him back, remember?"

Brownie grasped against the wall, breathing, getting used to her injury as the pain began to subside. Coco's witching hat came down to obscure her face in shadows. She bit on the claws of her other paw while butterflies churned in her stomach.

"Wha-" Rover staggered, perturbed at the expressiveness of the cat.

"Sparky..." Coco muttered under her breath. She grimaced, then pulled her hat further over her head, covering the tear beginning to well in her eyes.

The terrier stood still, frozen in shock at what Coco sounded like all of a sudden- begone was the typical angry frustration, and in was the melancholic crackly voice more suited to Olive or that one furless cat.

Her head shuddered as she tried lifting it up to face the dog, "Rover," Coco's ears folded back as she composed her words. "Sparky's..."

"Sparky's not coming back."