PA 3.5: End of a Tail

Chapter XXVIII Part III

Dell grunted out a "Eughf!" as her paws hit the dead soil first, mere inches away from an unfilled grave. Soon after, her elbows went slack, her body slowly bent backwards, and she flipped upside-down, having the back of her legs smack against the open grave. Now laying down on her back, Dell oriented herself, looked to the left, and began to painfully get up as she saw Cujo loudly cursing as he tried to open the door.

Cujo had already dashed to the window, trying to pry it open from the outside and cursing as he realized the chalk rune prevented its opening. He peered in through the window, trying to see past the beige curtains and into the living room. "What the hell is that?!" he exclaimed, reeling.

"Cujo, wait, please..." Dell panted out. "She didn't tell you... She- Coco's the one who killed you, she killed..." Dell couldn't speak any longer, and she held onto the handle of the front door to catch her breath. It felt like her brain was on fire- just an incomprehensible tangling of burnt nerves and flesh, completely unable to process what was happening. Someone hurt her, something had just hurt her a lot, but she needed to tell Cujo, to warn him of what Coco did, that she killed them. He needed to know.

"Coco killed you!" she yelled as he bared the knife, slamming it against the window and causing the rune to flare, leaving it without a scratch.

"I know!" he shouted back, baring his teeth at her, quickly toning down his voice in recognition at how loud he was being. "I know she killed a thousand dogs, I know she killed me, I know she hid what she did from everyone, but it's okay!" He paused to widely gesture with his arms at Dell, "She's better now! She loves another dog, I've seen it with my own eyes. She's okay! And she was the one who brought us back from the dead, yeah?" He cracked a glimmer of a smile at her, making the terrier worry. "Just listen to me for once. Please Dell. Put aside how you feel about Coco, and help me save everyone else in there, okay?"

"C-Coco ch-changed your memories... you don't know what she d-did," she said, shivering, moving closer towards him as strength began to return to her limbs.

A deathly serious tone and visage overtook the previously pleading ones. "Dell! I am done with this; it is not her fault I'm angry at you, it's yours." He jabbed a paw at her, scowling. "You messed up, stop being so afraid of that and just help me."

She could see it in his eyes- he just wanted to be done with her- to graduate and not have to suffer knowing he had tried and failed to help her out of her neverending rut. It terrified her.

"I don't get it!" Cujo yelled, frustrated at seeing Dell's sudden horror. "Why are you so hard to help?! All I want is what's best for you, but you keep hurting yourself, and I don't know what I can do anymore!"

Her eyes winced, she adopted an open-mouthed frown, and tears began to form in her eyes again.

"I can't help you!" he pleaded, "I can't! Especially when you keep on doing stuff like- like this!" He pointed to the window, "We need to get in there and help them!"

"Cujo we-"

"No, no, no! I can't do this anymore!" he exclaimed, flailing the knife around haphazardly. "I can't deal with school, with my friends, with my mom, with this whole-" he reeled his knife back, chucking it at the window and predictably having it plink off harmlessly onto the dirt, "STUPID thing, AND with you!"

"Cujo!" she begged, bringing her paws together.

He anxiously smiled, huffing out his frustration in between words, "Dell, I'm sorry if this is dramatic or something, I really am, but until this whole thing is dealt with- I don't want to talk to you. We're through."

Tears ran from the corners of her frozen eyes, her face a picture. She stared on, fixated at the point Cujo had been as he stormed past her, willfully ignorant of how that had made her feel. He heard her muffled sobs as he went past, shutting his eyes and shaking his head lowly in disappointment. His heart panged with guilt when he heard her bite down into her hoodie and let loose a muffled yell of pain into it.

The bitter wind picked up, making him grimace against the biting cold. Ashen muck stained the bottom of his feet, and he felt the drizzle of rain become greater- slowly turning it into a torrent. When he got to the window, the dog sighed, and raised a hand up to clutch his head.

"Dell, look, I'm sorry," he spat, cringing at the combined weather and drama of the situation. "Just stay there, I'm going to try and break down the kitchen door."

He couldn't bear to look at her, keeping his head hung. He could faintly hear the sounds of magic and shattering china through the kitchen, spurring him onto grabbing the sides of the windowsill and beginning to hike his leg up and into the kitchen. At least, he couldn't hear her crying anymore, or maybe she had stopped.