Housepets: Curse of the Werenut, Chapter Six
Chapter Six
The first thing Grape realized when her senses began to return
to her was that she was comfortable. Her
head rested on a big soft pillow, and she was laying on a smooth, silky
bed. The sheets that covered her were
soft as well, leaving her neither too hot nor too cold. She let out a sleepy sigh of
contentedness. This was an awesome
bed. Maybe she'd died and gone to
Heaven...
Her eyes shot open as memories from the previous night
returned to her. Had she died last
night? The last thing she remembered was
that she'd managed to break Peanut's curse, and then she'd blacked out from her
wounds. It was possible that she'd
died. More than possible.
At that moment, though, the sickening scent of medicine
reached Grape's nose, bringing her back to the present. She shook her head, trying to clear it of the
vile smell. This place smelled like the
vet office. She wasn't in Heaven, she was
in Hell!
A gentle murmur below her caught Grape's attention, and she
looked to see Peanut sitting next to her bed.
His head was resting on the edge of the mattress, and he was fast
asleep. Grape blinked. She WAS in the vet office! Sitting up, she felt some strain on her
arm. It was covered in bandages, she
saw, and an IV was hooked to her vein.
Her arm throbbed dully where Peanut had bitten her last night.
The door to her room opened, and the vet walked in.
"Ah, good," he said.
"You're awake."
"What happened?" Grape asked her voice was still
groggy. The IV must be feeding pain
killer into her system, she realized.
"Peanut brought you in here in the middle of the night," the
doctor answered. "You were in pretty bad
shape, but he managed to get you here just in time."
"Did he say what happened?" Grape asked, a chill running
down her spine.
"He didn't, actually," the vet looked at her, "Would you
mind telling me?"
"I... I don't really remember," Grape said softly, looking
away.
"That's normal, I'm afraid," the doctor replied. "After what you went through last night, a
little memory loss is to be expected."
"How bad was it?" Grape asked, looking down at her wounded
arm.
The vet sighed, "I'll be honest with you, Grape. If Peanut hadn't gotten you here like he did,
you most likely would have died. A lot
of veins were torn where your arm got bit, and you lost a lot of blood." He looked down at Peanut, "You should thank
him when he wakes up. The first thing he
did when we got you in here was offer to give blood. He's the reason you're still alive."
For the first time, Grape noticed that Peanut, too, was
wearing bandages around his arm. Her
heart throbbed, and she felt tears sting her eyes. Reaching out, she rested hew paw on his
shoulder, "Thank you, Peanut," she whispered.
"He was up all night," the vet explained. "The poor pup refused to leave your side
until you woke up. He's probably
exhausted."
More than you know,
Grape thought.
"Your parents came in to see you too," the vet went on. "They had to leave for work, though, when I
told them you were going to be okay."
Grape was hardly listening, though. She was still staring at the puppy asleep at
the foot of her bed.
"I'll leave you two alone for now," the vet said, jotting
something on his clipboard and leaving.
Peanut yawned, and sat up.
He stretched and popped his neck before rubbing the sleepiness out of
his eyes.
"Hey, Peanut," Grape said.
Peanut's eyes opened wide, and he turned to look at her.
"Grape!" he shouted, half in shock, half in joy. He leaped from his seat and wrapped his arms
around her. "Grape, I thought you were
going to die!" When he pulled back,
there were tears coming out of his eyes.
"The doctor said I'm going to be fine," she replied. "How are you feeling?"
Peanut backed away, averting his gaze awkwardly, "It doesn't
matter," he said glumly.
Grape creased her eyebrows, "What's that supposed to mean?"
she asked.
"It was my fault you got hurt," Peanut answered. "I was the one who did it!"
Grape bit her lip in agitation. How was she going to explain this one?
"I... I'm sorry, Grape," Peanut said, now close to the point
of bawling. "I really messed up this
time. Worse than I've ever messed up
before. And the worst part is that you
were the one who paid for it. I just
wanted to make sure you were okay before..."
"Before what?" Grape asked, a pit forming in her stomach.
"Before I left," Peanut finished. He finally looked up at her, "I'm the one who
hurt you, and I'm not going to let that happen again. I- I'll miss you, Grape." He began to back towards the door.
"Peanut, wait!" Grape shouted. The pup paused. "Don't go!"
"But I..."
"It wasn't your fault!" Grape asserted. "It's Pete's fault!"
"Pete?" Peanut asked.
"You mean that gryphon?"
"He threw a beam of moonlight at you," Grape explained. "That's what caused all this."
"Moonlight?" Peanut echoed.
"But why?"
"It was so that you would hurt us," A new voice said. Peanut spun around to find that Tarot had
opened the door and come inside without him noticing. "If we got hurt, then Dragon would have to
either call of the game or spend a lot of time and energy getting new pieces."
Peanut froze, "He wanted me to come after you, didn't he?"
Tarot nodded solemnly, "That was his plan. Without me, Dragon wouldn't have an avatar."
"You see?" Grape spoke up, bringing the conversation back
around, "it wasn't your fault!"
This still did not seem to cheer Peanut up, "But what about
the neighbors? They all saw me. You even told Max my name!"
"I've already taken care of that," Tarot promised. "I've altered Max's memories so he doesn't
remember it was you. I've also spread a
rumor around the neighborhood that a bear attacked Max's house. Nobody will ever know that it was you."
Peanut was still for a moment, and then he reached down and
picked up Tarot in a big hug.
"Thank you, Tarot!" he exclaimed. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
"So, does this mean you'll stay?" Grape asked as he put the
Pomeranian back on the floor.
Peanut hesitated, "Are you sure it's all over?" he
asked. "I won't change again?"
"The wolfsbane cured you," Tarot promised. "It also made you immune to the curse if Pete
were to try this again."
Peanut slowly made his way to Grape's bed and looked at her
arm, "I know this isn't my fault," he said slowly. "But I'm still the one who did this to
you. How can I ever forgive myself for
that?"
Grape reached out and began to scratch Peanut behind his
ears, "How about if I say I've already forgiven you?"
Despite Peanut's determination to remain serious, he
couldn't help but roll his eyes back in pleasure and stomp with right foot.
"I love you, Peanut," Grape said with all the sincerity she
could put into her voice. "And I don't
want you to leave. Not now, not ever."
Peanut looked at Grape, his eyes wide with adorable puppy
love.
"All right," he said before leaning in and giving her
another hug. "I'll stay!"
High above the vet office, Dragon and Pete were hovering,
completely invisible to mortal eyes.
"I hope you've learned something from all this misery you've
caused, Pete," Dragon said.
"Hmph," the gryphon huffed, turning his back to his
friend/rival.
"Don't you understand, Pete?" Dragon persisted. "You may be a demigod, but you still have
feelings. Look at them down there. Can't you see how much they all care for each
other?"
"Hmph!" Pete said again, more forcefully this time.
Dragon flew forward and put her hand on his shoulder, "Everything
turned out all right, so I won't report this to Heaven's court. But just promise me one thing, okay? Don't ever do something like that again. Our games don't have rules just to keep us
from playing fair. They're there to
protect the mortals. To protect them!"
she pointed down at the three friends.
"Just... please, don't do anything else to hurt them."
For a moment, Pete was silent. Finally, he turned to face Dragon, "I don't
want to lose this game any more than you do.
I make no promises for the future, but for what it's worth, I'll try to
play fair from now on."
"That's all I wanted to hear," Dragon agreed. "Now come on, I hear God is having a
cookout. Race you there!"
And with a violent gust of wind and a blinding flash of
light, they were gone, and life went on in Babylon Gardens just as it had
before.
The End.