✨-JJ- ✨ blessed, favored, & loved

"Mornin' ladies!" Kitty said to her two anthropomorphic roommates upon entering the living room.

"MORNING KITTY!" Pigtail yelled energetically per usual.

Kitty chuckled. "Morning, Pigtail." She said softly while walking to the kitchen. Doom was sizzling some plant-based bacon on top of the stove — she was standing on top of a stool, yet she still had to tiptoe on her talons to lean over the oven. 

"Hey." Doom nodded to Kitty, who nodded back.

"Hey~"

"You want some protein?" Doom asked while Kitty rummaged through a cabinet or two to grab an apple.

"Nah! I'm good." Kitty was about to take a bite into the fruit but a sneeze into her wrist interrupted her from doing so. "aaPSH!"

"Gesundheit." Doom joked with a smile.

"Heh." Kitty sniffed, then rubbed her nose. "Thanks." She strolled out, then sat beside Pigtail. Her nose twitched. "PSH! Ugh..." She rolled her eyes, shook her head, then chuckled while she rubbed a spot of dirt off her apple.

"You okay, Kitty?" Pigtail thoughtfully asked.

"I'm fine!" Kitty immediately responded before sniffing sharply and biting a chunk of juiciness out of the fruit. " MmMm! Soooo GOOD" The buff leopard did a celebratory dance with her shoulders. Pigtail copied it at a slower pace.

"Oh! I forgot to show you." Reducing the heat of the pan from medium to low, Doom sprint-shuffled out of the kitchen, went into her bedroom, and returned with a filled flower pot in hand.

"I bought these yesterday!" Doom shoved the flowers into Kitty's face. They were Lisianthus flowers, otherwise known as flowers whose petals were white with purple edging. "Do you like them? I thought I'd put 'em on the coffee table."

"Oh! They're really nice." Kitty's nose burned with an itch, but she forced a smile anyway.

"You sure? Your face says otherwise." Doom rested a wing on her hip.

"I uh- I- they're really-" She stammered before she tucked her head forward into her wrist. "aaPSH! PSSSH!"  With each one, her body shook.  "Ugh!" She sniffled. "I'm so sorry, but I think I'm allergic." She leaned back from the flowers, her fist blocking mucus from dripping out of her nostrils.

"Oh!" Doom's eyes widened. "I'm sorry, I had no idea you had an allergy." Without hesitation, the raven shuffled to the couch, placed the flower pot on the center of their square coffee table, and came back. While Doom made the quick trip, Kitty waved her hands back and forth. "N-no, no, it's fine! I should have told you two. I guess with this whole-" She moved her paws in circles as she tried to think of the word. "-transition, my mind's been on other things... y'know?" A small line of mucus tried to stretch out of her nose, but she sniffed it back up.

"Here." Doom grabbed a neatly folded tissue from one of her hoodie pockets and offered it to her.

"Thanks. 'Scuse me for a sec." Kitty blew into it as hard as she could to unclog herself of disgusting mucus. When she was done, she crumpled it up and threw it into a trashcan on the other side of the room with one arm.

"OHHHHH! GOOOOOAAAAALLLL!" Pigtail leaned back on her chair, fists raised to the air.

"We call that a basket." Kitty politely corrected.

"Oh! BAAAAAASKEEEEEEEEEETTT!" Kitty and Doom laughed at the boar's lovable energy.

"Wow, Kit. You've really changed since your release." Doom acknowledged.

"Pssssh...oh stooooop." Kitty threw her hand at Doom. "I haven't changed that much, y'know." With her ears drooped and tail tucked in, Kitty crossed her arms in her armpits with a semi-circle smile.

"True! But you've gotten a lot more gentler."

"YEA! Back in bad days, you got soooooo angry! Now you're chill as popsicle!!" Pigtail added.

"Well, I guess I'll give y'all that." Kitty complied. "OH sh[beep]!" After looking at her beeping watch, Kitty sprang out of her chair like a cartoon character, then quickly put on her combat boots, bomber jacket, and black baseball cap.

"Welp, she's still not perfect, but- I'd take this Kitty over the twisted one any day." Doom muttered to Pigtail, who thoughtfully nodded and giggled.

"I'm sorry to cut our morning short, but-" Kitty jerked back, quickly saved a plant pot she had bumped into, and repositioned it on the marble countertop. "I gotta get a move on if I'm gonna spar with Diane." Kitty stopped in front of the door after sliding her duffel bag onto her arm.

"Oh yeaaaah, it's Twoday!"

"Tuesday, Pigtail." Doom rectified gently.

"Whoopsies. Twwwwwosday, hehe."

"Close enough."

Kitty laughed heartily. "Aight, I'll see you gals later!" She saluted them with two fingers.

"BYE KITTY! Have fun!!" Pigtail grinned.

"WAIT, Kitty, do you wanna take some Claritin with you?" Doom quickly questioned.

"Naaaaaah, I don't need it!" With that final comment, Kitty swished her tail out and carefully closed the door behind her.

"Annnnd she still has a bit of an ego on her." Doom shook her head and snickered. "Aaa, what am I gonna do with her?" She mumbled.

Kitty dashed down a flight of rickety stairs to get to the parking lot. She was looking forward to drive in her car, but her excitement was tarnished when she realized her automobile was now a small gray Prius.  "Awwww man! I always forget..." Shrugging her shoulders, she squished herself into the vehicle. Though it was a snug fit, she was able to make it work without having to call one of the girls for assistance.

She huffed at the fact that her body had to be tense and compact in the car. "Note to self: once I get paid, I buy a new car."

-20 Minutes Later-

After cussing at reckless drivers and navigating through tense traffic, she had made it to the gym. Throwing her duffel bag and bomber jacket over her back, she locked her Prius before hurrying up a small flight of stairs.

When she entered the facility, she immediately saw Diane, who was sitting on a bench and sipping some water. When the fox turned to look at the door, she jumped up to hug the leopard. "Kittyyyyy!" "Diane!!" Kitty cherished the embrace.

"Oh, I'm so glad you could make it! Let me take a good look at you." Diane pushed the leopard's shoulders together, then took a couple of steps back from her. Kitty rolled her eyes when her brain reminded her of all the times as a teenager when Diane would examine her in the same annoyingly heartwarming manner.

"WOW you've grown." Diane chuckled, her face beaming with fondness. "What a beautiful woman you've become."

"Well, a lot of things can happen after a decade." Kitty shrugged her shoulders. Her nostrils tingled; now was the worst time for this to come on again. "atPSSSSH! Damn it..." Kitty mumbled and sniffed.

"Hm. Not everything changes, I guess." Diane teased.

"Shut up." Kitty grumbled before taking off her cap, unzipping her duffel bag, and grabbing her sparring gear.

"Whaaaaat?!? I wasn't gonna call you a spray bottle!" Kitty threw her bomber jacket in her face. "HEY!" The fox cackled in delight.

"You know how much I hated that nickname as a kid." Kitty retorted playfully.

"I know, I know." Diane sighed, sitting down beside Kitty's bag on a fancy bench. "I was your caretaker for 8 years, after all."

"Yep. Technical mother by the legal stuff, but acted like my big sister instead." Diane smiled; her tail perked up. "Or a clumsy aunt." Diane threw the jacket onto the back of Kitty's head. "HEEEY!"

"You started it! I just had to return the favor." Diane smugly replied, smirking.

"Pft. Suuuure, we'll call it that." Kitty winked at her, which made them both giggle in a youthful frequency.

"Well, you ready, kid?" Diane tossed a smaller duffel bag which still held the cloth wraps they would wrap around their hands.

"As I'll ever be~" Kitty smirked.

"WHEW! Wow, you've improved!" Diane yelled over their loud hits against their own punching bags.

"Of couuuurse! Haven't you noticed my muscles?!?" Kitty shout-teased. "Watch this." Diane gave her some room. A couple quick punches, a kick, and a roundhouse.punch applied in the proper areas for the punching bag to fall from its steel beam and thud onto the floor.

"Wooooaaah! Looks like someone was practicing those pressure points." Diane high-fixed the leopard. "Wanna spar now?"

"Oh, it's ON." They crab-walked in a circle. "You're going down, grandma."

"Grandma? I'd rather you call me the master." Diane smoothly retorted before the duo took their fighting stances. Diane quickly adjusted her boxing gloves; Kitty did the same with her headgear. A second later, they went at each other. Whatever punch Kitty threw at her, the fox dodged or blocked it with the slightest body shifts. Diane was nailing her gloves.

"Whew! Good thing I got protection." Kitty remarked in between breaths before sending a sucker punch to Diane. The force of it made Diane hunch over like a frog. If Diane didn't have balance, she would have fallen on the floor, and Kitty would have won bragging rights.

The blow was so powerful that Diane actually had to crack some tension out of her left shoulder with a shoulder circle. "Whew. You're good, alright!" Diane came back with a kick that sent Kitty to the helium-filled mat in the corner. "Not as good as me though."

After a few seconds of lying still on the mat, Diane walked over to her and held out a hand. "You good?"

"Yep!" With a grunt, Kitty pushed herself up and let Diane pull her back on her feet. "Can we break real quick?"

"Of course."

The duo walked not the locker room to hydrate. As soon as the cool, tasteless liquid entered her system, Kitty's face jolted into her elbow. "atPSSH! GOD!" Kitty winced and pressed herself hand to her head temple.

Diane snorted, snickered, then laughed at the top of her lungs. With a sniff, Kitty pressed her fist to her nose again. "What's so- aaPSHT! ugh... funny?" Kitty asked in a low tone.

"N-nothing, it's just-" Diane wiped a tear from her eye with one of her furry orange fingers. "I guess your outburst just now reminded me of the times when you would get frustrated with your allergies come springtime."

"Oh, I se- aaPSHCHU! UUUUGGGGGGHHHH" Kitty buried her head in her hands. "This is soooo embarrassing..." She mumbled like a angsty teen, sounding a little congested.

Diane laughed some more. "B-bless you, HAHAHAHAH!"

"Haha, laugh it up." Kitty snorted mucus. "I guess my suffering gives you j- joy- atPSH!"

"Bless you." Diane said more seriously. "Are you okay? You didn't catch a cold now, did you?"

"No, I- WHATAREYOUDOING?!?" When Kitty wasn't paying attention, the fox had laid a hand on her forehead.

"Relax! I'm just checking your temperature." Kitty coiled back from her.

"Diane, girl, I love you, but I'm a GROWN WOMAN now. You don't need to baby me anymore!" Suddenly feeling hydrated, she put her water bottle down, flicked her tail, and reopened her duffel bag too put her gear back on.

"Sorry, Kit. I guess the time gap hasn't fully set in for me yet." Diane mumbled, looking down at the floor. The leopard's untouchable heartstrings had been tugged.

The buff feline huffed. "Look, I'm sorry, I just-" She sighed. "I'm still getting used to other people being around me. Other authentic people.  I've been a one-woman-show for so long, I guess I've forgotten how to let others help me just because, y'know?" 

"I get it." Diane replied. "When little you came into my life, it took me a while to get comfortable with sharing my space. And my energy."

"Yeah... And to top it all off, I've got these stupid allergi- you're kidding me- eEe- atPSH!"  Though it was a smaller one, it still made her head throb nonetheless.

"Bless you. Do you need some medicine or anything?"

Another inhale of mucus that wanted to come out. "No, I'll be fi- ine- atPSH!"

"Bless you."

"atPSH!"

"Bless you."

"atCHIU!"

"Oh my god, BLESS YOU."  By the time her small fit had concluded, Kitty's eyes were watery, her nose was running like a faucet, and her pores felt unbelievably clogged. Her head was pounding so bad that she thought she was going to collapse. She wheezed and breathed heavily as the fit suffocated her intake of oxygen. "Are you okay?!?"

A loud sniff. "Guh... nebermind what I saib earlier. I'll take da medicine."

"Oh, you need more than medicine. We gotta take you home."  Diane said after grabbing Kitty's things and holding them herself.

"B-bub-"

"Nope! No 'bubs!' The more you're out in public, the more pollen you're gonna inhale and the sneezier you'll get!"

"Bub I wanna keep goiiiiiiiingggggg-"

"We can finish where we left off another time." Diane rested her hands on Kitty's slumped shoulders and smiled at the stuffed up feline in front of her. "Your health comes first! Besides, how are we gonna have a fair match if your allergies are weakening your performance?"

"True..." Another loud sniff. "Hey, Diane?"

"Yes?" The fox asked while she walked beside Kitty and supported one of the leopard's shoulders.

"Fank-" She snorted some more mucus in, then coughed a few times. "Fank you."

"For what?"

"Everything." Diane rested her head on Kitty's shoulder.

I woke up yesterday with a crick, congestion, and a strong desire to chill in bed all day.

Sunday, at last. After stretching my body over my bed to shut up my angry alarm on

my dresser, I forced the lower end of my body to rise, my feet to fall to the floor, and

my legs to shuffle to my bedroom door. With my Stitch plushie in hand, I yanked a

stubborn tissue out of a tissue box and unclogged my nostrils. It was normal for me to

wake up a little stuffy, but it wasn't normal for said stuffiness to persist throughout the

day, let alone my nose to profusely run like a faucet.  With a bagel in hand, I slumped into

my office chair, gently plopped my adorably expressive Stitch plushie on a empty side of my desk,

and chomped into a plain bagel.

After finishing some quick tasks I wanted to finish yesterday evening, I got changed into some

day clothes, brushed teeth, and untangled my brunette hair that had blonde highlights and

ruby red tints in it. Back to sitting in the office until my stomach signaled for

lunch. Type up some words for my next writing piece... done in two hours. Switch to the

tablet and add some video ideas to the continuously growing list of edits... finished in

30 minutes, 4 times faster than what it took me to take my hurricane of fic ideas and translate

them into a non predictable plot made up of captivating sentences. Grab the thin rectangular box

that held my white pen and color a drawing of my trollsona that was the perfect clone of myself. 15

minutes of that. I looked back at my daily to-do list and there was... nothing.

Everything was finished. That was a shocker. Not sure what to do next, I grabbed Stitch and marched to

my tranquil, bubbly pink bedroom.  Then I just... sat on my bed. My mind was racing with so many things I could

do next to be productive, yet my body quietly pleaded for a break.

Why are you just sitting around? There's a bajillion other tasks you could finish right now with all this free time.

There's no time to relax! You got your break time Friday night. Now up and at em! Usually, I would give in to

my brain's incessant demands, but my heart said otherwise.

JJ, never mind what Miss Overthinker up there says. Just relax, sweetie. You've earned it. Did I though? I mean,

my brain had a point. I had been bellyaching about not having time to just do whatever I want, and now that I did,

I wanted to waste it all on taking it easy? That didn't sound right. Then again, when was the last time I ever

shut my brain off? When was the last time I didn't reach for my phone to yap to my friends during the

long periods where I didn't have something important to do?

Don't you dare. Rest comes later. Right now, you gotta keep grinding. Quit putting the rest of your duties off!

You have done your 'duties.' You've quite literally finished everything you needed to finish this week. You're putting way

too much pressure on yourself, dear.

'Putting too much pressure on yourself' my behind. If you can't learn how to keep going through pressure, you might as well

kiss those dreams of yours goodbye. Diamonds form under pressure, grapes are crushed to make wine. Wake up!

You're not helping her!

YOU'RE not helping her!

The more the two sides of myself argued, the heavier my eyelids got, the quicker my breathing became, the smaller

my strength and willpower were. My heart was racing so fast I thought I would surely pass out on top of my squishy mattress.

My joints were limp and weak. My head was warm. A whirlpool of tears was about to burst and spew out the emotions I had

bottled up for weeks. Day in, day out. Early rise, late slumber. Do homework, do creative, do this, do that. Yes, these tasks

were important to me, but they weren't boosting me anymore... at least, not in a conscious sense. Instead of happiness

and energy multiplying within me, they were being constantly sucked from my soul with all these responsibilities.

What could I put off for a bit, then? Nothing. School was non-negotiable, of course, but... my creativity was too. If I restrained

myself from getting out my creative juices, my heart would only ache more.

This was the moment when I truly felt helpless in my own skin. I was divided and torn on the inside. Where was the balance, the

oddly peaceful eye of this hurricane? How could I be able to feel like I was doing enough while letting myself rest and recharge when

needed?

What is the supplement to this addiction to work and productivity?  I had no clue. The only thing I could control in the overwhelming,

confusing, infuriating tornado of uncertainty that spun in my moody insides was my breathing, how hard I hugged Stitch, and how strongly

"Josh, hurry! She's losing a lot of blood!" Milo yelled at the red-haired Troll who bolted to his car. The one time he didn't park in front of the skatepark was, ironically, the one time he needed to actually be parked there.

Panting, he touched his hand to the motion sensor so the trunk could slowly slide open.

"Come on, come on!" He mumbled to himself while he cleared a path through the random junk that filled up his trunk. "There it is~" He sighed with relief when he spotted the first-aid-kit lying in the right corner of the trunk. Grabbing the tip of the trunk and slamming it closed, he sprinted across the empty parking lot with the kit in hand. His legs burned, yet he didn't give in to the strong desire to pace himself. He only ran harder, faster, stronger.

By the time he had reentered the skate park, his legs kneeled to the floor, causing him to smoothly slide to Milo and the scene of the incident. "I-" His wheezing was so heavy he coughed. "GOT IT!!"

"C'mon, c'mon!" Milo urged.

"I can't get the blood to clot!!" Evelyn screamed shakily. Kkflap. Josh immediately opened the kit, snatched the roll of fabric bandage, and swiftly covered every wound on Jaelyn's body. The abrasions dotted on her arms, the cut slanted across her forehead that gushed out burgundy, the small streaky scrapes peppering her cheeks, even the severe gashes on her knees that were covered by her blood-soaked pants.

"Jaelie?" She continued groaning and moaning out her pain. "Jaelyn, how bad is it?"

The tears in her eyes were already proof enough that the situation was dire. "E-everything hurts. I'm stinging all over." She choked out, her lip quivering like a wave and nose twitching.

"I'm so sorry." Josh apologized with all his heart. "If I could go back in time and prevent what just happened, I would." The guilt hanging over him only thickened when she started to silently weep. "I'm sooooo, so sorry, sis. Shhhh, sh, sh, sh." He cautiously wrapped his arm around her neck and hugged her. She leaned into him to return the thoughtful gesture. "I got you. I'm never letting go again."

Milo and Evelyn nervously glanced at each other, then stared back at the emotional-wrecked duo. "Josh, I think she needs to ride on an ambulance." Milo lightly proposed.

"What? N-no, I can take her-"

"Josh. We already called emergency services." Evelyn lowered her head. "I'm sorry."

His eyes widened. "W-what?! No, you- you couldn't have. You guys know I-" Jaelyn stared at him with fatigue and a cracked smile. "I-" He shook his head in horror, then buried himself in his hands.

"He's come down from shock." Milo whispered to Evelyn, who nodded. They didn't know what to do to make everything feel lighter. They could only be bystanders to the pain that was eating the siblings alive. Just when things didn't look like they could get more intense, sirens shot through the heavy atmosphere.

Before Josh could even process it, his sister's condition was quickly evaluated and treated before she was lifted onto a stretcher and rolled into the ambulance. His heart stopped for a second when he watched the vehicle roll out of the area and turn left to the nearest ER.

He dropped to the blood-stained concrete and started sobbing into his hands. Evelyn and Milo had never seen him so heartbroken before. "I was supposed to protect her!" He screamed, gasping in air. "I'm her big brother, I'm supposed to KEEP HER FREAKING SAFE!" He yelled from the depths of his distraught soul while punching his hands into the pavement. "What kind of a sibling am I?!?" He screeched once more, out of breath.

"Josh-" He stopped Milo from finishing with a raise of his hand.

"I promised her, I promised our parents... and now I've let them down." His breaths quickened.

"Josh, what you're feeling is absolutely normal, but-"

"I can't..." He wheezed sharply. "I can't keep doing thIIIIS" A wheeze attacked him, inducing hard coughs.

"He's having a fit." Milo alerted Evelyn. "Get his inhaler." She yanked his backpack leaning on the side of the skate wall and zipped through each of its pockets, scrambling through their contents as fast as she could. "Evie, hurryyyyyyyy!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming!!" Evelyn was about to break down herself, but the storm swirling inside of her dissipated once her hand touched the inhaler. "Here, here, give it to him!"

"Josh, just breathe, bro." Milo said firmly while Josh breathed into it.

"Better?" Milo asked beside him once the hyperventilating had ceased.

"I guess..." Leftover tears stuck to Josh's eyelashes glistened in the disturbing, blazing orange sunset.

"What can we do?" Milo questioned.

"Yeah, we're here for you, Josh. Just name it and we'll help." Evelyn added.

"Early hugtime...?" Josh put a fist to his lips before his body shook and his face scrunched into unshakable sadness.

"Come on, Ji! We need to go!" My mom yelled at me while my eyes stayed glued to the explosions of red, the flames burning the trees that slid down from the hill into our secluded forest, the thick, sinister smoke cloud billowing in the air.

With a yank of my arm, we were off. I drowned out the yells from my mom and others that were directed at our neighbors who were oblivious to the blazing scene behind us. I was entranced by the lively conflagration. Though it slithered closer with every passing second, I felt nothing.

My mom snapped a word in Mandarin to someone which made my head turn to what was in front of me. While we ran past all the familiar bamboo huts and businesses, some scrambled for their belongings. Others stay put, moving their hands to direct as many as they could to the safe place.

Before it registered in my brain, we were at the ravine where Mom and I would always go to think, relax, and simply spend one-on-one time together. I clutched my stuffed doll.

"Are you alright? Are you hurt?" My mom kneeled down to my level and brushed a strand of my orange hair out of my face. I shook my head. "Whew, alright..."

"Everything's gonna be okay, Jia. I promise." She reassured after a pause, hugging me while our bushy tails of red and white wagged slowly. At the sound of a scream, my mom looked up at the hill, her pointy white ears standing up. "I'll be right back, baby, okay? Don't go anywhere!"

"Mama?" I asked, stopping her dead in her tracks. "Are you gonna put out the fire?"

Her panicked face softened to a smile and a loving but exhausted stare. "No, dear. I'm just gonna help some of our friends, okay?"

"Okie." I hugged her again, my paws tugging at her silky kimono. "I love you."

"I love you too, my sweet girl." She kissed my forehead, waved goodbye, and dashed off.

"Bye Mama!" I waved happily.

I sat on squishy, dewdrop grass for hours. I played with my doll, waved to those who had arrived, stared at my reflection in the tranquil water, yet she hadn't come back. The red glow brightened, the sound of burning wood got louder, yet there was still no sight of her. I was about to go check on her when FWOOSH! Embers glided over the hill I called home and fizzed out on strands of grass.

"EVERYONE! TREAD ACROSS!" Some villager yelled before I got mixed up in the wave of red pandas that made up our small, quaint community.

"JIA?" I heard a voice faintly scream my name.

"Mama?!" I called out. My voice was too tiny over the screams of the pushy, fear-paralyzed mob. I was too short to make out who that short, fuzzy red figure was when those of the same color attacked my vision during their frantic dash to the water.

I stood as still as a statue in front of the now rushing river. I was terrified. Mama hadn't taught me how to swim yet. I felt someone lift me up over their shoulders.

"I got you, Ji." A familiar voice boomed.

"Bao!" I wrapped my arms around his neck.

"Heeeey, little sister! Long time no see!!" I wasn't related to him by blood, but he was like part of the family. Whenever Mom took me to her origami shop, he would always play with me whenever he wasn't preoccupied with work. "Where's your mom?"

"I don't know..." I lowered my head.

"Oh. Well, she's gotta be somewhere in this crowd. I'm sure we'll find her when we get across." Sweet, optimistic Bao. Little did he know what we were about to be in for.

"YAY!" I squealed, equally naive as he was despite him being 17.

It was crowded on the other side of the peaceful river. I didn't know how much time had passed, but it was certainly past my bedtime.

"You good, Ji?" Bao asked me after I squeak-yawned.

"Yeah... where's Mama...?" I could barely keep my eyelids open.

"i'm not sure. Once we get the call to go back, we'll search for her, okay?"

"Okie." I squeak-yawned again and rested my head on Bao's big, pillow soft arm.

I was about to fall asleep when a yell from the other side of the ravine had replenished excitement into me. "THE FIRE'S OUT! It's safe to come back now!!"

"YIPPIEEEE! Come on, Bao, come ooooon!" I pulled his arm with all my might.

"We're going, we're going!" Bao threw me up onto his back once more.

"WEEE!" I squealed, then giggled. I loved his piggybacks.

What was once a thriving bamboo village had been reduced to ash. Embers floated in the air like phoenix feathers. The smell of smoke still wafted in the air with the cold breeze of wind. While I heard others gasp and break down at the devastation, to me, it was just stuff. All I wanted was my mother.

"Mama! Mamaaaa!" I called out jubilantly. No response. I continued calling for her. My voice shrinked with every desperate cry. I shouted until I couldn't shout, I walked until I couldn't walk.

I tried to stay positive, attempted to look for the small ray of light in the darkness like she had always taught me to do, but I had used up all my happy-go-lucky juice.

My doll dropped to the scorched, rocky ground. Tears streamed down my cheeks like the waterfalls we used to admire from the hilltop. My throat got a lump in it, one that she couldn't heal with her food. My heart sharpened with and pumped out pain, pain that couldn't melt away in her hug.

"Mama..." I squeaked out while my smoke-filled lungs choked under the grief. "MAMA!" I screamed with all my might before I bawled. I couldn't stop yelling for her. She was out there, she had to be out there. She couldn't have left me already. We were supposed to be together forever.

We started training outside when the sky was crisp blue, now it was streaks of orange and milky purple.

“C’mon Kitty! We’re almost there!” Diane — the fox so many feet ahead of me — yelled over her shoulder.

“Wait!” I squeaked out. Holding myself in a squat, I gripped my burning thighs. I thought I was going to throw up with how fast my heart was replenishing and pumping oxygen in my veins.

“Woah…” I heard her mutter before she jogged back to me. “You good, kid?” I heard her ask gently.

“I’m fi-“ My voice was yanked away from me by a wheeze, then a couple of coughs.

“WOAAAH, woah, woah, okay. Let’s take a break.” Diane rested a hand on my back and nudged me forward to a bench she passed ages ago.

I slammed my bottom down on the wooden seat and leaned my neck back as far as I could. “UGGGGGGH” I groaned a little louder than intended.

“Here.” Diane tossed me my water bottle, which my sweat-soaked hands almost dropped.

“Thanks.” Flipping the straw up, I gulped down the bland liquid until it got too much.

“Wow, are you okay…?” Diane raised an eyebrow and nervously stretched out the corners of her mouth after I coughed into my wrist, then wiped my damp bottom lip with one of my knuckles.

“I’m fine, I’m fine. Yeesh…”

“Heh. And here I thought you’d be grateful for my concern~” She folded her legs on the bench and gripped her ankles. Her eye had that playful glimmer in it.

“I am~” I retorted.

“Hm, I guess angsty teens aren’t good at showing it then.” She teased before I smacked my elbow in her arm. “OWWW!” She rubbed the spot I poked while laughing. Her giggles infected me.

“You have a nice laugh, kid.” Diane said, her face beaming with fondness. The compliment made me get all flustered.

“Really?”

“Mhm!”

“Wow… noone’s ever told me that before.” I muttered under my breath.

“Am I finally melting that edginess of yours?”

“N-NO!” I couldn’t hide my red cheeks. “Ugh, okay… you got me.”

She giggled again. “I always do~ Well!” She stood up with a grunt. “You wanna get back at it?” She reached out a paw, but I didn’t take it. I kept sulking.

“What’s wrong?” Diane tilted her head. Her eyebrows furrowed with compassion.

“How much longer do I have to keep going like this?”

Diane groaned and shook her head, then sat back down. “Kit, I love you, but- C’mon, we’ve been over this so many times now!” Her lecturing only made me curl up more.

She sighed. “Look, I’m sorry for sounding a bit harsh, but-“

“A bit…?”

“…Okay, a lot, but I’m giving you tough love because I know you can handle it.” Diane stood back up again.

“Here she goes…” I murmured, leaning my head on one of my paws.

“You’re special, Kit. And somewhere deep down inside you, you know that.” My eyes widened. “I know you didn’t expect me to say that, but… it’s the truth.”

“Thanks, I guess, but why do you keep pushing me so hard?”

“Because you’re worth it.” That warmed my heart. “Plus, again, I know you can handle it.” She put her hands on her hips. “After all, if I’m training the next great conwoman, I gotta treat her as such.”

She offered her paw again to me. “Now c’mon. Let’s get back to it~” This time, I took it. I yelped when a seething cramp surged from my right ankle. I grabbed the aching area with my hand and winced.

“What happened, wha- what’s going on??” Diane immediately asked, taking a couple deep breaths.

“N-nothing, I just- GAAAAAH, I got a cRAMP!”

“Let me see it.”

“N-no, no! You don’t need t-“ When I wasn’t paying attention, Diane had somehow ungripped my hands from my ankle and pulled up my pant leg.

“Ohhh my GOD, that’s an abrasion!” Diane yelled, resting the tips of her furry fingers below the wound.

“It wasn’t like that before-“ I slapped a hand to my mouth, but I was too late. Curse my honesty.

“What do you mean ‘before?’” Diane stood up and squinted into my soul.

“Weeeeell, I kinda scraped my ankle on a tree branch the other day.” I confessed while twiddling with my paws.

“And you didn’t tell me…?” Diane’s voice cracked.

“But it was just a bunch of red scratches before!! It didn’t start out looking like this!” My argument sounded like a desperate plead rather than a mature retort.

“I-I’ll be fine, I can still walk on it. Look!” I stammered in a failed attempt to change the subject.

“Kitty. It’s an ABRASION. And a pretty good one at that. If you walk on it, it’s just gonna get worse!” Diane scolded after blocking me from getting up with her intimidating stance.

“Get on my back.” Diane squatted and patted her back with her hand.

“No.”

“What?”

“I’m not moving until we finish our session.” I pouted, crossing my arms.

“Love the dedication, but, my GOSH, this is the wrong time to have that mindset!!” Diane yelled at me with gritted teeth. I stuck out my tongue at her, then cackled.

“Alright, THAT’S IT!” I yelped when Diane yanked my arm and threw me on her back. Good thing I have fast reflexes. Otherwise, I would have injured myself and her if I didn’t wrap my arms around her neck.

“OOF!” I yelled when I landed on her. “PUT ME DOWN!!!”

“NOPE! We’re going back, and that’s final.”

I huffed out aggression. “Where are you taking me?!?”

“Home, of course.”

“Hmmmmph!” I let my head lean against my paw again. She’s so unfair. She gives me this big speech about how I can handle her pushing me to my limits, and NOW she stops everything all because of a stupid little injury?? The NERVE of her!

“You’re so unfair…” I complained under my breath.

“I heard that.” Her reply made me groan louder. “Wanna rest your head on my shoulder?”

I raised my head. “Diane, please, I’m not a cub anymore. I’m sixteen.”

“True~ Then again, I did see you nuzzle against your plushie when you took that nap earlier.”

“DIANE!”

“Whaaaat?!? I’ve been your caretaker for 6 years now!”

Three years. That's how long I've been on this golden road.

The first two legs of this trek squeezed every bit of energy,

triggered every tear from my eyes to spill, broke me down to where I felt nothing.

By the time I settled my spirit down, I looked behind me — I had been running in laps

the whole time; this course was simply training for what was to come.

As I walked to the starting line, my mind was divided, my heart was split, and my insides were

torn up.

Was I really going to make it?

At the sound of the divine alarm, I pranced, then bolted. I felt unstoppable.

Then the trials came. Self-doubt slithered in like black snakes on the track, and I tripped

over myself. People not meant for me jumped onto my lane and I fumbled. I had to make

frantic detours to regain my strength and tend my scrapes, bruises, and open wounds.

While I sat on the bench in that rest stop, my legs burned and throbbed. My stomach churned

with desire and impatience. How long did I have to keep suffering like this? How farther

out was that finish line? Was this grind a waste of time, an overhyped egoic illusion?

I stood up. Though my legs shook and my heart yearned to go back to familiarity and sympathy

from my loved ones, this was a marathon I had to win with Him. This wasn’t a one-sum-game;

this was a systematic build with a 100% chance of success — and of my delusional dreams

manifesting into reality — as long as I sticked to the rocky dirt line that was laid out in front of

me.

I was one with the universe in that moment. That epiphany changed up everything — I wasn’t

operating from survival anymore, I was operating from victory. And so I took off, faster than

before.

Though my body’s tired, though I’m still dodging the many obstacles littered in front of me,

though my past self that was doing those routine laps is throwing a temper tantrum, I keep

pushing. For this imperfect road that curves, bends, and undulates with the fallen land leads to

the trophy. Though others sprint beside me, I am the only one that is traveling on this similar,

"Here you go, babe." Wolf had two blue dissolveables of the medicine in one paw, and a glass of water in the other.

"Thank you." Diane whispered. After taking the things from his hand, she popped the Aleve in her mouth and gulped down the water.

"Better?"

"Well, not yet. It has to get in my system." She whispered once more, wincing while she propped herself up by leaning on her elbows. "Ow, ow, ow." She squeaked.

"Heeeey, hey! Don't get up." Wolf grabbed her left paw and carefully laid down the pillow that the fox was using as support to sit up. "Lean back. Yea, yea, that's it." Diane slowly leaned back, continuing to make small pain-induced noises. While she struggled, Wolf kept holding her hand.

"You got it. Alllllmost there." With a sigh of relief, Diane perfectly plopped back on her pillow.

"And the crowd goes wild! AAAAA, she did ittttt~" He cupped his hands and whisper-shouted. Diane shook her head and giggled; he did the same.

"Baby?"

"Yeah?" Wolf leaned his face into her, looking as happy as a puppy while his sophisticated tail wagged.

"Can we cuddle...?" Diane said groggily, her voice sounding a little loopy.

He smiled. "Of course we can." He walked around Diane's bed, then scootched into her right side after getting snug under the covers.

"You don't have to ask, y'know. After all, we're official, aren't we?" He gently said in his standard gravelly tone before kissing Diane, who had buried her face in his chest. One, two, three... now uncountable.

"Stooooop~ I didn't ask to be showered with affection!" She rubbed the kisses Wolf had attacked her with off her cheeks.

"You know you like it." He smirked. "Besides, your face is at lip-level. It's hard to ignore."

"You little devil..." Diane teased, which made him chuckle heartily. His cheeks burned and his eyes widened after Diane had pecked his nose.

"What? I had to return the favor~" Diane's pupils glimmered with desire.

"Hm. Fair enough~" Wolf met her gaze with the same brightness and passion.

"Welp-" Wolf yawned and stretched his arms out with a tension-relieving groan. "I think we should get some shut-eye. It's still pretty early."

Diane looked at the square alarm clock on the dresser beside her. 2:15. "Eesh, you're right." Diane remarked before the duo shimmied further into the covers. "G'night."

"Goodnight my love." After a breathtaking smooch on the lips was shared between them, they drifted off to sleep.

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP! Diane faintly heard in her subconscious.

"Baaaabe... time to get uuuuup..." Wolf, leaning on her, mumbled in her ear.

Diane groaned, stretching the right side of her face with her right paw. "What time is it...?" Smacking her lips, she squinted at the clock.

"6:55." With another groan alongside an eye roll, Diane laid her head on Wolf's lap. "At least the sun's a nice touch." Diane looked at her shuttered window, which had gold-orange rays of sunlight coming from it.

"Are you feeling better?" Wolf asked while softly rubbing her head.

"Mmmm, a little bit..." Diane mumbled.

"Good." Wolf leaned over her to kiss the top of her round head.

"Hehe~"

"Soooo, you were gonna tell me how that dream made you feel?"

"Riiiight... well-" Diane sighed. "When I woke up, I felt so... helpless. So depressed. I found myself comparing my suffering to you, and I was just really down in the dumps."

"Hm? Whaddaya mean by comparing?"

"Well, I was seduced by Kitty, then I went through self-deprecation, ditziness, tremors, vomiting, and a migraine in the aftermath."

"Right."

"You, on the other hand... you simply got framed. The only pain you had to deal with was personality bruising and uncomfortable handcuffs."

"Right?" Diane asked after a moment of silence.

"Well-" Wolf sighed, then began twirling and curling Diane's unkempt bed head fur with one of his furry fingers. "You're almost right."

Diane raised her eyebrows. "Remember how we got caught by Doom?"

"Mhm. Kidnapping, right?"

"Right. It was more than that though." Wolf coldly added before drooping his head down. "Doom tranquillized us."

"She WHAT?" Diane sprang up, but was forced to lie back down in Wolf's warm lap when her neck pricked with cramps.

"Yep!" Wolf sighed again and shook his head. "It was rough. As soon as Kitty and her thugs freed us from those chairs we were tied to, my legs were as shaky as Jello. I had to strain my joints for a good 24 hours just so I could fulfill Kitty's demands and be there for my gang."

He paused, but Diane didn't give a response. "Well, over 24 hours actually... I had to take care of you." Now the fox could see the fatigue behind his loving eyes, the slight twitches in his wide smile, the puffiness of his eyelids.

"Wow... Wolf, I had no idea." Diane's voice softened. Her ears politely drooped to and brushed the sides of her face. "I'm so sorry."

"Hey, it's alright. I should have told you before you got hit with the side effects..."

"No, I take full blame for this!" Diane exclaimed upright. "I'm a jerk." She sharply murmured. "How was I so- so stupid to think that I'm the only one who-"

"Stop." Wolf grabbed her wrists and lowered her hands from their sporadic movements and gestures. "It's normal to feel alone in your pain." Her shoulders relaxed, her chest inflated with admiration and a newfound pride, and her eyes sparkled for the first time since their entanglement with The Bad Girls.

"It's normal for your brain to overcomplicate things and make you think you're the only one who's struggling. In reality, though, it isn't true. The truth is that everyone has their struggles... struggles in relationships, struggles in life, struggles with themselves. You just gotta remember that we're all going through this crazy rollercoaster together. You gotta have-"

"Hope." Diane finished for him.

"Exactly. We're going to get through this, Diane. You said so... remember?" Once he had said his peace, Diane yanked him by his collar and blessed him with a feathery, dreamy kiss. He made some noises in protest, but, when he had realized what Diane was actually doing to him, he melted like a chocolate bar thrown into a microwave.

After their 10 seconds of bliss, the fox separated her passionate lips from his so they could catch their breath. "I love you, Moe." Diane panted.

"I love you too, you sly fox." Wolf returned her arduous gift, turning their heads this way and that while they enjoyed it. They separated once more for reprieve, then slowly leaned forward towards each other to get a third kiss and their fill of each other for that morning.

When they had regained composure of themselves, their cheeks burned. "I-I'm sorry, I-" Diane stammered.

"N-no, no, you're good, I-" Wolf stuttered.

"GET A ROOM YOU TWO!" Their heads whipped to the door — it was Snake along with the rest of the Guys.

Wolf buried his face in his hands, groaning with embarrassment. "H-how much did you see?!?" Diane blurted, her face rising in temperature.

"Not much!" Shark reassured. "Just that one kiss."

"WHEW~" Wolf and Diane said together with the synchronized brush of sweat from their foreheads.

"Wolf told us everything over text last night, and we wanted to stop by and check on you." Webs explained.

"How you doing, Di?" Piranha asked.

"Better!" Diane nervously giggled, needlessly brushing a strand of fur from her face. "Much better."

She was about to attempt to stand up, but Wolf stretched out his arm in front of her. "WOA, WOA, WOA, easy, babe. You're not 100% just yet." He lectured.

"Neither are you." Snake said to Wolf. "We know you're still suffering from the side effects."

"Ahaha. Thanks for caring so much about me, buddy, but I'm really fi-" Wolf stood up only to gradually fall face first onto the floor. Diane jumped up with paws over her mouth, while the others rushed to the canine's side.

"Wolf?!?" Shark yelled.

"Are you okay?!?!?" Piranha frantically asked, helping Wolf back to his feet.

"Whoops!" Wolf rubbed his neck. "Looks like all the work caught up to me, hahah."

"Now we get to take care of you~" Diane said smittenly, intentionally pecking him on the nose again so he could blush in front of everyone.

Diane lay back on the couch, groaning while the inflammatory side of her head pounded like a drum. She fluttered her eyes open to get relief from admiring her significant other's facial features, but she was instead met with a shower of light that burned her pupils and sparked her stomach to grumble, twist, and stretch.

After being hit with a gag, Diane forced her throbbing head up while her paw covered her mouth.

"Oh no..." Wolf muttered, his eyebrows contorting into crescents and his smile flipping upside down.

"I need-" Another body jumping gag vibrated from her throat. "I need a bowl..." She strained out before her brain, eyes, and stomach all surged with a fresh stinging sensation.

"On it." Wolf instantly complied, scrambling to the kitchen.

The fox's ears drooped at the sound of steel clunking and crashing onto the floor. "Not so loud!" She exclaimed quietly.

"Sorry!" Wolf apologized, his voice just loud enough to scratch and scrape at her pointy ears.

"Alright, I'm comin-" Wolf played with the giant stainless steel bowl in his arms. He glanced up from it just in time to see an orange flash shoot in front of him down a hallway and slam the bathroom door. Barely 5 seconds had passed until the apartment echoed with retches, then uncontrollable vomiting.

"Diane?" Wolf knocked on the door once the ear-deafening noises of sickness had subsided for a moment. "Are you alright, babe?"

"Yeah!" She said in a strained positive pitch. "No..." As soon as she said 'no,' Wolf barged into the bathroom to find his girlfriend hunched over a puke-filled toilet.

"I missed the toilet for a second..." Diane said groggily, looking down at the white marble titles with slumped ears. Wolf's eyes darted over to the small puddle of vomit that dirtied a section of the floor. The smell of it was 10x as potent as a room filled with dirty clothes. "I'm sorry." She whimpered.

Though his eyes watered at the rotten stench, he took a deep breath, relaxed his shoulders, and unclenched his jaw. "You don't need to be sorry at all."

Making sure not to accidentally sit on top of the vomit, Wolf kneeled in front of her, held her paws, then pecked a kiss on her forehead. "I'll clean it."

Her dipped down face reddened like a tomato. "T-thank you..." Diane mumbled.

"Of course. You head back to bed, 'kay?" He smiled.

"More's coming up." Diane shook while she clenched her body in preparation for another puke session. She swallowed down a gag before she shivered in disgust and dread.

"Hey." Wolf grabbed her paws once more. "I got you."

"I'm so sor-"

"Don't be. I love you even through this~" Wolf smoothly stated before the tips of his dominant paw grazed one of her cheeks.

"B-but you hate vomit!"

"I know. You're worth it though~" His eyes sparkled with affection; her heart fizzed and bubbled in return.

They stayed with each other in that bathroom for 30 minutes. The poor fox went through an agonizing, energy-extinguishing period of violent puking followed by an ominous moment of reprieve. Gags that grew into heart-yanking retches and heaves then triggered another pukefest, and the disgusting process would start all over again.

By the time her insides had finally settled, her throat burned, her eyes were as watery as a dripping faucet, and mucus dripped from her sniffly nose.

"Wow. What a strong girl you are~" Wolf baby talked her while he cleaned her face with a tissue. "Blow. Good girl."

Diane gasped and huffed for air before shaking her head. "I didn't get a stomach virus, did I?"

"Let's see." Wolf opened one of the cabinets underneath the sink and pulled out a thin, white thermometer. "Turn your head for me?' She winced while doing so. Wolf gingerly pressed the cold oval end of the thermometer behind her left ear. Beep-beep ba beep!

"97." Wolf turned the dark screen of the thermometer to Diane. "36.1 in Celsius."

"Whew, thank go- OWWWWW" She pressed both of her paws against her forehead while a few tears streaked down her eyes.

"W-what happened?!?"

"I looked up at the light again-" Her face scrunched into sadness.

"Ohhhh, you poor thing... c'mon." Wolf forced himself to stand, then scooped up Diane in her arms as if she was a fragile infant. "Let's get you into bed."

In the blink of an eye, Wolf had already entered Diane's room and had placed her under the sheets. Smoothing out the wrinkled, disheveled parts of the blanket, Wolf delicately draped it over her.

Though she seemed more at ease, she was still turning back and forth and groaning. "What can I do?"

"I need Aleve." She weakly answered.

"Okay." Without a moment to waste, Wolf rushed back into the kitchen, grabbed the medicine out of one of the upper cabinets, and hurried back to her.

With every saltwater droplet that flowed from her eyes, her heart felt more and more weary. Her breathing got faster again. Her body trembled, quivered, shook. All she could think of was Kitty, the boom, and that bullet flying towards her. Diane's neck was so tight she thought she would surely choke if she wasn't consciously controlling her inhales and exhales.

She put two hands to her heart in an attempt to hoard oxygen, but it didn't work. The breathing got sharper, shakier, more excessive. She winced while her heart pounded against her chest.

"Diane? Diane?? Diane, are you alright?" She heard her boyfriend ask in a direct yet disturbed tone. She wanted to yell Does it LOOK like I'm okay?!? at his inattentiveness, but she couldn't even get out a squeak.

Though he was sitting right next to her, she felt like they were separated by miles and miles of dreary fields of gray. Though he held one of her hands, she was numb to his warmth and cut off from her only source of comfort. She was drifting in the black sea of space while he stayed grounded on Earth.  She was being held at gunpoint by her ex-best friend, yet he just had to endure the pressure of measly handcuffs.

She thought a violent earthquake had spawned underneath her house, but, upon staring at her surroundings, the room was disgustingly still. She darted her head around to look at her arms and legs, which were violently shaking in sync as if they were dancing to the hardcore catchy rhythm of a KPop Demon Hunters song.

No matter what heartwarming memory she thought of, no matter what favorite song of hers faintly played in her head, no matter how many times Wolf stroked her hand with his delicate, soft thumb... the shaking just wouldn't give up control. It only got more powerful, more unstable, more violent.

Maybe it would never go away. Maybe Kitty plagued her with a tremor syndrome alongside an incredible amount of trauma. Maybe, maybe, maybe...

Her brain wanted to cut off her train of thought. Her limbs begged to be forced still. Her insides screamed for reprieve. The tears and the tremors now combined into one agonizing, unbearable force that pressed twice the fatigue and sadness upon her. Every part of her being — her physical, mental, and emotional — was reduced to pure helplessness.

Fight or sleep? Cry, scream, or stay silent? Reach out or handle it alone? What even was the right choice right now? What was even going to cure this affliction and subdue this stage of her life that she had lived for way too long?

"DIANE!" Though she felt like she was in Jello, she whipped her head towards her boyfriend that penetrated through all the heavy layers.

"Look at me." He said sternly. She could feel the tips of his sharp nails pinching parts of her fur. She could see his glowing eyes of amber yellow burning with a fire of resilience. She could hear the low, reverberating hum of her fridge.

"We're going to get rid of this together, but you gotta work with me now... okay?" His eyes softened with sympathy. Despite the lump that was wedged in her throat, she nodded with a weak hum of agreement.

"Okay. Look at my chest." He put one of his hands over his beating heart for a few seconds. "Watch how it moves."

Uuuuuup, doooooown... ba-dunk... ba-dunk. "Breathe with me, alright? Deep breath in." He slowly inhaled through his nostrils. It hurt to follow him, but she did it nonetheless.

"Good." Wolf complimented before sucking in the air he had already released. "Holditin!" He quickly mumbled. He looked like a squirrel with those puffed out cheeks of his, which made her chuckle and splashed her shivering heart with peaceful, healing warmth.

"And out!" He exhaled in a comedic manner. Diane chuckled again and copied him with ease.

"Goood! Again." Two breaths, three breaths, four breaths, five... Wolf kept assisting her until her heart started to pace at a normal rate. When the fox noticed he had stopped guiding her, her anxiety shot up once more. All their work to get her stabilized would have been thrown out the window if he didn't immediately come to her rescue.

"Woah, woah, hey! It's okay, baby. I'm right here." He held her delicate hands in his, then brushed her right cheek once with his left hand.

"Don't do that!" She snapped like a sweet emotional child. He brushed her cheek again to shrivel up her tears.

"Shhhhhhhhhhh, sh, sh, sh... I hear you. I'm sorry, Di." She nuzzled near his touch, which made him smile.

"I won't do that again. I promise." His silky voice tickled against her ear. The soft landing of his lips on her forehead made her want to float into the sky and never come back down. The sound that was produced from his lips unpuckering and sliding off of her forehead was so satisfying and heavenly to the ears.

Her heart swelled with gratitude and colorful, vibrant feeling. Though her insides were torn between pain and freedom, 50% of her system had switched off survival mode. "Alright. Let's restart." Wolf said after a few moments of stillness.

With every breath, the crippling fear and pain incrementally oozed out of her wounded, traumatized body. Eventually, she completely detached from the vivid nightmare-induced fantasies and imaginations of her fear-stricken mind and had become regrounded with the rejuvenating, unchaotic boredom of reality. 

After hours of sluggishness, she finally felt like her calm, sharp, energetic self again. With that last exhale, all the emotional baggage she had been carrying had been laid down at her feet. No more were the days of silent suffering and self-induced chronic illness... or so it seemed.

"Thank you, Wolf." Diane said, her face buried in Wolf's suit while they shared an embrace and thrived off each other's affection. "I really needed that."

"You're welcome." Wolf patted her back. "Wow, that was a good sigh."

Diane giggled her high-pitched laugh, confirming to her boyfriend that she was alright. "Alright, now I've got it all out, I think."

"So..." Once Diane sat up, Wolf adjusted himself so he could sit criss-cross applesauce in front of her. "You want to tell me more about that dream you had?"

She took another deep breath. Her hands gripped the smooth fabric of her pants, but Wolf calmed the fire boiling inside her with his touch yet again.

It was Sunday, around 9AM. I was doing my routine weekly housecleaning. After decluttering my room and workspace, I dusted every nook and cranny around the house

I had been doing fine the whole time but, of course, the last bit of dust I swiped off my dresser with my duster had to kick up in my face. “Atchi!”

“Hagata.” Stitch, one out of my many plush children, said while holding a tissue.

“Hm? Oh! Thank you~” I muttered with an embarrassed giggle before I used it.

“Ookee-taka?”

“Of course I’m okay! Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Mama working a lot.” His small fluffy paw held and squeezed my free hand. Though I kept my composure on the outside, my melted heart was about ready to burst with fondness.

“I know, baby.” I stroked his head. “I’m not OVERworking though.”

“Mm?” Stitch tilted his head to the right while intently staring at me.

“Well, maaaybe I have for the past couple of days, but I promise I’ll give myself a breather when I’m done today!” I reassured him, laying my duster on the dresser and holding both his hands.

“Hang 10?” Stitch’s face perked up, and his tail wagged back and forth.

“Absolutely! We’ll relax, watch some TV, have some extra hugtime, and then we can go surfing!” I grinned while I put on my Skechers and tied its gray laces.

“YIPPIEEEE!’ Stitch jumped for joy while he cackled with delight.

While he hooped and hollered in the living room, I grabbed my pink and white purse that hung from the coat rack. Once he had finished jumping around like a bunny rabbit, Stitch crawled behind me to the door.

I grabbed my keys from one of the side pockets of my gray hoodie, then unlocked the door. Krr-klick.

“Alright, Stitchy! I’ll see you later.” I squished down to his height so we could rub noses and I could give him a kiss. “Mommy loves youuu~”

He giggled, then said goodbye to me with the brightest eyes. I quickly turned around to give him a wave and smile back before I let the door gently shut behind me.

9:20. After walking a few miles west, I had stopped in front of a panda-shaped pod.

“Hellooo? I’m heeeere!” I said after I had knocked a few times on the door. There was no answer.

“Oh, maybe it’s open-“ I thought aloud before I gave the doorknob a poke. Eeeeee. “Aa, theeere we gooo~”

“JJJJJ!” I hadn’t stepped a foot in her house when she ran out of a side hallway and squeezed me. “HIIIII~”

“HIIII JULII~” I smiled wide while my heart floated with excitement.

“Hey JJ!” Jelly chimed in with a wave, startling us both. “Oop-“

“How do you do that?!?!” Juli turned to her.

“I dunno!”

“It’s easy. You just lower your energy and concentrate on your steps being quiet.” I interrupted to back Jelly up. “Do that enough, and it becomes second nature really.”

“Oooo- okay, y’all gotta teach me that later.” Juli giggled.

“Sure.” Jelly said before giving me a soft hug.

“Heehee, hi Jelly~” I patted her back while I soaked up the love. My smile somehow grew wider, and my heart got warmer and more bubbly in that moment. Gosh, I love my girls! They’re like sisters to me.

“Hi!”

“Ooookay, so we’re almost done here but we need your help with the banner.” Juli said once our hugtime had wrapped up. With Juli leading, we walked into another room where the long and dull white piece of sticky fabric laid.

“Ta-daaaa~” I saw Juli doing jazz hands out of the corner of my eye.

“Wow! It’s bigger than I thought it’d be.” I remarked before I kneeled on the floor, staring at the blank canvas while ideas filled my head.

“Viva gave us it, ahehe.” Juli nervously laughed, then cleared her throat. “Anyway! We were thinking to write ‘Welcome Isabella and Blossom’ on the front in glitter, but we feel like it needs something else on it…”

“Ya. Something that’ll give it mooreee… color, I guess?” Jelly added. “I sound like one of those fancy artists-“

I chuckled. “Kind of! Hmmm…” I closed my eyes. I tuned out the noises around me and concentrated my attention and the remainder of my energy on my creativity. I visualized what the banner would look like with ‘Welcome Isabella and Blossom’ in pink glitter pen, then I let my brain fill in the empty corners and sections of the banner with my imagination.

With a snap of my fingers, I stirred from my deep contemplation and came back into reality. “I’ve got it! Why don’t we put pink flowers on the corners with blue butterflies resting on top of them?”

“Oo, go on~” Juli’s eyes sparkled.

“And then, before we add the welcome sentence in and those drawings in the corners of the banner, why don’t we sprinkle confetti on it?!?” I said with a burst of passion before clearing my throat and playing with my hoodie strings. “Y’know, so it can be more colorful like Jelly said…” I mumbled.

“SURE! Oh, and I could make a little bubble around the words written in glitter with star stickers.” She lifted up a finger that had one of said stickers stuck to it.

“Perfect!”

“And I’ll outline the banner with purple glitter~” Jelly said, her face scrunched up silly while she menacingly held a purple glitter shaker in her right hand. “That’s good, right?”

“That’s great! The purple will give a nice contrast with all the light colors~”

“YEA!” With her tongue stuck out to the side, Jelly started right away on adding the purple glitter to the banner.

“Well, I guess we’d better start!” I told Juli before I stood up and walked into the closet in the back to drag out the giant sack of confetti I bought the other day.

“YES MA’AM!” Juli saluted me before following behind me to assist.

9:40. “DONE!” Juli shouted with her hands raised in the air after she had carefully placed the last star sticker on the banner. “Aight, who wants help?”

“Meeee. This is hard-“ Jelly held one of her arms with her hand. She had gotten one of the sides covered with purple, another was halfway complete.

“Sure thing!” Juli grabbed an extra second glitter shaker, then sat beside Jelly before sprinkling it out.

“Annnnd that’s why we buy extra!” I said, not lifting my eyes while Juli chucked and I brushed the last stroke over my butterfly sketch. “Perfect.” I whispered to myself before I scooched across the floor to make a nearly identical drawing of what I just finished on an adjacent corner.

When I hunched over the banner this time, I winced and squeezed the bone between my left shoulder and neck. Though I tried to be quiet, Juli and Jelly looked up from their glitter sprinkling.

“You good, JJ?” Juli asked with an eyebrow raise.

“M-mhm! Why wouldn’t I be?” I forced a smile on my face, but a flare up of soreness broke it. “Ow!” I whispered with one eye squeezed shut. I massaged over the area but it barely relieved the pain.

“You can take a break if you want to.” Jelly chimed in.

“N-no, I’m fine! I just need to stretch it.” I did a couple slow arm circles which released pops of friction in my shoulder. “Aaaa, that’s better.” With my arm feeling looser, I continued my work without any more groans, grunts, or winces.

Though it only took us a mere hour and 10 minutes to finish the banner and roll it up, time stretched on for what felt like an eternity.

“Time to go, girl!” Juli called for me from the front door. Jelly was already outside trying to keep the folded banner upright. It was 3-4x her height and 5x taller with all three of our heights combined.

“Okay!” I panted. “Coming!!” Forcing my shoeless foot into one of my Skechers shoes, I speed shuffled outside to catch up with my besties.

While we walked across a wispy green field of grass to get to Harry’s place, I felt like I was floating off the ground. The sensation was so strong that I anxiously whipped my head down to verify that my feet were grounded.

With every step forward, my legs felt more and more like weights, and the distance between me and the girls was getting bigger and farther.

“Hey!” I shouted to make them look back. “Can y’all slow down?? Whew!” I brushed my hand over my forehead that was glistening with sweat. “It’s really hot.”

Juli said something to Jelly, then dashed towards me. “Need a hand?” With a smile on her face, she held out her hand, which I gladly took. Juli sprinted to Jelly while I held on for dear life as if I was a heavy piece of luggage.

“Annnnd made it!” When Juli braked in front of Jelly, I would have fallen from the sudden halt in movement if the girls hadn’t pinched me by two different sections of my hoodie.

“Woah, are you okay?” Jelly asked while I wheezed.

“Yep! All good~” I forced out before I took a moment to let myself heavily pant.

“Well, we’re here ladies!” Juli squealed and clapped. I hadn’t realized until that moment that Harry’s cerulean pod was right above us, dangling from a ginormous tree branch.

“Let’s go!” Jelly and Juli excitedly rushed into the elevator that would shoot us up the tree’s trunk while I plodded behind them. I thought I would have a moment to recollect some energy, but I got a nasty bodily jump instead when the elevator zoomed up without any warning.

Thankfully, the ride up was as quick as a eyeblink, and I didn’t have much more to walk.

“Almost there, JJ!” Juli beamed. Seeing two of my besties so happy made the struggle of keeping up with them a little more bearable and pleasant.

Just when I was ready to fall to the ground, Harry opened up the door to his pod. I bit back a groan and waddled inside while the girls hugged Harry and chattered his ear off.

Even though I felt nature’s air conditioning blast against my face from an open window, my bodily temperature rose. Sweat streamed down my arms and stuck to my forehead. Perhaps the weirdest thing I experienced in those few dramatic seconds was wooziness followed by a pounding, burning sensation in my heart.

I’m so tired. I wish Stitch was here. I just wanna go home. These were the thoughts that flooded my brain while my stomach twisted itself into knots.

The next thing I know, my legs give out under me, my hearing distorts while Juli screams my name, and my vision shrinks to a small circle before everything goes black.

…

Fwoo, fwoo, fwoo. I hear someone intentionally directing air on my face. I feel something fluffy and wide covering the lower half of my body. I see black until various colors break through the darkness and become clear.

Though my eyelids droop a couple times, I can faintly make out my friends. One is turned away from me at the edge of the bed I’ve been laid in, another is staring at me with concern, and the third is on the far left side of me.

I want to go back to sleep, but I force my eyes wide open anyhow. That’s when I can match the three blobs that are crowded around me to faces and names. Harry is the one hovering over me, Jelly is the one that I can see out of the corner of my eye who’s blowing on my face, and Juli is the one turned away that’s whimpering and sniffling in her hands.

“JJ?” I hear Harry say. “JJ!!” When I raise my neck an inch off my bed, Harry accidentally slams my head back to my soft pillow with a powerful hug.

“JJ, OH MY GOOOOOD” Juli yells with a watery voice. A river of tears builds up in her twinkling eyes. “I WAS SO WORRIEEEEEEED” She moans before sobbing in hysterics.

“MY BLOWING WORKED!” Jelly yelled with her fists pumped in the air.

“See, Juli? Didn’t I tell you she was breathing?” Harry kindly reminded with a hand on her shoulder.

“Y-yea, bu-“ She sniffed loudly. “But STILL!” Her voice cracked with ‘still,’ and the poor thing broke down weeping in Harry’s suit.

“Awwww, bestie… it’s okay. She’s alright.” Harry gently reassured while patting her head.

“Yea, don’t cry! JJ’s still alive~” Jelly locked Juli in a hug from her backside.

Unfortunately, the love didn’t seem to help her feel better as she only cried harder and louder. I wanted to comfort her myself, but I was so out of it I was afraid I might fall again… and that would be no good.

Luckily, Juli letting out the rest of her emotions allowed me to stabilize and feel a little more like myself.

“You good?” Harry asked me after a few minutes filled with heartbreaking noises that came from poor distressed Juli passed.

“Y-yeah? Yeah, I think so…” I replied quietly before I slowly lifted my neck up once more and rubbed my eyes. “Jeez, what happened?”

“JJ, you collapsed.” The word ‘collapsed’ replayed in my head over and over again.

‘C-collapsed?”

“Yes… You were out for nearly two minutes.”

“Oh my gawd…” I whispered aloud, my accent coming out stronger than usual.

“We got so worried that I had to check that you were breathing. I had the phone ready to call emergency services just in case.” Harry explained, lifting up his hand to show the device. “So…”

“Guys, I-“ I tried to hold the emotion back, but I couldn’t. “I’m so sorry.” I said, my voice shrinking as guilt overwhelmed me. Each of their eyes widened with shock while a frown stayed firm on my lips and tears pricked at and gleamed in my eyes.

“Oh JJ…” Harry said while their once horizontal, emotionless mouths collectively curled into frowns. “You-“

“No!” I shouted a little too aggressively. “I should’ve been taking better care of myself, I should’ve rested all those days ago, but I-“ The air felt like it was sucked out of my lungs for a second while my lips quivered. “Oh, I’m tired.” I said, sounding like I was about to break into a million glass shards.

That’s when I officially allowed myself — the girl they all knew as always happy and bubbly — to crumble in front of them. I was pretty embarrassed to do so, but I channeled that shame into my hands. Tightly gripping the ungrippable marshmallow texture of the mattress, I felt tears flow down my face like condensed waterfalls. Though my eyes were shut, I could feel the weight of their sadness, concern, and sympathy towards me.

“I try to balance it all, but I can’t keep going like this!” I shouted again, my voice being the voice that sounded watery this time instead of Juli’s.

“There’s work and my creativity and taking care of all my beautiful plush kids, and- and I dunno how to go on!” I shouted before I drowned in tears and started hiccuping. It was rare for me to produce such a strange noise while crying, but gosh, it was humiliating no matter the circumstances.

“I keep trying- HIC s-so hard to make it all fit, but I’m- HIC draining myself whil- HIC- while I do it.” I sniffled, then wiped the continuously flowing stream of tears with my hoodie sleeves.

I briefly stopped in case anyone wanted to say something, but no one looked like they wanted to talk just yet. “I- HIC- I’m never gonna- HIC- measure up to anything if I can- HIC c-can’t even- HIIIC take care of myself!” While my breathing got faster and tighter, I buried my face in my hands and hiccuped every time I inhaled. I couldn’t control anything — my life, my bodily reactions, not even something as simple as my breathing. When I’m old, look back at my past, and think about what my biggest low in life was, then this had to be it.

“No.” Harry said firmly. I heard him walk to my side, then I felt his hand touch one of my sleeves and gently slide it from underneath my face to get me to look at him.

“That isn’t true. That’s far from it actually.” My hiccups were less frequent, but I was shaking so violently it was like I had hypothermia. He wasn’t bothered by it though. None of them were.

“It’s okay to not have everything perfect because life isn’t perfect. It flows, it fluctuates. You’ve got ups, and you’ve got downs. Life’s a rollercoaster, and that’s the beautiful thing about it… you learn how to go with the flow.” Harry paused to smile, but I didn’t have it in me yet to return it. “Be kind to yourself. Please… you’re so, so young. You’re learning. And the fact that you work your a- er, tail- off day in and day out for yourself? That’s freaking incredible.”

I wanted to hold it back, but I couldn’t stop my frown turning right side up. “You’re going to figure it out. You just need to dial it back a bit.”

“Yeah!” Juli, who walked to the other side of me, interrupted. “Just flip your priorities. Put yourself first, then do everything else. You just gotta find the balance. Plus, newsflash; we can help you! We’re all navigating through life together.”

“And another thing.” Jelly interrupted as well. “It’s normal to feel so stressed, but it’s all gonna work out. Like Wolf said in The Bad Guys sequel, all you need is hope. Just keep moving forward in small steps, and you’ll be where you want to be. Things will ease up.”

Harry and Juli smiled widely at Jelly, which made her eyes widen. “I said that right, right?”

“Absolutely!” Juli exclaimed.

“That was beautifully said, Jellybean.” Harry answered.

I tried to keep quiet, but it failed. I started breaking down all over again. “I don’t deserve you guys-“ I whined before more tiny, child-like hiccups shot out of me.

“Awwwwww.” They said in unison before wrapping me in a warm, comforting group hug.

“You deserve everything to work out for you, JJ.” Harry stated. Juli and Jelly nodded their heads in agreement. “Heck, we all do!”

I sniffed in a disgusting line of mucus that was dangling from one of my nostrils. “I wuv you guuuysssss-“ I whimpered, the last word sounding gravelly before I silently sobbed.

“Oof! You’re gonna make me cry~” Juli said while her body shook against my trembling body.

After a couple minutes, I can confirm that Juli indeed cried with me for a little bit. Anyway, once I got my breaths under control and stopped hiccuping, I got up from that bed and assisted the others the best I could in organizing all the decor for the welcome party of our newest members that would take place in about a week.

Though I got a high out of helping and I wanted to assist more, all three of them insisted that I headed back home as they would take care of the rest.

After saying an uncountable amount of thank yous and giving many hugs to each of my friends, I walked back home to Stitch and my plush kids who surprised me with dinner. After I told my plush children all what happened over food, they decided to surprise me the following morning with a “royal treatment” day where all I had to do was lay on the couch, cuddle them, and watch TV.

Jett Fillmore: the biggest star of the Vineland Thorns, and the biggest overthinker. One word, one experience, one conversation was enough to get the 9 foot feline to spiral into the black spinning pit of her mind.

Consider for instance the time when the black leopard was singled out by the former owner of her team right before a critical roarball match. Rather than getting an inspirational pep talk or a pat on the back for all her efforts during the tense season, critical words were spewed at Jett instead.

"You're washed up." "You'll never win that Claw." These are but a sampling of the toxic speech the all-star leopard's had to endure over the years from critics and roarball enthusiasts. It didn't bother her, she said. The fans still believed in her, she boasted. Yet she never practiced what she preached.  Instead, she was addicted to consuming the criticism like her bird teammate Olivia. Every comment section was scrutinized by Jett for the negativity.

Therefore, with the start of the most recent roarball season, the gates that guarded her positive thoughts had been torn down by an army of self-deprecating and toxic thoughts. Most commonly call what she experienced as a simple case of low self-esteem, but it was so much more powerful than that.

Regardless of how matches turned out, her brain would always be able to find the flaws, the imperfections, the things she could have done better in the aftermath. Her rigorous, relentless day in, day out training schedule ate up all her hours to build strong bonds with her teammates. She thought her dedication would make her invincible, but it only rewarded her with strained back muscles and an ego the size of a cantaloupe.

Until the rookie came in, she was blind to the fact that she was draining her team rather than carrying them like her toxicity-bound mind always reassured.

Will Harris. What an influential kid... influential on the entire sport of roarball and on her mindset. Once she heard that he had been signed to her beloved team, her ambushed brain labeled him as a threat to her popularity and success. This made the invader thoughts of hers spill over and infect the rest of her team, including the goat who she constantly targeted as her prey, her victim, her punching bag she could beat down so she could finally relish in that rare feeling of contentment regarding herself and her capabilities.

However, her bullying spree wouldn't last forever as her pushy, Karen-like behavior was what put a big, fat wedge in between her and her teammates. Just when they were getting back into a groove in their matches, Jett's demons got the best of her. She projected her insecurities and self-inflicted pain onto those that she loved.  The stagnant hours that passed after the team split were like hell on earth. That's when she realized she had to pull back her reins and relinquish control, as well as kick out those pessimistic neurons.

“Woah.” Wolf said aloud after waking up randomly in the wee hours of the morning. His gut was pulsing with anxiety, as well as some indescribable, sharp, hard emotion. “Something’s up.” He whispered to himself before quietly but quickly standing up from the couch.

Sliding his blanket off his body and gracefully laying it on a couch cushion, Wolf tiptoed to Diane's bedroom. By the time he was in front of her door, the sharp feeling in his gut made him wince and press a hand on top of his furry abdomen.

"Hey, hey, it's okay. I hear you. Shhhh, sh, sh." Though it was weird to do, talking to his body relieved the strength of his intuition so he could concentrate on softly entering the room.

"Babe?" Wolf asked in a quiet voice. He scanned around the opposite side of Diane's neat, minimalist room before he noticed she was sitting up and crying into her hands. "Oh." A unbendable frown replaced his small smile as soon as he set eyes on her.

He nimbly walked over to the right side of her bed, then leaned his body over the firm but fluffy mattress. "Ohhhh, baby... what's wrong?" Wolf spoke.

Diane dabbed her eyes with her knuckles before replying. "I had a reawwy bad nightmare-" She cried out before her voice was drowned out with suffocating heartache.

"Ohhh, oh, oh, oh. C'mere..." Without hesitation, Wolf scooped Diane in his arms.

"P-put me down!" Diane yelled in protest while her body shook in his grasp.

"Oh, I'm sorry! How rude of me..."

"N-no, don't be... it's fine..." Diane mumbled while her cheeks burned.

"You sure? I don't mind letting you g-"

"Don't let me go!" Diane screamed, pulling on his suit. "Never let me go!" She pressed a fist to her mouth after choking up. Tears as small and elegant as dewdrops sticking on a plant twinkled on her eyelashes in the dark baby blue moonlight that slid through the cracks of the window blinds.

"Y-yes ma'am." Wolf said, voice shaking while a shameful warmth tingled at his face. Well, at least she laughed.

Not another word was exchanged while Wolf transported Diane over to the couch. While he held her, Wolf felt his motivated steps slow to the speed of a tortoise. The clock on the wall that was anxiously clicking calmed down with his speed. Without even thinking to do so, Wolf's eyes slid down to stare at the trembling female fox that he had the pleasure to carry. Though it tugged at his heartstrings to see her so shaken up, her creamy orange fur and her dainty damp eyelashes made her a timeless picture of beauty in his vision. To top it all off, her body fell perfectly into his manly twig arms, which made his heart race with glorious passion.

"Oh, how I want to litter your face with kisses right now." Wolf bluntly muttered aloud to make her giggle.

"I'd love that, but I'm so jumpy right now I would probably kick my knee into your stomach." Diane responded, struggling to keep her soft and vulnerable eyes open. 

"Fair enough." Wolf said before he looked up and stopped in front of the couch. "I'm gonna put you down now, alright?" Wolf warned upon getting closer to the piece of furniture.

"Okay~" Diane said softly. With her approval, Wolf carefully lowered and sat the fox on the couch as if she was a precious, one-of-a-kind artifact. She stared at the ground, while his eyes stayed locked on her.

After a dreadfully depressing silence, Wolf sat beside Diane. "What's going on?" She, who was lifeless as a statue, said nothing.

"Hey." Wolf grabbed her quaky, shaky paw and stroked it with his thumb to calm the tremors. "You know you can tell me anything, right?"

She finally showed a sign of life with a heavy exhale. "Of course." The twitching in her paw had traveled up to her neck and ears while she slowly turned her head 90 degrees.

"Then what happened, baby? What did you see in your nightmare?" His gentle question warmed up her cold, fear-bound heart. His voice made her brave.

She released another sigh from her system before paraphrasing her dream. "Remember the confrontation with Kitty I told you about earlier?"

"Of course."

"Well, I basically relived the whole thing, except she- she..." Oxygen was suddenly snatched from her airways, and her voice had shrunk to frequent shaky and unstable breathing.

"It's okay. Take your time. I'm here~" She felt his grip tighten on her paw. Though she was about to break down, she swallowed and held back the emotional whirlwind inside her chest.

"She had a gun, and she s-shot m-me." Diane choked out against the insurmountable pressure upon her heart and throat. She then dipped her head down,wrapped her arms around her body, and squeezed her eyes shut.

"Oh my god." Though she didn't see his mortified expression, she could feel his heart beat with anxiety, which added even more emotional baggage onto her sky-high load. 

For 9 years and 25 hours, 3,286 days, 78,864 hours, and nearly 5 million minutes, she had been subjugating herself to this vicious cycle of enduring an indescribable amount of trauma followed by bottling up her emotions, storing those bottles in a briefcase, and then throwing and attaching that briefcase to her back as a souvenir of her latest incident. Her health had been put on autopilot, and every hoarded ick of her life was being purged from her overloaded and over pressured body in the form of waterfall tears.   

Diane laid on a thin walking platform. When her eyes fluttered open, she immediately sat up and darted her head back and forth. A thick fog of hazy blue surrounded her. A gust of freezing wind brushed past her chest, which made her body slither like a snake.

While the thin platform beneath her creaked and slightly swayed back and forth, she heard confident stomps coming her way. The closer it got, the more pieces of fur that stood and quivered on her neck.

Her throat got tight, her shaky breathing sped up. Her heart was jumping out of her chest. Ba-dunk, ba-dunk, ba-dunk, ba-dunk. She knew who was coming, yet she had so little time to act. Besides, she only had three options, all of which were bound to blow up in her face.

Plan 1: Jump off the platform. She had enough bodily strength to slingshot herself off one of the metal railings, but she didn’t know how high she was up thanks to the fog obscuring her view of the ground below. Conclusion? An fatal accident waiting to happen.

Plan 2: Rush into the rocket a few feet behind her and hide. There were three flaws in this one. First, she had never set foot on such an aircraft; how was she to know the best hiding places without aimlessly floating around its interior first? Secondly, if she couldn’t hide in time — or hid in a terrible spot — and her diabolical rival found her, then her life would most likely be in jeopardy. Since she wasn’t wearing the proper space suit attire, it would be a piece of cake for Kitty to throw her out in the black abyss of space and let her suffocate in the oxygen-deprived, human scarce void. Third, if Kitty was arrested for her crimes, the cops would probably detain Diane as well for looking like one of Kitty’s heartless accomplices, and she could kiss her clean slate behind. Conclusion? Negative outcomes outweigh the positive ones.

Plan 3: Run into the elevator and ride down a flight of floors to safety. This was pretty self-explanatory. If Diane tried to barge into the elevator, she had an extremely slim chance of getting past Kitty and her two thugs, let alone closing the elevator in time. Conclusion? Bad plan in general.

While she failed to imagine and develop a failproof plan, the familiar, deep voice of darkness snapped her out of her pondering. Like a wave irregularly undulating after coming into contact with a troublesome floating object, the contents in the fox’s stomach swirled and swished around in nauseating, erratic movements. “Well, well, well! If it isn’t the Crimson Paw.” Kitty pronounced crystal-clear before taking a cherry-colored lollipop out of her mouth and twirling its thin wax paper stick.

“Good to see you, Diaaaane~” Kitty continued, the forced smile on her face revealing all her true thoughts. She and her partners in crime moved in on the lonely fox as if they were hyenas locking onto and outnumbering/overwhelming their prey.

“What do you want, Kitty? Didn’t you-“ Diane grunted; her legs were as heavy as weights. “Didn’t you already ruin my life once?”

“Oh pleaaaase. I was just getting started!” Kitty said with a giggle and a Cheshire Cat grin.

Diane, who was now lying on the floor with her arms holding up her head, squinted at Kitty’s right hand which blurred into the contrasting bright orange shade of the leopard’s space suit.

“Okay. Whaaaat are you holding there?” Despite her gut screeching at her not to inquire about what object the leopard was clutching, the fox’s curious side naturally got the best of her.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Diane’s heart dropped as soon as that seductive, sly tone hit her ears. Her shoulders and ears drooped when the jet-black object Kitty held tightly crystallized in her weakened vision. 

“A Glock?” Diane’s voice cracked; she felt her face stretch and contort into a perfect blend of sorrow and stress.

“Yep! Looks like someone knows her pistols.” Kitty chuckled, twirling around the weapon in her hand as if it was a toy.

Clik, clik. Diane looked away for only a second before getting a birds-eye view of the hollow insides of the pistol.

“Kitty! Kitty… let’s just talk about this for a minute, okay?” Diane forced out while her insides crumbled.

“What even is there to discuss? First, you abandoned me when I was 18, and then you come back into the picture 9 years later and ruin what I built for myself once again.” Kitty scoffed. “Well, tried to, at least.”

“Anywho, NEWSFLASH! You’re waaaaay overdue for karma, babe.” Kitty’s insult scathed Diane’s soul like hot water burning the skin. 

“B-but you already hurt me, remember? I mean, look at me!” Diane motioned her hand to the bottom half of her body that was completely limp and unmovable. “You already inhibited me from doing anything to you! I’d say that’s punishment enough.”

Kitty pursed her lips in contemplation, then shook her head after a painfully quiet period of processing. “Naaaaah.”

Rather than finding a compromise with the desperate fox, she simply pointed her weapon at Diane again. The only visible change on the leopard was her grin of satisfaction, which was wider and brighter at the sight of her ex-idol cowering at her feet.  

“Kitty, please, I-“ Diane coiled back and gasped when the leopard loudly moved the weapon an inch closer to her face. “I know you’re mad, but I promise I can make it up to you.”

“Oh yeah? And how do you want to go about that, Miss Goody-Two Shoes?” Kitty sneered, her glaring eyes gleaming with amusement at the desperate state she was in.

“Just say it, and I’ll do it! Please?” While kneeling, Diane clasped her hands together while her ridiculously large smile quivered.

Kitty smirked so emotionlessly that Diane couldn’t decipher whether she was softening the leopard’s vengeful urge with her persuasive methods or not like she usually could.

“Fine. Give me the coordinates of the ISGLOP spaceship and I’ll spare your life.” Kitty demanded with an open paw and a wider, greedier smirk.

“I can do anything except that!” Diane smiled.

“Ugh… I should’ve known. ‘YuU tOoK aN oAaAtH.’”

“I took an oath! Swore to keep my spy life secret to outsiders on my first day at ISGLOP.” Diane’s face tilted to the right, then her eyes narrowed. “How do you know I work for ISGLOP anyway…?”

“Well, your little license fell out of your pant pocket when I tranquilized you unconscious.” Kitty snatched the card from one of the pockets of her bulky orange space pants.

“Anyyyyway, say your prayers, fox. You’re gonna need it when I blast your brains out.” Kitty snickered, her grin reeking of maliciousness and cruelty.

“No, wait! Kitty, PLEASE! I can do anything else for you except the coordinates!!” Diane blabbered, her mouth speaking a million miles a minute. “We can work something out!”

Kitty huffed through her nostrils, then shook her head. “Wow, you really don’t get it. I HATE YOU. You LEFT ME the one time I needed you all for some bougie lifestyle that has society beckon to your call in a fingersnap. Somewhere in your dirty heart, you KNOW that the good life was never meant for you. You were living a lie the whole time.”

Diane felt her jaw drop, her eyes widen, her train of thought shriveled up like evaporated water. “Funny. That hits a cord, doesn’t it? You know I’m right!” Kitty yelled in her face before continuing her rant, pacing back and forth, and making grandiose hand movements.

“Trying to run away from your past all for a lifestyle of wealth and power when it was breaking you the whole time. That’s the same feeling, same pressure, same agony, that you inflicted onto me. There is no more us. You already cut our cord back at the museum.” Kitty breathed in heavily a few times before saying her peace with a cold, stoic tone. “So, since you let me suffer, it’s only right that I do the same to you.”

“Kitty, I-“

“You broke me, Diane. You lifted me up so high, then pushed me off right after you brought down my walls.” The feline laughed, her cackles further blackening their surroundings. “God… it’s so great to see how the tables have turned. Everything within me is aligned, while your parts are so jumbled up they’re about ready to collapse.”

That last sentence echoed in Diane’s head and overwhelmed her train of thought. She didn’t even want to entertain such a statement, but it was disturbingly accurate. For 9 painstakingly long years, she had been playing a constant tug of war with her past and future while her present self held on for dear life in the middle of the battle. One day, she would want to give everything up and run back to familiarity. Other days, she felt much more alive when she was doing good deeds with ease instead of planning out elaborate heists.

When she was finally starting to break away from her past life as the notorious Crimson Paw, the thrilling memories from her criminal life haunted her into her political phase. She met the Bad Guys, bailed them out of prison, and even converted them to a life of goodness. Heck, she was so close to them that she was dating their cunningly cute leader!

To top it all off, Kitty came back into the picture when she least expected it. The angsty, rebellious, loose cannon teenager that she had raised from the age of 10 to adulthood had become a feisty feminist. She was healthy, brawny, intelligent beyond her years, and so very nimble. Practically a perfect clone of bad Diane. Little did she expect that the leopard she used to love to bits would be the conniving creature to rip everything she had worked so hard for from her grasp. One encounter, one decision, one mistake cost her more than she could imagine.

The low 24 hour period that washed over her and imprisoned her in her tormented and jumbled mind after the incident ate her alive. Other than Wolf and her new friends, she had nothing to live for. All she had left was hope — the delusional feeling that everything would work out perfectly if she just believed it would. And it did! She just had to let go of everything first.

Let go…

“You know what? We’re not that different, Kitty.” Diane snapped herself out of her spiral.

“Hm?” Kitty raised an eyebrow, yet she still held the fox at gunpoint.

“You heard me. Just like how I thought society accepting me would help me heal, you thought that stealing all the world’s gold would have filled that hole in your chest. It didn’t! It just landed you in incarceration.”

Kitty’s teeth pressed against each other so hard they slightly shook. Her hold on her pistol furiously tightened.

“So now, you’re resorting to killing me, the person who ruined your life, to fill it instead.” The more Diane confidently and calmly spoke, the less control Kitty had over her trembling body. “You know how I was able to bounce back? I let go. I let our ships part ways. I said sayonara to those good ol’ days where I was the biggest, baddest criminal this world had ever seen! “

“That’s your key, Kitty. You want to feel great again? You got to lay down those wounds that I injured you with.” Kitty was violently quivering head to toe. Her eyes raged with red, her teeth were clenched as clenched could be, and her arms looked glued to her sides.

“I’m sorry, Kit.” Diane said. “I know I can never take back what I did, and I know no words or actions will ever compensate for what I did, but… I was lost back then. Lost as much as you were. If you can’t forgive me, that’s totally okay. I just hope what I’m imparting to you will give you closure… peace.”

“OHHHH, you sicken me!!” Kitty yelled before loading a few bullets into her pistol. “Enough chit-chat!!”

Diane looked down at her hands and feet. They were tied up. She was stuck. She hated to recognize it, but… perhaps this really was it for her. Kitty was about to claim her life, and there was nothing more she could do to appease the leopard’s mad mind. Kitty would just have to deal with the consequences later… Diane had done all she could, and she could rest better with that in mind.

“SO LONG, FOX! I’ll see your backstabbing butt on the other side~” With a gulp, Diane took a last deep breath. She lowered her shoulders, puffed out her chest, and held her head high. Though she was scared, her time had come and she didn’t want to be remembered for her fear of fatality; she wanted to be remembered for facing her final hour with dignity and courage.

BOOM!

Gasping for air, Diane sat up, letting out a few coughs. With watery eyes, she whipped her head around her surroundings. She was in the comfort of her apartment, specifically her bedroom.

“Whew! What a day.” Diane said as they both panted, leaning against the front door of her apartment.

“Psh, no kidding. Who knew space could be so- breathtaking?” Wolf remarked with a chuckle, which made Diane — the creamy orange colored fox — laugh.

“Aaaa, I see what you did there.” She sighed happily. “It’s good to be back on Earth.”

After straightening her posture, the first step she took forward sent her flying to the ground. “WOA-“ She screamed, pressing her paws and arms into the door so that her upper body wouldn’t collapse on top of her limp legs.

“Hey, hey, hey! Eeeeasy there.” Wolf scooped his hands underneath her arms then hoisted her up to stand after she caught herself. “Are you alright?!”

“Yeah! Yea, I think so…” Diane huffed. “Whew! That was weird.” She wiped her left eyebrow with her dominant paw.

“What happened?”

“Nothing, I just- my muscles felt like Jello again for a second.” She muttered while looking down at her spotless black and white spy shoes.

“Hm?” Wolf paused, gears turning in his brain. “What do you mean agai-“

“IIIIII mean, I’m just tired! Yep! Tired.” The fox chuckled nervously with an overly large smile, smoothing out her unwrinkled pants with her paws.

It took Wolf a moment to respond back. Every silent blink from him made her sweat more, her heart beat faster. “Ooookay then…! You know yourself best, after all.”

She chuckled to herself — partially out of anxiety and partially out of fondness for him. “Thanks, Wolf.”

“No problem.” Wolf smirked while leaning against her fridge. His dark eyes radiated with softness while he stared at her. She could’ve let herself drop to the floor right then and there, but she didn’t want to worry him any more.

A second later, his smooth demeanor snapped to frantic movements. “Oh gosh, I forgot!” Diane pressed two knuckles to her lips to suppress her giggle. “Here~”

“Plastic wrap?” She squinted her eyes at whatever Wolf gave her; her vision hadn’t returned to its crystal clear state just yet. She felt the smooth yet sticky texture of plastic wrap, but she also saw some red popping through it… that was strange.

Wolf laughed. “No, silly, it’s soup~ Shark made it the other day and we have waaaaayy too much left over, so- I thought I’d give you some.”

“Wow.” Though she typically loved eating homemade food, she wanted to stuff the small bowl of goodness into a trophy closet instead. “Thank you… man, you’ve really gotten better at being a good guy.”

“Daaaawwww, stoooooooop-“ Wolf tucked his head near one of his shoulders, bashfully swaying his body back and forth.

“No, really. Last month, you wanted to steal the lollipop I bought.” She said with a shaking of her head then a dolphin-like giggle.

“Heeeey, I thought we left that behind us.” The canine whined before elbowing her, his ears plopped down. She only found more amusement out of reminiscing.

“You tried to take it, but then I kicked you and you-“ She wheezed. “And you went flying into the wall!” She was so endorphin-filled that her breaths synced up with her laughter.

“Hehe, yeah, that was pretty hilarious, wasn’t it? And then I got up, looked back at the huge dent I made, and said, ‘WOOOOO GURL! You’re STROOOOONG.’” They said the last sentence simultaneously, which made Diane cackle and Wolf join in on her laughing fit.

“Your country accent was so bad back then!” Her voice trembled before she erupted with another cackle.

“Heeey, you’ve still got it!”

“Got what?”

“That villainous cackle~”

“Pfffft. Oh, stooooop.” Diane waved him off, but Wolf insisted.

“Yeah, yeah! Don’t try to deny it. It’s not a bad thing, y’know. It’s actually uh-“ Wolf cleared his throat, then adjusted his suit. “It’s actually pretty hot.” He got quite close to her, but she didn’t resist nor coil back. After all, their kissing spree in the rocket was confirmation enough that they were both into each other. What did she have left to lose?

“Oh yeah? Hm. Well, your goodness is starting to rub off on me, bad boy.” Diane grabbed his tie. She was a millimeter away from touching his lips, but a spinning sensation pushed her back from him.

“Ohhhhh…” She put a paw to her head temple… it didn’t let up. She closed her eyes as if she could block out the unexpected force that way, but it worsened. She felt for the thickness of one of the sides of her marble countertop, then gripped it with her free paw.

“Diane…? Diane, you good??” She heard him say before a ringing noise drowned out his voice and the obnoxiously loud hums of her fridge.

Lean back. It’s bedtime, she heard a faint voice in her head say. It sounded familiar but her mind was so spaced out that she didn’t have the energy to match the sadistic, feminine voice with the right person or animal. She barely picked up on Wolf calling her name, hardly made out his blobbish figure before the lights turned out.

Briiiiiiiiiiiiiing. The static filling her ears gradually raised in pitch until it dissipated. Ba-dunk, ba-dunk, ba-dunk. She heard the drums pounding in her heart, her shallow breaths. She could feel the fluffy solidity of her cream couch touching her back and neck.

“DIANE!!” She sat up at the yell of her name. Her eyes were burning under the bright light coming from the kitchen.

“Ugggghhh- Wolf…?” She said groggily before burying her stinging pupils into sweet, refreshing darkness.

“Oh thank god-“

“What happen- gaAaAaAh.” The room spun. Her stomach twisted, and her body shook as if she was walking on a thin bridge attached to two cliffs and had looked down below. Even with her head resting on her pillow, the room still moved and taunted her.

“Don’t get up! You’re still not 100%.” Wolf warned too late.

“Ugh-“ Diane squeezed her eyes closed. “That was exhausting.”

“Well… do you have something to tell me?” Darting her eyes to the right, she saw about half of Wolf’s body. His fluffy fists were pressed into his sides, his feet were grounded into the floor, and one of his bushy eyebrows was slightly raised. His eyes were so attentive that they glared right through her.

With a sigh, she started talking. “Before you and the others got to the rocket, I confronted Kitty.”

“You WHAT?” Like lightning electrocuting a tree, shock struck and wiped his stern expression off his face.

“I tried to stop them before they could even set foot on that spacecraft, but I- she-“ With another heavy sigh, Diane’s face plummeted. “She caught me off guard with that video, and she shot me.”

“Oh my GOD, DO YOU HAVE A BULLET IN YOU??” Wolf grabbed each of Diane’s arms then legs in an anxious search for any holes in her clothing.

“NOOOO, NO! Not that kind of shot!!” Diane yelled before pulling her shoulders close to her body. “She seduced me. Next thing I know, my vision goes blurry and my joints give out and-“

Another dizzy spell hit her. This time, she squeezed her head temple with her paw before crashing back. While she winced and wriggled around like a helpless worm, Wolf noticed her body twitch in small bursts. He knew the surprise vertigo had subsided once her shoulders laid back and her body stretched out.

“And?”

“And then somehow, I managed to sneak on board while being half-conscious and sick out of my mind!” Diane huffed, dejectedly lowering her arms onto the couch. “I felt like I was swimming in Jello, or tar, or- I don’t know, something!”

“Dang- I’m so sorry, Diane. About the video, we-we tried our hardest to stop it from uploading, but-”When Wolf looked back at her, she was sound asleep. Walking lightly towards the snoozing fox, a smile stretched across his face while he admired the peaceful state she was in.

“We’ll talk about it later.” He whispered before kissing her cheek. “Sleep tight. You’ve earned it.”

-Later-

While Diane was taking a much-deserved rest, Wolf had been busy in the kitchen heating up the leftover soup he had given to her. Though he wasn’t sure what was best for relieving sedative symptoms, he did know that soup was always the go-to food for recovery when he was a pup.

The smell of tomatoes and basil filled the room, calming his nerves. With a few more stirs of the creamy reddish-orange liquid, it was ready. As steam rose from the love-filled concoction, he carefully poured the soup into a black bowl, then strolled into the living room.

“I’ve got dinner for the patieeeent…” His eyes widened. Diane’s eyes were droopy, her smile was swirly, and her giggles sounded like they were alcohol-induced. “Uhhhh, Diane? Are you alright?”

“MmYeAh! WhY wOuLdN’T i Bee?” She responded in a wavy, loopy voice. “OhHh, iS tHaT sOoP?” She pointed at the bowl he held in his hand, her body swaying back and forth like a palm tree in the wind while sitting up.

“Uh, yeaaaa- it is.” Wolf gently guided her body back to lying down with the powerful grip of one of his paws. “Shoot, I forgot the spoon.” He mumbled.

When he turned around to go to the kitchen to grab the metal utensil, his body jumped at the sight of his ditzy girlfriend. “How did—?!?!” He sputtered, whipping his head back and forth. The empty couch, the kitchen. Couch, kitchen. “How did you even—?!? I-!”

“MweEeh- gOt iT, hOnEe~” She held up the spoon in her hand while she rocked side to side like one of those inflatable figures at a car dealership.

Just when he laid the bowl of soup on the square coffee table made from gray and white-purplish wood, he had to dash over to Diane to catch her before she cracked the side of her head open.

“ARE YOU OKAY?!?!” Wolf’s cheeks burned. A confusing yet jubilant feeling swelled up in his heart… was she fine with her body being perfectly limp in his arms like this?

“WEEEE!” Diane squealed, stretching her arm back as if they had been dancing and he dipped her. “AgAiN, AgAiN!”

“Noooo, no, no ‘again.’ You’re heading straight to bed.” Though his insides swirled with different emotions and thoughts, he had no other choice but to carry her to her bedroom. He would probably get an earful later, but he would gladly take a scolding over seeing her stuck in a hospital bed.

“NoOo! I dOn’T wAnNa goO~” He bit his lip, cutting his small nasal chuckle in half. He never thought he would be the one to witness Diane Foxington of all animals acting like a child. Her ditziness only made his soft spot for her grow tenfold.

“You have to if you wanna get better, babe.” Wolf replied, shutting himself up once he realized he just called her a lovey-dovey nickname. He clenched his eyes shut before his head drooped down.

“HeEeY, yOu LoOk LiKe a ToMaTo~” Diane said before she started cackling at him. The heat circulating in his face rose to a melting degree. Gosh, was she cute… “NOW YOU LOOK LIKE A RADISH, BAAAHAHAHAHHHHH!”

“S-shut up.” He squeaked out, his mouth wobbling, his body quivering.

“HeY, iT’s tRoO-“ She lifted up her fist to the ceiling before she groaned and held her stomach. Her voice went from confidently high to solemnly low in an instant.

His ears pointed up when he heard her little moans and felt her shift this way and that in his grasp. Her sounds of discomfort got louder. “Shh, sh sh. Hey, it’s okay. We’re almost there.” He said in the gentlest voice, slightly rocking her.

Stopping in front of Diane’s room, he used one of his paws to stroke one of her cheeks. “It’s s’okay, baby. Wolfie’s here.” Her once scrunched-up face softened when he touched her; her pain-induced noises lowered to a squeak.

He breathed a sigh of relief, then carefully opened the door to Diane’s bedroom. Though the neat room was shrouded in dark blue evening light, he could see just fine with his night vision.

“Alllllright.” He quietly stated before he laid Diane on her bed in the gentlest manner. “What can I do?” He asked a little louder while she turned to her left side to face him.

“Blanket…” She whispered, rubbing her head against her pillow to get comfy.

Wolf gingerly untucked the blanket from the sides of the bed and from under Diane. “Sorry, sorry.” Wolf immediately apologized when he heard Diane wince. “Here.” Wolf threw the blanket over her, which made her chuckle.

“Can you wrap me like a burrito…?” Diane requested groggily.

“Of course.” Grabbing her body and moving her closer to him, he proceeded to tuck the blanket underneath her in a quick but soft manner. He also managed to use part of it to cover her head so she could be extra cozy. “Better?”

“Much.” She faintly answered, then let out a squeaky yawn that made him chuckle and smile.

“Goodnight, Diane.”

“Mmmm, g’night…” She was on the verge of falling into a deep slumber when she nodded her head. “Wait, I forgot to eat what you made for me-“ She mumbled.

“It’s fine.”

“You sure?”

“Mhm~ I’ll just reheat it again when you’re hungry.” He lightly pressed his fingers into her left cheek so he could pull her closer and kiss her forehead. She smiled and hummed — the kind of hum a girl made when her heart had been caught and cared for by the right partner.

“I love you, Diane.” He stroked his thumb across the same cheek while his heart overfilled with fondness and admiration for the beautiful canine in front of him. The canine that the universe had blessed him with as a lifelong partner in hero work… and, hopefully, in the topsy-turvy journey of life.

“Mmmm, wuv you too~” A sly but cute smile curved on her face, which made him laugh. He stayed by her side and stared at the precious gift of a animal he had won until he felt her dive into dreamland.

I scream out your name until my throat is dry.

Your motorcycle is hidden behind thick, dark smoke,

and your voice is suffocated underneath the cries

and screams of the witnesses.

Mom stays by the car. I walk forward, hugging myself

while my eyes scan over the destruction.

The people that come out of the wreckage are too dark-skinned,

too brunette, too unscathed to be you.

Some survivors tremble to safety by themselves. Others need assistance. 


As person after person rises from their wrecked or crumpled cars, fear brings me under

like a giant wave. The thoughts add weight to my body with every second that passes

of you being out of my reach. 


The scene of the deprecated highway around me spins as if I’m about to pass out

when I lock eyes onto you, your face dotted with ash, and your black biker pants 

tattered like a broken sail. Inching closer, I run forward to hug you. While

I bawled, you stayed silent. It seemed we both realized how quick life

Wolf groaned. In response to the light that made his eyelids tingly and face scrunched up, his head swayed back and forth against a cold, concrete wall.

His eyes squinted against the powerful white light that blared onto him, then opened them as wide as saucers. Grey walls, grey floor. A dull room of nothingness.

Wolf tried to move, but his wrists were constricted by two metal chains that were attached to two separate, thin slats in the wall.

“Hey, hey!” Snake shouted small, prompting Wolf to turn his head to the right. “It’s okay, bud. We’re stuck too.” Snake whispered before coughing. The poor reptile’s airways were being suffocated due to the free end of the chain wrapping around his neck.

“Snake…” Wolf’s eyebrows lightened in weight. His mouth curled into a frown. He examined the opposite side of the room to see that their three friends had also succumbed to the same sorrowful fate.

“Okay, what happened? Who put us here??” Wolf demanded without hesitation. His heart pumped flaming blood through his veins. His hands shook with the hostile, immoral urge to punch, scratch, or strangle someone.

“I did!” A sly, familiar voice of feminism echoed through the room before they walked through the door. Of course. It was Kitty, Pigtail, and Doom… the Bad Girls. Also known as the devilish trio who had nearly succeeded in framing his group and sending them back to prison.

Though he could understand Kitty being behind this, the fact that the boar and raven were back at her side catering to her caught him off guard.

“Pigtail? Doom?? I thought you gals turned good.” Wolf thought aloud.

“Yeaaaa, but we reberted.” Pigtail sneered with a cute yet unsettling giggle.

“Reverted, Petra. Re-veeeer-ted.” Doom corrected her.

“Bah, whatever!” Pigtail blew her off with a disdainful wave of her left hand, which Doom scoffed and eye rolled at.

Wolf couldn’t tell which was stranger: the fact that they had restarted their alliance with Kitty after everything the diabolical leopard had put them through, or the fact that there was zero warmth and lightheartedness shared between the two sidekicks in their interactions.

“But… why?” Webs, the smallest member of Wolf’s crew, asked with a face twisted in shock, disgust, and betrayal.

“Well, she made us an offer we couldn’t refuse, sweetie. 500k each, whoo! Talk about a paycheck.” Doom remarked before she joined Pigtail in making the money sign with their dominant hand or feather.

“So- n-none of what we had was real?” Piranha asked, his voice cracking like an egg that had been dropped to the floor.

“Sorry, сладур [pronounced sladur - translates to cutie, sweetheart, or honey]. I had to move on.” Pigtail responded in the coldest, most heartless voice the group of six had ever heard from her while the left side of her face rested on her fist.

“Ohhhh, baby… come here, my man.” Wolf heard Shark say before the sound of loud back pats clicked in his ears. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Piranha’s face buried in Shark’s clothes while he sobbed.

“Pff, men. So sensitive.” Doom murmured to Pigtail, who snickered. Now this… oh, this had gone too far. The Bad Girls was an understatement… they were The Gruesome Girls now.

The canine’s stomach churned with flames. His teeth clenched, his fangs bulged out of his mouth, and his eyes were unrecognizable. His brown pupils had turned into a deep, bright red — the kind of red that would be the color of the loudest, boldest, strongest wildfire.

Wolf’s buddies didn’t even have to guess what he felt. The anger that overwhelmed and enveloped his entire being pulsated, then ricocheted, off of their chests into the once stoic atmosphere.

Though Kitty and the girls had their souls drenched in a thick ooze of darkness and immorality, they, too, felt a small pulse of danger beat within their blackened hearts. Perfect.

“Nice goin’ girls. Looks like we’ve stirred the pot.” Kitty complimented them before chuckling heartily.

“Stirred the pot’s an understatement. We burned the water.” Doom retorted with gritted teeth and eyes wide awake.

“Is it time, boss?” Pigtail asked, her voice not as sinister and strong like before.

“Yep! Hook up the mic, Doom.” When the mic had been turned on, the squeak that echoed from it caught Wolf’s attention. From the girls’ point of view, Wolf looked ready to pounce onto the glass screen that was 3-5 feet above him, break it, then shred them to pieces.

“Alright y’all. Welcome to your demise~” Kitty said as if she was a game show host. “Before I start torturing you for my pleasure, it seems like we got a rambunctious one.”

Kitty’s eyes stared him down, her fiery and wicked pupils of emerald laughing at him. Everyone in the room saw something snap internally within the usually calm creature; he was holding back before… now he had no restraint. His face that was once in between serenity and anger was now seething.

“You wanna try me?” Wolf said in between his clenched teeth and quiet breaths that screamed with wrath. “I’ll break you like a toothpick.” He stated, the word ‘toothpick’ coming out forced and a little too articulate. His teeth were pressed together so hard that each of them slightly quivered. Yellow flames burned behind his deep brown and red pupils.

BURING! His intimidatingly long claws said when he had extended them. They glistened under the LED light, looking ready to cut and slash an unlucky animal in half.

“Well… looks like this is going to be a show to remember.” She muttered under her breath, face curving into pure evil while she got out her tranquilizer gun and loaded it with clear bullets that had been previously filled with a red liquid.

“Sorry, Wolfie! I can’t have an unstable animal in my room.” Kitty said while twirling the gun with one of her fingers. Without even a moment’s pause, she pointed her weapon at Wolf and released the trigger. The bullet hit perfectly into the left side of Wolf’s neck.

Once the substance within the bullet dissolved into his fur, Wolf’s lower body slammed onto the floor and went limp. His head uncontrollably and sporadically turned this way and that against the wall while he groaned and yelled in short bursts.

“WOLF?!?” Snake shouted, the others letting out a gasp while they watched their beloved leader struggle to fight against whatever strange, invisible force had crept into his insides.

The canine froze, head leaned back against the wall and body relaxed. The room was breathless for a moment until his neck straightened. When he opened his eyes, his pupils were an opaque, lifeless, unfamiliar black. For a moment, they assumed that he had been seduced, but boy, oh boy, were they wrong.

A ear-piercing yell in the form of a growl made everyone jump except the snow leopard, who stood with a smirk of satisfaction stretching across her face.

Booooooooooooww. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!” Doom screamed at Kitty, who had pressed the giant red button to the right of the control panel… the button that freed their prisoners from their chains.

“I don’t want an unstable animal… I want a VICIOUS PREDATOR!” Kitty shouted before screeching with laughter, leaning her body back, and holding her stomach as endorphins spewed out of her like vomit.

Wolf got on all fours, charging towards Snake and foaming at the mouth.

“WOLF! WOLF IT’S ME!” Snake yelled over the rabid canine’s roars and grunts. “ST-STOP STOP! D’OOOOOH NO!” In the nick of time, Snake engaged his core and sprung out of the way just before Wolf could bite a chunk out of his rubbery neck. The others stood near separate corners of the room, intently watching every feral movement of Wolf’s.

Doom smacked Kitty’s hand off of her shoulder. “You PROMISED no one would get hurt!”

“Pft. Yeah, obviously! I said that WE wouldn’t get hurt.”

“Wha-?!?” Doom sputtered. Pigtail just shook her head with a scoff.

“You gotta stop taking everything at face value, hon. Ugh, when will you leaaaarn?” Kitty said with a hand on her hip, chuckling.

“You- you tricked us again?” Doom asked, all the darkness that had re-accumulated within her pulverized by the light… the truth of who Kitty was. The realization hurt just as bad as the last time.

“Of course! How else would you have expected me to get my minions back?” Kitty said in the coldest, shallowest tone while she twirled her tail with her right paw. “WoRkInG fOr iT?” She cackled. “HECK NO! Have you met me?”

The trio snapped out of their impending argument when another roar and collection of screams filled the room. Kitty got as close as she could to the glass window. Squinting at the battle zone beneath her, she saw a few streaks of blood on the floor that looked like dried paint strokes on a blank canvas.

Upon closer observation of the group of animals that scurried around the room, she noticed that the shark had a blood waterfall that had rolled down the side of his left arm and hardened. His left wrist was gashed with hideously distinct scratch marks that were a bright, sharp red.

The spider was moving zig-zag, somehow dodging every stomp of the canine’s left foot. The piranha was sitting on the floor in one of the corners of the room, shouting orders to his friends on where and when to move before he had to heed his own advice.

The snake was the most agile and flighty out of the four targets. Perhaps it had to do with how Wolf would always gravitate back to the reptile and lock his focus onto him before getting distracted by another speedy animal.

“What did you do with my elixir?!?” The boar yelled after snatching her transparent, watery concoction that had been sitting in a beaker. For hours, it was resting above all the buttons and switches that made up the room’s control console.

“I dissolved amphetamine in it~! Lots of it. Oh, and I added a dropper’s full of red food coloring so I could make it, y’know... colorful.”

“You DRUGGED MY LIQUID?!?” Pigtail was about to tackle her, but Doom held her back by gripping the boar’s giant shoulders. “I spent HOURS making the chemicals in it balanced!!”

“Welp, sorry sweetie. Upsets are simply part of life~” Kitty said with a snort-sounding giggle.

“WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?” Doom shouted, turning Kitty away from the horror story that was unfolding below them.

“What’s wrong with you?” The feline got so close to her that she could feel the cat’s intimidating breaths warm the tip of her beak.

“Get out of my space, leopard.” Doom said sternly, stomping one of her talons forward that made Kitty jerk one of her feet back. The scare made Kitty kneel to the bird’s height and put her face so close to the bird’s that Doom had no choice but to move her neck back.

“Do you really want to get out of line again? Because what I did once, I can do again.” Kitty sneered with a smile that made Doom sick to her stomach.

To the bird’s relief, an agonizing, ear-curdling screech prompted all three of the girls to look below through the plexiglass wall. Each of their eyes widened; each of their hearts stopped.

Somehow, while they weren’t looking, Snake was now at the mercy of wrecking ball Wolf, who held the reptile by his clenched, sharp fanged teeth. The two of them were still as a statue, and the room that was once erupting with terror had been reduced to a solemn, anxious quiet. Snake’s helpless bodily limp in the grasp of the violent, untamable Canis lupus sent chills through Kitty’s spine.

“SNAKE!” The shark, piranha, and spider yelled at the same time at the same volume and intensity. Pressing his injured arm into his chest, the shark led the ensemble into running fatally close to their apoplectic friend to yank Snake from his mouth.

“LET HIM GO!” Piranha yelled breathlessly while the three risktakers grabbed Snake’s tail and engaged Wolf in a tug-of-war.

As everyone stared at Wolf, one thing was made devastatingly clear: he was no longer the calm, tranquil, bubbly animal that he once was. Thanks to Kitty, he had been transformed into a monster. A destructive machine that had no off switch. A murderer who got a high off of seeing and tasting blood.

All his domestic behavior had been wiped from his anger-wound mind altogether… he had officially gone savage. He had officially lost himself to all the stresses and hardships that came with the endless struggle of trying to be seen as a good guy for once. He had finally become what people had labeled him all his life… the Big Bad Wolf. A greedy, bloodthirsty savage that viewed everyone as his next meal — as helpless creatures that could be used and exploited to his advantage.

Kitty didn’t have much sympathy for the group though. She had successfully torn a family apart, put best friends against best friends. And that filled her up.

“Snake!” Shark said, his voice choked up and shaky. Though they had successfully pulled Snake away, the part of his neck that had been chomped down by Wolf was drenched in burgundy.

“SNAKE?!?” Shark yelled before putting his hands to his mouth, breathing rapidly, and bawling.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay guys!” Webs grunted as she moved Shark’s leg in small increments. “He’s still breathing.” Webs smiled. Shark and Piranha sighed with relief while wiping spare tears from their eyes.

“We just gotta get him to safe- HEeeEeY- ACK!” Webs screamed. With widened eyes and quick breaths, she put her hands to her heart. She had barely been able to escape the crushing of her exoskeleton.

“Okay! This has gone way too far.” Doom exclaimed, so traumatized that she had started making movements with her wings while talking.

“Hm. That’s the best thing you’ve said all day.” Kitty gently pushed her forward to the steel door that was connected to a staircase. Doom turned her head to her with a raised eyebrow.

‘Go on, little birdie! Fix it~” Kitty grinned like the Cheshire Cat, her soft eyes revealing her true intentions.

“HECK. NO.” Doom shouted before pushing Kitty with all her might to the door. “You started it, you fix it!” She snapped, her talons rooted in the wooden mahogany floor like a mighty tree.

Kitty leaned her neck forward, hissing like a reptile. “It was a rule you started, remember?” Doom rebuked, her courage expanding rather than shrinking.

With a huff, Kitty raised up her hands and gave Doom some space. “Alrite! Alrite, I can let you hold me accountable.” Though the raven saw Pigtail soften, Doom still guarded her heart. Was Kitty really being genuine this time, or was the leopard trying to coax her into dismantling her defenses again?

Kitty opened the door with a loud creak, leaving the metal doorknob dented and wavy in shape. She walked stealthily downstairs, and, when the sound of her light steps had dissipated, Doom and Pigtail rushed to the plexiglass to watch her.

“ALRIGHT! This is clearly getting out of hand.” Kitty said while straightening her belt. “Time to put Wolfie here to night night.” Pulling out her tranquilizer, she shot another bullet — a bullet that was filled with the intended substance that Pigtail had slaved over for a day and a half. At the sound of the shot, Wolf’s conscious pals rushed out of Kitty’s way so she could focus on saving their intoxicated friend.

“What the-“ Kitty mumbled when Wolf swiftly turned away from the bullet, untouched by a millimeter.

She tried it again. Pwoosh. Another turn followed by a raspy, gurgly growl of enjoyment. Pwooosh, pwoooosh, pwoooosh! Duck, dodge, spin. “ERRR!” Kitty yelled, throwing her weapon to the ground. “Okay, that’s it! I’ve had enough of you… my perfect little devil dog.” Kitty said, her last remark confusing the trio of gals and Good Guys.

With a scoff and shaking of her head, she pressed her feet into the floor. “No, no. Not now.” She whispered to herself before charging at him with full force. “GAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!” Wolf copied her sprint.

A roar soon projected from his lungs, beginning their battle. Phase one. With her claws extended, Kitty slashed at his face, but every scratch got blocked by Wolf’s quick, sturdy arms. Phase two. Knock him down with sweeping kicks. Burrish, brish, brish. He saw her movements as a jump rope that would entertain him, and nothing more.

Phase three. BOOM! She punched him right in the middle of his long nose while his short attention span kept him jumping with glee. He flew into the adjacent wall, his back hitting it so hard that its concrete composition cracked and dropped in fragments.

Wiping a sliver of drool from the corner of her lip with her knuckle, she winced — a sharp pain coursed through the inside of her fingers. Gingerly balling her hand into a fist, she noticed thin lines of blood flowing from the middle of each of her knuckles.

She breathed on the injured areas as if she could put out the fire of pain that had ignited in her dominant hand. She only groaned harder, louder.

“Wolf? Wolf, you there, hermano?” Piranha’s voice was barely audible in Wolf’s ringing ears. Like Kitty, he groaned and moaned. His head? Felt like it had shattered into a million pieces. His body? Overwhelmed by sharp tingles and pricks that he envisioned his lower body as a firecracker. The room? Spun. His vision? Fogged up like warm air molecules on a freezing window.

In a fingersnap, Wolf had been transported to another place. Same colored walls and floor, except the room he was in was full with… stuff. Stuff he couldn’t label, yet their names were on the tip of his dried tongue.

His breathing sharply pounded against his heart. He felt warm, but cold temperatures rolled down the sides of his head. He thought he would see red on his paws after grazing the cold areas, but it was simply sweat. He jumped at the fluffy, comforting sensation of the fuzzy gray blanket that covered his lower body.

Bed. He was in bed. And he was surrounded by his posters. Posters, alarm clock, dresser, beanbag chair, clean clothes that he had forgotten to fold on top of that chair. Everything was lacking color… lacking color because? Because it was dark.