A blue Zafara raced through the pouring rain, his beady eyes trying to take in the view in front of him. He was going so fast and it was so wicked with rain that he could hardly see a thing. His home was a few blocks away and he really needed to get back there as quick as possible, or else there might not be any house left to go back to. He had left the oven on before going food shopping for his Petpet, Ditzy, a little pink Ona.
A sinister thought flashed through his mind. Ditzy really belonged to his little sister but since she and a friend had gone to Mystery Island for the week, he was forced to look after the sickly sweet Ona. Maybe it would be a blessing if the house had burned down. With Ditzy trapped in there she wouldn't stand a chance. He chuckled to himself. No sickly Pink Ona prancing around the place hugging anything and everything, no soppy kisses on the lips, no silly drawings of perfect families. Ditzy did all of this. You see, Dryn just couldn't stand it. He couldn't stand it at all.
He arrived at his doorstep to find that everything was normal, which he was quite thankful for really. He wouldn't have wanted his house to burn down after all. That was a pretty stupid idea, especially just to get rid of a stupid Pink Ona. Instead he could just…
He looked down at the bag of food in his grasp. He could starve her. Yes. That would be perfect. He turned from his doorstep and into the road. He looked both ways before shoving the bag and its contents into a nearby dustbin. His heart fluttered excitedly and he shivered. He shook his head to get rid of the drops of rain that had collected in his fur and continued to his house.
Ditzy came charging up to him instantly and hugged his legs. She let out a tiny squeak of delight and looked up at him with an excited smile on her face that seemed to spread across her cheeks. Her eyes were like saucers, big, round and cheerful.
"Sorry but you'll have no food tonight. The shop was closed," he lied, satisfyingly.
Ditzy dropped her head and she let out a little moan. A tear fell from her cheek and she skulked away. Dryn smiled and once again felt that excited flutter in his chest. He was enjoying this, perhaps a little too much, but he didn't care. This was just too good.
He switched the oven off, took out his own food and poured it onto a plate. Food in hand, he turned around to see Ditzy sitting in her little corner where she felt safe and snug. He picked her up by the scruff of her neck and held her up to his face as he watched her squirm in pain. He took her over to his steaming plate of food and shoved her face right up to it.
"Mine. MINE!" he yelled at her. "No food for you tonight!"
After he had teased her, he threw open the back door and flung her outside in the pouring rain. The wind and the rain lashed at his fur as he watched Ditzy charge for the open door. He shut it quickly so that the door closed in her face. She hit the glass with a small, feeble bang and fell onto her back where she stayed. It was as if she had given up trying to fend for herself already. She was always a little weakling, Dryn thought.
It was still raining the next morning, but it had slowed to a drizzle. Coupled with the rain was a cold wind that could bore right down into your bones. Ditzy probably would have only lasted a couple of hours out there.
As he approached the door and looked out, his hopes were dashed. Ditzy had found shelter under some bushes and was curled up there in a tiny ball. Her head was hidden in her paws and her chest was rising and falling rapidly. She was crying. Pitiful little Ona. Snivelling wreck. Surely she couldn't have lasted much longer.
The days that followed were near enough the same. Rainy, cold and windy. And still, Ditzy was holding on to her dear life. By now it was Thursday evening but by that time Dryn didn't know that. He didn't know what he was doing, or even where he was. His crazy, confused mind was deepening into a dark void full of evil, hatred and despair. He was sinking slowly back into his past. Dark thoughts surrounded him. He was falling, deeper, deeper, deeper. He had to make it go away. He had to make someone else suffer. Ditzy.
He sauntered outside almost in a trance and grabbed Ditzy by the scruff of her neck just as he had done a couple of nights ago. She squirmed but her movements were weak. She was losing strength. She was close to death. He shook her so that her head flopped from side to side. When she no longer moved, he dropped her to the floor where she lay limp and lifeless. Was she finally dead? Dryn thought that she must be.
There was a knock at the door. Dryn didn't answer it.
"Dryn, are you in there?" a female voice called.
He shot up. His sister had returned two days early! The body. What could he do with the body? He heard a shuffle outside the door and then the jangling of keys. No time. Any second now and his sister would see everything. As he looked down at Ditzy he suddenly froze. He didn't know what to do. He had killed a Petpet, a living thing; his sisters Petpet, whom she loved dearly. Any pangs of guilt he felt were quashed by something dark and stirring in his heart.
He hastily covered Ditzy with clumps of grass and dirt and ran back indoors just as his sister was entering the garden.
"Dryn, what are you doing out there? It's raining!"
"D-Don't go outside, Tina" he stammered, his eyes beginning to water and his mouth trembling. "It's rainy out there. Y-Y-You don't want to get wet."
The brown Cybunny shot him an awkward glance.
"Dryn, what's wrong with you? I'm already soaking wet; I don't think going out in the garden will make much difference. Please let me past."
Dryn spread his arms and legs across the door trying to act as a barrier but his sister, sensing that he was desperately trying to hide something from her, pushed him aside and he tumbled to the floor in a sorry heap.
Tina ran out into the garden and saw that Ditzy was lying in the grass, partially covered with sod and dirt. She ran over to her Petpet and removed the debris from her, throwing it frantically to one side, not caring about sullying her paws.
"She's dead!" Dryn cried, running out to the garden. "She's dead!"
Tina put one paw on Ditzy's chest.
"She's still breathing," she replied in a calm but slightly shaky voice. "We have to take her to the hospital. You can tell me what happened there."
Dryn, not really knowing what to do or say, and still affected by the demons within him, followed Tina to the hospital. Neither of them talked the way there. Did she know that he had done this? Of course she did. It would have been obvious to anyone.
In the waiting room, brother and sister sat side by side in silence as Neopets came and went, and Petpets too. There was an incredible atmosphere between them; the air could have been cut with a knife.
"Dryn, please tell me what happened. Please," Tina finally asked, breaking the silence and closing the abyss that had formed between them.
And, after an awkward pause, he confessed. He confessed everything to her.
"I tried to kill her," were his last words before he started to sob his heart out. He wept into his sisters arms but she pushed him away abruptly.
"Don't you dare touch me," she snapped, tears welling in her eyes. "You promised me you'd change. You PROMISED."
"I-I-I tried," he sobbed. "But I can't forget. I just can't."
"Dryn, I know he treated you nasty, but that is in the past. You've got to forget about him."
"I can't!" he sobbed. "I dream about him and what he did to me every single night. Locking me in that grimy cellar, beating me, starving me until I could hardly move. I can't forget it. Making someone else feel my pain makes it all better somehow. I didn't mean to hurt Ditzy, I really d-didn't mean-mean to…"
He couldn't finish his sentence for he was sobbing profusely now. Instead of pushing him away, Tina cradled her brother in her arms and rocked him back and forth comforting him.
"Ditzy will be okay," she said to him. "She's strong inside. I can't forgive you for what you did… not yet. I will, but right now, I just can't. You understand, right? I do love you. You're my brother."
"I understand that I did a terrible thing. The past is the past. I hurt Ditzy because of something that happened to me years ago."
"Will you promise me you'll get help?"
"I promise. Not only for my sake, but for you and Ditzy. I will never hurt another person."
Just then a Uni nurse approached them. They sat up wide-eyed. Dryn's heart was pumping. Please let her be okay. I have to make it up to her. I must make it up to her.
"Ditzy's going to be absolutely fine," she said, smiling and relief swept over him. "Would you like to go and see her?"
Dryn looked at Tina and could see a solitary tear welling in her eye. Seconds later and the floodgates opened up. She wiped the tears away with a napkin and sighed with relief.
"We'd love to see her, but could you leave us for a few minutes first please?" she asked politely. "I just need to talk to my brother."
"Of course. She's in room 22," the Uni replied and trotted away.
Tina pulled her brother close to her and they hugged again, harder this time. Tina's mouth was pressed up against Dryn's ear.
"I'll never let you feel that way again. We'll all be here for each other, always. We'll look out for each other. As long as there's the three of us we'll be able to get through anything. You understand that?"
"I do, sis. I do. Will you come with me to my therapy sessions?"
"Anything, if it makes you forget what that cruel boy did to you. I'm your sister, remember?"
With nothing left to say to each other, they walked down the corridor side by side to see a precious, tiny Pink Ona called Ditzy.
The End