Chapter Three: Chew Toy?!
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Poof didn't know how long he had stayed as still as a statue, but roar after road went by and the sky was starting to darken. After he had got on, the bus had made only other stop; it was a cross-country bus, and by now he was probably miles from home. The passengers were all old, and they smelled like prune juice and mold, and they were all wearing cheesy shirts that clearly pointed them out as 'tourists'. A lot of them snored uproariously, too, even in the lightest of naps.
Finally the bus pulled over and the driver turned to his passengers, "This is the last pit stop, so if you need to, please stretch your legs a little. We'll start off for Wisconsin in about ten minutes."
Poof watched, through drooping, tired eyes, as everybody got creakily to their feet and filed off the bus. Once everybody was gone, he checked that no one outside was looking in and bounced off the bus, plopping exhaustedly on the ground. All the humans were heading for a small rest-stop building, so Poof walked slowly in the opposite direction.
It was already past sunset. Adding the late hour to how long he'd held his inanimate ruse, Poof was so tired he could barely concentrate on dragging each foot forward. He had no idea where he was and the dark of the oncoming night felt somehow more ominous here than back in Dimmesdale. The little teddy-bear-fairy staggered behind a fence and flopped right on the ground. Just a little nap, that was all he needed, and with that, Poof let his eyes shut.
A loud crashing bang jolted Poof awake. He groggily looked around; the first thing he noticed was that the sky was starting to lighten again. He had slept almost the entire night.
Then next thing he noticed was a fallen trash can, a little way down the raggedly built fence, and a large (relative to Poof's view) figure nosing through its spilt contents. As it lifted its head, Poof realized it was a puppy—albeit a glowing green puppy with a spike collar and frighteningly bright red eyes. But he looked friendly enough, so with a wiggle of his rattle, Poof transformed into his dog form. Even as a puppy, Poof was still a spherical shape and his triangular ears had yet to perk up like his parent's dog forms. Just for fun, he added his cape—the one from when he'd play with Timmy in his superhero comics. Grabbing his rattle in his teeth, he bounded toward the other puppy.
It had been a few days since Cujo had gotten his squeaky toy back, but after growing bored of it, he had dug through the Fenton portal into the real world from the Ghost Zone. From there he started playing around Amity Park, not particularly interested in anything specific. He chased some cats, taunted Jack Fenton, whose ghost tracker was on the verge of imploding, was spotted by Valerie—who chased him, but lost his trail—and then picked up a strange new smell. That was what caught his attention.
The little green ghost puppy followed the smell with captivated curiosity. It was not the scent of ghost, human, nor animal. Cujo followed the aroma to an alleyway in the rundown outskirts of Amity Park, but a wave of stench from fetid trash cut his trail short, filling his nose as he went into the alley. He lost the other smell, only picking it up as a faint trace.
He leapt onto a box and from there onto a trash can. His front paws hit the lid hard, then suddenly kept going down. He hadn't phased; the can's lid had been balanced only halfway across the opening and it flipped into the air like a slime-coated, rusty coin as Cujo fell into the can. His limbs flailed in surprise. As he was swallowed by the metal cylinder, which swayed precariously from being jolted, the lid came crashing down knocking into the can. That gave it the force needed to fully tip over with a metallic gooonng!
Cujo rode out of it on the wave of half-rotted trash that spilled across the alleyway. He practically grinned from ear to ear; this was more fun than he had ever had! He stuck his nose into the trash, rooting around as he caught another whiff of that strange scent that had led him here. What would it be?
Then, suddenly, a purple ball, which had the scent he'd been looking for, as well as smelling a bit…no, a lot!... like a chew-toy, rammed into him, sending the green puppy sprawling.
In her dingy apartment above the alleyway, Valerie scowled at her homework which was being more trouble than it was worth. She chewed the end of her pencil, which was tragically, little more than a nub. Maybe she'd be able to scrounge up enough change to buy a box of new ones. Frustrated with stress and injustice, she got to her feet, dumping the stack of homework papers on her bed and she went toward her closet, and opened it. At least she had one thing left, her hunting equipment. The red suit hung in the dim lighting like a beacon.
Her gracious, though anonymous, contributor had provided the perfect weapons for getting revenge on ghosts, who she blamed in general for her sudden drop on the social ladder. Unfortunately, that evil little ghost dog was back and he had crunched one of her plasma rays, now an unrecognizable ball of metal and wiring, between his massive salivation jaws just the say before. Fortunately, she still had other tricks of her sleeve.
Valerie sighed. She really ought to finish her homework… Her fingers were brushing the suit's sleek fabric, bringing back the sensations of exhilaration that she had felt while wearing it, when suddenly a jarring crash from outside made her fist close around the sleeve in surprise.
Still holding it tight, Valerie rushed toward her window and looked down to the alley, where her eyes immediately jumped to the sight of that glowing green ghost-dog. It was like he'd come to this part of town solely to taunt her! Just her luck that she was stuck in her room with her father, out in the main room watching the static-y screen of the tv—no doubt ready to ground her if she did anything out of line. Her fists trembled with anger. Then from along the fence that lined the alley another figure bounded toward the green puppy.
Another puppy! A purple one, wearing a cape! It was smaller than the green puppy, and there was no mistake about it, the second puppy wasn't just a normal stray either. She might even be able to assume the second puppy was the first's sister—after all, it had eyelashes. Would the madness ever end?
Valerie couldn't hold back a snort of laughter as the purple ball of a puppy suddenly skidded on a slick patch of trash, tripped and barreled into the green puppy, sending both tumbling into the spilt trash. Something flew out of the purple puppy's mouth from the momentum and disappeared into the muck that it landed in. Suddenly the green puppy grew in size until it was its monstrously huge form, snarling at the little purple puppy.
Valerie groaned; it was the perfect chance to get rid of both ghost dogs. She looked at the suit in her hands, then looked back out the window. This might be the only chance she got before the puppies gave her the slip and disappeared again like the green one had the day before.
She began to pull the slick red suit on.
End Chapter 3
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