"Wait, is this really the place?" Brussel Sprout crossed her arms and frowned as she looked up at the tattered old building. "The Equine Gentlemen's Club. More like, um, gross!"
"Come on now, we're professionals. You can put aside your strange horse hatred for a few minutes. We're just looking for a friend of mine. We'll be in and out in a jiffy." Walking up to the front door, Sheriff Jade was struck with confusion when she noticed that the front door did not have a way of opening it. Completely sealed, without a single knob or pull. "Well, this is strange. It looks like it is completely closed. I'm sure this is the place he told me about."
As the pair were contemplating their entrance, a short, dark blue, thick horse galloped down the sidewalk and turned down the side alley near the building, unspeaking, or noticing of the pair located at the front entrance. "Hey, there's one of those disgusting beings. Maybe we should follow him, maybe there is a different entrance in the back." Brussel snorted.
Nodding in agreement, Jade leapt down the stairs and continued down the alley. "I think that was Soggy Bottom. I wonder what he is doing here?" The pink duck shuffled her feet slowly to allow the green crocodile to catch up. Jade knew Brussel was purposely stalling and dragging her own feet, but they had agreed to all work together, and she wasn't going to let the short Toon skirt her assigned duties. "Come on, the sooner we finish this, the sooner you can go. You can stop slowing me down now." The pair continued to the back side, and sure enough there was a small set of stairs that led up to a door with an actual handle. On the top, there was a small slot that appeared for looking through. To the left there was a poster that had a picture of a cowboy horse wearing his hat over his groin. "Um, oh boy."
"This is pretty sketch if you ask me. They're definitely doing something in there, and I don't like it. I think it would be best if we just burnt it down completely and forgot we were ever here, just to be safe." Sprout watched as Jade ascended into the crocodile's personal Hell and knocked on the door.
"Excuse me! Hello? Is there anybody in there?" Jade had no apprehension to causing annoyance or standing out, after all she was here for work and she was going to get what she needed.
A few seconds later, a slit on the door slid open and a glowing pair of eyes illuminated the otherwise dark interior of the building that could be made out. "Um, hello. Can I help you?" The seemingly frightening figure spoke exhaustedly, almost as if he had been exercising heavily right before.
Sprout leapt up the stairs and peered at the figure, but before she could rant, Jade put her hand over the short Toon's mouth. "Ah, hello there sir. My name is Jade, and this is my partner Brussel Sprout. We are here to see Cotton Candy Cutie? He's my personal friend, and he asked if I could come stop by and see him.
"Ah, I'm sorry ma'am but this is a horse only club. I'm afraid I can't let you in, I could get into pretty big trouble." As the horse started closing the small opening, he was stopped by the force of a round ball of fury who had hopped up and grabbed a inside of the door.
"Listen here, dumb horse! We work for the Toontown Rangers and we are here on an investigation. Now I suggest that you listen up, or I'm going to break this door down myself, and come arrest you for obstruction!" The dark green crocodile was extra salty today, her facial complexion had turned to a slightly darker red and Jade wasn't willing to get in the way as long as the younger Ranger wasn't harming anyone.
Pulling out her badge, Jade held it up to the door. "I am from the Donald's Dreamland Drug Enforcement. Now, I would ask that you simply comply. We are only here to speak with a long-time friend. If you are that fearful of us infiltrating your establishment, I simply ask that you alert Cotton Candy Cutie to our presence and that he meet us outside within five minutes. Otherwise I will unfortunately use my legal authority to enter, and I might not let her go as easy on you." The pink duck had to stifle her laughter as Brussel stomped her feet and growled angrily.
Scared into submission, the horse nodded, his bright eyes hurriedly bobbing up and down like a fishing lure in the pond. "Um, yes, yes I understand. I will be right back. I will let him know, but I believe he is in a PARTICULARLY important meeting, so please forgive any delay. He does not like to be interrupted while working!" Soon the slot had shut, and the sounds of rushing footsteps could be heard.
"Hey, you're rather good at scaring horses. Maybe we should hang out more often! One of my neighbors…" Started rambling about her hatred of horses, as Jade began to focus more on the slot. What was happening inside that needed to be so secretive? Cotton Candy Cutie had warned her that things had been getting sketchy lately, with a lot of the new members. The odds that powdered sugar had become a fixture was not lost on Jade, however she could not risk saying it outright. Her friend was a major player here, and while she knew he would never get intro trouble, she didn't want to make it a self-realized fallacy. "Anyways, that was the fourth time that I accidentally set his house on fire." The crocodile scratched her head. "Hey, are you listening to me?"
"Oh, sorry. I was just a bit lost in my own thoughts. I think it would be best if I kept my mind clear and focused on the job at hand." As the duck spoke, the sound of hushed speaking and footsteps could be heard from inside of the dilapidated building. "Well, I think our friend is back."
Shuffling of locks, and the creaking of a door precipitated Brussel's nightmare. As the metal door swung open, the figure of a short, fat, light blue horse stood front and center. Covered with only a white towel, sweaty and flustered, the horse had a frown on his face, seemingly unhappy with the interruption. However, his affliction changed upon seeing his long-time friend. "Ah, Jade! I didn't expect to see you here so soon!" Looking down at his towel. The horse sputtered his lips and tried to excuse hisself. "Oh, um, sorry. I was in the shower when I was brought attention to you being here." Looking around, he contemplated how to go about the situation. "Here, please give me a few minutes and I'll be right out. Unfortunately, due to club rules, non-horses are not allowed. Rules are rules, and all that."
Brussel leaned over and whispered to her partner. "Like we'd ever want to be in that place, probably smells awful, like horses."
"Hmm. Well I think we might have to do some in-house investigation. A good Ranger would never shy away from their duty. Actually, I might have you do that while I'm talking with my old friend. Although, we haven't talked in a while, we probably have a lot to catch up on. You might be in there for a while…" Sheriff teased, causing visible disgust in the crocodile who shuddered at the prospect.
"Well, I hope you're ready to tell everyone at my funeral that I was forced into my death." The crocodile hissed at the sentiment.
The light blue horse crossed his arms, shivering lightly as his exposed body was attacked by a chilly wind. "I don't mean to interrupt, but would you mind if we took this elsewhere? I'm not really in the best position to speak right now. Do you mind if I go inside and get dressed and I'll let you back outside? There's a nice little diner down the street that we can get some coffee. I'd love to catch up with you anyways, Jade!"
The pink duck lightly hugged her friend and sneered as she got a whiff of the scent inside of the building, immediately recognizing what was going on, without wanting to point it out and cause any embarrassment or awkwardness. "Alright, pal. We'll be waiting outside. This should be a fun night!"
Domino plummeted into the soft mattress, immediately averting his eyes away from the door and towards a plain white wall just a few feet away. Nearly the moment he got home from school; he had rushed to his room to escape the world behind him. The guilt of what had happened ate away at him, the acidic emotion rotting away his innards like sand in the waves. It had been hard enough seeing Ella's empty seat in class, but it had hit a lot harder when it was announced to the school that she had been involved in something tragic and would not be back for some time. While everybody gossiped about what had happened, the purple monkey sat in agony, re-living the previous night's events multiple times in his mind. He couldn't tell anybody what had happened, but the feeling of confession wanted to burst through his chest. Although maybe he was just hungry, after all he hadn't eaten in almost two days since he returned home with those Rangers. After what seemed like an eternity, the young ape heard a knock on the door. "Hey, sweetie. Dinner is done, do you think you'll be down tonight?"
Pulling his face up from its position buried in the pillow, he looked over at a clock resting on the nightstand and groaned. It had only been eighteen minutes, yet the battle for his stomach raged on between intense anxiety and hunger. He couldn't avoid it forever; he would have to eat sometime. "Sure, mom. I'll be right there. Just finishing up this paper." Dragging his suddenly heavy legs across the floor, Domino pulled open the door and began what seemed like an indeterminably long trek downstairs to the dining room. His mouth began to drool at the smell of his favorite meal, Noodle-Doodle-Kaboodle, and nobody made it better than his mom who was a luxury chef at The Cucumber Batch.
"Hey, there you are hon. You haven't been down to eat dinner lately. I knew this would lure you down though. You boys can't resist the kaboodle!" A short, chubby lavender monkey spun a wooden spoon inside of a sizzling saucepan, before pulling it out and licking the contents from the oversized utensil. "Yup, I did it again. I should really be running the restaurant!"
"Thanks mom, it smells delicious." Domino feigned enthusiasm, trying to hide any trace of his guilty conscious to not worry his already overwhelmed, and overprotective mother. "Do you know if Derek is going to eat with us, tonight?"
Tapping the spoon against her apron, Domino's mother pondered the question, before sticking out her tongue and shrugging. "Not sure, he said he was going to be studying with Layla, but you know how your brother is. He thinks his old mom is a fool, as if I wasn't his age once. I guess nobody wants to tell their mom they're going to their girlfriend's house to make-out." While it was likely that his older brother was simply hanging out with his girlfriend, the monkey's mind was immediately consumed by images of Derek consuming a spoonful of powdered sugar, and from there his anxiety ballooned into a full-blown panic attack remembering what had happened to Ella. Falling face-forward onto the table, the chimp's breathing began to rapidly increase. Clenching his thick nails into the wooden table, the grating sound of splintering lumber screeched and strained his mother's ears. "Honey? Honey!" Springing into action, the thick primate grabbed her son by the shoulders and lifted him into an upright position. Spinning his chair to face her, she knelt and rubbed her son's arms. "Domino, just breathe. Just like this."
Miming a relaxed breathing pattern, Domino's mother kept constant eye-contact with him, speaking quietly and asking him simple questions such as describing the color of the tablecloth. When he was younger, the monkey had suffered from frequent panic-attacks after his father's death. Finally winding down and clearing the anxiety from his mind, the overwhelmed orangutang realized what had happened and tried to quickly backtrack. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry mom. I don't know what came over me!"
"Sweetie, you don't ever need to apologize." Wrapping Domino in her arms, the maternal monkey sucked her son into the safe embrace of her bosom, stroking the fur on his head gently as if he was a newborn. "It has nothing to do with you, the doctor said that these could come back. Just try and breathe and relax."
"Mom, I don't think I can keep it in anymore. It is killing me." Domino started speaking. As he prepared to spring the truth forward, the unfortunate (or possibly fortunate) sound of the front door opening alerted him that Derek had returned. A wave of relief washed over him knowing that his brother had returned safely, but he couldn't tell his mom with Derek here, without immediately suffering the consequences from the only family he had. He wasn't sure what would be worse, the disappointment from his mother or the frothy rage from his brother. Would either be better than the punishment he was instilling in himself. It had only been a couple of days and he was already straining his mental capacities to levels that he wasn't ever capable of assuming was possible. Why did he feel so guilty? He wasn't the one who gave Ella the sugar, he didn't pressure her either. In fact, he said that she shouldn't. He was also the one who brought her to the hospital.
Walking into the kitchen, drawn by the alluring aroma of a delicious meal, the salivating gorilla was shocked by the sight of his younger brother being comforted by his mother. His defense mechanism took over, assuming that the worst had happened. "Geez, are you really having a panic attack? You're incredulous."
Staring daggers sharper than a Backstabber at her son, the matriarch of the small home continued to gently caress her son's head in a consistent, relaxing motion. "Derek, how about you have a little bit of empathy for your brother. You know that he doesn't have any control over them. It's an illness and he's working on getting better. It isn't helpful to have you storm in and immediately condescend him. Now, go wash your hands and sit down, dinner is almost ready."
"Whatever." Derek hardly spoke as he turned and left the room, leaving behind an awkward silence in the kitchen.
"Sorry about that honey. You know how your brother can be. I don't think he means to be hurtful, older brothers are always like that. Your uncle would always tease me about my weight when we were growing up, and now look at him, he's twice my size."
Wiping his eyes, Domino chuckled at the anecdote and nodded. "You're right mom. Actually, if it is okay, I'm going to go talk to him. Maybe he's just having a bad day." The young chimp didn't like lying to his mom, even if he wasn't directly doing so. However, he didn't want to bring out the truth now, not without talking to Derek seeing as the older sibling was already on edge about things.
"That's great, sweetie. You go do what you need to do, I'm going to start eating. I'm starving, and this smells delicious!" Domino released himself from his mother's embrace and planted a kiss on her cheek, following the footsteps of his brother upstairs and to the bathroom where a half-opened door battled back the rushing sound of water from the shower. Tiptoeing up to the door, the purple monkey peered through the crack in the door and nearly fell back in horror from the sight he was witnessing. Standing in front of the mirror, Derek stood with his hands backwards, gripping the marble counter. In neat, straight lines, a white powdery substance laid bare, before quickly being absorbed by a straw that directed itself into the monkey's mouth.
"Dude, is that powdered sugar?" Domino whispered to himself. Feeling his heartrate beginning to rapidly increase, the panic only increased by the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs. It had to be his mom, nobody else could possibly be here. Unsure of what to do, Domino slammed the bathroom door closed before letting out an inauspicious attempt to cover for what his brother was partaking in. "Dude, put a towel on, geez!" The chimp's voice sounded hesitant, as someone who wasn't confident in what he was saying. The words no doubt having an effect on the already skeptical mother who had come to check on her sons.
Finally, up the stairs, Derek and Domino's mother crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. "Okay, what is going on you two. I'm starting to think you guys are hiding something."
Clenching his right arm, Domino could feel his nails piercing his skin as he searched for an answer. "What do you mean? I just came up here to talk to Derek. He's in the shower right now though. Accidentally walked in on him, totally gross, y'know?"
"Domino, I don't know if you know this, but mom's have special powers. We have a sense that goes off when something doesn't seem right .Now, I don't want to be the bad mom if I don't have to, but I can't have you two keeping things from me. Whatever it is, you know you can tell me. I've always been very understanding. Now, just tell me what is going on!"