Down he goes
By Mr. Yaksman
Everything was fine at first. It was just a normal day.
Wakko was digging through the fridge, desperately looking for something to eat. Lucky for him, there were plenty of choices to choose from. Cakes, sandwiches, ice cream, plenty of food to sooth his sprawling hunger. The toon boy put a hand to his chin, wondering what he should devour first.
"A sandwich sounds good right now," he thought to himself. "Will start with that."
He pulled a sandwich out of the fridge and took a massive chomp out of it. He scarfed the whole thing down in the matter of a few seconds.
"That was good," he said out loud, despite neither of his siblings being in the same room as him at that moment.
Wakko's stomach rumbled loudly, startling him quite a bit. He realized that he was hungrier than he originally thought he was. So he grabbed another sandwich from the fridge and started to chow it down like it was his last meal on earth. Once again, he found it to be pretty damn good. Not satisfied with himself yet, he went in for another sandwich, just for good measure. And before he knew it, he was eating a fourth, a fifth, a sixth. He was gobbling them up so fast that even he couldn't keep track.
Finished, Wakko patted his stomach with delight, belching loudly. Hopefully his siblings wouldn't mind him eating so many sandwiches, he doubted they would. Yakko and Dot never really minded his sprawling appetite. He had Hypoglycemia, after all. He had the tendency to get munchie attacks every once in a while.
He walked into the living room to hear another rumble, one so loud that his body shook violently. Impossible, he just ate half a dozen sandwiches. Was he seriously hungry again? Another rumble, Wakko was flung up in the air against his own will. He was beginning to feel flustered by his predicament.
"Stop it, tummy!" He demanded. "I know, I know, you're hungry. How does a slice of cake sound?"
The rumble came once again, the biggest and loudest one of all. Wakko was thrown against a wall by the quake, plaster was falling down from the ceiling. His heart sank as the realization hit him; the rumble was not coming from him.
Wakko struggled to get up onto his feet. The shaking was so violent that it was hard to stand up. His siblings, Yakko and Dot, suddenly enter the room with terrified looks on their faces.
"What's going on!" Wakko panicked.
"I don't know, sibs!" Yakko's voice trembled. "We have to get out of here!"
"We have no time to waste!" Dot shouted anxiously. "MOVE Warners!"
The Warners scrambled to reach the tower door, rushing to get out of the shaking water tower. Yakko opened the door for his siblings and the three exited the tower. And just in time, too, as the tower roof caved into the tower itself. Wakko couldn't believe it, the tower was collapsing right before his eyes. Parts of the tower were falling off and down to the pavement below. He never thought he would live to see the day where the water tower, the place that he called home for as long as he lived, would collapse one random day.
"Quick! The ladder!" Yakko exclaimed, snapping Wakko out of his thinking.
The Warners made the dash for the ladder, but before they could have the chance of climbing down, a loud BANG was heard. One of the support beams of the tower snapped, capsizing the entire structure. Wakko lost his balance and slid to the edge of the tower. He grabbed for the railing of the tower to catch his fall. Dot wasn't so lucky, she slid right past him off the railing.
"DOT, NOOOO!" Wakko shrieked as he immediately reached his hand out to save his sister.
He and Dot just stood there, hanging for their lives. Yakko was holding his arms out between the tower and the railing, trying to keep his balance.
"Hang on, sibs! I'm coming to get you!"
Yakko started to inch closer to them. All three siblings were in great danger; they had to leave the tower, but they couldn't. There was another loud bang, followed by a crunch. Yakko lost balance, and started to roll towards his siblings. Wakko's heart was pounding as his older brother rocketed straight toward him. Dot was struggling to hold on to her brothers' arm as she began to slip. Their brother couldn't stop himself and slammed right into Wakko, sending them plummeting to the ground. It was no use, he had to accept his demise.
As they fell, Wakko looked up at the tower in horror as it collapsed to the ground. Wakko could only scream as he shut his eyes, preparing to make impact with the ground..
Everything went black.
Wakko screamed bloody murder, not knowing what to say nor what to think of what had just happened. Wakko breathed heavily, his heart was racing and he was sweating with fear. He looked at his hands, trembling. But then it occurred to him that he..was still alive. He was still breathing and living. He was sitting up in his bed in the water tower that was still standing and had not collapsed.
It had all been nothing but a nightmare, a horrific nightmare.
"Wakko, you good?"
Wakko flinched, as he noticed that his older brother, Yakko, had climbed up the ladder of their bunk bed. His brother looked just as panicked as he was, with his face showing that of deep concern.
"Huh?" Wakko gasped.
"I heard your scream, you woke me up," Yakko said, his voice sounding buffudled by sleep.
"Me too," came another groggy voice, this one being Dot.
Wakko sighed with guilt, just realizing now that he had disturbed his siblings from their sleep by his loud shriek.
"Sorry, sibs," Wakko apologized. "I didn't mean to wake you guys up."
"Don't apologize," Yakko soothed. "That was one loud scream that you did, baby sib. You had me worried there for a second. Let me guess, you had a nightmare."
He nodded, slightly embarrassed.
"Come down here for a minute. You can tell me all about it."
Wakko, while he didn't feel fully ready to tell his brother about the nightmare he had just woken from, climbed down from the top bunk to Yakko who was on the bottom bunk. He climbed into Yakko's bed; Yakko had made room for him. Making himself comfortable, he put his arm around his shoulder, snuggling him closer.
"Can I join you guys?" Dot asked, peeking down below at him and Yakko. "I don't think I'll be going back to sleep any time soon."
"For your knowledge, your brother just had a nightmare," Yakko replied, quite bluntly. "And yes you may."
Dot slid down the ladder and crammed her way into the bed. Yakko, again, moved over to make room for all three of them to sit on the bed together. Wakko looked at his siblings, both of which showed empathy and concern for his current predicament.
"Welp, we have one, two, three Warners sitting on a bed together," Yakko pointed out. "Now, Wakko, what was your nightmare about?"
He hesitated for a moment, reminiscing the absolute horrific events of his nightmare. Just thinking about them made his stomach churn. He sighed, again, before speaking.
"It didn't even start out too bad, actually," Wakko told them. "I was in the kitchen, eating some sandwiches and minding my own business. When the ground began to shake..violently. It almost felt like an earthquake. But the tower…"
Wakko choked up, it was all coming back to him.
"Go on," Yakko encouraged. "Take your time."
"It- it was collapsing! Everything was falling apart. Me, you and Dot tried to escape but the tower began to fall. I was hanging for my life, and I saved Dot before she fell off. But in the end, it all came crashing down. We all fell to the ground and-"
He didn't bother to finish his story, he didn't have the confidence to. He instead put his hand over his eyes, weeping like a baby. He couldn't help it, he couldn't keep it in much longer. Yakko hugged him tighter, holding him close. He lifted his chin up so they were looking each other eye to eye.
"It's ok, Wak," he said in a soft, relaxed voice. "It's over, you're awake now. It was all a dream, ok?"
"I guess so," Wakko said ominously. "But it was still bad enough for me to wake up screaming. You don't even realize, I was literally shaking."
Yakko rubbed his hand through his hair, he managed to wear a weak grin on his face despite the situation. He was…oddly relaxed.
He raised his eyebrow slightly. "Is it because we were watching Looney Tunes Back In Action last night?"
"Maybe," Wakko replied.
They had watched Looney Tunes Back In Action right before going to bed. It was Yakko's choice for movie night that night, he was going through another one of those fads where he was obsessed with watching everything, quite literally everything, the Looney Tunes ever did. Upon viewing the movie, Wakko had forgotten just how intense the water tower collapse scene was; it was brutal. Perhaps it wasn't the best choice for a late night movie on Yakkos' part.
"Just remember that it's just a movie," Yakko said in a soft voice. "They used a replica of the water tower to film that shot. No one was hurt during the filming of that scene, the studio made sure of it. But did you know that the original Warner Brothers water tower, before this one was even built, did in fact collapse? It was located near the fire station and-"
"Yeah, I know. You told us this already," Wakko groaned.
"Five times," Dot added.
Yakko blushed, wearing a guilty smile. "Yeah, I know, but it's always good to remember things that have happened in the past, so they don't happen again."
"True," he agreed. "But is it really possible that the water tower can collapse in real life?"
"Yes it can. But you gotta remember that the studio takes good care of the tower. They just had it remodeled a couple years ago, remember?"
"Yeah, I remember." Wakko couldn't help but grin as his older brother comforted him. "Thanks, Yakko."
"Don't mention it," he replied.
"I'm happy that you saved me in your dream," Dot said, clinging onto his arm. "You're my hero."
Wakko rolled his eyes. Yakko laughed, the laugh was contagious and soon all three of them fell into a laughing pit. His feelings of anxiety perished, and soon, he was feeling better about the whole thing.