Chapter 5
"Well?" Boss asked Sandy and Maxwell as he spotted them coming down the stairs empty-handed.
"Nothing. We'd have looked longer, but it turns out that the werewolf is hanging around by the library now. We can't go back up there until it leaves," Maxwell responded.
Howdy narrowed his eyes at him. "How do you know? Did you see him or somethin'?"
"Well, I didn't, but Sandy did. She saw it in the storage room," he said, "and then it came after her."
Sandy sighed. "I never knew how scary it looked until then. Oh, I hope I, like, never see it again. Its teeth were so big-"
"Wait a minute!" Stan shouted. "What was it doing to you that you saw its teeth?"
"I don't really know. It was all such a blur, now that I try to remember it."
Maxwell thought for a moment. "Listen, guys. All we know for sure right now is that this thing is dangerous. Safety is the most important issue right now-"
"Safety! It's already killed Cappy and Dexter! And it tried to kill Sandy! There is no way we're safe with this werewolf in here!" Boss yelled out angrily.
Hamtaro waited a few seconds before speaking, and then said in a calm voice, "I know we're all scared right now. We're going to have to try our best to work our way out of this mess."
Boss mumbled something incomprehensible, but the others gave small nods of agreement.
"Ookyoo . . . ," Penelope said very softly.
"Yeah, ham-girls, if that wolf thing comes after you, I'll protect ya!" Stan said.
Howdy looked back at him. "Easy for you to say. You won't be thinking about that when it's got its fangs in your face."
"ENOUGH!" Boss yelled. "All this is doing is making us even more worried. We need to think up a plan or something to lure that thing outta here."
"What could we do, then?" Panda asked.
"Anything. I don't care. Just no live bait plans. Those are way too risky," Stan said.
Maxwell pondered the topic a moment. "Hmmm . . . hey! I may just have an idea!"
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The werewolf slowly and silently dropped down into Boss' bedroom. It was hard to see anything in the room, for it was very dark. He could see well enough not to run into anything, though, because his night vision was highly advanced. He sat down on the bed, wondering how it would carry out the plan.
While deciding on a good idea, the werewolf overheard the ham-hams talking outside of the room. He slowly crept up to the door and leaned up against it, putting his ear up against the cold, hard wood to listen. A smirk appeared across his muzzle
Perfect . . .
X X X X X X X X X X
"Okay, everyone! It works like this," Panda explained. "First, when the wolf comes down the stairs, Stan and Sandy trip it with her ribbon. Then, it will fall in the basket and Boss and Howdy will pull it up really high with this rope. Then Bijou will pull this other rope and a net will drop from the ceiling right there and we'll catch it!"
Everyone was in their positions, waiting for the werewolf to come walking down the stairs any moment. Little did they know where it really was.
Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, a huge clawed hand exploded through Boss' bedroom door. Gripping the jagged edge of the hole it just made, the werewolf ripped the door from its hinges and threw it aside. Its eyes scanned the room, as though it were looking for something.
"Everybody! RUN!" Boss screamed as he frantically scrambled away from the beast. Everyone else was also in a panic, and it was a mad rush to get as far away from it as possible. As Penelope was running, she collided with the basket they were going to use to hoist up the werewolf. Nearly doing a complete flip, she landed head-first into it.
"Ookwee! Ookwee!" she cried out. The wolf heard it and immediately drove its attention over to her. On the other side of the room, Bijou ran toward the rope and yanked it as hard as possible, lifting Penelope toward the ceiling and keeping the werewolf away from her. But this did not get his attention off Penelope.
"We need to divert its attention from Penelope!" Maxwell said. They looked back at it, and it was circling around the baskets shadow waiting for something to happen.
Pashmina could take it anymore. She ran toward the werewolf, hoping to make it look away. But the werewolf saw her in the corner of his eye, and before she knew it, she was on the ground, an immense pain engulfing her right side. She closed her eyes, as the room around her started to go black . . .
"PASHMINA!" Bijou yelled. The ham-hams watched in horror as the werewolf had exerted all of its power into a swift blow to Pashmina's side, which caused her to collapse onto the floor. The werewolf kicked her aside, and drew its attention back to Penelope.
"Hey, ugly! Pick on someone your own size!" Hamtaro shouted at the wolf, but it wasn't listening. It crouched down and jumped up as high as it could. It came level with Penelope. Before it fell, it latched onto the basket with its teeth. Without notice, the werewolf jerked its head hard, ripping off about half of the basket. The wolf fell to the ground on its feet, and Penelope was left dangling on what was left of her only chance of survival.
"Ookwee! OOKWEE!" She began to scream. Her hand began to slip off of the shredded piece of basket that she was gripping onto for dear life.
The ham-hams were terrified. "Penelope, NO!"
It was too late. Her hand slipped off, and she fell all the way down, directly into the werewolf's jaws . . .
ccrruncchh– The remaining ham-hams cringed as they heard the crushing of her bones in its teeth. The werewolf just stood there, soaking up their terror and savoring Penelope's blood. It finally leaped back into the shadows, where it could feast in quiet.