Chapter 6

The werewolf had completely vanished from the ham-hams' line of sight. They continued to stare at the gruesome sight of the room they were in. The floor under the basket was blood-spattered, the splinters of wood from the door that had been forced open, and Pashmina lying dead on the floor all added to their state of shock.

"No! Pashmina . . . Penelope . . . Me an' Bijou are the only girls left!" said Sandy.

"Let's face it. We've been done in by this rabid monster, and there's almost nothing left that we can do," Boss said sadly.

"Well, there weren't that many to start off with, if you think about it-"

"Howdy! You're not helping!" Hamtaro replied. "Is there some other way that we can get it away from us?"

Maxwell sighed. "It can't be unstoppable. In some werewolf books that I've read, the main characters killed it with something. I just don't remember what."

"Think, Max! You're our last smart guy here. There's got to be something we can do," Boss said.

"I'll look more into it. Before we go anywhere, though, we should to know its location so that we can avoid an encounter," Maxwell told them.

Oxnard gave him a mix of a confused and worried look. "How will we do that?"

Boss interrupted them. "Who cares! We've got no time for doing stuff like that. It'll probably backfire, just like our other plan did."

"But we didn't know the werewolf was in your room! If it had been upstairs, our plan may have worked," Panda explained.

"Well, it didn't, and we can't go back on it now. Penelope's dead, Pashmina's dead, and it's all because of that dumb idea Maxwell came up with.

Maxwell wore a concerned look on his face. "B-b-but-"

"It's too late, now!" Boss said. "They won't be coming back, thanks to you!"

"Boss!" Sandy yelled. "Don't be so hard on Maxy! It wasn't his fault. It was just, like, an accident, that's all."

No one said a word for a few moments, until Panda rose up. "Do you think we should do something with Pashmina?"

"Oh, right." Hamtaro said, looking over at her body lying on the floor.

Sandy and Panda walked over toward Pashmina. They slowly started to pick her up, but Sandy dropped her with a startled scream.

"What's wrong, Sandy?" Panda asked.

Sandy, speaking in short gasps, replied, "S-she's . . . breathing . . ."

"Heke?" The ham-hams looked over at Pashmina, and noticed it also. Her chest was steadily rising up and down, and though it was barely noticeable, she was alive.

"Pashmina, are you there?" Sandy tried to ask her. All she received was a mumble, but everyone was relieved to know that Pashmina would live yet another day.

X X X X X X X X X X

Pashmina squinted her eyes into the bright light of the room. Each of the ham-hams was standing right above her. "W-w-what's going on? Where am I? And why am I on the floor?"

"You passed out. We wanted to make sure you were okay, ham-girl," Stan said.

"Why did I pass out?" she asked, obviously still a bit delirious.

Hamtaro gave her a smile. "The werewolf did it. By the way, I wouldn't move for a bit because I think you may have hurt your side."

"May have?" Boss asked.

"Okay, you did. We washed your scarf for you because it was a bit dirty." Pashmina raised her eyebrows and took off her scarf to look at it. Sure enough, there were some stains on it. But then she noticed something odd about them.

"These look like blood stains," she mentioned. "B-but how-"

"That's what we wanted to tell you, Pashmina. While you were knocked out, something bad happened. Penelope . . .," he hesitated, "She was caught by the werewolf. The blood stains are her's."

Pashmina began to tear up. "No, she isn't! This is just some sick joke your playing on me! Penelope is not dead! Where did you hide her!" The ham-hams just gave her a sad look, and Pashmina finally gave in to the news they just broke to her.

"We're very sorry . . ." Sandy said to her softly.

"It's okay. I . . . just . . .," but couldn't finish her sentence as she stormed out of the room, sobbing uncontrollably.