Chapter 8

Hamtaro and Oxnard jolted down the stairs, and barely missed colliding with Sandy.

"Hey! Like, what's the hurry?" she asked them.

They skidded to a halt. "Upstairs . . . closet . . . scared . . .," Oxnard began to sputter out. Boss and Bijou were seen heading up the staircase.

"What? I don't understand. What are you trying to tell me?" Sandy said.

" . . .blood . . . everywhere . . ."

"Blood? Is everything okay? I hope no one's hurt-"

"The werewolf was in the closet upstairs! And it looked like it was . . . yuck . . . eating someone," Hamtaro explained. "Though, in the dim light, who knows."

"Oh, I hope that's not what it's doing. Did you see who it was? That is so totally gross!" she answered.

"We aren't sure. It's most likely Pashmina. . .," he said sadly. Right then, two horrified screams came from upstairs. There was Boss and Bijou, rushing away from what had frightened them and down the stairs. Now, Maxwell had gathered by Hamtaro, Oxnard and Sandy and saw the terrified couple.

"What's going on? Why are you so scared?" he asked.

"Pashmina's dead!" Boss exclaimed as he and Bijou stopped by everyone else, still breathing hard.

Sandy dropped to her knees and started to cry. "Oh no! No no no no! Hamtaro was right!"

Maxwell looked down at her. "Right about what?"

"He said he saw the werewolf in the closet up there. That nasty thing killed her!" she replied, teary-eyed. Stan, Howdy, and Panda walked into the room.

"What's up, ham-dudes?" Stan said. "Everything tight?"

"Pashmina died," Hamtaro said quickly, as if he didn't want him to hear.

"That thing took my girl! If I had the chance, I'd wring its neck-"

"But we can't stop it! It's going to kill us, one by one," Panda said.

"This is terrible! We are down to nine ham-hams now. This can't possibly get worse!" Maxwell said.

"Oh, yes it can . . .," Boss said, staring at something in front of him.

They turned and looked. The werewolf was standing right above Howdy, claws extended. He looked up at it and started to scream, but the werewolf swung its paws down and grabbed his neck. He tried to utter a cry for help, but the wolf increased its grip and Howdy couldn't breathe.

The ham-hams stared on in shock, but then Boss lunged and grabbed onto one of Howdy's legs. He pulled hard trying to make the werewolf let go, but it did not, and began to draw in Howdy closer to it. Boss pulled as hard as he could, digging his feet into the floor for anchorage. The werewolf made a sharp jerk backwards . . . and the unimaginable happened.

RRRRRIIIP

Howdy screamed in pain, and Boss soon realized that he was no longer tugging on Howdy, but was gripping onto one of his disembodied legs. He quickly dropped it and yelled in horror as the spot on Howdy's body where the leg used to be bled profusely across the floor.

The werewolf lightened its grasp on Howdy for a short moment to see what had happened, and Howdy managed to get in a small breath. Moments later, though, it clenched onto him again, this time around his ribcage. With a strong squeeze, the noise of crunching bones was heard as it crushed him completely.

The wolf let go, and Howdy's mangled body fell instantly lifeless to the ground. The ham-hams were backed up against the wall in utter terror and the wolf looked at them menacingly, until it decided to leave them alone and bounded away from the scene once again.

The hamsters slowly walked up to the now-dead Howdy, mouths gaping. They glanced at each other with nervous expressions displayed on their faces.

"Dude, that is the nastiest thing I've seen in my life," Stan mentioned, "next to everything else that's happened tonight."

Everyone seemed to agree with his last statement.

"I know his jokes were annoying and stuff, and sometimes I wanted to kill him myself, but no one, not even Howdy, deserved that," Panda said.

"And Boss didn't help. What the heck were you doing out there? You ripped his leg off," Stan exclaimed, "idiot."

Boss was flabbergasted. "It wasn't all my fault! If that wolf hadn't tugged so hard it wouldn't have happened."

"You had caused him much pain, Boss, before he died. You should be ashamed," Bijou snapped.

"That couldn't have possibly hurt more than getting crushed," Panda winced as he said it.

Boss looked back down at Howdy. "We should bring him outside. We can't leave him here to be eaten by the werewolf. Him and his leg-"

"Stop it, Boss! You're grossing me out!" Sandy said to him. She was looking away from bloody mess.

"I'll bring him out. I need someone else to help me," Panda said.

"Ehhhhh . . . I will, I guess. Sick, sick, sick . . .," Boss mumbled to himself.

They picked him -and his leg- up and dragged him outside, leaving a trail of blood through the tunnel.