Snap kept pacing himself back and forth, his heart racing inside of his chest, his mind spinning. He struggled to control his breathing. He tried to stop his head from spinning around in circles. But as he continued to pace from side to side, the harder it seemed to become. It was like he was being showered by something, infected, driving him insane.

This hadn't been the first time he's felt something like this. But unlike those times, he had a different reasoning for being upset. One that he knew would put him at odds' ends with his friends if they found out what happened. What would Penny and Rudy think if they learned that he had...

The blue and white zoner hadn't left his house since the incident. He had holed himself up inside of her, trying to keep out of view the best that he could. He hide himself mostly in his bedroom, wrapping himself up in his blanket and try to pretend nothing had happened. He wanted to believe, with all of his heart, that what happened was just a figment of his imagination. There hadn't been anything going on. He just needed to rest.

And yet reality was never that kind. He wasn't stupid. He knew that no amount of hoping and praying that things go one way didn't mean that's how things were going to go. He could try to shift things the best that he could, but that didn't really mean diddly squat. He bit his lip at this realization and he tried to focus on figuring out what he was going to do about this. But in the end, just what could he do? Everyone saw what he did. Everyone knew that he had a hand in what happened. No amount of wishing would change that.

He turned to stare out of the nearby window. He hadn't really seen anyone nearby. He wasn't particularly relaxed about this. It could just mean that someone was hiding behind the door or something, getting ready to strike. There was nothing really to stop some sort of surprise attack or whatever. There was nothing that would prevent someone from sneaking in the back and trying to get to him. This place didn't have locks, something that he hadn't minded before. But now...

His mind became bombarded with memories of what had happened. Over and over again, his mind kept repeating things to him, cursing at him, saying judgemental things to him. Snap shook his head from side to side as he struggled to get those voices out of his head. But nothing he did worked. There was nothing that he could do to change his current predicament.

Ugh... How could he have been so stupid? How could he have let it get that far? How could he have outright attacked someone like that? He replayed it over and over again in his mind, hoping to try to figure out what he had done wrong, how things could have gone that way. He was not able to find a concrete answer.

The only thing that he did know for sure was that he had lost control. He had suddenly lost all rationale and had assaulted the other zoner. He felt like some sort of wild animal. He charged at his 'prey' and he had attacked like he was a 'predator' ready to eat. He had actually bitten the baker zoner at least once, adding to that effect. The more that Snap though tabout what he did, the worse he began to feel.

Although the baker zoner did survive the attack, the damage had already been done. Several zoners had beared witness to what had taken place. Everyone had seen for themselves what went on, meaning that Snap had little chance of defending himself. And if everyone had seen just what he had done, he stood a greater chance of being convicted himself. With how law and order worked in ChalkZone, this could take him in a whole host of directions.

Snap recalled just how badly beaten the baker had been. He could still see those injuries in his head. The one that he most focused on was his neck. It made him shudder to think of just how badly that zoner's neck looked, how it was bent in such a way that it had nearly snapped apart. That image would forever be ingrained in Snap's mind. No amount of wishful thinking would change that.

He knew he was repeating this over and over in his head. But despite the repetition, he still found himself engaging in it, anyway. It was weighing down on him heavily and he wasn't sure how much more of this that he could take. He could feel his legs wobbling from the sheer weight of it all.

A thought crossed his mind. Well, he could try to pin the blame on a snip. There were plenty of them and there were some that looked close enough like him and spoke similar to him that if he had said that they were the perpetrators, it would easy convince several of the zoners. Many of them already have a low view of the snips, anyway. He imagined that a number of zoners were ready to believe they did something and go after them. That would essentially free Snap from what had happened and he could go on and live his life and...

...no.

That wouldn't be right.

Snap furrowed his eyes, disgusted that he even had that idea in the first place. It would only make things worse if he tried to pull a stunt like that. Even if there was a good chance that he could pull it off, there was something that held him back: his conscience.

He already felt guilty enough about what he had done. Blaming someone else would not remove his guilt nor make things right. He couldn't just point fingers at some innocent zoner, even someone whom much of ChalkZone City hated. What right did he have to do something like that?

And what would happen if he were successful? What would happen if the zoners thought that the snips were becoming hostile? Snap wouldn't doubt that there might be some sort of attack. Many innocents would get hurt. And it would be all his fault, he knew.

So that was that. No blaming the snips, even if he were annoyed by them. He would have to face the consequences of his mistake. He just...had no idea on how to start going about it. He didn't even know if it was safe to leave his home. Would the zoners jump on him the first chance that they get and try to rip into him? Would they even give him a chance to explain himself?

Snap didn't want to have unrealistic expectations. He recalled that happened the last time that the zoners accused him of something. At that time, he had been innocent. Yet thte zoners refused to listen to him. They didn't even give him the time of day to give a proper explanation. They just automatically thought that he was the culprit and chased him down. He didn't want to start thinking about what they would do this time around, during when they actually knew that he had done something.

Snap could feel his heart stinging, knowing full well that he was in for quite the ride. It would take some miracle to settle things down. Nothing short of that. He doubted that there was anything that could convince the zoners to lay off of him and for everything to move on. So he needed to just...

His thoughts were interrupted when he thought he heard something outside. He shifted his gaze to look out the window. His heart skipped a few beats when he saw that there was someone coming over. He thought at first that it was one of the zoners, coming to tear into him. But upon closer inspection, he realized that it was...

...Penny...?

Snap bit his lip. He didn't like the expression that she wore. Did she come here with bad news about Rudy? Did something happen to him? Or had she heard what happened? Did she know that he had...

Snap shook his head. He wanted to believe the best possible outcome and that she hadn't heard anything. Although the chances of that were minimal. He focused his eyes on Penny rapidly approaching his house, making his heart skip several beats. He didn't know if he could face her right now. But if he didn't do anything...

Letting out a sigh, Snap reluctantly made his way towards the door. He paused in front of it, staring at it intently. He raised his hand up and moved it towards the knob slowly. He then forced himself to open it up...

...only to nearly be met with a fist.

"Aaaah!" Snap cried out as he jumped back. He moved his arm over himself to act as a shield. He looked up in horror at the tall figure in front of him. But then, after a few seconds, he realized who it was.

Oh goodness! Snap, I'm so sorry!" Penny cringed back as she stared down at Snap. "I didn't know that you were there!"

Snap drew in a few deep breaths to try to settle himself down. "H-Hello, Penny." He smiled, trying to act as though he didn't know anything was going on. "How a-a-are y-ou?" He didn't sound very convincing.

"I'm fine, thanks." Penny paused for a moment. She tilted her head to the side slightly. "How are you?"

"I'm fine. I was just...um..." Snap rubbed the back of his head as he struggled to think of a response. "...c-c-cooking...?"

"Oh really? I don't smell anything. What could you be making?" Asked Penny.

Snap tried to think of some sort of response. "It's...unscented..?"

"Uh huh..." Penny nodded her head slowly. She folded her arms against her chest as she lowered her head. "Snap... You don't have to lie to me." Snap gritted his teeth as he moved away from the girl. "I know you aren't really cooking anything. I know something is on your mind."

"Y-You do...?" Snap stammered. "W-Well I..." He swallowed hard. He had a feeling that Penny would have found out sooner or later. But he had hoped that it would have been much later than this. He couldn't believe just how little time that he actually had. "What do you know?"

Penny slowly lifted her head up. She stared intently at Snap, narrowing her eyes deeply. "I know that you had attacked a zoner today."

Snap could feel his heart freezing at this. He gulped in a large chunk of air. Yep, Penny knew what happened. In his startled state, there was no way that he was going to be able to lie to her. His only option was to just... Snap gulped, dreading what was coming next.

Penny stared at him with a frown. A look of obvious disappointment. She took a step closer, rubbing a hand up and down her arm. "Okay, Snap. Tell me exactly what happened."

Snap gave a weak smile. "Y-You see... It's like this..."

sss

Penny listened intently to Snap speaking, her eyes narrowed softly. She didn't attempt to stop him or reel him back to repeat something. She just listened carefully and mentally recorded whatever details that she could. Thankfully, there wasn't too much of note to really remember.

It could all be summed up as: a couple of zoners pushed Snap's buttons and he overreacted.

Penny felt a sting of disappointment with Snap. She would have thought that he'd have better control over himself than this. She thought that he would have been able to hold back, turn the other chalk, and walk away. Apparently not. In a moment of rage, he had attacked the baker and beat him to a pulp. This realization caused Penny to shake her head in disappointment.

"Oh Snap..." Penny spoke up a minute after Snap finished his sentence. "How could you have done that?"

Snap gripped onto his head, his eyes widening. "I don't know, Penny. I didn't mean to do it... It just sort of happened. P-Please, you've got to believe me!" Snap looked up at Penny with wide-eyed desperation. "I would never...!"

Penny raised her hand up quickly. This caused Snap to stifle himself. He stared at her hand for a moment before looking up at her nervously. "It's...fine. I understand that you didn't mean to do it."

"You do...?" Snap whispered, sounding pretty shocked by this. Then a smile spread along his face as he moved towards Penny. "Thank you, I..."

"But...!" Penny grabbed onto Snap's shoulder. She squeezed it tightly, making sure that Snap didn't go anywhere. Snap attempted to jerk from side to side, but he quickly stopped struggling as he stared into Penny's eyes. His mouth hung open as Penny stared intently at him. "That doesn't mean that I am okay with what you've done. I still can't believe that you had done something like this, Snap. It isn't like you!"

Snap's lower lip quivered for a second. "Y-Yeah, I know..." He slowly turned his head away, staring off into the distance. "I know..."

Penny continued to glare at Snap for a few moments, but eventually she just exhaled and felt her hand loosen from Snap's shoulder. There was no use in her continuing to tear into him like this. He felt bad enough as it was. So she forced herself to take a small step back. "I think we should try to set things right." She paused for a moment, then said, "...you should try to set things wrong."

Snap stammered at this, his hands fumbling together. "But Penny, what would they do if I try to get close? What if they don't even let me apologize?" His facial expression showed genuine remorse, and it showed in his voice as well. He sighed as he looked back up at Penny, almost silently pleading with her. "What am I going to do...?"

Penny wasn't entirely sure how she was going to answer that question. Indeed, she knew it was going to be really difficult. The zoners might not even want to hear what Snap had to say.

Yet at the same time, she knew that something needed to be done. Snap couldn't just walk away from this. The longer that he waited, the worse it was going to get. Snap needed to try to make amends with them as soon as possible, or else he was just making things worse for himself. Plus, that baker zoner was in need of an apology.

"I don't know." Said Penny. That didn't give much comfort to Snap. "But we'll think of something. Now come along."

She didn't bother waiting further. She just grabbed onto Snap's arm and started to drag him with her. Now... where was that hospital...?

sss

Sitting around waiting here was so boring. Time seemed to tick very slowly away, back and forth, back and forth. Rudy had felt himself nearly slip into sleep several times. He had felt the silence crowding around him, pushing him down, weighing in on him like some sort of anvil. The only thing that really helped out was the fact that Penny was here.

He hadn't asked where her mom was, and his parents didn't seem to react to her. They were standing further away, talking amongst each other, obviously very worried. Rudy watched them for a few moments before and, while he could not make out their exact expressions, their tone of voice gave everything that he needed to know away.

Rudy looked away from them before glancing back at the colorful blur that he knew was his friend. He was grateful for her company, even if she wasn't speaking much. It did seem like there was something on her mind. Rudy wanted to ask what that was, but he couldn't bring himself to speak.

What if it was about ChalkZone? Although there was likely a chance that it was about something else, a part of Rudy realized that it was still possible. That would be why Penny was so quiet about it right now. She didn't want to speak of it around his parents. Who knows what they would think if they heard them talking about such a thing? Rudy shuddered to think about it.

He didn't need to wait too much longer for the nurse to open up the door. Everyone turned to stare at her intently. Rudy straightened himself up, awaiting her orders.

"Rudy?" The woman asked.

"Here." Rudy said, raising his hand up.

The nurse pulled out a clipboard and turned the page over. "Will you please come on in?"

"Will you be all right, Rudy?" Mrs. Tabootie asked.

"We can come in with you, if you'd like..." Mr. Tabootie added.

Rudy smiled in their direction. He did appreciate the gesture. But for some reason, he preferred doing this alone. He wasn't really sure why, honestly. It confused him as well. There had to be some sort of reason and... Oh well, he didn't have time to psychoanalyze himself. He just shook his head at his parents and replied as nicely as he could, "No thanks. I'm good."

Although his parents did look disappointed, they didn't attempt to stop him. Not that he thought that they would make the effort.

Penny put her hand on his arm. "Good luck, Rudy."

The young boy hesitated for several moments at this, unsure of how to respond. He let his teeth graze across his lip once before he finally attempted to respond. "Th-Thanks. I'm sure it'll be fine. It's just a checkup." He gave a shaky smile. "What could happen...?"

Rudy could feel the look of concern from Penny invading him. He could feel like something was coming in, crashing down all around him as he had spken that. He realized, deep within him, just how easily thinks could be torn apart, just how easily things could crumble. He knew from experience that things could always get worse.

He gulped as he tried to push this thought in the reare back of his mind, where it belonged. He couldn't let that get to him. He needed to try to stay positive. He couldn't just...

"Rudy Tabootie?" The nurse called out to him. "Aren't you coming?"

Rudy shook his head to snap himself out of his thoughts. "Coming!" He said as he rushed towards the door. He paused for a moment as he stood there, looking back at the others. He attempted to offer a reassuring smile to them before he turned and started to make his way into the room.

He had never felt this nervous about this before. He had never thought he would feel like he wanted to throw up. It had gotten steadily worse over time, especially when they got closer and closer to the time when he should be seeing perfectly. And yet he knew that his sight hadn't improved that much since the last time that he was here. He began to wonder just what was going to happen to him if he didn't get his eyesight back within the week. Would that be it? Would the damage be...irreversable?

Rudy felt his legs getting stiff and hard with fearful, burning emotion as he made his way over to the chair. At least he no longer needed help, so that was something of a good thing, right? He soon settled himself down into the chair and leaned back. He remained here while the nurse was getting things ready.

The nurse soon turned and looked over at him. "So, how are you feeling, Rudy?"

"I'm doing fine." Rudy realized he had spoken a little too quickly. But the woman didn't seem to mind. "Nothing's really gotten worse, so...that's something?"

"Uh huh..." The woman made some scratching sounds on paper, making Rudy's blood chill for a few moments. He quickly realized that she was just writing something. "So about your sight..."

Rudy gulped audibly. He knew that they were going to get to this part. He had hoped that it wouldn't be until later. He had hoped that he would have a bit of time.

"Are there any improvements?" Upon getting no response from Rudy, the woman let out a small 'hrm' sound. Rudy could just imagine her narrowing her eyes. "I see..." More writing on paper. "So not much of an improvement?"

Rudy struggled to say something. "S-Some shapes, I think. Not fully blurry. More distinctive colors I think..." Rudy scrambled to think of something positive to say outside of that. But he just couldn't figure out anything. His mind ended up just locking him in place.

The nurse remained calm, although her voice told a different story, even if just faint. "That's not good. We should definitely have your eyes looked at."

Rudy could feel his heart skipping a beat at this, his wide eyes staring at the woman. He tried not to let more of his shock become evident. He tried to fight it back and look a bit more subdued. He doubted he was fooling anyone.

Rudy said not a word as the woman gestured for him to come forward. Rudy bit his lip for a moment, and then proceeded to follow her close behind. They headed out through another door, away from where his parents and friend were. He recognized very little here, just enough to know that they were going into the backwaters of the hospital. In other words, the patient-only areas, where only patients guided by a doctor could travel through. That only raised his tension up more.

As they headed down, Rudy began to realize that they were going down towards one of the scanning rooms. This didn't surprise him for long. She did say that they had to check his eyes, right? His heart tightened up when he realized that, given how his sight hadn't been cleared up yet and how quickly she began taking him back, then it must be urgent and if it was that serious...

He tried to fight off the burnining feeling as he silently hoped that it wouldn't come to that. He needed to try to remain calm. Maybe the scans wouldn't find anything too terrible. Maybe it would actually show some good news. Maybe...

The young boy soon found himself located in some room that, with his blurried state, he couldn't fully recognize. He saw some large shapes before him and could register what seemed to be some kind of a stool. Rudy walked in just enough for the woman to shut the door behind her. Then he proceeded to stand there and wait for her instructions.

"Sit down in the chair." She told him.

Rudy walked over to one of the blurs. Was this it? Seemed so. He reached out and gently patted it. After confirming that it was indeed a stool, he climbed into it and sat down on it. He adjusted himself before looking back to the nurse, continuing to wait for whatever was about to happen.

"I think you've seen these types of tests before, haven't you?" The nurse asked.

Rudy looked over at the machines. He squinted to try to get a better idea of what he was looking at. He turned his head slowly left to right before letting out a small sigh. He just could not recognize what these things were. He shook his head slowly as he turned to stare at the nurse. Or rather, the blob that he knew was the nurse. "I'm sorry, I can't..."

"Oh, you can't recognize these machines?" The nurse sounded a little concerned about that. "You never had an eye sight test done?"

Rudy's eyes widened. Was that what these were? He had them used on him before and... Geeze, how could he have forgotten? Was he really that dense? Or perhaps it was just stress making him forget. But either way, yes, he was starting to recognize what these were. He was a little confused by this, however. What good were these going to do him right now? What good were these going to be when they already know what was...

He stopped his thoughts when he felt the nurse's hand on his chair. He let out a surprised yelp when his chair was pushed over to one side. He could feel himself moving along, his teeth gritting tightly. Soon, he was positioned towards one of the machines. He blinked a few times when he realized that this particular one definitely didn't look familiar.

"I do believe that he hadn't yet used this machine." The nurse explained. "It is relatively new. I wish we had used it sooner. We could have had a better idea of what was going on."

Rudy narrowed his eyes. "So you mean to tell me, there was a better way of checking my progress than..."

"Yes. I do apologize. You see, this machine is so new, at least in this city, that it just had not become mainstream yet." The nurse sounded a tiny bit regretful. But she mostly sounded professional, as though she had rehearsed this line over and over again. The nurse then walked towards the machine. "This is a simple procedure. It'll give us a much more clear view of what's going on in your eyes. From there, we can, hopefully, determine what we need to do next."

Rudy still felt a little bit sour that this hospital didn't try to do this sooner. Sure, she said that the machine was not yet mainstream enough for this city to consider it right away. But that didn't stop him from feeling rather disgusted. Still, he tried his best to push aside the thoughts for now as he waited for instructions, as per the norm.

"Now I want you to lean forward. See where that black rim is? Put your face against that."

Rudy did as he was told. This caused him to be enveloped in darkness again. He froze for a moment, uncomfortable with this. It reminded him of his time when he was blind. This was all that he could see before. Darkness. Blackness. It was bringing back so many dreadful memories. He could feel his heart starting to pound heavily.

The nurse appeared to notice this. "Now please try to relax. This will be over in a few seconds. No eye puffs or anything uncomfortable like that." The nurse moved back behind Rudy. He could hear rummaging, indicating that she was messing with some kind of control. "Please keep your face firmly planted."

Rudy did as he was told. If he pushed himself any further, he might just get stuck in the machine. "Now what?"

"Keep your eyes wide open." The nurse instructed. "I'm going to push a button and you will see a large bright flash. Try not to blink during this. It'll be over within a few seconds."

Rudy took in a deep breath and he sighed. He prepared himself for what was about to come. He gripped onto his chair tightly and struggled to keep his eyes as open as he could. He could soon see what appeared to be a green light, and then suddenly, his vision was filled with a bright white coloring.

sss

What was taking so long? It usually didn't take this much time for Rudy to be done with the check up. What could be slowing things down? Should he get up and say something? Knock on the door? No, he didn't want to interfere. He didn't want to make it look like he was growing impatient. That probably wouldn't do him much good.

But at the same time, could he really just sit here and... He was a father, for pete's sake, he had the right to know. He knew that his wife was feeling very similar, even if she was not saying anything. The large woman kept staring over at the door longingly, clearly showing interest in barging in to see what was happening.

But all in all, Mr. Tabootie felt that he was doing at least a slightly good job at keeping himself sitting here and waiting, showing patience. The door would open up sooner or later. Even if it took a bit of time, he would eventually get his answers. He just...needed to wait.

He just wished that it didn't take so long. Every second was just making him increasingly anxious and he could feel his stomach churning about. He turned his head and stared over at the nearby clock. His heart pumped inside of his chest as he forced himself to look away. It's been over an hour. What could be holding them up?

At least it didn't seem like he had to wait for much longer. He could hear footsteps by the door. Mr. Tabootie stared at it intently, thinking that it would open up at any given moment. But instead, he was treated to what looked to be a couple of shadows having a conversation. The words were muffled behind the door, tones varying, but overall difficult for him to understand. It just made the man even more curious and he found himself moving towards the door to learn what was going on.

That was when the door had opened up. He could feel the hard surface striking him against the face and he stumbled back. He put his hands to his face and struggled to cope with the pain.

"Ouch..." He muttered under his breath.

"Dear!" Mrs. Tabootie cried out in shock. "Are you okay?!"

Mr. Tabootie turned to his wife and gave a reassuring smile. "I'm okay. Nothing to worry about."

"Are you sure? That looks a little..." Penny commented, who had also gotten up.

Mr. Tabootie was about to say something, but he was cut off.

"Mr. and Mrs. Tabootie?" The nurse spoke up. "A word with you two?"

Mr. Tabootie was a little taken aback by the sudden call out to him and his wife. The two of them glanced at each other momentarily, sharing expressions of confusion, before looking back at the woman. This hadn't been the first time the nurse wanted to speak with them. But there seemed to be a sense of urgency in her voice, stronger than it had been last time. That didn't bode well.

He then noticed the way Rudy was acting. The boy was walking straight with his head up. But that didn't necessarily mean that's how he felt. He knew his son well enough and he noticed some small signs that were more than enough to reveal that he had something on his mind. The man could feel his teeth pressing into his lip. This was definitely not good news. He put his hand to his chest as he fought off the stinging pain. He tried to hope for the best. But something told him that he was in for a world of disappointment.

Without saying a word, he and his wife silently went into the room, leaving Rudy to stay with Penny for a little while. The worried father took a moment to look over his shoulder and stare for a few seconds, his expression furrowing slightly to show concern, before turning and following his wife into the room.

The two of them were instructed to sit down on the nearby chairs. They did as they were told, not bothering to try to question it. They adjusted themselves and they looked up at the doctor, waiting for some kind of answer.

They immediately noticed some hesitation in the nurse. It wasn't much and it didn't last for long. But it was more than enough for them to realize that something was wrong. Her eyes alone gave it away. He put his hand on his wife's arm and gripped it, trying to comfort her. He tried to be strong for the both of them. But he really didn't know what to expect. He could only brace for the worst.

Which he did, but he was not prepared for what the nurse started to say.

"I regret to inform you two that..."