Darkness...
Darkness all around me
I can't find light anywhere
I can't move
My body went numb
Now all I can do is stare at the darkness...
Hoping that something will bring back the light
But that's not all
There's an unrecognizable figure among the dark void
Is it coming after me?
There's no way to know, it almost blends in with the darkness
Is it here to take me away?
Is the figure moving through the darkness a signal telling me my time has come?
But there's so much I have yet to accomplish
Will all my hopes and visions vanish along with me?
Will my name be remembered after my departure?
Or will it be burried along with the names of those before me?
But I guess I am in luck
For my death will be peaceful
For I feel my body slowly dying, but I feel no pain
For I can reflect upon my achievements, and know that I can leave knowing I lived a great life
Because even though I can feel my lungs pushing out the remaining air, and my heart slowing down, it's actually quite beautiful
I can relax in the dark void as my body begins to shutdown forever
So take me away, strange figure
Because I'm ready to face the fact that my time has come
I can see your approach as my eyes start closing
And I can feel your presence penetrating my soul
As you delicately reach me, to take me to the unknown...
"Hey! That was not delicate at all!" The dark figure began to pull me by the collar so quickly and agressively it almost started choking me, even though I had already ran out of air. And I thought I was unable to feel pain before death... guess I was wrong
"This is not what I imagined death to be like"
The mysterious figure was pulling me out of the darkness as I saw some light shine through as it lifted me
And all of a sudden, I was brought back into the world. My lungs instinctively filled with air again. My eyes slowly open. Looking around me, I saw my surroundings were covered in sand. I was back at the beach
Looking around me once more I could see the 'figure' was actually Zuma, and the whole 'void of darkness' was just the ocean
I guess I kind of overreacted a little while ago
Wait... the ocean?!
"What in the world happened to me!" I try to shake off the feeling of being wet, but it's hard to ignore
Zuma, who was lying next to me in the sand, seemed to be both surprised and relieved to see that I was awake
"We fell from the elevatow into the ocean"
"Wait a second, now I remember... you bit me!"
Zuma's face turned from relieved to serious... and a little mad
"Well, you'we the one who wefused to jump!"
"Because that was a crazy and terrible idea!"
"Oh, you weally think so? Look at the elevatow, genius" Zuma was now being sarcastic, and honestly that's a little worrying. He's usually, as others seem to refer to him, 'chill'
Looking at the elevator, I noticed there was no elevator. The elevator platform fell into the bottom of the cliff
"That could've been us, all because you wewe too scared of getting in the watew"
"Oh..."
Zuma sighs, then continues
"...Wocky, I know you have a feaw of watew, but I'm stawting to think we should do something about it"
"D-Do what?" I asked nervously. I think I know where this is going
"Get wid of it"
"And how do you plan on doing that?" I was noticeably uncomfortable
Zuma looked at me with a serious face
"Wocky, we'we gonna take you fow swimming lessons"
"Swimming lessons!? But-"
"No 'but's, Wocky, it's for youw own good. Youw feaw of watew almost killed us; you need to get ovew it, or at least leawn to contwol it. I'll talk to Wyder so we can stawt soon, pwefewably tomowwow. Wight now we should head back to the lookout"
With all that had happened lately I didn't even notice it was already dark
Zuma looked at me, more concerned than mad
I looked at him with the so called 'puppy eyes', begging him to not tell Ryder about the incident, but it had no effect on him
"Come on, we gotta get back"
I just sighed. "I guess there's really nothing I can do about it, but he does has a point"
We headed back to the lookout where we found the rest of the pups watching a rerun of Apollo, and I was going to join them when I heard Zuma talking to Ryder
"Hey, Zuma. Why did it take you guys so long to get here? I thought you were done with the mission?"
"We wewe, but we had... an incident"
"Oh, what happened?"
"I'll need to talk to you in pwivate"
Ryder seemed kinda surprised, but he just nodded and walked with Zuma outside of the lookout
I think I need to hear this, I think as I run to the door and sneak out to hear their conversation, however, I am stopped by my backpaw, which is still wounded from Zuma's bite
By the time I managed to sneak out and hide from Zuma and Ryder, ready to eavesdrop their conversation, I realize that Zuma had already told Ryder about what happened and offered for him to give me swimming lessons
"Well, I would be happy to help Rocky get over his aquaphobia, but I'm not sure if we could start soon, since we still gotta help Mr. Porter rebuild the parts of his restaurant that were affected by the fire, and we're approaching the time of the year when we get the most rescues..."
"But then when? We got to stawt soon. Wocky's fear of watew is out of control, and we can't wisk compwomising future missions. Plus, we weally got to help him. After all, we awe a team"
"Hm... I don't know. I really want to help him but this is definitely something that is gonna take some time to do"
Zuma sighed "Alwight, I undewstand"
Ryder hesitated for a bit, bur after a few seconds his face lit up, meaning he got an idea
"Hey...what if you gave him the swimming lessons?"
"Me?" Zuma blushed lightly
"I mean, I won't be available to do so every day, but since you are less often needed for missions and are a great swimmer, you would be a perfect teacher for Rocky! What do you say?"
"..." Zuma hesitated "well, I guess I would be a good teachew...so yeah, why not"
"Great! You can start tomorrow while me and the pups help Mr. Porter. Meanwhile, lets head back inside"
As Ryder said this, I quickly sneaked back into the lookout
"So, what did Ryder say?" I pretended like I didn't already know the answer, but I sure knew what was coming
"He won't be able to help us with your swimming lessons, so I'll do it. Starting tomorrow" even when I already knew what he was going to say I still couldn't help looking disappointed
"Welax, Wocky. You'll see it was wowth it once you get over your feaw" Zuma said with a recomforting smile and a pat in the back, which luckily managed to calm me down
I couldn't sleep that night. Thinking about my fear of water, I started thinking about that day...
It was a rainy day that day. I used to love rainy days. My owner, a twelve year old named Daniel, would go out against his father's wishes and just stand in the rain, and he would take me with him
I don't know why he liked standing in the rain, but every rainy day he would take me to a nearby park and just stand there, without a raincoat, just regular clothes
But his father really didn't like that. Every time Danny came home wet, his father would yell at him for several minutes, and Danny would just stand there looking at the ground and nodding as if he had learned his lesson, but he never really did
So that rainy day, Danny came home from school as usual and seeing it was a rainy day, he grabbed a leash and attached it to my collar, knowing how curious I was to the point where I would fail to recognize when I was in danger or lost
But just as we were about to leave the house, his father pulled up in front of the house
"Oh no... he has been drinking again" I remember Danny saying worryingly as his father approached the house
"Where do you think you're going" his father said with a deep, dominant voice
"N-Nowhere" he responded quite shyly
"Do you think I'm stupid, you little brat? I can see the leash. You and your damn dog are going for a walk on the rain, aren't you" he said with an annoyed but scary voice
"Yes, father" he said in a low voice
The man held an empty bottle of some brand of alcohol in his hand
"Well, you ain't goin' anywhere"
"But I want to go— I already finished all my chores and homework"
"Did you do the dishes?"
"Yes, father"
"Did you do the laundry?"
"Yes, father"
"Did you clean the bathroom?"
"N-No"
"Why not?"
"Because you didn't tell me to clean the bathroom"
"Well now I'm telling you to do it, so you should've done it. Now you'll stay here and do it"
"But that's not fair! I've already done everything you actually told me to do! You just wanna keep me here and yell at me for something!"
"Are you challenging my authority, you little brat?"
"Don't talk to me like that!"
This was weird. Danny usually just kept quiet as his father yelled at him
"Don't you dare tell me how to talk to you, you little piece of sh*t! I'm sure if your mother was still alive she would think you were a disappointment!" Yelled father as he grabbed Danny by the collar and pinned him against the wall with his free hand
"Argh! Let me go!" Danny struggled to be free of his father's hand
"No. I'm tired of you disobeying me, so this time I'll teach you a lesson you will never forget!"
In the blink of an eye, father's hand holding the bottle swung through the air and smashed it against Danny's face, leaving horrible bruises all across it, and the worst part is, it looked like he was going to continue
I was usually quiet. For some reason, father didn't like it when I talked, so I usually stood in silence, but this was too much
"Stop it!" I yelled as I quickly gathered the courage to run and bite father's leg
I was quite young at the time, but I sure could bite. I still remember the feeling of my canines sticked into his leg as he screamed in pain
I heard a "Get off me!" That was quickly followed by a "THAT'S IT!"
Father then grabbed me by the collar (literally) and went into the kitchen before aggressively throwing me to the sink
"You see what happens when you disobey my rules, you dumb dog?!" He said as he put the plug on the sink and turned on the water
"Now you are both gonna learn a valuable lesson today!" He said as he gave me a hateful glare
"I have been wanting to get rid of you ever since Danny and his mother brought you home from the streets, and now's my chance to do so"
The water quickly filled the sink. Knowing what would happen if I didn't move, I tried escaping, but father caught me and looked at me for a second, then said with a mocking tone "What!? I thought you liked the water?!"
"Well let's see if you like this!" He said before submerging me into the water, which by now had filled the sink about halfway, which was already too much for my size
And I don't know for how long I was submerged. 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 30 seconds, maybe even a minute, but all I know is that it felt like hours before his hand stopped forcing me into the water and I managed to pull my head out to see Danny running towards father and I while begging him not to kill me, only to be almost knocked out by a single puch from him
"DANNY!" I yell, but am interrupted by father once again forcing me into the water
This time it felt like I was submerged for days, but eventually I could feel father's hand let go of me, and as I swim and stick my head out of the surface again I could see Danny holding on to father's leg
"RUN, ROCKY!" I heard him yell as he held on tightly to his father's leg, which slowed down his movement
I ran from the kitchen and headed towards the door, which had a small doggie door mom had built two days after they took me home
As I ran towards the door, I had flashbacks of everything that happened since I moved in with them (yes, flashbacks inside of a flashback)
I can't believe mom built the doggie door all by herself. Father refused to help because he thought it was a bad idea for them to have a dog, but mom decided she would do it by herself
She brought a bunch of tools from the garage and used a saw to make a squared hole in the bottom of the door and proceeded to install the plastic doggie door she had bought
And that very night was when it happened...
Father, Danny and I were in the livingroom. Father was watching TV while Danny and I were reading a book on the greatest inventions of the twenty-first century
"I'm going to the supermarket. You guys need anything?" Mom asked as she opened the door
"Wait, why are you going out this late? It's 10 p.m and it gets kinda dangerous out there for you to be going alone. I'm going with you" said father turning off the TV
"Alright. I need to buy food for the dog. So far, we've been feeding him things like sausages and meat, but it's time we get him some actual dog food"
"Wait, you're going out this late for the dog? No, I'm not going out for that" he said as he sat down again and turned the TV back on
"Well I am, and don't even think about trying to stop me" Mom said confidently
Father sighed "Well, I guess there's no point in trying to stop you, but be careful"
"Right, like anything would happen to me" She said as she left the house
Ironic that she said that, because that same night was the... incident
The police said it was probably a mugging gone wrong, that she might've tried unsuccessfully to defend herself, and it could've been why she was shot. But I guess that really makes sense, because even though I only knew mom for three days, I knew she was the type of person to fight back
And since then father had changed
He used to be kind of angry at me because he didn't want to have a dog, but after mom's death he acted like he hated me, as if he was blaming me for her death
He also started drinking... a lot, and seemed to always be mad at Danny, even when had done nothing wrong
All of those flashbacks and memories flooded my brain as I ran through the small doggie door and out of the house, but it wasn't until I decided to look back that I realized Danny's words may have been his last, as I heard him scream in pain, but I knew it wasn't a good choice to go back in, so I left. I ran to some alley and layed down in the rain, tears filling my eyes knowing I wouldn't see Danny again, and cried myself to sleep.
And since that day, I lived in the streets, until Ryder found me, that is
But the memories from that day kept on repeating in my mind throughout the night like they were in loop. But when they finally stopped, and I felt myself slowly drifting to sleep, I hear a noise outside of my pup house
Something knocked on the door. I decided to ignore it until I heard someone call out
"Wocky, time to get up! We need to get ready to start the swimming lessons!"
"Sh*t "
Hey, everyone. This chapter was kind of larger than I expected, but I felt like it was necessary to include everything in a single chapter rather than dividing it. One thing to be clear, some may find strange that Rocky refers to his owner's dad as "father", well you should know that was intended. The explanation for this is that after Danny's mom died, his relationship with his father weakened, and Danny only referred to him as "father", a name Rocky got used to using
-LSMMPGBFECLRMCFD