She shakes her head gently. "I didn't think to at first. Ever since I was little I had a dog named Arnold; at night he'd sleep under my bed, and if anything terrible happened he'd get up and protect me."
Her most loyal companion. There was nothing in any world that Arnold wouldn't have protected her from, and even in the midst of a late-night fright she'd known that. "I put my hand down to check on him, and when he gave me a big lick I knew that everything must be fine."
The thought chills her to the bone, knowing what she does now. But it had been nothing but the reassurance her fretful mind had seen searching for then, delivered with the warm friendliness she'd come to know and love. With Rohan still tucked securely at her side, what did she have to worry about?
Only...
"But the sound didn't stop. It was so strange to me that my parents hadn't woken up to take a look - it was so loud. So eventually I got up and went into the hall to look."
Her gaze (and footsteps) had been following the boy and his little companion this entire time for no reason other than as something to focus on, but now Reimi looks up at the school as the lump in her throat forces her to pause. Even now, the image of what she'd found tore at her soul.
"It was Arnold. Someone had slit his throat and hung him from our coat rack."
She can still see him dangling there, tossed away as carelessly as if he'd merely been a dirty rug. Her friend, her greatest protector...he never deserved to see the end of his life like that.
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Her most loyal companion. There was nothing in any world that Arnold wouldn't have protected her from, and even in the midst of a late-night fright she'd known that. "I put my hand down to check on him, and when he gave me a big lick I knew that everything must be fine."
The thought chills her to the bone, knowing what she does now. But it had been nothing but the reassurance her fretful mind had seen searching for then, delivered with the warm friendliness she'd come to know and love. With Rohan still tucked securely at her side, what did she have to worry about?
Only...
"But the sound didn't stop. It was so strange to me that my parents hadn't woken up to take a look - it was so loud. So eventually I got up and went into the hall to look."
Her gaze (and footsteps) had been following the boy and his little companion this entire time for no reason other than as something to focus on, but now Reimi looks up at the school as the lump in her throat forces her to pause. Even now, the image of what she'd found tore at her soul.
"It was Arnold. Someone had slit his throat and hung him from our coat rack."
She can still see him dangling there, tossed away as carelessly as if he'd merely been a dirty rug. Her friend, her greatest protector...he never deserved to see the end of his life like that.