Bassie's World - Chapter Seventeen

Instructions

[ Shelly, 12:02 PM, Sprout's Floor ] I padded slowly into the hospital room. I felt like I was in slow-motion, still processing what I saw in that mirror. Deep and dark claw-wounds were marked across my face. And to think it's because of Bassie. I thought she was my friend. I can still barely remember most stuff. *A strawberry with a ponytail owns this floor. His name...? What's his name again...?* The cake roll—Cosmo, if I remember correctly,— couldn't even explain to me what happened besides who it was due to. I was a bit mad about that, but what could I do? Basically, nothing. I fell into the bed with a quiet thud. I still had to get somebody else to tell me what actually happened, to tell me that Bassie was lying like I suspected. It's not like me to get upset, specifically to get angry. I pride myself on my ability to live and let live. Well, I used to. Now I've lost a lot of my memories, mainly names and places, and have a throbbing head caused by my missing eye. I let my head sink into the pebble-gray pillow resting against the wooden headboard and sighed. I didn't move or do anything for a while. I felt at peace then, but not for all that long. The ventilation kicked on, so ostentatious it could wake the dead. I flinched a bit when I heard it and then laughed a bit to myself. *Really? Jolting at the air turning on?* I sat back up, ready to stop procrastinating and go ask somebody, for goodness's sake. Since this is the strawberry's floor, he'll probably be here. I quietly crept out of the room and into the open. I glanced in every direction, not seeing anything. I walked around the floor, a bit surprised by how large it felt. I didn't remember it feeling like this. It overwhelmed me, and I felt oddly sad out of nowhere. "Shelly! Hey!" Someone called out from behind me. I spun around and saw the Toon I had been looking for. Relief overcame me. Now I could actually get answers. "Hey." I managed to reply. Not very confidently, though. "Uh, what's the matter?" "Wh-whaddaya mean?" He pointed to my good eye. I put my hand on the bottom of it and felt something wet. I had been crying? I didn't even notice it. Maybe that's what the overwhelming sadness was about. "I'm fine." I suddenly remembered a blond human lady kneeling down in front of me, and I knew I was even more sad then. "Breathe in, breathe out." she said to me, just loud enough to hear over my boisterous sobbing. I didn't know who that person was, but she had good advice. I took a deep breath, held it momentarily, then exhaled. I could feel my vision becoming clearer as the tears dripped out of my eyes. "Good. I'm glad you're okay. I hope it stays that way." he said straightforwardly. I wondered why he was being so candid, but I definitely didn't think it was a bad thing, so I definitely didn't have to worry either. I mustered up the courage to ask him about what I had been meaning to. "Can you, uh, tell me about... wh-what Bassie did to my eye?" "Woah, what BASSIE did??" he looked confounded. "Bassie didn't do anything to your eye. You fell down some really steep steps into a storage box, remember?" "N-no. Your best friend told me it was Bassie's fault, not a storage box's. C'mon, you don't have to lie..." "Look, Cosmo was the one lying to you." So that's his name, then. "Really? The actual wound doesn't look anything like what falling into a box would look like! It's 100% a wound made by a sharp claw!" "I know it looks like that, but I remember completely that you fell against the box and kept trying to stand , then falling again. That's why it's three slashes beside one another." "No! Cosmo told me that. Why don't you ask him?" "I will, then. If you're so certain. He's coming on this floor any minute now. We're making a poundcake." "That sounds fun." I said in a shabby attempt to lighten the mood. I heard a distant ding. Sprout bolted off without saying anything, so fast and sudden that I would've thought he was being chased by a ghost. I walked to the elevator and spotted Cosmo and Sprout. Sprout was already bouncing around Cosmo with a wide grin on his face, and they seemed to somehow be in a deep conversation already. "Uh..." I cleared my throat to get attention from them. "Oh! Right. Sorry, Shelly. I got distracted." Sprout said. "So..." "Yeah. Cosmo, tell her what happened with her eye." Cosmo didn't say anything. "Why do you need to have me tell her?" he asked, at last. "She doesn't believe me, even though I'm telling her what happened." I sighed. *Because it's not true!* "Uh, okay." Cosmo began. "Well, you were walking down really tall steps and then fell into a sharp storage box three times in different spots. What a coincidence it looks like it could be caused by, I don't know... a wolf, maybe?" "That's... not right." I shook my head. "But it is?" "If I went and asked Cocoa, would she tell me the same thing?" +