//------------------------------// // Act 7: A Horrifying Weekend at Garfield's // Story: Friendship is Failure #8: Teen Titans HSM V: Ways of Life // by DakariKingMykan //------------------------------// ACT SEVEN When Twilight told Principal Celestia about Spike and his condition, though it was still against school rules, seeing as he was in desperate need of care, and it was a chance to learn about Garfield, she allowed Twlight and the other Equestrians have the first half of the day off to tend to him. Sadly, the Murakamis were not invited because they could find out that Spike could talk, and thus would break their magical secrets. Twilight and friends, along with Celestia and Luna gave Spike a much needed bath, and gave him some food. The poor little guy looked as if he hadn’t eaten properly in days, which he confessed he hadn’t. “All I’ve been eating a scraps of moldy bread and old tofu-- anything I found lying about.” Pinkie and Rarity felt like gagging. “That’s disgusting!” groaned Pinkie. “I still can’t believe you just ran off and worried us all like that.” scolded Applejack. “I know, but I just had to find out… for all of you.” Twilight wasn’t angry with Spike, just relieved he was back and safe, “But Spike, tell us, what did you find out?” she asked. That made Spike quiver and whimper nervously. “Was it really that bad?” asked Fluttershy. “Far worse!” cried Spike. And he explained his story… *Spike’s POV* After I head the meeting going on in the office, I decided to get some dirt on Garfield. Find out what he was hiding, so I climbed over to Garfield’s moped and hid in the seat-compartment, using an old discarded straw I found to support me with air from outside. Takeoff was pretty scary, but I kept as quiet as I could so Garfield wouldn’t know I was there. When the ride stopped, I waited a few moments as I felt him leave, and when he didn’t come back I hopped out and found myself in a strange city. Obviously it was Jump City, because Garfield was at work. I could see him; he was working at a place called “Mega Meaty Meat” a fast-food joint that served meat. Only meat… well, they had bread too, but… it was rather odd for a vegetarian to work at such a place. *POV Interrupted* “Wait a minute…” Rainbow cut in “A vegetarian working at a Meat-Place? That’s hardly what I’d call “Scary.” Luna held up her hand, “I’m not so sure THAT is what he meant.” Celestia nodded in agreement, “Go on, Spike. What happened after…?” “After that…” Spike said “…That’s when it started getting scary.” *POV Continued* It was almost sundown when Garfield’s shift ended, but he stopped at the grocery store across the street to get some food for himself. Not nearly a lot but enough, and he stowed it in the seat compartment so I couldn’t hide inside again. So, I had to sit way behind where he couldn’t see me, while holding tightly as we took off again! We flew way away from the city and into an Outback Land, East. It was all a massive stretch of nothingness. Then, it started getting scary as the sky grew really, really dark, and the temperature seemed to drop. That’s when we began to make our decent onto really rough grassy fields as it became as dark as night, when the sun hadn’t fully set yet. BOOM! Lightning and shook the skies, and suddenly we stopped, much to my relief as I couldnl’t hold on much longer. Then I looked up… and there it was! A huge but scary looking mansion, I think it was from around the 1800s. It had creaking shutters that slammed in the eerie winds that whistled, and cobwebs all over it, like something you’d see in horror movie. “Ah, home sweet Hell.” as Garfield put it. I ran away before he spotted me and hid behind a rock, and I watched him stow his moped away in a small ramshackle shed beside the house, and then he grabbed his food and went inside. I tried to follow him in, but he had already shut the door before I could. I couldn’t let him see me anyway. Whatever this place was, I didn’t like it one bit. It was so dark, the winds continued to blow; I could hear wolves howling, ravens cawing, soft mists along the ground, so many scary looking trees, and all that thunder and lightning-- I was so scared I couldn’t even cry, but I hid under an old bench shaking and quivering. Suddenly, Garfield came out of the house. He wasn’t wearing his cape, but he held a lantern, a sharp axe, a saw, and then I saw he removed his shades and pocketed them… but, his eyes…! I couldn’t help but stare at them; they were all red, and so baggy and dark under the rims. He looked as if he hadn’t slept in days! Then I saw him walk off towards a thick and eerie forest on the grounds, as he disappeared I could hear the sound of growling and snarling, and Garfield shouting, “DOWN YA MONGRELS!!” I think he was fighting with a pack wolves! I didn’t dare go with him; it was too dark for me to see without any light. Still, this place was so scary; I could almost hear spooks calling to me in the form of a song. “Welcome to My Nightmare!” I couldn’t take it much more, and so I ran right for the door, scratching and clawing at it, and wouldn’t believe… it opened. I didn’t know how, but I didn’t care and I ran inside where I felt in would be safer. Inside the house, it sure was creepy, dusty, cobwebs on the walls, creaky floorboards-- just like every bit of a haunted house. The furniture was all old-fashioned, like they had in the 1800s, but also very old, beat up and not looking very comfortable. There was also a big old, but functioning grandfather clock that chimed eight for eight-o-clock. I could hardly believe it was that late already! Normally Twilight and I would be ready for bed by then. Like most houses from the 1800s there was no gas, there was no electricity, no plumbing; just old fashioned wood stoves, candles, kerosene lamps, and other things. “How can anyone possibly live in a place like this?” I wondered. I even explored a sitting room library, with a few bookshelves stacked with all kinds of books, a large fireplace, paintings of people all along the walls, and two auto-phonographs. A small clock on the mantle read it was eight-thirty when I heard noises outside, it sounded like Garfield. I peeked out a window, and it was him, he ran out from the woods with a load of logs in his arms, with four hungry wolves chasing him. Finally, they reached the house, and Garfield dropped the logs and his tools, grabbed his dog whistle and blew into it. Even I could hear it from way inside and covered my ears. The noise was so unbearable, but I’m pretty sure the wolves ran off, unable to stand the sound either. “AND DON’T COME BACK!!!” Garfield shouted. Then he came inside, forcing me to hide under a sofa as he came into the room grumbling, “Mangy mongrels! You’d think after all these years they’d learn not to mess with me by now!” He placed some of the logs by the fireplace where a large pile stood. Then he grabbed some tin buckets and went outside again. I saw him go to an old well not too far from the house. He gathered many buckets of water, came back to the house, and dumped them all into a bathtub in the downstairs bathroom. Then he went out to get more, and more, and more. It was a quarter past nine before he was done, and I had to hide again. He came back, at ten, bathed and wearing an old-fashioned grey pyjama gown under an old red bathrobe, and wearing fresh socks and a pair of red slippers. He looked really beat, but he still had much to do. Next I saw him pouring melted candlewax into a pot and heated it over the fire until it was liquefied, but it took a really long time. Then he poured the wax into candle molds, obvious his way of preserving his candles. Eleven-O-Clock: Even I was getting really tired by this point, but it was too scary to fall asleep, and I just couldn’t take my eyes off of Garfield as I saw him make some tea over the fire using the water he got from the well. He sat himself down at a desk in the corner of the room and ate his dinner-- a simple store-bought salad and tofu squares so he didn’t have to cook them, and as he ate, he did his homework and studied hard for reports and tests he had. He looked really beat, and kept shaking himself awake. “Must, finish…! Must finish…!” he groaned. He did all this while taking moments to feed the fire so it wouldn’t go out. It was almost midnight, and he was still studying and doing his homework while trying not to fall asleep. “Okay…!” he groaned “Time for my secret wakeup weapon.” He started up the two phonographs, and then quickly sat down in his armchair near the fire, with a couple of candles near him. Suddenly, one of the records began playing this haunting, ominous music, while the other record had horror sound effects of women screaming! Outside, the wolves were howling, cats meowed, and the thunder and lightning seemed to strike hard, like going along with all the effects. (Vid Works) It was like watching an intro for some weird TV show. The screaming record stopped, and more thunder hit as Garfield looked out the window. The music was still playing, and Garfield gazed at the paintings of the people, almost like a live audience, and he actually addressed them. “I am your host, Garfield Logan. Welcome to “Mysterious Theater”: the show that brings you somber stories with many brokered hearts and tragic endings! Tonight, we bring you a story of a young man named Vic Plain, a young man who was betrayed by his only love Elisa. As out story begins, Elisa finds Vic in his café, lost in bitterness while under the spell of… “…The Alphabet of Despair!” …Let’s join them… now.” The music finally stopped, and rather than actually tell or show the story he made up, Garfield, feeling more alert now, was able to continue his homework. It was if the thoughts of all that darkness enflamed his inner strength for a boost. Even Twilight never looked so focused before. Finally, Garfield closed all his books and sighed, “Finished!” just as the clock struck One… in the morning! He dipped his fingers in a cup of water by his side and rubbed his teeth, like brushing. It seemed to be the only way he had to clean his teeth. Then finally, he started up the music record again and quickly sat down to, once again, address his audience of paintings. (Vid Works) “And so ends “The Alphabet of Despair.” Wolves howled from outside as the music started. “Tune in next time for more tragic tales from a dark, despairing world where hearts never heal, and all hope is lost forever. Until then, I’m your host… Garfield Logan, bidding you… Farewell… …From Mysterious Theater.” Another crash of thunder hit, and Garfield gazed out the window and hissed at it like an angry cat, and the music stopped again. He let out a huge yawn, blew out the candles save for a candle-stick he held in his hand. “Nighty night.” he said to no one in particular as he left the room, leaving the dimming fire to burn itself out, and walk up the spooky staircase to his master-bedroom. I was so incredibly terrified and concerned, but just the same, very exhausted, as it was One in the morning. I tried to go to sleep, but those eerie winds, the soft tapping of the shutters, squeaking all over the house. As if those were bad enough, the thunder and lightning made it worse. Every flash and crash made me jumpy, and then there were the sounds of the wolves howling form the forest and ravens screeching. How could anyone get any sleep like this?!! I couldn’t and neither could Garfield, because the next thing I heard was the sound of footsteps. His bedroom was just about the library where I was. I could hear the creaking of a window opening, and… “…QUIET!!!” his shouted so loud, and a huge blast of lightning and thunder stuck. The wolves stop howling and the birds stopped cawing at once! “After all… enough is enough!” I heard him groan as he went back to bed. I had barely managed to get two hours of light restless sleep, when I suddenly heard Garfield come downstairs, fully dressed… at Five in the morning!! It was still so dark outside, you’d think it was still night, but those dark clouds were still over the whole area, with not a single breach insight. Nothing to indicate and clearing. Worse than that, it hadn’t rained a single drop, as was evidenced by all the withered plant life-outside. Garfield was eating a single piece of toast he had made by holding a slice of bread over a candle. He still looked awfully groggy. I could tell because of his eyes… those burning, tiresome eyes! He then left the house and charged up his moped to leave. I didn’t have time to sneak out and stowaway, plus I was very hungry and hardly had the strength to do so. Besides, it was Saturday, he wouldn’t be heading for the school, but exactly where he went… I had no idea. While he was out, I helped myself to a couple slices of bread, and left over tofu-squares. It was a good thing that magic that made me talk also gave me a stronger stomach so I could digest it okay. So, I spent the rest of the day trying to catch up on my sleep, which still wasn’t easy because of all that noise out there. When Garfield came back, he looked really beat, and yet, he didn’t stop to rest at all. He went into the forest to get more wood while ducking those hungry wolves fetched more water from the well. Today, however, since he didn’t have any homework left, I saw him doing laundry. He had put a load of identical school uniforms and his pyjamas and bathrobes into the tub and used a wash-board to clean them. Then he hung them up on a line out on the porch where the blowing winds would dry them faster, but it was still a long and hard job. Then he spent the day chopping logs and fetching water from the well. It wasn’t until long after seven at night when his clothes were dry, and still he wasn’t finished working…!! Garfield then spent the evening hours working in another room of the house, a laboratory where he seemed to be creating some kind of formula with special rocks he had brought home with him that day. I had no idea what it was for since I couldn’t get any closer. By Nine pm, he finally had dinner, only he didn’t eat as much due to his food supply running short, but he did have an extra-long drink form one of the water buckets; almost gave himself a bad stomach ache from drinking too hard. I was starving too, so I ate another slice of bread without being seen. Still, Garfield wasn’t done. He still had studying to do for tests in school. He wanted perfect scores and aimed to get them. Of course his weariness caught up with him… so he went at it again, and acted out another show in front of the paintings. (Vid Works) “Good evening, and welcome to Mysterious Theater. I am your host, Garfield Logan. In tonight’s episode, a young man has been let down by the only love of his life, for reasons of complete and total self-centered attitude. The pain is so immense, the man may not live to se another sunrise. …Let’s… Join them.” Followed by a crash of thunder, and he went right back to his studies, long into the very late hours. It wasn’t until the clock struck twelve at midnight that he decided to stop, and he looked really beat. So he put down his books and wrapped up the show again. (Vid Works) “And thus ends another tragic tale from a dark, despairing world where hearts never heal, and all hope is lost forever. Join us next time for… Mysterious Theater… Until then, this is your host, Garfield Logan saying… …Good-Bye.” Another crash of thunder, and he went off to bed, but again… it was another restless night from all the crashing and noises coming from outside. I barely managed to sleep either. And the same routine happened when he got up at Five AM, right into the night. But this time was different… as he came back from fetching wood in the forest. He noticed the bag of bread was ripped open. Being the genius he was, he could tell this was done deliberately. I couldn’t resist, I was starving all day, and with hardly food lying around, I had to go for it, but now Garfield was onto me. So I foolishly dashed up the stairs, which alerted him to follow. “Who’s in MY HOUSE?!!” he shouted, and began prowling like a madman, tipping over chairs, tables, kicking the doors open! “Come out and fight like a man!” Never had I been so scared in my life, and that made me a little carless too as I knocked over a broom-stick and mop, which alerted him to come running down the hall, and I had to hide under his master-bed. “Who is it?! Show yourself!” The lightning lit up the shadows in the room, and I could see him about to lift up the bed skirts. I got out the other side just in time for him to miss me. “Okay, party’s over! I’ve got a gun, and I know how to use it!” he shouted, trying to get me to come out, but I knew he was bluffing, but I still couldn’t run past him, or he’d see me. Suddenly, all went quiet. Garifeld hadn’t moved or made a sound… almost as if he had gone; which was exactly part of his trick, because without warning he ROARED like a monster, scaring me into running under his legs and out the door. “AHA!!” he shouted as he gave chase. We ran all over the house; up and down, here and there! Finally, I zigged when I should have zagged and he dropped his cape over me like a net! “GOT’CHA!!” We wrestled for a moment before I gave in, and finally saw me. “What? You…? How did you get here?” I was so frightened, the way his burning, baggy eyes looked at me; I gave him the sad doggy eyes. He resisted and looked away, “That won’t work on me.” he said, and he sighed, “I guess I better get you back to Twilight in the morning.” He wasn't as cold towards me for the rest of the night, much to my surprise. He even gave me a few lettuce leaves, a tofu square and a teacup full of water. “Don’t chow down too fast.” He sneered at me “Make it last, I can’t give you much more. If I do, I won’t have enough food to make it through the week until I get paid… thanks to you!” I felt a little low for putting him in danger. “Well, it’s a good thing you can’t talk.” he said to me, “Or I’d tell you never to tell anyone about me. The last thing I need is more people intruding on my solitude. I’m alone, and I want to stay that way!” *POV Ends* “So, we got through another sleepless night, and came here… that’s all there is to it.” said Spike “Most definitely, the most horrifying weekend I ever had.” The girls and ladies all gawked at him with wide-eyed expressions, nobody what to think. “Ordinarily, I’d say that’s a load of hoo-haw.” said Applejack “But then again, given our experience with weird stuff, maybe he’s tellin’ the truth.” The others all agreed. “I was telling the truth!” protested Spike “Every single word.” Fluttershy patted his head, “Oh, we don’t think you’re lying, Spike.” “Of course not, darling.” added Rarity “It’s just that… well… How can I put this delicately?” Celestia held up her hand to speak for Rarity, “What she means is, we can’t just take your word for it alone. We’ll need to dig deeper and get real evidence on this.” “Agreed…” said Luna “Which is why I suggest we keep all this between ourselves, and not mention this to anyone. Not even the exchange students.” Everyone agreed, and the lunch-bell rang. “Whoop… time for lunch.” said Pinkie “It’s Pizza and cupcake Monday.” “Awesome. I’m famished.” said Rainbow, and she along with everyone else left, but Twilight stayed behind and held her dog warmly, “I believe you, Spike.” and she meant every word. Even though it would usually go against all forms of logic she knew, due to her experiences and discoveries, she believed in anything being possible. Spike smiled and licked her cheek. Meanwhile, while students were heading off for lunch, Garfield, wearily walked to his locker. He was having another weary-spell from his lack of sleep and nourishment from the weekend while tending to Spike. He just barley put his hands to his locker, when he began to slide slowly down, and fall flat on the floor, passing out from exhaustion! Many students gawked in concern. “Garfield!” Terra cried as she raced to his side, and she felt what bad shape he was in, she called out for help, and she was suddenly joined by the other Murakamis. “Let’s take him to the school nurse!” said Dick, and off they went carrying the poor fallen boy.