Hitchcockian Suspense

The Quack could not, unfortunately, pick up her cell. She was rather occupied with more pressing concerns.

“If you're right -and I suspect you ARE- then this is rather terrible huh?”

“It definitely isn’t ideal, but it’s the only answer I have, sorry.”

“I’m pretty impressed though! How did you find it so fast?”

“I knew what to look for, decoding the Dragon’s map was a project months in the making, and since THIS map used mostly the same ideas, it wasn’t too hard to find the decryption method.”

The Quack chuckled a bit before continuing.

“Did they just reuse everything?”

“Not exactly, it's more like they… reused the same framework for how to create their methods? Using computer encryption as an allegory, it’d be like the passwords and keys being used are different, but the actual algorithms being used to encrypt are the same. The way they hid instructions on a seemingly innocuous piece of paper was different for example, but the fact that they hid the instructions on an innocuous piece of paper was not. The problem is, this just tells us what to do when we find the Knight, not WHERE he actually is.”

“Gonna have to look somewhere else in these notes I suppose~ Now we just have to… get the Chief to figure something out. Even if we don't know where yet, we’re gonna need him to prepare everything.”

“I guess so? Should we call him, or should we wait for-”

“Bored Brain?”

“...Yeah, but anyway who should we call first? At this rate he’s probably with his dad.”

“The Clown?”

“And a former knight of the old order. Alcoholic Clown or not, the guy knows his stuff and was pretty impressive back in the day.”

“Hmmm~ I don’t want the Chief to blow a gasket JUST yet, so let's call Bored Brain.”

“Got it.”

As this agreement reached its end, the Bookworm took his phone out from his pocket, only to make an unfortunate discovery.

“I’m out of power, guess I forgot to charge it.”

“Oops~ Don’t worry, I’m almost certain my phone has some juice left… I just have to find it.”

“Do you have a charger somewhere around here as well? No point in having a dead brick in my pocket at a time like this.”

“In the back to the left~”

“Got it.”

The Quack made her way to her desk, a veritable mountain of trash, tomes, and trinkets. For a short period she began sorting through it all, only to pause and subsequently snap her fingers, as she finally remembered where she had put it. Moving her seat out of the way, and maneuvering a portion of the mountain to avoid a potentially dangerous topple, the Quack moved under her desk to get her phone.

I put it down here to access the ethernet with it~ I figured it could be a fun little project.

One would question why she was using her office to perform such a project, but that sort of question was one of the few she found rather boring to ask.

“Oh hey… would you look at that? Looks like we’re talking to the Chief first after all! He’s been calling me for a little while now!”

“Oh jeez… seriously? Now I feel a little bad, you better pick up and see what the problem is!”

“Already on it!

“...

“...

“Hi Chief!”

“Don’t ‘Hi Chief’ me?! Do you realize how bad things might be?”

“What do you mean ‘might’? The Dragon is a pretty big threat, you know?”

“Not that! Well it is RELATED to that but not that specifically! If I understand correctly, it kinda reproduced!”

For a brief moment the Quack was utterly confused, assuming that somehow the Dragon made more Dragons in a truly apocalypse level scenario. But after catching the use of the terms ‘kinda’ and the aforementioned potential ability of the Dragon, she connected the dots and gave a sigh of relief before continuing.

“So it really CAN spawn additional monsters? Well isn’t that bad!”

The Bookworm chimed in quickly.

“It CAN?!”

Before the Quack got back to speaking.

“Bad ain’t the start! Apparently the Dragon is making butterflies-don’t laugh-MIND CONTROLLING BUTTERFLIES!”

“That's… woah nelly, that is quite bad huh? Has it controlled people into entering the cave to speed its prison sentence to a close?”

The Bookworm jumped in once more.

“It can control people? In that case why not do that from the beginning? It would make dealing with the old order in their heyday WAY simpler, especially when they were sealing it.”

“Well presumably it didn’t think it needed to?”

“Ah of course… sorry for butting in twice now by the way! I guess this information is just shocking to me!”

“Don’t worry about it~ I’d be doing the same thing!”

The Chief did not seem to notice or care, so he continued.

“No, actually. It just attacked the ornery kid by using one of my officers. They were able to kill it fortunately.”

“Seriously~”

“He didn’t get it either, if I were the Dragon, I would be trying to speed up my freedom as quickly as possible as discreetly as possible.”

“Well there are a FEW possibilities~”

“Oh?”

“The first, and most obvious is that the Dragon might be kind of a moron.”

“Eh? You mean like a wild animal? It just sent out butterflies without a good plan and went nuts?”

“Pricicely~ The other possibility is not necessarily mutually exclusive, if the Dragon thinks it’s freedom is assured, it might be focusing on trying to eliminate any threats before it escapes, namely threats that could threaten to seal it once more… or worse.”

The Bookworm jumped in one final time, this time with a rather solemn voice.

“Like the ones trying to free it’s only potential threat… us.”

The Quack whirled around quickly, phone still to her ear, and looked up to see the Bookworm, and on top of him was…

“Just to check chief, did the butterfly happen to have black and rainbow wings?”

As she said this, the Bookworm went to kick the Quack, while the latter purposefully shook her desk, causing the trash mountain on top of it to fall right on top of him.

“Gah!”

“Sorry~ You’ll thank me when I get the butterfly off.”

“What are you-?!”

The Quack used this opportunity to squeeze right through the now exponentially worse trash pile, she decided to go as far away as possible to buy time for help to arrive.

“Hey Chief, you don’t need to answer that question~ but I will need…”

Now that I’m out of the way, I can use this opportunity to… eh? When did I drop my phone?

The Quack could no longer see her phone in her hand, and quickly concluded that she must have dropped it in the rush to get away.

Did he leave his phone charging? Or did the butterfly somehow control him to get rid of it?

“Listen to me would you?! Are you going insane or something?!”

“Say’s the one trying to knock me out, or worse.”

The Quack saw the Bookworm make it to the corner of her eye, and immediately whirled around to try and get to his phone.

“I can’t let you do that!”

The two race neck and neck to this phone, it was fortunate he seemed so clumsy because he appeared to be moving at a slower pace from her.

The butterfly must not have great control over our bodies-oops-I guess I’m not much better, but at least I have a homefield advantage!

The Quack managed to reach said phone first, thanks to her better understanding of the office.

As she attempted to reach it however, a large object was thrown at her seemingly by the Bookworm, resulting in a massive crack sound.

Fortunately it missed by a slim margin.

“Why did you do that?!”

“I guess I just have great reflexes~”

Actually it’s more that he has bad aim by the looks of things. But there's no point in telling it that!

There was also little point in telling a lie in the first place, but it was enough for understanding to cross the Bookworms face.

“What does that have to do with anything?”

I guess I’m lucky being so used to navigating garbage dumps!

She announced proudly “To bad monster! I got here first!” as she began to turn this phone on.

The Bookworm, meanwhile, let out a simple “What do you mean by monster?”.

“The butterfly on your head~”

The Bookworm didn’t even bother using his hands to check his head, much to the Quacks bemusement.

“I don’t feel any?”

“Oh? I should have asked the chief for more details of how the your mind control operated before you interrupted Mr. Butterfly! Tell me, is your consciousness just controlling him wholesale or are you hypnotising him to make him WANT to do this?”

“I could ask you the same thing.”

Suddenly, the Bookworm charged the Quack. Who immediately picked up a glass plate haphazardly placed on a shelf next to her, and threw it at him with all her strength.

“Calm down and think for a second! Can’t you see what's happening here?!”

The Bookworm let out his desperate plea.

“Thats filthy rich coming from you.”

The Quack said, annoyance creeping into her voice more and more. What on earth was the Bookworm, or the butterfly, doing?

“What happened to YOUR phone?”

“I dropped it when I was running from you.”

“Wouldn’t you be holding it pretty tightly?”

“Yes yes, I’m sorry for not being as careful as I should have been.”

“No no, think for a second here! I don’t think you would have dropped it under normal circumstances, UNLESS.”

“Unless… huh?”

This exchange, short as it was, was enough for a small, but important suspicion to plant itself in the Quacks mind, as she seemed to turn on the Bookworms phone.

“How can we be so certain you aren’t being controlled by whatever it is?”

“Uh oh.”

The Quack paused and spoke seriously for a change. She finally recognized the butterflies game.

“Which one of us… is being controlled?”

“Actually, is it even one of us? What if they’ve gotten us both?”

Panic began to fill the Quacks thoughts, she had absolutely no idea how to verify if what she was seeing or feeling was true or not. To her it appeared as though her arm was shaking left and right, but who was to say that was real?

“Ok… It seems to me at least, like it can’t control our hearing, so… try and move backwards?”

“I feel and see as though I am, but when I do so YOU walk forward.”

The Quack was very much standing still from her own perspective, and when she attempted to move forwards, the Bookworm appeared to move backwards to her.

“Ok… ok… I have a terrible way to test this.”

“That being?”

“Well… well well well~ We can try to run towards each other full speed, with the intent to tackle each other. Once we do so, follow my next commands.”

The two did so, and to the others' vision, one seemed to get out of the way at the least second.

“Ok… ok… are you where I was originally standing?”

“Yeah.”

Dumb butterflies, you can control us all you like, so that it appears as though our auditory senses line up, but echoes and reverberations can’t be changed so easy.

“Talk into the corner of the window.”

“Right! Right… what?!”

Sounds like he just got hit with some major uncanny valley sound.

“Now I’ll…”

The Quack let out a small yell into the entrance area, being experienced as she was with her office, she immediately knew what she was hearing was not aligned with where she was.

“So I’m definitely not seeing reality right now~ you too?”

“Uh huh… this is bad huh?”

As the Bookworm said this, there was a loud crash, followed by violent ripping seemingly near the Quack, yet she could not see the source of it.

“Guess they're not being subtle anymore!”

The sound of crashing and ripping became even more intense, and both the Quack and the Bookworm were unable to do anything significant to stop it.

“Can you try and resist?!”

“Can you~?”

There was a meaningful pause as the Bookworm and Quack tried to move their actual body, not the illusion they were seeing. But they could not, prompting a sigh of defeat from the Bookworm.

“Fair… enough.”

Neither individual had any idea on how to resist their plight, this was made all the more difficult by the fact they could not even see, nor feel what it was they were supposed to be resisting. On top of this both butterflies were undamaged and unjostled, meaning their control was practically absolute, with no room for resistance or seeing through the illusion.

What… what are we supposed to do?!

The Bookworm felt himself completely and utterly lost given the circumstances. What could a man do in a time like this? As these thoughts went through his head… or perhaps more accurately, as a mass of nonthoughts tore through his mind, the Quack spoke nonchalantly.

“This kinda stinks!”

Despite himself, the Bookworm could not help but comment on this.

“You seem a lot more calm than I am?”

“They say you always fear what you can’t see… but I definitively disagree! To me fear is what we understand, otherwise it is simply surprise and confusion instead! Plus I’m good at hiding my panic.”

“Heh, get that… but can’t surprise and confusion be TYPES of fear?”

“If they are, they’re definitely the less interesting kind~”

“Oh, I think Hitchcock said something like that?”

“Thats a rather funny name~”

“You don’t know him?! He’s one of the great early movie directors!”

“I’m more a modern films kind of person~”

“Tch! Kids don’t know class if it bit ‘em in the-”

“Aren’t I older?”

“Who knows who cares, we’ll get back to your terrible taste in movies later! My earlier point BEING, I believe Hitchcock made a metaphor about fear. That if a bomb explodes under a table out of nowhere, it is shocking. But if you’re TOLD a bomb is under a table and will explode in 5 minutes, that builds suspense.”

“That makes sense~ But it still sort of uses surprise and fear of the unknown, no? Either way you find out unexpectedly that something bad's happening, the only difference is the scare is sort of extended from a few moments to five minutes.”

“I believe that's the point? To stress you out as much as possible before delivering that final gut punch.”

“Hmm, what would whatever… THIS is, classify as?”

“Well, this is real life, but I suppose technically you learning about the butterflies before they got us could be considered a form of… suspense building?”

“Ooh ooh! And would me and you connecting the dots that we were both possessed count as suspense to?”

“I guess so huh? I mean suspense is harder to build than one realizes, it takes setup to properly lead up to a specific conclusion that both makes sense and feels satisfying.”

“But these butterflies suuuure are amateurs, I mean they could have given us way better payoff by looking gross and terrifying! They look so cute it’s hard to take them seriously!”

“You think that annoyed them?”

“I mean they figured out that we figured out that they figured out a way to possess us both. So presumably they're smart enough to understand insults.”

“...Yeah, that makes sense.”

Both the Bookworm and Quack began laughing. This exchange, strange as it was, gave the Bookworm a few ideas.

“Ok! I got a fool proof plan!”

“That being~?”

“SCREAM!”

Twas truly an inelegant solution, but seeing the lack of alternatives, the Quack chuckled to herself and followed suit.

“ANYTHING OTHER THAN SCREAMING?”

“WELL THAT’S ONLY PART ONE! I’M HOPING SOMEONE HEARS US, OR MAYBE THE AMOUNT OF NOISE MIGHT FREAK THE BUTTERFLIES OUT BUT WORST COMES TO WORST WE GO ON TO PART TWO!”

“THAT BEING~?”

“WELL FROM WHAT I REMEMBER, PROTRACTED LOUD NOISES STRESS BUTTERFLIES OUT, RESULTING IN A FASTER HEART RATE!”

“OH YES, I HEARD THAT AS WELL! BUT THEY AREN’T BUTTERFLIES! THEY’RE MONSTERS WHO HAPPEN TO BE MODELED OFF OF BUTTERFLIES.”

“THAT’S FINE! WHAT MATTERS IS- THERE! DID YOU SEE IT?!”

“OHHHHH.”

Before the Quacks eyes, a strange, almost momentary flash appeared to streak across her vision. Like static on a CRT television.

“THEY’RE OVERSTIMULATED! IT’S HARD FOR ANYONE TO CONCENTRATE WHEN LOUD NOISES START OUT OF NOWHERE, MULTITASKING IN GENERAL CAN BE DIFFICULT SOMETIMES, THEY’RE - cough cough - TRYING TO SHOW A REALISTIC ILLUSION -cough, gack- AND THEY’RE SEARCHING AND DESTROYING WHATEVER THEY CAN - gah, gack, cough, watchoo-CAN GET THEIR HANDS ON! THEY SIMPLY CAN’T DEAL WITH IT ALL AT ONCE!”

“YOU OK? DON’T OVERDO IT!”

“NEVER BETTER! NOW THAT THE FLASHES ARE COMING IN MORE AND MORE, WE CAN GO TO PART TWO PROPER! START RESISTING AGAIN!”

If anyone could walk into the room, they would be met with a truly concerning and absurd sight. Considering that was part of the Bookworms plan from the jump you could say it was working flawlessly, but this made it no less absurd.

Oh~ I think I just felt some sort of spasm? It certainly doesn’t feel natural…

All of this being said, the screaming and resistance continued, until finally… a different sort of flash occurred, alongside a different sort of scream.

“GAH!”

“Are you alright?!”

The Bookworms voice was incredibly raspy as he responded to a scream of pain escaping the Quacks lips.

Geh… I guess they had enough. Considering this attack was right after I felt those weird spasms, I guess I wasn’t wrong that those were butterfly related.

A gag was now around the Quacks mouth, she did not feel it until it had already occurred. This was not responsible for the pain however. That was a stark feeling akin to fire on her left hand.

I sure hope I’m not paralyzed permanently~

Her nonchalant attitude seemed only more mad considering the circumstances, but she stuck with it, considering the facts as they occurred.

“A—re y–ou o—k?”

“K… kinda, I… gu -COugh- ess thhhhey, didn’t -gag- gag me cause -gah…- my… throat…”

The Quack felt the gag get tighter around her mouth, and the pain in her hand only worsened.

The sound obviously annoyed them enough to respond, but what else can I glean from that? Well for one thing these things CAN be resisted, but I don’t think that’s really wise… well do I count as wise anyway? I mean that ol’ Chief certainly doesn’t think so~

She grinned a bit, and crafted her plan, her incredibly reckless plan.

These things can be distracted and stressed out… How do I achieve that as things are now? And to such an extent that we can escape? If I understood our earlier conversation about the -what was his name, Cockroach?- guy properly, when you know something is coming, you stress out over it. That’s certainly true but something coming out of nowhere is also pretty distracting and stressful, right?

The Quack could not see nor control what was happening in the real world, but she was still perfectly capable of exploring the illusory world the butterfly trapped her in.

But hey? Who says I have to have one or the other? I mean surely it can’t be too difficult to achieve both?

After a few moments, she found a pencil and paper, and began to write a message.

*Something BIG is happening SOON!*

Was displayed loud and proud on the paper, she held it before her eyes for a short while, before she felt the gag tightening around her mouth even more so than before. The pain in her arm was already quite intense, so she couldn’t tell whether or not something happened there as well.

I was right, since they make this illusion, they can also see what happens inside. They probably think I’m done thanks to the gag~ But I can tell speech is totally possible. I guess, even if they can CONTROL my body, they can’t necessarily ‘feel’ it perfectly. To the butterfly, all it can tell is that my mouth is covered, not how well covered it is.

The Quack relaxed her vocal muscles, hoping her voice would sound somewhat clear for her upcoming plan. While the Bookworms assessment that he had not been gagged due to his already damaged throat was true, it was not true to say the Quacks throat was perfectly healthy. Her vocal cords were simply tougher and more experienced after a career of loud meetings. Regardless, she did all that could be done to prepare for the coming auditory attack. This was not to happen so soon however, as she still needed to build just a bit more suspense.

Welp… here goes~

“Now watch and follow my lead. Remember that cockroach fella had some good points, but also remember a bad surprise can hurt! You got less than 10 seconds to prepare to run~”

She spoke clearly despite the gag. Though perhaps expectantly, but nonetheless annoyingly felt it tighten all the more.

Huh? Does she mean Hitchcock?And I can’t ‘watch’ her in the first place because of the illusion. What sort of time limit is 10 seconds anyway?! What could you do in that time?!

Unable to communicate with the Bookworm to answer his complaints, within the illusion, the Quack held out both her hands, or more accurately all her fingers, 10 in total despite the pain.

She dropped one, the countdown had begun.

She dropped another, though she was as of yet unsure if the butterfly noticed.

…

She dropped her third, her gag tightened again, at least she was given her confirmation. The countdown had been noticed.

…

The fourth dropped next, despite being in an illusion, even the Bookworm could feel the tension. He could feel a beating across his body, even the other butterflies heart was moving erratically now.

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Next was fifth, the suspense built as the Quack had hoped. Strange thing suspense, in a sense its execution is similar to a joke, being the setup to a payoff.

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Next was the sixth, like the set up to a joke, suspense contains and to some extent relies on uncertainty. What will it be? When will it come? How do I respond to it? These sorts of questions bite away at the victim, their mind races to consider. Doing so leaves them ironically more vulnerable to the pay off. Their minds racing so much to prepare, that when the metaphorical strike occurs they are simply too mentally busy to react in time. There are actually many similarities between the setup to a joke and the suspense building to a fright. Comedy is in some ways tragedy plus time afterall.

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Going on to the seventh, unlike the setup to a joke however (aside from the obvious difference in intent of course, with one trying to produce stress, the other attempting to reduce stress), suspense is founded more on an implicit feeling of distrust or betrayal of trust. The phenomenon of jokes being funnier when told by a friend is well documented afterall, this is because you trust the person telling the tale, and as a result understand what makes the joke funny to THEM far better than a stranger might. On the other hand in horror, a sense that something must be wrong or out of place is quite good, and that sense is made better when trust is not a factor, when we cannot exactly predict what happens next. Picture it now, what would be scarier? A tale told by a stranger or a friend? If instead they were telling a joke, who would tell it better? All of this is of course barring differences in ability to communicate or execute such tales, but regardless the point stands. We fear what we do not understand, and laugh at what we cannot stand. Perhaps this is not quite absolute, but it certainly bears truth.

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The eighth came down, pain seemed to erupt into the Quack’s hands once more, this time so intense it eclipsed her previous bursts of pain. The butterflies were doing all they could to stop this ‘surprise’. In a sense however, in an ironic sort of way, normal trust is still an incredibly important part of suspense. The butterflies believed and knew, unquestionably, that the Quack had something planned. Something that they could not stop easily, something which could ruin their plans, they even trusted that it would occur in two more-

A SUDDEN BURST OF SOUND ERUPTED FROM THE BOOKWORMS MOUTH!

In that moment, the illusion completely fell apart, the Quack immediately took the opportunity and swiped the butterfly from her head, though she was unable to kill it, her arms left incredibly weak from the butterflies attempts to stop her.

The Bookworm attempted to do the same thing, and was actually able to kill his butterfly. It was in ground zero of his scream after all, and was thus far more frazzled by the experience. Though before it died, it let out a horrible screech, causing both the Bookworm and the Quack to have bizarre visions of the past while from a seemingly different vantage point. Alongside these visions were even strange memories of flying through the air. Such visions left the Bookworm and Quack out of sorts for a few moments, allowing the other butterfly a better chance to escape.

“Where is it?!”

The Quack looked all around for her butterfly after regaining her composure, and found it flying towards the door. She immediately made a break for it, despite the wreck that was now her office and body.

They really gave this place the old once over huh?

It really was rather stark for her. One moment her office appeared, while not pristine, in a manner she felt comfortable in. Now it was completely and utterly trashed, a true mess beyond even her tastes.

I can’t say anything!

The Bookworm was experiencing a different problem, the large amount of screaming earlier mixed with the truly massive scream he had performed to escape had totalled his throat. He could barely breathe, much less talk.

Despite this, he turned to follow the Quack, after ensuring his butterfly was well and truly dead of course.

After this… I don’t think I’ll ever like butterflies for as long as I live.

The Bookworm thought to himself sardonically. Still chasing the Quack despite his poor condition.

“Hey, if I forget to say it later, thanks~”

The Bookworm attempted to silently ask her ‘what for?’ with a series of gestures and mouth movements.

“For figuring out my plan obviously! I owe you for getting my trick!”

Well, really all I noticed was the tension in the room, after you referenced Hitchcock and surprise, it didn’t take much to figure out what the best thing to do was. I guess we’re lucky I figured it out on time though, and figured out what needed to be done. That ‘less than ten seconds’ line was a small clue to. Since it implied I needed to do something before then.

He couldn’t properly pantomime these thoughts, so he simply shrugged.

“We really are lucky though! Those creepy bugs were probably convinced I was going to yell, so they weren’t prepared for you!”

By building trust, one can produce an effective shock by breaking it in the proper opportunity.

The butterflies were unsure what was coming, the Quacks erratic actions left the butterflies unsure and nervous. When people are stressed and nervous, they usually end up clinging to any structure or normalcy they can get their hands on. This meant they accidentally ended up trusting her time limit, when this time limit was broken, they were left scrambling.

Suspense relies on distrust, but by that same token, betraying trust is just as much an aspect of it. In this way suspense can be used to create, and subsequently betray, trust. Be it trust in a place, trust in a person, or trust in an idea.

“How should we get this thing~”

Both the Quack and the Bookworm made their way towards the hallway, to see the butterfly attempting to make its way towards an open office on the other side, which presumably also had an open window inside. The Quack stared for a moment, before remembering an important factoid about her building.

“You follow it! I’ll go around!”

Though the Bookworm could not quite understand what she meant, he followed her request and continued running as fast as he could.

The Quack meanwhile went to a different office in the hallway, this one facing the same direction as the butterfly's chosen office.

Yeah! There’s the patio!

The Butterfly had made a poor choice picking that direction, as all offices in that side of the building led to patios.

Feeling the heat, the Quack ran through her chosen office into the patio. She then turned right and, scrambling like her life depended on it, made her way towards the now exiting butterfly.

Fortunately, she was able to block the butterfly from getting completely out of the building complex, and together with the Bookworm was able to somewhat block it through a pincer maneuver.

Unfortunately, the butterfly was still able to evade capture, and began to make its way right as well. Though it could not make its way to the open air due to the Quacks quick thinking, the patios did end after a certain point, once it reached that point it would be met with far less resistance.

Nevertheless, the Quack and Bookworm hounded it from two sides, attempting all they could to block it, or hopefully kill it.

The butterfly looks like it’s actually… slowing down?

All parties involved were worse for wear. While the Quack had not managed to necessarily kill her butterfly, she had managed to still swat it, damaging it to a certain extent. The wounds accrued by the Quack and the Bookworm have already been mentioned, and were only becoming more difficult to deal with.

“If we’re not quick, we sure are in trouble huh?”

The Bookworm nodded to the Quacks customary lackadaisical remark, by this point the conflict had become a war of attrition, a war which the butterfly, despite its damage, seemed to be winning. They were at least lucky the butterfly had little vertical real estate, since all the patios had roofs to protect from rain.

Then how should we deal with this?

The Bookworm did not need to ponder this for long however, as the butterfly suddenly made a desperate rush in between both he and the Quack, only for a rock suddenly made its way towards the butterfly. It missed by a hair’s breadth, but succeeded in stopping the butterfly’s rush.

To make matters better, an officer suddenly came out from one of the windows, then another, and another still. Soon the butterfly was well and truly blocked on all sides.

With this relief, the Bookworm looked to his left to see who had thrown the rock, and was delighted to see his friend the Delinquent standing proud in the middle of the road. With a clown and a bandaged up officer beside him.

“Hey man! You doing ok?”

In response to this, with the butterfly's threat neutralized and relief passing through him, the Bookworm finally passed out.