This is my first horror story, though I've written for The Amazing World of Gumball before. (Check my first TAWOG story, The Strangers, if you like!) It was an interesting experience trying to write in a new genre so I hope you enjoy! And I apologize for mistakes: English is my second language.
It was something past midnight when Gumball opened his eyes and sat up on his bed.
The pale disk of the moon was staring at him through the window, casting squares of bluish light on the carpet. Gumball yawned and jumped off of the bed. It was not the first time he woke up in the middle of the night because of thirstiness, plus this time he had dreamed about an arid, waterless desert, so a glass of milk looked like a grand idea right now.
The house was tranquilly quiet as the cat trailed downstairs and then toward the kitchen. Half awake, he fumbled with the milk carton, pouring some of the liquid inside into a glass only to down it afterward in one go. It felt coolly sweet against his dry throat, and Gumball even closed his eyes for a moment from the pleasant feeling…
A muted, distant voice broke the nocturnal silence.
The kitten's blue ears jerked up.
The noise was strange, as though someone was trying to move their furniture at this late hour. Sleepy yet curious, Gumball came over to the window, from where the sounds seemed to be coming.
The moon hung above Elmore like a big fish's eye. On the street, which was empty and illuminated by lampposts, no engines or voices could be heard—a realm of sleep, unperturbed by anything. Was he hearing things? Gumball was about to return to his room when a pretty prominent and not-so-distant susurration caught his ear again.
Rustling. Moving. Someone was hurrying, and now the cat was sure the sound came from the Robinsons' house a few yards before him. Despite the dark windows, someone was restlessly fumbling there.
Had it been their other neighbor, Gary Hedges, Gumball would probably just shrug it off, especially given how heavy his eyelids felt. But he was crazy about Mr. Robinson—perhaps due to the lack of any other decent grandparent model in his life—so it instantly came to his mind that the grumpy puppet was old and therefore could be having a heart attack or a stroke right now. Maybe he had fallen and wanted to get up or turn the lights on but couldn't? Something similar had already happened to him before just in front of Gumball's and Darwin's eyes.
Terrified by this thought, the cat hopped over the kitchen's windowsill and then over the fence. It was a bit cold out in his pajamas, but he didn't care.
"Mr. Robinson?" he whispered in the black void of the neighbor's window. "Mr. Robinson, are you okay there?"
Some rustling rose inside the house, then it faded away again. Oh geez. Maybe he should go wake up Darwin, or call for help… "Mr. Robinson? Or… Mrs. Robinson? Should I call an ambulance?"
"No."
Gumball shook a little from the unexpected answer and pressed his nose to the chill glass, trying to make out something in the dark. "Um, are you sure? Because you sound like you…"
"Yes, I'm sure," Mr. Robinson whispered again in a muffled, odd voice. "Go. Go away."
He didn't sound like himself. As though he… was afraid of something. Scared. "Are you really, really sure, Mr. Robinson?"
"Go to your bed."
Gumball swallowed. Mr. Robinson obviously either didn't need or didn't want his help. He headed back to their house, albeit reluctantly, for some reason keeping looking back at the neighbors' house now and then. Something was… weird about Mr. Robinson being there in the perpetual dark and answering in that peculiar voice. Something was off about the whole situation, and it bothered Gumball in the periphery of his mind, although he wasn't sure what or why exactly it was.
In less than a minute, he flopped onto his bed. The clock read 12:34, and these four numbers glistened ominously green in the dark as if trying to warn him about something. About what, though?
A bit later, Gumball thought he heard a sound of a car parking nearby, but before he had time or strength to think about it, the softness of the bed embraced him in its warm hug, and in seconds, he lay serene and sound asleep.
The next morning, this overnight accident was nothing but a blurry memory, like a vague dream that he had had but did not remember clearly. Gumball went to school, like always, only to spend the day there mostly goofing off with Darwin and not paying much attention to his classes. Then the bell rang, the bus came, and they went home. Nothing out of ordinary happened—up to the moment they had gotten off the bus and noticed a police car parked beside Gaylord Robinson's one.
Gumball flinched involuntarily. The strange event of the previous night resurfaced in his memory, and all of a sudden, he felt uneasy.
"Oh, hi, kids," the pink doughnut officer greeted when they came over to the porch.
"Good afternoon, sir," Darwin answered politely in his usual sweet voice, "what are you doing?"
"Oh, just a search. Someone reported the Robinsons missing and we're looking for any clues as to where they could have gone. Nothing's been found yet though."
An unpleasant feeling pinpricked Gumball's nape. "Missing?"
"Yeah. Last seen yesterday at 12:34 at night by the gas station guy. The couple was on their way home from a concert, and no one has seen them ever since."
It was as though a bulb had clicked in his big head. 12:34. Bright green numbers in the dark… Gas station… The odd voice…
Gumball swallowed the thick lump in his throat, feeling a headache coming up.
Two days later, the whole neighborhood had gotten worried about Mr. and Mrs. Robinson's missing, so even in Gumball's class, all kinds of rumors, believable and not, had begun circulating among the students. Carrie believed they had been killed by a poltergeist. The Eggheads were sure it had been the Fingerprint Guy. Sarah had drawn a comic about the Robinsons being kidnapped by aliens.
While no one really liked Margaret and Gaylord didn't have any friends in the town either, people usually didn't disappear in Elmore without a trace. And this time, not even a fingerprint or anything that could suggest what had happened to the old couple had been found. As if they'd just… vanished.
And that's why Gumball insisted on following Penny to her house after their date today. It wasn't very dark yet but the first stars had already materialized high in the sky when the blue cat and the antlers girl were walking along the street, chatting lightheartedly.
"You know, when we grow up, I want to live in a large, good house. A three-story one. And there will be a garden in the backyard, and a fountain, and a playground for our kids," Gumball prattled on in a dreamy voice.
Penny gave a small, genuine chuckle. He loved hearing her laugh: it always made his heart beat faster and made him want to do everything it takes to keep hearing Penny giggle at his jokes.
"You've thought that through, haven't you?"
"Of course," Gumball answered with a wide smile. "But if you want a two-story house, I won't mind. I just thought we might need some room. You know, for our children."
"Oh, Gumball," she sent him an affectionate smile, which he returned.
By this point, they had almost come over to Penny's house. The hump of Mr. Fitzgerald's car loomed dangerously before it, but the lights in the house itself were off.
"Oh, that's weird. Mom and Dad usually don't go to bed earlier than 11 pm," Penny avowed. "Well," she turned to face Gumball, "I had a good time to—"
"No wait, I'll… I'll follow you into the house," Gumball said quickly. He didn't trust this house being suspiciously dark when it was not even 9 pm yet, and that case with the Robinsons still bothered him very much, so he was intent on ensuring Penny was safe.
"Oh. Okay."
They entered the eerily quiet house. With a sense of foreboding, Gumball followed Penny upstairs, and they peered into every room—only to find that they all were alike, dark and empty. The girl was more than surprised.
"I don't understand," she mumbled, looking around and shaking her antlers, "they didn't say they were going someplace tonight… It must be not very far though, they didn't take the car."
Gumball's mind was racing. He took a deep breath in, stepping closer to her. "I'll stay with you till they're back."
"Oh, Gumball, I don't think it's…"
"Please, Penny," he looked up into her confused eyes. "I don't like it if you're alone here. I'm… worried about you."
Confusion on her yellow face dissipated into an expression of sheer affection. "Okay," she said gently, "I just need to use the bathroom…"
"I'll follow you!" Gumball gushed before he had time to think. When Penny's brows raised, he realized what he'd just said, and his blue cheeks turned the color of Mrs. Simian's dress. "I mean, okay, I'll be waiting for you here…"
She chuckled before slipping behind the bathroom's door.
There was something intimidating about standing alone in the evenly lit corridor, but Gumball believed he had to protect her so this thought seemed to be giving him courage. Stepping from one foot to another nervously, he tried not to think about the missing people and began to observe the wallpaper instead.
"Nice wallpaper," he said out loud, just to break the uncomfortable silence. "By the way, I was thinking… You've never actually been to my place so maybe you'd like, I don't know, to come round sometime?"
It would be a tiresome rigamarole, of course, to prepare for her visit: he'd have to clean up the house twice, cook something really cool, cajole dad into behaving himself, and many other things. But it was worth it.
Penny, however, didn't answer anything.
"Um, Penny?" he turned to the bathroom door.
Nothing. A complete, heavy silence.
Chills slunk up his spine, and Gumball sprang to the door, banging on it furiously. "Hey, Penny? Are you okay there?"
It suddenly dawned on him that he hadn't heard water being flushed nor the faucet being opened, and hot sweat beaded his face. Mr. and Mrs. Robinson… He rapped on the door with vengeance until it fell forwards, and then burst into the bathroom like an unstoppable hurricane, his eyes frantically racing in search of the peanut girl.
"Pennie-e-e-e!"
But the room was empty: only a gust of wind rushed into it through the open window to billow the shower curtain. The blue feline, whose heart was beating very fast now, dashed toward it and hung over the windowsill. In the dimly illuminated yard, Penny was nowhere to be seen…
He took a step back, not believing his eyes, shaking, shuddering, longing for it to be just a nightmare. "Penny… Penny…"
No one answered.
The kidnapper didn't stop at Penny. People kept disappearing. The police tried to investigate until they just disappeared one night, too, and no one had seen them ever since, and no one wanted to continue the investigation.
The school got closed after its whole staff hadn't come to work one day. Terrified, people tried to flee the town, and their empty cars were found on the edge of Elmore later.
There seemed to be no escape.
They circled the lantern on the floor, the only source of light in the dark room.
"Don't worry, kids, it's going to be alright. Mom won't let anyone and anything hurt you… You're safe here."
Nicole's trembling yet gentle and maternal voice was soothing. Ever since they were only babies, she'd always protected them. She couldn't be lying, Gumball told himself. She'd protect them like she always did. Whatever was out there, kidnapping people, it couldn't get them here: all the windows and the front door had been thoroughly nailed down with boards from the inside; the chimney had been stifled with pounds of concrete. They'd done it together.
They would have invited other people to hide in this fortress, had they not been… the only ones who survived. The last people in Elmore the monster hadn't gotten to yet.
"We're safe. We're safe. Safe…" Richard repeated the words like a mantra, hugging his knees and rocking back and forth in this position. His eyes had a blank look in them, as though he didn't understand where he was.
Gumball also was trying to calm himself down by focusing on his breath. White-faced Darwin, still shocked by Carrie's disappearance, held his hand tightly.
"Yes, mom. We're a family… we'll go through it," Gumball said finally to Nicole that sat opposite and next to Richard. "We all… together."
Suddenly, the light of the lantern shined Darwin's pale face. "Where's Anais?" he asked.
A dead silence reigned in the room. The air grew heavier as everyone realized that the youngest Watterson wasn't here with them in the room.
"A-Anais?" Nicole called in a fearful voice into the dark. "Anais, baby, come down here to—"
"She won't come."
Gumball flinched from the sudden pungent voice, and quickly looked around but couldn't see anything behind the veil of the dark. All the color drained from his parents' faces.
"W-who's there?" Nicole squeaked.
"Someone you know very, very well," the high-pitched, almost childish voice continued, sending tingles up Gumball's spine. Poor Darwin now squeezed his hand so tight it hurt, but the blue cat finally had the guts to speak up.
"How did you get here? I thought we nailed down every hole and every crack in this house…"
"Oh, exactly, you did," the voice jested, smiling, exulting, scaring to death. "You did me a favor—you can't get out of here now while I didn't even need to get here in the first place. I've always lived here. Four years. That's enough to plan your revenge, isn't it?"
A coolness iced over Gumball's guts, and his throat suddenly felt very dry when he tried to get up but couldn't. His limbs just wouldn't budge… "What are you talking about?! What revenge? People from all Elmore are being kidnapped!" he shouted.
"Yes. I wasn't alone. Many wanted revenge, and we paid for it. We paid for it all."
The voice got closer. Meanwhile, the lantern cast dangerous shadows on his family member's faces, scared and still, as though those dolls' ones.
"You, people. Never care about anyone but yourselves. You've been using us, laughing at us, torturing us. She's been doing it to me; others have been doing it to my brothers and sisters. We were just an entertainment for you."
The voice sounded very close by now; its owner could step into the circle of light on the floor any moment… Gumball wanted to get up, run, fight, but all of his muscles felt stiff and lifeless for some reason. He wanted to scream, but with horror, realized that he couldn't even move his tongue anymore…
"Yes, we are alive only at night but it didn't stop us from our revenge. I gathered my brothers and sisters from the entire town and together, we made our voices be heard. Now you will feel what it's like to be us. With this immobilizing scentless gas, you will feel it forever what it's like to be one of us. Because now it's our time to laugh."
The owner of the voice finally stepped into the circle of light but no one did anything. There were no people in the room anymore—only four motionless, speechless dolls, and hundreds akin to them lay in the basement of the house, conscious and alive but not able to do anything in their life anymore.
And there, in the center of the room, stood and laughed a pink plush donkey, and the laughter echoed off of the house's walls.