Something didn't seem right, I knew it. I could smell trouble, but not the kind that was started by Gumball and Darwin. Maybe I'm just over thinking things at the moment. I look back at the clock. 2:45 is what it shows. Gumball, Darwin, and Anais all get out of school at 2:30, and take about ten to fifteen minutes to walk home. They should be home any minute now. In the meantime, I should start another round of laundry. I head into each room, pick up any dirty clothes (Anais has the cleanest part of the room, no surprise there) and place them in the hamper. I walk downstairs, and still on sign of either of the three. I head into the laundry room to put the laundry in and start it up. I head back, and still so sign of them. I'll vacuum the house to kill some time. 15 more minutes pass, 3:00 exactly, as I can hear the chime of the clock, and no sign.
"Where could those boys be?" I pull out my phone and call Gumball first. It's ringing, but no answer. Darwin next. Ringing, no answer. I listen throughout the house to see if they accidentally left it, but I don't hear it. They must have taken their phones. I know I can rely on Anais to pick up. It's ringing. And ringing, it continues to ring until it goes to Anais's voicemail. Now I'm really worried. What if something happened to them? There's one more thing I need to do before I take action...
"Richard, have you seen the kids come home?" I ask.
"Eh?" Richard walks into the living room where I'm standing. I always have to repeat it at least once for him.
"I said, have you seen Gumball, Darwin, or Anais come home from school?"
"No honey, I haven't." Richard shakes his head.
I have no choice. I rush over and pick up my keys.
"Nicole, where you going?" Richard asks, as he sees me running to collect my things.
"I'm going over to the school. They haven't been home for thirty minutes. I have a bad feeling." I am about to walk out the door before turning around to meet Richard's eyes on more time. "Stay here. I'm going to see what's going on."
"Okay, can you get some sausages on the way home?"
Sometimes, Richard's obliviousness gets on my nerves.
"No." I reply as I close the door. I walk down the stone steps to my car and unlock it. I buckle in, start up, and head for Elmore Junior High.
After a few minutes of driving, I've made it to the school. I'm starting to feel more and more that something isn't right. The school has gotten out, but the outside is very barren. Whenever I pick up the kids, the other children hang out by the school entrance. Not a single body is in sight from the front of the school. A candy wrapper blows in the wind, filling up the emptiness. I step out of the car, and head toward the main doors. I look inside the clear doors, and don't see anyone inside. All of the lights inside are turned off as well. When I pull on the doors, I actually expect the doors to be locked, due to the absence of activity. However, the doors slide open, and I walk inside, doors closing behind me.
"Hello? Anyone here?" I holler, echoing throughout the school. I head to the Main Office, and no officials are even at the desk. Empty chairs with papers stacked that are still in need of working on are the only vacancy of the office. Now I don't know if the school is open or not. I would think not, but the doors were unlocked.
"There has to be someone at the school at the moment who can explain what's going on." I turn around, and continue to walk down one of the hallways, hoping to find a figure.
And then, I see a hallway with children in them. Thank goodness, for a moment I thought I was the only one here. But why are they here so late?
"Hello. I'm Nicole Watterson. I am the mother of Gumball, Darwin, and Anais Watterson. Perhaps you might know them?"
The children don't respond. Maybe they didn't hear me. I project myself so that they can hear me.
"Hello? I would like to speak with you children!"
They still don't say a thing, but they start to turn around to face me. Good, they heard me...
Wait, what's wrong with their eyes? They look excessively dilated.
"A-Are you children okay?"
I hardly have any time to react when they charge at me, manically laughing. With my lightning quick reflexes, I jump over them, and smack them in the back of the heads. They collapse, unconscious. It wasn't enough to hurt them, but they'll stay down for a while. I hear more laughing, and pray that it's not more. I turn to the hallway and see about six more charging down the hallway. I have to get somewhere safe! I rush into the nearest door, and lock it.
"What in the world is going on?" I pant in fear.
I turn to see where I am. I'm in a dark room, with a single monitor sitting on a desk. I know this room from anywhere.
"Mrs. Simian."
Looks like she didn't change up the room one bit. Even her 'I heart myself' cup is still here. But where's Mrs. Simian? I walk over to the desk and see a tape recorder. Could Mrs. Simian have known what's going on? I decide to turn it on, and play the tape inside. Just as I thought. Mrs. Simian, struggling to move as she's being held down by my own to children, Gumball and Darwin, begins to explain...
"The Joy, it's starting to get to me."
Is that what she calls it? Seems like just happiness to me, but I noticed the rainbow saliva coming from their mouths. This is no simple emotion. I continue to listen.
"There's only one way to defeat it. You have to play-" She pauses to cough up rainbow spit before resuming. "-a piece of music. I don't actually... know what it's called, but it goes something like this."
Mrs. Simian proceeds to sing in a horrific manner that dare I say it, is even scarier than this infection itself.
"Sorry, I'm not much of a singer. I'm sorry, I let you down. This story came to a happy... ending!" Mrs. Simian laughs as she transforms into one of the infected, and the tape ends.
"Darn it, it's a certain piece of music? But what could it be?" I think of all the times I've been in her office when I was at this school. Had she ever played music? Hold on...
It's coming back to me now. She has an old walkman, customized to play music without headphones. That's it! That must be the cure! I check the drawers in her desk, but I don't see it. She must have moved it.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but if I were Mrs. Simian, where would I go to stop this?
Then it hits me.
"The PTA System."
I look out the small glass window in the door to see if the Joy Zombies are still there. They gave up and left.
I promise, I will end this infection and get my babies back. I pick up a flashlight due to the darkness, and slowly open the door. I sneak out, being as quiet as possible. I can't being overwhelmed by them. I might have a black belt on karate, but there's no way I'd be able to take on 10 zombies in a single fight. I peek around one of the corners, and retract when I notice a horde of them. I back up against a locker, and wait for them to pass. I'm about to go around the corner, when I feel pounding on the locker next to me. I quickly turn to it, but as I do, Joyed Anais bites on my arm. I try not to scream that would attract more, and slam Anais back into the locker. I'll return for her when this is all over.
I walk down the hallway, when I start coughing. I cover my mouth as I cough. I hope for white saliva, but when I look down at my hand, my hands shiver seeing rainbow spit. I can feel uncontrollable happiness flowing through me. I can't fail now. I try to think of something that wouldn't make me happy. I remember once hearing a sad song, that went something like this, as I sing quietly:
"Meet my obsession my opium dream
lost in indulgence I'm not what I seem
come to my arms and let me seduce you
surrender your soul, and I will reduce you
to simple sensation and fleshly delight
so flight in my side and embrace the night
we will defy the greatest commands
and heedlessly walk the forbidden lands"
I sneak past hallway after hallway, trying to control the laughter that is trying to control my body. I continue to sing, calming me down.
"Gaze into depths of emerald absinthe
and plunge through the twists of the labyrinth
gather at crossroads and jump to the wind
dance in the graveyards and revel within
our innocence lost and our faith destroyed
spiraling down into lightless void
filling on dreams and ceaselessly sleeping
here in the garden the angels are weeping"
I sneak past zombies and finally find the PDA Room. This must be were Mrs. Simian has fallen. I don't have much time. I have to hurry. I open the door, and see the tape laying on the table, aimed toward the mic. She was so close, and yet so far. I lock the door behind me to avoid any zombies coming in to stop me. I walk over to the desk, and I'm about to press play, when I feel something on my leg. I look down, and see the worst.
Darwin has caught my leg.
I try to shake him off as quickly as I can, but Gumball comes from behind and tackles me down. They try to crawl up to my body, trying to infect me, just like Mrs. Simian.
This is it. I've failed to save this school from this living nightmare. I can feel rainbow saliva, oozing out of my mouth. I can hardly breathe, and I start to fade out. I would've never expected to go out like this. Before I fade out, I look up to see Mrs. Simian, laughing at me. She then says something I don't catch at first, since it seems most of these zombies can't talk. But then she says it again.
Loser.
My eyes shoot open, and I kick Darwin off of me. I swing Gumball off, and toss him off. I charge towards Mrs. Simian, and clothesline her in the face. I rush towards the player, but Darwin grabs my legs again. I'm not going down again! I forget everything around me. The school, Darwin holding me down, even the infection taking over my body. There's only things going through my head:
"I'll show you I'm not a loser!"
and
"I'm playing that tape if it kills me!"
I use my claws to grab the ground, and drag myself across the room to the desk. After getting back up, Gumball tries to help Darwin again, but I smack him back. Once I reach the desk, I stand up, and reach for the play button. Darwin bites me in the leg, and I wince in pain, but I still continue to extend my arm, and push the button.
I hear the sad song fill up the whole school. I fall to the ground seconds later after pushing the button. My adrenaline is fading, and I am even faster. My roll to my back, looking up at the ceiling. I can feel myself losing consciousness. I turn my head to see Darwin and my little Gummypuss turning back to normal.
"Hey, how are we..." Gumball checks himself to see that he's actually not infected anymore. He looks up to see me. He gasps when we meet eye to eye.
"Mom!" Darwin shouts as they both run over to me.
"You... saved the school?" Gumball asks.
I nod. "I'm not... gonna make it. My time is up."
"No, don't say that!" Gumball exclaims, tears flowing down his face.
I lift my hand up to wipe his tears away from his face.
"I'm age 47, and growing even older by the day. I've already lived a life full of compassion and unconditional love. You boys still have your whole life ahead of you."
"Please don't go, Mom!" Darwin cries.
"I'm sorry, but my fate is calling. Please, don't cry when my time comes. Because..." I cough before I finish. "One ending, makes another beginning."
They both continue to flow tears down, splashing my face.
"Goodbye, Mom." Gumball says before I fade out.
Everything goes to darkness. No, to bright light. I open my eyes to see a palace on clouds. I look down to see a white robe covering my body. I turn around and see angel wings on my back. I check one more place, and look above me. A bright yellow halo hovers above my head. I walk up to golden gates. This place is as beautiful as I imagined. An angel appears from the clouds I stand on.
"Nicole Watterson, what great honor it is meeting you." The angel tells me in a welcoming voice.
"Really, I'm that noticeable?" I never realized it before.
"You've protected the ones you love so much, you would die to save them. I'd say that is a very great deed. That's why you're here." The Angel tells me.
"Well, I'm ready for a new beginning." I take a deep breath, refreshing my body.
"Hold on." The angel pulls out a clipboard and checks again. "Well, looks like we'll have to meet up another day, Mrs. Watterson."
"Hmm? How come?"
"You're in luck. It looks like the Defibrillator worked. Your life still isn't over." He tells me.
I smile widens across my face. "Well, it's been nice meeting you, Mr..."
"Dale. James Dale." The angel greets.
"Farewell, James." I can feel me fading out again.
Everything starts to return back to my eyesight. I'm not in the room anymore. I'm in the Hospital. I fully open my eyes to see my family around me.
"Mom!" They all exclaim when they see me wake.
Richard hugs me lovingly. "I thought you were gone forever, Nicole!"
"Well, I definitely saw a glance of Heaven. What a sight it was." I smile.
"You're the best Mom in the world!" Gumball smiles.
They all hug me, and I give out a genuine laugh.
The worst is over.