I know it's been a long time since I posted on this story, but there were circumstances that kept me from finishing this tale. There's only a few chapters left, so here's the next one. Hope you like it.
Chapter Twelve: Making the Right Decision
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Alvin asked Brittany as they both stopped outside the tent Harry was being held.
"Yes," Brittany said, then looked over at the entrance. "I think." Her voice cracked a little as a cold chill came upon her.
"You don't have to, you know," he said, taking her paw in his.
"Yes, I do," she said. "I'll sleep better if I know he's locked up and can't get out."
"Okay," he said and put his arm around her. "But I'll be there with you every step of the way."
"Thanks, Alvin," she said and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.
They both walked into the tent where they both received a shock. Lily was lying in her cage still whimpering and the cage next to hers was empty with the door wide open. Brittany gasped in horror.
"He's gone," she said as her whole body shook. "I knew this would happen."
"Brittany, calm down," Alvin said, looking around the tent and thinking. Then he looked down at the ground and noticed a fresh pair of paw prints. "Hey, look at this." He pointed to the prints, prompting Brittany to take a closer look.
"Let's follow them," she said, taking a step forward." Alvin grabbed her paw which made her stop and look back. "Come on, Alvin."
"Wait," he said. She gave him a strange look. "This could be dangerous, and I don't want you to get hurt."
"As long as you're with me I'm not scared," she said with a small smile. "Besides, were together."
"Alright," he said hesitantly. "Just stay close to me." With that she locked arms with him as they continued to follow the tracks.
They were only a few steps out of the tent when Sadie and Vinny came upon them. "There you two are," Sadie said. "We thought you two had gone missing like Pris."
"Priscilla's missing?" Brittany asked.
"I wouldn't say missing," Vinny said. "You just don't know where she is."
"Wouldn't you call that missing?" Alvin asked. "That's so strange that she would disappear at the same time Harry did."
"Harry?" Vinny said, surprised. "But Nev locked him up."
"Not well enough," Alvin said. "The jerk got out and it seems he went that way." Alvin pointed in the direction of the footprints.
"What's going on here?" Nev asked as he approached the scene.
"Looks like we got a prison break," Sadie said with a concerned look on her face.
"Harry?" Nev shouted. "Damn." He stomped into the tent and saw Harry's opened cage. He slammed the opening shut and looked over at Lily, who was whimpering and licking her paw. He inspected the wound. "Don't worry, girl. We'll fix that up." He took out the first aid kit. He called to Sadie and Vinny for help.
"What do you want us to do?" Sadie asked.
"Just keep Lily calm until I dress the wound," Nev said as pulled out the things he needed from the first aid kit.
We'll do what we can," Vinny said and jumped up next to Lily's cage. "There, there, girl, everything is going to be alright."
Alvin and Brittany had come back while Lily was being tended to. Alvin noticed how caring Vinny was with the injured tiger. He started to think that he had misjudged her, even though he tried not to show it. Brittany looked over at him, smiled and squeezed his paw slightly.
After Nev was finished dressing Lily's wound Vinny gave her a soothing pat on the head. "See, that wasn't so bad."
"Now, what about Harry?" Nev asked. "Any idea where that louse took off to?"
"There's a trail of footprints," Alvin said.
"Then let's go," Sadie said.
"Just what I was thinking," Brittany said ready to walk out of the tent. Sadie's voice stopped her.
"No, Brittany," Sadie said. "You stay here, and we'll handle Harry."
"No way," Brittany demanded. "I'm not scared of that jerk, and I want to make sure he gets what's coming to him."
"Well, alright," Sadie said. "But you kids stay close."
"We will, Sadie," Alvin said.
They followed the tracks for several feet until they reached the outskirts of the circus grounds where the foot prints slowly faded away. Then they abruptly stopped.
"So, where do we go from here?" Vinny asked.
Sadie looked on and remembered a place where Priscilla used to go. She remembered following her there one evening, although Priscilla never knew about it. "I think I know where they are," Sadie said. "This way."
The group followed her lead, and they trailed on to a clearing. She was a little disappointed to find it deserted.
"Well, if they were here they're gone now."
"Wait a minute," Brittany said, pointing at a red shoe. She hopped over to it and picked it up. "I think this was Priscilla's." She examined it and realized there was something shoved into it. It was a crumpled up piece of paper. She unfolded it and read its contents. A look of horror came about her.
"Brittany, what is it?" Alvin asked. She stood there stunned and unresponsive. "Brittany!" he shouted and tried to take the scrap of paper way from her.
"No!" she shouted at him. "It's not important."
"Then let me see it," Alvin said and snatched it from her. She turned away in shame as he read the note.
Hey girls,
I got your mommy. You want her back, meet us at the Nelson's farmhouse.
You know where it is.
Daddy
Brittany looked up to see Alvin staring at her. There seemed to be real concern in his eyes. "You know," she said as tears filled her eyes.
"Know what?" Vinny asked.
"Harry," Brittany said, dropping her head in shame. "He's my father."
"It's nothing to be ashamed of," Vinny said with a sympathetic smile. "He's the one that should be ashamed."
Vinny's assessment didn't bring much comfort to Brittany. "I never wanted anyone to find out."
"Now we have a bigger problem," Sadie said. "Finding Harry and Priscilla."
"I know where they are," Brittany said. "I was born there."
"Then we have to hurry," Sadie said. "There's no telling what Harry will do. I say we get back to the circus and get everyone together and go after Harry."
"No!" Brittany shouted. "I don't want any part of it, and neither will Jeanette and Eleanor."
"Brittany, you just can't leave her with Harry," Sadie said, meeting her eye to eye. "She's you're mother."
"No, she's not!" Brittany fired back. "She stopped being my mother when she dumped us."
Brittany ran off back towards the circus. Sadie looked down at Alvin. "Don't worry. I'll go talk to her," he said and ran off after his girlfriend.
"Brittany, wait," Alvin called to her but she kept running. He knew there was no way she didn't hear him, so the only explanation was that she was ignoring him. He continued to pursue her knowing he could outrun her. She was just being stubborn, but he was just as stubborn as she was, maybe even more so.
He finally caught up with her near the tent the she was sharing with her sisters. He stood in front of her blocking her way. She turned to detour around him, but he matched her step for step.
"Alvin, get out of my way!" she shouted at him.
"Not until you talk to me," he said and grabbed onto her shoulders.
"I don't want to talk," she demanded, trying to break away from his embrace. "I just want you to leave me alone."
"Not when you're this upset," Alvin said as her struggling died down. "I just want to help you, the way you helped me."
She started to cry and turned away from him. He followed step and wrapped his arms around her. "But's it's not the same," she said, breaking out of his embrace. She still wouldn't look at him as she continued. "How can you even bear to look at me knowing Harry's…" She couldn't continue as the tears welled up in her eyes again.
"Brittany, it doesn't matter to me who your parents are." At that moment she turned around to look at him. He moved slowly towards her and cupped her face in his hands. "I love you," he said and leaned down to kiss her. She melted into his arms at that moment and wrapped her arms around his neck.
Finally when the two came back up for air Brittany spoke in a quiet voice. "Are you sure?"
"Of course I am," he said holding her in his arms. "I just can't stand to see you hurting like this."
She stayed in his arms for several minutes until she heard Jeanette's voice. "What's going on?" she asked from the tent entrance while rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She was wearing her dark blue nightgown with her lavender housecoat with blue and white flowers printed on it. It was the one that Brittany helped her make.
"You want to tell her?" Alvin asked, directing the question at Brittany.
"Tell me what?" Jeanette asked as she put on her glasses.
"Well, let's go inside," Brittany said, leading her sister into the tent. Alvin followed close behind. "Eleanor needs to hear this too."
"Oh, okay," Jeanette commented with a look of confusion about her face.
Eleanor was only half asleep. She must have been either woken up from the commotion outside the tent or the fact that Jeanette had woken up first. Eleanor had always been a light sleeper and always seemed to know when something was going on with one of her sisters.
"What is it?" Eleanor asked. "Did something bad happen?"
Brittany sat down on Eleanor's cot with a sad look in her eye. "Ellie, Jeannette, something's happened. It's Priscilla. She's missing."
"Missing?" Jeanette looked horrified at the revelation. "She couldn't have left us again."
"Well, she didn't really," Brittany said. "Harry escaped, and he took her somewhere."
"Then we have to find her," Jeanette announced in a panicky voice.
Eleanor clutched her blanket and cried. "We can't lose our mother again."
"Where could he have taken her?" Jeanette wondered. "They could be anywhere."
Brittany looked up at Alvin who was standing next to her. He pulled out the crumpled up paper and handed it to Brittany. "This explains it all."
Brittany handed the paper to Jeanette who looked horrified at reading the note. "Harry wrote this?" Jeannette asked. "That means he's…"
"What?" Eleanor demanded. "So Harry wrote the note. Does it give us a clue to where they are?"
Jeanette dropped the note on the bed and walked off. "Where are you going?" Brittany asked.
"To get changed," she said. "We certainly can't do looking for our parents in our night clothes."
"Our parents?" Eleanor looked confused and picked up the note. "Harry's our dad?" she questioned. "And he kidnapped our mom."
"Yeah, that's pretty much it," Brittany said.
"Then we have to find them, before he goes something to hurt her," Eleanor insisted and hopped off the bed.
"What?" Brittany shouted while getting up and following her sisters. "Why should we help her? It's not like she ever cared about us."
"But she's our mother, like it or not," Eleanor said as she disappeared behind the curtain to change.
"That's true, Brittany," Jeanette said as she emerged from behind the curtain wearing a pair of jeans and a purple long sleeve top. "It doesn't matter what she's done. She's still our mother, and we can't turn our back on her now, not when she's in danger. We would never forgive ourselves if something happened to her."
"I guess you're right," Brittany said, "but it doesn't mean I forgive her."
Suddenly Sadie and Dave were in the doorway with Theodore and Simon close behind. "You don't have to forgive her, Brittany," Sadie said.
That's good, because I don't," Brittany said, folding her arms over her chest. "But I don't want her to get hurt either, so…"
"So, are we ready to go?" Dave asked.
"Girls?" Brittany said looking back at her two sisters. Eleanor had just come out after changing into her hunter green top and white shorts and tennis shoes. Both Eleanor and Jeanette nodded and Brittany turned towards Sadie and Dave. "We're ready."
Alvin had taken her hand as they walked out to the car on the journey to save their mother.
Well, that ends this chapter. Please review and let me know what you think. Be here next time to see if the kids are able to save Priscilla from Harry's wrath.