"Let's get this party started –Ade due Da—shit, I forgot." Chucky actually had a cool Jesus-like thing going there with his arms out as he began the spell, but it had to be put on hold as he began kicking around at the floorboards. They all sounded hollow so it didn't help much. Ozzy was still struggling and reeling in pain from the knife that pinned his one good arm down as Chucky's wife and daughters held him. Shauna was still out cold. With the way Glenda hit, she would make a great roller derby skater.
"C'mon Chucky! That super-killer is dead! You don't need to do this anymore! We can all go home! I mean shit, you're already home! You won!" Ozzy pleaded.
"You're damn right I won. I'm going to be a death lord of Damballa, baby. I'm giving my family everything they could need. This isn't a band-aid fix like body snatching is, this is the fucking cure-all. And, unlimited magic and immortality never hurt anyone." Chucky continued to kick at the boards until one thumped noticeably more than the others. He got down and moved aside to reveal a little treasure trove of crumpled papers and junk like empty gun clips. Chucky threw and tore them aside like a child going through a toy box. One little paper did catch his attention and he held it up. "Hey check it out, it's my old Wieners' Circle punch card. I was one hot dog away from a free one before day zero. You remember Wieners' Circle, Tiff? It's that dog stand with Black women who have BMIs of at least 30. They give you your dogs and shakes and say things like 'thick enough for you, white boy?' We ate so many big Black women dogs to get this card where it's at!" He threw it and it sailed through the air.
"I mean when I ordered a chocolate milkshake, I expected a chocolate milkshake," she said. Look up chocolate milkshake at Wieners' Circle.
"I want a chocolate milkshake!" Glenda smiled.
"I kind of want one too." Lottie admitted. Normally, Tiffany would oblige her kids, but in this context she cringed. She wouldn't tell them; preserve what little innocence they had left. Chucky laughed at this.
"We'll get actual ones later, girls," he said before pulling out some sort of wooden carved box with a latch on it. "Here we go, I fucking love these things." He opened the box to reveal two voodoo knives, all blessed and ready to go with the red and white paint that looks like a snake –the good ol' og ones. Supposedly, they don't just cut through flesh, but one's very soul. Chucky actually has yet to see any evidence of this, but he's a sucker for cool weapons. "Ozzy, I want you to meet my friends . This is 'Frick' and 'Frack.'"
"Hi Frick and Frack," said Glenda unironically, waving at them. Chucky placed the knifes on Ozzy's upturned chest, just as he had done with Andy all those years ago. Ozzy wasn't speaking anymore. He was sobbing and weeping like a baby. Chucky shook his head.
"Come on, that's just pathetic, man. None of that shit. Here," he rummaged through the Acolyte's pockets –enter a joint and a lighter because of course. Chucky shoved it between Ozzy's lips and began clicking the lighter. "Come on, just fucking chill. Relax your ass…there he is." Ozzy got quieter, it actually worked as it sparked up. "There's the fucking stupid guy I held hostage for four days and believed I was his friend." He pat his head mock affectionately.
"Dad loves him, mom loves him, this all going to work out," Glenda hugged Ozzy's leg tighter.
"Glenda, honey, that's just…not true at all." Tiffany was so patient with her.
"This obsession of yours has really worn out its welcome, Glenda," Lottie said to her.
"It's not an obsession, I see a chance at happiness in whatever masterplan dad has going and I'm taking it. I deserve him! He's mine and I want him!" She absolutely inherited her addictive personality from her mom. Chucky began the chant once again, holding both the Heart and Soul out.
Shauna picked the best time to come to as she slowly rose her head and saw Chucky standing over her subdued (and smoking) boyfriend. She attempted to pull herself up, but Glenda saw her.
"Hey! It's skater-bitch!" she smiled and motioned for Lottie to take her place holding Ozzy's right leg. Shauna had grovelled only a couple of inches toward them when Glenda cracked her on the head with the hilt of Mr. Smiley. She didn't stop there, she slammed Shauna's face down against the floor repeatedly –cackling the entire time.
"I bring the Acolyte forth, to bring you to our world! Nou akeyi ou nan mond nou an kòm ou gen dwa a tout bagay sou li!" As Chucky got more into the chant, thunder began to boom as if pounding on the roof above them. Actually began is the wrong word, it was more like supernaturally abruptly starting out of nowhere. Glenda continued to taunt Shauna as she held her face at her level.
"It's like I said, I'm Ms. Steal-Your-Boy. What are you going to do when you can't skate no more? Nothing! But not me! I can make him happy forever, j-just like he's going to do for me!" Was that a stutter?
"We're going to have the most grandiose wedding of all time in the new world which I am the princess of and my dad is the king! We'll find the biggest, nicest chalet in the-on the entire continent. I'll make sure of it. We'll place Dreadie, my future husband, on a skateboard or dolly of some kind because I don't exactly how mobile or the condition he's going to be in after being used as a gateway for a god. I sure hope he'll be alive, otherwise, I'll look like a real fucking creep. I'll also be sure to-to oil the wheels so they don't squeak during the ceremony and distract everyone. And then that's when I'll walk down the aisle with my dad and Lottie is my flower girl in the cutest little dress she's ever been in. And, I look like a Duchess because I totally am! Th-then we'll both say I do and have a massive reception and just talk about our new life. 'How many honeymoons do you want to go on?' 'Oh I don't know; how many kids are we going to have?' 'Is it too soon to be talking about that?' 'No, my parents are both fucking boomers and are long overdue to become grandparents.' Then off to the honeymoon, where we have to sleep in the car the first night because the room isn't ready. But that's ok, we adapt and we make things work –that's our strength as a couple. LOOK AT ME WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU!" Glenda backhanded the dazed and frankly tuned out Shauna. She was getting stares from her mom and sister and an occasional glance from Chucky who pressed on with the chant.
"I'm also going buy him a nice felt hoodie with a big pouch pocket and I'm going to crawl in and live there for about a week and a half. I'll bring snacks in case I get hungry, but I'll be constantly comforted and nurtured by the sounds his guts, wh-which I'm pressed up against. Then comes, pun intended, the good stuff –sit on his **** with my little ****." (I got my limits on what I can make come out of teen's mouth).
"OH, WHAT THE FUCK!?" Chucky actually stopped mid-chant, that took him off guard.
"GLENDA!" Tiffany was equally appalled.
"OH MY GOD, THAT'S SO-DID YOU JUST FORGET WE WERE HERE!?" Lottie saw her sister in a little bit of a different light now.
"Yeah, you guys are right. I shouldn't have said that. It's a given." Glenda wasn't sheepish.
"Glenda." Both her parents said.
"Yes?" Chucky pointed over her.
"Shut up. Stop talking and never do it again. Go sit in the corner until we're done." He didn't raise his voice at all. She was pretty much the one child he couldn't yell at; it was just too pointless.
Before Glenda could though, Shauna made her move with a burst of adrenaline and a battle cry. She swiped Mr. Smiley off Glenda as she swatted her aside. She drove the stolen knife into Chucky which stunned him as Ozzy was able to start shaking Tiffany and Lottie off. Shauna clambered over him and pulled the knife that pinned his one good hand down out. Tiffany made a dive for her, but Shauna was able to use her momentum to toss her to the side. Shauna then threw the knife at her and it missed her face by just a couple of inches, only pinning some of her hair. Tiffany pulled and tore herself from it with some effort.
"LET'S GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!" She pulled Ozzy to his feet as Lottie fell to the floor as her grip on him was lost. Frick and Frack came clanking down on the floor too. In that same instant, they were heading out through what could be assumed to be the living room and out the back door, which was pretty much hanging off its hinges. Chucky pulled Mr. Smiley from his body and threw it, Glenda was quick to retrieve him –it (fuck!).
"GODDAMMIT! GLENDA! LOTTIE! DON'T LET HIM GET AWAY!" His daughters were off after the two with Glenda screaming and hollering. Tiffany helped Chucky up as he continued to rub his new stab wound. It was nothing major, but it's pretty damn hard to run after you just had a hole made in you. "This is a little set back, babe. It's just us and them now."
"We shouldn't let them get too far. Where's Glen?" Tiffany glanced around the room when she was sure Chucky was alright. Glen still hadn't shown himself since he left the room like the contentious objector he was.
I'll tell you who did show themselves within that next minute –shadowmen and a lot of them. This was after Chucky and Tiffany suddenly heard the sounds of several vehicles pulling up and quickly cutting off their engines. The door was quite literally thrown off its hinges as a horde of the Order of the Serpent breached Chucky's home.
"WOAH!" Chucky held his knife tightly at his side as Tiffany closely stuck to his side, both expecting the shadow men to start tearing them apart like zombies, but they didn't. They crowded into the room, around them but never interacting with them. They all had their trademark daggers, but didn't use them. The doll couple stuck close to each other, determined to show intimidation but couldn't help but feel like a cornered animal with how boxed in they were. Chucky spoke up.
"You fuckers just missed him! The Deacon is gone! We killed him! So, by rite of ascension –I'm the new head honcho! First order of business, get the fuck out of my house! If you want to make yourselves useful, get the Acolyte!"
The shadow men weren't laughing, but someone was. Neither Chucky or Tiffany could see them at first. It sounded like he was behind the group of shadow men in front of the doorway. Said shadow men began to move away, as if making room for someone –but no one could be seen coming through. The laughter was growing closer. Now, Chucky and Tiffany were confused.
Then all questions were answered in that next instant. Deacon Ivan Burton emerged from the parting shadow men in his new Little Washington doll body as his followers all fell to their knees in submissive worship for their leader. The uniform, boots, and hat of that XL doll body could fit a toddler with how big it was. Chucky and Tiffany only measured up to his chest –I don't even want to start with how much more stuffed the Little Washington XL edition was compared to something a Good Guy doll. The bright, warm face of the mock freedom fighter was now more akin to Burton's Vincent Price-esque face as his soul began to set it the body. The death fetishization and slaughter in his eyes and twisted smile was unmistakable. Mr. and Mrs. Ray could only continue to gawk with their stares of realization and even a small sense of dread.
"…Ivan. Holy fuck," Chucky's voice shook.
"Yankee doodle went to town, riding on a pony –stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni! Yankee doodle keep it up! Yankee doodle dandy! Find the music and the steps, and with the girls be handy!" For that instant, Burton's doll face reverted back to its static, natural one before back to his as he cackled as he finished the recording, "Oh, I remember when that song first hit the colonies. The Yankees couldn't get enough of it. I won't lie, neither could I." He could see that he needed to close Chucky and Tiffany's jaws with more talking.
"I really thought that you were the biggest fool in the world, little one," Burton paced about them, arms behind his back, "When the reports of a killer doll first started coming in, I knew it was you and I thought that I had taught you so much better. But, now that I wear skin not too different from yours –impervious to more damage than I was before, I'm now thinking 'how can something so infinitely idiotic, be so genius?' I should do this to all my shadow men. The Order would be virtually unstoppable. " he laughed as Chucky and Tiffany continued to remain silent, not taking their eyes off him. "Don't look so surprised, little one. The first mistake you made was taking my life. The second mistake you made was not making sure it stayed taken."
"Chucky…the kids," Tiffany whispered to him, now realizing the implications if this is where they should fall. Chucky reached down and gripped her hand in response.
"You lost him…" Burton frowned as he stared the two down, "Didn't even wait, just dove right into the ritual. Even with no one to stop or oppose you, you still fumble. But you can't help that, you have a habit of fumbling. Where is the Acolyte?"
"Right up your ass," spat Chucky. He really wished he didn't have both amulets on him now. Burton chuckled at him.
"One of two things can happen right now; you get to choose. I can have my shadow men stomp you and your wench into bloody puddles and I can rip the Heart and Soul from the mess of guts and bone that was once your piddly little flesh body. Or, we can do this more intimately –both of you come at me with everything you have and show me everything you have learned from your time with me and on your own. If you kill me, my Order is yours by rite of ascension. Of course, taking me on means your bodies will become my playground if you fail…which you more than likely will." Chucky knew what this was. Burton was giving them options to die. There literally no way out, the shadow men had them fully boxed in. If they attempted to run, then they would be stomped and swarmed.
For one of the few times in his life, Chucky didn't shit talk. His head lowered slightly as he brought Tiffany's hand which he held up between them. There was so much uncertainty in his wife's eyes, her lip even quivered. This was the facial equivalent to "what the hell do we do?" Chucky then placed one of his knifes, Frack to be exact, in Tiffany's open palm. He then closed her hand around it tightly and squeezed for a couple of seconds –his eyes never leaving hers.
"Tiff…I-"
"Chucky, we have to kill him here and now. If we don't, our children…". She thought they actually were going to beat him. This made Chucky grip her hand even tighter. If Burton's doll body had nipples, he would absolutely be rubbing them.
"All or nothing here," Chucky said and let her hand go. Burton laughed as they began circling him like lions. The fact that he chose not to arm himself at all was scary enough. Chucky and Tiffany took their last hesitan breaths before charging the super-killer.
Stabbing sounds have never sounded so rhythmic. They fucking stuck him everywhere, chest, belly, neck, shoulders, even Chucky struck his groin a couple of times. The Deacon shook slightly with the blows, but didn't stir other than that. His smile was growing wider and wider as Chucky and Tiffany groaned with each new blow as they began to lose steam. Finally, they both tired out as Chucky sank Frick into the Deacon's gut and Tiffany stuck frack into his neck (or lack thereof since dolls don't really have any necks). No blood was drawn at all. Burton was fresh in the body and wasn't fully human, like he said, virtually indestructible to Chucky and Tiffany. He couldn't be hurt, but he could hurt them. And, that's just what he did.
"I'm unstoppable, you fucking idiots." He chuckled and grabbed both their heads and slammed them the fuck together. Any lessor person's head would've exploded from it, but Mr. and Mrs. Ray weren't those. It still hurt like hell as the crack echoed and they fell back from the trauma. This earned some cheers from some of the surrounding shadow men. The stitches above Chucky's brow were torn from the impact and Tiffany was bleeding around the same area too. Already blood has been spilled. Burton went for Chucky while he was down, grabbing him by his hair then hurdling him across the room and sending him crashing through an old and moldy chifforobe and against the wall. Burton was on him in that same instant, hand locked around his tiny neck and other curled into a fist driven into his cheek repeatedly. Each one drove Chucky deeper into the drywall and plaster.
"No, you fucking don't!" Tiffany grabbed his wrist before he could bring his fist down for another punch. Burton was counting on her grip to be strong as he flung her around at such a force she had no choice but to let go and be thrown against the wall like Chucky had. Burton didn't stop there. He grabbed Chucky by his legs and swung him around, right into Tiffany.
"A spry, young 20th-century couple against one, ancient 14th-century man," he mused, "This is tragic."
"Come back to me, Dreadie! We were just getting started!" Glenda cried out as she and Lottie continued their pursuit of Ozzy and Shauna through decrepit and mostly uninhabited subdivision. The chase tore through yards and over fences, they seldom passed through houses –the lot of them were locked or offered no real hiding. While the two humans clambered clumsily over fences and through gates, the dolls seems to glide and maneuver themselves right over. Shauna was pulling Ozzy by the arm; she was built more for speed than he was.
"Fuck off, you freaks!" Shauna called right back as they ran. Ozzy couldn't afford to shout, every bit of breath counted for him with his stoner lungs. He was also too busy seething and holding his bloody hand with a puncture in the palm.
The couple soon came to an alley after passing a particular line of homes. The alley led right out to one of the main side streets and back into the closest mainstream neighborhood of Chicago. The only thing separating them from it was a chain link fence and Glen. Yeah, Glen was there –standing with his arms behind him in front of the fence. Guess he was following them the whole time, never letting them out of his sight yet staying out of theirs like a ninja. Chucky's son still had the same hopeless attitude about him when he had seemingly abandoned them, but he did give the couple a small smile as he saw them run up to him. Shauna did ease up when she saw him, he was really the only one of the Rays that gave her good vibes.
"Glen," was all Ozzy had to say to him. There actually was a small part of him that believed Glen himself would attack them, but this was far from so. Glen simply stepped aside.
"Run," he said and gestured over the fence. Almost at once, Ozzy and Shauna began climbing over.
"Thank you," Ozzy said to him as Shauna helped him over.
"You're not out of this yet. Now, go!" They did just that. Glen faced away from them and the only evidence of their fleeing was their fading running footsteps down the alley. Glenda and Lottie then arrived at the scene as expected, stopping in their tracks when they saw their older brother standing there with his arms folded, stern pout on his face. Glenda laughed.
"You better not have done what I think you just did, dumbass," she scowled at him. Glen was silent. Lottie was anything but a verbal goader. She went on ahead of her sister and mounted the fence to climb over it. Glen made no attempt to stop her.
"Glen." Lottie tried speaking to him.
"I don't believe you'll do them any harm and I know that Ozzy won't hurt you either. I also think you'll do the right thing. You always knew how to be a good friend, Lottie." He said. Lottie cleared the fence and landed on the other side.
"Keyword 'knew,'" she said, glancing back at Glenda who had now begun approaching the fence after her. "Can you please not get carried away? Just talk to her."
"That depends." Glen said, and Lottie started away –running in the last direction that Ozzy and Shauna were heading. Glenda wasn't even thinking of Glen as she prepared to climb the fence. Before she could, her twin stood in front of her defiantly.
"You are not going anywhere, sis." His arms were still crossed as he looked at her like a bouncer at a club. Glenda gave another laugh, this one more of a mix of a howl and a Santa laugh.
"Oh hoho, fuck you! Fuck you, you cockhead!" She knew what this was.
"Wow, right to the name calling. If it's any consolation, I'll laugh at the next joke you tell. You have any more self-deprecating bits about how you want to marry Ozzy's corpse after dad's done with him? That actually made me laugh back there."
"Self-deprecating-no! You—fuck you, I got a joke for you! Who hates their family and wants them to fucking fail and live like freaks and monsters for the rest of what can be called their lives? YOU! Haha! It's funny because it's true!" Glenda got up in his face here. Glen remained static.
"You know that's not true; I want us all to live our best lives and be happy. We have the ability as a family, we just need to apply ourselves."
"We're about to and get everything we want! Once dad uses Dreadie to bring Damballa here the world is ours! We can have anything and do anything! Don't tell me you don't want that! Our old bodies, our home, Glen, no dip, you can be with Julie again! Lottie can be with her little friend too! Everything we lost we can get back!" Glen shook his head.
"Julie may not even be there! You don't know if Damballa is going to come out of the sky and turn us all into ash and feast on our souls for eternity! What if there is no reward? Dad probably didn't read the fine print in his voodoo book. Glenda, the leader of that cult is dead. We're free from what we were running from. All we can do now is make up for lost time in this new life we have. I know we lost a lot; I still think of Julie visiting my grave. But Glen Tilly is dead, and so is his sisters Glenda, Lottie, and his mom, Jennifer." Glenda paused, then looked at him pitifully.
"Nah, Julie's probably not going to your grave anymore. She probably found some new dick already. She's probably getting fucked now." Glen's face dropped.
"…Fucking watch it."
"It must be so easy for you to move on like that, considering how little you had. I mean, who was Glen Tilly? Weeaboo extraordinaire who had so much trouble making friends and connecting with people that he had to join a special after-school losers' club? I've seen the books and movies you guys look at –disgusting! Maybe Julie was pity pussy you were just lucky enough to get, or she just dug the accent, which by the way isn't real because you're not fucking British, just like you're not fucking Japanese! Now, you want us to all live as freaks because that's the only way you can thrive as one yourself!" she was spitting at him now. Glen waited until she was done. You couldn't see it but he had rage building behind his stone stare at his twin. She was just so wrong on every level, time to let her know, and make it hurt.
"You never changed at all, Glenda."
"What the fuck do you mean? I know who I am, I found my identity…broke free from your sorry ass. And, I was fucking beautiful –I still am! I always will be! Everyone I met loved me and thought so! While you were blowing each other watching octopus porn, I'm out there with the real crowd!"
"Glenda, I went to the same school and talked to the same people you did –they loathed you. You scared and put people off. No one wanted anything to do with you. And, you think anyone is visiting your grave?" Glen never used this as a go-to insult when he got into it with Glenda. This was the first time she was hearing it. Her first reaction was a smirk of denial.
"You're fucking lying. We're in a spat. You're just saying shit to hurt my feelings. The boys loved me; the girls were jealous of me. Arin—"
"Got a fucking restraining order and transferred schools because of all the creepy shit you stuck into his locker and messages you leave him. His cousin was a member of the club and told me. I've gotten invites to parties from girls like Natalie, Sydney, and Emma –they specifically asked me to leave you at home. And you just thought I was going to a Boku No Hero watch party with my 'loser' club. Don't feel bad, they actually got invited too."
"Stop fucking lying, you dick…" Glenda was starting to shake.
"I remember that one time you actually attended the club after school one day. You said mom was busy and couldn't pick us up but I knew you just wanted some human interaction. After it was over, Bryan told me they didn't want you coming back. Imagine that, a club of 'losers' telling you that they don't want to be around you. What does that say about you, Glenda?"
"I'm going to fucking kill you if you don't stop."
"Of course you will. That's all you know, you're just like dad. It's not that you're a bad human being, you're just bad at being a human being. That's because you haven't changed at all, Glenda. You're the same scared and alone little girl that I shared a body with in that cage from infancy to toddlerhood. Now, lying to yourself about what you are."
"Who are you calling Shitface, Shitface?" Glenda spat, "Yeah I know where I came from, but I rose above it! I'm better now! You're the one who's still Shitface!"
"I know, and I always will be. It's called owning it. Whatever that Deacon man saw in us back there was all for true. We do have a origin that is voodoo in nature. Glenda—we're not real people like everyone else."
"I'M MUCH MORE REAL THAN YOU'LL EVER BE YOU FUCKING CUNT!"
Glenda's eyes widened in horror and her hands came slamming down on her mouth. It wasn't what she said, it was how. Her accent came out –the British one she had been trying to hide for so many years since becoming independent. The damn thing was even stronger than Glen's. Everything came out, from 'fookin' to 'cahnt.' There was no denying it, this was her real voice. Glenda shook more than ever now as she fell to her knees. Her fingernails were digging into the side of her mouth and causing it to bleed she was pressing so hard. Tears had welled up in her eyes and begun flowing. Everybody, meet the real Glenda Ray.
Her face had gone red and wet when she moved her hands to speak again. "YOU FUCKER! WHY DID YOU MAKE ME DO THAT!? THAT'S NOT HOW I SOUND!" she cried, voice cracking but back to covering the accent up.
"Well," Glen broke his stone stare to smile, "Glenda, I think that's the first type of progress you've made towards self-acceptance in the last 10 years." He really embodied his father here. There was actually a small part of him taking happiness in deconstructing his twin like this.
Glenda had begun starting at the ground, still shaking with her hands out in front of her. She grinded her teeth as a million thoughts a second seemed to pound her mind into a psychosis of sorts. She dragged her hands toward her on the ground, tearing up her pink nails she was always so careful to keep clean and safe when she wasn't scratching the shit out of someone. She looked up at her twin, teeth barred in a twisted grin and eyes still red from crying. Her head was stabilized in the most creepy way as she never broke the stare and got up. Glen became unnerved here, but headstrong –he was sort of expecting something like this saying things he said.
"Oh, so it's progress you want, huh? You just want me to accept my past? Fine, I'll play that game, bitch. I'm going to take my past and put it to rest—literally." Glen tilted his head.
"How are you going to do that?"
"I'm going to fucking put my fingers into your eyes as far as they will go and then burn that body."
Before Glen could question it, Glenda was upon him. She pushed him up against the chain link fence and laid into him with right and left hooks to the face. Glenda wasn't the most coordinated of the Rays but she could still through a mean hit. You read her knocking Shauna out. Glen was taken aback by this at first, then went into peacekeeping samurai mode, catching Glenda's oncoming fists in his opposite ones –creating a kind of cool x formation with his arms as he blocked her. He then drove his foot into her gut, sending her on her back. Glenda backwards somersaulted in response to this and gracefully was back up. She then took out Mr. Smiley, Glen unsheathed his tanto in response. It was going to get dangerous now.
"Glenda, you're not thinking clearly."
"You're not going to be thinking at all in a moment."
"And just what are you going to tell mom and dad? What about when Lottie asks?"
"I-I'll say the shadow men got you. W-we were ambushed and you choked like you always do!"
"You've really lost it! There's no shadow men here!"
There absolutely were shadow men here. They were getting their own show as their lord and master was working Chucky and Tiffany the fuck over. I'm really sorry, there's no nice way to say it. They're getting their shit rocked –thrown, strangled, and dragged all across the room before the delighted, cheering shadow men. There had been an occasion when Chucky and Tiffany made the reckless decision to charge him simultaneously again with Frick and Frack, only to have Burton grab their arms and effortlessly redirect the knifes into each other's chest. Their blood was starting to puddle around the floor like a Mortal Kombat match. Burton threw him both aside and was upon Tiffany.
She actually managed to scratch him across his plastic face and leave a mark that would be permanent. However, it did anything but slow him down. She tried once more, but the Deacon grabbed both of her wrist in such a way he was able to press back on them with his thumbs, bending them back to the point of breaking both her hands. Tiffany began to scream as she felt some of her tendons snap. Now, it was Chucky's turn to save her.
There was no coordination with his movements, he just threw himself on Burton's back and latched on. The Little Washington XL body was so big that Chucky could also wrap his legs around him. Burton did let Tiffany go, but now his attention was back on Chucky. Rather than throw him off, he fell onto his back –hard and making sure to put all his weight into it. It broke the floor, shattering the wood and leaving a sort of crater in it. Chucky had to let go, the weight and force was just too much and Burton was extra sure to stick an elbow in there. For good measure or fun, Burton have him another elbow drop square in his face.
Tiffany screamed as she tackled and actually brought Burton down on his back for real, brick from the decaying wall in hand. The bride of Chucky continued to scream and roar as she pounded it against his head. Each blow actually dented the Deacon's doll face –a little too well actually. His forehead and one of his cheeks were actually flattened by some of the blows. The issue was this is what the doll was made for. Burton suddenly caught her hand before she could smash the brick against his brow once more, the areas of his face that had been caved in seemed to pop and inflate back to normal. There was no blood at all, he didn't have any yet. Tiffany's face dropped. Nothing they did was working.
"No more of that," Burton said and drove Tiffany's own hand with the brick in it directly into the side of her head. The brick shattered from the impact and Tiffany went flying and crashing against the wall made out of the same material. She landed on her stomach in a state of semi-consciousness. Burton was back on Chucky and placed a foot on his chest.
"Your wench needs to learn some manners, Chucky," he said, taking one of his former apprentice's arms. Then, he started pulling. That got Chucky back up with his ear-splitting scream. It was like a scene from Hatchet, Burton fucking pulled his arm off. It had all the tearing, bleeding, and gore as a human one just scaled down. He gave it a couple of practice swings right on Chucky's which further incapacitates him –every stitch on his face was now ruptured, but losing a limb or two never really stopped him. He lunged up at his former master going right for his neck, but Burton maneuvered himself behind him and slammed his foot down on one of his calves. Chucky roared as his leg broke under the pressure but remained there. Burton then started pulling him upwards. There was that tearing sound again as Chucky was ripped from right knee down. Burton fully lifted him up before slamming him down on the floor again. The shadow men cheered, clapping it up like it was a sports game. "Always the most stubborn, little one –never knowing when you're beat."
Burton slammed his foot on Chucky's bruised, gashed, and swollen face and that put him down –at least physically. Chucky had gone completely numb from the damage, a sensation he knew all too well. He could faintly see Burton stepping over with the arm he had torn off. Chucky was completely helpless as he made his way over to Tiffany who had just managed to pull herself up to her hands and knees.
He grabbed her by the hair and held her head up toward him, he wanted to make sure she was looking at him. Tiffany only got a blurred look at him before he used her husband's dismembered arm to strike her across the face. The dead hand was open and it lined up in a backhand hit in just the right way. Tiffany was face down on the ground after that, her thoughts now turned to her children and what may happen to them. She's faced death before, but this. This was losing everything. Burton didn't relent there, he started beating her on the back of the head with the dead arm –each blow winding up more and getting harder and faster. He wasn't even breathing or exerting himself when he struck her, he was just going at it robotically. Tiffany's head bled as she tried to raise her hand and at least try to bat it away, anything to get him to stop. It was no good.
Chucky rolled over weakly, he could see it all happening. Tiffany had stopped fighting back and was motionless on the floor as Burton continued to beat her. He was now laughing while exerting himself. He decided that he had enough and threw the arm aside, some of the shadow men kicked it like a soccer ball. One actually picked it up and used it as a back scratcher.
What you're about to read now is very evil. Burton wrapped a hand around Tiffany's neck and held her up against the wall. He shook her a bit as she came too weakly blinking and wheezing. Burton greeted her with licking lips.
"Chucky belongs to me, wench. He always has." He glanced at her breast tattoo again, this time in total disapproval, "If you belong to him, then you really belong to me." Burton dragged his tongue up her cheek as Tiffany sharply screamed in repulsion. Burton squeezed her throat tighter and the scream no longer came through. Chucky gurgled on his own blood and growled as he tried to crawl over to them. Tiffany had dropped Frack at her side when Burton had thrown her initially. The Deacon claimed it –he was eyeing the tattoo again.
"You're mine now," was all he said before he drove the tip of the knife into Tiffany's chest right about the tattoo. She choked and wrenched but could not scream as he began moving the knife around the ink art. The streams of blood rolled down her chest and began to stain her white dress a deep shade of red. She kicked at his gut with her heels, endlessly trying to get free but the Deacon wasn't stirring, he just kept cutting. Tiffany felt herself losing strength, breath, and just about everything that keeps you conscious. Before blacking out, he could feel and see Burton tearing the flesh from her and holding it before her. Yup, there it was. Her tattoo. God, that's fucked. Oh wait, no it gets better. The fucking ultra psycho popped it into his mouth like a piece of lunch meat. He even chewed it, and loudly. And yes, he ate it. She went limp in his grasp after he swallowed and licked the blood from his plastic lips.
Burton then returned to where Chucky lay, the newest Lakeshore Strangler feeling sick himself looked pitifully up at him. Nothing else needed to be said. It was never a fight; it was a glorified murder. Burton took his trophies from under Chucky's overalls –the Heart and Soul of Damballa. He was far from done with Chucky and Tiffany though. Burton wrapped the chain of the Heart around Chucky's neck and pulled upwards on it, suspending him in the air like a gallows. Chucky naturally tore at the chain around his neck as his two good limbs flung about in resistance. Burton carried him back over to Tiffany and did the same with her unconscious form and the Soul of Damballa. He held her up too.
The shadow men were roaring now. Choruses of "Praise be to the immortal Deacon!" were now being sung around the room as Burton held both those who thought to oppose him up in a display of power, allowing all his minions to observe their broken and bleeding bodies. Burton turned towards the back door.
"Find the Acolyte! Do not let him escape! We shan't be far behind now! Let no one stop us!" he ordered. A fair number of the shadow men let out empowered and obedient battle cries and charged out of the house. Burton laughed as playfully swung Chucky and Tiffany's limp bodies around. "No one can stop us now!"
"GET HIM MR. SMILEY! GET HIM!" Glenda had forced Glen down against a dumpster in the alley. Glen may have been on his back, but his guard was up more than ever. Every two-hand, downward slash by his twin was met by his tanto with a metal clink and clank as he held it out in front of him. Sparks flew as Glenda scraped Mr. Smiley off his tanto each time she drew up for another slash.
Glen had enough of that and tried to sweep her leg. He didn't trip her altogether but she did stagger back which gave him a window to get back up. Within that next instant he sprung up and got Glenda in a full nelson in such a way that if she were to bash his face with the back of her head, it would be met with the blade of his tanto. Glenda thrashed as Glen struggled to hold her still.
"STOP IT NOW, GLENDA!" he shouted at her. He thought he had her beat, there was no possible way for her to cleanly get out of his nelson. But she could do it in a dirty way. Glenda was able to her hand to her side and under Glen's shirt. When she felt the mattress gauze safeguarding his dog bite, that's when she knew she hit her mark.
Glenda then ripped the improv gauze aside and sank a finger into the wound, making it much deeper than it already was and destroying any healing progress. Now it was Glen's turn to scream and have tears well up in his eyes. That was music to her ears. She twisted her finger every which way in the wound. "YEAH!? HOW'S THAT FEEL, FUCKER!?" she taunted him.
"YOU PSYCHO BITCH!" Glen roared right back and threw her to the side back over by the dumpster which she hit her head on. She was back up like a crouching tiger, Mr. Smiley barred.
"I should've killed you when we were with Psyches. I should've snuffed you out in the dreams we shared. Maybe you would've never woken up and I would be the only one." She wasn't mincing her words. Neither was Glen.
"It was my life all along, Glenda. You're just a bad dream that came to life one night…you should've never happened."
Tears bursting from her eyes, Glenda let out one of her rare inhuman screams like she had in the car when glass got in her hair. She charged Glen once again with Mr. Smiley, but Glen was centered. He didn't charge back, he gripped his tanto, calmed his chakra, and let momentum do all the work. Glenda was going for the kill shot –right for his neck with Mr. Smiley. The opportunity came and Glen gave a mighty slash of his own in a defensive formation guarding his neck. It didn't hit Glenda, but Mr. Smiley –right between the blade and the hilt.
There was a short metal screech and in that same instant, Mr. Smiley fell in two in Glenda's grip. The sharpie-decorated blade fell to the ground beside her when she came to standstill after her strike while the hilt remained tightly in her grip. Glen gave a triumphant smirk as Glenda's face broke again as she held the hilt up.
"NO!" she cried and got down on her knees next to the blade. The sharpie eyes and the happy face without a body was truly a sad sight. Glenda started sobbing as she tried putting them back together frantically but of course to no avail. Glen's look of victory turned into one of uneasiness when Glenda's hand began to close around the blade. She didn't seem to care as blood was wrung out of her hand like a fruit. She discarded the hilt and began approaching Glen with her bleeding hand with a blade in it.
"You…killed Mr. Smiley," Glenda said in a voice that could cut bone. Her grip around the bare blade tightened and more blood was squeezed out. Glen was in disbelief now. He had never seen Glenda like this.
"You're not human," he said.
"Neither are you," she said and lunged at him. Glen caught her hand with the blade in it in one hand and she held the wrist of his other hand which gripped his tanto. It looks like that scene in Revenge of the Sith when Obi-Wan and Anakin clash with the lava splooshing in the background. It looks fucking badass. Just like the two Jedi, the twins were pushing against each other, trying to gain the upper hand. They growled in each other's faces; piranha teeth barred like the creatures they truly were. Glenda then had an awful idea.
She gave a roar than bit down on Glen's forearm. Glen screamed out as he shook violently trying to throw her off, but Glenda refused to let his hands go. He had to do something. Glenda wasn't fucking around with that bite. He could feel her teeth tearing through his small muscles like they were a steak. That's exactly what she was trying to do, she was trying to pull the flesh from his arm. Her teeth made it brutally efficient. There was temporary relief when she slightly loosened her bite only to chomp down again. The crazy bitch was trying to chew now.
"GLENDA, I'M WARNING YOU!" Glen gave one last disclaimer to his attacking sister. She growled in response as his arm began to bleed profusely. "ALRIGHT! FINE, YOU FUCKING MONSTER!"
Glen overpowered her and was able to get her grip off his hand that grasped his tanto. There was no graceful slash, it was a brutal stab. Glen screamed as he drove his tanto into one of Glenda's thighs above her knee, it pierced just above the cap and came out the other end with a nasty 'splorch!'. Glenda roared out and released Glen from her bite, the entire left side of her face was coated with his arm blood. She feel on her impaled leg in wounded pain, dragging and forcing Glen down to her level as she still held him and he did she.
The hitting and fighting had stopped as the twins weakly stared at each other, covered in their own and other's blood. The only sound was their mutual heavy breathing. They weren't dead stares either. They were angry furrowed brows and barred teeth as they seethed at each other. There was nothing more to be said.
Then Glenda started screaming, it wasn't one of pain or attack, but just one due to a loss for words. Her mouth was wide and her eyes were squeezed tight as she screamed directly in Glen's face. Frustration, sorrow, anger, hate, and even confusion were all expressed without any words. Glen was speechless at first. If Glenda was going to bite his face off she would've done so, but this was the new normal. This is how they were going to communicate from here on out. With no words of his own, Glen opened his mouth and screamed right back. The alley echoed with their literal screaming match and new tears began to well in both their eyes.
What happened next all happened so fast. But what is known is that Glenda stopped screaming first. The boot of a shadow man collided into her side and sent her flying from Glen's hold and into the wall of a house bordering the alley. Glen didn't have any time to react when another shadow man grabbed him by the hair and hurdled him back against the dumpster. His tanto was lost in his fall.
"It's the cursed one's children!" one of them said.
"Pulverize them! Then string them up like their parents!" Another shouted.
Glen nor Glenda didn't have time to question that last statement. Groups of shadow men were upon them, beating them both by literally kicking them while they were down. Glen's felt his back, legs, and pelvis seem to cave in as he covered his head as the shadow men stomped him. He was on his stomach and could see them doing the same exact thing to Glenda across the alley. Some of them were pulling out chunks of her hair as she sharply screamed when they were ripped away.
Glen began crawling, slowly but surely to his sister, weakly calling her name. He saw his tanto just a couple of feet away where he had dropped it. He reached for it as he got closer, his body took more and more punishment as the shadow men kicked and stomped at him. There were four around him and five around Glenda, all surrounding them like vultures. If Glen had his tanto, maybe he could cut a few of them down. However, that wouldn't be happening.
A shadow man brought his foot down right on Glen's outreached hand to his blade. Every finger shattered and the hand was unusable. Glen cried out as the final rings of pain and hopelessness sank in. The hits were too much to bear now. Glen spat out a wad of clotted blood as he gazed at his sister succumbing to the same fate. He whimpered her name one more time and reached out to her before being hit to the head by a shadow man.
"This way, Ozzy!" Shauna was now pulling her boyfriend by his bleeding hand. Her iron-like grip was actually working as a pretty good tourniquet. Ozzy was able to keep up with her but occasionally stumbled as she pulled him along. He couldn't move his other arm with it being broken and all. He was not catching a break.
"Shauna…" he breathed, "I can't keep fucking going! Look at me!" He held up his bleeding hand in her grasp and slightly shook his other arm in the makeshift sling. Shauna cautiously looked back, something you should never do when being chased, and saw no sign of Lottie or Glenda. They were just kids after all, maybe they lost them.
At that moment they were passing a new seemingly single-floor home that had just been built. The house was new in every regard with the family moving in set to do so the following week. It was a simple home, nothing too expensive for the family to build –they just needed a place to recuperate. Shauna led them up the doorstep and broke the lock forcing it open.
The house was bare and still used to store some of the construction tools. Boxes of spare parts and interior decorating littered the floor all around. The room could either be the living or dining room, it was hard to tell without the furnishings. Ozzy and Shauna weren't too focused on that. She sat him down on one of the boxes and ripped a portion from one of his sleeves and tightened it around the palm of his punctured hand. She glanced at her hooding being used as an improv sling on his other arm.
"At this right, we're going to run out of clothes," she said, trying to lighten the fact they were being hunted now with no protection.
"What do we do, where do we go!? Fuck! My weed bag is back in the car!" Ozzy kicked at the box he sat on in frustration.
"You can always get it back if you come with me." That monotone as-a-matter-of-factly voice caused Ozzy and Shauna to jump and scream. Lottie was standing in the doorway of the house, tapping the tip of the knife she held on the ground like a cane, she was that short that she could.
"Lottie-" Ozzy tried begging for the umpteenth time.
"My family and I have been through a lot this past year. Please don't make this any harder, I don't want to hurt you more than I have to."
"Come with us." Ozzy blurted out. This took Shauna a bit off guard as well as Lottie. Chucky's youngest child titled her head.
"What?"
"Just—come with us. You're just a kid, Lottie. You have your whole life ahead of you. You don't have to do this because of one bad year. You're not a monster." Lottie briefly laughed; she wasn't a long drawn out laugher like her dad was.
"Asking a little kid to run away with you? I'd ask you to take a seat, but you're already seated." She started towards them, fully entering the house, "So, many labels –kid, monster –truth is I don't know what I am anymore. But I do know that as long as I'm with my family, everything will be alright. They're all I'll ever have now."
"It sounds like you never had a choice in the matter," Shauna spoke up, "I always did feel sorry for you, Lottie. It seemed that your life was over before it really began." Lottie stopped in her tracks, rather than argue back like her brother or sister would she paused in thought.
A memory of her friend Timothy played in her head upon hearing the words 'life' and 'over.' Beneath her cold exterior is actually a hopeless romantic like all little girls. Thought that part of Lottie died when she had to say good bye to her human life. Usually her heart would flutter in comfort when she remembers that magical feeling of Timothy taking her by the hand and pulling her to the Haunted Mansion during their school field trip to Disneyland –the first time he had actually done so. Now, Lottie seemed more disheartened by the once magical memory. Only Ozzy and Shauna could see this, her bioluminescent doll heart glowed briefly then died out.
"Just follow me back…it's over." Was all she said now, her grip on her knife tightened.
"We're not doing that, Lottie –not ending the world tonight." Ozzy shook his head, getting up and standing behind Shauna. I think I established she's the alpha in the relationship by now.
"Then I guess I'll have to end yours." Lottie turned her attention to Shauna and threw her knife at her. Shauna's reaction time to her doing this was enough to prevent serious injury, but it clipped her shoulder before falling to the floor. Shauna cried out and instinctively held her shoulder as Ozzy did the same.
"I don't give a shit if you're fucking four years old, I'm killing you!" she cracked her knuckles, they went red with blood from her shoulder. Lottie had gotten on the box that Ozzy had once sat on. She welcomed Shauna's charge by leaping into her arms and going for her neck. Shauna could now see why people had trouble with Chucky. All the weight and momentum of a human-sized person was handily condensed into a smaller form. This took her by surprise as she stumbled around the room trying to fight Lottie off.
Ozzy grabbed the knife Lottie had thrown from the floor and held it out in front of him. Unlike Shauna, he had some moral reservations about killing a kid. He approached them cautiously as they knocked some of the lighter and smaller boxes of building materials over.
"Lottie, get off her." He jabbed the knife forward to get his point across. Amidst her trying to strangle Shauna, Lottie actually seemed to pause from it entirely to eye Ozzy pitifully and glance at the knife.
"Oh, thank you Osborne," she winked and snatched the knife from him. Now she was trying to drive it into Shauna's chest.
"Nice one, dumbass!" she screamed at her boyfriend as she held Lottie's stabbing hand away from her. Lottie couldn't help but laugh a little with a short cackle with the same cadence as her father's.
With some effort, Shauna was able to slip her hands under Lottie's arms and get more of a dominating hold on her. She then charged and pinned her to a wall. Using all her strength, she then slammed Lottie against it, sending her through it and into the house's framework. Shauna had a laugh of her own as she shook it off and checked for any knife knicks. When she cautiously looked through the hole in the wall where she had sent Lottie, she wasn't there.
"She's lucky I didn't rip her in two." Shauna smirked.
"Come on, let's get out of here before she comes back, or her parents show up." Ozzy said worryingly.
Those worries came true in the form of something much worse. The shadow men finally showed up. A pack of them, about five, stormed in through the doorway. Naturally, they all had their daggers at the ready.
"GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!" Ozzy screamed at the shrouded figures. There was only one way to go, down the single hallway to the left of the room from where they stood. "SHAUNA!" that wasn't an order to follow, that was a cry for help to get him to hurry along. She leaped into action and began pulling her boyfriend down the hall through his injuries.
"The Deacon can't be killed, Acolyte!" a shadow man called out to them, "He requests your presence!"
"You're fucking kidding me!" Ozzy cried in defeat. His injuries, what they had been through in Oz Park was all for nothing it seemed. In his hopelessness, he stumbled and nearly tripped as Shauna forced him up.
"Not now, Ozzy!" she goaded. Shauna then caught sight of an staircase going downwards through the one of two doors on either side of the hall –the other led to a bathroom it seemed. The house had a basement! They could hole up in there! Shauna dashed through it with Ozzy and slammed the door behind her. Her hope that it would have a working lock installed was rewarded.
"Down here!" she sent Ozzy hurriedly down the stairs as she locked and secured the door as much as she could. The shadow men pounded and stabbed through parts of the door with their daggers, but it was to no avail for the time being. Shauna scampered down the stairs and joined Ozzy in the deceptively wide basement. The furnace, generator, and gas line was all set up down here with all the handy men's tools and materials still present. If you think contractors have a habit of leaving things behind while not working in Illinois, you should see the road workers.
"We didn't kill that Deacon guy!" Ozzy pulled on his dreads, "The Rays are out to kill us. Shauna! We're fucking back at square one! Not to mention we're hundreds of miles from home! Jesus Christ! Fuuuuck!"
"We…we just need to get help," Shauna put her bloody hands on his face, "but first, we need to get out of here…somehow." She glanced around saw that among the construction tools used to work on the foundation of this home, was a sledgehammer. "Oh fuck, yeah." She was on it like Thor on Stormbreaker.
The bangs and wood chips on the door at the top of the stairs wasn't getting any louder. It's fortunate that the door was so thick. But both Ozzy and Shauna knew it wasn't going to hold forever. Shauna was planning her defense as she stared up at the door like an oncoming train while Ozzy tried to hold his broken arm like a gun of some sort with his one good hand. With some luck, the birthmark will be pointed at the shadow men when they break through and do something magical.
The couple's mental strategizing and overall reflections on their lives should they die horribly were interrupted by a new sound. An echoing, metallic banging sound from above them. Since they were in the basement of the house with no walls covering the pipes and vents, it was obvious what it was.
"Lottie's in the vents!" Ozzy cried. The two frantically tried to mentally traces the intersecting vents above to try to trace her movements, but they couldn't account from the grate close by the furnace that was half screwed on by a hasty worker. The vibrations and pounding as Lottie moved through them grew louder as they approached said grate. Shauna once again stood in front of Ozzy, sledgehammer at the ready.
The grate came flying off as Lottie bolted through. Ozzy cried out as she dashed at him with her knife but Shauna was there to bash the hammer into her face , sending her flying almost like a golf ball. Her trajectory was stopped by one of four columns build around the basement. This was far from the most advance home as these pillars were source of the homes structural integrity.
Lottie heaved herself back up. Part of her cheek was purple with a bruise and her tiny lower lip was swollen and bleeding down her chin onto the floor. Ozzy hated seeing her like this. Shauna hated seeing her at all. She raised the hammer to her side in a swing aiming to take the child doll's head off but Lottie was quick to move out of the way. The sledgehammer head instead broke through the support column behind her. The whole house seemed to creak and even shake a little when it was broke. Neither Lottie or Shauna knew what they were. It was just collateral in their struggle. The same thing happened to another column when Lottie attempted to hide behind it, only to have Shauna smash through it as well. Broken wood and stone scattered the floor as the house continued to react with disturbing sounds. Meanwhile, the shadow men upstairs were getting closer to breaching the basement door.
"You Garbage Pail Kid freak, I will fucking end you!" Shauna was losing it herself. Lottie narrowly dodged the hammer as Shauna brought it down right next to her –breaking and cracking the concrete basement floor where it struck.
"Shauna, fucking chill!" Ozzy intervened and tried to pull the sledgehammer from her. Lottie took that moment to escape back into the vent from hence she came. Shauna ended up dropping the hammer, but only so she could pushy a hefty box in front of the open vent so Lottie wouldn't be able to come through.
"It's her or us, Ozzy!" Shauna grabbed him by his shirt, "And in a moment it's going to be us or them!" She motioned up at the failing door. It was a matter of seconds before they heard the unmistakable shuffling of Lottie above them within the vents. Shauna turned her attention to the electric furnace's control panel. It was currently off, but the house did have power as previously mentioned. Shauna burst it open and started pressing every button and turning on every switch. As was bound to happen, the furnace and full air conditioning of the home switched on the highest temperature setting. Ozzy nervously looked at his girlfriend as she worked away at the buttons.
"Shauna…what are you doing?"
"We have her trapped, Ozzy. Let's boil this freak." The furnace was now making a humming noise as the air began to get warmer. The vents with hot air soon to rushing through them that lined the basement began to turn red in some areas. Lottie's scampering through quickened for a quick moment before slowing down in one section of the basement. Ozzy and Shauna could then hear her screaming, rising from cries of discomfort to agonizing pleas to turn off the air. Pounding could also be heard from within the section of the ventilation system she was in. Ozzy bit his nails as Shauna gleefully folded her arms and stopped messing with the furnace.
"Shauna, she's just a fucking kid! We're torturing her! Turn it off!" He tried to do so himself, but Shauna pushed him away.
"That thing is not a child!" Ozzy stared at her, not in disbelief but denial. He knew there was a child in that body, that was just a simple fact. He wasn't going to try to fight Shauna he would never even without a broken arm. She would and has demolished him. Instead, he moved the box in front of the open vent himself. He had to push with his back, not having the same strength as his girlfriend did. Ozzy recoiled from the hot air blasting out before shouting into it.
"Lottie! Out here Follow my voice!" Removing the box lessened the mute on her screams and they echoed throughout the room. Shauna would defend her decision until the end of the world but those screams still made her uneasy and feel guilty. However, those feelings would change when Lottie would emerge from the vent.
Ozzy cried out and jumped back from the vent when he saw Lottie crawling out towards him. They had no idea how bad it was. The American Girl jacket Ozzy had got for her before they came to Chicago was melted to parts of her back and smoked in some areas. Lottie's lip was still bleeding and her bruise was as purple as ever. The white in her eyes had been boiled red –much redder than Ozzy had ever gotten his eyes. Ozzy groveled back into Shauna's arms as Lottie pulled herself out of the vent, her hair hanging over her punished face.
She wasn't speaking or making any human-like noises anymore. She seethed and hissed as she gripped her jacket and pulled at it, yelping as it caused her discomfort tugging at the plastic skin it was now welded to. Ozzy covered his mouth. Lottie was more like her father than ever now. Now he really was struggling to see her as a little girl.
"Lottie—"
"Stop fucking talking, Osborne." Lottie growled, before facing Shauna, "You, I am killing you slow." Shauna had rearmed herself with the sledgehammer.
"I welcome the fucking challenge." She slammed the head of it on the ground.
There wasn't going to be a round two like so many fights in this chapter. The shadow men upstairs had broken through the door and came running down the stairs. Ozzy and Shauna backed into a far corner of the cellar while Lottie stood her ground. Three of them surrounded her while two cornered Ozzy and Shauna.
"Bring the abomination spawn to the Deacon," one of them said, "He'll want to have the whole set." He spoke of Lottie and her family like collecting toys…wait a minute.
One of the shadow men that cornered Ozzy and Shauna stepped toward them with a dagger, addressing Shauna. "You are worthless to the Deacon; we will bleed you out here."
"You got something on your face." Was what Shauna chose to say before bashing the shadow man's head in with the sledgehammer. It was a nice overhead smash directly on his cranium, you just know his spine crumbled under it too as he fell to the floor convulsing before going still as his brain oozed out on the floor.
Ozzy continued back into the corner as he watched his girlfriend drive the hammer into the other shadow man's leg which blew out the bone entirely. All the shadow man could do is look helplessly up as Shauna raised the hammer –the last thing he saw before everything when black and his head was caved in.
"Holy fuck…Shauna," Ozzy whimpered. She was dotted in blood not her own like an adult comic character. The sledgehammer's head was coated in it along with skull fragments and brain matter. Shauna herself honestly felt like one too. This was like roller derby but with no refs. What she did for a release now had no limits. She grabbed Ozzy by his shirt collar and aggressively kissed him. Now, he was getting a little scared.
"We are getting the fuck out of here, Ozzy!" she smiled.
While all that was transpiring, Lottie was in a stare down with the shadow men that surrounded here. What they had said implied that her family had fallen into their hands, and with Burton back that could mean the worst. Now she was beginning to feel that fleeting hopelessness that Ozzy had felt as they entered the house. No, Glenda wasn't there because she was working stuff out with Glen and her parents were back at the house. They had to be. Everything was so close to going their way.
The shadow men began closing around her like a wild animal. Lottie saw one of the sloppily holding his ceremonial dagger out in front of him similar to what Ozzy had done. With one slash, she severed his fingers and claimed the dagger for her own. The shadow man fell back, gripping his nearly fingerless hand. With two blades now, Lottie was able to fully down another shadow man by slicing each of his achilleas.
The last shadow man standing grabbed her by the coat and began pulling. Screaming as she felt the flesh on her back being torn away, Lottie hesitantly removed her arms from the coat sleeves and allowed it to be pulled from her body. The ensuing tears on her back were mostly already dried and crusted from the heat in the vents, but just because it didn't bleed doesn't mean it hurt like hell.
Lottie screamed as she fiercely held back her sobs but allowed the tears to fall. She wasn't going to be graceful with kill the shadow man responsible. She leapt up and sank her blades in his chest. Lottie's silent demeanor and style of slaughter was no longer smooth and quiet. It was getting loud and reckless just like Chucky. Regardless, it got the job done as the shadow man's face looked like a jack lantern by the time she was done with him.
Ozzy and Shauna had made their way toward the stairs while Lottie was busy. The Acolyte suddenly yelped as the shadow man with the severed fingers grabbed his ankle from where he lay. "Shauna!" he cried. His girlfriend obliged him by striking that shadow man to death with the sledgehammer.
"Nearly there!" she motioned to the stairs only to be grabbed by the shadow man with the sliced achilleas on his knees. Shauna pushed him off against what she thought was a wall, but was really one of two major support columns of the house that still stood. She found this out when she drove the hammer into the shadow man's head, combing him briefly with the pillar before it exploded into a mess of building materials and gore.
The house had finally had enough, it was only operating on one major structural support column. The creaking had grown into crumbling as some of the vents and pipes that lined the basement ceiling began to fall from it. Sections of the ceiling and wall also had cracks begin to form in them. There was suddenly a loud crashing sound from upstairs as well followed by several others. Lottie had just put the final shadow man down when she felt and saw it too. Shauna threw the hammer aside; it would just be dead weight to them as they tried to escape.
"Fuck this," Shauna grabbed Ozzy once more and they booked it up the stairs. Lottie followed them up as the house neared a complete disconnect from the basement foundation. The whole house was beginning to collapse now. The full extent of the damage and more to come was revealed on the first floor.
Walls that separated rooms were now coming down as the roof began to cave in. Ozzy and Shauna were back in the main room just before the front door before a big section of the roof collapsed right in center of said room. Fortunately, neither Shauna or Ozzy were trapped or crushed under it. The open door back out was right there, all they had to do was keep running.
"Osborne, Shauna-" Of course it was Lottie. Of course, she was trapped under the ceiling debris that collapsed. It trapped her in such a way that only one of her arms were sticking out and her head was partially buried. The rest of her was unseeable. Ozzy instinctively went back, ignoring the house falling apart around them, but Shauna grabbed his arm as you would expect.
"No. Just don't." Shauna tugged at him. There were no more shadow men, they had a clean getaway. That didn't stop Ozzy from kneeling down before here, looking into the damaged eyes of the child that once saved his life days ago. Lottie knew all too well what he was considering.
"Please, help…my family may never have a chance at any sort of real life again!" she continued reaching out towards him. Unbeknownst to Ozzy, Lottie gripped her knife in her buried hand, waiting for it to be free. It wouldn't make a difference however. Lottie gasped and cried out as more debris fell from the collapsing roof onto the pile that held her down. Shauna pulled Ozzy back up towards her.
"You and your family died a year ago!" she barked at her. Ozzy had his head lowered. While this decision would be a no-brainer for anyone, it was difficult for him.
"I'm sorry, Lottie."
"Osborne, please! Wait!" Lottie continued her begging screams as the couple fled out the door of the house soon to be no more. "DON'T LEAVE ME! YOU WON'T GET FAR ON YOUR OWN! YOU KNOW THAT! OSBORNE!" She struggled in vein in the debris that encases that only seemed to bury her the more she did so. Ozzy did his best not to turn his head as they drew farther from her, it took even more out of him to mute out her cries. Shauna huffed in a 'good riddance' cadence as the two began racing up the street towards the larger neighborhoods.
The last thing they heard before leaving the subdivision was the distant sound of the last of a recently built home that relied on an antiquated structural support system crashing to the ground before all was still.
Deacon Burton flung Chucky and Tiffany over his shoulders like dead meat, still suspended by the amulets that choked them. In their conditions, they may as well be classified as such. The shadow men erupted in further cheers when a group of them returned through the back door of Chucky's old Chicago home bearing gifts. One of them held Glen and Glenda up with his fingers in their nostrils, displaying them like freshly caught fish in the most offensive way.
"Check out the snappers on these ones!" he showed them to Burton. He clearly was a fisherman before joining the cult. Chucky really should've just remained out for this. He briefly came to and saw his former master swooning over his children like they were game. He tried to growl, snarl, anything, but he only gurgled on his own blood before passing back out again.
"If I recall, we are one runt short," the Deacon said, "No matter, one of them is bound to know where the Acolyte is. We squeeze everything out of them, and I do mean everything. But first," he held Chucky before him and looked at the tag on his shirt collar –on, along with the usual branding, it was a certain toy company address. "The Order of the Serpent's revolution begins now.