alright kiddies! it's time for the big showdown! are you excited? also, it's been, what- two days? LOOK AT ME GO!
Chapter Twelve: Babylon
I pulled myself out of the elevator, a small trail of blood following after me as I crawled on my forearms. The hotel lobby was empty, the beginning of the summit having drawn all of the politicians into the large dining room. I tried to call out, hoping that someone at the summit would hear me, but I was too weak to produce anything more than a whimper. The drugs in my system had now taken full effect, rendering me nearly helpless.
I pulled myself to my feet, leaning against the wall as I dragged myself down the hall- towards the side exit, and towards my van. I couldn't drive, but I could provide myself with some much needed sanctuary while I licked my wounds. Of course, fate wasn't so kind to me, and I hadn't made it far down the long hallway before I heard the creature behind me.
It frothed at the mouth, slime flying off of it's almost amphibian skin as it chased after me. It scuttled down the hallway after me, growling and snarling as it came. I tried to run, wobbling back and forth with the monster hot on my tail.
I burst out of the side doors just as the monster caught up to me. It threw me to the concrete below us, pinning me down as it let out a colossal roar right above me. I reached up, trying to the best of my ability to wrestle the beast off, but it was too strong. Or maybe I was just too weak.
I screamed as the monster clawed at my chest, ripping a large gash into my flesh. My head flew back it pain as a part of me accepted that I was about to die. Like Steven Adams. Like Gloria Ramirez. I would become another victim of an unfortunate "animal attack," and my father would walk free. But all hope wasn't yet lost.
I heard the roar of an engine, and both me and the monster turned to see what had produced the noise. There at the edge of the parking lot were Shaggy, Scooby, Velma, and Daphne, the latter sitting atop her stolen black BMW K1200S, revving the bike's engine at the monster. The monster screamed back but Daphne didn't seem to waver as the bike began to race towards us. It wobbled for a moment, then straightened as Daphne pulled something out from behind her back: a bow and arrow. She pulled back on the arrow as she sped towards the monster, finally releasing it as she spun past.
The arrow hit the monster square in the back of the head, and it released a vile shriek as it slowly collapsed onto me. I shoved the now limp monster to the side, panting heavily as my friends all rushed towards me.
"Daphne," I panted, having trouble forming more complex words, "How did you-"
"I got your text," she replied, also panting. She pulled something out of her pocket and placed it in my flaccid hand, adding, "take the drug, see the monster, right?"
I peered down into my hand, turning over the package Daphne had stolen from my father's drug den. One pill was missing.
"You took the drug?" I asked. "How are you not sick?"
Daphne laughed as she pulled off her sweater, pressing it against my bleeding chest. With one hand securing the compress which soaked up my blood, she laid down, resting her head against my sweat-drenched shoulder.
"Oh, I'm tripping balls," she said. "But you were in trouble, so I got my shit in gear."
Shaggy rushed towards us, producing a bottle of water from his backpack and handing it to me. I think he'd expected me to drink it, but I instead opted to pour its contents over my face, gasping as I finally felt myself starting to cool down.
"I'm glad Daphne finally found a use for her motor-archery or whatever," Shaggy explained frantically, "but can we address the elephant here? What's going on? What monster?"
Daphne and I both turned to the place the monster had fallen, but were shocked to find that it was gone, having disappeared into the wind upon it's epic defeat.
The sound of a throat clearing grabbed all of our attentions, and we glanced up to see Velma, looking down at her feet in shame.
"Fred…" She started, avoiding my eyes out of shame. "I'm sorry about what I said. I was wrong. I mean, if you were willing to go through all this to stop your dad, you're more of a hero than anyone I've ever met."
I smiled at Velma, reaching my hand up for her to take. She grabbed it and pulled me up onto my feet, helping to steady me as I wobbled slightly.
"Well gang," I smiled, finally feeling my mind begin to clear. "This isn't over till it's over. Let's go."
The whole dining room seemed to freeze as we walked in. Forks and knives dropped to the ground and complimentary brunches fell out of mouths as I- the shirtless boy dripping with blood- stormed up to the stage, where my father was in the middle of his PowerPoint presentation. He was on a slide entitled "The Dawn of a New Age" as I reached out and snatched the microphone from his hands.
No one looked more shocked to see me than he did. He stared at me as though he'd seen a ghost. His eyes widened and he stood frozen like a statue, unable to do anything to stop me as I addressed the crowd before us.
"This man is lying to you," I started, a suggestion which received mixed reviews from the rest of the room. "He doesn't care about your towns. Your economy. Your livelihoods. He's gathered you all here today to convinced you to turn your small towns into dangerous and unkempt metropolises. And he's killing anyone who disputes him. He has a drug lab off the west road out of town, and he's been using it to poison politicians!"
My father seemed to regain his composure at the sound of this. Realizing that I'd put his entire life at stake, he laughed, patting my shoulder and leaning into the microphone.
"My son, everybody," he laughed. "What a joker!" He leaned up to my ear, so close that I could feel his hot breath, breathing fire at me life the serpent he was. He dropped his voice and whispered, "Fred, you have one chance to walk away from this before I make you wish you were never born."
Pulling out of his grasp, I continued. "He drugged me, just like all those other people. How do you think I got these cuts? This man is dangerous, and insane, and he needs to be put away."
I eyed my father as his blood began to boil. His fists clenched and eyes widened madly as he lunged towards me. Screaming curses, he began swinging wildly at me. With my reflexes still impaired, I struggled to dodge the blows as he backed me into a table, where politicians stared at the ordeal with shocked expressions.
My father reached out and snatched one of their knives, swinging it towards me in a fit of rage. I held his arm away with both hands as the knife drew closer and closer to my neck. I fell back onto the table and he followed, nearly on top of me as his knife pressed towards me.
"I should have finished you off myself!" He snarled through gritted teeth.
My arms began to give out and my father's blade neared my neck, slowly but surely. "Is this what you wanted?" I growled in reply. "Are you the monster that kills his own son?"
The sound of a gun firing rang through the dining room. For a moment, I thought I'd died, but it didn't take long for me to realize that I hadn't been the target. My father's eyes dilated and the knife in his hand fell limp, clattering to the table. The people around us began to gasp and scream, and I felt my father roll off of me before collapsing to the floor, revealing the person who had delivered the bullet.
Sheriff Stone stood in front of us, pointing his still-smoking gun in our direction as though he were frozen in a picture. His hands and arms suddenly began to quiver, and the gun fell to the floor.
I heard Shaggy throwing up behind me. Velma and Daphne muttered various expressions of shock as I stood up slowly. The world began to spin as I stared at my father's lifeless body on the floor in front of me. People called out to me, but I couldn't hear them- the only sound was my father's voice ringing through my skull. Maybe it was the blood loss, or maybe the drugs, or maybe it was the only parent I'd ever known lying dead in front of me, but the last thing I remember from that morning was my eyes falling shut, and my body hitting the floor.
a little short, but i think i got the message across, right? stay tuned for the epilogue! (don't worry, fred isn't dead lmfao)