"Well, there you boys are! We've been waiting for over twenty minutes and…Derek Winters Scott, what in the world is your brother wearing?" Duncan's mother asked, eyeing her two youngest sons with as much suspicion as she used for caught criminals.
"Oh, this?" Derek gestured towards the oversized blue hoodie that "Duncan" was wearing. It was literally three times his size and covered up every part of his body. "Oh, just a little present I bought for my favorite little brother!" With an oversized smile on his face, he picked up his 'brother' and gave him a big hug.
His mother's suspicions spiked to an alarming level.
"When have you ever bought Duncan a gift?" questioned his mother.
"Uhhh…since I realized how…er," A brown tail slid out from under the hoodie. Derek quickly stuffed it back into the hoodie and out of sight before his mom could notice. "Ahh…rewarding being a big brother could be!"
Before their mother could question them further, her husband cut in. "Honey, we can interrogate those two later. Let's get home so we can hook up the new television."
Duncan's mother sighed and turned back to Derek and 'Duncan' with a frown on her face. "Don't think this talk is over, young man. You two go get in the car and no arguing."
Derek looked down at the hoodied bundle in his arm. When his parents' back was turned, the monkey tail fell down again. He breathed a weary sigh.
"Oh, you don't have to worry about that, Mom."
(Back at mall…)
As soon as he escaped the toy store, Duncan ran across the walkway and into the store opposite of the toy store. He was still afraid that the princess girl's mother might try and find him. The store he headed into was the music store.
Outside, at the music store entrance, two employees were engaged in a conversation next to a Celine Dion standee, completely ignoring the six year old walking in.
"So what's with all the Celine Dion standees in the closet, eh?" Asked one employee, "I mean, I know her new song is out- the one with the 'Titanic' and the 'my heart' and all that eh- but shou'nt one be enough?"
"Well, Carl, we did have only one Celine Dion standee, but some weirdo has been stealing all the Celine Dion standees we've been putting out so we've had to order more."
"Who'd want to steal multiple Celine Dion standees, eh?"
(In some house in Ontario, Canada…)
"Why yes, Mrs. Dion, I'd be honored to take you to Homecoming." A fifteen year old, acne-covered Chris MaClean said, flashing the Celine Dion standee in his arms a smile. His room was filled with Celine Dion standees- all dressed up like they were going to a dance.
Suddenly a woman's voice scratched the air.
"Christopher! For the last time, stop playing with your toys and go finish your chores!"
"Mom! I'm trying to create some actual memorable teenage memories!" Chris whined, childishly stomping his foot.
"….Is it working, dear?"
"…..No." came the future host's tearful reply.
(Back at the Mall…)
"Ever since the Titanic came out, people have been clawing themselves to get her new song." Carl's fellow coworker named Joe said. "We just got a whole truckload of her CDs in for the release tomorrow."
"Is that why we're closing earlier, eh?" Carl asked as he started to pull down the metal sheet over the entrance.
"Yep, all the Celine Dion stuff is set up for the big opening tomorrow! The CDs are out, the speakers are ready to start playing her music, and the standees are all in the closet." Joe said as he locked up the metal sheet. "Everything's going to go perfect tomorrow." Suddenly a thought hit him. "Yeah, you did make sure that nobody was still in the store, right?"
"Eh, I think so."
"Okay, let's go make fun of the janitor!"
"Hot dog!"
Meanwhile, inside the store, Duncan was oblivious to the fact that he was the only one in the store. At this moment, he was too busy pretending to play an air guitar as he watched a cool punk star on the television do the same. Duncan thought the green mohawk and the piercings on the punk looked cool. Maybe he should get one! That would be awesome!
Suddenly, at the exact moment Joe and Carl pulled down the metal sheet, the entire store went dark and the television shut off.
"Hey! What happened to the lights?" Duncan cried, his large blue eyes blinking the darkness. His voice seemed to echo through the empty store. "Hello?" he loudly called out.
Only silence answered him.
A cold shiver of fear went through him. He pulled his bright green hat down tightly over his head and whimpered.
Where was everyone?
(Outside the music store)
"So did they buy it?" Arts asked, speaking into her cell phone as she walked down the mall corridor. The crowds were beginning to dim as the evening stretched and people were starting to head home.
"So far." Derek answered miles away in his room; he was on the floor, leaning against the door and listening to his parents' voices coming from downstairs. "They're busy trying to set up the new television so I think we're safe for another hour or two."
"Where's the monkey brother?"
"Malcolm's helping me watch it."
On the other side of his room, Derek's and Duncan's older brother was busy trying to wrestling the vicious monkey to the ground.
"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU LOST DUNCAN! HE'S SIX YEARS OLD!" Malcolm, unlike his other two brothers, being a junior police officer, actually tried to be a good example for his younger siblings. However, he somehow always got dragged into their fiascos anyway.
"Relax, I'm taking care of it." Derek replied in a casual manner.
"OH, BY STEALING A MONKEY AND LYING TO MOM AND DAD?" Malcolm scoffed, furrowing his single brow as he caught the monkey in a headlock.
"The monkey had already escaped. I just provided the getaway car."
"If Dad finds out about this and cuts me off the force, I swear, I'm going to…" The blonde threatened before being interrupted by Arts.
"Can we focus here?" the redhead snapped at the phone. "Look, I'm going to ask around to see if anyone's seen Duncan. Once I find him, I'll drive over and we'll switch him and the monkey out."
"Okay, ice queen, we'll keep the parents busy on this end." Derek said, ignoring his older brother's complaints and grunts of pain once the monkey got loose.
"Don't call me ice…" Arts began but Derek already hung up on his end, "…queen." She finished, frowning. Arts put her phone away and breathed in deeply, thinking. "Okay, Arts, think…where would a six year old go to run away?"
The answer came so quickly that Arts could have kicked herself for not thinking about it sooner.
"Well, duh! The toy store!" Arts said, knocking her self on the head. She quickly rushed to the mall's toy store; the first thing she saw was a little girl whining loudly to her mother.
"Honey, we can't take the toy back. We already paid for it."
"But mommy, look! The box has already been opened. Someone's obviously tampered with it. I don't want to play with something that someone else has already played with. It's the stores' fault! They need to watch out for naughty kids who mess with stuff that others want to buy! We should send that Sue woman after them!"
"Courtney, 'sue' isn't a person."
"Then what is it?"
"It's when..oh…oh dear…how can I explain this? Well, let's say that a little fishy wanted to eat a worm that was on a hook that a fisherman cast out, but another fish pushed the little fishy out of the way and ate the worm instead. Then the little fishy got angry at the other fish and hired a bunch of hungry sharks to go after the other fish. Well the sharks fight the other fish, eat him, and then over turn the fishing boat, eat the fishermen, and let the first little fishy have all the worms that fall from the fishing boat. That's what sueing someone is like. Do you understand now, sweetie?"
"…………." The girl blinked, thought for a second, and smiled. "…Can I be the first little fishy?"
"Excuse me." Arts interrupted the rather odd family moment and stood before the mother and daughter. "I'm sorry to bother you two, but I'm looking for…uh…my little brother Duncan. He's six, about your daughter's height, black hair, blue eyes, green hat, black shirt with a skull on it…"
The girl gasped. "That's that eeky frog boy!"
Arts raised an astonished brow. "Eeky frog boy?"
The little girl pulled an expression of disgust. "He acted like a frog and tried to kiss me!"
"It was so cute." The mother cooed.
Art pressed her fist against her mouth to hold back a tinkling laugh. This definitely sounded like Derek's little brother. "Why didn't you let him kiss you?"
The girl stared at Arts as if the older girl was insane. "He was gross like a frog."
Arts knelt down to the little girl's level and smiled at her. "Want to know a little secret between us girls?" When the girl nodded, she continued. "All the good guys start out as frogs, all gross and stupid. But if you give them a chance…well…you just might find your prince inside them. And if you don't, just dump them back into the swamp….or a lake." She grinned evilly. "That worked for me."
The little brunette pondered over Arts words for a couple seconds and then gave the redhead a big smile. "Next time I see him, I'll give him a kiss." She then glared and held up a finger. "Only one! If I don't get a prince, I'm sueing!"
"Good for you." Arts laughed. The fifteen year old stood up and turned to the girl's mother. "So did you see what direction my brother went to?"
"I believe I saw him go into the music store." The mother said.
Arts waved farewell to the mother and daughter and ran over to the music store. To her dismay, she saw that it was closed and locked up. She had to find out if Duncan was still inside there!
"Hold on, kid. I'll be back." Arts promised as she ran off to find the nearest security guard.
(Inside the music store…)
"There's nothing to be afraid of." Duncan told himself as he stood up; the store looked quite menacing in the dark and silence. He found himself backing up. "It's just a music store. There's nothing scary inside a music store. Nothing at all!"
While backing up in fear, Duncan accidently knocked into the check out counter. A stereo that had been on the counter fell to the ground with a loud crash.
"AHHH!" Duncan yelped and jumped up in terror.
Once the stereo hit the ground, it started to play the CD that been inside it- Celine Dion's new hit single "My Heart Will Go On". Normally, this was a very moving and beautiful song. Unfortunately, the crash to the ground seemed to have messed the stereo up so now the song was coming out oddly strangled and slow. It had an almost creepy tone to it.
"Innnnn my dreamssssssssss….I ssssseeeee you….I hooooooold youuuuuuu…ssss"
"MOMMY! DEREK! MALCOLM! DADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDYYYYYY! Duncan wailed and ran as the demonic noises chased after him. Blue eyes wide with terror, Duncan ran to the exit and began to bang his little fist against the metal covering.
"LET ME OUT OF HERE! I HATE THIS SONG!" Duncan yelled at the top of his lungs as the music seemed to get louder.
"Neeeeearr…..farrrrrrrrrrrr….whereeeeverrrr….yoouu…arreee….little boy…"
Duncan screamed at the top of his lungs, tears of fright in his eyes. "HELP! CELINE DION'S AFTER ME!"
His imagination seemed to be running wild at the moment. The music store seemed to be turning darker and more menacing with shadows creeping through every CD stand and counter; the music and lyrics seemed to become creepier and eviler every second.
"Neeeeverrr…leeettttt….goooo...I'm going to get you, Duncan…"
"NEVER!" Duncan ran away from the door and towards the back of the music store. He could hear banging now along with the lyrics. There was something after him!
"Gotta hide! Gotta hide!" the little delinquent panted. Duncan then spotted a door in the very back of the store. He lunged for it, jumped inside, and slammed the door behind him. He leaned against the door and breathed a sigh of relief.
And then he saw.
Duncan let out a terrified gasp. The entire room was filled with Celine Dion standees! It was a room filled with creepy, glassy-eyes cardboard cutouts, all fixed in horrifically glamorous poses and staring at him.
"Oooneeee trueeee tiiimme….I hoooldd youuu….Come out, come out little boy."
"They're not going to hurt me." Duncan whimpered, backing up with trembling legs.
"Youuuuu opppeennn theeee dooooor…..I'm going to find you."
The little delinquent squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block out everything. "They're not real. They're just cardboard! They're not real!"
"My hearrrrrtttttt willllll goooooo onnnnnn…."
Duncan felt a pair of hands grab his shoulder and whirl him around. He found himself staring up at a looming, shadowy woman figure. The evil mistress gave him a dark sneer.
"Gotcha."
"NOO!"
"AAAUUGGH!"
Slap!
"MY HEART WILL NOT GO ON! MY HEART WILL NOT–"
Slap!
"NNOOO!"
Slap! Slap! Slap!
Duncan's eyes snapped open and, to his surprise, he saw that Courtney was peering into his face, one hand raised in mid-slap.
"Are you okay?" For once, her onyx eyes were free of annoyance and her expression was that of deep concern. Behind her, the rest of the campers, minus Geoff and Trent, were staring at him with expressions of shock and terror pasted on their faces. DJ was shaking and looked ready to pass out.
The delinquent pressed a hand to his stinging cheeks. "Yeah, I think so. What happened?" It was Bridgette that answered.
"Well, you got to the part when you went into the closet full of Celine Dion music store standees and then things started to go downhill." The blonde surfer said. "You started screaming and yelling 'My heart will not go on" over and over again."
"Sorry, bad memories." Duncan apologized.
"Dude that was the scariest story I ever heard!" DJ whimpered, shaking and looking faint.
Lindsay was trembling. "BK's right! Ohhh, I feel so sorry for little Duncan! Tell us, Doug, did cute little Duncan survive the evil Celine Dion standee attack?"
"No, she killed me. Isn't it obvious?" Duncan sarcastically answered, rolling his eyes at the dumb blonde.
"Do you feel up to finishing the story?" asked Gwen.
"You don't have to." Courtney added, giving Duncan a sympathetic glance.
Duncan gave her an assuring smirk. "Don't worry, I'm good."
"I'M COMING BUDDY!" Geoff's voice called out. A moment later, a tide of water was splashed on both Duncan and Courtney.
The couple glared as Geoff and Trent walked up, empty water buckets in their hands.
"We brought the water!" Geoff announced, smiling and waving the bucket at the campers. He looked at Duncan. "Are done being crazy yet?"
"Thank you, Geoff." Duncan growled, glaring at his friend. "That was exactly what I needed."
"You're welcome!"
Duncan sighed and shook his head like a dog, shaking the water off. When he was done, he turned back to the campers.
"Okay, so now you know why I'm afraid of Celine Dion standees, now let me tell you what happens afterwards…"
(At the Scott household…)
"Derek! Duncan! Malcolm! What on earth are you three doing up there?" their mother screamed from the living room upstairs. For the last hour, she had been hearing screams, thumps, and bangs coming from her son's rooms. Of course, this wasn't quite unusual, but it was becoming very bothersome.
Inside Derek's room, both Derek and Malcolm had overturned the bed to create a protective barrier between them and the raging monkey posing as Duncan.
"Just playing with Duncan, Mom!" Derek screamed. He yelped in pain when the monkey screeched in fury and threw a soccer ball his head.
Malcolm, being a smart one, had put on a motorcycle helmet. "Have you heard back from that ice cream girl?" He winced and ducked when the monkey started to throw his soccer trophies at him.
"Not yet." Derek admitted. Suddenly, there was a sharp tapping noise coming from the window. The three figures stopped what they were doing and glanced over.
Balancing on a tree branch outside the window was a girl.
Derek's face lit up with joy. "ARTS!" He rushed over to open the window. His mouth fell open with surprise the moment she climbed in.
"I found your brother." Arts grumbled and pointed to her head. Clinging to it and shaking like a frightened kitten was Duncan. The poor little six-year old looked scared out of his wits. He was staring off into space with round, terrified eyes, trembling and whimpering out gibbish that almost sounded like, "The Celine Dion standees are after me…they're coming.."
Malcolm looked appalled. "What did you two do to him?" What had happened to the little brother that wasn't scared of anything?
"I don't know!" Arts said, tugging Duncan off her face. His fingernails left red marks where they had been clinging to. "He had somehow got locked inside the music store. I found a security guard that let me go in to look for him. I found him hiding inside a closet full of Celine Dion music store standees. For some reason, he was screaming his head off when I found him."
Derek gently took his little brother and set him on the floor. The poor thing hugged his knees and rocked back and forth an insane manner. Derek knelt down on one knee and spoke gently to him.
"Hey, Dunk, it's me, Derek. I'm sorry for yelling at you and making you run away. There's no reason to be scared anymore. I promise Malcolm and me won't let anything like that ever happen to you again."
Derek placed a hand on his little brother's shoulders. Duncan jerked at his brother's touch, shook his head, blinked and looked up. At the sight of his big brothers, he let out a big smile.
"DEREK! MALCOLM!" The little delinquent wrapped his arms around his two brothers and cried out in relief. "You're really here!"
"Of course we are, Dunk!" Malcolm said, hugging his youngest brother tightly.
"We wouldn't ever leave you." Derek reassured. "Mom and Dad would kill us!"
"Awww, this scene is so touching that I almost wish I had siblings." Arts said, monkey on her shoulder and smiling at the three brothers "…almost."
When the hug was over, Derek pulled away and placed both hands on Duncan's shoulders. His face grew serious. "Okay, Duncan, it's extremely important that Mom and Dad never know what happened tonight. Is there anything we can do to make sure that you never, EVER, speak about this?"
"At least until we're moved out?" Malcolm added.
Duncan thought for a moment and then gave them an evil smirk.
"Anything?"
The two older brothers gave each other nervous glances.
(Two hours later…)
"WHAT THE 'CENSORED'!" their father yelled, "WHY ARE YOU PLAYING WITH A GIANT, HAIRY SPIDER?"
"His name's Scruffy, Dad! Isn't he awesome? Derek and Malcolm got me him because he was the only pet left at the petstore! Wanna touch him?"
"MALCOLM! DEREKKKKKKKKKK!"
"Ah, crap…"
The campers erupted into applaud once the story was done. Duncan good-naturedly stood on the log and pretended to take a bow while Courtney rolled her eyes.
"That was an awesome story." Trent said, "Weird, but still awesome."
"Ahh, you were so cute when you were small!" Bridgette commented, smiling.
Duncan rolled his eyes, but continued smiling. "Yeah, well don't go spreading it around."
Courtney stood up and stretched. "Well, that was entertaining, but I'm still calling it a night. Night everyone." She began to walk back to the cabins, but, to her surprise, she heard a pair of footsteps run after her.
"Need someone to walk with you?" Duncan asked, flashing a cocky grin.
"I'll call you when I need to be pick pocketed." Courtney glared, but allowed him to walk beside her all the same. At the campfire, the rest of the campers smiled to each other as they listened to the other bicker all the way to the cabins.
"So you really liked my story, Princess?"
"It was entertaining, I admit."
"Want to hear it again? We can do a reenactment. I can play myself and you can play the whiny little girl that I try to kiss."
"Not on your life, Duncan!"
"Ribit! Ribit!"
"Put those lips away, you ogre!"
"Hahaha..."
Hope you guys enjoyed the story! I might actually write more with young Duncan and his older brothers. I'll have some pictures from the story up on my Deviantart account soon if you're interested in seeing what young Duncan looks like.