It was not long before Gaz and Dib were back at home, Dib quickly typing away into his computer, bandages over his left eye as Gaz bit her lip slightly. It was still somewhat unusual for her to be feeling like this, but she couldn't help it, she was worried about her brother.
"You really should be in the hospital." She mumbled.
"We've got plenty of things in the lab I can use to help myself. I'm not the one stuck in a haunted diner every night for five nights. You need a way to protect yourself, and I've found some things in the Swollen Eyeball Database that have been proven effective." He reasoned, pointing at the screen before giving her a small, sad smile. "Besides. Now I get to put in that robo-eyepatch I always wanted." He admitted, patting a small package near the keyboard.
Gaz carefully lifted one of her hands up and then patted his shoulder in a hesitant fashion. She'd not really ever hugged her brother, but Dib didn't mind. This was the best she could, he didn't mind. He knew she cared in her own way. He clicked the mouse, a new tab opening up as he displayed the data he'd collected.
"These things are clearly possessed by a demonic force, and I'm guessing it's Bloaty's former mascot. The guy who suffocated that kid by accident is probably still walking around in the suit, and he's become something more than what he was. I'm guessing he must blame children for what happened to him, so he kept killing any he could find."
"He probably recognized me too." Gaz thought with a worried murmur. "I went to Bloaty's constantly. His tone was so mocking, like…" She cringed. "That fat fuck has to pay."
"Let's work on keeping you safe first, I'll work on trying to find an exorcism spell we can do. The Church charges a small fee for doing it, but that's not the problem, the problem is I don't want to involve anybody else in this, we'd probably get them killed, and I don't even think they'd believe us." He added with a sad sigh. "I mean, what're we going to say to them? The Bloaty's Pizza is haunted by the spirit of it's ex-mascot and it's got animatronics wearing the face of my rival working for it? It'd be funny if it wasn't so twisted."
"Could we do the exorcism ourselves, then?" Gaz asked.
"We need a way to get Bloaty himself vulnerable. He's the one controlling all of them from what you told me about…about what happened to Nick." Dib said with a cringe, Gaz biting her lip. "He's like a head vampire. We kill him, the other vampires are through. But while I work on some kind of spell or ritual for that, you can protect yourself with these."
He brought up another tab on the internet browser "Godzilla Fireblast" and it displayed several ornately-woven, slightly glowing runes written in what appeared to be Latin. Scrolling down further, Gaz noticed several materials were highlighted, including bags of salt. "Salt?" She asked.
"Salt is very useful. It keeps demons and spirits at bay. Normal people can cross over, but anything supernatural can't." Dib told her, a sense of delight entering his voice. "It's so fascinating, really. It's a symbol of purification and holy power, why, in the story of Lot-"
"I get it, really." Gaz insisted, whacking Dib over the arm. "And I'm not that far gone so I can use it without getting hurt myself. I mean, I've put salt on my food before and never got burned or anything."
"Right. But listen, just in case that doesn't work, use the runic spells." Dib said, printing them out from his nearby printer, a KRRRCH-KRRCCH sound filling the air as the sheet slid out. "Find a defensible position in the diner which you could still escape from if things went south, and paint the runes using my glow in the dark paint. That way it won't be visible during the day, but you can have a lamp up at night and it'll keep those psycho-matronics at bay."
"Yeah, wouldn't want to be fired for painting all over the place." Gaz said with a snort. "That'd be so lame. Surviving killer animatronics just to get fired over property damage."
"We can do all the property damage we want after this is over." Dib promised.
"After this is over, I don't think I'll ever want to see another Bloaty's ever. AGAIN."
...
...
...
...Gaz glanced about, taking in a deep breath before pouring the bag of salt's contents out onto the floor of the office door. She'd placed the lamp and positioned it so its light would fall upon just the right place, and she had the vent slightly unscrewed with salt on the inside just in case anything else tried to make its way through there. Specifically, that little Bitch Boy animatronic, or perhaps the possessed GIR. She sat back down at the office chair, bringing up the laptop she'd brought and quickly typing away.
Ping! The cameras in the restaurant were now hers to look at. She smirked a bit, for once feeling in control as one o'clock rolled around and she flipped through the camera feeds. The good thing was she could look at multiple angles at once with this program, and-
She saw somebody standing outside the office and blinked. Several ghost children all staring at her. Gaz raised an eyebrow, then spoke. "Um…Bloaty killed you guys, right?"
They all quietly nodded.
"Look, I'm trying to figure out a way to kill him. You want that bad, right?"
They all nodded quite vigorously.
"Well my brother and I are working on an exorcism spell to send him to Hell where he belongs. Then you guys will be free. So maybe you could help me avoid the other animatronics?"
"We'll…we want to try." One of them said, its voice quiet and ethereal, a faint echo lingering in the air as it rubbed the back of its neck, its eyes black and mournful as it spoke. "It's very hard. Bloaty's so mean, he won't really let us do much. But we'll try. Honest, we will."
"Thanks."
"Louie."
"What?"
"My name was Louie." It said, before it and the others slowly vanished away, Gaz blinking a few times before chuckling a bit.
"Louie, Louie, you gotta go now. Louie, Louie, you gotta go now-"
"You're an awful singer." Gaz looked up. It was that damn BB. He was sitting in the door way, frowning at her. "And your ideas are stupid."
"I'll bet you're wishing you could come in and kill me so you could come dance on my grave." She told him with a smirk.
"Nah." BB said with a sudden, awful smirk that made Gaz frown. "See, Nick made a promise to himself after all those awful days at Gym, that when he got out of school, he'd never stand in another line again."
Gaz frowned at this. "Get lost."
"Wow, did the kids hate you. I mean, they may not have liked your brother, but you were a total cunt!" BB said with a mocking laugh. "At least Dib actually cared about other people and wanted to help them. You only cared about Nick because you saw your mom in him. Tourette's is an awful thing to have, isn't it?"
"You can shut up now." Gaz muttered coldly.
"You wanna hear his scream when he got forcibly shoved into GIR? It was so funny, all the blood was splurting out like-"
Gaz launched the stapler from the desk through the air and it whacked BB straight in the head, colliding with a satisfying, metallic ring that imitated a coconut hitting the floor. BB frowned at this, and tried to walk into the office door, then flinched. He couldn't cross the salt, his voice visibly pained. "S-Stupid…dummy." He said, leaving the office as Gaz snorted, going back to the laptop screen.
Bloaty was looking around by the arcade machines, slowly turning his head back and forth before BB walked over to him and began to speak. He blinked, then carefully turned his head, looking right into the camera feed and grinning darkly. His head tilted left, then right, and then he began making his way out of the view, Gaz bracing herself behind the desk as she heard that familiar, ugly sound coming her way.
THRAHK THRAHK THRAHK.
There he was. All three hundred something pounds of ugly staring at her, mockingly grinning. "Heya Gazzy! Is it your birthday today? I've got a present for you! Come and give Ol' Bloaty a nice, big, hug."
"No."
"Please?"
"NO."
"Pretty please?"
"NO."
"Pretty please with sugar on top?"
"Pretty please with a baseball bat upside your head!" She said, holding up the bat she'd brought, giving it a thoughtful swing and pointing it at Bloaty.
"You know, your head is gonna make the most delightful sound when it's stuffed into the animatronic suit I've got prepared for you." Bloaty said, clasping his hands together. "It's like a watermelon popping in a microwave. You wouldn't think a watermelon could pop in a microwave, but that's just what it sounds like!"
"You are a depraved, fucking insane sociopath, and I look forward to the day I can send you to Hell to get cornholed in the eye by pinapple-dick demons from now until the end of time." Gaz promised.
"Now THAT is some awful, awful language. I'm going to have to wash your mouth out with soap." Bloaty said, a faint, dark edge coming to his tone as he growled darkly. "I'll be back, young lady. I assure you." He whispered, slowly backing up, vanishing bit by bit into the darkness as Gaz stuck her tongue out defiantly at him, giving him a raspberry before turning back to the cameras.
The Hunter, the one who'd taken Zim, he was humming to himself. She frowned darkly, something was odd, what was he doing in the kitch-
Oh no. Suddenly she realized something. Realized why she kept seeing these things. She was witnessing the murders of each child who'd died in the diner. One had been cooked, another crushed, and now-
Another child struggling to break free, mouth gagged, tied to the table, the Hunter looking over various knives as he sang, head bouncing back and forth. "You try so hard to make it through, but now this is the end for you, for I'm afraid your life is through. It's no good trying to act brave, because you're going to your grave." He sang out, pulling out a carving knife.
Gaz wanted to look away. She really did. It was like bypass surgery done on someone who didn't need it, skin being peeled back, flesh being pulled to the side as fat was carved out, the child screaming in agony. "Make it stop! PLEASE!"
Louie's voice. She cringed. Was that how he'd died? And then the sight of Bloaty entering the room.
"Well, we'd better end it, then." He remarked, the Hunter nodding as he took hold of his sword, putting it to Louie's neck, beginning to saw-
Gaz shut the laptop screen and covered her face. This was disgusting. This was vile. She had beaten people up before. But at least they'd deserved it in her eyes. Bloaty just seemed to be targeting kids at random. She took in deep breaths to calm herself before finally flipping the laptop screen back up…or at least, she was going to before she heard a knock on the inside of the vent.
"And who might you be?"
"Little pig, little pig, let me in!"
"Minimoose, give me a break."
"…I'm…not Minimoose. I'm Lil' Bloaty!"
"You're Minimoose. You quote Shakespeare and Lewis. You're a distinguished orator and incredibly funny. And you fit easily into an overhead storage bin." Gaz remarked. "You need to fight back against Bloaty's control. Stop being his bitch!"
The vent banged about a bit. "Stop calling me that!" "Lil' Bloaty" roared out, the floating big's voice a dark, foul snarl. "You don't understand anything. How could you? You're a stupid, spoiled, idiotic child who doesn't understand how the real world works! Everything was always given to you! Time and time again you whined and complained when you were here at Bloaty's if you didn't get your way."
Gaz frowned. Evidently a piece of Bloaty must have been put into all of them. Or perhaps they all shared his memories? And perhaps the memories of all the victims as well?
"You had everything, we had to work for it! Work for everything! And what did we have to show for it? Murdered! You got off easy! And now you've got it hard! Too! Fucking! BAD!"
Gaz growled, turning away from the vent. These things were trying to make her angry and get inside her head. She wasn't going to give them the satisfaction. "Get out of here, "Lil' Bloaty". You are not getting in, whether you like that or not."
"Oh, we'll get inside." Lil' Bloaty whispered darkly. "And then we'll get inside you. I'll tunnel through you like a worm, and munch-munch-munch up all your intestines. I'll slurp your blood vessels up like spaghetti. I'll have the Hunter wear your eyeballs like earrings!"
"How nice that you're all so deeply into recycling." Gaz said.
Another loud bang, and then Minimoose's stolen body seemed to float away, Gaz wiping her brow.
Three AM. Her shift was halfway over. And so far…so good.