CHAPTER 6

Mac charged down the hall as quickly as he could. Things were getting out of hand way too fast; Wilt had obviously done something terrible under Rainbow's influence, and possibly Eduardo had as well. Worse, Rainbow himself was loose who-knows-where, possibly manipulating more of the house residents. If he was able to affect someone as good-natured as Wilt, there was no telling what else he was capable of.

Skidding to a halt, Mac stopped beside a table in the hall with a phone sitting on it. He quickly scooped up the receiver, but as he feared, there was no dial tone. What happened? he thought. Did the phones go out across the whole house? He replaced the receiver and carefully looked around; the darkening halls of Foster's didn't feel like a safe place to be standing anymore. It was beginning to remind him of the house he had just come from, only here there was actually a chance of some killer being right around the corner.

As scared as he was, Mac quickly came up with another idea: he had to find Frankie. She had a cell phone, so it would still be working even if the rest of the phones in the house weren't. That was probably their best chance to get in contact with the police. He ran quickly down the hall towards the stairs... Maybe if I'm fast enough, he thought, we can prevent anything else bad from happening...

Wilt sat on the couch in the living room, his head resting in his arms on the table in front of him; his good eye was clenched shut, fighting a losing battle against the tears they wanted to shed. He barely noticed as Bloo entered the room and moved over to the side of the couch. Cautiously, Bloo asked, "Wilt... are you... i-is everything okay?"

Not lifting his head, he said, "What do you think? No, I'm not okay, and it's not okay. I don't... I can't just..." He hesitated for a few seconds before continuing, "Do you... do you have any idea... what I've done?"

"I... I have an idea..." Bloo replied, feeling more and more unsteady with the circumstances.

Wilt rolled his head sideways to look out from above his arms, "Bloo... Eurotrish is dead. She's dead, and it's my fault..." As Bloo listened to him, Wilt let his gaze drop and continued, "I'll never forgive myself for it... How could I be so stupid? Rainbow... h-he was using me the whole time, and... and I believed him..."

Bloo shook his head and said, "You're not the only one. He fooled us, and that's why we can't let him get away with..."

"I'm may not be the only one," Wilt interrupted, "but I still did terrible things."

"Hey, it wasn't your fault," Bloo said. Wilt was about to say something back, but Bloo continued, "Wilt, you're the last person I'd ever think would hurt anyone. You're like, the nicest guy in the whole world! So whoever did that, it wasn't you. It was someone else that took you over, and you were somewhere else while it was happening. That other someone was just a puppet of Rainbow. It's... it's like the mutants in that movie, Invasion of the Zombie Brain Mutants, who used their mutant brainwaves to turn people to zombies!"

Wilt looked annoyed for a moment that Bloo was comparing his horrible deed with something so trivial, but there was some truth in it. He stared at the ground silently, considering what Bloo said, and finally said, "You're right, of course. That wasn't me... that couldn't be me..."

"There, you see?" Bloo said.

"But," Wilt added, "what if that person is still inside me somewhere? How can I be sure it never happens again? How do I know the people around me will ever really be safe?"

"Well, it was Rainbow who made this 'other you' appear," Bloo told him. "So, if Rainbow is stopped, you're safe. It's so simple!" He scratched his chin, "Now... how were the zombie brain mutants stopped...?"

Wilt got to his feet and said, "Nevermind that, we need to find him fast and put an end to this! You're absolutely right. Without Rainbow, it'll never happen again!" Grabbing Bloo by the arm, he yanked him off his feet and started jogging off deeper into the house. Bloo clung on tightly in surprise, but then smiled; if nothing else, at least Wilt was back on their side, but they still had to find Rainbow...

Eduardo sat huddled in the corner of the room, opposite from his bed, and stared blankly ahead of him. Rainbow was perched atop his head, his color an odd mix of green and yellow; he gazed down at Eduardo and asked, "What's wrong, Ed? You can tell me."

"I... I dunno..." Eduardo said, rather more softly than he usually spoke. "I... I am feeling better... but..."

"You got rid of the one who was following you," Rainbow nodded. "Are you not free?"

"Si, I should be, but..." Eduardo huddled a little tighter to himself, "...why am I afraid? I have no more to fear, but I... I still afraid..."

Rainbow leaned over from his perch, looking upside down at Eduardo eye-to-eye. "Of course you're afraid," he said, the yellow shade in his color intensifying slightly. "It's because you know. You can sense it, can't you? There are others."

"Th-... there... a-are?" Eduardo stammered.

"Certainly," Rainbow replied while turning a solid yellow, though he himself did not look afraid. "They are many, and they are everywhere. They surround and torment you. They want you dead... dead, or you mind destroyed. Or perhaps both. They hide in the dark shadows to strike at you when you least expect. They meet you in the open light to gain your trust. Light and shadow... neither are safe for you any longer..."

Eduardo was trembling at the thought of multiple assailants watching his every move. Just when he thought it was safe, that he had removed the threat to his life, it was only the beginning. His resolve faded, and his voice was barely a whisper as he asked, "H-how do... do you... kn-know all this?"

Rainbow grinned, "My friend, I know much. I have a keen eye, and I can spot them for you. But you have to trust me. I can help you to be safe. Do you trust me?" His color shifted towards green, and Eduardo's panic faded, filled with a sense of mild security. The large friend knew deep within that Rainbow was telling the truth, and that they would be safer together.

Eduardo gave a small nod and asked, "Why you helping me? You barely know me..."

"Because," Rainbow explained, "they're after me now too. I can help you find who they are, but I need your help to keep me safe, to protect me since I cannot protect myself. Between the two of us, we can survive. Do you agree?" Eduardo nodded again, and the tiny friend said, "Good. Now, before we can find a safe place to escape, there's something else we need to do, to make sure none of them follow us. Here's what we'll do..."

Mac emerged from the stairwell and jogged in the direction of Frankie's room. As he did; however, he noticed something odd, even in the dim light of the hallway. A painting hung askew on the wall, something Herriman would never have allowed, which means it happened recently. He slowed down and examined it... That's really weird, he thought. I wonder how it could have happened, especially given how quiet it is out here...

His eyes spotted something else on the ground, and he held his breath as he realized they were drops of blood. They were collected just beneath the painting, but continued off down the hall in lighter drips; someone was injured, and had stopped here, probably leaning up against the wall and bumping the painting before continuing on.

Even though he was afraid of what he might find, he followed the trail of blood anyway; if someone was hurt, he had to help them if he could. His heart was pounding in his chest, and his breath was quickening as he made several turns down the hall, the bloody trail beckoning him onward...

He came to the doors of the library, which were wide open, yet another unusual sight. It was dark inside, but he went in anyway, pulling his penlight out of his pocket and shining it around. Things were in disarray; it definitely looked like a struggle took place here. Worse, he saw even more blood, in bigger splats than before. Did Wilt do this? he wondered. Who was hurt? I hope they got away...

As he swung the light around, he spotted something up against the wall that caused him to cry out in shock, dropping the penlight to the ground. His heart was going double-time now as he reached down with a trembling hand to pick the light back up, hoping he didn't see what he had just seen. Raising the light again, his vision was unfortunately confirmed: it was Frankie, slumped up against a wall, with several large, bleeding gashes across her torso. Her limbs were twisted at odd angles, and her head was rolled to one side, eyes closed and mouth open as if in a silent scream. She wasn't moving, and blood was slowly pooling around her body.

Mac was horrified; the gruesome sight made him sick, but he couldn't look away. He shouted, "Frankie!!" and rushed over, thinking, She's dead... she's dead... oh man, what do I do?! He stopped by her side and gingerly reached out her hand, touching her shoulder and giving it a light shake, then a heavier one, to try and get a response, but none came.

As Mac fought his rising panic and his eyes began to fill with tears, he heard a faint sound. It was a very soft moan; with a mixture of surprise and relief, he realized it was coming from Frankie. Gripping her shoulder again and shaking it harder, he exclaimed, "F-Frankie! Wake up!" He saw some gradual movement in her eyes, and he thought, Oh thank goodness, she's alive! But she's badly hurt; I've gotta do something!

Looking around to one side of her, he reached into her jacket pocket and found her cell phone, miraculously undamaged despite the beating that she took. The battery level was very low, but it probably had enough for a call or two. He hesitated before dialing, trying to decide whether to call the police or an ambulance. Both, you idiot! he thought. Without further delay, he fished the paper with the phone number out of his pocket again and quickly dialed it.

A voice picked up, "Edwards."

Mac began speaking rapidly, "Officer Edwards, this is Mac, from Foster's! You gotta get over here right away, it's an emergency! And we need an ambulance, too; someone's been..."

"Slow down, son," Edwards replied. "Are you at the house still?"

"No, I'm back at Foster's," Mac told him. "Listen... Rainbow wasn't the kid's imaginary friend, he was the killer's!"

Edwards exclaimed, "What?!"

"We found a diary at the place that belonged to the killer, and it mentions Rainbow! And also, I think Rainbow was making him kill people... he has some kind of ability to change how people feel, and he was pushing Kevin into a murderous rage! And now, I think he's doing it again here!"

"I see," Edwards said. "You said you needed an ambulance; is someone hurt?"

Mac glanced back at Frankie, who was still unconscious, and said, "Yes, very badly; I found her in the library, and we're both still here. Please, get here quickly!"

Edwards replied firmly, "We're on our way. In the meantime, find someplace safe, or find an adult for protection. Do not under any circumstances go looking for Rainbow. Got it?"

"Got it," Mac replied, and hung up. He looked at Frankie again, then around the library; it certainly didn't feel safe here, but he couldn't risk moving Frankie right now, and he didn't want to leave her alone. Officer Edwards knew where they were now; he could just sit tight until help arrived. He went over and closed the library doors to try and make things a little more secure. Then, sitting down next to Frankie, he hugged his knees to his chest, trying to calm himself down. They're coming, he thought. They'll be here soon, and they'll help Frankie and arrest Rainbow, and then everything will be back to normal...

Wilt carefully opened the door leading into Rainbow's room and stepped inside. Bloo followed behind him, glancing around to see if Rainbow was anywhere in the room, though it was difficult to be sure because of how small he was. He remarked, "Man, why did they give him such a nice room?"

"Shhh!" Wilt said. "He could still be in here hiding. Look for him, okay?" He started going through the drawers in the room, and Bloo wandered over to the bed to check underneath it. There was no sign of the tiny friend, but he noticed a stack of papers and slid them out. They looked like various crayon drawings; he examined them as Wilt looked over, asking, "What've you got there?"

"Whoa..." Bloo said under his breath. The pictures included various sketches of house residents, with special attention to Wilt and Eduardo, who were in most of them. There was a drawing of Eurotrish with a large X drawn through her, and another of Mr. Herriman with the same X; both of them had Wilt and Rainbow in the picture. Another had a drawing of Frankie and Eduardo, with a large X through... "Oh my gosh!" Bloo exclaimed, staring in disbelief at the drawing.

"What? What is it?" Wilt asked.

"Rainbow is such a horrible artist!" Bloo remarked. "This doesn't look anything like Frankie. See?" He held it up for Wilt to see.

Wilt reached over, taking the paper and examining it. "Wha... Ed? And Frankie?!" he said in shock, nearly dropping it. "Bloo, I think Rainbow's controlling Ed! And they're going after Frankie! Quick, what else did you find?"

Bloo quickly stared to shuffle through the drawings... a lot of them were just Rainbow and a kid, who was probably Kevin, but as he got deeper in the stack, some of them got more disturbing. There was a drawing of several unidentified people lying in pools of blood, and another of a body that had been dismembered. In practically all of these drawings were the occasional, completely normal detail of a sunny landscape or flower, and one of them had a sailboat. Wilt was stunned by the contrast between them, the way such simple and pleasant images could be mixed casually with such gruesome ones. Rainbow was definitely insane; the sight of these illustrated representations of his fractured psyche made Wilt upset that any imaginary friend could be this way. He felt hatred rising in him, hatred towards that little...

Wilt gripped his head with his hand... Hate? No, I don't hate, that's not me... that's Rainbow's feelings, not mine! Stop it! He cringed, trying to drive those thoughts out of his head. It was terrifying to experience such alien thoughts and ideas.

Bloo gasped as he came to the last drawing n the stack. It was a rather crude drawing of Foster's, with giant red flames erupting from the roof and out several of the windows. Off to the side were tiny drawings of Wilt, Eduardo and Rainbow fleeing the scene with big smiles on their faces. Bloo and Wilt looked at each other in horror, and then dropped the drawings as they rushed out of Rainbow's room, hoping they could find and stop them in time...

Mac paced nervously. He didn't know what else he should do, but officer Edwards told him to stay put so that's was his only option. He hoped they would get here quickly; the shadows of the library seemed to be getting even darker than before, as if concealing a hundred terrors around them. At any moment, he expected Rainbow to emerge from one of them, or anyone else that he was controlling. That thought alone frightened him more than any other. Rainbow could have worked his madness onto any number of the house residents; any one of them could be a threat. Except Bloo, he told himself... Bloo was with me and couldn't have been affected. I can trust him, and hopefully Wilt too now. But who else...?

He thought hard, holding his hand over his forehead. Eduardo was the only other one acting unusual, so he was likely one of them as well. He hoped not; the last thing they needed was for Eduardo to go crazy on them. He was definitely among one of the strongest friends in the house, but when he was freaked out, his strength seemed to skyrocket. The destruction he could be capable of...

With a start, Mac shined his light around the library suddenly to get a look at the damage. The initial struggle took place in one spot; he shined his light over at Frankie, who was quite a ways from were she had started. It looked like whoever attacked Frankie must have thrown her a fairly good distance. Not many friends would be capable of a feat like that. And the wounds on Frankie's body... teeth marks, perhaps? They would have to have been very large teeth if they were, and they were spaced about the right distance.

The clues all seemed to add up; there was little doubt left that Eduardo had been Frankie's attacker. That explains why she's still alive, Mac thought... Ed's not all that bright—lucky for her—and probably didn't check to make sure. Oh my gosh, I hope he hasn't hurt anyone else... maybe he's doing that right now! I've gotta... no, no, I need to wait here. Help is coming...

Still, he couldn't get the images out of his head of Eduardo and Rainbow attacking the other friends. What if he gets to Bloo? What if Bloo doesn't figure out that Ed's being controlled? What if he was being attacked right now? What if he gets killed? Mac wanted desperately to go and find him, but he couldn't just leave Frankie behind because something could happen to her. He didn't know what to do; he was so confused. All he could do was hope Bloo could take care of himself...

At that moment, he heard a commotion from out in the hall, some heavy footfalls which he quickly recognized as Eduardo's. Mac covered his mouth to keep himself quiet. A-are they coming back?! Mac thought... I've gotta hide before... His panic quickly turned into relief when the sounds continued past the library door. There were voices speaking softly; cautiously approaching the door, he listened to them...

"...the garage," said one of the voices, which he recognized as Rainbow's, even though it was speaking in a lower tone than before. "The bus will have some gas we can siphon. We won't need much; the whole house is probably a big firetrap anyway."

"Si," Eduardo replied. "But the doors..."

Rainbow interrupted, "Don't worry. They won't get out... we'll just have to block the doors from the outside with..." The voices got fainter as they went further down the hall, until they were far too faint to make out. Even though Mac had already figured out Ed was being controlled, he was still shocked to discover his suspicions were true. The bit that he overheard also chilled him; were they planning on burning down the house?

No, they won't, he thought... The police are on their way to stop them. They'd never get all the preparation done before help arrives. Still, Mac had his doubts, and then another horrifying thought occurred to him: if they did manage to start the fire before the cops got here, they'd still have to wait for the fire department to arrive to put it out, and that could be too late!

Maybe I could get the fire department to start on their way here, he thought. He pulled out Frankie's cell phone again, but his heart sank as he saw the 'LOW BATT' flashing onscreen, moments before it turned off entirely. Frustrated, he dropped the phone and headed for the door to leave the library. He had no choice now; if he didn't do something, more lives would be lost, and he couldn't allow that. He gave one last look at Frankie, prayed she would be okay until he got back, and left the library...

To be continued…