Chapter 10: Conquering shadows

I followed Eric outside to find out what I could do to help. So far, he handed me a case of bullets he called "shells" and told me to hand him two at a time. It was much heavier than it looked and when I peeked inside to see what exactly I was carrying, I found that they literally were like shells. The actual ammunition was packed inside a red plastic tube and sealed off at one end. The other end was capped off with a brass cap that had a series of letters and numbers inscribed in the bottom. He pumped the shot gun's loading mechanism and it made a loud clicking noise indicating that one shell was ready to fire. We then made our way back to the glen to "clean house", as Eric put it. It sounded cool when he said it. He pumped the shot gun and exclaimed, "Let's go clean house!" Then he smiled and said to himself, "I've always wanted to do that." I simply shook my head at the child-like nature of the scene and we started the walk back to the glen.

We had just made it inside the entrance when we immediately found a large group of rats mulling around, some even attacking each other. Eric took aim and fired off a round, striking three of the rats at once and killing them. He pumped the shot gun again and the clicking noise said that the second shell was ready to fire. He quickly aimed and fired the second round at the rest of the scurrying rats and killed two more that were side by side. He then opened the gun, pulled out the two empty shells and dropped them onto the ground. I tried reaching down and picking them up until Eric stopped me, "Don't touch them now. They're hot." Figuring that it might be best to pick them up on our return trip than burn myself being nit-picky, I simply let them lie there and handed him two more shells.

We spent the better part of the day simply blasting away giant rats. At one point, we passed the glen's library and I suddenly became nostalgic again, and couldn't help but walked in and look around. I pictured Zummi standing in front of the pedestal that normally held the great book, reading and memorizing a different array of spells. Zummi would turn around after sensing our approach and notice us. "Hi, Sunni." He would greet me. "Aren't you going to introduce me to your new friend?" When the daydream faded, the pedestal was bare, except for layers of dust, and Zummi was back in his grave. Tears began to fall from my eyes once more and I paid a moment of silence to Zummi's memory before moving on. I did the same when passing by each place I remembered each of my fellow gummi's. We finally reached the quick tunnels and we were pretty sure that any rats we didn't kill had fled in fear. "Should we head back?" Eric asked me. I thought about it and realized that there was one more place I needed to see before we left. "Not yet. Follow me." I said to him and walked off back in the direction of the glen. Slightly confused, Eric followed close behind.

We finally came upon the only door that hadn't been opened in the whole glen. I stood there in front of it for a time simply letting the thoughts race through my skull. Eric stood there with me simply watching me debate with myself. When I finally built up the courage, I reached for the door handle and pulled it open. Old, familiar decorations surrounded me when I walked in. My old hand carved bed, the closet full of dresses and outfits given to me by Grammi, The gorgeous hand carved vanity set painted by Gruffi the day I rapidly lost my youth from a curse placed on me by Madam Bane. It was all there, caked with dust, but still in great condition, none-the-less. Luckily I got all of my youth back. A night stand sat against the bed with a completely melted candle on top of it, its wax clumped around the base of the candle.

Eric walked into the room along with me and simply looked around and marveled at its interior decorations. After looking around somewhat, he turned his attention to me and noticed that I had walked up to the bed and just stood there staring at it nostalgically, recalling the years of my childhood that I've spent growing up here. "Was this your room?" Eric asked. I just nodded, silent from all of the nostalgia. He quietly walked up to me and placed his right hand on my left shoulder and I tilted my head to nuzzle against it momentarily. A few tears streamed down my cheeks as my memories flooded through my mind.

After a few silent moments, we made our way back out toward the house, picking up the shot gun shells as we walked. We eventually made it to the main entry way of the glen when we noticed another figure standing in its midst. A familiar figure and at the same time I didn't recognize it. It was a gummi bear. She was exactly my height and fur color. The hair on the top of her head was fairly long and she kept it spiked backward. She wore and oversized black leather jacket, a white tank top shirt that was form fitting and somehow made her chest seem slightly larger, blue jeans with a chain belt that wraped three times around her waist, and heeled black boots. She was simply looking around curiously and aimlessly as if she had never been in the glen in her life.

She eventually looked over at the two of us and grinned at the sight of me. "Hey there 'big sis', what took you so long?" She asked with a voice slightly higher than mine but strikingly similar. Her expression was that of mischief. "Who are you?" I asked still shocked to see another gummi bear. "I am X1505. But you can call me Luna." She answered. "X1505?" I asked, even more confused now. "That's a serial number! She's your clone!" Eric exclaimed his eyes wide from the shock. "What's that?" I asked still confused. "It's a living copy created through breakthrough science. You can thank Dr. Lavender for this meeting." Luna then mocked at me. "So technically, I'm your daughter and your sister ant the same time." She grinned slightly mischievously at me as she bowed while introducing herself. "You should come with me now. 'Daddy' wants you to come home." "Daddy?" I asked raising my right eyebrow in confusion. "Isaac Lavender, of course. He created me from your fur and blood. That makes you both my mother and sister and that makes him my daddy."

It was my turn to widen my eyes at the shock. She then reached down and unwrapped the chain from around her waist and dangled it in her hands. There was a knife attached to one end of the chain and she dangled it from the chain in her left hand. She suddenly began spinning the chain around. The knife spun at the end of the chain faster and faster, soon it was spinning too fast to see clearly. "So, are you going to come quietly? Cause I don't wanna hurt you." Eric then stepped in front to try and protect me. He aimed his shot gun at Luna and pumped the mechanism to load the shell. "Don't!" I called to Eric. Seeing an opportunity, Luna thrust her left arm forward and hurled the knife at Eric's stomach. Seeing Eric in danger, I lunged forward and tackled him to the ground. Searing pain shot through my body as the knife was slightly off target and dug itself into my right shoulder. I gripped my shoulder, just underneath the knife, and dropped down to my knees, gritting my teeth to keep from crying out loudly. Tears of pain escaped from my tightly closed eyes as the pain began localizing itself. "Mom!" Luna screamed while Eric called, "Sunni!" Luna was the first to reach me, followed shortly by Eric who aimed the shot gun at her once again. "Get away from her." He demanded. "No, put the gun down." I said, trying to ignore the pain in my shoulder. "I don't understand. Why did you do that?" Luna asked placing her paw gently onto the back of my shoulder. "I... won't lose another... loved one." I answered. "I can't... let him kill... you either. After all... you... are the first gummi bear I've... been able to see since... I arrived here." I finished while cringing in pain from my wound. My blood was beginning to stain the majority of my arm now, so Eric pulled off his shirt and tore off pieces to tie a tourniquet. He then slid the knife gently out of my shoulder to avoid causing any more harm to me. The pain was even fiercer than when the knife plunged into me. Searing pain that could light fires shot through my entire body and I began gritting teeth to deal with it. Eric bundled up the rest of his shirt and stuffed it into my mouth to keep me from cracking any teeth. Once the knife was completely out, he quickly wrapped the wound to attempt to cut off the bleeding.

Luna simply watched as Eric took care of my wound, frozen with both fear and confusion. Fear from the amount of muffled screaming that came from behind my tightly clenched teeth and confusion from the act of sacrifice I made to protect them both. She then suddenly tilted her head downward in what seemed to be shame and simply said, "Fine, but I'll be watching you. And the moment I see you alone. I'll be taking you to 'daddy'!" And with that, she turned around, climbed back up the tunnel and disappeared.