It had taken Peter longer than he had originally thought getting the donuts. The place had been packed to the brim, leaving a forty minute wait for donuts, but at least they were cheap. Peter drove home, after finally getting the coffee and donuts, along with the groceries of course. He pulled up into the driveway and gathered the stuff he had bought. Opening the front door was a bit tricky with his arms full, but when he had knocked for someone to open the door for him, no one had answered. Once inside, Peter put the donut box onto the chair near the front door so that he could better put the groceries away. That was when Peter noticed how quiet it was. He looked around and nearly dropped the coffees when he saw Mike and Micky. They were tied to chairs with some rope. Peter ran over to them, almost throwing the two brown grocery bags and coffee cups onto the table.
"Guys! What happened?" Peter exclaimed, kneeling down to untie them.
"No Pete, lookout!" Mike cried. Peter glanced behind his shoulder just in time to see Davy rushing at him with one of the larger various knick knacks that were scattered around the pad. Peter rolled away just as Davy brought the knick knack down with a good amount of force. It collided with Micky's knee and the drummer shouted, "Ow, god!" Davy whirled around to try to hit Peter again, but the bassist had scrambled to his feet, hands out and palms open.
"Davy, Davy stop!" Peter said, slowly backing away.
"Just hold still Peter, this'll be over soon," Davy instructed, advancing towards Peter with the knick knack in hand.
"Davy you aren't yourself man, you know that and I know that. You wouldn't tie up Mike and Micky on a normal day, you know that," Peter pointed out, stalling for time as he tried to come up with what to do. Mike still seemed daze, although it seemed like he was awake, and Micky was struggling against his bindings.
"Stop moving!" barked Davy, lunging forward. Peter dodged the smaller man and leapt over the lounge chair to keep something between him and Davy.
"C'mon Davy, it's me, Peter. I'm your friend. You don't really want to hurt your friends, you know that," Peter insisted, glancing over at Micky and Mike, trying to mentally tell them to fill him in on what had happened.
"Schneider's got a mental hold on him Pete!" Micky shouted, almost as if Peter had mentally communicated with him. He leaned over and whispered to Mike, "Hey man, you okay?"
"Yeah, just wet and smelling of orange juice," Mike answered.
"I really hope this doesn't turn out like my dream did last night," Micky whimpered. Mike glanced at him, frowning.
"Okay Davy, you hear that, you hear what Mick just said. It's Mr. Schneider, man, getting you all messed up in the head. You don't really want to hurt us, Davy, we're your friends," Peter repeated, edging around the lounge chair as Davy moved. He had fallen silent and a frown had creased his brow.
"Peter's right, Davy, you don't wanna do this man," Mike chipped in. Davy glanced back at his two trussed up friends.
"Yeah, yeah just let's all take a deep breath and calm down," Micky agreed, wincing in pain as he moved his one leg.
"Let's just put down the knick knack Davy, and we can help you. We won't let Mr. Schneider hurt you okay," Peter said gently. Davy blinked several times and then suddenly the knick knack dropped from his hand, crashing to the floor with a loud noise.
"I don't…. please… I…," Davy stammered, his bottom lip trembling. Peter stepped over the lounge chair and took Davy by the hands.
"It's okay Davy, you're gonna be okay," Peter reassured him.
"Please… you have to…," Davy began but he doubled over suddenly before looking at Mr. Schneider who was still sat at the dining table.
"Tie him up Pete!" Micky cried.
"And then come an untie us," Mike added. Davy nodded his agreement as well. He seemed to be in pain.
"I umm…," Peter began, unsure of what he was supposed to do.
"Please Peter," Davy insisted. Peter blinked back tears, the terrible feeling in his stomach nearly overwhelming him and he fought the need to vomit. He brought Davy over to where Mike and Micky were tied up, then he knelt down and untied Mike. Mike got out of the chair and helped Peter tie up Davy. Peter then untied Micky. He tried to stand but sat back down immediately. It hurt too much to put weight onto the leg that Davy had hit with the knick knack.
"Sorry… I'm sorry… I-," Davy began to say but then he began to laugh, "This won't help for long."
"Mike, what do we do?" Peter whimpered.
"I got an idea that I thought of while tied up," Micky announced. Mike held up a hand for Micky to stop talking. He nodded towards the bedroom. Davy continued to laugh as the three retreated back to the bedroom, Mike and Peter helping Micky. Mike shut the door behind them as Peter helped Micky over to his bed.
"Why'd we come in here?" Micky wondered.
"So's you can talk 'bout your plan without the dummy hearing," Mike explained. Micky nodded, understanding now.
"Mike, you're bleeding," Peter gasped, going over to his other friend to look at the scratch that was running along Mike's forehead. Mike brought his fingers to the wound and felt the blood.
"I'm alright Pete, don't worry," Michael assured his friend. Peter didn't seem convinced.
"We can worry about Mike's forehead and my leg after we get rid of Mr. Schneider and help Davy," Micky snapped.
"Mick's right, Peter. We gotta help Davy first," agreed Mike, "What's your plan then Micky?"
"We gotta fool both Mr. Schneider and Davy. So I'm thinking we're gonna need some ketchup and fake knives," Micky informed them.
"Where we gonna get fake knives, ya goof?" Mike asked.
"Under my bed man, I got them in that magician package I ordered from the mail a couple of weeks ago," Micky explained.
"Oh, that's convenient," Peter grinned, trying to make himself feel better, despite wanting nothing more than to get a bandaid for Mike and take Micky to the doctor's to get his leg looked at. But of course he also wanted to help Davy.
"Alright then… so what do we do when we've got all that?" Mike questioned.
"Well, we gotta make it seem like Mr. Schneider got to us too. Like, I think Mr. Schneider made it so that Davy was so tired his mind couldn't resist Mr. Schneider's voodoo mind magic or whatever," Micky continued, "And so if we set Mr. Schneider adrift in the ocean, then pretend to get under his influence, and we stab each other and squirt some ketchup out so we look like we're bleeding and then wham! Davy will be out of the dummy's influence."
"Wait a sec man, what makes you think that'll work?" Mike pressed.
"It's a gut feeling plus that's what the script told me to say so I'm guessing it's gonna work," shrugged Micky.
"Oh okay, makes sense," Mike agreed.
"Yeah, it sounds like a plan," Peter nodded reluctantly.
"Great, so someone's gonna have to help me walk and then we gotta get Mr. Schneider and Davy down to the beach," said Micky. So it was decided that Peter would help Micky walk down to the beach and Mike would handle Mr. Schneider. After that decision was made, the three fellows exited the bedroom.
"Okay Davy, we're gonna get rid of Mr. Schneider once and for all," Mike announced, untying Davy from the chair.
"Are you now?" smirked Davy. Before Davy could do anything, Mike quickly went to where Mr. Schneider was sitting and picked up the dummy.
"Put him down!" Davy shrieked. Mike ignored him and headed to the back door. Peter sat Micky down and ran upstairs for the fake knives, which he stuffed into his pant legs. Once he came back down, he grabbed a bottle of ketchup. Then Peter and Micky walked as quickly as they could, following Mike. All three of them were holding their breath, wondering if Davy would try to attack one of them somehow on the way to the beach. But he didn't, for some unknown reason, and they all managed to make it to the beach without a hitch. Once they were on the beach, Peter sat Micky down in the sand as Mike kept on going into the ocean.
"No!" Davy screamed and lunged forward, the waves preventing him from reaching Mike in time. Mike kept walking, though, until the waves were hitting his chest. Then he released the dummy and the waves began pulling it into the wide open sea. Davy screamed and, after reaching Mike, pounced on the guitarist, pulling him under the water. A bolt of fear went through Peter and he went to go help, but Micky grabbed the bassist's ankle.
"Stick to the plan, Pete," Micky hissed. Peter nodded and took a shaky breath. Tears were brimming in his eyes. Even pretending to kill someone didn't sit well in Peter's stomach. Now that he was in this moment, Peter wasn't feeling so good about this plan. Peter took out one of the fake knives as Micky laid down, beginning to scream as convincingly as he could. Peter squirted some ketchup onto Micky's chest and he placed the fake knife onto the chest, waiting for Mike to get Davy back onto the beach. Sure enough, a few minutes later, Mike was able to get ahold of Davy's waist and hauled him back onto the beach. Seeing that the plan was going accordingly, Mike shouted, "Peter what are you doing?", as angrily as he could. He dropped Davy onto the sand and ran towards Peter and Micky's "dead" body.
"I'm sorry Mike," Peter nearly sobbed, his breath hitching. He was properly crying now, not for the effect of it but just because he didn't want to do this plan anymore, but there was no other choice. If he copped out now, everything would be ruined and Mr. Schneider would come back and Davy wouldn't be safe. Mike saw the distress his friend was in but couldn't stop to comfort him. He merely kept running towards Peter. As he did so, Peter squirted ketchup onto Mike's chest, like he did to Micky's, making sure that Davy couldn't see the bottle. Davy was just staring, open mouthed, almost as if he were in shock. Peter held up the fake knife and when it made contact with Mike's chest, Mike did his best scream.
"Oh god," he cried and then collapsed onto the sand. Peter couldn't stop crying but it was the last half of the plan. Peter knelt down next to Mike, making sure his back was turned to Davy. He drenched his shirt with ketchup and then hid the ketchup bottle behind Mike. After that was finished, Peter stood up and faced Davy, stabbing the fake knife onto his shirt. He quickly dropped the knife, dropping to his knees. He looked up at Davy, making eye contact, before collapsing much like Mike had. The three of them stayed as still as possible. For a very long minute, a very terrifying minute, Peter thought the plan hadn't worked. But then Peter heard a sob.
"Oh god, oh god! Guys? Guys?!" Davy sobbed, rushing towards his friends' "dead" bodies. Everything had suddenly came crashing around him as Mr. Schneider released his hold on him. There was nothing left. Mr. Schneider had gotten what he wanted and Davy was beginning to hyperventilate. He rushed to Peter's side, picking him up and shaking him. Mike and Micky had to be dead already, Peter should still have time, but oh god, Mike and Micky had to be dead, everything was crashing and Davy couldn't keep up with everything he was feeling. But then Peter opened his eyes and Mike sat up and Micky too, and Davy began choking on air.
"Davy, Davy don't cry, it's okay, it's okay," Peter began to babble, instantly wrapping his arms around Davy's shaking frame, squeezing him tightly.
"What's… what's going on?" Davy asked, taking very deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself down. Micky explained the plan that he'd come up with while tied up and Davy cried a little more. Peter refused to let go of Davy until he stopped crying, which was about five or so minutes. After Davy had calmed down a bit, Mike told Peter to take him back up to the pad.
"What're you going to do, Mike?" Peter asked, not wanting any of them to be apart.
"I'm gonna take me and Mick down to the good ole doc's, get ourselves checked out an all that," Mike explained, helping Micky up to his feet. Although he wanted to argue, Peter knew it wasn't going to get any of them anywhere. So Peter and Davy went back to the pad, and Micky and Mike loaded into the Monkeemobile. While they waited for Micky and Mike to come home, Peter made Davy some tea.
"Are you feeling better now Davy?" Peter asked as he handed Davy the tea.
"Thanks Peter," Davy said, "Yes, I feel much better." Peter sat down next to Davy.
"Why… why did Mr. Schneider do it Davy?" Peter questioned after a moment, adding with sympathetic look, "Of course, you don't have to answer if you don't want to." Davy stared down into his tea. It smelled horribly and he was almost reluctant to ingest it. But Peter had seemed to put a lot of effort into making it and so he took a tentative sip. Despite it's horrible smell, the tea wasn't half bad, although it was definitely more like slightly flavoured hot water than actual tea.
"Can I wait till Micky and Mike get back? I think you all deserve an answer," Davy replied. Peter nodded, smiling as reassuringly as he could.
"Of course Davy! Can I get you anything else, Davy?" said Peter. Davy shook his head, giving Peter a pat on the shoulder.
"No Peter, I'm alright now. Thank you for everything man," Davy answered. For about three hours, Peter and Davy sat around, talking and eventually they played a game of cards. Peter was glad to see Davy back to his old self. Then there was a knock on the door and Peter opened it to see Micky and Mike. Micky had a cast on his leg and some crutches.
"You guys okay?" Peter asked as the two of them entered the house.
"I'm fine. Micky just suffered a simple stable fracture," Mike informed Peter.
"I'm really sorry guys, I didn't mean-," Davy began, standing up, but Mike cut him off by saying, "Davy, don't worry bout it, okay. We all know you weren't doing what you did willingly."
"We can use my cut of gig money to pay for the hospital bill," Davy insisted though.
"Ah nah man, it won't cost too much, I mean, as long as we get a gig soon, that is. Plus, I've always wanted a cast," Micky joked.
"Now can you explain why Mr. Schneider did it?" Peter piped up. Davy nodded and they all settled down at the dining table.
"Mr. Schneider was possessed by a demon that was hired by the devil to get rid of us because the devil has a band and apparently… apparently we were just too much competition for Satan's band," Davy explained.
"Like the devil that sold Pete a harp once?" Mike frowned.
"Yes, the one and same," Davy confirmed with the nod of his head.
"Wow, guess that makes us a pretty good band," Micky grinned. Mike shot him a disapproving look.
"Well I'm just glad we're all okay and we don't ever have to worry about Mr. Schneider ever again," said Peter, relieved that everything that had happened was in the past now.
"I think we all are," Mike agreed. And so the boys made dinner and they played a game (one that wouldn't overexcite Micky) and then they all, finally, went to bed.
The End