Young Charles Lee Ray sat with his knees pulled to his chest, arms wrapped tightly around his legs as he shivered. He tried to keep his shaking at a minimum. Despite his efforts, the tin garbage can he took refuge in vibrated around him, humming a metallic tune. He didn't know what came over him. Charles was never an angry kid nor a violent one. He had just wanted it all to stop; the cruel pranks, vile name calling, and the hitting, that was the worst.
Charles clenched his bleeding knuckles, he should've thought twice about throwing that punch. Darius must've had a face made out of stone or something. Sure he spat out a cane, but he didn't even flinch. Charles had ran, sobbing heavily as his tormenter gave chase with a butterfly knife rattling in his grip. The trash can in the alley offered him shelter, but for how long?
"Daddy….Tiffany," the young Ray softly whispered the names of his long deceased father and only friend. He wished they were there with him. His dad to protect him and Tiffany to kiss and soothe his injuries like she always would then tell him that everything was going to be ok.
"AAAH!" Charles screamed as the trash can was roughly kicked over, he flopped out onto the concrete like a fish out of water and equally as defenseless as such. He covered his face. He didn't have to look to know it was Darius with two of his friends behind him. Ben and Olivia he thinks their names were.
"D-darius wait!"
The bigger kid yanked Charles up by the shirt collar and drove his fist into his gut. Charles heaved in pain, feeling the lunch he and Tiffany had shared earlier that day rise up from his stomach. He forced himself the swallow whatever undigested materials flooded his mouth.
"C'mon, you little fuck!" laughed Darius, "Where was all that good shit!? For once, you hit me like you didn't have a vagina! If you want a real fight, then I'll give you one!" Darius then threw him against the building beside them.
Charles felt the back of his scalp split as they scraped against the brick wall. He cried out as he felt his hair become damp with blood.
"I-I don't want to fight! Please! I just want it to stop!" he sobbed, "I just want it all to stop! Leave me alone please! I didn't do anything!"
"Oh, ok," snickered Darius, "You want me to stop? Want me to just end it all?"
"Yes, please," weakly nodded Charles. Darius flipped his butterfly knife.
"Well, you asked for it." He grabbed Charles' neck and held the blade to his neck.
"N-no!" Charles cried. Darius and his two friends howled with laughter. Charles tried to break free, but the wall and Darius held him firmly in one place.
"Don't worry about your girlfriend," Darius ran the blade down the smaller kid's cheek, the tip painted a thin trail of blood, "I'll take care of her better than you have, faggot!" Charles knew it, he was still salty about Tiffany preferring himself over him.
Ben suddenly started screaming. As Darius and Olivia looked back at him it was if the darkness of the alley had come alive and pulled him inside like a ragdoll.
Then there was the sound of tearing, like a cloth that had been soaked in thick and grimy liquid was being ripped apart. Ben's ear piercing screaming became much more high pitched akin to a tape recorder going haywire as the tearing grew louder. Ben continued to squeal and screech nightmare inducingly. Then all was quiet.
"Ben?" Darius and Olivia croaked nervously. Charles remained silently where he was in a state of vertigo.
Ben didn't answer, but he did show himself. The boy emerged from the darkness, moaning and gurgling. Sticking out from his neck was the blade of a broad hunting knife. Ben, mouth agape with choppy movements, slowly raised his hand and lightly touched the tip. Then fell flat on his face, from shock, he would bleed out later.
Olivia was the first to scream. She darted out towards the street outside, clumsily stepping in the blood puddle that now surrounded Ben. But she was intercepted and caught by the living shadow of the alley. Though now it took on a more humanoid form.
A deviously tall man dressed in all black; coat, pants, boots, gloves, everything. He reached out and twisted his fingers in Olivia's hair and dragged the screaming girl towards a dumpster. He slammed her head down on the rim of the container then slammed the lid down as hard as he could, only to raise it once more and bring it down again twice as hard then doing it all once more.
Olivia struggled in vain and flailed about every time the lid struck her. Blood spattered on the rusted metal and she continued screaming and thrashing her arms and legs. The tall man raised the lid once more and smashed it down, this time, it embedded itself within the back of Olivia's skull like a hatchet. Olivia stopped moving and the tall man let her body fall as he let her go.
The killer then loomed over Darius within that instant and pinned him against the wall just as he had done to Charles. He gazed down at the butterfly knife in the boy's grip and frowned in disappointment.
"A kid your age shouldn't be carrying around something like this," he mock scolded, like it was the built up to some joke. Beads of sweat poured down from under Darius' hair and onto his face. They would mix with his tears.
"Pl-please, no," the bully sobbed his final words.
"You might end up poking out someone's eyes out!," the tall man continued his morbid act, "Allow me to demonstrate." There was the punch line.
The man then drove both his thumbs into Darius' eyes, working through the balls and to the limits of the sockets. The bully's head spazzed as the digits worked themselves, twisting themselves deeper and deeper. Charles sat where he was, watching with a hand to his mouth. He wanted so badly to run, but he could barely find himself able to turn away. Something was keeping him there and it didn't seem like fear, but morbid curiosity and fascination….
Darius' mouth hung open as his head lolled onto his shoulder. It wasn't expected that he was going to move it or anything else anymore.
The tall man then rubbed the blood and eye jelly from his gloved thumbs with elegant victory. He took Darius' butterfly knife and folded it in neatly with a flick from his fingers. It was at this point he finally noticed the shaking Charles. He raised an eyebrow and looked at him rather strangely.
He had stayed, he could've ran but he stayed. He had watched this man inflicted unspeakable horror on his long time tormentors and he possibly was going to do the same to him….but he didn't. The two stared at each other. In Charles' baby blue eyes; fear, intrigue, admiration. And the tall man stared back with pity, scorn….then sympathy and intent.
Then the tall man stretched out his arm, and offered his open hand to the young Ray.
The morning wasn't young anymore when Ozzy pulled up to the side of the dormitory. It was only minutes before the wave of early classes. The students hustled in and out of the doors. It was difficult to spot a window without the shades lowered or the lights off. Ozzy parked out by the building's side where the fire escape hugged it from the ground level to the fourth.
"Ok," he said, cutting the engine and undoing his seatbelt, "Shauna doesn't have class for thirty-ish minutes. You guys stay here." Chucky leaned on the door lazily in the passenger seat. His family was seated in the back.
"Just be quick about it," Chucky retorted, "We got places to be." Ozzy stepped out of his car.
"Really? Where?" Chucky shrugged.
"Don't know. I'm actually kind of making it up as we go along." Well, that's reassuring. Ozzy frowned.
"I'll be back," he called heading over to the dorm entrance.
"You fucking better be!" Chucky called after him.
Hi, who owns you? What the student RA of the all girls dorm had said to Ozzy just as he entered. He was still thinking ironically of it by the time he reached Shauna's room on the third floor. What kind of question was that to ask another human being? When he said that he was with Shauna, the RA gave him a nasty scowl before letting him in.
"Shauna!?" he half shouted while his closed hand smacked the door. The peep hole darkened briefly before the door opened.
Shauna was all set and ready for her a.m. class, book bag over her shoulder and all. It was one of those rare times when Ozzy came to her and she didn't smell like a gym bag.
"Oh, hi Ozzy! What are-" Ozzy quickly pushed her back into her dorm and sat her down on her bed in the single room. He quickly slammed the door shut behind him.
"Ahhh," smiled Shauna knowingly, "Sorry Ozzy, I don't have time for a morning quickie right now." She was the only one in the room in the laughing. Ozzy sat down next to her and hugged her tightly, resting his head in the crook of her neck.
"You're ok!" he cried, "God, I was so worried!" Shauna stopped laughing then and awkwardly returned the hug.
"Yeah….love you too…" she kissed his head as he let her go, "Jesus, Ozzy you're a mess! I think the bags under your eyes go all the way down to your chin. Did you even sleep last night? Is something wrong?" Ozzy took her hands in his, shakingly squeezing them.
"Shauna…" he breathed, Oh fuck me, where to start? "So….do you believe in magic?" Shauna tilted her head.
"I...not really, why?"
"Oh boy," exhaled Ozzy, "Buckle your fucking seat belt and save all questions until the end…."
"Glenda if you want to listen to something then just pick a station and stick to it," Tiffany told her daughter fiddling with the car's radio. Glenda had probably scrolled through all the XM channels in one sitting.
"Might I recommend the operatic channels?" Lottie spoke.
"Ah fuck! I'm bored as shit!" cried Glenda, slamming her palm on the dial and silencing the music. She fell on her back on the driver's seat. The cloth seat absorbed her weight slightly. "I know! Let's play a game!"
"How about the quiet game?" Chucky and Lottie said together, "Jinx!" they pointed at each other, "You owe me a pack of licorice! No you!" Like father like daughter it seems.
"How about I spy?" Glen suggested harmlessly.
"You're on!" Glenda immediately pressed her face against the window, "I spy ….something that controls electricity."
Glen and Lottie instantly pointed to the grey box of switches on the building's side across from them. Wasn't exactly a hard find.
"Ok…." continued Glenda, "I spy….something that screams, 'Help! I have a major case of little man complex and severe micropenis!"
Lottie pointed to the yellow Hummer parked down the street from where they were.
"That was a bit too specific."
"Sweet! I spy….." Glenda suddenly squinted her eyes as she looked out the driver's window again, "Hmmm, I spy four dumb assholes in black trying to get into Shauna's dorm."
"Oh that's easy!" Glen pointed to the shady group of rather suspicious appearance roaming around the entrance. They just stood there, looking up at the building as if measuring its defenses….as if it had any.
"Wait, hold the fuck on, what?" Chucky climbed over the middle console and pushed Glenda from the window, "Shit! Shadow men!" He saw them just in time to see them disappear through the doors.
Chucky surveyed the building's side….a fire escape, an open air vent easily in their reach, and the fuse box which probably had a switch to the fire alarm….
"Tiff, Glen, Glenda, Lottie, outside right now," he commanded.
"Aw, right now?" moaned Glenda, "Can't we wait until they kill Shauna?"
"Now!" yelled Chucky and yanked open the driver's door. Followed by his family, they hustled over to the open air vent. He ushered them in one by one as they crawled inside the colorless metal tunnel.
"Hey!" Glenda called out as she crawled between her brother and younger sister, "This kind of reminds me of the Chuck E Cheese fun tunnels except there's no smaller kids to chase with a shiv and it smells like a rat's nest. Speaking of which, anyone ever seen a rat king?"
"I had a pet rat king once," said Glen, "His name was Marshall….he's a ghost now."
"I know I was there," Glenda lowered her head, "A moment of silence for Marshall…." She and Glen remained silent as they crawled on.
"...Uh huh," Shauna sat with her legs folded as Ozzy concluded. Truth be told, she seemed to be taking it better than expected, "You started smoking the Strawberry Cough again, didn't you, Ozzy?"
"Yes," Ozzy answered the rhetorical question honestly, "Wait, no! I'm dead serious! We're not safe here and we have to go now!"
"With the killer dolls?" Shauna joked and folded her arms, "I'm not sure what kind of weird game this is, but I'm not playing. I have that practical in thirty minutes and if I don't go then I get Saturday school and I think you know what that means."
"I'll be cursed with a two month dry spell…." Ozzy deadpanned, "Shauna, I get it. Everything seems a bit nuts right now, but-"
"The only thing that is nuts right now is you." Shauna shook her hands out of Ozzy's and stood up and began towards her door. Ozzy quickly stopped her.
"Shauna! I…." he lowered his voice, "Please….I'm just as confused as you are right now. But I'm also really fucking scared….I just need you right now. Whatever shit is going on now; living dolls, voodoo magic, or a creepy cult, I can't face it alone. All the kush in the world isn't enough to make me feel safe, but you are." Shauna could feel the pain in her boyfriend's gasping and voice cracks.
"Ozzy-"
There was suddenly an electrical buzz in the air, as if a car motor had been worked to the point of exploding. All the lights, both in the dorm room and the hallway outside fizzed before dying out. Some even popped as the filaments fried. Ozzy and Shauna gazed up at the ceiling.
"Please tell me that that's normal here…." Ozzy murmured.
"Usually is." Ozzy couldn't help but notice the uncertainty Shauna's tone presented.
"What the fu-OW! SHIT!" Chucky rubbed his head after slamming it against the vent ceiling, seconds after the building went dark.
"You ok, Chucky?" Tiffany asked from behind him.
"Yeah….just dandy. We need to hurry. They're making their move."
"HAHAHA!" Glenda pointed and laughed playfully at her father's misfortune. Lottie gave her an unamused look as usual. She suddenly pounded the metal beneath her and yelled.
"Oh my god! Glenda look! Something shiny!" she pointed over her older sister's head.
"WHERE!?" Glenda shot upwards from her crawling position. Sure enough, her head smashed against the vent ceiling. Her hands clutched her head as she fell onto her stomach.
"OW! FUCK ME IN THE ASS!"
"Oh no, Glenda, you missed it," chuckled Lottie. It was then her and Glen's turn to laugh. Chucky rolled his eyes at his kids' bickering. He could remember one time when Tiffany asked him why he was pro-choice. He simply answered this question by pointing to Glenda.
The family continued. The vent path inclined, indicating that they were going up a floor. At a certain point, Chucky could hear Ozzy's voice along with another one that sounded more feminine, they were getting close. They continued up one more incline before Chucky stopped them.
"We're either above the room or the hallway just outside," he judged, "We just need a quick way out of here…."
"Hey," Glenda suddenly stirred, poking at a large screw secured on the wall next to her, "I wonder if this is important."
"Wonder if what is important?" Chucky glanced back at his daughter, his eyes suddenly widened at what she was doing, "Wait! Glenda don't!"
"This is getting stupid," Shauna said, annoyed, "I can't miss this practical. You're welcome to come with me and wait outside in the hall. Maybe by then whatever nightmare high you're on right now will wear off."
"I'm not fucking tweaking!" cried Ozzy. Shauna just shook her head.
"This isn't funny anymore, Ozzy. Just sober the fuck up and see me then! Whatever bad high you're on I don't have time for!"
The ceiling above them suddenly buckled loudly as they jumped back startled. The drywall fell apart, ripped open like a huge sledge hammer struck it from the other side and it blew out completely. The square metal tube of the vent above fell and hung a couple meters from the floor. Out tumbled, or rather poured Chucky, Tiffany, then their children.
The dolls cried out as they fell on the floor in a pile, Chucky had the unfortunate privilege of being on the bottom.
"Ow….my back," he croaked out as his wife flopped alongside him.
"Mom….dad…." Glenda lay atop of her siblings, still holding the screw she found so fascinating.
"Yes, Glenda?" her parents growled with demonic possession.
"I think….that this screw was important."
"Hmmmm mmmmmm," Chucky and Tiffany growled together again.
"Hi Dreadie!" Glenda waved as she pulled herself off her brother and sister. She then glared at Shauna unimpressed, "Oh? Is this her? Nice to meet you, I'm Glenda, but you can call me 'Miss. Steal Yo Boi.'" Glenda extended her hand.
Shauna shrieked and staggered back.
"WHAT THE FUCK ARE THOSE!?"
"SHAUNA! IT'S OK! IT'S CHILL!" Ozzy tried to restrain her, "THEY'RE JUST THE KILLER DOLLS!"
"THE KILLER DOLLS!?"
"YEAH! BUT THEY'RE MY KILLER DOLLS!"
"My?" Chucky tilted his head.
"Shauna! Just calm-"
"NO!" Shauna broke from her boyfriend's hold and quickly rushed towards the window behind her bed. The dolls had fallen right in front of the door and blocked her path. She fidgeted with the locks a bit before suddenly resorting to punching the glass, determined to get to the fire escape one way or another. Ozzy shook his head.
"Well, she's taking this nicely," he snorted to Chucky.
"Hey," Glenda approached Shauna by the window, who had managed to crack the glass at the most, "It's all good. Just-"
"FUCK NO!" Shauna's foot suddenly shot forward and collided with Glenda's gut. The doll flew back a couple feet and slid on the floor like a bowling ball right to her family's feet.
"She….packs a punch," wheezed Glenda, "Ooo, I think my left lung has stopped working. Quick! Dreadie! Come here, I need CPR!" She let out a fake cough.
Glen then stepped forward to Shauna, easy and slow. The window finally shattered as Shauna gave it one last blow with her bloody knuckles. A few tiny slivers were buried in her fingers and stung every time she moved them.
"Miss….Shauna," Glen timidly said followed by a bow, "It's ok….we're not here to hurt you." He knew that somewhere in the near future that that statement would be bullshit, but what mattered was now. Shauna's heavy breathing slowly subsided as Ozzy made his way next to her. Even when he wrapped his arms around her, she wouldn't take her eyes off Glen.
"You…." was all Shauna could seem to say, clinging to Ozzy like her sanity depended on it, "You're…."
The building was then suddenly flooded with the blaring of the fire alarm. Everyone in the room covered their ears until their sense of hearing adjusted to the robotic screaming.
"This isn't for a fire!" Chucky yelled to Ozzy, "Shadow men are here! We need to scram!"
"My cars outside! C'mon Shauna!" Ozzy rushed to the door alongside the family of dolls, not letting go of his girlfriend's hand. Shauna only cried out in question, but followed him. He yanked open the door as she dropped her book bag beside her.
"Well….fuck," Chucky deadpanned the second they poured out into the hallway.
The dorm was now empty. All the residents had either gone to class or evacuated, setting off the fire alarm and disabling the power is a tactic used by killers and serial killers in order to isolate or flush out their intended victim. Chucky knew this….as did the Shadow men.
The four of them stood, perfect posture like British soldiers and clad in all black, at the end of the hallway. Each had a ceremonial dagger in their gloved grasps like the one from Ozzy's apartment. And just behind them, on the wall, was the switch the fire alarm which had been pulled.
The Rays, Ozzy, and Shauna started right back at them. Some with wide eyes of fear and others with narrowed eyes of disdain and loathe.
"Osborne Wilkes, the Order of the Serpent demands your soul!" the Shadow Men chorused, almost too perfectly in unison.
"Ozzy…." whispered Shauna.
"Something tells me that I should get used to hearing that," gulped Ozzy.
"Glen get Ozzy and Shauna to the car. Make sure they don't leave." Chucky told his son and motioned to the fire escape in Shauna's room.
"Yes, dad." Glen gave a bow and quickly scurried back into Shauna's room followed by Ozzy and Shauna.
"Kiss-ass," Glenda spat as she withdrew a knife from her dress with a smiley face drawn on the blade with a sharpie. At that moment her younger sister and parents brandished knives of their own. You'd truly expect that to be coming from a family of psychos.
"So," Chucky spoke up to the Shadow Men, now coming towards them, "You gentlemen like jokes? I got one for ya! Four cunts walk into a girl's dormitory, right?"
"Oh Chucky, I think I heard this one before," laughed Tiffany.
"Then you know how it ends?"
"Yeah. Four cunts walk into a girl's dormitory….none of them leave!"
Ozzy, Shauna, and Glen made it back to the car. Shauna just sat in the passenger seat awkwardly, her constant staring at Glen resumed.
"My name's Glen," he said, seeing the curiosity in her eyes.
Shauna just nodded. Again awkward as can be.
"So…are you a believer now?" Ozzy asked smugly, "Not a trace of doubt in your mind?" Shauna gave him a really dirty look.
"Ozzy….are you for fucking real right now?" Ozzy just shrugged.
"Hard to say. What's real and not right now are still a little bit unclear to me." Shauna huffed at him before pressing her head against the window and fell silent, fists clenched at her sides. Ozzy recognized that gesture; tonight he's sleeping alone. Didn't matter now, Shauna was safe. He then glanced back up towards the window they had climbed out of.
"Your family ok up their, Glen?"
"Oh, absolutely." he nodded, not a trace of concern in his voice.
"I'd imagine it would be pretty hard to take down a fully grown man when you're like a little bit over three feet…."
"Hahaha," Glen laughed nervously, "You….you would be surprised."
"Blood! Blood! Mr. Happy thirsts for blood!" shouted Glenda, slamming her knife through the Shadow man's forehead. Through the exact same stab wound again and again. With each bloody stab the knife tip drilled deeper and deeper through the skull, trying to reach the brain. Wouldn't matter if it did though. The Shadow man had passed out from shock already. Right after Glenda side stepped around his legs and slashed his tenden he had fallen onto one knee. Glenda seized the opportunity and shanked him in the gut now that he was on her level, and Glenda would make sure he would go even lower.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Chucky's tactic was more brutal than comedic. He had leaped up after a short running start and collided into the chest of a Shadow man, who fell on his back instantly. Chucky's weight and momentum had forced him down, those along with the punctured lung Chucky had given him in the brief moments of his fall. He didn't die instantly so Chucky was able to have a bit of fun. It's fair to say by the time he was done with him, the poor Shadow man's face was arranged like a Picasso painting of gore.
"Dad!" his youngest daughter called. Lottie was having a bit of a tussle with the Shadow man she faced. The man slashed and kicked at her, missing most of the time since Lottie was quick to moved out of the way, but he had managed to kick and send her flying against the wall. Lottie shook this off, took a calming breath, and came back on offense.
She slashed at the Shadow man's legs, her pattern was soon caught on to and the man was avoiding it, but he made the mistake of continuously staggering backwards. Chucky saw this.
"Got him, Lottie!" he yelled and quickly crept behind the Shadow man. Chucky then got on his hands and knees and braced. Sure enough, the back wards shuffling Shadow man tripped right over him. The good ol' table top.
Before Chucky got up, a knife came gliding across above him, sailing through the air. It found it's mark directly in the Shadow man's chest. Just as he was attempting to get up, he fell back down just as fast.
"Good one, Lottie!" praised Chucky, "I don't remember teaching you throwing!"
"Well," Lottie shrugged, "I learned it from watching you."
Unfortunately for Tiffany, she seemed to have gotten the most aggressive one of the Shadow man. He viciously struck at her all the while only making angry snarls and roars. Tiffany then cried out and managed to slash him across the face.
"RRRR! WENCH!" the Shadow man roared and smacked the knife from Tiffany's hand.
"No!" she reached out, but when she did her attacker hit her arm with a down slash. Tiffany screamed and clenched her now bleeding arm. She didn't have time to react when the Shadow man's forearm crashed into her face and knocking her down.
"LEAVE HER THE FUCK ALONE!" Chucky came from behind and jumped onto the Shadow man's back. He drove his knife directly between his deltoid. The Shadow man roared in pain, but didn't go down. He reached over his shoulder grabbed Chucky by the hair and slammed him down on the floor.
Chucky tried to get up but the Shadow man wrapped his hand around his neck and held him down.
"Damned one! Abomination!" he growled, bring his face close to Chucky's, "Deacon Burton commands your death! You and your festering sickness of a family! You're a dead man!"
Chucky growled, his voice croaky from the amount of oxygen he was being denied. Deacon Burton….that triggered him though, like lemon juice to the wounds of the past….
"I know you are, but what am I?" he rasped and drew his head back and slammed it into the Shadow man's face. The man in black covered his face with both hands and Chucky was free.
The killer doll flipped his knife in his hand of scars and plunged it through the Shadow man's forehead. Not letting go of the hilt, Chucky rotated himself one eighty to his victim's back. He yanked back on the knife and held his head back.
"Tiffany! Now!" Chucky yelled. His wife quickly rose back up, clenching her bleeding arm. The Shadow man's fleshy neck was exposed just right and just like a stick of butter, it cut just as easy. Tiffany was graceful and clean with her movement. A waterfall of blood flowed down the man in black's clavicle. Not a crease or bubble within the fluid as it soaked into his clothes. He gurgled and groaned, as is the appropriate and often common response of those who just get their throats slit.
"Tiff!" Chucky cried, he took her sliced arm in his hands and held it gently, "Let me look at that!"
"It's ok, Chucky," his wife assured softly, "It's just a little scratch."
"No, that shit looks deep!" Chucky then ripped a small portion from one of the deceased Shadow man's jacket and improvised it as a wrap for the wound, "That should stop the bleeding…"
"Ah-ah," Tiffany playfully shoved her arm to Chucky's mouth, "Aren't you forgetting something?" Chucky raised an eyebrow then smirked.
"Oh, right." He then gave the bandage a light kiss, "There, all better." Tiffany laughed lovingly.
"Thank you, honey." Lottie laughed to herself as she watched her parents nearby. Seeing them drop the whole killer doll with unquenchable bloodlust act was rare. It's times like these where they really showed that they were in fact a little bit human.
"Lottie, where's Glenda?" Tiffany asked her daughter.
"Having a field day with the Shadow man." Lottie pointed.
Glenda had ripped away the Shadow man she claimed the life of's jacket and shirt and was carving furiously at his bare torso. Glee in her eyes and little demonic squeals in her laughter. Upon closer inspection, she had carved the words; 'Glenda was here' from the collarbone to a little bit past the belly button in scarlet chicken scratch letters. She also saw fit to throw in a little bonus. On the corpse's side, in smaller letters she had carved, 'Glen is a weeaboo'.
"K! All done!" Glenda cheered as she joined her family.
"Wow," montoned Lottie, "Well….at least you're not carving male genitalia anymore…."
"Who says I stopped?" laughed Glenda. Her family could remember the last couple Shadow men Glenda crossed paths with. By the time she was done with them, their chests and backs would make Seth from Superbad proud.
"We need to go," Chucky said, "Fire escape, now." He took his wife hand in his while his daughters followed.
Burton…Chucky's fist clenched with each mental recitation the name….Burton.
"Chucky?" Tiffany whispered to him, feeling his grip on her hand tighten.
Burton….
"There you are," Ozzy unlocked his car's doors. As the dolls entered Shauna cautiously stared at them. What used to be fear was now morbid curiosity. Chucky noticed her looking at him.
"Take a picture, it'll last longer," he humored.
"I just….have so many questions," said Shauna. Chucky waved her off.
"I'll gladly have a Q and A when I damn well feel like it." Ah yes, nothing like the smell of cranky Chucky in the morning.
"Where are we headed?" asked Ozzy, "Back to that warehouse of yours?"
"No," Chucky shook his head, "We left a trail that that the damn cult is following. It won't be long before they find it. We just have to keep moving."
"But where?"
"Just drive," Chucky ordered, "Just fucking drive….go over state lines if you have too. We need to get as far away from here as possible." Chucky pulled Tiffany to him, she rested her head on his chest as he held her.
Ozzy sighed as he pulled out onto the street. In the distance, he could hear the sirens of firetrucks and police cruisers. "Good enough for me," he said and started off.
"Shauna?" he reached for his girlfriend's hand, she swatted it away on the first couple times but finally let out a sigh and wrapped her fingers around his, "I'm happy you're here and that you're ok."
"Ozzy," breathed Shauna, there was a small smile across her face. She was still processing that everything he had told was true, but nonetheless knew he was right to come and get her. She didn't know what to say, so instead she just leaned over the middle console and kissed him.
The static of the radio wasn't enough to drown out the angry hissing Glenda sitting in the back seat. "Soon…." she whispered, "Soon." She licked her lips. Glen cringed at his twin.
"Mum, Glenda's doing wierd shite again!" he tattled.
"Oh!? So, I'm weird?" argued Glenda, "You're the weird one! Open your eyes, Glen! You're not a fucking samurai!"
"Ronin!" Lottie rolled her eyes.
"Glen, Glenda, you both make very valid points," she cut in, voice full of authority, "Glen, eventually this whole 'ronin' phase has to come to an end. And Glenda, you're a raging tornado of weirdness, stop it."
"I am too a Ronin!" Glen flashed his tantō, "I trained myself in the art of swordsmanship and nobility."
"Did you actually train yourself, Glen, or did you just binge watch anime one night and suddenly decided you wanted to be a ronin?" Lottie asked.
"...Yes."
It was going to be a long ride.