I will be rather busy the next few days so there will only be one chapter this week.
to Puntime Chica: XD you can tell both your shoulder angel and demon that I will see if any of those songs will suit a future chapter.
to antoniedjones123: only time will tell if this will be the time where Jeremy finally kicks the bucket. huh, I wasn't aware of that, I never read/watched that far in One Piece.
enjoy the story
Calem might have coaxed Soren to fight for his life, and although it got the teen out from the critical condition, it still didn't change the fact that Soren is too weak for any further operations. So all they could do is wait and see if Soren can keep up this fight.
This agonizing recovery from Soren didn't help on Hope at all. Poor girl tried so hard to keep on a brave face, but for the head staff, it is clear that she is terrified of the thought losing her cousin and that stressed her out so badly that she just did not have the energy to deal with anyone.
Noticing that Hope needs to be around people in order to feel better, yet also alone because of the high-stress thanks to the worry about Soren's condition, Jeremy suggests the others that they should show her the room downstairs. "It will be better than letting her stay in my house all day." This way they were closer to the girl and they can feel much safer in knowing no dark killer spirit will try and harm her with this placed filled with the light kind.
The others agree and after Hope has arrived the the resturent, Scott takes the very confused girl into the storage room. As he reveals the hidden room, he tells Hope for the first time in a hard tone. "Do not tell anyone about this room." A bit startled over the sudden change for the usual laidback man, the girl quickly nods that she won't and Scott leads her downstairs. They get greeted by a big gray cat, purring loudly while stroking its body up against both humans legs. Scott pets the cat, noticing that Hope is looking very unsure what she should do with Molly. Must be the first time she has been this close to a cat if she has no idea how to react to it. "This is Molly, she might try get upstairs but please do not let her." and after have shown Hope how to properly pet the cat, he tells her he has to leave. "Mike will come and check on you over the day, don't worry about the ghosts, Calem made them promise not to bother you down here." She nods slowly and with that said, he leaves Hope in this room.
With Scott gone, Hope sits down onto the bed, not really sure what to do. Molly decides what she can start with by jumping onto her lap, demanding to get petted. Hope obeys and while petting this very cuddly cat, she notices some sort of game console and ponders if she is allowed the play on them? Does makes her think about home, she and father always played games together. She misses him…
After have petted Molly for a while, Hope decides to risk it, moves over and starts the console. She almost squeals of joy when the game in the console proves to be Mario Kart, she loves that game! Picking her favorite character in form of Yoshi, it does not take long before she is having the lead in one of the maps and has a bunch of fun messing around with the other cars. Wish there isn't just the computer she has to play against, playing against other people like her father is much funnier.
She pauses the game of the sound of a door opens, expecting Mike but to her surprise and dread of having to deal with a stranger, a young man walks down the stairs. This orange-haired teen picks up the maiving for attention cat and sits down on the bed, watching the anxious Hope with a titled head. Putting down the cat beside him, the teen starts writing on a notebook and hands it to her.
This catches Hope by surprise, curious she takes the block, frowning at what this other one has written.
'Hello, my name is Thomas. I'm the mechanic of this place, my father is one of the spirits my uncle says you can see. And before you ask, no I cannot speak. Would you mind I play the game with you?'
Hope has to read this very strange introduction from Thomas several times to get that this teen is unable to speak. Eyeing this soon to be an adult who watches her carefully; seeing no malice in his eyes like some of the other kids Soren had to protect her from back when they still had a home. She does not fancy the thought, but she guesses he can't be all bad if he is the son of the probably friendliest of all the spirits.
"Sure." She tells Thomas slowly and moves to the side so Thomas can sit down beside her.
Thomas picks up the other console and after having received his writing block, he asks: 'how good are you at this game?'
Hope just can't help it. "Enough to beat you." She replies rather smugly. The other teen simply nods and picks his driver which is Luigi. He lets Hope chose the map.
At first, Hope is unsure if she should start a conversation with Thomas or just ignore him and play the game. She picks the latter since that sounds the safest way, but the more maps they get through the more she starts enjoying having someone to play with. Thomas is a good challenge, he is able to beat her in the game if she slacks off and that Hope is glad for it's boring to play against a newbie.
When Mike gets down, he smiles seeing that their two youngest are having fun, so after having laid down the plates with food, Mike leaves them quietly, not wanting to ruin this moment.
Thomas and Hope didn't notice him, only realized he must've been down here when they spot the two plates of now cold pizza.
Finishing the map, Hope leaves the game and start eating the pizza. Thomas joins her soon after, at first they eat in silence, broken when Hope asks. "Do you know why this place has so many ghosts?" Thomas gives her a confused look and Hope realizes that perhaps this one is not one of the people she should speak with this about. "um never mind…" and she turns her attention onto the cat and pizza.
It takes Thomas a moment to remind himself that this girl can see dead people. One of them being his father. He pulls out his block and starts writing his answer to her former question when done he hands the block to Hope and while the girl reads, he eats his pizza.
'I do not know the full story, but I do know that every animatronics here had at a time been possessed by a dead people. My father used to possess Spring the golden hare.'
"Why don't they do that anymore?" Hope asks confused, for the spirits does seems to want to be in those robots again for some weird reason. When noticing the confusions in the older teen's face, she explains what Soren once told her. "Forcing a spirit to possess something hurts them. Soren told me I never should try; that very action can make the spirit snap and hurt us." That might be the reason why he is so reluctant teaching her how to do those cool ghost tricks he at times does when getting emotional. Soren did once force a possession on a spirit, she still has nightmares how much that spirit wailed from the pain but Soren said it was for the best as that one would've seriously hurt them otherwise. Hope does most of the time takes his warnings with a grain of salt as her cousin is scared of a lot of things after his mother almost killed him. But she believes he was right when it came to that spirit, it was scary and she is glad Soren dealt with it.
Thomas starts writing again. 'Most of what you said went straight over my head. But when my father and those other spirits were trapped as you said. They seemed completely okay with it.' Adding after have taken a bite of his pizza. 'Maybe they just got used to it?'
Hope has honestly no idea, he shrugs. "Don't know, maybe I should ask them." But she can only do that after hours and there are some hours before this place closes its doors for today, so she and Thomas returns back to beat each other in the Mario Kart game.
After the last customer has left, Hope and Thomas leave the room downstairs, and when sure the cleaning crew is not nearby to hear. Hope asks one of the spirits. "Is it true you want to be trapped in those robots?"
The spirit, the one Thomas says is his dead father stares at her for a second before it replies. 'If it's possible, yes. We would very much like to return.' and she asks, to be sure this one knows it is going to hurt a lot. "You know it will hurt? Not sure how much but Soren says he thinks it's like being stuffed into a very small box filled with sharp knives. You still want it even with that pain?"
The other spirits turn, those not taking animatronic shapes all mutter among themselves that they much rather want to be invisible than go through that. The smaller spirits there takes shape of what the head staff calls the Toys looks very uncomfortable but they do not say they have changed their minds about this.
The spirit at times taking shape as the purple rabbit snorts as if it's not a big deal. 'We have already gone through it before, so it can't be that bad.' Hope blinks at this remark and asks it confused. "Is that why you at times changes form?" But from the confused looks they give her it seems they are not aware of this little fact.
These spirits are indeed weird but she and Soren did agree on trapping them in the robots again in exchange for staying here.
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"Hey kid, I was thinking of going out and get you some more clothing." Jeremy calls into the room he gave Hope as long she lives here. The girl does not have any proper clothing other than what he had for April when she came on visits and forgot to pack enough. The only problem that April is three years older than Hope and quite the tall girl, so when Hope wears it, she looks smaller than she already is and Jeremy would prefer this kid has clothing of her own. "We're leaving in ten minutes, so finish off what you are doing." Ten minutes and the girl joins him at the door, and Jeremy is happy Hope is not of those kids who think that ten minutes mean a half hour.
The drive to the clothing store happens in silence, the girl still not much up for conversation. She does ask what kind of clothing she can pick when they arrive at the spot. "Whatever you like as long it's not too expensive." Jeremy replies and lets her run off, Hope is however hesitant doing that, he realizes the reason to why: It's because she feels safer around him.
"Your brother is really nice, bit weird though, he keeps playing around like a child." Hope points out very suddenly and Jeremy has to bite his lip not to snort a laugh of how well the hit that on the nail. Also, it is sort of nice to know that Martin is nearby, still sucks he can't hear or see him.
The shopping went rather well, Hope was very thoughtful in what she picked and as they leave the store, Jeremy carries a bag filled with several sets of clothing and won't have to complain how big of a dent it made on his wallet, girl was very mindful on what she chose. And since Hope didn't spend all day picking clothing, Jeremy decided they can get something to eat before going back home.
Had to tell the girl she will only get ice cream after she has chosen some real food, so she got herself some spareribs and barely five minutes after she got them. Jeremy has to fetch more napkins for the girl has the meat and its coating all over her face. Must admit that he is quite amused, Hope is not of those 'vegan' girls he dealt with as a kid. Nope Hope loves meat and Jeremy has a strong feeling that he has to tell her to eat green for otherwise, she will only eat meat and pizza. Oh and ice cream, she really likes ice cream.
"When was the last time you got ice cream?" He asks her.
"When mother was still alive." Hope replies in a strange matter of fact tone which catches Jeremy quite off guard. He did forget his brownie cake for a moment just so he can get his head together and reply the girl properly on the sudden dark subject. "How long ago was that?"
Hope shrugs, she's not sure anymore. It feels like forever she and Soren has been running around on the street. "Don't know." She misses her mother and wishes her spirit would appear but she can't because… well, the Twisted One ate her...
"Oh my god, Hope, I finally found you!"
The ice cream gets completely forgotten and fearfully Hope leaps away from her chair, swiftly hides behind Jeremy and his just as surprised spirit brother. The servant of the Twisted One only stop approaching her when Jeremy gets up from his chair with a harsh. "Back off lady, the kid clearly does not like having you near." and the servant replies with a laugh in the attempt to hide the danger she embodies. "Oh, poor thing just forgot about me. It's okay, I'm her aunt." The woman eyes her but Hope no longer finds comfort in this woman, less so when she has found her.
"Let's get you home—"
"No! stay away from me!" Hope cries and tighten her grip on Jeremy's shirt. "Don't let her take me!" The surrounding people all look up and starting to get wary around the servant. Hopefully, they will make sure her aunt won't take her and finish the job on her and Soren.
Okay, Hope really does not want to get near this woman claiming herself as her aunt. Jeremy puts a hand on Hope as a sort of shield. "Kid staying with me." That, the woman did not take nicely, in fact, this refusal of handing Hope to her made her get a look in her eyes that made his skin crawl. "I am her guardian and she belongs to me!" She almost lunges at him to get the terrified girl. "You have no right claiming her, so give me my niece before I call the police!" and Jeremy retorts back to this crazy woman. "Go ahead! I'm not letting Hope off my sight unless you prove you have the guardianship!"
The woman did and the police take all three of them to the station. Here Jeremy makes sure he speaks with Detective Williams about this sudden issue. "She claims to be Hope aunt but even if she is…" He turns to the girl sitting at the detective's desk with her sage colored eyes fearful watching he proclaimed aunt rant to another police officer. "I don't think you should let her. Kid practically fled away from her."
Detective Williams can see too that this girl going by the name Hope is really afraid of that woman. "I will need to check up on this before I can say what is going to happen." and decides to ask the girl as it will make his job somewhat easier. "Hope, is that woman really your aunt?" The girl nods. "Please don't let her take me…" She begs him fearfully and he asks after have claimed his notebook. "Can you tell me the reason to why?" Almost drops it when Hope replies in barely a whisper. "She's going to kill me… she killed Soren… "
It might be a kid's word against this woman but Nathan will stay on this terrified girl's side. He does not want to deal with another child murder case anytime soon if he can avoid it. "Was Soren your friend?"
"Soren is my cousin."
Jeremy decides to give a bit more details to the detective as Hope spoke as if Soren is dead. "He's at the hospital, recovering from a knife wound."
Can it be that knife wound came from that woman? God, how can Soren's own mother harm her son this way? It seems like they are dealing with a case of an attempt on murder, will be if Soren will die from his wounds. "Alright, I need to speak with the woman." Nathan says and suggests Jeremy. "Until we know further details, I want you to keep an eye on Hope. I will call when we know more."
Jeremy nods and starts leaving with Hope.
The moment the aunt saw this, she began ignoring the detective question her, demanding as she storms after the two. "Don't you dare take her away! She's mine and so is Soren! Mine!" Nathan and his co-worker stops her and The detective has to restrain her from trying to pursue the now really scared girl and glaring man. "Ma'am take a seat, we're not yet done asking you—"
"Let go of me!" She screeches at him and if he hadn't kept her hands restrained already, Nathan is certain she would've left scratch marks over his face. "You can't let him take her from me! She belongs to me!"
That woman is crazy! Jeremy thinks on how she is practically fighting the policemen just to get the shaking in fear Hope. Detective Williams gives him a look there clearly says he should leave, no arguments there. "Let's go." He tells Hope and leaves the room and the screeching like a banshee woman.
Hope clings to him as if her life depended on it and he does not blame her. That woman was insane and dangerous if Soren's wounds came from her.
"Will she take me?" Hope asks, her voice shaking with fear.
Jeremy eyes the girl and squeezes her hand lightly. "No, we won't let her take you." He replies, but Hope is too afraid and still has trust issues from how doubtful she is about his promise. It seems she is smart enough to know that unless the police find evidence that her aunt is dangerous and not just a distressed aunt wanting her niece back, then the police is forced to give Hope to her. Well, Jeremy won't let her, he's going to keep that promise even if he has to fight that crazy woman for it.
now you know who the crazy woman is, and what lead Jeremy to drive right into the claws of the Twisted One.
chapter and song suggestions are always welcome. and until then, I will see you the next chapter