ATWN: Chapter 13

It was now evening time here in the cartoon beach town of Sunflower Shoal. We zoomed in on the fairgrounds near the beach, which was called Mondo a Go-Go. There were a few trailers parked inside the grounds, mainly as a resting spot for some of the employees here, or even as a place for them to live in. It is here near the outskirts of the trailers where we could see the beach nearby, as well as a tent that was set up by a group of five teens.

After talking with Lynn about what Double D told her yesterday (and giving her a picture of her brother and his two friends to keep, so Lynn could know what they looked like if she saw them), Lily had to explain to her friends who Lynn was and why she had to stick around with them. It did sting Lily a little that she had to tell them about Double D's secret when she promised him that she would not tell anyone, but this was a more important situation to tell them about than trying to keep his past and his scar a secret. They also told Lynn the same thing they told Carter this morning, about the fact two worlds somehow connected recently, and how they became friends with the Eds here.

Anyway, the five teens were currently hanging around the tent that Lily brought with her. Both Carter and Lynn were already sleeping inside the tent since it was so late already. Sadly, the tent was only big enough for two people, so the girls decided to let the youngest of the group sleep in it, while they stood on guard outside, mostly to see if the Eds would come here at any point during the night.

"It was a good thing in hindsight that I brought this stuff with me, huh? I didn't expect to use it like this," Lily said with a small chuckle as she thought back on why she brought these things with her, for her and Double D to use while they were trying to find more answers to the mystery, just in case they got lost.

"Yeah, that's very fortunate for us!" Naomi said before making a small, sad frown, "But, we still haven't seen any sign of the Eds at all… I just hope they're okay, wherever they are right now."

Amelia was silent for the most part while her two friends were talking. There was something that kept tugging at the back of her head ever since she arrived here at the fairgrounds.

It was about the drunk man she ran into when she first arrived here. She kept seeing him pop up around the fairgrounds in various places and times, carrying a few tools and fixing things for a few of the rides. She concluded to herself that he must have been some sort of employee who was living here that helped make repairs for the rides, considering she saw him earlier near the area with the trailers that were parked here and the tools he had. She did not see which one was his trailer though.

Amelia made an irritated sigh to herself, 'Something about that guy really irks me, but I can't explain why…'

She looked back to her two friends, '… I should try to sneak away in the early morning before they wake up. I need to find out who that guy is; it's bothering me WAY too much!'

It was now the dawn of a new day! The sun was starting to rise over Sunflower Shoal. We zoomed back to the tent that the group set up, seeing the three girls had slept on the ground; but they did have very small pillows to sleep with, thankfully.

We could see Amelia beginning to wake up, looking around to see that it was still a little dark, but the sun was coming up.

"… I should go find that guy before everyone wakes up," Amelia said to herself, getting up from where she laid down to walk back to the trailers.

Unfortunately for her, Lily was also starting to wake up. She opened her eyes to see that Amelia was walking off, '… Where is she going?' She thought with a bit of worry before getting up from where she was lying down.

Before she decided to follow Amelia, Lily turned to her backpack full of supplies. She could feel that something was off suddenly, but she did not know what. It felt like something bad was going to happen. Lily walked over to her backpack to grab the pocketknife she brought with her from her world, putting it in her back pants pocket as she did, 'I hope I'm wrong about this weird feeling…' she thought before she began to run to find Amelia.

Meanwhile, we could see Amelia wandering around the trailers that were around the area, looking to see if the man was inside any of them. She kept peeking through some of the windows to look inside, mostly for the ones that did not have any lights on. It was while she was looking around that she noticed a very weird trailer in her line of sight; it was a trailer home that was shaped like a cartoon whale. She could see that there was a dim lamp light through the window inside the trailer, meaning someone was probably in there! Amelia quickly rushed over to the trailer and hopped a little to see if she could peek inside the window. She looked inside, only to see the man she saw yesterday was in there. He looked to be asleep on his messy bed, turning a little to the window to show his face to her. That was when the realization hit Amelia like a trunk; she now knew WHY she thought this man looked familiar, despite never seeing him at all until yesterday…

"Amelia?"

"AHHH!" Amelia yelled in surprise as she fell from the window she was peeping into, landing on her butt. She turned to see Lily behind her, "Lily! Don't scare me like that!" Amelia yelled in anger, "You almost gave me a heart attack!"

"I'm sorry about that, but what in the world are you doing?" Lily asked, "I never pictured you to be a peeping Tom of any kind."

"Wait, no, t-that's not what I'm doing!" Amelia gasped, "There was something that was bothering me since yesterday, and I—"

Suddenly, the two girls felt a strong grip on their wrists: Amelia's right and Lily's left. The man who was sleeping inside the whale trailer home had woken up! They could see that he was still in his boxers and tank top, but he also put on some house shoes and his red flannel jacket so he could go outside and be presentable if anyone saw him. He had a pissed off look on his face.

"What the hell are you girls doing here?" The man questioned in an irritated tone. The whisky that Amelia smelled on him yesterday was gone, meaning he had sobered up by now, "The park doesn't open till 10," he made a groan, "Geez, the security guard must've fallen asleep on the job again…"

"W-Wait a minute, sir! I can explain!" Amelia stated to the man as he began to drag them away to the entrance to kick them out. She took in a deep breath before asking, "Do you have a younger brother named Eddy?!"

Both Lily and the man paused at what Amelia said, with Lily looking at her friend with complete shock and the man halted from walking further. The man holding Amelia's wrist began to grip her there even tighter than before, "Why do you wanna know, dove? What's in it for you?" he asked, not even looking at her.

Amelia slowly began to glare at the man because of the weird nickname he kept calling her, "I'm sorry for waking you up like this, sir. But my friends and I have been trying to find your brother and his two friends all day," she started to explain, "I don't know all the details, but they ran away from home to get to your house. We want to find them to see if they're okay!" she could feel herself tear up a bit despite the fact she was still glaring at Eddy's brother, "We WANT to help them, so please tell us! Have you seen them?!"

The man was silent at Amelia's question as he finally looked at her, narrowing his eyes even further than Amelia was doing to him. He noticed how serious she was by the look on her face; seeing how much his little brother meant to her. His face eventually faltered into a completely blank stare, and his lips went from a frown to a straight line, "I haven't seen that little Pipsqueak in six years, and I'm positive he has no clue about where I live. I can't help you even if I wanted to," he glanced back to the entrance of the fairgrounds, "While I do miss that Pipsqueak of a brother, I rather keep myself FAR away from my family whenever I can help it, which includes him, sadly."

He then started to walk back toward the entrance to kick the two girls out, not even elaborating on what he was talking about, "Now then, I think you two should leave…"

As Eddy's brother was hauling them back to the entrance of the fairgrounds, the two girls suddenly felt a strange presence; something that felt VERY wrong. It was Lily who turned and looked up at the man to see that there was now a small, purple-like shadow creature looming over his shoulders and head. The creature looked like it did not belong to either this world or their world, but another world entirely! It seemed like Eddy's brother did not notice the creature was there until the shadow fazed into him, disappearing inside his body. This made him come to a complete halt from what he was doing.

Eddy's brother glanced back down to both Amelia and Lily again, only to see something was immediately wrong with him. The beady black irises of his eyes were gone; they could only see the whites of his eyes now, like he was possessed, "On second thought… I'm guessing whatever happened there was bad, huh? Making those 'brave' warriors run away like that?" he asked them. His voice sounded extremely low and more distorted than it did a minute ago like he had a filter on. He looked toward them again as a sick smirk started to form across his face, "That's a damn shame, Prince Alexander and Dimitri will be so lonely without you two!"

The look on Amelia and Lily's faces turned into horror very quickly. The tone of voice he used when he said that made both of their skin crawl. This situation was now EXTREMELY dire!

They could then feel Eddy's brother, or whoever was now controlling him, dragging them both back to his whale trailer home by their wrists instead of the entrance, "Let's see if the prince and his minions show up here, I'm curious to know if they can find us! If they don't get here by the end of the day, well… We'll just have to wait and see!"

The two girls did not even have a chance to scream out for help to anyone before the man closed his trailer door behind him, his grip did not falter on the two girls he now had hostage.

About two hours later, we could see Naomi beginning to wake up, only to see how bright it was this morning. She yawned a little as she stretched her arms, glancing over to where Lily and Amelia were sleeping… Only to see them nowhere around.

"Uh… Did they start looking around for them this early?" Naomi questioned aloud to herself, scratching her head in confusion. She went over to the tent beside her, only to see Carter and Lynn were also beginning to wake up, "H-Hey, Carter, did either Amelia or Lily tell you where they went?"

Carter looked at his sister in confusion before replying, "No, we just woke up like five minutes ago, sorry."

Naomi's face slowly began to frown, "I have a bad feeling about this. They usually tell me if they need to go anywhere or not. This isn't like them…"

Suddenly, the group heard a weird, loud sound coming from the Ferris wheel nearby on the fairgrounds. They turned to see the Ferris wheel spinning faster and faster until they saw three figures fly from it and towards the entrance, screaming as they did. Naomi widened her eyes, she recognized who the figures were!

"I-It's them! Oh thank god, we finally found them!" Naomi cheered with happiness.

Carter and Lynn widened their eyes, "Let's go see if they're okay! I wanna meet them!" Carter said.

The three teens started to run in the direction that they saw the Eds fly off in, only for Lynn to stop running with the other two. She started to feel very nervous about meeting her older brother. Despite not having any memories of him, Lily said that her brother was a very kindhearted person, and she could tell that just by looking at the picture she saw of him. But now, she kept doubting herself; will he even recognize her? Would they even get along? Would the place she's living in now even let her live with him, even if it was proven that she was his brother or not?

"… I should try and find Lily first," Lynn stated to herself, "She and Amelia would need to know that we found them and that they're safe… I think."

As Lynn was about to venture off to try and find Lily and Amelia, she suddenly came to a halt as six bright pillars of light formed in front of her. She had to shield her eyes before noticing there were six older teens there in front of her after the light went away, "W-Who are you…?"

Author's Note (January 12th, 2024): Yay! That was done VERY quickly! I'm happy about that. Also, oooooo! The mysteries are coming closer together to being solved! Stay tuned for that revelation next chapter!