Chapter 22

In the driver's seat of Celestine's SUV, Joshua curled his fingers around the car's thick, leather steering wheel and stomped on the accelerator as he rounded a curve and hit a straightaway on the back road that led from the aid station to Spriggy's. The car's engine rumbled, and Joshua felt the power swell around him. He inhaled deeply, gathering his courage.

The interior of the car smelled like Celestine. If Joshua closed his eyes, which he wasn't going to do going this fast, he could have convinced himself he was sitting in a field of flowers, under an apple tree, eating a chocolate chip cookie. If only.

The night was pitch-black, and the only light on the road was created by the searchlight beams of the SUV's headlights. Surrounded by all the Spriggy memorabilia inside the car, Joshua felt like he was already at the pizzeria. It was too bad that all of the plushies, stickers, and keychains that crowded the car's dashboard were of no use to Joshua. None of these things would be able to help him save his sister.

"Electricity," Celestine's voice said in his head.

With one eye on the spears of light drilling through the black tunnel of country road and forest and one eye in his memory, he relived his preparations for returning to Spriggy's.

He'd been getting ready to leave Celestine's basement. Bloody and shredded shirt back on, he clicked Celestine's old utility belt in place around his waist. The leather band was heavy because all of its compartments and sleeves were stuffed full, except for the gun holster, because Celestine wouldn't let Joshua have her gun. Joshua settled the belt as comfortably as he could on his hip as Celestine opened one of the tall supply cabinets and leaned into it.

"Electricity is the key." Her voice was muffled because her head was in the cabinet.

Her head came out of the cabinet. She turned, holding up what looked like a long black-and-silver barbecue fork with a lightsaber-like handle. Celestine pushed a button on the handle, and a blue sizzle of electricity sparked between the two prongs on the end of the fork-like bit.

Still carrying the tool, Celestine walked toward Joshua and pointed at his waist. "There's also a taser gun on the belt. It won't do permanent damage, but it'll mess with the animatronics' circuitry…and hopefully buy you some time."

The SUV's heavy-duty tires hit a pothole deep enough to jounce the vehicle. Joshua shut off his mind's replay. He glanced at the electrical prod, which lay in the passenger's seat. Would it really help? Given everything Celestine had hid from Joshua, could he even trust her advice at this point?

He just put his attention fully back on the road, and when he did, he spotted a faint red aura low in the distance. Neon red. Plus some yellow and white.

Spriggy's exterior lights were on. The bleary phosphorescence that reached out into the surrounding blackout looked to Joshua like a dire omen. It pretty much screamed, "Abandon all hope ye who enter here."

With the prod hanging from a loop on the utility belt, Joshua gripped the tire iron he got from the SUV's trunk after he'd parked the car at the back edge of the pizzeria's disintegrating asphalt. He skulked along the side of the grizzled old building, which struck him as a hostile enemy waiting for him, in stealth mode, eager for the coming battle. Bending low, he ran his hand along the rough, warped wood siding.

"You should probably avoid the main entrance," the memory of Celestine guided him in his head. "Look for the outlet vent on the east side of the building. It was sealed up years ago, but if you can get it open, that's the best way to get inside without being detected."

Joshua's palm transitioned from splintery boards to what felt like rusty metal. Bingo, he thought.

Step one, find the vent opening. Done.

Joshua fumbled with the utility belt. He found the penlight's compartment, and he pulled it out. Aiming the light briefly at the metal he'd found, he saw that three two-by-fours had been nailed over the vent. Even in the on-and-off blip of penlight he shone on the boards, he could see that the lumber was gray with age. It shouldn't be a problem for Joshua to remove.

He groped around on the utility belt and found the sleeve that held a folding knife. Flipping it open, he used the end of it to work the nails loose from the boards. The back-and-forth motion made a wheezy scritch, but it wasn't too loud. In just a few minutes, Joshua had pried the boards away from the vent. After that, the knife made quick work of loosening the cover from the siding.

Step two, remove the vent opening. Done.

Joshua dropped to the ground and peered into the confined murk of the vent shaft. The penlight revealed a dusty mass of cobwebs just inside the opening.

Joshua sighed and swiped away the webs. He eased into the meager space and squeezed himself forward. As he slithered, his mind took him back to the aid station. He replayed his last few moments with Celestine.

When she had handed him the keys to her car, their fingers had brushed together briefly. The effect of the touch lingered far after Celestine drew her hand back.

Troubled by the puzzle of his feelings for this woman who flipped so mercurially from friend to foe, Joshua had lifted his gaze to her face. He'd found her looking directly back at him. And of all the emotions Celestine had triggered in him, the prominent one now was betrayal. He felt double-crossed, stabbed in the back. The throbbing pain of his wounds highlighted that sensation. Could she see the bitterness in his eyes?

He didn't know, but he could easily read Celestine's feelings. Her face was contorted with humiliation and regret.

For an instant, Joshua had felt sorry for her. But then he thought about Sunny. "How many?" he asked. He clipped the words and swung them at her like he was hitting her with his own fists.

But Celestine flinched and looked away. She avoided the question. "You need to hurry!"

Joshua dropped his voice into an aggressive snarl. "How many children, Celestine? How many have your mother killed?"

Celestine's gaze flitted up to Joshua's face and then away again. "I don't know. Honestly, I don't."

"Is Sunny…" Joshua couldn't finish his question. He swallowed hard and tried again. "Is my brother one of them? In the machines?" But then he shook his head, remembering the Banette figure from his dream, sitting in the exact spot where Sunny was.

Celestine looked squarely at Joshua and shook her head. "No, Sunny died before Spriggy's opened."

Joshua felt the flames of his fury settle, by inches. It was small comfort, but at least he knew his brother wasn't a ghost trapped in a robot. But there was still the mystery of the Banette. Where it came from, he didn't know. All he did know was that that Banette puppet was not a part of Spriggy's, and that gave Joshua some semblance of comfort.

He then collected himself. Even though Sunny was gone, he could still save Ava. And he had to get moving.

"Come with me," he said to Celestine.

To his surprise, Celestine shook her head vehemently. "No. I can't do that."

Joshua leaned in toward her. "Celestine, you owe it to me. And you owe it to them."

Celestine's head shook even more empathetically, so much so that her purple hair started to shake, flowing along the back of her head. "I can't, Josh," she said. "I can't." Obviously seeing that her refusal was rekindling the fire of Joshua's anger, she rushed. "I really can't. If she's there, then…I won't be of any use to you. Believe me."

Joshua did believe her. He looked into her eyes, so soft magenta right now that it seemed that her very soul was leeching out of her. She must have lived through even worse trauma than Joshua had. She was beyond screwed up by her childhood. She was broken.

Joshua's words came out thoughtlessly. "She really fucked you up, didn't she?"

Celestine turned away from him. She was visibly quavering. "Please." Her voice was soft but insistent. "You have to hurry."

Joshua fisted the car keys. And he nodded.

As he turned away from Celestine, he saw her sink to the floor. Her sobs followed him out of her basement.

The replay in Joshua's head faded out as a tiny Pawmi scrambled past him. His knee-jerk reaction to the Mouse Pokémon brought him to a dead stop, and he could've sworn he was hearing Celestine's sobs murmuring through the vent shaft. The pitiful sounds wrapped around him just as heavily as the thick, sticky clumps of cobwebs that clung to his hair, clothes, and skin. He wanted to cover his ears to block out the sound, but he knew it came from within him. And besides, he needed his hands and arms to continue his furtive army crawl.

Even over the memory of Celestine's sobs, he could hear the sound of the "Rival Destinies" song. He'd heard it faintly when he was just a few feet inside the building, and it got louder and louder as he progressed through the shaft. The driving rock beat muffled the imaginary sounds of Celestine's pain, and they brought Joshua fully into the present.

He inched his way around a turn in the shaft, and he saw a flare of painted light reaching toward him through the darkness. He was almost to the dining room.

He picked up the pace. This created more noise, but the booming music masked the tinny banging of his knees against the metal ductwork.

In just seconds, he reached the metal grate that covered the end of the vent shaft. Through the slanted slats, he could see - minimally - into the dining room, and the stage at the opposite end. He turned his head so he could push his face up against the slats. He put his eye to one of the openings. He choked on one of his heaving breaths.

"Ava," he whispered urgently.

Ava was flushed and sweaty from dancing to the music. Her animatronic friends' act was amazing.

All the time they'd been performing, they had seemed lost in the music. Now, though, Ducky looked down at Ava. His beak flapped up and down as he said, "HEY-Y AVA! WANN-NA-A SEE-E SOMET-T-THING-G AWE-SO-OME-E?" He motioned for Ava to come up on the stage.

Yay! Ava thought. She hopped up onto the stage and ran to her Quaxly friend. She expected to be included in the performance, but instead, Ducky took her hand and pulled her back away from the others. While Spriggy and Flamer continued to dance and sing, Ducky led Ava to the back of the stage.

Ava was confused, but she didn't resist. Why should she? Ducky was one of her best friends.

So, she went along, wondering what Ducky was up to, as the Quaxly opened a door and stepped into a hall - a really small one that had almost no light. He stared down the hall, pulling Ava along by her hand.

Although his view was obstructed, Joshua could see through a door at the back of the stage. Ducky was leading Ava into a narrow corridor.

Joshua shoved at the metal grate. But it didn't budge. Backtracking so he could throw more power behind his efforts, he pounded on the vent covering. Still, it continued to hold.

Rabid in his need to get through the opening, his hands groped Celestine's utility belt. There had to be something he could use to loosen the vent cover.

Ava trusted Ducky, but the cramped hallway made her think of a cave, a long cave, underground and cut off from light. It made her a little nervous. She was about to ask Ducky where they were going when Ducky stopped and let go of her hand. The animatronic stepped back, and Ava saw the open doorway.

"What's in there?" she asked.

"THIS-IS IS WHER-E OUR-R OTH-HER FRIE-END-DS LIV-VE." Ducky replied in his usual glitched voice. He raised a hand and pointed a large, feathery finger into the room.

Still a little nervous but game, Ava shrugged and walked forward. She found herself in a room filled with tools and parts of robots. It was kind of icky-looking. She didn't like seeing all the unconnected hands and arms and legs.

Ducky nudged her and pointed again. Ava turned…

…and she immediately hugged herself. She really didn't like what she saw now…not one bit.

Sitting in the kind of light Ava had seen in haunted houses on TV, a large animatronic Amoonguss with rosy cheeks lay in a metal chair. Ava didn't like either the animatronic, which had staring eyes and a too-wide smile, or the chair, which was ugly and hard-looking.

Ava began backpedaling. She started feeling really bad inside, like something was very, very wrong. She thought it might be time to leave.

But then, a low purring sound began coming from the Amoonguss doll. Ava, stuck in place by growing fear, and the tiniest bit of curiosity, stared at the doll. As she watched, the Amoonguss' torso began to open. Its insides looked like they were filled with sharp metal. Ava's curiosity went away. Fear was the only thing left. She backed up another step.

"Ducky," she said. "I don't like this."

"THE-E SHOW-W-W MU-UST GO-O ON-N!" Ducky yelled. He was so loud it sounded like his voice box was about to burst.

And then, Ava sucked in her breath when the animatronic Quaxly lunged toward her. Before Ava could complete her breath - or make another sound - Ducky had grabbed her by the waist and lifted her off the floor.

When Joshua finally got the grate loose, with the help of a multi-tool from Celestine's duty belt, one punch sent the vent cover flying. It clattered to the floor, but the noise was barely noticeable because the rock music was now blaring even louder. Its volume was nearly at speaker-exploding decibels.

Joshua crawled out of the vent onto the floor. There, he lay still, looking toward the stage. Had the animatronics seen him come out of the vent opening? It didn't seem like it. Captain Fluffy was still dancing on his small stage, and Spriggy and Flamer were still singing along to "Rival Destinies", eyes closed, and boogying cloddishly.

Figuring that if he stayed low, Joshua could fly under the radar. He began crawling toward the main stage. As he went, he kept an eye on the animatronics, but they were still oblivious. They were like circus performers, lost in their display. They moved with an almost maniacal intensity.

When Joshua reached the base of the stage, he raised his head. He needed to reach the doorway at the back of the stage, but Spriggy and Flamer blocked his way. How could he get past them?

As he hesitated, a very loud clang-clang-clink prodded him out of pondering and into action. He leapt to his feet and whirled toward the sound…which was coming from down the hall, not from the back of the stage. What if Ducky had led Ava farther into the building in a roundabout way?

Joshua was no longer thinking about the animatronics. He was thinking about Ava. He had to find her.

Spriggy's eyes opened. He stopped singing and dancing. He looked in Joshua's direction.

Joshua tried to duck under the stage, but it was too late. He suddenly felt a hard grip on his shoulder, and before he knew it, he was staring straight into Spriggy's animatronic eyes. "AR-R-RE YA-A HAVI-NG-G FU-N YE-ET?" The animatronic Sprigatito bellowed.

Joshua squirmed and kicked desperately, but the animatronic's hold on him was too tight for him to escape. But then, he realized his arms were free, so he placed one hand on one of Spriggy's plastic eyes, and he pushed one foot on his body. Then, with all his strength, he pushed against the weight of the animatronic's grip against him. He pushed so hard that he managed to thrust the robot off of him, and with his grip on the eye, he managed to tear it out of its socket. Looking back up at Spriggy, he saw that the empty eye socket was pitch black, with a tiny red dot of light in the center.

But Spriggy was still functional, and he began to charge, his robotic arms spread out, and his paws open, revealing his razor-sharp claws. Joshua wasted no time in pulling out one of the taser guns and firing its metal probes straight at Spriggy's chest.

And just like that, an arc of blue electricity shot up through his body. It was a pyrotechnic display of sparks that fountained through the endoskeleton. Spriggy went stiff, and then ended up falling backwards. The impact the animatronic made to the floor literally shook the building's foundation. Joshua panted heavily as he looked down at the animatronic Sprigatito, now lying motionless on the floor.

Then suddenly, he looked back up to the stage, where Flamer was still standing. The robotic Fuecoco turned her head to look back at Joshua. But her body wasn't toward him. Only her head was twisted in his direction. After a few seconds, the animatronic Fuecoco dropped the guitar she held in her hands, and moved her body so that her head was straight in line with it again.

And then, she started storming toward Joshua, snapping her jaws open and shut, as if she were about to take a bite out of Joshua's body. But Joshua stood his ground, pulling out the other taser gun from the other pocket of the utility belt. He waited until Flamer got close enough to him, and just before she could ensnare his head in her robotic jaws, he fired the taser gun straight into the Fuecoco's open mouth. Another visible blue bolt of electricity surged through the animatronic.

Once Flamer was completely stunned, Joshua retracted the taser gun from her jaws, and he watched as the animatronic toppled over to her side, landing on top of Spriggy.

"Thanks for coming to Spriggy FazSprig's Pizza!" A little girl's voice came from Flamer's mouth, muffled, almost a whisper. "We hope you've had a fantabulous time!"

Joshua took a few steps back when he heard the voice. He figured it was one of the spirits controlling the animatronic that just tried to attack him.

Then there was another voice. No, a scream. Ava's scream. That sound moved Joshua fast. He had no time to waste. Though the floor beneath him was still pulsating, he turned and ran toward the sound of his sister's screams for help.

"Ducky, no!" Ava screamed as the Quaxly carried her toward the awful Amoonguss doll in the metal chair. He held Ava by the torso, head in front of him, and legs behind. Grunting, Ava squirmed and twisted, but Ducky's grip was too strong.

The animatronic flipped Ava over and began pushing her into the open doll. Ava, her heart beating faster than it ever had, did everything she could do to stay away from the Amoonguss' scary metal parts. She kicked her legs like she was swimming. She threw out her feet to drive her shoe into Ducky's hips. She balled her hands into fists and pounded on the animatronic Quaxly's arms.

Her hissy fit-like struggle slowed Ducky down a little because the Quaxly had to try to line her up with the doll, and he couldn't because Ava kept moving. However, Ducky wasn't slowed down enough. Ava knew why. She was just a little girl and Ducky was big and made of metal. She couldn't get free. She felt herself being pushed back onto the metal parts.

"Help!" she shrieked.

She really wanted her brother. She really, really did.

She was almost completely pressed into the Amoonguss doll now. Her entire body hurt from the hard, sharp metal poking into her skin. She could almost feel her blood oozing out of open wounds. Panting and crying, she was becoming too weak to fight anymore. Her throat hurt from screaming and yelling. And now she was crying, and her nose was so stuffed up she was having trouble breathing.

She looked up at Ducky. She had never been so hurt and let down. Not even Joshua had ever made her feel this bad before.

She sniffed. "Please, Ducky. Let me go."

Ducky didn't even look at her. The animatronic was reaching down. Ava started to gasp even more frantically for breath. She was sure Ducky was about to close her into the Amoonguss doll.

But then, the haunted-house light was gobbled up by bright white light. Ava squinted and tried to see around Ducky.

"Hey!" Joshua's voice shouted.

"Josh!" Ava called out. I knew he'd come. She thought.

Actually, she hadn't known Joshua would come. But she'd hoped. And then her fear had made the hope go away. But now the hope was back.

Joshua, having flipped on the main lights in the Parts and Services room, stood in the doorway, his taser gun at the ready. "Get the fuck away from my sister!" he yelled at the nasty animatronic Quaxly who was trying to shove Ava into the Amoonguss doll. Joshua recognized the Amoonguss. It was the one he'd seen in the storage room. No way he was going to let Ava get closed up inside that killing machine.

Ducky turned away from the metal chair. Letting go of Ava, the robotic Quaxly came at Joshua. "She's ours now." a voice came from inside the animatronic. The voice was soft and childlike, leading Joshua to believe that it was the voice of the child inside of Ducky.

"YOU FUZZY SON OF A BITCH!" Joshua yelled. He immediately triggered the taser gun. The taser wires streamed through the air. The probes separated, and each of them drilled directly into one of Ducky's eyes. The animatronic dropped as fast and as hard as his components had. He hit the floor in a full-prone position, legs and arms akimbo, and he began to convulse. His eyes blinked frenetically.

The instant Ducky let her go, Ava had shoved herself away from the Amoonguss animatronic. Now she jumped out of the chair and ran to Joshua. She threw herself at him.

Joshua caught his sister in his arms. He hugged her close as she sobbed against his neck.

"Are you okay?" Joshua asked. "Are you hurt?"

He felt Ava's head shake against his shoulder. "No," she said in a tiny voice. But she was crying. Her tears were hot on Joshua's skin, trickling down his shirt.

Ava pulled her head away from her brother. She stole a glance back at Ducky. Joshua looked that way, too. Smoke was spiraling up from the animatronic's charred eye sockets. The Quaxly was dead-still.

Ava sniffled loudly and said, through more sobs, "I don't know what's wrong with him! I don't know why he was trying to hurt me!"

Joshua patted her shoulder. "I know, I know. It'll be okay."

Keeping an eye on Ducky, he set Ava on the floor, but he held on to her. When it was clear she was steady on her feet, he crouched down in front of her.

"Listen to me, Ava." he put his hands on his sister's shoulders.

Ava pulled her gaze from Ducky and looked into her brother's eyes. He looked right back, and he leaned in closer to her.

"I've been an idiot," he said. "About so many things. I need you to know that I'm sorry, okay? Everything I've been hung up on…none of it matters. You're the most important thing in my life. And I swear to you, I'm gonna make sure you know that. I'm gonna show you…every day…how much you matter. I'll do…everything…better."

Ava's brows furrowed briefly. Then she swiped at her tear-covered face and gave Joshua the biggest smile he'd ever gotten from her.

Joshua felt like his heart was blowing up like a massive hot air balloon. But what was filling him up wasn't hot air; it was love. He gave Ava a smile to match her own. He meant everything he told her. He would do everything he could to make life better for both of them.

"I love you, too, Josh," Ava said. Then she glanced at Ducky. "But we should probably go now."

Joshua looked at Ducky, too. He felt like the animatronic could stand back up at any minute. He gave Ava's shoulders a squeeze. "Right." He straightened, and tucked away the taser gun. He'd use both of its cartridges, so it wouldn't be a lot of help now. He pulled out the electric prod and looked down at Ava.

"We have to assume the others are also…out of whack," he said. Ava nodded.

Joshua linked his free hand in hers. "Okay," he said. "Let's get out of here." He aimed them out of the room. They started trotting back down the hallway.

For the first twenty feet of their trek, Joshua thought they had a good chance of getting away. But then, he heard a faint buzzing pursuing them down the hall. Tensing, he quickly looked over his shoulder.

What the fuck?!

A small red-and-yellow ball was flying toward them, coming with the speed of an arrow shot from a high-powered compound bow. Joshua saw a flash of white in the red-and-yellow. He realized what he was seeing. That little pizza slice.

And then the red-and-yellow ball was attached to his injured leg. He bellowed in pain, and his leg went out from under him. The momentum of his fall disconnected him from Ava. He hit the floor, a solid impact. His landing knocked the electric prod from his grasp, and it skittered across the linoleum floor.

"Josh!" Ava started to crouch over her brother.

"Run!" Joshua shouted.

Ava looked down the hall. Her eyes were fraught with terror, but she didn't move.

"Ava, go!" Joshua urged, whipping his leg back and forth to try and disconnect the pizza slice. "Hide!"

Ava finally ran. Joshua, now trying to whack at the pizza slice with his fist, watched his sister dash across the dining room. Go! he thought when she made a beeline toward the arcade.

Ava, her chest heaving, raced past the main stage, heading toward the first row of game machines at the front edge of the arcade. She could hide behind the game cabinets. But she was worried about her brother. Slowing her pace just a little, she started to turn to look back toward Joshua.

That's when she felt it - the strong sense that someone was watching her. She whipped her head toward the small stage.

At first, she saw nothing, just stagnant blackness. Then she noticed a hint of movement. She quickly looked toward it. And she saw the ghostlike form of a little brown-eyed boy coming out from behind the small stage's curtains.

As fast as the boy appeared, he was gone. But Ava spotted something else. Two pinpricks of white light split into view from the back of the stage. Her gaze was caught by more movement. The silver tip of Captain Fluffy's hook came into view.

Ava ran faster than she ever had in her life. She shot down the first row of arcade machines and disappeared - she hoped - into the back of the arcade.