Chapter 23
Although Joshua could feel chomping teeth against the bandages on his leg, he was pretty sure that the pizza slice was getting mostly a mouthful of gauze and padding. It hadn't yet managed to sink its teeth into the meat of his leg.
He flung his leg against the floor, using the hard surface to scrape the pizza slice off him. The pizza slice tumbled back. Joshua immediately scrambled toward the electric prod.
When he was still a couple feet from the weapon, he stretched out his fingers. He was almost-
He screamed as a jagged jolt of pain shot up his leg. He looked back. The pizza slice had reattached, and this time, it got a better grip. It had a healthy mouthful of Joshua's calf, and it was starting to gnaw its way up his leg like it was an ear of corn.
Joshua flipped over and started using his right leg to kick the pizza slice on his left leg. The pizza slice hung on as Joshua stomped on it. Once, then twice, three times, but the pizza slice held onto his leg.
Finally, Joshua's heel managed to land square in the center of the pizza slice's googly-eyed face. The blow wrenched it free of his leg. Unfortunately, it took a good-sized chunk of his calf with it when it tumbled away.
Joshua was hit with a wave of nausea, but he ignored it. He also ignored the rush of liquid warmth pouring down his leg. He had to get the electric prod. He surged toward it, and he grabbed it. And he fumbled to find the power switch.
A clatter followed by a loud-sounding buzz let him know that the pizza slice was once again in motion. The buzzing sound grew louder, and Joshua knew the thing had launched itself toward the back of his head. He spun from his stomach to his back. He brought up the electric prod.
His timing was impeccable. When he pointed the electric prod to the space above his head, it skewered the pizza slice right through its buck-toothed mouth, just like when he thrust it into Flamer's jaws. A spark show similar to the one he had seen on the stage - but on a smaller scale - blew up right in front of his face. The sparks came from the pizza slice's round white eyes.
Joshua flicked the prod, sending the pizza slice flying. It hit the floor, rolled…and was still.
That was when Joshua's mind provided him with a sick vision of what would have happened if he hadn't turned over. The pizza slice would have landed on the back of his head, and it would have chewed through him, the same way it had gone through the skull of the man he had found in the Parts and Services room.
He shook off the unwelcome inner movie. He concentrated on getting to his feet.
Ava risked a peek around the bright-red-and-gold side of a big arcade cabinet - she didn't know what game it was. She immediately shrank back into her hiding spot.
Captain Fluffy stood at the front of the arcade, next to the smashed prize cabinet Ava had darted past less than a minute before. The animatronic Eevee, who used to be Ava's friend, was turning his head from side to side. His eyes, which were really, really bright, looked mad. He was trying to find Ava, and not for anything good.
Or maybe Ava was wrong. Maybe Captain Fluffy was still her friend. Maybe he wasn't angry at her. Maybe he was worried for her. She decided to take another itsy-bitsy look. She braced herself against the side of the big game cabinet and started to lean forward, and her hand slid.
Tinny music busted out. The machine's lights fired up. Pings and dings and beeps blipped over her.
Captain Fluffy's head whipped around. He shot his gaze toward the look-at-me machine.
Ava flattened herself against the cold metal side of the machine while it continued to scream, "She's over here!"
Ava's finger must have grazed a power button. Dumb, she thought. She should've been more careful. She shouldn't have tried to look again.
She squeezed her eyes shut as she heard the stomp, stomp, stomp of Captain Fluffy's approaching footsteps. Then she chastised herself for being such a stupid baby. She shot away from the noisy machine and hurtled toward the ball pit. Once there, she quickly and quietly lowered herself into the sea of multi-colored plastic balls.
Right before she pulled her head under the surface, she snuck a look back toward where she'd been hiding. The animatronic Eevee looked down at it and then looked around it.
Ava kept very still beneath the plastic balls. She held her breath as if she were underwater.
Joshua, limping heavily, reached the center of the dining room. He checked where Spriggy and Flamer were still laying on the floor. They were still prone there, in the same position. He then looked toward the small stage. It was empty. Where was Captain Fluffy?
"Ava?" he called softly. He'd seen her go toward the arcade, so he started to head that way.
He was still several feet from the arcade when he heard a voice calling his name. A child's voice.
He turned. And he felt the blood drain from his face.
Standing in the archway that led to the lobby and main corridor was a little boy. A little boy with tousled hair and bow-like lips.
"Sunny?" Joshua whispered.
Ava had to start breathing again. She opened her mouth and took a gasp of air. And another. And another. Silent little breaths. The air didn't smell good at all. It smelled dirty and spoiled, like food that was too old. Buut Ava did her best to ignore the yucky stink. She held herself super-duper still.
From the clomping footsteps, she could tell Captain Fluffy was getting closer. If they'd been playing the warmer-colder game, Captain Fluffy was getting warmer. A lot warmer.
More clomps. The animatronic was hot, hot, hot.
"RUL-LE BREA-AKER-RS BE WALK-LKIN' THE-E-E P-P-LANK!" the animatronic Eevee called out.
Ava was sure that if he looked down, he'd be staring right at where she lay, hidden by the pool of brightly colored balls. She didn't move even the teeniest, tiniest muscle.
Joshua walked toward the apparition of his little brother. But Sunny didn't move. All he did was stand in the shrouded archway, staring blankly at Joshua.
"Sunny?" Joshua said again, a little louder.
"She's here, Josh," Sunny said.
The boy took a step backward. Then a second step.
"Wait!" Joshua called.
He hurried forward as fast as his leg would let him. He crossed the few feet between himself and Sunny in little more than a couple seconds. But when he was almost to the archway, Sunny melted away. It was as if his brother became part of the gloaming under the archway.
He was there, and then he was…
…something else.
In Sunny's place, someone in a Sprigatito costume appeared. Not just someone. A woman. Joshua could tell this from the Sprigatito's height and its stride…and its wobbly but grandstanding swank.
The Sprigatito strode toward him. He put on the brakes and began backing up. He wanted to turn and run, but he couldn't take his eyes off the repellant Grass Cat Pokémon.
The animatronics were ragged and dirty, but they looked pristine compared to this atrocious costume. This Sprigatito suit looked like it had gone through an apocalypse. Tattered pointed ears on either side of a molding top hat, and cloudy eyes that were surrounded by smudges of black. The Sprigatito's sickly grayish-green fur was mottled with stains, some of which looked disturbingly like blood. Its fur was torn away in jagged strips, revealing blackened splotches beneath. But the worst part about the costume was that it was striding toward Joshua with a filthy-toothed smile spreading with old, rotten, and razor-sharp teeth. The Sprigatito held an ax in one hand, and it held a butcher's knife in the other.
Joshua immediately went for the second taser gun on the utility belt. He aimed, and fired. The charged metal prongs hit their mark. They landed right in the middle of the Sprigatito's chest.
But the Sprigatito was unfazed. It kept coming.
Joshua attempted another shot, but he wasn't fast enough. The Sprigatito quickly closed the distance between them. Without breaking stride, the Sprigatito ripped the taser probes from its chest. It reached Joshua and swatted the taser from his hand.
The taser hit the floor with a crunch and clickety-clack. From the corner of his eye, Joshua saw it spin away.
Before he could regroup, the Sprigatito gave him a driving shove. Its strength was almost superhuman.
Joshua went flying backward. His body hit part of the fort that he and Ava had built with Celestine and the animatronics, which felt like it had happened in another lifetime. When he landed, he was sure he heard a crack of bone. Or maybe it was just a ligament giving way. Whatever it was, it hurt.
And that was just the start. As he crashed toward the floor, the fort above him came tumbling down. A torrent of tables dropped toward him like big, four-legged dominos knocking into one another.
At the same time, as if by the sheer force of the Sprigatito's evilness, the room was plunged into near-darkness. And a fantastical laser-light show began.
Ava looked up through the semi-transparent layer of colored balls. Long thick strips of light, like neon crayons, were cutting through the air over the pit. Ava thought the lights were pretty, and she wished she could see them better. But she didn't move.
It was a good thing she didn't, because there was something else up there, too. Ava could see the boxy shape of Captain Fluffy's pirate hat coming down toward her. She could see his bright eyes piercing through the balls, searching for her.
Groaning, Joshua extricated himself from under the pile of tables. He could feel the continual warm gush of blood flowing down his leg. His calf had been bleeding since the pizza slice had taken a bite out of him, and he hadn't had time to do anything about it. Now the tables' impact had sped up the bleeding. He could feel a river of blood coursing down his leg and saturating his sock.
The liquid heat wasn't confined to his leg. From the sticky wet sensations on his chest and back, he knew his other wounds had reopened, too.
"YOU COULDN'T JUST LEAVE IT ALONE, COULD YOU?" a distorted, almost demonic voice called out. "LUCKY ME!"
It was the Sprigatito. It had to be. Joshua needed to move, but he couldn't seem to get himself in gear. All he could do was belly-squirm across the floor.
"WAKE UP, CHILDREN!" the deep voice called out again. "I HAVE SOMETHING FOR YOU TO PLAY WITH!"
Stopping to catch his breath, Joshua looked for the Sprigatito. He had to squint to see. The constantly moving laser lights distorted everything in the room. Joshua had to squint even harder to try to separate the phantom shapes from real ones.
Thankfully, he didn't see the Sprigatito. Not thankfully, though, he did see movement from Spriggy and Flamer on the floor. Or he thought he did. He turned his head and inched forward to get a better look.
No! He thought when he saw that Spriggy and Flamer were back on their feet.
He tried to get to his own feet, but he couldn't. His blood loss was worse than he'd thought, because the floor felt like the deck of a ship at sea. He tried again to push off the floor. He began to raise his upper body, and then he…
…he stopped.
He'd found the Sprigatito. And it was coming his way.
"THIS IS PERFECT!" the deep voice called again. "FIRST, I KILLED YOUR BROTHER! NOW, I KILL YOU! SYMMETRY, MY FRIEND!"
Because of the disorienting laser lights, the Sprigatito looked like it was winking in and out of existence as it approached. It was hard to focus on. That, however, didn't prevent Joshua from noticing that the Sprigatito was holding up the knife and the ax visible for Joshua to see.
Joshua looked behind him. Spriggy and Flamer were still advancing toward him, too. At the Slugma-like pace he was moving, it wouldn't take the animatronics long to reach him.
He turned front again. The Sprigatito was closer.
He looked left and right. A wall on one side. The tables on the other. He was cornered.
Ava was barely breathing, which was a good thing. Not only did it keep her quiet but it kept her from having to inhale the scuzzy scent of the old, dusty plastic balls. The cruddy, powdery surface of the balls made her-
Oh no. No, no, no.
She crinkled her nose and attempted to hold in the sneeze that tickled her nostrils. But she couldn't. Because she was trying to muffle it, her sneeze came out as a hiss. But it still came out. And it was loud enough for…
Strong hands clamped onto her shoulder, and she felt herself being hoisted upward. She immediately started kicking and screaming, trying to twist herself free. But she was held too tight. She came up out of the ball pit, and she let out another sneeze.
She turned to face the animatronic Eevee in his giant glowing eyes. He didn't look like the Captain Fluffy that she had met before. This Captain Fluffy looked deranged and sadistic. He raised his free arm high in the air, the arm with the hook. Ava closed her eyes, unable to do anything but wait for the animatronic to slash her with it.
But she didn't feel the hook piercing her skin. She didn't feel anything. Then, she heard the sound of electricity, and then she felt herself falling. And then being caught. Not by Captain Fluffy, but by someone else. When she opened her eyes, she saw…
"Celestine?"
Ava stopped fighting, and Celestine pulled Ava into a tight hug. Ava then brushed herself off and looked as she looked at Celestine - and at Captain Fluffy. Celestine was holding the electric prod that Ava had last seen in Joshua's hand. And Captain Fluffy was on his back, jerking around like he was having a fit.
"SHE-E TOOK-K IT-T DOW-OWN TO HA-A-MME-ER TOW-WN!" the animatronic Eevee croaked out before falling silent.
"I don't know what's happening to our friends," Ava said. "I don't know why they're trying to hurt us."
Celestine knelt down in front of Ava. Her hair was loose, and it was tangled around her face. She looked wild. But when she spoke, her voice was calm. "Ava, sweetheart. They were never our friends."
Ava felt like she was going to cry, but she didn't.
Celestine took one of Ava's hands. "Listen, Ava. There's someone here who wants to hurt us very badly. I need to get you somewhere safe. And then I need to go help your brother."
"I can help, too."
Celestine started to shake her head, but then her gaze went to Ava's chest. Ava frowned, looking down to see what Celestine was looking at. She didn't see anything icky on her overalls. So, what was the problem? Ava lifted her gaze to Celestine's face. Her eyes were wide, and she had that look that people got when they had an idea.
"What?" Ava asked.
"The drawings," Celestine said. Her voice was a half-whisper, like she was amazed by something. She looked into Ava's eyes. "It's the drawings!" She tucked the electric prod under her arm and grabbed Ava's shoulders. "You're right, Ava," she said, "You can help!"
Ava made a face. Huh?
Celestine started talking really fast. "Your friends, they don't remember. She hurt them badly. She took their families, their love, and their lives. But they don't remember."
"I don't understand."
Celestine let go of Ava's shoulders. She reached out and pulled Ava's drawing pad from her overalls' chest pocket. "You know what happened to them," she said. "But they don't remember." Celestine pulled out Ava's pencils and used them to tap on the pad. "So, tell them. Show them what really happened."
Ava looked from her pad and pencils to Celestine's face. What?
Ava suddenly jumped back to a memory, a really recent one. She remembered seeing the spot-lit drawing, the one of the Sprigatito and the five kids. As her mind showed her the drawing again, she saw each of the kids in close-up. And she saw the big smiles drawn on their faces.
The memory fell away, and she looked at Celestine. "The picture."
Celestine nodded, smiling.
Ava reached out for her pad and pencils. "You're right! I have to help them remember."
The Sprigatito bore down on Joshua, waving the ax and the knife in the air like they were batons and the Sprigatito was a depraved orchestral conductor. Joshua couldn't stand and run. He couldn't drag himself away at the speed of light. He couldn't sink into the floor or turn invisible. All he could do was look up at the Sprigatito.
"THE LITTLE ONES TELL ME YOU HAVE A SISTER!" the Sprigatito chuckled. "SHE WILL LOVE IT HERE!" It leaned in lower, the ax just a few feet above Joshua's neck. "YOU, HOWEVER, ARE FINISHED!"
"Go to Hell." Joshua wheezed out.
The Sprigatito kicked him in the face.
His head recoiled, and the back of his skull hit the floor. The mother of all headaches kicked in instantaneously. Hot, thick, coppery liquid filled his mouth. It started to run down his throat. He gagged and spit it out.
He tried to get his eyes to focus, but they didn't want to cooperate. They were somewhere out in a la-la land of meadows filled with Butterfree. That was okay. Joshua wasn't going to cower like a pussy.
Summoning what strength he had, he turned his head to face the Sprigatito again. "I said," he said as clearly as he could, "Go…to…"
The Sprigatito kicked him again.
This time, Joshua's resolve to be hard failed him. His head bounced off the floor again, and the meadows and Butterfree turned into a confusion of laser lights and crooked teeth and evil eyes in an inky, churning vision of Hell. Joshua saw this mind-choking landscape through a vapor of gray. Even so, he was able to see the ax and knife…raised above his chest.
As he fought to stay conscious - and began to lose the battle - he heard…
"That's enough!"
Was that Celestine's voice? It didn't matter. Joshua agreed. He'd had enough. He stopped fighting. He closed his eyes and let his consciousness take a break.
Tucked behind a battered pinball machine that was missing its glass, Ava sat cross-legged on the floor. She was hidden, but she could still see the dining room. She was bent over her drawing pad, he pencil scribbling as fast as she could make it move.
When Celestine shouted, though, Ava looked up.
And she instantly pressed her lips together to stop a cry from coming out. Her brother was lying totally still on the floor. Blood was all around him.
A Sprigatito, one that looked like an evil, demented version of Spriggy, holding an ax and a knife, stood above him. Celestine was maybe twenty feet behind the Sprigatito. And she held a gun, in both hands, the way Ava had seen on TV. On TV, though, cops' hands didn't shake the way Celestine's hands were shaking.
The Sprigatito's weapons stopped in midair, and it turned around. Celestine's hands shook even harder.
Ava wanted to watch what was happening over by her brother, but the only way she could help Joshua was to keep drawing. So, she looked back down to her pad. As she did, she thought she saw movement to her left. She glanced that way, but saw nothing.
Where was Captain Fluffy? Was he still down? It didn't matter. Ava had to finish her drawing.
From the dining room came the sound of a low growl. From the Sprigatito, Ava thought. She caught her lower lip between her teeth and put her pencil to the page again.
"Drop your weapons," Celestine commanded the Sprigatito, as if she were still a cop.
Ava started splitting her attention between the drawing and what was going on with Celestine and the Sprigatito. That wasn't a hard thing to do. Ava was used to watching TV while she drew. She knew Joshua thought she didn't watch TV, but she did.
Ava kept drawing, and she watched as the Sprigatito took a step toward Celestine. "A LITTLE OLD FOR TEMPER TANTRUMS, AREN'T WE, CELESTINE?" it said in its low, distorted voice.
"I'm not fucking around, Mom," Celestine said. "Drop them. It's over."
Mom? Ava thought. Poor Celestine.
Then, Ava watched as the Sprigatito began to remove the costume head. Ava could now see that the person inside the Sprigatito suit was a woman with flowing, dark blue hair. Her pencil faltered. She didn't like the look of the woman at all. She had a thin face and a high forehead. She also had very wide eyes. She looked…slimy.
The woman pointed her ax at Celestine. "You may have forgotten your loyalties," she said, "but I assure you, they have not." She gestured toward Spriggy and Flamer, who were standing at attention just a few feet away from Joshua.
"Go on," the woman said to the animatronics. She pointed at Joshua. "Rip him into little-bitty pieces."
Spriggy and Flamer started moving toward Joshua again. They weren't walking quite right, but they were walking well enough to get to Joshua much faster than Ava wanted them to.
The woman in the Sprigatito suit looked at Celestine, and dropped the head of the costume on the floor. "Now, why don't you put that away and help Mommy clean up the mess that YOU CREATED!" She took a step toward Celestine, her eyes growing more wild and furious.
But Celestine didn't move.
"Come on," the woman said, laughing to herself. "We both know you're not actually gonna use a-"
The sound of the shot made Ava's pencil scoot across the page in a jagged line. The point of the pencil gouged the paper. Ava ignored both the line and the hole in the paper as she kept drawing. At the same time, she saw the woman kind of jump backward. She looked down at her shoulder. Ava could see that Celestine's bullet had put a hole in the Sprigatito suit…and the woman.
The woman didn't seem to be bothered by the bullet. But she was angry. Ava could tell. The woman growled at Celestine charged toward her.
Ava wasn't as startled by the next three times the gun fired. She knew she didn't have much time yet, so she forced herself to keep drawing, even as she watched Celestine's shots go past the woman in the Sprigatito suit. Celestine was shaking too much to aim right, Ava thought. And that was why the woman in the Sprigatito suit was able to reach her, and grab her by the throat.
"You had one job! One!" the woman said. "Keep him in the dark…and kill him if he gets too close!"
Celestine spit in her mother's face. "That's two jobs," she said bitterly.
You tell her, Ava thought, still drawing.
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" the woman screamed. At the same time, she shoved the butcher's knife right into Celestine's stomach, splattering the Sprigatito suit with blood.
Ava felt her own stomach get really tight, and she felt like she was going to puke. But she didn't. Instead, she just kept drawing.
The woman dug her fingers tighter around Celestine's throat and lifted her up. Celestine's feet flopped in the air several inches above the floor.
Ava screwed up her face. She was so scared for Celestine that she thought she could feel icky, furry fingers wrapping around her own neck. But she kept drawing.
Celestine clawed at her mother's chokehold. She tore at her mother's hand, but she didn't let go. As she fought, she looked toward Joshua.
Ava shot a glance at her brother, too. Her pencil made one last mark on the pad. Spriggy and Flamer had almost reached Joshua. Time to go. Ava got up and ran.
Celestine was again staring into her mother's eyes. And her mother, still choking Celestine with one hand, was totally focused on her. She didn't see Ava at first. But Celestine did, and she smiled.
Ava ran toward the wall of pictures. Her drawing flapped in her hand.
"No!" the woman in the Sprigatito costume yelled. She'd seen Ava.
Ava flicked a look at the woman, but she didn't slow down - not even when the woman let go of Celestine's neck and turned toward her.
"Stop!" Celestine shouted.
Ava knew Celestine wasn't talking to her, but her steps faltered when she saw that Celestine had dropped her hands. She was gripping the bloody blade of the knife, which was sticking out of her stomach. The woman still had one of her hands on the other end of the knife. She looked down. Grunting, she tried to tug the knife out of Celestine's belly. But Celestine wouldn't let go.
Ava could see that Celestine was hurting badly. Her face was really white, and it was all twisted up, but she still managed to say, in a gasp, "I won't let you hurt her, too."