Chapter 9: Photo Book of Secrets

Back at Tammy's house, Tammy was getting ready for whatever awaited her, Duckie, and the others. All the while, yelling was heard from downstairs. She didn't know what was going on, so she assumed her parents were in an argument. Right as she was ready, it stopped and Sammy came up the stairs looking unhappy. "What's the matter Sammy?" Tammy asked. "I'm grounded for the rest of the weekend," Sammy said, "I got caught spray painting a wall with friends."

Tammy facepalmed, "Sammy! Ugh...well, can you at least tell me what Jay's phone number is? Me and Duckie need to see her and her friends, it's important." Sammy gave Tammy a piece of a note, it was Jay's phone number. She then went into her room.

As Tammy went downstairs, her parents were in the dining room just before the kitchen. "Hey Tammy, you hear about what your little sister did?" asked Tammy's mom. "She spray painted a wall with friends?" answered Tammy. "She sure did," said Tammy's dad, "All because she can't stop hanging around that bad girl at school, whatever her name is." "I told Sammy not to hang out with Veronica too dad," said Tammy, "Don't know why she can't hang around with Jay and her friends more often." "Thank you! Someone says it!" said Tammy's dad. "Wait, how do you know of Jay and the others?" asked Tammy's mom. "Sammy introduced me and Duckie to them during the break we are still in," replied Tammy, "We get along surprisingly well."

Tammy's mom thought it was odd for her older daughter and her daughter's friend to be hanging around with Sammy's other friends, but didn't question it. Tammy's dad meanwhile didn't care, as long as Tammy made friends, that's all that really mattered to him. "Well, me and your dad are gonna watch the game," said Tammy's mom, "If you happen to go out, please be back by 10pm." She and her husband then left to go to the living room to watch whatever game they speak of.

Just then, someone was calling the phone. Tammy answered it, "Hello?" "Hey Tammy," said Duckie. "Hey Duckie," said Tammy, "What's up?" "I just saw Boozoo leaving the payphone. I didn't get the chance to listen in on him, as he was leaving right as I noticed him. Did you get Jay's phone number?" "Yep, I sure did Duckie. I'll give her a call as soon as we are done. Hopefully the others are just as available."

30 minutes later...

Duckie, Tammy, Jay, Dino, Ralph, and Paco are climbing a hill as it was getting close to sunset. "So let me get this straight," said Jay, "Old man Boozoo lied to us about bringing the book to the police?" "That would be an understatement," said Duckie. "How do you know?" asked Paco. "I saw the news and they said specifically that no one came to them with any evidence of any kind," said Tammy. "We heard Boozoo was staying at the old abandoned factory," said Duckie, "So now we are going over here to see for ourselves. I also brought a tool to break the lock open on that photo book."

Before they knew it, they were at the abandoned factory. As they expected, Boozoo's car was just outside of the place. "I knew it!" said Tammy, "He is here!" "Okay," said Duckie, "When we go in, we need to be careful. We might outnumber Boozoo, but there's a chance he might not be the only one in here."

As the kids walked towards the factory, there was a warehouse adjacent to it. The large garage like door was wide open. "Oh how convenient!" Ralph said sarcastically, "I guess we just make our way into the factory of doom!" "We walked forever to get here, so obviously," said Tammy. They went inside the wearhouse, but nothing was inside. Just some old and broken shelves.

After overlooking everything, they then saw some lighting coming from a doorway that seemingly lead into the factory. Curiosity got the better of the kids as they ventured towards the light. They went down a short and narrow hallway as that's where the lighting was. "They still got electricity in this place?" asked Jay. "Brighton and Nash-Lake sure have a common theme of not shutting off power to buildings that are abandoned," said Tammy.

Now they entered yet another area. It seemed to be a large room with some sort of balcony platform above. Within the room, there were a ton of drawers and cabinets. Tammy looked through them only to find old papers explaining how to use the machinery in the factory. The room was dimly lit and quite creepy on it's own.

They then saw stairs which lead to the balcony platform. They went up to that level and walked along the platform. A door awaited them and they went into whatever was inside. Inside was an office of some sort. Then there was another door which lead to another platform, overlooking a large assembly line. There was also a giant window overlooking the assembly line too from where the kids were, but they remained within the office to look around.

"Oh my gosh," said Jay, getting her hands on something within the desk drawer, "I found it!" It was revealed to be the Waterman's photo book. Everyone took a good look at it as Jay put it on the front of the desk. Duckie then brought out pliers to break the lock off. "Let's hope this does the job," he said, preparing to do so. In less than a minute, the job went successful. The lock came right off as if it were nothing.

Without hesitation, Tammy opened the book. The first page showed a picture of the couple with writing that said: By Lorenzo and Rachel Waterman. Tammy, nor Duckie or the others had any idea what they would be in for. The first two pictures showed a clown, a yellow sheep, and a green rabbit sitting at a table somewhere, looking like they were planning something. Writing then said bellow it: Crew to do hiests with.

Out of nowhere, everyone started to hear footsteps. Before anyone could react, the opposite door swung open, revealing it to be Ebenezer Boozoo Sr. Everyone stared at him while he stared at the kids. He then noticed the book was wide open and in front of all the kids. His shock quickly turned into anger. "What are you all doing here?!" Boozoo demanded to know. "You know why!" Tammy replied in a raised voice, "You lied to me! You lied to ALL of us! You didn't take it to the police as promised, you took it for personal gain!"

Boozoo attempted to get the book back himself, but Paco, Dino, and Ralph all forcefully pushed him back. "You are not getting that book back now!" said Paco. "I can't believe I thought you were right!" added Ralph, "Tammy was right about you Boozoo. You sit on a throne of lies! How can you live with yourself?!" "Lies!" blurted out Dino.

Boozoo got up and stared at the kids with fire in his eyes. "Is that so?" the old man growled. "It is so!" said Duckie. "There's all of us, and one of you!" said Jay. Boozoo then slowly backed out of the office. "Ah, I tried so hard to warn you," he said, about to exit the same door he came in from, "I guess you really want to see the other side of me..." The door then slammed shut and locked. Ralph tried to open it, but it wouldn't budge.

Jay, Dino, Paco, and Ralph looked at each other while Duckie and Tammy went back to looking through the book. "This is getting really weird," said Paco nervously. "I think that's a sign we should get out of here," suggested Ralph. "We'll leave as soon as Duckie and Tammy finish," said Jay.

Meanwhile, Duckie and Tammy were still looking through the book. Now it showed various pictures of individuals with various dates that took place in 1958. Then they came across a very chilling picture that showed the clown, yellow sheep, and green rabbit seemingly passed out on the ground. The two would quickly find out the truth about them when they saw the writing under the picture say: Shame we had to let go of them.

Both Tammy and Duckie looked at each other, not sure what to think. They were both officially creeped out. Once they got past that, there was an endless amount of pictures of people in their homes watching televisions. A lot of them looked to be taken right before the home invasions began. As they flipped through the pages, more and more ominous pictures showed. Some were of just one person, some were of couples, and some were families. "Are we looking at victims?!" whispered Duckie. "Maybe?" Tammy whispered back, "I don't know if we are, but I have a bad feeling about this."

It didn't get better, the pictures only got more ominous as the dates went forward. For a photo book that didn't have a large amount of pages, the amount of photos made it feel endless. As the cat and duck made it to the 1970s part of the book, they were getting very close to finding out who the boss was. Right when they thought it was going to be photos all the way through before their arrest, a picture of a house on fire and deeply burning showed. Writing then said: They wouldn't give into demands.

The page next to it had no pictures, but a lot of writing. It said: We fear that we don't have many days left. Day by day, they get closer and closer to finding out the truth. They don't understand our evergrowing hunger that won't be satisfied until the day we die. In case something happens, we took a photo with our friend/boss who is the only one to understand us on a personal level.

"Uhh, guys?" said Jay, "Maybe we should get out of here while Boozoo isn't around." "We're almost done," said Tammy, "Just one more page." Duckie flipped to the final page and when he saw what was on it, he gasped and was in such shock that he fell to the ground. "Duckie!" Tammy gasped, "You alright?" One look at Duckie's face said it all. Duckie was absolutely petrified by what he had seen. Tammy started to worry about who the boss could be, but knew she had to look now.

One look at the book and she gasped, almost falling in the same way Duckie did. Tammy now sees why Duckie was in the state he was in. The picture showed Lorenzo (with his ever iconic mask on) and Rachel smiling for whoever took the picture, but there was a third person within it. A familiar grey haired man wearing a blue suit had also been smiling in the picture. "Oh...my...God..." Tammy said in disbelief, with her voice shaking, "This whole time...Ebenezer Boozoo was their leader..."

Before the other kids could respond, the door they came from slammed. "Oh no no NO!" Duckie shouted, trying to open the door, only to find out it was locked. "Oh, this is bad!" Paco said. "We're all gonna die!" Ralph panicked. "You need to think positively!" said Jay. "We're all gonna die quickly!" Ralph continued. "Quickly!" blurted out Dino.

The door Boozoo came from swung open and out came a ton of gas. Tammy knew that gas, as it was a product that got recalled and pulled from shelves sometime before Boozoo's arrests. "Dream gas!" Tammy coughed as everyone slowly fell asleep. She managed to stay up the longest out of everyone, but knew it became too strong to fight.

Once the gas cleared, the doors from both sides unlocked and out came some familiar faces. Rachel stood over, with barely any emotion on her face. Lorenzo giggled with delight as he took off his mask, revealing his messed up face as he smiled. Boozoo stood directly over Tammy, who was about to fall asleep. "In case you are wondering, we were responsible for the fundraiser's money being stolen," he said, then grinned, "But don't bother with telling others, no one will EVER believe you."

Tammy then fell asleep, just like her friends...

To be continued in the next chapter...

(Chapter 9 published 2/4/25)