Chapter 14: Disturbing Reality

Jay and Dino ran across the platform, getting close to the office, hoping they could shut out Boozoo until they had help. That was until Dino tripped and fell. So Jay went to go assist him.

Duckie and Tammy raced to the 2nd ladder to where they were at. They saw Boozoo race to them. "You go help Ralph and Paco," suggested Duckie, "I'll go help Jay and Dino." He then raced up the latter, while Tammy, hesitating on this since she didn't want to leave her best friend behind, decided to go find the other two and help them.

Meanwhile, Ralph and Paco ran down a hall and into a room which ended up being a dead end. They got their tools out and were about to attack the Waterman couple, but when the couple arrived, they were quick to disarm them and threw the bags they had through the windows. "Nowhere to run children," said Rachel. "You made a big mistake coming back to get us," added Lorenzo.

The boys looked for anything they could use since they had lost their weapons. There was nothing of use around. However, help was on the way, even if they didn't know it.

"Hey you!" said Tammy, as the Watermans looked behind themselves. Tammy then chucked a hammer at Rachel's head, before she did the same to Lorenzo, making his mask fall off. Rachel was down on the ground, but Lorenzo wasn't as he held his face. Paco and Ralph were ran to the doorway where Tammy was, but Paco was held back when Rachel got ahold of his foot, causing him to fall over. Tammy was about to stop Rachel, but Lorenzo grabbed her head while giggling. Tammy yelped as Lorenzo was hurting her.

A yell could he heard, it ended up being Ralph as he jumped on Lorenzo, punching his head repeatedly. Lorenzo was clearly unprepared as he let go of Tammy, backing up as he tried to get Ralph off of him. The rabbit would end up tripping over a chair and fall over. Rachel looked over and saw this. With Rachel distracted, Paco kicked her directly in the eye, escaping her grasp.

The two ran away while they could, and so did Tammy, as they dashed out of the room and back to the hall that would lead them to the assembly line. "You alright?" asked Paco. "Besides Lorenzo grabbing my whole face, I'm fine," Tammy replied. "Where's Jay and Dino? Heck, where's your friend?" asked Ralph.

Back at the assembly area, Duckie climbed up the ladder. Jay went to help Dino up, until Boozoo had finally caught up to them and was in a tug of war with Jay over the book. "Give it to me!" Boozoo demanded. "No!" Jay barked. "I SAID GIVE IT TO ME!!" Boozoo shouted. "NO!!" Jay shouted. "NO!!" Dino repeated as he helped Jay. Boozoo lost grip as Jay and Dino had the upper hand.

They then heard the sounds of running and saw it was their friends. "Here, take this!" Jay said as she was about to throw the book down to them. "NO!!!" Boozoo screamed as Jay tossed the book down. Ralph caught it. "Great catch!" said Paco.

Boozoo looked down, seeing the kids now had both the fundraiser money and the photo book. He then looked down to see Duckie still climbing, but Duckie himself was confused as to what was going on between the platform and down on ground level. The old man then saw some weak spots on the ladder that had been rusted due years of neglect since the factory's abandonment. Then he gave Jay and Dino a stare. "There's one thing I learned in my 72 years on this Earth," Boozoo stated, "No matter how good you seem to do, THERE'S ALWAYS SOMEONE WHO HAS TO FACE THE CONSEQUENCES!!!"

With rage filled eyes and anger overflowing, Ebenezer kicked the ladder with so much force, the weak spots broke immediately. Everyone besides Boozoo watched on in shock as the ladder began to fall. Duckie shouted as he was almost at the highest point of it as it fell. He and the ladder came crashing down onto one of the assembly lines and particularly one of the machines. With the kids distracted, Boozoo who was not even fazed in the slightest by what he had done, ran off through another door within the platform before locking it, going somewhere unknown.

"NOOOOO!!!" Tammy screamed as she ran towards the wreakage, "DUCKIE!!!" Ralph and Paco followed her, and so did Jay and Dino, making their way down using the other ladder. Tammy got the ladder off of Duckie and checked on him faster than everyone else did. Duckie had a ton of bruising and cuts, even a little bit of blood coming from his head, all of it coming from the fall onto the machine. Tammy gasped when she saw this, tears looking like they'd form any second.

Noises could be heard from the hallway, a sign that the Watermans were on the move again. Everyone carried Duckie away from the scene and into a room that luckily wasn't a dead end. They closed the door and locked it after putting Duckie on a table in there. For once, they found a door that they wouldn't be able go into. But for good measure, they put a filing cabinet in the way just in case.

It was hard to tell what the state of Duckie was. Just the fall alone was enough to knock him out. "Duckie?" said Paco. "He's knocked out dude," said Ralph, "Or at least I hope that it's only it." "But what if it's worse than that?" asked Jay. Tammy, with tears starting to form, looked back on a moment in her lifetime.

(FLASHBACK) Sometime in 1979...

Duckie and Tammy had just escaped a fire within a movie theater. At the time, they were watching some space movie until the fire alarms went off. Everyone went out the emergency exits when this happened. However, Duckie had forgotten to bring his candy with him out the theater, so Tammy ran back inside to get it, and got covered in fire dust in some spots in doing so.

Tammy caught her breath as she gave the candy to Duckie. "Here you go," she said. Duckie didn't say a word as he looked at it and then his best friend. Meanwhile, the other people who had evacuated the same theater looked at the purple cat as if she was crazy for what she had done. "Lots of smoke in there," Tammy said, "But I was able to brave it!"

It was at this point when Duckie started to sob, much to Tammy's confusion. "H-Hey, don't cry Duckie," she said, trying to comfort him, "The candy is just fine." "Please don't do that again!" He said, then hugged her, "I can replace candy, but I can't replace you as my best friend Tammy!" Tammy, who doesn't get emotional much, felt tears forming in her eyes.

She put her arms around Duckie and said with a smile, "I can't lose you either dude. I promise, I won't do that again."

Present

With those words from Duckie echoing in Tammy's head and Duckie himself not looking good, she couldn't hold herself together anymore. "Duckie, I don't know if you can hear me right now," said Tammy, with tears rolling down her face, "Please come back to us! Please come back to me! Like you told to me in the past, I can replace candy, but...I can't replace you!"

She hugged her best friend as she sobbed. Jay, Dino, Paco, and Ralph looked on at what was going on, both saddened and worried about the state of Duckie. He fell quite some feet from where he was at.

Suddenly, groaning could be heard. It was Duckie, starting to wake up. Tammy stopped and looked with wide eyes as his eyes started to open up. "Oh my gosh," Duckie groaned, as he sat up, then noticing everyone staring at him, before sniffing, "Uhh, I didn't just drop a bomb, did I?"

"Duckie!" Tammy said hugging her best friend once more. "Ow!" said Duckie. "Oh, sorry," said Tammy, "Forgot you are kinda hurt..." "Do you remember anything?" asked Jay. "Who's our president again? And what year is this?" asked Duckie, making everyone worried, until Duckie cracked a grin, "Just kidding!" "Geez, we already got worried once, we don't to be worried again!" said Ralph. "Worried!" repeated Dino. "He gets it from his best friend," said Tammy, pointing to herself. "Seriously though, how are you feeling after that fall you took?" asked Paco. Duckie got off the table to see how he felt, and despite being quite sore, he didn't feel like he broke anything. "Besides the soreness, I'd say I feel alright," said Duckie, "I remember everything before I fell."

Just then, they heard the sounds of running coming from behind them and down the hall. They were afraid that it was going to be either Boozoo, or the Watermans coming through another way. To everyone's surprise, it'd be a very familiar face that Jay and Dino knew all too well. It was Officer M, accompanied by Officer G. "Dad?" said Jay in surprise, obviously not expecting her dad to be back on duty so quick, especially since she and Dino last saw him asleep prior to meeting up with Duckie, Tammy, and the rest of their friends.

"Oh my god!" exclaimed Officer M, "What the hell are you and your friends doing here?! You know you kids shouldn't be in a place like this when there's criminals running around, Jesus, Jay!" "What happened to you?" asked Officer G, looking in the direction of Duckie. With no hesitation, Duckie replied bluntly with, "Boozoo. Boozoo did this to me."

The horrifying realization was on both the officer's faces. Officer M radioed dispatch, "Officer M requesting an ambulance on Elinor Road! Kid hurt by one of the suspects, but can't find them at this time!" "If you don't mind me asking, why are you kids here?" asked Officer G, "What was so appealing about this abandoned factory that it peaked your curiousities? When I was a kid, me and my friends would go to playgrounds or find entertainment somewhere. Is this what kids are into now? I think this is a sign I'm getting old." "We'd be more than happy to explain, but it's a very long story," said Tammy, "I think it's best we leave this place, then we can tell."

"Brighton PD dispatch, we are about to send an ambulance to your location," the dispatcher said, "What address is the situation located closest to?" "Brighton's abandoned factory on the same road!" said Officer M. "Okay, one should be in route within 7 or 8 minutes," said the dispatcher. "Ten four," said Officer M.

"Alright guys, let's all get outta here," said Officer G, as he and everyone else speedwalked their ways out. They made their ways down the halls that were very familiar, as if they had been visited yesterday. They were now in the warehouse area, making their way towards the exit. Right when it looked like they'd get out safely with the fundraiser money and photo book. They couldn't have been more wrong.

Suddenly, the warehouse door began to close. Everyone gasped and then ran for it. Sadly, they weren't fast enough to get through in time. The garage door shut completely by the time they got to there. "Oh shit," Officer M murmered.

Little did they know, hiding in the corner of where they had entered the warehouse area from was 5 of the personnel that were originally with General Gilbert. They made their presence known when they came out and aimed their guns at everyone. "Stop right there!" yelled one of them. "We wouldn't move or try anything stupid if we were any of you!" said another, "Especially you officers!" Seeing the guns the personnel had and how many of them there were with nowhere to hide, Officer M didn't try anything. For Officer G though, that would be another story, but more on that later.

A slow clap could be heard. "Good job men!" said General Gilbert, coming through the doorway, "Were so quiet they didn't even notice you!" "How did you get here?!" yelled Officer M. "We were able to find a way to outsmart your cop buddies and find our way here," said General Gilbert, "Those in charge told us all about the kids here. Speaking of which, one of them ran into us less than 5 minutes ago in a seperate room. Then we heard you and your partner coming in through the warehouse area. Knowing an escape was likely, I sent my men here to shut the garage door and hold you all here."

"Those in charge?" asked Officer G, "Who's in charge?" "Me!" Boozoo announced, walking in with a smirk on his face, "And of course, friends who should be here any minute. Got you kids RIGHT where I want you! And is that James? Long time no see officer of Nash-Lake! I remember when you and your friend would visit my son after school." "You're the boss of Mister and Missus Waterman!" Officer M boomed, looking like he was ready to murder Boozoo at any given second, "What the hell is wrong with you?! You abused your employees, you brought a bulldozer to an active playground, you put heavy toys on a kid's bike, you stole from a fundraiser, you hurt a kid, and that's not even including the murders you committed with your best friends! How do I explain this ALL to your son?!"

"To hell with my son!" Boozoo fired back as his smirk went away, with a face that showed absolutely no sympathy or regret for what he has done, going on a rant, "What does it matter to you anyway?! Just because I let you and your friend over to see Ebenezer Jr all those years ago didn't mean I wanted to! And let me guess, a former employee exposed me when they knew my days of running the toy store were up? Banny or Charles I presume, huh? Complete weaklings who never grew a spine to speak truthfully to my face! I knew one of them would expose me, but what I didn't know were the police taking their stories seriously!"

A door breaking open and something slamming against a wall sounded. The kids knew it was Lorenzo and Rachel coming to the scene. Sure enough, it was revealed to be them. Tammy, Duckie, Jay, Dino, Paco, Ralph, Officer M, and Officer G stared directly at Lorenzo and Rachel. The couple stared directly at them too. Lorenzo didn't have his mask on, and likely didn't even bother to put it back on this time.

After 10 eerie seconds of silence, one of them spoke. "Please," said Rachel ominously, "Give us back the money. And the book." "What? No!" said Duckie, "We aren't giving it back to you!" "Yeah, no way!" said Ralph, "After all the stuff you did to hurt others, we refuse! You killed Detective Raglan and you hurt Duckie!"

Officer G, unknown to everyone at the moment, had a plan. It was a stupid plan, but a plan nonetheless. He thought he could be quick enough to pull out his gun, but as Officer G would find out, it was a completely dumb move on his part. As he attempted this, the personnel shot at him, much to everyone's shock.

"Holy cow!" exclaimed Paco. Officer M ran to Officer G's side. "Ugh! I thought I could outsmart em!" Officer G groaned in pain, as the bullets hit him in the legs and shoulders. "Rookie mistake," Officer M said, not surprised in the slightest. He was about to radio dispatch, but was interrupted when a warning shot was fired next to him. "Don't touch your radios!" said General Gilbert, "We will take ahold of them and your guns until we are done!" The personnel then took both officer's radios and guns. Obviously, they didn't resist as they knew they weren't playing around.

"Oh yeah, about Detective Raglan," said Boozoo, looking directly at Ralph, "It's a shame he had to die, but you do what you have to do." "What have you done?!" Ralph yelled, demanding to know. "It's not what I've done, it's what they've done," Boozoo said grandly, refering to Lorenzo and Rachel. "The only reason he met such a fate is what he did to me," Lorenzo said, revealing he had bandages on his chest, underneath the apron he wore. "What that detective did was an unforgivable sin that I would not let slide!" Rachel said, creepily showing more anger and emotion than she had so far.

FLASHBACK (Sunday of last weekend)

Paxton Raglan was driving down the road in his police cruiser. It was around sunset when he was on duty. The details were not known as to why he was out and about, but it's likely that the wolf was keeping an eye out for anything or anyone suspicious. After all, this was quite literally just a day after the fundraiser money had been stolen. What seemed like nothing significant would turn into the disturbing reality of what became of Detective Raglan and other victims before him.

At the time, the detective was at the same park Duckie, Tammy, and the others had seen the kids were playing at not far from the old Waterman home. Nobody was at the park, which consisted of only a field and playground. So why was Raglan driving around there? As stated before, law inforcement were on the lookout for anyone or anything that seemed off since the incident yesterday.

Something caught Raglan's eye. Two figures were walking towards the woods. He couldn't identify them too well, due to the sun setting and it getting close to complete dark. Unknown to him, he was staring directly at the Waterman couple who had broke out of their prisons days prior. And what he didn't know was that Lorenzo and Rachel already knew of his presense.

"The police are down on the road honey," said Rachel in her lifeless tone. "I know my dear," Lorenzo responded, "But fear not." The two then booked it into the forest and towards where they used to call home.

Raglan meanwhile radioed dispatch, "Nash-Lash PD dispatch, this is Detective Raglan. I'm at Powell Park, saw 2 individuals that are suspicious climbing a hill into the woods." "Nash-Lake dispatch, do you require that we send nearby officers, over?" asked dispatch. "Negative," replied Raglan, "I'll go have a talk with them wherever they end up at. Where they are going should lead to another road."

Meanwhile, the Watermans were running through the woods, getting very close to their property. The reason they were out in the first place was because they had to give Boozoo a call via payphone. Other than that, they were doing their bests to lay low, as stealing the fundraiser money had gotten quite the attention. The last thing they needed was to be recogized, especially after breaking out of their prisons.

At the same time, Detective Raglan was driving away from Powell Park and driving in the same way that would lead him to wherever the Waterman couple would end up. He had no idea where he was going, and it was ultimately this mistake that would seal the detective's fate. Because when Raglan rode up the hill that the road closest from who he saw was on, it led him straight to the abandoned Waterman home.

For reasons that remain unclear to this day, Raglan decided to exit his police cruiser and check inside the abandoned home. He was able to get inside easily and using his flashlight, he searched around the first floor of the house. All the while, Lorenzo and Rachel were just waiting for him to go downstairs into the basement. At first it looked like they only had the intentions to scare him away before they told this story, but it started to become increasingly clear based on where the story was going, that they very well had intentions on killing him.

Eventually, Raglan went to the basement to explore. "Hello?" he said, exploring the 3 rooms in which he got no response. However, he did find a paper on the ground in the 3rd and final room. It read: Boozoo says his regards...

A chill very likely went up Detective Raglan's spine, as he heard someone walking down the hallway. In an instant, he closed the door. Lorenzo Waterman approached down the hall, with Rachel not far behind. "Ebenezer Boozoo was a very, very mean man," said Lorenzo, putting his hands on the door, "His history is much darker than you or your little police force could imagine."

Lorenzo swung the door open, seeing Detective Raglan with his gun aimed directly at him. However, he wasn't too fazed by it and instead giggled. "Oh...it's Detective Raglan!" Lorenzo said sounding sinisterly thrilled, "Boozoo has told me a lot about you. In fact, if I recall correctly, you are the very detective who investigated him twice during his arrests. He's going to be VERY happy when he hears we had to take care of you!"

Lorenzo took his mask off and approached the frightened wolf. "STOP OR I'LL SHOOT!!!" he screamed, "I SAID STOP!!!" In less than 3 seconds, Lorenzo was met with 4 bullets to the chest as he groaned loudly, falling to the floor. Obviously, Lorenzo wasn't expecting to be shot at, as he was typically used to his victims being too scared to fight back, even with guns.

Raglan went Lorenzo's side, seeing the damage. He took a good look at the bunny's face, noticing that his face clearly experienced burns at some point in his life, enough for him to wanna wear a mask. Raglan was about to radio dispatch about this, when he suddenly saw a grey-ish black-ish hand knock the gun out of his hand. He looked up to see an inraged Rachel who said, "Nobody does this TO MY HUSBAND AND GETS AWAY WITH IT!!!" The detective was horrified by her horrifically angry tone (the most emotion that had been seen yet) and the fact he had forgotten about the 2nd suspect because of the situation.

"No..." Detective Raglan said, backing up since his gun was completely out of reach, his tone becoming louder when Rachel looked like she was about to attack, "No! NO!!!" Rachel then jumps onto Paxton as screams are heard from the him, completely unable fight back against the sheep. His face getting scratched and torn, soon getting mangled in more ways than one. Lorenzo could hear the sounds of Raglan screaming bloody murder, to soon struggling to breathe as if he were choking. The face on Rachel went from a furious expression to a sadistic smile when she was starting to become satisfied with what she was doing. Paxton at this point had almost stopped making noise and his face was mangled so badly that the details were far too horrific to describe. When Rachel finished, she threw Raglan at the wall, just for good measure as he layed lifeless.

"You didn't need to do that," coughed Lorenzo. Rachel came over to her husband, "Nobody hurts you and gets away with it." She tended to Lorenzo, finding bandages to put on his chest. "I take it that Boozoo will be fine with what became of this thorn in his side," assumed Lorenzo. "As long as it doesn't jeopardize our hideout," replied Rachel, back to her lifeless tone, "Perhaps we should put his body in the gardening shed until we know what to do with it."

To be continued in the next chapter...

(Chapter 14 published 3/13/25)