FC: Chapter 24

A few minutes passed by after Aaron and Nazz returned to Amelia's house, where everyone began to gather around in the backyard again. Justine was immediately by Aaron's side as soon as she saw he was back.

"So? How was it?" Norah asked Aaron, "Did it really look like the place in that show?"

Aaron nodded, "Yeah, it's a real place."

Theo laughed, "Well, that's awesome! Not gonna lie, I'd love to visit, but I'll take a rain check on that for another time."

"… That just leaves us with a lot of questions," Valerie said, "What should we do now? Should we try and find a way to talk to them in that magic world?"

"Yeah, and how can we explain this situation to literally anyone else without sounding crazy?" Cecilia asked.

Everyone there was silent at the questions, trying their best to think of a solution.

"Umm, I have an idea!"

The group turned to look at Jimmy, "We met Eddy's big brother yesterday, remember? Maybe we can ask him to help us get in contact with the others!"

"Oh yeah! Those other guys said they made a waypoint at the fairground he works at," Sarah smiled, "If we go back there, maybe we can ask them to put up more waypoints!"

"That's assuming if Eddy's bro can even contact them to begin with," Marie grumbled with a sigh, "But it's better than doing nothing!"

Aaron put his hand to him for a moment before turning to Jackie, "Mr. Martin, do you mind if I make a request?"

Jackie turned to Aaron, "Can I have your permission to stay here at Amelia's house until she returns home?"

"WHAT?!" Justine yelled in disbelief before her face slowly turned red, "WHY THE F—?!"

"It's for Mr. Martin's sake, Justine," Aaron quickly replied to her, "He's pretty healthy for someone in his mid 70s, but I'm not sure how wise it is to have only one person looking after this door. Maybe some of us can take turns helping him out?"

"… You make an excellent point, that never crossed my mind," Jackie said before sighing, "These old joints are still kicking for now, but you never know when things will go south until it's too late."

"We shall take the reins too, but on the side of Peach Creek!" Rolf interjected as he turned to Jonny and Jimmy, "The Urban Rangers will eye the door!"

"Yes sir!" Jonny and Jimmy replied with a nod before saluting. Norah and Theo held back their laughter at them.

"As cool and exciting it is to be here, I think we should go back home now," Lee said as she made a yawn, "It was almost 5 when we got here."

"You're right!" May gasped.

The Cul-De-Sac kids began to walk over to the white door, "Uh, we shouldn't go all at once. I don't want to be in a big dog pile again," Kevin said as he turned to Nazz, "Maybe the key can work like a remote?"

Nazz held the key to the door outward like a remote, only for it to start glowing, "Huh, I guess so!"

Rolf, Jimmy, and Sarah went through the door first, with the Kanker sisters going in second. Nazz, Jonny, and Kevin decided to go last.

"Hey, Kev," Nazz leaned toward Kevin, "Jonny gave me some papers a moment ago. You should look at them once we get back home."

Kevin glanced at Nazz; he could tell by her voice that the papers had something serious written on them. Kev nodded, "Gotcha."

Nazz then turned back to the Tusca crew, "If any of us find out anything, we'll come straight back here to tell you!"

"Yeah! Plank can help be our eyes and ears too!" Jonny said as he held Plank up a little, "He's a master psychic spy!"

Justine stayed silent, 'Oh, so that piece of wood is the kids' dumb imaginary friend? Literal weirdo.'

Nazz used the key once more to open the white door. As Nazz and her remaining friends entered it to go back home, Aaron glanced over to Justine, who had a disapproving look on her face, 'I should probably wait about breaking up with her. At least until we properly find Amelia and her friends,' he thought before making an internal frown, 'Guess I am too soft, huh.'

Meanwhile, back in the cartoon world, we zoom in on the fairgrounds at Sunflower Shoal. The area in front of Evan's whale-shaped trailer home started to glow a bright light before three people appeared from the light. Evan and Diana were now standing here along with Noah; it was the spot that they used the aetheryte remotes on before.

They adjusted their eyes to see where they were, only for Evan to smile at Diana and Noah. He could see that all three of them changed back to how they used to appear (cartoony), though Diana and Noah's clothes did not fit in with this world. Diana looked like she did when he last saw her while Noah was no longer a baby; he was now 5 years old. Noah's hair did not look like his dad's; his hair was more like his mom's, short but bushy and a very dark blue, almost black.

Diana and Noah looked at their surroundings, with Noah making a gasp at the environment, "This really isn't a dream…" Diana muttered as she turned to Evan and Noah with a big smile, "We're finally back home!"

Noah looked up at his parents with a happy smile. Sadly, the happy moment was cut short. Evan could see Diana starting to tremble slightly. He widened his eyes as he caught Diana before she could collapse to the ground, "Diana!"

Diana began to violently cough, clutching her chest, "Evan… Y-You have to take me t-to the hospital."

Evan nodded before lifting Diana into his arms and turning to Noah, "Follow me!"

Noah made a worried face to his parents as they rushed over to Evan's car. Evan opened the door to the back seat for Diana to lie down on. He then turned to see Noah standing next to him with a scared look, realizing that his son had never seen a car until now.

Evan internally groaned in annoyance but quickly pushed it aside, "Here," Evan took hold of Noah's hand as he took him to the passenger side of his car, opening the door to the front seat, "It's okay! We're going to take her to a place that can help her! Trust me!"

Noah bit his lower lip in nervousness before climbing into the car, with the help of Evan giving him an extra boost. Once Noah had sat down, Evan dashed back over to the driver's seat to pull out his car keys. The car's loud engine came to life, startling Noah with a small yelp.

Evan began to reach over to where Noah was sitting to help put the seatbelt on him. Noah looked confused by this, of course, but said nothing as his dad finished helping him.

"Alright then, I'll try my best to not go so fast, but you might want to hold onto something!" Evan said before he stepped on the pedal, making his car move forward, "I really hope you don't get motion sick!"

Evan began to drive away from the fairgrounds and toward Sunflower Shoal Hospital. As he was driving, Evan's mind started to wander, mostly about the state of Diana's health.

When they were reunited earlier this morning, Diana told him the details about what happened to her and Noah, along with how they both survived. He was stunned and horrified by what she told him, but calmed down once she said her parents would no longer be a problem; they basically killed themselves due to their own fixations on the occult. Evan became very grateful that they ended up in the care of people which eventually led them to be reunited. He also jokingly thanked Eddy and his friends as well due to their unintentional involvement.

Diana told Evan that she never fully recovered from the attack that made her and Noah cross over to Perscia and that she had been beginning to feel worse since last month. She said there were moments during the day when she could not stop coughing. This continued for so long that it got to the point where she could barely breathe after a coughing fit. She said that the healers in the castle could only cast Cure spells to help soften the pain, but it was very clear that the condition she had was not going to go away by simply using magic. Since Noah had Holy magic from birth, he also could use Cure magic; he had been using it to help her this whole time, which led to him boosting his intelligence as an odd side effect.

Another thought crept into Evan's mind. Diana and Noah had been classified as missing or deceased this entire time, meaning it was going to be difficult for him to suddenly say, "Hey, my wife and child are alive!" to the police without them being suspicious.

'How the hell do I even start explaining this to everyone?!'

Author's Note (March 3rd, 2025): Oh hey! Am I finally getting back on track with trying to write my stories?! I hope so!

The next chapter will go back to the perspective of the Eds, so stay tuned for that!