blackout ➺ ninjago ➺

chapter 5

[Nova]

(Year: 2011): Current Age: 5 |

tw: contains mild gore, and mentions of types of abuse/ abandonment/ death

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"Mamma?...Mommy?...Where are you?"
    The young girl peeks her head around the corner to see if her mom is there.
Nope.
Where could she be? How is she this good at hide n' seek?

Nova jumps up on the edge of the couch and peeks behind it.
Nope.
Maybe she could be outside? Or maybe she's cheating and went in the scary basement we put off-limits!

She decides to head towards the basement, despite her fears of it.
"Mommy if you're down there, I'm coming down! Don't scare me!" Nova called out.

   Nova walks down the stairs, carefully calculating each step.
One...two..three...four...fivesixseveneightnineten!
Rushing down the last few stairs, she jumps off the last. She looks for the light switch, blindly moving her hand against the wall.

Aha, there it is!
"Ready or not, here I come!"
Hitting the switch, light illuminates the whole basement.
A light bulb flickers.

"Mom?... Are ya down here?"
Nova walks through the unfinished basement, peering around every corner.
  Something subtly moves under a blanket. "Gotcha!!"

    She reaches her hand only to yank the blanket off, revealing a human-sized box.
"Momma? Are you in there?"
In response, a small muffled scream can be heard.
Nova then opens the box.. and there's- some random girl tied up?

"Why are you tied up? Why would mommy and daddy do that?"
Nova unties the pretty lady, and she starts crying.

"Help me."

"What's going on?"

"Call the police, now."

Ketchup drips from her midsection.... Cranberry sauce?
Nova dashes upstairs to the home phone that's sitting on the counter. Dial 119... 911.. 999? What was the number again?
The other end picks up.

"119, what is your emergency?"

"There's a lady in a box in my basement. It looks like she got into a mess with some ketchup. She told me to call you. I think she's scared of mommy finding her. We are playing hide n' seek!"

"Do you know where your mother is?"

"No, silly! We're playing hide n' seek!"

"I need you to get to a safe place. Hide in a closet with the girl you found. Keep direct pressure on her woun- the place where the ketchup is. Don't hang-up."

"Okay!"
Nova cuts the responder off and runs back down the stairs.
"I'm back! We have to get in the closet over there! We don't want to lose the game!"

No response...
Huh. Confused, Nova walks through the empty basement again.
"Hello?"
A trail of ketchup!

The dispatcher on the phone line spoke up, "What's going on?"

"I found a trail of ketchup! I'll be able to find her! It's okay! I don't need you anymore!" She excitedly comments as she hangs up the phone call.
    Following the ketchup path intently, Nova skips, excited to find the mysterious girl.
The path comes to an end as she rounds the wall by the storage room.
"Aha! Gotcha!"