Welcome Home!

Part 32: Sorry

I began sprinting away from the door. I watched in relief as Howdy and Wally made it outside. Unfortunately for me, I was too slow.

(The blast caught you. You managed to live despite the initial explosion, but being thrown against the hard path running around the neighborhood really added insult to injury. Wally and Howdy were both frantically trying to get you to stand up, for Home was still alive. It was dying, but it had just enough strength to slant the sidewalk so you would roll back into its gaping "maw".

Wally was terrified. He had never encountered such a situation before. Howdy was terrified, as well. He was crouching beside you, trying to get you to stand on your own two feet. The fight was not over.)

"Did we do it..?" I asked, my speech slurred. Howdy sighed.

"No," he replied gently. I groaned. How was Home still alive? I resented it even more.

Suddenly, I was made aware of my loss of stuffing. I was dying. It was finally my turn. I had never expected it to actually happen, but it was logical. I had been severely injured by the blast, after all. Still, I managed to stand up. I was a wobbling mess, but my friends seemed fine, albeit they both had a few burn marks and various scratches.

"YOUUUUUUUUU," Home bellowed. Its "voice" was scratchy. It now possessed a squeak similar to nails on a chalkboard.

Home slanted its sidewalk down toward it. The slope was much too steep. We all fell right back into that hellhole.

"No!" Wally clawed at the sidewalk. He slid down with Howdy and me.

"We're right back where we started!" Howdy grumbled. Home bgena to giggle, although it was a sad sound. It was still trying to maintain control.

"WELCOME HOME!" the sorry excuse of a house roared. I frantically scratched the front door once inside. I wanted out.

It was dark and dangerous in the house. Wally and Howdy had managed to escape, somehow. Perhaps they were being spared.

"YOU. YOU'VE RUINED EVERYTHING. I BROUGHT YOU IN TO REPLACE POPPY, BUT ALL YOU'VE DONE IS ANNOY ME," Home ripped up some of its floorboards. I felt my breathing quicken as I desperately searched for a way out.

(Wally and Howdy were pouring their fists against the front door. They had left a neighbor behind. Unfortunately, Home was no longer keen on trying to look like a collected leader. It just wanted to kill someone.

"NO!" Wally and Howdy cried. They continued trying to open the door. The hole Howdy had made earlier had been filled with parts of the floor. They were both so uncertain. Was it possible to save their friend?)

I dashed around blindly in the house. As I did so, I fell through a hole in the floor and crashed into the basement. It was unsettling. The air in the basement felt damp and swampy. There was a horrific smell permeating through the air.

Most unsettling of all was the now extremely loud heartbeat sounding in a far-off corner in the basement.

As I walked, I was aware of cushioning underneath my feet. I squinted and stated at the carpet. It wasn't carpet, but it was stuffing. I shuddered and ran to the corner with the heartbeat.

That was the worst discovery I had ever made. In the corner was a gigantic, flesh heart, its arteries stuck all over the edge where the two walls met. The arteries seemed to merge into the wall.

It was slimy and covered in various scraps of fabric and stuffing. It continued beating, pieces of fluff unsticking from it each time. I felt sick.

"WHERE ARREEEEE YOUUUUU? You know I know exactly where you are, right? What's so interesting about my basement, I wonder?" Home teased. It was agonizing having to wordlessly listen to it as it spoke. Still, I didn't care. I was going to kill Home with my own two hands.

Without thinking, I grabbed a piece of shrapnel and stabbed it into the heart. The beating quickened, frantically trying to save itself.

Home roared angrily. The concrete flooring buckled under my feet. It flung me up right through the flooring of the first floor. I managed to climb back onto the flooring, laying right next to the hole Home had just made using me.

"By the way... Barnaby isn't a puppet," Home whispered eerily. It almost sounded beguiling, but I knew better. I ignored what Home had said, although I was certainly fascinated.

That was my final mistake: laying on the floor for a second to catch my breath. As Home died, everything began to crumble. I was about to get up when I realized I couldn't. I was pinned to the floor thanks to a piece of the ceiling stabbing right through my abdomen and into the flooring. I flopped back down. I felt lightheaded from all the stuffing I had been losing... at least Home was dead. I was sure that I'd wake up by Howdy and Wally outside.

(You spent the next few minutes buried underneath rubble. Howdy and Wally found you shortly after you had passed away.

Howdy was absolutely devastated. He fell to his knees, sobbing. He had just lost one of the only neighbors who initiated conversations with him. Now, he was going to be forgotten again. He held his head in his hands in hopes that it would prevent him from losing his mind.

Wally sat by you quietly. Although he wanted to frown, he couldn't. It was one of Wally's worst qualities. He was really only able to smile.

Because of this, he sat by you with a smile plastered onto his face as tears streamed from his eyes. He looked at you dully. Another friend, dead. It had been because of him, hadn't it? If he had just spent more time with Home, it would have never become jealous.

The two spent the next two days sitting right where they had found you quietly. By now, your body had been removed. Still, they continued mourning.

Barnaby, Sally, Julie, Eddie, and Frank mourned in their respective houses. None of them could understand why this event had occurred, but it didn't matter now.)

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We're not at the end, yet! I still have a few questions to answer...

However, please note that this ending is the true ending for my story. Luckily, we still have some alternatives to explore.

:)