Ray's POV
"I've been thinking this whole time. What should I do for Y/n's and Norman's sake? The answer is..." Emma says.
"To do nothing." She says.
"Mama told me...to give up and free myself of the pain. But...I will never, ever give up. I won't let them die in vain. Will you, Ray?" Emma asks and I chuckle, placing my book down on the table.
"So we're always thinking the same thing in the end." I say.
"Let's run away, Ray. We came here to talk about that."Emma says.
"I wanted to talk to you guys, too. These past 2 months, we couldn't really talk since we were worried about Mama watching us." I say.
"Yeah. We didn't want Mama to figure out our true intentions." Emma says.
"True intentions?" I ask.
"Yeah. Mama is really cautious. Even though we weren't doing anything, Mama never stopped watching us. But we can use that against her." Emma says.
"As long as she's watching me, I can keep her eyes away from everyone else." Emma continues and I gasp lightly.
"Don and Gilda, huh?" I ask.
"Yeah. I left everything to them. Training for the escape, and all other preparations." Emma says.
"How far along are you?" I ask.
"Everything is ready. Supplies, food, and warm clothing. We can escape anytime." She says.
"That's impressive. Now, how will you run away?" I ask.
"We worked that out too. We have a plan. Let's run away tomorrow morning, before you get shipped out." Emma says.
"Wait. It's reckless to go out during the day. The situation is different than before. We should escape at night when it's easier to hide." I say, Emma was about to say something but I cut her off.
"Hear me out. Sit down." I say and she sits down.
"Okay. There are 2 problems. 1st, Mama's watchful eyes. She's always watching us, and she's always keeping the younger ones close to her. It's the same during the day, and at night, the babies are in her room. In order to escape with everyone, we'll have to shake Mama off, and separate her from the little ones." I say and she nods.
I then pick up the old sketch that Y/n made a while ago.
"And then, past the wall is a cliff. We can't climb down from it. If we're escaping, it'll be through the bridge. But there's only 1. I'm sure there's security to begin with, and once they find out there's been an escape, the guards will rush over. Plus, it's by the headquarters. There's probably a lot of monsters there. So, what are you going to do?" I ask and she stays silent, I look at a box that was on the table.
"I think this is the best answer." I say, walking towards the box. I then open it up to reveal oil.
"Oil?" Emma asks.
"At night, we'll light the House on fire." I say.
"You're going to start a fire?" Emma asks.
"That's right. When Mama is distracted putting it out, we'll lead everyone outside, saying it's an evacuation. If we seal the door to the secret room, Mama can't notify headquarters. And headquarters will think it's a fire, not an escape. Then security won't go toward the bridge. That's when everyone will escape through it. As a bonus, I also hid 10 Molotovs behind some rocks in the forest." I say and she gasps.
"Molotov bottles!?" She lets out.
"Don't underestimate my 6 years of preparation. Throw those Molotovs into the neighboring plants on the way to the bridge. If all goes well, there'll be another fire to make security even scarcer. Since it's nighttime, no one will be in the forest. No one will die. So instead of tomorrow, let's run away tonight, right now." I say staring at her eyes, and she stared back at mine.
"Can you do it, Emma?" I ask and she looks down.
"Don't worry. This place is the farthest distance away from everyone's rooms. They can escape before the fires get to them. They've trained to run in formation through tag, right? Or is your leg still..." I say.
"It's fine!" Emma says as she stomps her leg, confirming it truly was fine.
"Then it's decided." I say as I open the can of oil.
"Ray." Emma says and I face away from her, making her stare at my back, and spill the oil around.
"But you know, Emma...To tell you the truth, I'm still against the idea of taking everyone." I say as the can of oil was finished.
"Especially after hearing there's a cliff beyond those walls. Even if you do take some, it should only be Don and Gilda. You should at least leave the babies behind." I say and grab another can of oil.
"For their sake, and for yours, too." I say and Emma looks away in sadness.
"But you won't listen even if I stop you. And it's better than having you stay behind and not escape. So I won't say anything more." I say and spill the oil can around the room. It was then finished and I dropped it to the ground.
"You decide. So why are you still here? Go tell Don and Gilda." I say.
"You said..." Emma says and I turn around to face her.
"For us to throw over the Molotov bottles?" Emma asks.
"Yeah. You, or maybe Don could..." I say.
"And I'm worried about 1 more thing. Even if we start a fire, what if Mama abandons the building? She might give up on putting out the fire and refuse to take her eyes off of us, the merchandise." She asks.
"You realized, huh? There's a good possibility of that happening. That's why just starting a fire won't be enough. If we don't stop Mama, then we won't have any chances of escaping from her. But don't worry." I say, opening another can of oil.
"I just have to do this." I say and spill the oil all over my hair, and clothes, causing her to gasp.
"Ray!?" Emma says.
"Pretty smart thinking, huh? I'm gonna burn to ash on my shipment date. Mama can't abandon me." I say and the can of oil falls to the ground.
"I've been waiting for this day. I decided this a long time ago. Many, many years ago. This is my retaliation." I say and she gasps.
"You know, Emma. I've never really been interested in studying or reading. But I endured it, and I worked hard to raise my value to the highest it could be." I say and smirk.
"12 years. I'm the feast that they've been waiting for. I'm going to take that away from them tonight. Right before the harvest they've been looking forward to. Don't think you can eat me! I won't give that satisfaction! Food? Product? Yeah, right!? This is gonna show them all, that I'm human!" I say.
"Ray..." Emma says, eyes widen with fear.
"I have to do this. It's the best way. The only way. I've watched my family die all these years. I used them. And they were all good kids. They were all so kind and carefree..." I say on sadness.
"Wait." She says taking a step forward.
"Don't move. Listen, Emma. You only have 1 chance. Make this work. Please, don't let me, Y/n and Norman die in vain." I say and I then look at a book.
"Catch." I say, throwing the book at her. She caught it, and she opened it, she gasped. She saw a picture. The picture of her and Norman.
"This is from that time..." Emma says and the clock started dinging. I then get a match and light it on fire, shocking the both of them.
"I'm now 12 years old. It was a life I wanted to curse, but the time I spent with everyone was really fun." I say.
"No, stop!" Emma says.
"Thanks a lot. Nice knowing you, Emma." I say and let go of the match.
'Finally, I can now die and be with Y/n. My Y/n...' I say and close my eyes.
Mama's POV
I went into my office and sat down. The clock then dinged and I gasped, but then smiled. I stood up and crossed out the number on the calendar, 14. It was now the 15, Ray's birthday, his shipment.
"Happy birthday, Dear Ray, and goodbye." I say.
"RAY!" A voice says, it was a scream. I busted through the door and ran towards the dinning room. I then held my hand to my nose.
"What is this horrible smell?" I ask as I open the doors. I gasped as I saw the tables and chairs on fire.
"Ray! No Ray!" Emma says.
"Ray?" I ask and I walked towards Emma.
"Emma!" I call out.
"Mama, please! Do something! You have to help Ray!" Emma says, pointing her finger at the fire.
I growled lightly at the fire and I stood up, taking my tracker out. 3 signals, 2 green lights and a red 1. Me being the red and Emma and Ray being the 2 green lights.
1 was next to me and the other was in the fire.
"Did he set himself on fire?" I ask as I then run out the dinning room to see Gilda.
"Mama!" Gilda says.
"Gilda, take everyone outside! Also, please get the babies from my room! Hurry!" I say.
"Right!" Gilda says. I then ran back to the dinning room and got the fire extinguisher.
"If anything...I have to save the brain. Just stay back Emma!" I say and use the fire extinguisher.
"Ray..." Emma says. The fire extinguisher then stopped, there was no more.
'Damn it!' I say and throw the fire extinguisher away.
"Why aren't the sprinklers working? Emma, you need to get out of here too. Or else you'll also-" I say but Emma was gone.
"Emma?" I ask and I then pull out my tracker, she was at a corner, away from the fire.
"Emma?" I call out getting out of the dinning room. And I walk down the hall, and I then see a bucket, I pull out my tracker and see that the tracking device was there but not her.
I bend down and gasp at what I saw, an ear. I then gasped again, realizing.
"What were those children...wearing on their feet?" I ask.
Ray's POV
Emma finally got with the rest of us, I was still a bit shocked about earlier.
Flashback
"Thanks a lot. Nice knowing you, Norman, Emma." I say and let go of the match. Emma then caught the match.
"Nice catch, huh?" Emma asks, showing me the unlit match.
"What the..." I say.
"Sorry, but I'm not going to let you die. Not me, nor the other children." Emma says.
"Wait, other children?" I ask and a knock was then heard. Emma opened it only to show Thoma and Lannion. 2 of Y/n's favorite younger siblings.
"I brought what you asked for, Emma." Thoma says.
"And everyone's already good to go." Lannion says.
"Thanks, Thoma and Lani." Emma says. I was a bit shocked at what was happening right now.
"Okay, Ray. Get changed." Emma says as I was then in some new clothes.
"Done changing? Then next is-" Emma says but I cut her off.
"Wait, but...Emma, I just think-" I say as I was cut off by Emma slapping me.
"Are you still planning to die, you idiot? Stop yapping because we're escaping!" Emma says.
"Norman, Emma, we're done here." Thoma and Lannion say.
"Good." She says.
"What's this?" I ask.
"Your replacement." Lannion says.
"It'll create a specific smell." Thoma says as I then gasped.
"Those braids..." I say.
"They're from Anna." Emma says as I turn to look at her.
"Lastly, the tracking device. I'll take it out, so sit with your ear toward me." Emma says, holding a scalpel.
"Emma, is this-" I ask but get cut off by her putting her hand on my shoulder.
"You can die anywhere, and it doesn't have to be here. I'll show you something cool, so shut up and come along. A message from Y/n." Emma says.
"Huh? Y/n?" I ask.
Another Flashback
"To my dearest Emma...I'm going to write down the plan from here. Ray is planning to die. He's doing all this so you and Norman don't get killed. That's what he said. He didn't include himself in the equation. He has no intention of escaping. He plans on dying inside this House." Y/n says.
"He's going to set himself on fire to distract Mama, and let us run away. That's Ray's plan. But I'm not going to let him do that. No matter what. That's why I'm writing down the plan I came up with. It'll happen in 2 months. Probably the night before Ray's birthday. Use the fire that Ray's planning to start, save Ray, outwit Mama, and escape with everyone." Y/n continues.
"Don't worry. There's time. I also got an unexpected item. It was from Sister Krone. I'm counting on you, Emma. Please take care of Ray and our siblings. And finish what we started." Y/n finishes saying in the note.
End of that flashback
Emma then lit a match.
"Okay, let's begin, Y/n." Emma says and lets go of the match, letting it fall to the ground and lit its surroundings on fire. Emma then took a deep breath and yelled.
"Ray!" Emma shouts.
End of the second flashback
"Okay everyone, let's escape. We'll run to the wall!" Emma says and they all sprint.
"Y/n..." I say and join them but sprinted to the front with Don.
"Hey, Don. What's going on? Do they all know about the House and the escape?" I ask.
"Yeah." Don says.
"How?" I ask.
"Emma told them about it." Don says.
Flashback
"Let's tell more kids other than Don and Gilda." Emma says.
"Don, Gilda, and probably everyone else aren't as immature as we think. If we're going to run from those monsters. I think it's better they know about the dangers, so they can choose for themselves to join our escape. And Mama only suspects the oldest kids, and no one else. Do you think it's reckless?" Emma asks.
"It is." Y/n admits.
"But with this plan, we can catch Mama off-guard. And realistically, this is the only way to escape with everyone." Emma says.
End of Flashback
"At first, we told 4." Don says.
Flashback
"What do you want to know? Go ahead. Ask me anything." Sister Krone says.
"Really, anything?" Emma asks.
"Yes. It can be about the farm or about the headquarters." Sister Krone says.
End of flashback
"Nat, Anna, Lannion, Thoma. We let them hear what Sister said." Don says.
"Since that far back?" I ask.
"For the rest, we spent 2 months slowly recruiting them in. Mama didn't notice at all. That Emma was only pretending to have given up, but was actually giving everyone instructions." Don says.
"Training for the escape, and all the other preparations." Emma says.
"How far along are you?" I ask.
"Everything is ready. Supplies, food, and warm clothing. We can escape anytime." She says.
"You guys..." I say as we then reached the wall.
Emma's POV
As I was in front of the wall, Y/n was next to me.
'Y/n.' I say and Y/n puts her hand on my back, and a smile on her face. I then faced the wall and grinned.
"Nat and I will climb up first. Then we'll pull everyone up." I say.
"Okay, everyone! Just do it like how we trained, and you'll be fine!" Don says.
"Everyone's going to escape safely." I say.
"Wait a sec...Is this all of us?" Ray asks, seeing the small group of children.
5 and above, but not the 4 year old's and below...
Re-edited: May 5, 2023
I'm working my ass off of fixing all these chapters to fit the storyline and it's annoying I swear. But with pain comes great success I guess.