"We don't need to run, those are our parents! Let them in!" Naomi demanded as the banging on the door continued for a moment more then became quiet. Badly I wanted to agree with my sister, badly I wanted to scream at Pluto and Jupiter and tell them they were crazy, and even more wanted to call the police but I had a feeling deep down there was nothing I could do to stop what was coming.
"Naomi, I...I don't think that's mom and dad." I admitted, feeling my knees wobble at the alarming silence.
"It's mom and dad Abigail, what are you talking about?" She asked as she began walking towards the door, but Pluto stepped in front of her.
"Naomi, go upstairs and get Gemma, we're wasting time. We need to go, now." He ordered, which made her look back at me nervously.
"What's going on Abigail?" She asked meekly.
Before I could answer though we heard a loud click on the other side of the door. "Get down!" Jupiter shouted and immediately pushed us down before gunfire rained on the front door, tearing the wood to shreds.
"Why are they shooting at us?!" Naomi screamed, covering her ears and squeezing her eyes shut as I wrapped an arm around her to protect her from any stray bullets.
"We're going to die! Do something!" I shouted at Pluto and Jupiter above the noise and they shared panicked looks with each other.
"I don't have a gun Jup!" Pluto yelled above the gunfire and Jupiter stared at him with a hard expression before swallowing thickly as the sweet, innocent look in his expression turned dark.
"Go! Take the girls and Toby, get them out of here! We can't let them get her!" He yelled back, briefly looking over at me and I felt my heart skip a beat. What did he mean by that? Was he talking about me?
"I can't leave you! I won't! Let me stay! You take Abigail and the others! I can't protect them!" Pluto insisted, making Naomi and I share terrified looks.
"You can do it Pluto, don't be scared!" Jupiter reassured as he then pointed to the stairs. "When I count to five, I need you three to run upstairs and get Gemma! I'll cover you!" Jupiter ordered in a deeper, more dominating voice, practically sounding like a different person. Sweet or not, there was no way I was getting up.
"If we get up, we'll get shot!" I screamed at him, hoping this was a lucid nightmare. The only thing that kept telling me this was real, was the icy terror I felt inside. Whoever those people were outside the door meant business and it seemed like they were going to kill us. I didn't want to die, and I didn't want Toby, Gemma, and Naomi to die. Especially Naomi, I didn't want to watch my baby sister die.
"No, you won't! Just trust me! They're about to come through that door and if you don't get upstairs, they'll kill you! Stay with Pluto! He'll get you guys out!" He screamed back as Naomi shook her head fast.
"No, no, no! I'm scared! I don't want to get up!" She begged, sobbing now as she gripped onto me. For a long moment I held my breath as I looked between Jupiter, Pluto and the door. He was right, that door was almost down and when they got in here it was going to be bad. You didn't have to be a genius to figure that out.
"If you don't listen to us Naomi you're going to die!" Pluto yelled as he shook her arm. In response she just clung to me tighter. He was right, right now might be our only chance and Naomi wasn't getting up unless I did.
"Okay, okay! Let's do it! On the count of five!" I decided. Nodding, Jupiter prepared to stand up, while Pluto grabbed onto Naomi and we braced ourselves to run to the stairs.
"One..."
My heart was in my throat.
"Two..."
I had never wondered what it would be like to get shot until now.
"Three..."
If I died right here, right now, I hope there was a heaven.
"Four..."
I wonder if my parents already knew the answer to that question.
"Five!" He finally shouted.
Then, as if in slow motion, Jupiter jumped up and stood in front of the door where the bullets were coming from while Naomi, Pluto and I jumped up onto the stairs. Once our feet touched the bottom steps, Pluto and Naomi began to run up, but I stopped to look back at Jupiter. When I did, I was expecting him to be on the ground covered in bloody bullet holes but instead I got my next shock. Like hail hitting the roof of a house, the bullets were bouncing off him, leaving him with no bodily harm. Then, as if that wasn't enough to swallow, he stuck out both his hands in the shape of two finger guns and right before my eyes the skin peeled away and twisted and cracked until his outstretched fingers turned into the barrels of two handguns. "I hope you know, you made a mistake coming here!" He shouted as he then opened fired. I think, if it hadn't been for Pluto running back down the stairs to tug on my arm, I would've stayed at the bottom of the stairs frozen in awe.
"Abigail come on!" He shouted in my ear and with my head spinning, I turned around on the stairs and ran up them to the top where Naomi was waiting.
"Did you see that?" I asked them as we stumbled into the hall. Naomi was too consumed with terror though to pay attention to me, instead she just tugged me and Pluto down the hall to Gemma's room.
"Gemma! Gemma, where are you? Gemma! We have to go!" Naomi yelled upon us entering the room. For a terrifying second, it seemed like she wasn't there until she slid out from underneath her bed.
"What's going on? Why is there shooting? I can't get my phone to work. I tried...I tried to call the police..." She choked out, her face red from crying.
"No time to explain let's go!" Pluto urged as he grabbed her hands to help her up, but she was trembling so hard it took a couple of tries. I guess Gemma's adrenaline was weaker then mine, because despite my fear I was standing just fine.
"Where's Toby? Is Toby okay? Where is he?'' Gemma asked as she gripped Pluto's shoulders once she was finally on her feet and I felt the color drain from my face.
Toby.
Oh my gosh Toby.
I hadn't even thought to get Toby!
Suddenly, I felt my already prominent adrenaline multiply and my blood rush through my body at an unhealthy rate.
"I don't know where Toby is; I think he's still in the garage." I gasped softly.
"We have to get him! We have to get him now," Gemma said so fast her words rolled together as she rushed towards the door the hall but before she could make it to the hall Pluto and Naomi grabbed her.
"No Gemma! You'll die! We need to hide! Please! Please!" Naomi begged as the sound of glass shattering and wood cracking was heard downstairs amidst the gunfire.
"Not without Toby! We can't leave Toby!" She sobbed as she struggled against them. Gemma was right, we couldn't leave Toby, if we went and escaped right now, he could die if he already wasn't dead.
"We can't go down there Gemma, Naomi's right; you all are going to die if you do! Once I get you girls out, I'll try to go back for Toby." Pluto reassured but I could tell by the tone of his voice that was an empty promise. Pluto didn't have enough time to get all of us out of the house and come back for Toby while Jupiter fought off the two gun wielding maniacs posing as our parents. It would be too late; someone had to go down there now.
"I'm not leaving without him, get Naomi and Gemma out, I'll go get Toby." I decided and without a second thought I ran out of the room and down the hall as Pluto let go of Gemma to chase after me.
"Abigail no! Don't go down there! It's too late!" He yelled after me, his fingers briefly brushing my elbow. He almost managed to grab me, but just missed me as I started running down the stairs. I loved my older brother and I wasn't going to let him die. The garage was just around the corner from stairs, if I dropped down and crawled, I could make it. Before I made it half way down the stairs though, the lights around the house flickered and groaned before going out and plunging the house into darkness. All in an instant after it went dark, the sound of gunshots seemed to fade away and the house went silent.
Breathing in and out deeply I waited a moment before I inched the rest of the way downstairs. The instant my bare feet touched the floor I hissed softly, there were hot bullets scattered across the floor. Biting my lip hard, I put aside the fear of pain and stepped down into the mess before shuffling quietly along the floor.
I still heard gunshots, but they sounded like they were outside, so that likely meant the fight moved outside. Trying to keep my breaths even my suppressed anxiety wouldn't overwhelm me; I turned around the corner of the stairs and peeked into the kitchen to make sure the coast was clear. Other than a small fire on the counter it was all clear. Or so I thought until I saw an outstretch metal arm from behind the island. Feeling my chest tightened, I prayed it wasn't Jupiter as I opened the draw near the fridge and pulled out the emergency flashlight. When I clicked it on, I shone it on the arm. It didn't seem to be moving, and I'm pretty sure there was a pool of gasoline surrounding it. Maybe one of them lost it in a fight.
Growing even more curious, I made my way over to it counter and almost dropped my flashlight when I saw it was attached to a robotic body, the one that had originally been thought to be my dad. Gasping, I stumbled back expecting it to attack me, but it didn't move. Frowning, I cautiously took a step forward and nudged it with my flashlight. It didn't move. "I guess its dead." I muttered, then turning away from it and making a quick paced walk across the kitchen so I could get to the basement.
"Where are you going without your father's permission Abigail?" A distorted, metallic voice then ask the second I touched the doorknob and with a scream I turned around to see the red eyes of the robotic man glaring at me as he pulled himself off the kitchen floor. "You can't go anywhere without me," He rasped as he then stumbled towards me.
"Get away from me!" I screamed, then dodging him and making a mad dash from the kitchen to the living room. With a terrifying laugh, he stumbled after me.
"Oh, come on darling, there's nothing to be afraid of." He cooed, walking towards me with a stagger because of his damaged arm. Unsure of where to go, because the living room was basically a trap, I dove behind the couch and turned off my flashlight as he entered the living room. "Abigail...Abigail...don't be difficult...I just want to talk to you..." He hummed upon entering the living room and I felt my heart stutter as I covered my mouth. ''Come out, come out where ever you are.'' He called as he moved slowly across the living room. I was cornered. I had nowhere to run, nowhere else to hide. I should have just listened to Pluto and stayed upstairs with Gemma and Naomi, coming down here had been a suicide mission. "Abigail...come on out...let's talk about this..." He called out and I squeezed my eyes shut. I never thought I'd die in my childhood home, I always thought it'd be doing a photography tour of a dangerous jungle or a war or something.
"Abigail darling, I know where you are, why don't you come out and-"
"Get away from her!" I then heard Toby shout, and the sound of glass shattering was heard. Quickly, I shot up from behind the couch to see Toby had grabbed the lamp off the living room end table and broke it over the head of the creature.
"Toby!'' I cried out as I watched the robot stumble two or three steps, before he swung around and backhanded Toby. Crying out in pain, Toby grabbed his face as he fell back against the wall.
"You really shouldn't have done that," He said as he picked up on of the shards of broken glass and headed towards Toby.
"No! No!" He was going to stab Toby right in front of me and I was going to watch him die. "No! Don't do it! Leave him alone!" I screamed as I ran out from behind the couch and I grabbed the guy's wrist. Caught off guard by my actions, he tried to get me off him. I didn't let go, but I did start shouting for help. "Pluto! Pluto please help us! Pluto!" I yelled as loudly as I could in hopes he'd hear me.
"Get off of me!" The robotic man growled, shaking me hard but he didn't try to stab me. It almost seemed like he was trying not to hurt me?
"Abigail let go! He's going to hurt you!" Toby shouted weakly but before I could consider it we heard a high pitched whistle that made Toby and I cover our ears as the robot stumbled back covering his.
"What is that?" Toby choked out, and I shook my head as I felt pressure build up in my head.
Pluto then appeared in the doorway of the living room with a baseball bat in hand. "It's a frequency; it's only going to hold him off for few moments though, come on!" He shouted, gesturing for us to come. "Come on! We don't have time to waste! I told you I was going to come back!" He insisted as we both ran to his side and following him out of the house.
Weakly the robot tried to follow us but whatever the frequency was, made it hard for him to stand, giving us the five minutes we needed get into the car where Gemma and Naomi were waiting for us and we peeled off into the night while I looked through the back window at Mac's now dark house.
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Omg I had so much fun (I'm twisted I know) writing this chapter! I am very pleased with how it turned out and I hope you all were on the edge of your seat as I had intended lol. Sighhhhh. I missed being able to update everyday, summer was good for that! At least I'm giving you all something in the midst of my hectic schedule!
-Mari.