Last chapter!
Chapter 73
Ivory's P.O.V
"I have one more thing to show you Ivory." He takes my hand and leads me to another door. The same bar doors hat they had just disappeared out of. We walked through it and ended up in a totally different area.
It looked like one of the animatronics stores. It was a lot different, it must've been the first one that was ever created. My father's, father stood on a ladder and was hanging up a sign that said 'Grand opening.'
"This was my first ever store. It was what started my whole business. Just a kid with a dream turned into reality."
I smiled at my father. "You deserved every bit of it."
He shook his head and bowed his head down. "I didn't. I'm in jail for a reason Ivory. My father hadn't fully done it himself, I agreed to it. I wanted my animatronics to be better and I knew I didn't have the money to make them better. My thought process was, the more human and realistic they seem, the better and that's where the kids came along."
I was watching what was happening and then it started getting faster, like in a time lapse. Many days went by and less customers were coming in. The animatronics were breaking down and not responding.
"My technology just wasn't good enough. The animatronics always had problems and it was getting ridiculous fixing them. So when my dad brought up the idea for this, I thought it was a great idea, bur I also had very little hope for my business becoming successful."
The next day appeared and I saw my father and a bunch of others dragging these kids into the building. They had their hands over their mouth and were aggressively pulling them. The tried to fight back, but they had such tight grips on them. They opened up the animatronics and shoved them into the suits harshly. They slammed the the suits shut and you could still hear the cries from the inside.
My eyes started watering. They looked so fragile. I looked over at my dad and his eyes were blood shot and watering. "Every time I think about this, all I feel is hurt and regret. I stole kids off of the street and used them for my own dirty work. You hear them crying? They didn't stop for weeks. They cried out for their parents and for help." I felt a pang in my heart.
"Did you ever let them free?" I ask. My heart throbbing and I'm hoping they did.
He shook his head. Pain and regret evident on his face. "I tried. My father kept them in there. They died from lack of food and water."
My heart broke. The pain I felt was so unbearable. My knees felt weak. What if this was your child? If I was around by this time, I would have stopped this. I must've been around at the time the second one opened.
"Once I found out, I kicked my father out and closed the place down for good. He wasn't going to leave, unless I did that."
"Well why was he there in the first place? You guys obviously didn't have a good relationship."
"I needed his money. Without him, I wouldn't have been able to open up the shop. I had made enough money from this to move out. Years later, I still had the money and I decided to open up a new one, we had you during the process of opening. We didn't let my father back in, we didn't need him at all. I opened it with my own money and I never kidnapped anymore kids. It was all technology and it got me here today."
"But it wasn't you. You wouldn't have allowed this Father. Why didn't you fight for your own innocence?" I ask him. I looked at his face and tried to read it for answers.
"But I did do it before. It's been haunting me everyday. I haven't got caught and I knew when I did, I would allow myself to go to jail and get what I deserve."
I sighed and nodded my head. It made a lot of sense. "Don't worry, we'll get you out."
He shook his head. "Allow me to stay here for a while and then get me. If I get out right away, I won't feel like I got what I deserved."
My eyebrows drew together. "Are you sure? We could get you out quickly."
He nodded. "I need to do this or I'll be living with regret and guilt all my life, I mean I still will; but it won't be as bad. I'll spend some time in here and they shut all my stores down, except for yours."
I open my mouth to say something, but We heard a bell in the distance and he looks at me panicky. "I've got to go Ivory. I'll see you in a few weeks."
I nodded sadly and engulfed him in a hug." I love you dad." I closed my eyes and Whispered. I opened my eyes and looked up to see, he was already gone.
The setting changed and I saw Jesse staring at me with an evil smirk. "It's only going to hurt for a little bit Ivory."
"What? What are you doing?" I ask him.
"I've found a use for you darling, now stay still and co-operate." He picks me up and puts me on my shoulder. I'm not going to stay still. I keep kicking him and punching his back. I yell at him multiple times to let me go, but he doesn't. I try to wiggle free, but he has a great deal of strength.
He puts me down and keeps his hands on my shoulder. He smiles wickedly at me. "Nighty night, Ivory." He says and pushes me. I hit my back on metal and I knew what was happening. He was putting me in an animatronic suit. He slams the door and blackness elopes me. The air was being squeezed out of the suit and I wheezed for air. I felt myself getting tired and weak. My eyes slammed shut and I was unconscious.
***
My body flies up from the rested position and my heart is pounding rapidly out of my chest. I was breathing heavily and wheezing for air. The air comes to me and I sigh with relief as I look around me and I'm in my room. It wasn't real, it was just a dream.
Ivan rolls to face me and he sits up. "Are you okay?" He asked with a worried face.
I nodded. "Just a bad dream." I said reassuringly.
"Yeah I could tell. You were screaming earlier and I tried to wake you up, but you were in a deep sleep."
"Well it's okay. I hope I didn't frighten you too much."
"You did worry me quite a lot, but you're okay now, so I'm good." He smiles lazily at me.
I laugh and roll out of bed. I kiss his forehead. "I'm going to go make breakfast."
"Make sure to make waffles and bacon. I'm craving them."
I nod my head with a smile and walk out of his room. I walk passed Chases room, when I see him up and just staring at the ceiling. I walk to his door and lightly knock on it. His gaze adverts to me and he smiles. He sits up on his bed. "Good morning Ivory."
"Good morning. How was your sleep?" I ask and walk over to sit on his bed.
"It was fantastic, thank you."
I smiled. "That's great. Since you're up, do you want to come make breakfast with me? Out family makes massive ones because we have a big one." But there's only four of us now...
He smiles and nods his head. He jumps off his bed. "I'd love to."
I chuckled and grab his hand. We walk down the stairs and into the massive kitchen. I grab out some pans. I got chase to grab out the eggs and bacon from the fridge, as I grabbed the ingredients to make waffles.
I put the bacon on the pan on a low heat to start cooking as I began making the waffle mix.
"Now we add two eggs. Do you know how to crack with one hand?" I ask chase.
He shakes his head. I grab an egg out of the carton and he watched intensely. I use one hand and crack the egg a bit. I dig my thumb into the crack and pull the two pieces apart, without getting any egg shell in the mix.
He cheers and grabs an egg. "I want to do it!" He cracks it and does the same thing. He perfectly opened it with one hand. I smiled as he put the egg shell down and began jumping up and down. "I did it!"
I smiled. "You did! Now grab the spoon and I'll let you mix it, while I keep an eye on the bacon.
He does so and we get all the mixture finishes. I put the eggs on and kept them on the low heat, like the bacon. We put the mix into a waffle maker. I decided to put on some music we could dance to, while we waited.
Chase began jumping up and down to the song. I picked him up and started twirling him around. He was laughing hysterically. I put him down as soon as I got dizzy. I grabbed his hand and held it above and watched him twist.
We danced for a while and Ivan join in. He started dancing with Chase as I plated all the food. They were laughing and had a great time. I wore the biggest smile as I heard Chases giggles.
My mother entered the room and had a great big smile on her face. Her eyes were blood shot and she had bags under her eyes. I could tell that she had been crying on night, but once she saw Chase and Ivan having a good time, I'd put her in a better mood.
I shut off all the music and Ivan pouted. I chuckled. "The foods ready."
His eyes widened and he rushed over to a seat. Chase came and sat beside me. We started dishing out food to everyone.
We begin eating and my mother just twirled her fork in the food. I placed my fork down. "What's wrong mom?" I ask.
She tilts her head up and looks at me. "Oh nothing, just not hungry is all."
I was not convinced. I know that's not all. "He'll be okay, I know he will. We're going to get him out in a bit. He requested we leave him in there for a bit."
She nodded. "I know he'll be okay."
"Well good. We'll be back to normal in a few weeks, you have nothing to worry about."
She took a bite of her food and wiped her mouth with a napkin. "Are you going to work today?"
I nodded. "Yep. I was wondering if you guys could watch over Chase."
Ivan nodded. "I wanted to play more video games with him anyway, we barely scratched the surface yesterday."
I chuckled and looked over at Chase. "Are you okay with this?"
He nodded. "Video games are fun and I like Ivan too."
"See! I'm good with kids. You'll have nothing to worry about if we have our own." Ivan responds.
I laugh. "You know nothing about raising kids."
He pouted. "Well I can learn."
I laugh. "We'll see. Anyway, I've got to go to work. Have a great day everyone, don't burn down the house and mother, you're in charge."
Ivan groans. I ignore him and chuckle silently. I wash my plate and get on my shoes and coat. I grab my car keys, but realized I forgot something. I walked back over. I kissed chase and Ivan on the forehead and gave my mother a hug. "Alright, now I'm leaving, see you guys!"
They muttered their goodbyes and I walked out to my car. Everything is going to be alright, once we get him out of jail. This might be a good thing. We get rid of the past and only look forward, we have the opportunity to start again and have a new beginning.
I revved my car and pulled out of the driveway. I'm not going to cry anymore. Nothing's going for being me down. We've experience to many sad moments, that I'm not going to let anything get me down. I'm grown strong from this, we all have and this won't bring us down.
I drove silently through the streets, enjoying the fresh air and the wind flying through my hair. I get closer and I see smoke coming from that area. Black and grey filled the air and I had a weird feeling bubbling up in my stomach.
I drove closer and closer and the fumes were making me light headed. I drove to the peer and my stomach dropped when I saw my store in flames. I rushed to my diner, without second thought. My animatronics are still in there. I knew what to do. I covered my mouth with my sleeve and ran inside the doors. The flames were on either side of me and my skin felt like it was on fire. My hair felt like it was burning off and falling to the ground. The ashes flew through the building and I felt like I was inhaling some.
I felt like I was going to collapse. The blackness was knocking on my door and I was fighting it. I was pushing dressers to the door to block it out. I ran to the back of the room, where they were. They laid there. Flames coming close to them. I started dragging them one by one out of the store.
I was going to pass out soon. I took a deep breath before I went in to get the last one. Flame touched my leg and I screamed so loudly, but kept fighting through it. The ceiling was threatening to fall, the walls were already crumbling down. I gripped onto the animatronic and rushed out of the building through the back door.
I laid them down in a straight line on the ground, away from the burning building. I dropped to my knees and gasped for air. It had all been sucked out of me. My leg was burning. I looked down and air pockets were forming and a yellow, thick viscosity fluid, came out of the wound. I clenched my fists in pain.
Tears were falling from my eyes. Everything I had created is gone. The whole company had been taken down in a week. The company that took years to build up, its all gone.
I heard sirens come from behind me. I felt someone tap on my shoulder. I turned around and saw Linda standing behind me. I wiped the tears and clenched my fists angrily. "What are you doing here?" I growled to her.
She smirked and crossed her arms over her chest. "Oh, just finishing what I started Ivory. Take away what I love and I take away what you love." She announces.
My eyes widened and I punched her straight in the face. It was like my fist has a mind of its own. I jumped onto her body, that had fallen to the ground. I repeatedly punched her until someone pulled me off. I looked back at the same police officer that held me the other day. I grew embarrassed, but I didn't really care. I tried to escape. "Let me at her!" I screamed and tried to lunge at her, but the police officer held a tight grip on me.
"Ladies what happened here?" They asked between us and the burning building.
"She burnt down my store!" I screamed. "Take her away!"
Their eyes widened and the pushed her to the ground roughly and put handcuffs on her. They started dragging her away and the police officer let go of me. "I'm really sorry." He says and walks off.
I hear Linda calling my name. I look over and her head is peeking out of the window of the police car. "Just to let you know, it was all worth it. You took everything I had, so I took everything you had!" The police officer pushed her in and slammed the door.
Ambulances and fire trucks were arriving. They started extinguishing the fire. Paramedics came up to me and started asking me if I was alright. They started attending to my leg, they put a cream on it; that I knew would burn, but it didn't. My focus was on the building that was burnt to the ground.
Everything is gone...
***
The last chapter. I don't know if we will have a sequel, but I left it here in case I wanted one. Thank you guys so much. I never thought I'd actually be able to finish a book, but it happened. I'm so proud of his book and I'll always remember it. Thank you all for the support and love, I wouldn't have been able to do this without you.
I'm going to start writing another book, so please check it out. I love you all and have a great day xoxo!