Something Dark Awaits
Chapter 14
Meanwhile, I myself was heading for the lair. Not knowing what was install for me. But what ever the case, I needed to rescue Benny Bear and save Benjamin.
I got to the tree house mansion.
I gazed up as I studied how I was going to get in.
I thought about how I got in last time I had to save Benjamin from Oogie.
I climbed down the chain that led underneath the bridge.
I saw a barred window, the same window where I entered last time.
I gazed through, trying to stop my foe.
But it was too dark to see. There wasn’t a light in the house.
But I had to crawl in anyway, no matter what was installed for me.
I slowly crept down the side of the lair and onto solid ground.
I stared through the darkness. My surroundings were barely visible.
I wandered through the shadows.
“Come on, Oogie.” I called out. “You can’t scare me. Show your self.”
I stopped in the middle of the room.
I began to get a bad feeling, I could just sense and ambush.
#WHAM!#
“UH!” Something suddenly smacked my head so hard, my skull spun the other way and I was knocked off my balance.
I got to my knees.
I placed my hands round the back of my head and turned my skull back round.
I then got to my feet.
I was in shock as I stared at the one who struck me to the ground.
“My god! Annie!”
I saw anger and rage in her eyes as she glared towards me.
Anastasia then slowly began walking in my direction.
“Annie? Can you hear me?” I questioned.
I was almost scared. Not for myself, but for her.
“Annie, listen to my voice. You don’t want to do this. You don’t want to hurt anyone.”
I held out my hand.
“Annie, come with me.” I began. “I can help you. We all can.”
Annie’s face then changed. She now looked afraid.
She stopped walking when she had reached me.
She looked towards my hand as I offered her help.
“That’s it. Come on, Annie.”
Annie slowly reached out and placed her hand in mine.
I felt a great relief. She had co-operated.
“Come on, now. Let’s get you home…”
“AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!”
Annie suddenly screamed and pulled me towards her.
She attempted to hit me again, but I was quicker.
I tightly took hold of her wrist as she attempted to strike.
She struggled and swung with her other hand, trying once again to do me harm.
But I was quick enough to snatch hold of her arm. I tried to hold her still.
Annie struggled and thrashed.
I had to get her to the floor to try to restrain her. But it was far to difficult. She had gotten a lot stronger than a nine year old child.
“Annie, stop!” I cried. “You don’t want to hurt me! And I’m not going to hurt you! You’ve got to listen to me! You’ve got to stop fighting! Annie!? ANNIE!?!”
“Get OFF ME!!!” She screamed. Her voice sounded strange.
She suddenly pulled her arm free and fought to get her other hand free.
She kicked wildly. She kicked me in the ribs and soon fought her way out of my grip when she gripped her teeth onto my hand that was holding her.
“Ahh!” I immediately loosened my grip and let her go.
Annie stumbled to her feet and raced for the other side of the room.
She began pulling at a blade hanging from the wall, trying to pull it free.
“Annie, no!” I raced to stop her.
#Crack!#
Anne broke the blade from the wall.
She held it up in her defence.
This was so much to bare.
Anastasia, my favourite little girl was standing before me, covered in cuts and bruises and threatening me with a three foot blade.
She wasn’t going to listen to me. She was too ill and too lost. And I wasn’t going to try to hurt her ether.
I decided that I wasn’t gonna try to defend myself.
In other places, back in the lab in fact, Emma was getting herself all anxious.
“Emma, please try to calm down.” Sally tried. “Jack’s beaten Oogie many times before.”
“I don’t know. There’s something not quite right about this. I have this really bad feeling that something’s happened. Like a booby-trap, or an ambush, or something.”
#Ding-Dong#
Some on rung the door bell.
“There, now. That’s probably him now.” Said Sally as she went to answer the door.
Sally walked down the ramp and headed for the front door.
But when she opened it, there was no one there.
“Hello?” Sally called.
“Down here!” Called a voice.
“Benny Bear, your back! Emma!” Sally shouted up to her friend.
But Sally noticed that something was obviously missing.
“But where’s Jack?”
“Well, you see, err, that’s kinda what’s I’ve come to tell you about. You see Jack didn’t free me and send me here.”
“Well then, who did?” Asked Emma as she arrived on the scene.
“Well, she said she’d use my stuffing for toy cannon fire if I told you. But listen up, Jack’s in trouble!”
“WHAT!” Emma cried.
“Oh no! Not Jack!” Sally suddenly became terribly worried.
“What’s happened!” Emma urgently asked.
“I’ll tell ya’ll on the way. Right now we’ve gotta get to the tree house!”
“Lead the way.” Said Emma. “Sally, you stay here.”
“What? No, I won’t!”
“You need to stay here, you need to stay safe!”
“Emma, my fiancé’s out there! I’m not going to wait here and worry!”
With time running out and with there seeming to be no convincing her, Emma let Sally tag along as they raced to Oogie’s lair.
Meanwhile…
“Annie, listen to me!” I endeavoured to help Annie hear my voice. But it was as if it wasn’t Annie who I was talking to.
Annie once said to Sally that there was someone inside her, I was beginning to believe that maybe she was right.
“Alright!” I began. “Now I’m speaking to whoever’s inside of Annie!” I called out.
Anastasia stopped her attack. She glared towards me.
I got to me feet, though I was a little unsteady. My clothes were ripped and stained with blood. Not mine of course, (I don’t have any blood). The blood was from Annie.
“Who are you?” I questioned.
“Ego sum qui entues habitat.” Annie spoke in her strange voice and in a strange language.
Annie then lifted the blade up into the air…“AAAAAHHHHH!!!”
“Annie!” Cried a familiar voice.
I looked behind me to where the voice came from.
“Emma! Sally! Stay Back!”
“AAAAHHHHH!!!!” Annie screamed.
Emma quickly released a form of her powers.
She set off a loud, high-pitched that came from a glowing light from with in her hands.
Annie screamed again.
So did Sally.
So did I.
Emma then saw her chance and grabbed hold on Annie’s weapon.
As soon as the noise stopped, I jumped in to lend a hand.
I warned Sally to stay back, but she ignored my advice and came to help us.
With the three of us working together we finally disarmed Annie.
I threw the blade to the far end of the room.
The point of it stabbed into the wall, so high up that Annie could never reach it.
“Emma, now!” Sally cried.
Emma let off a sonic bomb that floated into the middle of the room.
“Jack! We’ve gotta get out of here, NOW!” Said Sally, helping me onto my feet.
“Yeah! We’ve gotta get moving, that thing’s going to explode in seconds!”
I saw the bomb getting bigger and I could hear it getting louder. The noise was too much for Annie. She was thrashing about the floor crying ‘Make it stop!’.
“What about Annie?” I called.
“We’ll have to leave her! We have no choice! Just run!”
I took hold of Sally’s hand and ran for the exit.
Emma quickly climbed the top and helped Sally out. I soon followed behind.
As soon as we were all out, we ran!
We ran and ran until…
#KABOOM!#
There was a gigantic explosion from the lair. Emma’s sonic bomb had gone off.
There wasn’t any fire or fumes of smoke, but there was a lot more damage than just to the lair.
As we stared at the destruction, piece by piece, the mansion began to collapse.
The structure was breaking, the roofs were collapsing, there was wood debris scattering everywhere.
It was only after everything had stopped collapsing that we could go searching for Annie. If she was alive.
“Annie!” Emma cried as she frantically searched.
“Oh, Annie. Please be alright.” I said as I searched.
I moved broken planks of wood and debris out of my way as I rummaged. And soon enough, I eventually uncovered a hand.
“Annie!” I took hold of her hand and carefully pulled her out of the wreckage.
“Oh, Annie!” Sally came by my side. “Is she alright?”
I studied her slight movements.
“She’s unconscious, but she’s breathing still.” I said. “Come on, we’ve got to get her back to the lab!”
So, carrying Anastasia in my arms I ran with Sally and Emma back to the town.
She’d survived the collapsing of the mansion. But what about her illness?
I could guarantee that she wasn’t going to be cured by a bump on the head. I knew that when she woke up, she’d be back to kicking and screaming.
Oh, what was wrong with her?
You might be about to find out…
