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Find the warrior of light. Wake them up. Kill the prophet. Destroy the doll.
Lex could not understand half of this shit, but at least today couldn’t get any weirder. Pulling a gun out of thin air after some secret agent in the ‘black and white’, whatever that was, gave it to her kind of trumped everything that was happening.
Which was saying a lot, seeing the customers of ToyZone started worshipping a doll and chose the greediest, evilest woman in line to be their prophet and ‘mother’ (gross).
Now, it apparently was up to her to keep this mess from getting any more out of hand than it already had.
Lex was certain she was not the warrior of light the agent spoke of. If she was, the agent would have addressed her as such. Her mind immediately went to Ethan, but she was unable to find him. When she came across Mr. Houston, everything fell into place. He was a vet; he knew what to do in this kind of crazy situation. He had to be the warrior.
But first, she had to wake him up.
Luckily, his eyes were opened and Lex could explain what happened. He had a little trouble grasping everything that was going on and Lex was tasked to do, but he was willing to help and if killing Linda Monroe, the prophet, was going to help people stop being murderous about a toy kids didn’t even want, then he was in.
For a moment, Lex believed that everything would be okay. She had Mr. Houston at her side.
It had gone south the moment Mr. Houston threatened Linda Monroe with the gun Lex had gotten from the agent. A gunshot rang out, Linda screamed. Lex thought he’d hit her, but he missed. Linda pushed him, screaming relentlessly, and the gun flew through the air, next to the nurse that Linda did not like. She had still not fully awoken from sedation, but if anyone had a chance to kill her easily and quickly, it’d be her.
Lex couldn’t reach it. There were many of Linda’s followers around her, swarming her. She held on to the doll for as long as she could - why had they brought it again in the first place? - until Linda got her hands on it.
The prophet had the doll. Lex had no idea what exactly this meant, but it could not be good. She rushed to Hannah, sitting in a corner, to hold her while she cried and panicked, to let her know she was not alone and that she should not be afraid anymore, because Lex was here.
Who was she kidding? How could she stop the horde of weirdos celebrating they finally had a doll? Mr. Houston had been pretty useless - he had been overpowered and was pushed into the same corner by some crazed followers who would watch them. They would not be able to reach the nurse and the gun that lay close to her without these crazy people noticing.
But Lex could pull guns out of thin air. Was it possible she could grab that gun if she reached for it through that ‘black and white’ the agent had called it? She stretched one arm in an attempt to reach into the Black and White again, but it felt like she was grasping at thin air. For all she knew, she was. It was a miracle she had been able to do it the first time around, she wouldn’t be able to do it without any instructions.
And Hannah cried. Oh, she cried, and Lex could barely comfort her, because even the most comforting of words would not correspond with what could happen next.
Today was a bad day. A very bad day.
People had chased her, crossed and violated her boundaries, tossed her everywhere. They stole Ethan’s magic hat.
Today was the worst day of Hannah’s life, the last day of her life, the only day she would ever know until eternity. And tomorrow, today, she’d have to do it all over again.
Things will be okay.
“Webby?” Thank goodness. Webby! “I’m scared.”
Lex pulled her a little tighter, whispered to her that it was going to be okay.
Don’t be afraid. Listen to Lex - things will be okay. You can make them stop.
“How?”
Just tell them. You need not be afraid of them. When you speak, they will listen. When you tell them to stop, they will. No harm will come to you today.
Hannah nodded to herself. She trembled, was still fearful, but Webby had taken most of it away. Things will be okay. Webby said so. She always spoke the truth. They should be okay.
At that moment, Linda focused on the non-believers in the room. The smile on her face had vanished, her gaze turned cold. She would not show them any mercy, since she did not know mercy. A shiver ran down Hannah’s spine.
Hannah did not know the prophet well. All she needed to know was that she was evil and tasted blood, and that whatever she said, her near-mindless drones would obey.
Linda Monroe would kill them.
“Get rid of them,” Linda said.
Even her voice was devoid of emotions. Everything that might have made her once human was gone.
Mr. Houston, the man who stole the doll from her, now clear of evil, positioned himself in front of the sisters, to protect them and hold of the mindless masses for as long as he could. Despite how dire the situation was and how frightened she felt, Hannah was strangely calm.
When you speak, they will listen.
“Stop.” It wasn’t louder than a whisper. Then, louder, “Stop!”
Linda grinned. The little girl begging was amusing to her. And while she heard, she did not look. She was focused on Becky Barnes, almost fully awake. She did not see the horde she’d sent to ‘get rid of them’ had stopped coming closer.
What Webby had promised, was true. They listened.
“Wake up!” Hannah shouted. “Wake up!”
Neither Lex nor Hannah could explain the strange sensation. They felt it inside of them and around them; they felt it crash onto the followers, who stumbled and awoke as Mr. Houston had woken up from the Wiggly-induced trance. Though it was indescribable, they both had felt it before, briefly. Hannah knew it as Webby being present and calming her, Lex recognized it from her brief encounter with John McNamara.
Mr. Houston did not share this sensation; he only watched in relief, shock, surprise as the people that only seconds ago were going to kill them, now woke up and were just as confused as he was.
And Linda Monroe burst out laughing. “Silly girl!” she said between laughs. “Do you really think that is possible? They serve Wiggly now.”
And though they were asleep before, they remembered what had happened, what horrible things they’ve done, and that Linda Monroe had ordered them, in no uncertain terms, to kill three innocent people.
They started to protest. Shouts varying from “what?” to “what did you do to me?” to “I’m not killing anyone” and anything in between. Fairly easily, the crowd agreed to blame Linda Monroe for the organized evil after all dolls were gone and for giving the command to kill these people, making her out to be bloodthirsty and cruel. Which she, obviously, was.
And Linda was taken aback. Even Gary Goldstein, usually an ally, found it easier to support the others so as not to be. The coward!
“Shut up!” she shouted. “You need to listen to me! You adore me!”
Her once-followers disagreed with her, leaving her in despair. She yelled at everyone, wishing them all dead and calling them heathens, singling out Gary and a couple of others for not supporting her.
Maybe there still was some lingering influence from Wiggly. Maybe they were so heated they saw red and smelled blood. Either way, the men formed a mob that approached Linda Monroe, that wanted to punish Linda Monroe for what she had done and what she had condoned while they were asleep. And they attacked.
Her screams were overwhelming. A loud, high-pitched scream sounded over the crowds. While Hannah, Lex and Mr. Houston could not see what was going on or what the people were doing to her, but those screams were not human. Not after the first moments. Until, eventually, the sound grew weaker. The mob parted once the screaming was done. What was left of Linda Monroe could only partially be recognized, but they were certain that she had not survived this assault.
And Hannah wondered if this was her doing. She’d told them to stop. She’d told them to wake up. But while she did not say it out loud, she had wanted for Linda Monroe to be stopped and punished for everything she had done today, specifically for all the horrors Hannah had gone through.
That was not the end of the terror. One of those who once worshipped Wiggly, some homeless guy, decided to set the store on fire. It grew rather quickly - faster than anyone could have predicted.
“Let’s get out of here,” Tom said. Lex and Hannah agreed. After taking Becky, they fled from the store and watched the inferno grow and swallow the Lakeside Mall from the outside.