Moving On

C h a p t e r 8

A few days went by. It was now late 7 o'clock on Wednesday night. Juliet lay in my arms peacefully. I felt frozen. Frozen in fear. The tv was on but I was lost in thought. Deep thought. Until there was a knock at the door.
"Jug?" Archie then let himself in. That's when I looked up.
"Yeah?"
"You gonna bring Julie over to me and Roni's?"
"Yeah.. I just.."
"It's okay, Jug." Archie said with his hand in my shoulder. I picked Julie up and brought her upstairs to get her changed into her pajamas. She was kind of half asleep. I packed her a bag and I brought her back downstairs.
"Ready to go?"
"Just about." I looked around the house as if it was the last time I would ever be there. We locked the front door and started walking next door to Archie's house. We got into Archie's house and Juliet began to wake up.
"Daddy? What's going on?" Juliet said puzzled as she laid in my arms.
"Your going to have a sleepover at Tommy's. How does that sound?"
"Yay! Daddy where's your stuff?"
"No, baby, just you. I live you so much, Bug."
"I love you too, daddy." I hugged her as tight as I could without hurting hurt. I began to cry a little but, I couldn't let Julie see me like that.
"Bye bye, Julie." I waved to her as I wiped a tear off my face. Julie clearly didn't understand what was going on.
"Bye bye, daddy." She waved as she ran upstairs to find Tommy. Baby Daisy was in a bassinet in the opening room sleeping peacefully. And Roni was reading a story to Cece. They had such a perfect family. That's all I ever wanted. All we ever wanted. Archie and I walked out to the truck and Veronica waved us goodbye. I couldn't tell if she knew what was happening or not. Archie patted my shoulder as grabbed our coats and walked out. The car ride was quiet. We made it to the docks at sweet water river. We parked pretty close. All I had on me was a pocket knife and a lighter. All of a sudden, I heard footsteps come from behind. Archie was sitting in the car in case he needed to call the cops. The footsteps became less faint. Closer. Until I turned around. It was a tall, skinny man standing before me with a black hood on. Clearly, this wasn't Betty's father. It wasn't tall boy, he was dead. I couldn't seem to figure out who it was. 
"You didn't bring the child."
"No, I didn't."
"For that, you will have to be punished." Then, what happened next was unbelievable. This is where everything starts to deteriorate. The ghoulies began to come out of every clearing in the forest near sweet water river. According to Archie, one of the ghoulies' leaders Malachi, popped up at his window. Archie looked back and tried to rush to warn me but, it was too late. Malachi bashed his window in with a baseball bat. He unlocked the car from the inside, and then he began to beat up Archie. Archie already had glass on his face from when he bashed the window in. Meanwhile, the ghoulies begun to gang up on me.
"Hiya there, Jones."
"Penny?" The ghoulies froze when penny arrived. My face was bruised and bleeding.
"I-I thought y-you where-"
"Dead?" She cut me off.
"Oh, please. Your mother really thought she could scare me off? I'm not afraid of her. And I'm sure as hell not afraid of you." She laughed. I struggled but the ghoulies were too strong. I could faintly here Archie's scream in the background.
"You deliberately disobeyed him. You didn't come alone, you didn't bring the child, and, got any weapons on you?"
"No."
"Ghoulies, check his pockets!" They began to dig in my pockets. They found the lighter and my pocket knife.
"Ghoulies, let him go." Penny said. She grabbed the pocket knife out of one's hand. I tried to run or get up but, I was too weak. She then grabbed my shirt and yanked me up.
"Ahh!" I screamed in pain. She picked up the knife out of her pocket. She clicked the button to open it up. The knife was drawn. She then slowly brought it closer and closer to my neck. Up until the cold metal was practically sitting on my neck.
"Tell me where the child is or you and your wife die."
"I'm not telling you a thing." I said, blood and tears dripping down my face. At this point, I thought Archie was unconscious. Then, I heard him fighting off the ghoulies, one by one. That's when penny turned around to see the ghoulies struggling to fight him off. A couple of them had fled once they saw him since they know his father is the mayor. There were only a few left, including Malachi. Malachi was really the only one truly ganging up on him. But, when penny turned, she pulled the knife away. However, she stabbed the knife in my leg to stall.
"Ahhh!!!!" I screamed in excruciation.
"Jug!!" Archie yelled. Penny started running after Archie. I curled up on the docks next to the water. I was bleeding out, still with the knife in my leg. My vision became blurry. All I could think about was Julie, and, Betty. How I let them down.