Outside chapter 24: The Final Showdown (part 2)
Please note this chapter has even more violence than the last one. So there's your warning.
Also next week is the final chapter of Outside, plus a little extra thing at the end. So it'll be a double-post pretty much.
Scout and Will were both held by two Sock Puppets each, arms held in tight grips as Mortimer forced his nose back into position. He glared at them as he walked by to where Stacy had been hanging, only to stop when he realized she wasn't there anymore.
Without a word he turned right back around and backhanded Scout, making her cry out in pain while Will yelled at him.
"Oh don't be so loud and crude." He ordered the man blandly, rubbing his hand like it was sore. "I wouldn't have to get so violent if you two hadn't been so rude."
"Go to fucking hell!" Will shouted, only to receive a glare in return. One of the Socks covered his mouth, shutting him up very effectively even as he tried to fight back.
"Now then," He turned back to Scout. "Why don't you-"
A gunshot, and Mortimer stumbled forward as blood began blooming over his Host's chest. Scowling he turned to see Stacy holding the gun with shaky Puppet-hands, a determined glare on her face. She fired off another shot, but missed completely. Mortimer reached and, like strings had attached to her, she was pulled into his grip, even as she struggled against him.
He glared down at her and she glared back, before he blinked and was suddenly back to his affable old man persona.
"Really now Scout, did you think you could hide from me?" He asked, turning to face her as he raised his free hand. "Did you really think I wouldn't be able to see?" He snapped his fingers, and Scout was in his grasp while Stacy fell limp, held up only by the Socks. "Did you forget I control everything here, including you? Although I must admit, that little trick is new. Riley would have a field day with this information, if it wasn't for our... little situation."
Scout cowered in his grasp as he carried her back over to the symbol covered wall. Giving a tsk at the cut rope, he pulled a new one from his pocket and retied her, leaving her hanging, trembling, and no longer with the human power of adrenaline to keep her brave.
He meandered his way back over to his book, seemingly unaware of his Host bleeding out. Or maybe he just didn't care, he did have more after all. He opened the book, taking his time to find the page he wanted as Will and Scout watched. He found what he wanted and calmly looked over at the smaller Puppet with unblinking eyes as he recited a spell.
Pain unlike any Scout had ever known coursed through her fabric, worse than when she'd electrocuted herself with her own flashlight. It felt like she was being ripped apart at the seams, stitching coming undone and stuffing unraveling inside of her. The flashlight, useless as it was, coming unscrewed inside her head as her eyes rolled back. Distantly, she could hear screaming.
It felt like hours, days, before it finally stopped, and she sagged down. Gentle wooden hands tilted her face up so Mortimer could look her over properly. Whatever he saw, he seemed to like, as he smiled and nodded, and turned to head back to the book. Tilting her head, she saw Will and Stacy both staring horrified, and looking pale. There was a puddle of vomit below Will, and her Host was leaking blood out of her nose.
Looking ahead, she saw Mortimer back at the book, and Scout hung her head in defeat. There was no getting out of this, and she wasn't sure if she could handle anymore pain like that. She didn't even know what else Mortimer had planned, but based on what she knew of him, she was sure it was horrible.
As he began reciting the spell, however, the door Will and Scout had come in through burst open, and the other three Hosts came running in.
"Will we have a fucking problem!" Mason screamed, only for them to pause as they took in the scene. "Oh, I see you have one too." Was all he said before he was shoved aside by the other two.
They split up, running in different directions as Rosco burst through the door-frame, followed by the other three Handeemen. Lisa, screaming in French, raced by Mortimer and clocked him in the head with her pipe. She then grabbed the book he was reading from and ran as Nick ran after her.
"Everything is under control I swear!" Riley yelled as she tried to wrestle Mason down. Lisa started smacking Nick with the book, and poor Sammy did his best to play keep-away against Daisy with the remaining four Hand Puppets. Will took the chance to stomp on his captors' feet while Stacy yanked her prosthetic away and started clawing at them.
Quickly, she was able to break away and make it to Scout amidst the chaos. She worked at the small, tight knots until they were loose enough the Puppet dropped out. She caught her, and then started searching for the axe from earlier. Seeing it on the floor, she went for it, but was pulled back before she could make it.
Mortimer, back up and looking madder than ever, had a firm grip on her prosthetic. Thinking quick Scout reached under her Host's shirt and pushed the quick release, sending them tumbling forward as the Puppet Master staggered back. Dropping Scout but grabbing the axe, Stacy turned just in time to block another attack. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the Puppet crawling off to find somewhere to hide, and Mortimer saw it too.
Acting quick, she kicked his Host's feet out from under him, then scrambled up, but it was already too late. Scout had vanished. She wanted to search for the missing Puppet, but Mortimer distracted her by pulling her down onto the floor with him.
Scout, for her part, was steadily making her way towards where Daisy was, dodging around the feet and legs of the others. It was easy, as she was currently Hostless and had cornered Sammy and her siblings up on a table.
And oh she hadn't done this in a long time, not since Riley had caught her watching cable. But, she was still able to school her expression into something pitiful and pitch her voice up into a pathetic whine as she crawled up to Daisy and tugged on her dress. Instantly she was distracted, scooping Scout up as the smaller Puppet started crying.
"Scout, honey, what's wrong?!" She asked, voice still hoarse from her recent decapitation. She held the smaller Puppet close, others forgotten for the moment in the face of one of her children showing such distress.
"M-Mortimer h-he did something!" She sniffed, curling against her like a child searching for comfort as she let out a whine. "It hurts..."
"What hurts, honey? Who did this to you?" She stroked her head, and for a moment Scout was reminded of Stacy, comforting her after a nightmare one of them had. It didn't feel as nice, however, when it was wooden fingers combing through her hair.
"Mortimer r-read from a book. He said something and now everything hurts." She sniffled, trembling softly in the other's hold. "Make it stop hurting..."
Daisy dropped her to the floor and raced to where Mortimer was. Scout quickly scrambled up and over to Sammy, who had watched the whole scene play out in disbelieve.
"What the fuck are you waiting for?! Go!" She insisted, and he hurried to get off the table, pausing only to scoop her up with the others.
"Have you always been able to do that?! Do I need to tell Stacy about it?!" He asked as he booked it for the door. She slapped at his face in response, soft hands not hurting in the slightest.
"No! Shut the fuck up!" She hissed, internally cringing at what all of her siblings had witnessed. Now they'd know how she got away with watching cable. Or maybe not, Canon was probably the only one smart enough to make the connection after all, and she was currently half dead from the looks of things.
A shriek of "Mortimer Handee!" rang through the room, stopping everyone as they turned to see Daisy bodily tackle the other Puppet to the ground. Instantly the other two were on her, struggling to pull her off as she did her best to strangle him.
The Hosts did not waste time, taking their chance to hurry to where Sammy was already making his way out the door. Stacy didn't even pause to grab her arm, opting to just get a new one later rather than trying to find it. She slipped out behind her cousin, grabbing Scout off of him as she went.
Unfortunately, Rosco was right behind them, grabbing Mason as he tried to leave and throwing him across the room. He hit the wall hard as the not-dog Puppet turned back to the group with a low growl.
With a shout, Stacy brought the axe down on it's head with a splattering of old, rotted blood. Will butted in, pulling the axe out and repeatedly chopping into the Puppet's "skull" even as it went down. He then moved to start chopping it into actual pieces while the others watched, horrified, and more rotten blood leaked out.
"Rosco!" The cry gave him pause before he was set upon by Riley, who had just noticed her beloved pet being murdered. Lisa ran to help, but was grabbed by a Sock Puppet as a second one reached for Sammy. Stacy managed to dodge the one after her, but only because it tried to grab her missing left arm. Four out of the five Hand Puppets scattered and vanished, with only Canon staying and watching everything with dull eyes.
Stacy backed away, looking for a weapon that wasn't blocked off and finding nothing. Not even the gun was visible, and another Sock was gathering up the make shift ones the others had brought in. She patted at her pockets, finding only a small pocket knife that she had trouble opening up one-handed.
Stacy was exhausted, and felt sick. She had no clue what kind of injuries Scout might have gotten on her body, and she wasn't at all eager to find out. She had no idea how to get out of this, though at this stage, she didn't even know if she wanted to. She just had to keep on fighting.
But she was just so tired of it all.
Nick finally wrestled Daisy off of their leader, who stood up on shaky Host-legs and brushed his suit off. With a glare he stalked over to where Stacy was, who did her best to look threatening with her tiny knife.
"You impudent little girl, are you aware of what you've cost me?!" He asked, snatching the knife from her hand with his Host. "You had your chance to let us have Scout and leave things be! And look at you, not the least bit sorry!" He grabbed her by the throat and threw her to the ground, turning her over to face up at him with his foot. Lifting a hand, he once again dragged Scout over to him, from wherever she'd been hiding.
He grabbed her body in one hand and dug his clawed fingers into her head, ignoring her cries of pain as he began to pull and twist. "Enough of this song and dance! You will not have another chance! I am ending this now!-"
Something dug into the side of his head, and Stacy watched as his Host snapped the knife off and left the blade buried inside. He dropped Scout to claw at his own head to try and remove the blade, eyes wide from the pain and giving small, choked gasps. Stacy caught the falling Puppet, scrambling back and up as she looked for anything to help. Instead she saw her discarded arm and dove for it, hooking it back in just as Mortimer finished re-subjugating his Host.
She turned, standing and grabbing Mortimer's face in her metal hand just as he came at her. Squeezing with full strength, she heard rather than felt as wood began to splinter between her fingers, and more red sap leaked out. He struggled briefly, clawing at her arm but soon went limp as his face exploded with a loud crunch. He fell, along with his Host, to the ground, limp and possibly dead.
She could hear Scout dry heaving, as she stared down at the sticky mess in her hand, slowly opening it and dropping bits of Mortimer's face. She turned to look at the nearest Handeemen, which happened to be Nick and Daisy.
The artist immediately dropped his compatriot, hands going up in surrender. By the door, Will finally succeeded in subduing Riley, pinning her to the ground after pulling her from her Host. The Socks nearby dropped their captives and fell to the ground similar to Mortimer, unable to keep going by their own, mindless selves.
Mason groaned as Sammy ran to check on him, leaving Lisa and Stacy to help Will in separating Puppets from Hosts. The Puppets were then tied up tight with spare rope laying around. Scout gathered her siblings, making them sit and wait for their Hosts to finish.
A quick peek outside the room showed a different layout than before, whatever spell that was on the building having been broken. Because of that, finding an exit was easy, and Will took the time to bring the van over to the nearest one. The Handeemen were loaded into dog crates, still tied up and gagged, though only Riley really tried to fight it. Scout's siblings were loaded up into another cage, if only to make sure they didn't try and run off. Scout herself sat on top of the cage, staring blankly at the building beside them.
Cans of gasoline were unloaded and emptied throughout the building as Sammy examined Mason. "Well it doesn't look like you've got a concussion." He was saying, shining a small penlight in his eyes. "But you should still go to the hospital anyways when we're done here. We all should, honestly."
"I just wanna go to bed and forget about this, myself." Mason admitted. He looked back at the yet to be loaded up cage of smaller Puppets. "What do you think they're gonna do with those?"
"Don't know." They watched them for a while, but the Handpuppets just stays seated, not even talk amongst themselves. "You think Will would let me take Bit home?"
"Don't see why not. I know Lisa's gonna ask about our two." Mason told him. "I do know the others are going into their basement, though. Been down there a couple of times. Not a fun place."
"Good for them." Sammy said with a hint a malice creeping in. "I think they deserve whatever Stacy and Will do to them."
Another, longer, pause, and then Sammy went to go get Stacy's car. Once parked, he loaded up the caged Hand Puppets into the backseat as the others came out.
"Everything in there is as soaked as we can get it." Will said as they loaded the now empty cans back into the van. "All that's left to do it light it up and watch it burn."
"Neat. So who's gonna do it?" Mason asked. Will looked over to Stacy, who was busy gathering Scout up, and sighed.
"I'll do it. No need to make a big production over it." He said, striking a match and throwing it into the open doorway. Flames started to spread into the building instantly, licking up the walls as the more flammable things caught fire. Host bodies and fabrics turned to ashes and unseen ghosts watched the destruction peacefully.
But that was all on the inside. Outside, Stacy was carefully examining Scout for anymore injuries. "I told you, I'm fine!" The Puppet insisted as her Host poked around her body and face, searching for any rips or new stitching.
"I'll believe that when I see it, Scout. You were unconscious for a long time, and anyone could've done anything to you." She sighed, leaning back a little on the barrel she was sitting on. "I'm just glad we all got out of there alive."
"Yeah..." The Puppet looked away, flinching when she spotted the bits of wood stuck to Stacy's hand with still sticky sap. "Ew..."
Quickly, the Host tried to wipe it on her jeans, but it didn't help. "The prosthetic guy is gonna be so mad at me for this." She muttered, pulling it off her pants. Scout just gagged again.
"I am going to have so many fucking nightmares." She admitted. "That was the most badass thing I've ever seen, but it also so fucking scary and gross." A pause as she thought about something. "Do you think he's really dead?"
"I sure hope so! I don't think I could actually do that again." Stacy sighed, finally giving up on getting her hand clean. "And I think I'm down to just one hand again for a while. Hope Chelly doesn't mind my one-handed typing."
"I don't think she'll care." Scout admitted. "What are you going to do with the others, anyways? They aren't gonna stay in the house are they?" She was not excited about it if they were. She liked having her own space, and didn't want to share.
"I don't know yet. We'll talk with the others about it tomorrow. For now, though, Lisa's gonna try and find us a hotel to stay in tonight, and we're head home in the morning." She looked up, seeing flames had started coming out of the windows. It wouldn't be long before somebody called the fire department, and they didn't want to be anywhere nearby when that happened.
So she bundled Scout up in a one-armed hug and made her way back to her car, where, luckily, Sammy was climbing into the driver's seat. She climbed into the front passenger seat with Scout, who couldn't help but look back at her siblings as they started driving away.
They looked scared, and Scout couldn't blame them. If she hadn't already made the decision to escape she would've been terrified too when Stacy had climbed out that window. Not that she hadn't been scared, but at least it'd been a choice she'd made herself. Her siblings, on the other hand...
She thought about saying something to them, but backed down when she caught Canon's glare. It was hard and furious, and Scout didn't like that it was directed at her.
She turned back around and settled against Stacy, who held her just a bit tighter. They could always talk about things tomorrow, and she could give them some advice. For now, Scout just wanted to sleep.
And sleep she did.