Act Six: Loving Hands Friendship House

The four got to the location of the Happy Hands Friendship House. It had the appearance of a typical church. “So, this is where they are holding her?” Timothy asked Barry.

“Yes, it is.”

“Do you know what room she’s in? I want to be in and out.”

“Are you afraid of being converted?” Barry joked.

“No, there’s a demon after me…” Timothy looked around.

“A monster after you?” You’ve been hanging out with Duke and the Knight tales?”

“No there’s a monster after us, you know him” Gloria chimed in.

“Whoa, wait we ain’t talk about any demons,” inserted Roscoe.

“I thought you were psychic… that must mean he’s not coming.”

“One day left and I burn this whole shit down!” a voice from behind said.

They turned around to see Ashton. “Who is this motherfucka?” Roscoe asked.

“Ashton,” answered Barry.

“I thought you didn’t know about the demon. Timothy said.

‘I don’t. He doesn’t look like a demon, but I seen this arsonist in a vision.”

“She needs to be home by tonight or we’re having a townwide barbeque.” Ashton stated.

“Townwide barbeque, fuck out of here!” Roscoe reached for his waist.

“Wait!” Barry recalling his vision, “You’re going to die!”

Unregistered, Roscoe pulled his firearm out, “Aye, buddy this is going to stop!”

“Are you going to shoot me?” Ashton stared at the pistol, “Well.”

“Best believe!” Roscoe fired on the apparition. The black steel turned red; the nose of the pistol sneezed out a bullet. The weapon dropped.

Ashton was unfazed by the missed shot, looking at the ground he asked him, “Do you have another one in you?” The red left the weapon, Roscoe scooped it up and let off another shot, but the bullet did not make it out of the barrel. The combustion from the weapon set Roscoe a blaze, instead of projecting the bullet. Roscoe’s body had melted instantaneously, leaving charred bones.

“Oh, my goodness, Roscoe…” Gloria sobbed.

Ashton scattered the ashes with his foot kicking the firearm over to the youth.

Timothy picked up the gun. “Are you going to try to shoot me too?” Ashton asked.

“No, I’m going to go in and save the girl. If you care about her, you will come in too.”

“Nice try in trying to guilt me. Bring the kid back or I’m going to do stuff your friend experienced on a grand scale.”

“Why don’t you practice inside?”

“The girl is inside, your time is running, hurry up!”

“Let’s go guys.” They walk through the doors; internally the building matched the external.

Inside they are greeted by a woman at the entrance with a smile plastered ear to ear. “Welcome to the Happy Hands Friendship House. Please go down the steps to the transmutation room.”

“Transmutation room…” Gloria said to herself.

“We are going to the other side today. Our special guest will guide us.”

“I must have missed that day who is our special guest?”

“It’s a surprise, but sister Lucille found her.”

“Is Mother here?” Timothy asked.

“Yes, she is preparing the girl. Please go down to the transmutation room.”

“I’ll show you guys the way,” Barry said taking the lead.

While stepping downstairs Timothy integrated Barry, “How do you know where the room is?”

“Psychic powers remember.”

“But we don’t want to go to the transmutation room,” Gloria added.

“I’m not going to take you there; however, I can’t take you to where Giselle is at because we never find her in a room.”

“So, we can in losing?”

“No, I don’t know if we succeed or not, just that we don’t find her in a room. We can change fate however.”

“How so?”

“By using what we know. The last door to the right at the end of the hallway is the transmutation room and that’s where we don’t need to be.”

“Do you know how the place looks that we find her in? Or who does it?”

“From what I saw, we all saw her together in a room with white walls, but again we can change that.”

“You just said she wouldn’t be in the room,” Timothy stated.

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“Yeah, but once I gave you the information of the transmutation room the vision changed. I say we split up to cover more space.”

“I don’t know about that with these loonies, Gloria worried.

“I don’t think she would feel safe on her own,” Timothy told Barry.

“Then you go with her,” Barry responded. “Even though it would be quicker independently.”

“You take her, I’ll be fine by myself,” Timothy said patting his hip.

“Because you have a gun? Do you even know how to shoot?”

“That doesn’t matter, it’ll be enough to scare them.”

“Fine, we’ll take the left side since there’s more doors.”

“Fine, be safe and remember to stay in contact.”

They took their first doors.

Gloria and Barry opened their door, and they are in the kitchen. They are faced with giant punch bowls filled with purple liquid. “Are you two here to help with the drinks?” the chef asked.

“Yeah…” they both replied.

“Good, take those angel flakes,” the chef said pointing to a white canister.

Gloria grabbed the container, “I have a question, where’s our guide?”

“You mean the girl?”

“Yeah…”

“It’s a surprise.”

“You’ve met her before?”

“You ask a lot of questions. Can you pour those flakes in the bowl?”

Gloria twists the top and got a whiff of some chemicals, “Uh do you know that this is cl…”

“How much time do we have left until the big event?” Barry asked.

“An hour.” The chef squinted, “You look familiar, you’re that con artist on T.V!”

“Con artist?” Barry was taken aback.

“Yeah, the ‘psychic.’ There’s no way you’re apart of this group.”

“I converted him,” Gloria chimed in.

“Who are you?”

“I’m a member.”

“I need a name.”

“I’m Giselle and I brought in Barry over here.”

“You think you’re funny naming yourself after the girl on the top floor,” after the words left the chef’s mouth, he realized his error; “Wait a minute!”

Barry snatched the container from Gloria’s hands and powdered the chef’s eyes. The burning causes the man to cry. The two fled the kitchen, “So that’s not the place,” Gloria said; “I wonder how Timothy is doing?” Texting him for an update and giving him one of her own.

Concurrently at the time of the kitchen fiasco, Timothy opened his door, it’s a utility closet with Duke in it. Not seeing the objective, he closed the door. Ashton arrived behind Timothy, “You know hiding in the closet isn’t going to help you,” he said looking past him at the door.

Timothy knocked on the door, “Duke he’s talking to you.” No reply, “Nothing,” he turned around to tell Ashton who was no longer there.

He heard voices across the hall, walked the length of the corridor and there were no doors left besides a stairwell. He pushed the bar, going through slowly closing the door behind him minimizing the sound. Across the hall was the cafeteria, Lucille saw Timothy go upstairs and excused herself.

Midway through the stairwell, Timothy heard a voice, “Tim!” He looked down to see Lucille. “What are you doing here?” she continued.

“I’m here for the event.”

“Are you… every time I talk about this place you made fun of me.”

“It was because I didn’t want to be made fun of. But your words hit me, that’s why I’m here tonight.”

“Come to the cafeteria.”

“But I want to get familiar with the place.”

“No need soon we will be on a different plane.”

“I would like this to be the final thing I do here.”

“Fine, I’ll give you a quick tour before the big event.”

“Can we start upstairs, I already been downstairs.”

“Sure,” Lucille caught up to him.

“Why did you join the Happy Hands Friendship House?”

“I was lonely, looking for someone to talk to.”

“Do you really not have friends at school?”

“Not before the Happy Hands Friendship House, I even contemplated suicide, but those days are behind me.”

“It’s good that you got past that.”

They got to the top of the stairwell; Lucille opened the door for Timothy. “Thanks.”

The room closest to the stairwell was a study room, “Here’s the study where we learn all of the important lessons,” Lucille told him. Through the glass door he could see children, “Are the kids going to the big event?”

“Yeah.”

“And the parents are allowing this?”

“Yes, the Happy Hands Friendship House is family friendly, they’re in the cafeteria.”

“In hopes that Giselle is in the room, Timothy asks, “Can I say hello?”

“Sure,” Lucille opened the door, “Hello kids, we have someone who wants to say hi.”

“Lucille!” the children exclaimed full of life.

“This is Timothy.”

“Hi, Timothy!”

“Hello kids,” he scanned the room, no Giselle but the sitter was there; they make eye contact with each other.

The two leave, “Wow I have to say the kids love you,” Timothy complimented.

“They’re a good bunch,” Lucille laughed.

Timothy got a text message with an update from Gloria, what he read dropped his heart. He gave them an update. “Lucille, you said you were passing your suicide issue.”

“Yes…”

“You’re not homicidal are you… I’m joking but life is a great thing and shouldn’t be wasted you know.”

“What are you getting at?”

Barry and Gloria took the stairwell to the very top. “Let’s start at the far end and work back,” suggested Barry. Gloria nodded in approval and followed Barry’s lead. They got to the door at the end of the hall, they are faced with two double doors.

“What’s back there?” Gloria asked.

“Hopefully the girl,” Barry slowly pushed the door, a loud creak is made, “They need to oil these doors.”

“Can I help you?” a male voice behind the door asked.

Barry let’s the door go. In the instant they turned from the door they were called out, “Hey you two, what are you doing?”

“Barry what do we do? Do you have a vision?”

“Uh, we talk our way through this.”

They turned around to see a towering burly man asking them, “What are you two doing?”

“We were looking for… the study…” Barry’s eye twitched.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“Hmm…”

“Wait a minute, you’re that conartist, that’s on T.V. What are you doing here?”

“Looking for the study.”

“Her office is right this way…” Duke’s voice echoed through the hallway.

“Barry,” Gloria whispered.

“It sounds like Duke.”

“I know that.”

Duke arrived in the hallway with Ashton, “Oh hey guys.”

“Why does he look so happy to see us?”

“He must think we are going to save him from the arsonist.”

“Arsonist?” the man asked.

Barry got a vision, “Crap, we are in a bad spot.” He answered the man, “Yeah that guy over there is an arsonist, we just saw him light some stuff on fire, but we don’t know him. Is he a member?”

“A member of what?”

“The Happy Hands Friendship House.”

“No and you’re not either.”

“Yes, we are.”

“Then why don’t you know where the study is?”

Gloria and Barry backed away from the man “We know the study isn’t here,” Barry answered.

“You two stay right there.” The man put his attention on Ashton and Duke. “Who are you?”

“I’m Duke, a member of the house!”

“Why aren't you getting ready for the event!” The man’s face heated up.

“The event that this mother lady is overseeing?” Ashton interjected.

“Who are you? Mind your business!” the man turned a tomato red reaching in his pocket.

“Aw crap, we have to run towards Duke now!” panicked Barry grabbing Gloria’s hand and hurrying to the other side of the hall.

“I thought I told you two to stay put!” the man produced a gun. “I’m getting rid of all of you!”

Ashton registered the threat and took it upon himself to neutralize the problem. As soon as the man pulled the trigger the ignition jumped out the hammer and burned the man’s eye. “Fa!” the man screamed out. Barry and Gloria watched the damage unfold, then they ran off. Asthon kept walking towards the study, forgot about Duke. The man aimed the gun once more except its further from his face and his hand shaking.

“Are you okay, you seem nervous,” taunted Ashton. “Kid,” he looked back and saw that Duke was gone, “Oh… he ran away.” He turned his attention back to the man, “Well I guess you’re going to show me where Mother is.” He watched the man pull the trigger to no avail. “I guess you won’t be helping me.” Ashton approached the man, his target does not back down. The pressed trigger kept squeaking. “Get out of my way,” Ashton pushed the man aside.

Once Ashton got to the door, the man pushed him through it. The two tussles on the ground, the man tried to piston whip him, but Ashton caught the barrel in his hand and heated it up, singeing the man’s hand. “What the fuck!” the man cried out letting go of the gun. Ashton threw it away and with the same hand grabbed the man’s head, charring his face. Left alone the apparition goes into the room to be disappointed, no one was inside, “Great, I did all of that for nothing…”

The babysitter made a call to Mother, “Mother, the boy who dropped the guide off has made his way into the event.”

“Where is he at?”

“I don’t know I saw him in the room with the children, but he left.”

“Then it’s time to start the event.”