Family Undiscovered: A DDLC AU

Chapter 11: Running From Trouble

     Looking at the face of Valentino Zareth, she ran towards Monika and Emily, pulling them away as she grasped their wrists. Monika looked back, confused by everything happening around them, she wanted answers, but the three of them didn't have time to figure that out. Kathryn kept running away with her mother and Monika behind her, blazing through the secret hidden trails nearby the bunker room.

    Making their escape, a dead end stopped them in their trunks, the dead end seemed to be a semi-round room with a ladder attached to the wall, leading up to a wooden trap door. However, the room was a dark abyss compared to the dim-lighted hallway before the semi-round room, so the three of them couldn't see the ladder or the trap door. Looking around, Kathryn came up with an idea, she used code to spawn a torch in her hand, letting her see the trap door and ladder underneath.

          "Monika!! Mom!! I found a way out!!" Kathryn exclaimed, turning to them while pointing to what she found. "Kathryn, that's great, but is it open, my dear?" Emily replied, not sure if the door was opened for them to escape out of. Kathryn thought about it for a moment, looking for any sign that it was open, but Monika had a different idea. Using her arms, she stepped on to the ladder, high enough to try and push open the trap door that was now above. The trapped door opened by Monika's gentle push as light peeked through the open crack of the opening door. Kathryn smiled as she sighed of relief, combined with the physical sense of an imaginary load had been taken off her back. Which both Emily and Monika felt the same sense of a sliding load of their back as the three went up to the surface again by the ladder. However, as each of them reached the surface, the voice of King Valentino returned for another round, "There!! Up there!! Get them!!" He shouted, pointing to the Poe family standing on the surface. The guards ran towards the ladder on Valentino's command as Monika, Kathryn and Emily vanished from the scene. Climbing the ladder, they were able to reach the surface, chasing after the fugitive members that were banned from the world a long time ago. Looking back, the guards were at almost every turn near them until Emily hatched a plan to hide in a place, where the guards and Valentino can't enter. "Girls, I know what we need to do!!" Emily declared, looking around at the guards surrounding them in a circle as they walked closer to the three of them. "Okay, and what is that?" Kathryn questioned her, walking back towards her mother's backside. "Yeah, what is it?" Monika repeated after Kathryn questioned her. "Well, I know a place that they can't get us," Emily whispered to her daughters, leaning back towards their back side, creating a triangle between them. "You sure, Mother?" Kathryn and Monika asked in unison, hoping she would confirm her answer. Emily nodded towards them, confirming her answer to her daughters, ready to make a run for it. "Okay, on the count of three, we run North, and you follow me," Emily instructed her daughters, looking ahead of the North Path in front of her. Monika and Kathryn nodded their heads, ready to run away with their mother towards an unknown hiding place. "Alright, girls, one....," Emily started to count, lunging towards the path in unison with her daughters, "Two....," She continued to count, narrowing their eyes towards what they assumed was the North path. "Three!!" Emily shouted, running towards the path with the pointing arrow that stated, 'Northier Path. Running, Emily stopped for a bit, shouting and signaling her daughters towards her and the path that she was taking. Kathryn and Monika stopped in their tracks, hearing their mother in the distance, turning around as they ran towards her. As all three Poe ladies ran along the path in front of them, they each stopped running, turning around to see they lost King Valentino along the way.

        Within that full acknowledgement, Monika, Kathryn and Emily reached their destination, which Emily pointed out as she pointed to the house on the left. Emily pointed to a two-story brick house, covered in tortilla brown and umber brown masonry walls with many overlapping windows. Complete with a cocoa brown, shingled roof, and an architectural acorn pediment over the entrance to the wooden front door. Gazing on the house's outer beauty, Monika and Kathryn stood in amazement at the house in front of them. "Girls, welcome to your Grandma Anastasia and Grandpa Nathaniel's home," Emily welcomed them, knocking on the door with a firm touch. The door knob turned to the left, as the door opened to an elderly couple standing next to each, shoulder to shoulder. The elder woman wore a pink collar shirt decorated in hearts, matched with a jean skirt and a pair of jet-black flats. Though, her appearance coordinated with her outfit, fair skin, long coral brown hair as her eyes were sparkling emeralds.

      "Hello!! Wait, Emily? My daughter? My one and only daughter, is that you?" The elderly woman cried out with misty eyes full of tears. Emily smiled with a heart filled love for her mother, who did nothing, but hug her daughter with her small arms. Which Emily embraced back to her mother, who filled her heart with nothing, but love for her once long-lost daughter. Yet, as the two released each other from the hug, the elderly woman noticed Kathryn and Monika standing there, cautious of the elder woman before them. "Oh my and who are these two, my dear?!" She asked of Emily, pointing to the twins standing at a distance. Emily turned towards her daughters, smiling at them. "These are my daughters, Mother," Emily answered her mother, smiling wide with cheer.

"Oh, I see, they're so grown!! What are their names?"

"That's easy, they'll tell you!! Girls?" Emily responded, rotating her hand towards her mother as she turned to Kathryn and Monika. Kathryn and Monika both took a deep breath, prepared to introduce themselves, hoping the other would go first. "I'm Kathryn Poe," Kathryn introduced herself, stepping back for Monika to introduce herself. "And I'm Monika Poe, as I have learned recently," She declared, introducing herself along with that declaration. The elderly woman smiled with eyes of caring love, opening her arms for a hug, hugging the two of them with all the love she had in her heart. Kathryn and Monika smiled with happy tears, as their hearts warmed up with love for their long-lost grandma.