Welcome to Nightmare Land |Complete|

Chapter nineteen

"Well, you promised you'd tell us what you know and how you're connected to this place." Dylan says after a while of trudging though the park.  "Now is the time to elaborate."

Veronica sighs and purses her lips for a moment before beginning. "My mom, Tanya Theodore, was the daughter of William and Mary Theodore. Yes, they had a child. No, they didn't publicize it. After everything went down with Nightmare Land, grandpa and grandma laid low for a little while. Mary learned that she was pregnant with my mother around the time the park closed for good. According to my mother, Mary didn't want the stress to effect her or the pregnancy. Mom was her second child."

"What happened to the first?" I inquire, not sure if I wanted to know the answer. 

"Mary doesn't deal with stress well. Her and William had just moved into town and immediately decided to create Nightmare Land. They were well off, so money wasn't the issue.  Her mental state was the issue. It was fragile. Things happened . . ." She shakes her head, trying to find the words to describe the sitiuaiton. "Anyway, they lost the child. They began building the park.  Construction was on and off for awhile. Mary went through periods of acting really weird. But a year later they decided to open up. From the outside, it seemed like a hit. But, mom says, Mary began acting weird. She would wander off for ages. William would find her in Nightmare Land at odd hours of the night. She would be just talking to herself. A few weeks later, after the opening, the Emily girl goes missing along with all of the other kids. They find her in the storage facility. The other kids were all over the park." 

She pauses.  "Emily got it worse for some reason. William had found Mary in there with her. Apparently she was acting completely insane."

"I thought the Theodores weren't held responsible for what happened to the kids." Dem says, befuddled. 

"They weren't." Veronica answers, quickly, making a sharp right turn.  "William found them way before the police. Instead of helping them both and calling for help, he chose to protect Mary and make it look like they weren't even there. Poor Emily was so catatonic, she couldn't even testify that Mary was apart of the abduction."

"Oh that's messed up." Dylan says, rubbing his face. "So it was their fault? And they got off."

"It was more-so Mary's fault, I think." She answers, not even sure herself. "She was the one who was with Emily. She had been acting crazy since Nightmare Land started being built. It was such a passion project for her. Although, William was a horror enthusiast too, he was more of the financial backing. This was truly Mary's creation." She pauses to look up and around the park, before continuing. "This was the manifestation of her mind. After she lost her child, William pushed for her find something to take her mind off of it. Not matter how much time she put into the park, all she wanted was a child. That's why my mother thought that was the reason she took Emily, to have a child of her own."

"Do you think that's why  . . . It took Demi?" I ask, quietly. I avoid looking at Dem's face as I wait for her to answer. She takes a moment, trying to gather her words and sighs. She stops walking and leans against a wooden structure. 

"Okay, this is going to sound insane. But this is already insane, right?" She chuckles as she nervously claws at the wood. "When Mary lost her child. Timothy, my uncle, whatever. . . she was willing to do anything to bring him back or even talk to him. This part is a little fuzzy because even my mom didn't quite get the full story. Anyway, she was trying all these weird rituals. Like really weird and sketchy shit. Even involving blood, apparently."