When Timmy finally got bored of Fortnite, he headed downstairs to get himself a snack. It was dark outside, but he could very clearly hear distant gunfire.
He poured himself a bowl of Uh Oh's, but right as he sat down, there was a knock on the door. "I'll get it!" Jill shouted, racing down the stairs. Timmy was expecting it to be Officer Bede coming in with a report that it was safe to go out for now.
To Timmy, Officer Bede was intimidating, so he stayed put at the island until he realized it couldn't be Officer Bede because there was still gunfire being exchanged.
It was their mother.
"Mommy! You're back!" Timmy cried.
"It's been four months!" Jill added. They rushed to hug her, but she immediately collapsed to the ground.
Jill and Timmy stared in silence. "Is she dead..?" Timmy murmured. "Did Kiawe or Mallow shoot her?"
"I dunno." Jill whispered, grabbing a cat toy that was laying on the floor. She began to poke at their mother's head. "Mom?" Jill called to her. "Mooommm?"
As she was poking her, a large green, empty bottle rolled out of her purse. It traveled across the kitchen tile, eventually clinking against a cupboard. Their mother groaned.
"Ohhhh!" Timmy practically shouted. "So she's not dead?"
"Well, I bet she wishes she was," Jill answered crudely, examining all the angles of their mother's body.
"What's that mean?" Timmy tilted his head. Jill looked up at him as if he was supposed to already know. "Well, Timmy, as her kids, it's our duty to drive her insane and make her life completely miserable. We need to let her understand— no, make her understand how much of a mistake it was to have children. Get it now?"
Timmy blinked. "B-but I don't think her having children was a mistake! I like being alive and I like playing Fortnite!"
"Well it's 'bout time you start thinking, Timmy. Now, c'mon, help me drag her to her room."
After about a half hour, they finally reached their parent's bedroom, but they were unable to plop her on her bed, so they left her laying on the floor.
The next day, Kiawe and Mallow were still at it, so it was another col-de-sac-bound day for Timmy. He decided to talk about last night's dilemma with his neighborly friend, Mr. Rop.
However, when he reached Mr. Rop's house, he wasn't sitting on his porch, which usually meant he was busy. Timmy frowned, plopping his behind down on the stair that led up to his porch. It was a cloudy day in Wiggliver Town, and being alone on gloomy days like this gave Timmy the blues.
Timmy sat in silence studying the crooked bricks on Mr. Rop's weather-battered mailbox until he noticed someone trudging in to the col-de-sac with a strange red trail paving the asphalt behind them as they limped towards Timmy's house. They looked to be a young girl with blazing blonde hair.
"Get 'er!" Timmy could vaguely hear Mallow yell from next door. All of the sudden, there was a long series of gunshots as an insane amount of blood spewed out from the girl all over her body. Timmy couldn't do anything but watch in horror as the girl collapsed to the ground, blood pooling beneath her and staining her bright golden hair.
None of their neighbors in the Duckmoop col-de-sac came out to investigate as Kiawe and Mallow's feud was a common routine. Pedestrians new to Duckmoop Street were often killed, like the three pregnant women who went on a jog on Duckmoop last week.
But, to Timmy, something was special about this girl. Somehow, he knew, in his heart, he couldn't just stand around and do nothing about it.
He didn't do anything about it.
