Sorry CH.12

Mary Ellen kicked the dirt beneath her and muttered curses under her breath. While the other monsters kept their distance, Wally just stood there with his arms crossed.

"I thought you said he would take care of it." The dummy reminded, referring to the knight's failure.

Mary Ellen ended her tantrum and relaxed herself. The doll fixed her hair as she turned to face Wally.

"Well, there's been a change of plan." She muttered with annoyance in her voice.

The doll turned to face her gang of monsters.

"Alright, my friends!" Mary Ellen announced. "There's a new plan! We're going after Stine and his gang of losers ourselves! We are going to the high school!"

The monsters roared, growled, howled and cheered in agreement; ready to cause havoc and mayhem. Mary Ellen ordered the monsters to the gate leading out of the junkyard. She climbed onto the beast as Wally walked past; getting in front of the other monsters and leading them to the school. The doll grinned to herself as her gang of monsters followed her. Wally and Mary Ellen were both grinning evilly.

"I'm coming for you, Slappy." Mary Ellen and Wally thought in unison.
.......
Stine parked the car in the school parking lot. There were no other cars; meaning that there might not be any people at the school. Zach and Champ noticed this, but they did not say anything. Everyone quickly got out of the car. Stine looked at the damage caused by the knight; turning red upon seeing the torn roof.

"I can't own a car without something happening to it!" The writer complained.

"Least it didn't get completely destroyed." Champ stayed on the bright side.

"Or eaten by a giant praying mantis." Hannah added.

Slappy held in a light cackle as Stine rubbed his forehead. The writer took a short exhale before straightening himself out.

"Right, we have a lot to do." Stine lead everyone through the doors.

Everyone quickly went through the doors to the hallway of the school. Champ looked around with a nervous look on his face. Hannah noticed.

"What's the matter?" She asked of the awkward teen.

"Something just doesn't feel right. I feel like we're the only ones here."

"So you just have to write another book, right?" Lorraine remembered the plan.

"That's the plan." The writer agreed.

"But we don't know what monsters Mary Ellen released." Zach reminded.

"We already know that she released the beast from the east." Hannah argued.

"And the knight in Screaming armour." Champ added.

"I think I can vaguely remember which books I had in that box." Stine adjusted his glasses as he walked. "I just need to jog my memory."

While the humans and the ghost were discussing the situation, Slappy was thinking to himself. He thought about what Stine was going to say before the knight attacked the car. The writer said that he did not mean to create another monster. What did he mean by that? Slappy needed to know. The puppet sped up towards his creator and grabbed the end of his shirt. Stine stopped in his tracks and looked down at Slappy as everyone else did.

"Slappy, what are you doing?" The writer questioned his creations' actions.

"What did you mean when you said you weren't trying to make another monster?" Slappy questioned rather forcefully.

"Slappy, we're on a deadline." Hannah reminded. "We don't have-"

"I want an answer." The puppet raised his voice.

Stine observed the serious look in Slappy's eyes. He was not going to take no for an answer. Stine got Slappy to let go of his shirt as he looked at the others.

"We'll catch up." The writer said to them.

Lorraine and the kids knew what Stine was implying. They went ahead without him; leaving him alone with Slappy. Stine took a seat on the ground against the lockers. He patted the spot next to him; telling Slappy to take a seat.

"I was hoping you would forget about that after what happened in the car. But I should know better by now." The writer began.

Slappy sat next to Stine as he continued to explain.

"It happened sometime after I put you back in your book. While I knew how dangerous and unpredictable you were, I missed having you around."

"Nice to know." Slappy sarcastically remarked.

Stine nodded in agreement. He continued.

"After the Madison invasion incident, I rewrote Hannah into the world."

Slappy just rolled his eyes at that point.

"A few years ago, I tried to do the same with you."

Slappy's eyebrows went up.

"Wait, what?" The puppet looked up at his creator.

"I tried at least two times. I wrote bride of the living Dummy as a first attempt to bring you back. But, it went wrong. I thought you were going to come out of the book, but something else came out instead."

Slappy gave Stine a weird look.

"The doll?" The puppet questioned.

"Yes. The doll." Stine answered back. "I tried to roll with the situation, but Mary Ellen started becoming aggressive. Like how you did, but worse. After she threatened to release you, I had to put her away-"

"Wait just a second!" Slappy interrupted the writer. "She was going to let me out, and you stopped her!?"

Stine raised an eyebrow at the puppet.

"She said she was going to smother you with kisses." Stine said in a deadpan voice.

Slappy fell silent as his eyebrows went up. If he had more facial expression, he would have looked more horrified at the thought of someone he did not even know kissing him after getting out of his book.

"I think you might have done me a favour, papa." Slappy said in a shaky voice.

"Possibly." Stine added.

"But what about the second time?"

Stine straightened himself before he answered.

"It was the same result." The writer recalled. "But you've already met him."

Slappy raised a brow at Stine before he realised what the writer meant.

"Oh. Him." Slappy muttered.

Stine just nodded as silence took place. Slappy played with the laces on his shoes.

"So, you were basically trying to reset me." Slappy assumed.

Stine quickly sat up; taken back by Slappy's assumption.

"What!? No, I wasn't trying to reset you!" Stine tried to answer without making Slappy angry. "I was just-"

"Spare me your lies, Papa." The puppet stopped Stine from making a fool of himself. "There's no point in getting angry now."

Slappy got up from his seat on the hallway floor.

"Let's just get this over with."

Stine got up as he watched Slappy walking ahead of him. The puppet seemed to take it better then he thought he would. Stine caught up with Slappy as Lorraine and the kids came out of the corner with smiles on their faces.

"We got it." Zach held the writing device up.

"Good." Stine gently took the typewriter from Zach. "Now we just need a place where I can-"

A howling sound erupted from outside. Everyone fell silent as they heard the noise.

"What was that?" Hannah questioned as the noise stopped.

Stine quickly hurried to the library as the others followed him. Lorraine picked Slappy as she followed the rest of the group. The group made their way into the school library. It was empty. No one was there.

"Odd." Stine whispered to himself.

"I knew something wasn't right." Champ spoke in a shaky tone. "Where is everyone? Shouldn't there be a teacher here?"

"Maybe they went home early." Zach suggested.

"But the school isn't locked up." Hannah argued.

"Maybe Couch was the last one here and he forgot." Champ theorised.

Stine made his way to a window to see the source of the howling. The writer went wide eyed at the sight outside.

"Oh dear." The writer muttered.

Dark grey clouds started to gather outside the window as Mary Ellen and her gang of monsters appeared in view from the football field. Stine stare each monster she released. The barking ghosts, the knight in screaming armour, the beast from the east, the Vampirilla, Vanessa the witch, the masked mutant. And Wally Wood. Stine shook his head in disbelief; wishing that what he was seeing was a nightmare.

"What have you done, Mary?" The writer whispered in horror.

Lorraine and the kids looked into the window to see what they were up against. Hannah and Zach stayed calmed while Champ was on the brink of hyperventilation.

"Oh my god; the barking ghosts!" the teen squealed; terrified and excited all at once.

"How did she find us!?" Hannah questioned.

Slappy crawled under one of the desks in the library; hoping Mary Ellen would not see him.

"It's just not my day." He mumbled in slight annoyance.

Outside on the football field, Mary Ellen had an evil grin on her face as the monsters came to a halt. The doll turned to face the witch and snapped her fingers. The witch held up her crystal ball as it began to glow bright red. A red beam shoot threw the window of the library. Stine and the group quickly ducked out of the way of the red beam. Slappy watched from his spot under the desk as the Beam took the shape of Mary Ellen; like a holographic projection. The projection of Mary Ellen played with her a curl in her hair as she smiled devilishly.

"Good evening, idiots." The doll greeted in a chirpy tone.

Lorraine and the kids gave the doll grim looks while Stine looked nervous as he held the typewriter in his grip.

"Surprised to see me?" Mary Ellen continued with that wicked grin on her face.

"I'm more irritated then surprised." The writer bravely replied.

The doll raised an eyebrow at Stine's sudden change of mood.

"So where's my man?" Mary Ellen put her hands to her hips.

"Your man?" Lorraine questioned.

"I think she's talking about Slappy." Champ assumed.

"That's right, chump!" Mary Ellen spat, offending Champ a little. "So where is he?"

"Why do you even wanna know?" Zach questioned, standing his ground.

"He's not exactly boyfriend material." Hannah added.

Slappy gave Hannah an icy stare from his hiding spot; even though she might have been right. Mary Ellen crossed her arms with her smile turning into a frown.

"I can make him change." The doll argued.

Slappy almost cringed at the way Mary Ellen was talking about him.

"Let me tell you why I'm here." The doll continued, her smile coming back. "Like you already noticed, I have a bunch of monsters at my disposal. And they are very dangerous, like me. So here's it's gonna go. I'm going to have the barking ghosts block off all the exits so no one can get in or out. And one by one, I'll send one of my monsters inside the school to hunt you all down."

Everyone looked eachother in fear; unsure if Mary Ellen was bluffing.

"However!" She continued. "If you give Slappy to me right now, I'll call the whole thing off."

That sentence made Slappy's eyebrows go straight up. And made him bang his head on the bottom of the desk unintentionally.

"OW."

Mary Ellen jerked her head to the direction of the loud grunt. In a flash, the hologram of her disappeared. Everyone looked around in fear when she disappeared.

"W-where'd she go?" Champ questioned as he started shaking.

Slappy stayed under his desk with his knees to his chest; thinking he was safe under there. Before he could sigh in relief, he noticed that something glowing red was behind him. The puppet slowly turned his head around to see a holographic Mary Ellen staring right at him.

"Hey, handsome."

Slappy yelped and quickly dashed out from under the desk. The puppet ran to Stine and grabbed his legs; wanting protection from the doll. Even though she was just a projection.

"Stay away from me, you plastic parasite!" Slappy shouted at the top of his lungs.

The holographic projection of Mary Ellen came out from under the desk and gave everyone a grim stare. Stine kneeled down and took Slappy into his arms for protection. The writer returned the grim stare.

"We're not making any deals with you." Stine argued with the sinister doll.

"And if you think we're going to hand Slappy over to you, you're out of your mind!" Hannah added in, surprising both the boys and Slappy.

Mary Ellen's face turned into a dreadful grimace as she let out am animalistic growl.

"Maybe I didn't make myself quite clear." The doll raised her voice. "If you don't hand him over, I'll have my army turn you ALL INSIDE OUT!"

Slappy raised an eyebrow at Mary Ellen before he turned to the window.

"You call that petty get-together of yours an army!?" Slappy mocked. "I had at least twenty five graveyard ghouls, fifty lawn gnomes, a werewolf and a giant praying mantis at my disposal! You just have a group of rejects!"

Mary Ellen raised an eyebrow at Slappy's prideful tone of voice.

"So where are they?" She referred to Slappy's monsters; putting her hands on her hips.

Slappy's eyebrows went back up. He looked up at Stine to see him shaking his head slightly.

"I-I don't know." The puppet lied.

Mary Ellen's grim expression softened as she looked at the nervous looks on Stine and Slappy. Her grim frown turned into a sinister grin.

"You're hiding something from me, Slappy darling." The doll spoke with a sing-song voice.

She leaned in closer as her evil smile grew wider.

"And I want to know what it is."

Mary Ellen let out a giggle as lightening appeared outside. Her laughter turned into a wicked cackle as the lightening filled the library with bright flashes; making everyone cover their eyes. When they reopened them, the projection of Mary Ellen disappeared; but her laugh lingered for a few seconds. Hannah and the boys looked out the window as the barking ghosts and a few monsters started making their way towards the school and its entrenches.

"Oh god! Look at them!" Champ started panicking at the sight. "She's gonna kill us!"

"Not before I finish this book." Stine reminded; setting up his typewriter. "I already know what I have to write, but I'll need time."

Slappy looked out the window as the monsters came closer to the school. He swore that he could see Mary Ellen smiling at him with a wicked grin. Slappy looked at another monster in the group. He peered at the familiar figure; noticing how similar it was to his own.

"If we can get to P.E storage, we can get some equipment to protect ourselves with!" Zach suggested as he closed the blinds to the window.

Slappy turned away from the now closed window and looked up at Zach.

"What makes you think you'll beat them?" The puppet questioned pessimistically.

"There aren't too many monsters this time." Hannah corrected.

"And if we can beat you we can beat Mary Ellen." Zach commented.

Slappy gave Zach an icy glare for his comment. Stine reached into his pocket and pulled out a key.

"You'd best take this with you. All the teachers have keys to all classrooms for security reasons." Stine explained, giving Hannah the key.

"Got it; we'll be back before you know it." Hannah reassured.

"But be careful!"

Just as Hannah and Zach were about to exit the library, Slappy quickly ran up to her and grabbed her pant leg. Hannah looked down at Slappy with a raised brow.

"I want to come with you." The puppet demanded.

Stine came up to the puppet, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Slappy, Mary Ellen might go after you if you go outside."

Slappy removed Stine's hand off of his shoulder and looked up at his creator.

"If I stay here, she'll find me with you and figure out what you're doing." The puppet reminded Stine of the danger. "And if she breaks your fingers, or the typewriter, what will we do then?"

Stine blinked at the puppet as he realised all possible outcomes.

"He actually has a point." Champ agreed, surprisingly.

"But, Slappy; you shouldn't put yourself at risk. None of you should." Lorraine showed concern for the kids and Slappy.

"We don't really have a choice, Aunt Lorraine." Zach disagreed.

"Mary Ellen can't pick us off if we stay in groups." Hannah added. "Besides. Slappy can help us carry weapons back here. Champ, stay here with Lorraine and dad."

Before anyone could say anything else, Hannah, Zach and Slappy were already out of the library. Lorraine and Champ looked at eachother nervously; both worried about the situation.

"They know what they're doing." Stine reassured the pair. "I have faith in them. All three of them."

While the writer had his worries as well, he tried his best not to show it. Without wasting another second, Stine began writing with what he already had in mind and what had already happened.