Epilogue: Of Cataclysmic Conclusions
Version 1: Less Cataclysmic
Kari pinched herself. She wasn’t dreaming. Her parents, Tai, and all her neighbours stood outside the door, vengeance etched on their faces. Susumu Kamiya stepped forward.
“Kari,” he began – “explain yourself.”
Kari squirmed under her father’s scrutiny. Her goose was cooked, and she knew it. No matter how good her excuse was, or how genuinely sorry she felt, there was no way she would be getting out of this easily.
“I’m waiting,” her father said.
“Before Kari could open her mouth, Veemon stepped in, “I can explain! We were having a costume party! TK was supposed to be a butcher and I’m… I’m…” The dinosaur grabbed a few empty cans of coke. “Captain Jack Sparrow!”
“Thank you, Veemon,” Susumu said when the digimon was finished. “But I think I’d like to hear Kari’s version.”
Kari desperately tried to think of a lie as her father – indeed, everyone – turned their attention back to her.
“TK was getting a drink,” she began, ignoring the glare TK sent in her direction, “and then he tripped, spilling the drink. Davis was going to get a rag to clean it up but he slips and hits his head on the coffee table. We screamed since we thought he might have died.”
“You’re lying, Kari,” her father said bluntly. Kari lowered her eyes. Her last attempt to get off the hook had failed.
“I’m really sorry,” she mumbled. “I didn’t mean for it to turn out like this.”
“Go to bed,” said her mother – “all of you. Kari, we’ll discuss your punishment when we get back.”
Wordlessly, the digidestined moved to open their sleeping bags, heads hung in shame and refusing to meet each other’s eyes. Apparently satisfied, the neighbours dispersed, though some could still be heard cursing the teenagers and saying something that sounded like “when I was their age, we would never…”
Tai quickly went and grabbed his stuff. When all the digidestined were settled in and the Kamiyas were satisfied, they turned and left for the road once more.
An hour later, Kari still couldn’t sleep. She was scared, hoping that Sunday evening would never arrive. She didn’t want to know what her parents had in store for her.
“Kari?” Came a voice.
“Patamon?” She asked. “Can’t sleep either?”
“No,” he said. “I’m really sorry about getting you guys in trouble. If I hadn’t taken the Hyper-candy and listened to you, you wouldn’t have gotten in trouble.”
Kari smiled, though Patamon couldn’t see it in the darkness. “It was bound to happen eventually,” she said. “Come one, Davis, Veemon and Upamon under one roof? Together they can freeze Hell over.”
Patamon nodded, though he was still unconvinced. Kari reached out and stroked the rookie. “Don’t worry about it, Patamon,” she said. “Everything will be better in the morning.” With that, Patamon went to sleep and Kari was left alone with her own thoughts once again.
“Hello,” Yolei said from behind the counter, “How may I help… oh, hi Kari!”
Kari smiled. It was Monday after school, and Kari had stopped by the Inoue’s convenience store to see if Yolei could help her. “Yolei, do you think your family can hire me for a while?”
“Sure! With everyone else gone, it’s only me, mom and dad manning the store. We could always do with an extra hand with inventory, purchases, some extra cashiers to work night shifts, advertisement… oh! I’m going off again, aren’t I? Wait a second; I’ll go call my dad. DAD!” she hollered.
Mr. Inoue came down a moment later. He looked at Kari, and for a moment Kari was certain he would kick her out of the store – literally – for causing all the ruckus two nights ago. But then he looked away, and Kari let out a breath she’d been holding.
“So, dad,” Yolei began. “Kari’s looking for a job, and she’s wondering if we have anything for her to do.”
Her father smiled. “Of course. When would you like to start?”
“As soon as possible,” Kari replied.
“Well,” Mr. Inoue thought for a moment. “Yolei can give you a training session today – paid, of course – and you can start working tomorrow after school from 8 to midnight, if you don’t mind night shifts. You’ll be paid 1.5 times the regular wage.”
“Hey!” protested Yolei. Her father ignored her.
“Sounds great!” Kari replied. “Thank you, Mr. Inoue.”
“Good. I’ll leave you two, then.”
“So, how’s life?” Yolei asked. “Did your parents do anything too bad to you?”
Kari shook her head. “My parents say I have to pay for EVERYTHING I broke, including the lamp Davis knocked over trying to catch Upamon. And of course I have to pay for carpet cleaning, which is kind of ironic, since we spilled Pine-Sol and not soda. And then I’m grounded for three weeks for bothering the neighbours, which I have to go apologize to – every freaking single one of them! – yeah, but other than that it’s not too bad. You?”
“Standard lecture,” replied Yolei. “I’m pretty sure my parents have a script hidden somewhere. They didn’t make me pay for those glasses, though.”
“I heard Davis got it bad, though,” said Kari.
“What? Did his parents hang him or something?”
“Not his parents, but Jun started hitting him and saying what an idiot he was for almost getting himself killed. I think Davis finally had to get Ex-Veemon to pry Jun off him. Not even both his parents could make her budge.”
“Hehe. Sibling love, I guess.”
“Yeah, at least Tai didn’t do that to me.”
“Anyway, let’s get started,” said Yolei. “Our stocks come in from the back and we basically have to move them to the inventory room. Don’t worry, they only weigh about 30 lbs. each, and restocking is once a week…”
Kari groaned.
Version 2: More Cataclysmic
Skip to the end if you are squeamish.
Kari pinched herself. She wasn’t dreaming. Her parents, Tai, and all her neighbours stood outside the door, vengeance etched on their faces. Susumu Kamiya stepped forward.
“Kari,” he began. “Explain yourself.”
Kari squirmed under her father’s scrutiny. Her goose was cooked, and she knew it. No matter how good her excuse was, or how genuinely sorry she felt, there would be no way she was getting out of this easily.
“I said, explain yourself,” her father repeated.
Kari hung her head. “I’m sorry, dad. I didn’t mean for everything to get so out of hand. I’ll pay for whatever we broke!” she offered.
“Not good enough.”
“What if I ground myself for two weeks?”
“Not good enough.”
Kari shrank back in horror as realization dawned on her. “No! Not that!”
“Yes,” her father said, leering. “That.”
By now everyone had the same creepy grin her father had on his face. Eyes glowing, they chanted in unison, “somebody’s gonna get a hurt real bad.”
Kari screamed and fell onto the floor. “Please!” she begged, “Not that! I’ll do anything!”
Led by Susumu, the neighbours and the rest of Kari’s family stalked towards the frightened party, still chanting.
“Somebody’s gonna get a hurt real bad. Somebody’s gonna get a hurt real bad. Somebody’s gonna get a HURT!”
With that, the horde pulled out chainsaws. Susumu decapitated Yolei without a second thought, slicing through Hawkmon in the process. The frightened girl’s screams were cut short in a wash of blood. Ken attempted to save himself by going to the balcony, but one of the neighbours threw her chainsaw. The weapon hummed through the air, neatly cutting the former-Emperor in two. Tai held a Davis up with one hand, then rammed the chainsaw into his stomach, watching his entrails leak out and spill over the floor. Veemon launched himself at Tai, knocking the older boy back, but another neighbour brought up his chainsaw and sawed off his legs. Veemon rolled on the ground, screaming until Yuuko Kamiya stabbed her saw into the blue dinosaur’s heart, causing gore to fly about.
One such piece of skin hit Patamon’s wing. Apparently, this marked him for death, since everyone turned as one to the little creature. TK leapt up. “Patamon, digivolve!”
“Patamon digivolve to…Angemon!”
Even with his newfound powers, Angemon was no match for the fury of many chainsaws. His holy staff knocked aside many blades, trying to buy time for his friends to escape. “Hurry!” he called.
TK and Cody scrambled to the balcony, followed by Upamon. Freedom was at hand, when yet another neighbour swung down. “Boo!” he said, and brandished a chainsaw. As Cody backed away, another one burst out from the floor beneath him, chainsaw catching the digidestined’s foot. Unable to move, Cody could only scream in pain as the sadistic neighbour calmly sheared off one limb at a time before ending the boy’s misery by lopping off his head.
By this time, TK had already lost his life to a chainsaw through his heart. Upamon tried to jump off the balcony, but was caught before he reached safety. The in-training digimon fell to the streets below in two pieces, each one making a sickening thump upon impact.
Wormon fended off the chainsaws while Gatomon tried to get a frozen Kari to move. “Come on, Kari!” Gatomon pleaded. “We have to go!” But Kari could only stare in shock at the massacre in front of her.
A cry of pain indicated that Angemon had fallen. Three of his wings had been sheared off, leaving bloody stumps. One hand had similarly been removed, and was bleeding profusely. The angel fell to his knees, no longer having the strength to stay on his feet. Susumu walked up from behind him and decapitated him with a single stroke. Angemon’s head rolled, blood soaking the carpet… and came to a stop at Wormon’s feet.
Gatomon placed herself beside Wormon. If they were to go down, they would go down fighting. Sapphire met sapphire as the two remaining digimon looked at each other, determination in their eyes. For this was their moment, their glory. They would die in a blaze of glory befitting a digidestined’s digimon.
“Lightning Paw!”
“Sticky Net!”
“CHAINSAW MASSACRE!”
White and green hunks of flesh landed on the carpet, the only proof that Gatomon and Wormon had ever existed.
Kari made no protest as Yuuko and Tai grabbed her arms and hoisted her up. Her mind had already overloaded and she was in shock. However, she did remember one thing before she entered Death: her father, laughing manically, thrusting a chainsaw towards her exposed chest.
Tue May 26, 2009 6:15 am
WOW!
