Welcome,
This story is about a group of friends who become stranded and find themselves at a daycare which is run by a demon.
This is the sequel to my other story Mother; The Demon, but you don’t need to have read that to read this one. Unlike the last one I am not going to rush this story so updates may take some time. I do hope inspiration will stick with me and updates happen fairly often.
So thank you for reading and please enjoy!
Chapter 1: Friends Until the End.
Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock the slow heartbeat of a clock. Every second felt like a minute, every minute an hour. The cute little blonde watched the clock as the second hand moved slowly around the face. Did the damn cogs have rust or syrup on them? She asked herself. The thought of syrup had her thinking of pancakes, then waffles. How she loved waffles, getting small pools of butter and syrup in every square trap, light sprinkling of powdered sugar with strawberries and their wonderful sugary liquid. The crispness of a well cooked waffle…if not crispy then fluffy and if it was fluffy makeup that wonderful crispiness with fried chicken. A wonderful, magical, exotic and almost forbidden combination! Chicken and Waffles. A bit of ranch or honey mustard on the side. Sure it was weird and not everyone appreciated the platter of goodness but those odd flavors mixed together perfectly somehow.
Kylie grabbed a candy from her purse, the sweet caramel confection helping her sate her appetite for a well made pattern of chicken and waffles all while she glanced over at the clock. A mere 5 seconds had passed yet she felt she had daydreamed of one of her favorite brunches for an hour. The little caramel treat helped distract her, scones, ice cream, parfait, crepes, fudge, fresh out of the oven chocolate chip cookies who cared if they would burn your mouth. She longed for them all and couldn’t wait to get out of work.
Summer was on the fast track to being over. She longed to just once get to do things she wanted to before it was over. Binge eat sweet treats and lay about the beach, maybe even hit up a theme park. Today was exciting though it had been two months ago that she and her closest friends would set out on that one good trip and hit up all the good spots, there was a campground that had both a high quality beach and hiking trail. A town along the way that held high end restaurants and a theme park near the end for the high excitement and lastly another campsite to end it all one that their electronics would be useless, a last respite before returning to civilization with the honks of traffic the beeps of phones and the bright lights of a night time city.
Kylie sighed as her caramel was bearing the end. She checked the clock as she fantasized about the trip that was, TAKING ITS SWEET ASS TIME! Kylie looked at the clock, she had spent maybe Thirty seconds in her daydream, with a growl she plucked out another caramel candy and popped it into her mouth…
Her jubilee of fantasies, or as jovial as they could get, was interrupted by the ding of the coffee shop’s door. Kylie switched from looking bored and lazy, to work mode and greeted the customer with a big smile full of shiny white perfect teeth. “Welcome to Squeaky Bean, how many I see you?” She asked in a bubbly giddy voice.
The brunette woman walked up and smiled at Kylie, the cute blonde noticed the woman’s tan business suit, the black leggings with well polished black high heels. Her hair tied up in a bun and black square lenses.
“I’m here to pick you up, you nut” The woman said and Kylie recognized her voice. Among the dozen of well dressed business ladies all identical in some way, only one would call her a nut.
Kylie’s Bubbly giddy big smile self shattered away to a real bubbly giddy big smile, so much so she began to bounce on the spot.
“Lilly, oh my gosh! I didn’t recognize you, cause of all the other hundreds of tailored suit snobs that come in here, like literally I thought you were at least five of them” she said her new found cheeriness making her speak much faster.
“Thanks” Lilly said, giving her a stern look with a half smile. Lilly was Kylie’s best friend, they had been together since kindergarten. Ever since second grade however, Lilly wanted to become a business woman and took the phrase Dress for the Job You Want literally. She worked hard on her schooling to get into a good college and only took job offers that sounded like there was a fast track to the top and so her resume would look good to help her get into one of the big corporations. Kylie was impressed with her work ethic but didn’t understand how she could handle all that stress, Kylie would have thrown a fit if she so much as had to scrub a toilet it was also why she was stuck in a coffee shop.
“It’s not even time for me to leave yet” Kylie whined a pathetic and rather immature whine.
“It’s almost three, you can convince your boss to leave early,” Lilly said.
“One of the girls called in sick so I am stuck until five now” Kylie pouted.
“Have you tried your cutesy charm on him, isn’t he into that?” Kylie shivered at that suggestion.
“Ew, no, I know he is into that but I have been saving it for a bigger raise once he says I can get one.” She said,
“This is big Kylie, last chance at a big summer party before life decides to hand out our pink slips and give us the boot,” Lilly said. “Besides, I want us leaving by Five and I need to make sure you are fully packed.”
“I’m packed!” Kylie whined again. Lilly gave her a disbelieving look.
“From that, no you are not, you have what? one suitcase of clothes and I am guessing a backpack full of sweets?” Lilly placed her hands on her hips switching from a friend to mother mode.
“No…” Kylie lied but she fidgeted like a child caught stealing a cookie. Lilly always had that effect on her. Lilly was like a second mother to her at times, always watching out for her and keeping her in track with school work and chores. If not for her she would have done whatever she liked and held back a couple years, she couldn’t cutesy charm everyone sadly. Snapsnapsnap three quick snaps of her fingers and Lilly held out her hand. “But I am!” Kylie whined harder, pouting at her friend.
“Candy Now!” Lilly demanded. Kylie relented and popped the sweet caramel treat from her mouth she had been hiding, so as to not let on she had candy in her mouth. She handed it to Lilly who grasped it firmly as a sign of power that she wasn’t worried about where it had been. “Now, either go cutesy charm your boss or let me speak to him”
Kylie headed into the back of the office and moments later the manager came out. Lilly switched from mother mode for Kylie to business mode, her normal mode. Kylie watched as she put on a big smile and introduced herself and then began to explain the situation. Kylie stood there like a child watching her friend ask if they could sleep over, it wasn’t too far from that really.
After several minutes, looking over schedules, the boss looking over sales, he was finally convinced to let Kylie out early and wished them a happy vacation. Kylie was in Lilly’s car and bouncing for joy their big weekend would be happening soon.
“Seatbelt” Lilly reminded as she turned on the car. She wasn’t going to go anywhere unless her friend was properly secured, and Kylie knew that.
“Women, always taking their sweet time” Matt gave an irritated sigh.
“Kind of a law don’t ya think?” Josh said trying to dismiss the comment. “All things considered I would bet Kylie isn’t packed and Lilly is making sure she is”.
“The fuck you say?” Matt asked getting fired up at the insult to his girl.
“Your girlfriend likes candy and has a bag full of it, all I’m saying” Josh explained. He took a step away from Matt, it wasn’t good staying near him when he got angry, which he did a lot. Matt was that antagonistic stereotypical jock from highschool movies, while he didn’t dress like one in the movies, kept more to cargo pants and a t-shirt, his attitude was like one, he even had the cheerleader girlfriend to top off the stereotype and she wasn’t far off from the bully’s girlfriend trope either.
An R.V. pulled around the corner and came to a stop near the two men.
“All aboard the Bus to the best vacation around!” Lilly called out from the window. Josh and Matt grabbed their bags and headed around the R.V to get inside. Matt was first on who was greeted by Kylie the two embraced and found their spot in the back. Josh tossed his luggage under the table and sat in the passenger seat with Lilly. He leaned over and the two kissed as a way of greeting. Lilly shifted the R.V into gear and they began to drive down the road on their way to a beautiful vacation.
Josh went over the list that Lilly had prepared for what all they would be doing. She was very thorough as her list had little lists of their own.
First up was visiting various restaurants that each person really enjoyed, this would be a two day thing, one lunch and one dinner each day. In between those were activities. A go-kart track, an escape room and an arcade, as well as a winery and a shopping mall. After those two days was a big road trip going to a very expensive hotel one night and using the R.V on the others. After that was the camping trip they planned out which would take up the majority of their time. While camping they would hit up an amusement park for a couple days, finish up their camping return home using the R.V for sleep, and the last two days were hitting up their favorite restaurants again.
“Damn Lilly, why not get the thing a hard cover and make a book rather than use a binder.” Josh said, thumbing through the details of what time they should do things.
“I would have but a binder is easier to organize than a book,” she said. Josh rolled his eyes, he loved Lilly but she could get a bit more than meticulous at times, which was also why he loved her, it was a two way street.
For the road trip the driver got main call for songs, the passenger directly next to them was one who either agreed for songs or didn’t mind the choice of genre. The rest of the passengers had to suffer, but they could wander the cabin more and had other distractions to keep them occupied for the lengthy bits. So long as the driver and their assistant were alert then everything was fine. The driver’s assistant would help pass candy, drinks and treats to the driver when asked and jokes were shared by all.
Their first stop was a pizzeria chosen by Josh, who claimed it was the best. It was a bit old and one from his childhood. The place hadn’t seen an upgrade in decades it seemed as Josh said it hadn’t changed since he last saw it. Josh wanted his own pizza for the road and Matt, Lilly and Kylie agreed to split a pie between the three. The crust was rather thin and the pizza dropped as if it had barely been in the oven. Yet the four of them enjoyed the pizza Matt enjoying the pizza more rolling the crust to tip and treating it line a toquito. They moved on and what pizza was left was stored in the mini fridge.
A couple hours later came some entertainment. The group of friends were given a mind boggling challenge in an Escape Room. The session lasted an hour, the four friends needing to solve a WWII themed mystery. Matt and Kylie tried to find everything and anything that was a clue or puzzle while having Josh and Lilly solve said found puzzles. Afterwards came shopping the mall. Matt and Josh headed off for the electronics while Kylie and Lilly hit the clothing stores. There was a brief moment that all four were in Spencer’s and while there were jokes, special purchases were made. After the shopping trip came dinner which was another pizzeria that Lilly picked out. This one being in a bigger town was far more extravagant. Lilly recommended the white pizza, a butter garlic sauce with a swirl of honey with mozzarella and asiago cheese cooked in a brick style oven. The crust was thin and crispy, the cheese was the picture of a waterfall as pieces were torj from it. The honey wasn’t that strong and complimented the cheese and butter garlic than over power it. After dinner the group headed off for the winery and while Matt wasn’t happy with the wine, the four friends became buzzed enough to retire to a hotel room.
The next day wasn’t much different. Breakfast at a nice restaurant. Simple fun activities for the day. Lunch was a habachi grill picked out by Matt who was happy to pay for the most expensive of items for everyone. It would be enough for leftovers at least for tomorrow. Arcade came next with Matt and Josh competing at every game possible. The two saved up their tickets and got a set of foam maces that they used to hit each other and their girlfriends at their leisure. Dinner was at a cheesecake factory picked out by Kylie. While there were dinner options Kylie only had a salad to save room for three different flavors of cheesecake entire pies worth so she could have extras for the rest of their trip.
The four friends settled into their hotel room. They had a big road trip ahead with plenty of leftovers to satisfy them until their camping trip, maybe even during it. The four wound the night down with a card game before they retired to their rooms. Josh and Lilly cuddled close in their own room while Matt and Lilly got busy in theirs. Two days down and the best was yet to come. If only they didn’t take that short cut.
Chapter 2: My Name is Alex
To start the trip off Lilly was the first to drive. She had plotted the course and set the schedule for her; it was only natural to get the ball moving. The first challenge was getting everyone ready. She had to pry herself from Josh, which woke him. She didn’t mind that much some kisses and soft words and a soft but firm notice to get moving and he was up and getting around. Matt and Kylie on the other hand…
Kylie was like a child she needed reminding constantly and help getting herself around. If Lilly was alone with her things could get done in around ten minutes. Matt on the other hand was a devil who wanted nothing more than to pull Kylie back into bed and “get another five minutes” if Lilly so much as turned her back Kylie would be in his arms once again snoozing about and slowly losing what clothing she had just gotten on. What should have been a simple fifteen minute wake up nearly took an hour just to get Kylie and Matt in the shower and dressed.
“I swear if we are fifteen minutes late I am throwing away your leftovers!” Lilly threatened. This helped get everyone moving. “You throw mine away I am going to beat the life out of you” Matt threatened. Unlike his threat however Lilly would make good on hers.
The four climbed in the rv settled in and took off down for the freeway. Today was just a long road trip to get as far along their route as possible with as few stops as they could manage. They past the time playing road games or chatting. After a couple hours of driving they changed drivers, Lilly updated Josh on where to drive and they set out again. Another stop and it was Matt’s turn as Lilly told him where to go he took note of the route and saw a road that connected to two of their roads. They had to go south for a time before heading west, this road took off a good hour or so if he was looking at it correctly.
The four friends piled in and began heading down the road. Matt kept an eye on his phone for when the little shortcut came up.
“Hey Lilly I think I found a shortcut, says it will take an hour off our trip.” He said holding his phone back so she could look at the route.
“I did check that and I am worried that it won’t be wide enough for the R.V.”
“We can look at it, if it’s a two track, or something we won’t take it.” Matt said. The shortcut was a normal road and with a big grin Matt turned onto the road.
“You sure this shortcut will take us far enough?” Kylie asked.
“Lilly’s route would have us double back along the freeway, this cuts that right out.” Matt said.
An hour had passed and there was no sign of the freeway.
“Face it were lost,” Kylie said.
“We’re not lost, it has been a straight line and we should see the freeway soon.” Matt said.
“Well besides those few turns” Josh quipped.
“Fuck you” Matt spat.
“We haven’t seen a house for a good thirty minutes nor any other sign of civilization.” Kylie began to whine.
“Will you shut up, might be longer than the gps thought.” Matt said. Longer it was, the road twisted and turned and before they knew it another hour had passed.
“I told you we were lost!” Kylie whined
“We’re not lost” Mark spat and slammed a hand on the wheel.
"Look there is a place Josh said pointing out the window. “Has a sign even so bam not lost” he said and the two boys fist bumped.
“Eleven Stars Daycare,” Lilly read out loud and looked out to see a mansion. A modern style, three story house with a large playground out front and the signs of a pool near the back.
“Damn!” All four said in unison.
“Jinx!” Josh shot out.
“Alright pull in and we can ask for directions” Lilly said.
“We’re not lost-”
“Pull in Matt Now!” Lilly demanded. “Lost or not we clearly are not on the right road and we need to figure out where we are.” With a huff Matt turned into the driveway and parked the R.V turning it off.
“There walk the rest of the way” Matt growled. Lilly shook her head and climbed out, Kylie followed wanting to see the inside of the mansion.
“Women…need to ask for direction” Matt said in a mocking tone.
Lilly knocked on the door and was surprised to quickly see the door open so quickly. Before her was a woman with curly brown hair ties into a bun, a strand of hair in one side of her face. Dressed in nothing more than shirt and jeans with sneakers, nothing like a woman of grand tastes that the mansion suggested, just a mom dressed to take care of things. Besides that the woman had curves that made both girls jealous. And the brightest of blue eyes as if lit with fire in them.
“Hello! I wasn’t expecting any babies today” the woman said in a warm welcoming voice.
“Sorry to disturb you ma’am we have been traveling for a while and we think we took a wrong turn.” Lilly pulled out her phone to show the map and the road they had taken. The woman smiled and with one slender finger tapped at the screen and moved the map before pointing.
“Yes, you made a wrong turn sweetie, we are right here” the tone was a bit condescending, a mother letting her child know of the mistake and correcting it. Lilly cursed Matt in her head but smiled.
“Thank you Ma’am, I must say you have a very lovely house”
“Well Thank you, would you like to come inside for a bit?”
“No thank you, we are behind schedule as it is and we need to get going if we are to catch up”
Kylie all the while had been staring at the playground, trying to glance inside the mansion as the two women talked. Soon it was time to leave and Kylie gave a smile and her customer service goodbye. As she began to turn leave however, she noticed the woman look to the R.V she wasn’t sure but with how the light reflected off the woman’s face she swore she saw one eye flash pink. Kylie did a double take but the woman’s eyes were that firey blue. The woman smiled and waved as if waving goodbye to a child.
As the girls returned to the R.V Matt spoke up.
“What’s the damage?” He asked.
“You took a wrong turn, dingus” Lilly said, showing her phone and pointing where they ended up.
“I followed the GPS”
“Well it must have rerouted and here are so let’s get going” Matt put the key in the ignition and turned the R.V reved up but didn’t turn over. He tried again and again and- BANG a loud noise followed by black smoke from the engine.
“What The Fuck!” Kylie yelled and both men also swore watching the black smoke rise out from the engine. The four quickly got out and watched as the black smoke billowed out and soon flames could be seen in the grill.
“Holy shit!” Josh said, watching as the flames licked at the R.V threatening to grow bigger. From behind the woman showed up and began to douse the flames with a fire extinguisher.
“That was fast,” Kylie said, watching the woman.
“You are not the first car to spontaneously combust on my driveway. I always come with a fire extinguisher when I hear that noise” the woman said.
“Thank you,” Lilly said.
“Fuck! God fucking damn it piece of shit, what the fuck happened!” Matt gave the R.V a hard kick. Kylie sighed and saw the woman with a very stern face, disappointed, angry. “Fuck!” Matt roared again but this time the woman stormed over and grabbed him by the arm.
“Does your mother know the kind of dirty mouth you have, young man?” She scolded. Kylie grimaced Matt wasn’t the kind of person you brought authority to especially when it was a woman. Not to denounce how nice he was but he did have that “Alpha” complex. “If you were my child I would have you over my knee and a bar of soap in that mouth, becoming very acquainted with Mr Spanky” those bright blue eyes seemed to shoot fire from them as the three friends watched this woman tell off Matt for cussing. Matt ripped his arm away and gave a sigh.
“Sorry, whatever” Matt backed off but Kylie knew he would be grumbling for hours on it. Kylie did find it surprising for him to back down so quickly.
Lilly cleared her throat. “Apologies for my friend ma’am, do you know the number to a mechanic?” She asked. The woman pulled a one eighty on her expression and helped Lilly with the number. A short call later before she announced. “Good news, Bad news. Good news they boast they are equipped and stocked for whatever problem for whatever vehicle, Bad news, They will only be able to pick it up…tomorrow…” she said.
“We’re supposed to go camping,” Kylie whined.
“We can still go camping but we will need to cut it short by a day.” Lilly explained.
“Matt and I can pull an all-nighter tomorrow and we should be able to make it to the campsite so we don’t miss a day of it,” Josh said.
“In the meantime it sounds like you four need a place to rest” the woman said. “Please come I am more than happy to entertain you all, it is still the slow season for my little daycare so I don’t have many little ones to take care of”
“How can a daycare like this even exist? you must be charging an arm and a leg for something like this” Josh asked.
“Oh no, sweety, I don’t charge at all, this is my hobby and my real job is far more boring. I am a C.E.O if that will sate your curiosity, I don’t want to talk about that job, I would love to talk about my daycare though.” The woman said.
“Are you expecting any kids?” Lilly asked.
“I am expecting four…now come come please let me give you a tour.” The woman led the four to the house. Kylie was a bit giddy to see the mansion in all its glory. She looked over at the playground again all the while unwrapping a sucker and popping it in her mouth. It had to have had all the playground equipment ever. Sections were made up for each kind of kid. In the middle was for everyone a sandbox and seesaws and some slides. A section to the north was for older kids, climbing equipment, big slides and an elaborate jungle gym. South was for babies, little playhouses, tiny slides, tricycles. East and west were similar jungle gyms for the younger kids plastic and more metal and wood for the slightly older. There was also a ball pit and bounce house. “Do you like the playground sweetie, I am sure you could make your friends jealous being the only one to play in them” The woman had leaned over to murmur to her. She was awfully friendly. Kylie waved her off not wanting to admit the idea of playing on the jungle gym crossed her mind, what adult with an inner child didn’t want to play on that, what adult didn’t want to play on it?
“Oh my gosh I am so rude!” Lilly popped up and held out her hand. “My name is Lilly” the woman grabbed her hand and gave it a shake. Josh followed suit introducing himself.
“Kylie” Kylie said shaking her hand, “and that’s Matt” she added pointing back at Matt she knew he wasn’t going to go for the hand shake, once you step on his toes all friendliness was gone from him.
“Well it is so good to meet each of you” the woman spoke as if she was greeting a bunch of little children and made sure to look each one in the face as she said each word. “My name is Alex”