Chapter 14 ~ St-Start Over? (Baby #7 and #8)

My head hurt, my muscles ached, and my eyes seemed forced closed… I felt too tired to do anything. I was very confused. I gathered enough energy to open my eyes.

I woke up to find myself lying on Jared, who seemed to just have opened his eyes. I looked around to find myself lying in a bright white, empty room with no furniture what-so-ever. I was lost, but having Jared with me automatically made me feel better.

“Um,” I whispered to Jared, “do you have any idea where we are?”

He looked at me with worried eyes and whispered back, “No. I thought I heard someone else here, but that doesn't hel-“

We both gasped as we looked up.

“Awake now, I see?” The mysterious man said as he looked at us. “Very good… very good.” He had an evil grin plastered on his face. Jared and I looked at each other, frightened, but didn't dare say a word. “You are now mine.” I gulped at his words. I don’t think I've ever been as scared as I was in that moment.

I tried to speak but it was as if my words were trapped inside of my throat.

Jared and I sat up, trying to get a better understanding of everything. Jared worked up the courage to stand up and talk to the man. Jared slowly stood up, his energy mysteriously very drained along with mine. “Why are we here, where are we, who are you, what did you do to us, why did you do this to us, and where are Payton's kids?” Jared angrily shouted all of his questions at the man. I wanted to know everything he asked, too. But, that last question made my heart stop.

My kids. My everything. Are they gone forever? Where were they? Were the okay?

My mama-bear instincts kicked in and I stood up as fast as I could, wobbling a little bit from my lack of balance and energy. I was now standing next to Jared, looking angrier than he did. I looked the strange man straight in the eyes and said, “Where. Are. My. KIDS?” I was filled with rage. My kids meant everything to me. They couldn't just be gone.

They had to be here… somewhere.

The man just looked at the both of us and laughed, evilly. “Now, now darlings. It’ll all be fine now that you’re here with me… Mystery Jones.”

Mystery Jones. I made a mental note of his name.

“You have no need to worry about anything, since life from now on will be alright.”

Furious, I questioned him again. “You either tell me where my kids are now, or I’ll just have to tie you up, and skin you alive, pushing the blade deeper into your skin every time you don’t answer my question.” I spat at him. “Now, it’s your choice.”

Mystery just laughed again. “Payton, dear, calm down for a second and just rela-“

Jared interrupted him with yelling, “You better tell us where her kids are right this moment or I’ll help her do so, is that clear?”

Mystery looked frustrated, but not as much as we did. Mystery got up out of his chair and looked at the both of us before saying, “Look, Jared. I have more power than you right now, obviously.” Mystery shifted his focus over to me. “I’ll tell you where your kids are, Payton.”

I felt relief at his words, but still anticipated his answer. “They’re in a better place now.”

My whole body went stiff. I couldn't breathe… I couldn't focus. Did he murder them? Did he just kidnap them? What did he mean by ‘a better place’? My thoughts scattered off into millions of different directions. I tried to not think of the worst, even though I had a feeling he meant the worst. “G-go-gone?” I choked out, barely able to speak.

Mystery kept his smile on his face and said, “Yes. They’re gone. As in, you’ll never see them again.”

I gulped, scared to death. Mystery paced back and forth in the small room, each step making a click of his slightly heeled shoes. “Well, you can see them again, of course, if you want me to send you to that place.”

I had never been in such a horrifying situation before… I had no idea what to do. Jared punched Mystery in the face, protecting me after what he had said. Mystery kicked Jared in the stomach back. Jared had more of the control in this fight, though, and was able to punch him no less than twenty times while slamming Mystery on the ground.

At the end of it, Jared had a red mark in the shape of Mystery’s footprint on the left side of his body and Mystery had several gashes in his face and arms. I never knew Jared had it in him.

I was still shaken from everything that had happened in the past few minutes… so much, that I collapsed on the floor.

I felt he familiar fabric of my couch at home under me, but had trouble opening my eyes.

I found the ability to open my eyes to see Jared looking down at me with a worried expression on his face. I rubbed my eyes, yawned, and then laughed at Jared. “Don’t worry… I must’ve fallen asleep on the couch last night. I’m fine, I promise.” I kissed Jared.

“No, Payton… everything’s not fine. You must’ve fallen so hard that your memory is gone. It’s good that you remember me, though.” Jared rubbed my arm, helping me sit up.

“Wait… I’m confused.” I rubbed my forehead, where the pain mainly was.

“I know you are… let me explain.”

“So, let me get this straight.” I said, still totally lost. “Okay, I still remember the part with Mystery, but nothing after that. You said he knocked you unconscious, then gave me drugs that made me not remember anything, right?”

Jared sighed, “Right.”

“Then, he had sex with me?” Jared looked as if he was going to cry. “Yes, I would've stopped him if only-“ I could tell he was trying his hardest not to cry in front of me.

“I know you would have, but it’s not your fault, got it?” I tried to smile at him.

“Got it.” Jared said, looking more like his real self again.

“Then, you woke up and found me on the floor, unconscious. There was a note taped to my shirt that read ‘I’m the next challenge father, my work’s already done.’  You then picked me up and ran as fast as you could to somewhere safe and far away from Mystery.”

Jared nodded after everything I said, then took over with reviewing the story.

“As I was running, I saw a sign that said ‘Welcome to Aurora Skies’ and studied the map of the town beneath it. I saw a sign down the street that had a sign staked into the ground that said ‘Free to anyone who needs it.’  So, I took it. I brought you in here, put you down on the couch with a blanket, and sat here waiting for you to wake up, hoping that this was a safe spot that we could stay forever in. It was a place on the opposite side of town from Mystery, so I figured we’d be fine… at least for now.” Jared gave me a hug. “I’m truly heartbroken about the kids, but I’m sure I’m nowhere as sad as you are about it.”

I hugged him tightly back and sighed. “I am devastated, but there’s nothing that I can do about it now. Everything happens for a reason.”

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

It had been two days since the whole ‘Mystery Incident’. I wasn't as rattled up anymore, since I felt more protected with Jared and the police knowing about the situation. It also helped me feel better when they arrested Mystery.

Jared and I were doing pretty well in the new house, especially since Jared managed to steal all of Mystery’s money before he ran off with me. Fortunately for us, Mystery was a millionaire. 

Hah. Not anymore.

We never mentioned that part to the cops, but I figured he owed us a lot.

Things were actually going pretty good for us. Oh yeah, did I mention the new pets we have that we found in the backyard?

The Dalmatian’s name is Jack, and he is a really playful and cute puppy if I say so myself. The orange cat’s name is Katie, and I think she’s one of the cutest cats I've seen. Yes, I did miss my old pets, but these were practically already living here, so you can’t just kick them out, right? I mean, c’mon, look at those faces! Jack was mainly Jared’s and Katie was mainly mine, but we loved both of them very much.

Jack and Jared got along really well. They both clicked right when we found them.

Katie and I clicked, too. She took more of a liking towards me than Jared, but it made Jared feel better when I told him that cats are really stubborn.

After doing my usual morning things, minus the kids part, I decided to make some food for later on during the day. I made some mac & cheese that we could have for dinner. I gathered all of the ingredients and started putting everything together.

Jared came up behind me and gave me a hug.

I smiled from the nice warmth of his body and the tightness of his strong hugs.

“So, when do you think that little guy is going to show up?” Jared asked me, rubbing my stomach lightly.

“It should be soon… my children usually appear early in the pregnancy. Now that I think of it, my pregnancies go really fast.” I shrugged. “You and I both know that I love all of my kids very much, but to be honest with you,” I took a deep breath, “I’m not too excited for this one. He or she will remind me so much of Mystery, especially if he/she has a lot of his genetic traits. I will love the baby no matter what, I just have a feeling it’ll be rough looking into their eyes and remembering so much of their father.”

Jared hugged me even tighter. “I know what you mean… I understand, too. It’ll be okay, because the baby will grow up fast, and we can get fully away from Mystery. We’ll get through it… together.”

I smiled at his comforting words and instantly felt better.

Jared has a way of doing that with me. We click like that. I think that’s the reason we’re so deep in love… we’re perfect for each other.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

After we ate dinner, I went upstairs into the nursery just to think about things… I thought being in the nursery would maybe help at least a little bit. I sat down near the colorful playpen and walkers that I was excited to use and thought about everything.

My whole life had stopped, flipped upside down, was shaken, and then thrown at my face. Everything was different now. The only thing the same was being with and loving Jared and doing my 100 baby challenge… without my kids.

Tears rapidly ran down my cheeks as I thought more about my kids.

Jay, Nicole, Paris, Naomi, Bailey, Jack… all gone.

I loved them all so much. I looked down at my belly that was slightly extended from my baby.

Dammit, Mystery. Why’d you do this to me? What did I ever do to you? I never even knew you before! I swear he—My train of thought was interrupted when Jared walked into the room.

I looked up at him and blinked repeatedly to keep the tears from falling out of my eyes.

He reached down to touch my face. “Payton,“ He looked down at me sitting in the corner of the nursery, “Is everything alright?”

I wiped my eyes, but didn't answer at his question. “Okay, that was a stupid question, because everything isn't alright, because you’re crying, but—“ Jared fumbled with his fingernails trying to find the right words to say to me. He realized he couldn't come up with anything and sat down with his arm around me in the corner of the nursery. He let me cry on his shoulder to just get everything out.

He couldn't comfort me with his words, but his love and care was all I ever needed to feel better.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

“You have to get the mushroom to level up, dude!” Jared yelled at me as we were playing ‘Super Mario Brothers’ later that evening. The house had an amazing Adventure Time collectible—the BMO video game system. I had always wanted one of those, but never got the chance to get one out of the five in the world.

“I know, I know, my controller isn't working right!” I yelled back, trying my hardest.

We always became competitive when we played video games, but in a cute way. We never were really mad at each other, but we did get a little frustrated sometimes. I was a pretty good gamer girl, and no, I’m not one of those girls who posts pictures online of me holding a controller and saying “Gamer Gurl! Xo”, I’m the one who used to stay up all night trying to beat a game. I usually cuss a lot while playing video games, too.

“Jump up!” Jared anxiously urged me, as I tried my best to keep up with him. Jack then barked at the TV screen, laying on the couch next to us. “See? Even Jack thinks you should be doing better!” Jared winked at me.

We just both laughed, but continued to focus on the game.

Jack shifted from couch to couch as Katie left the room entirely, not really a fan of all of the yelling.

“Smash his head!” I yelled at Jared, as we were trying to defeat Bowser on the last level of the entire game. Despite all of the instructions I kept yelling out, we ended up losing the game on both of our last lives, causing both of us to rage. We hit the controllers and yelled some bad words, but nothing terribly bad.

After the final bang of the controllers, we decided it was time to get some rest.

I filled the pet bowls to the rim with food before heading upstairs to get some much needed sleep.

Before I even had one foot on the stairs, my stomach gurgled loudly. I could feel my stomach churning my dinner as I ran to the nearest bathroom to throw all of it up. I have no idea why people call this the “joys of pregnancy”, because I’ll tell you this—it’s not joyful.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

I could just barely hear a loud meow come from downstairs from in my bedroom. This was strange, because Katie is such a good cat and has never been disruptive in the middle of the night. I opened my eyes and stretched in bed. Everyone else was sleeping, so I went downstairs to check on Katie.

I stumbled my way to turn on the family room light. I wasn't very familiar with the locations of things in this house in the dark, or even in the light.

I saw Katie standing on the green and blue rug, her stomach a lot larger than it was before.

Is she pregnant?

She groaned and lied down on the rug, mumbling in pain.

I think she’s in labor!

I quickly got a towel and tucked it under her stomach, being careful to not hurt her.

I woke Jared up and told him to come down but told Jack to stay.

We were going to have a kitten, possibly kittens, in a few hours.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

It had been two hours of slipping in and out of sleep on the couch in the family room for me and Jared. But, it wasn't long until we welcomed a new kitten into the family. We didn't name him right away, but he looked just like his momma; orange fur, cute little ears, same meow. He was absolutely adorable!

We both looked down at the new family addition, whom we eventually named Kyle! He was adorable and Jared and I were relieved to finally be able to go back to bed. 

"Who knew that Katie and I were pregnant buddies?” I said as going back up the stairs with Jared. He just laughed and put his arm around me before falling back to sleep.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The next day was pretty normal. Well, at least for the Bears it was normal.

My morning started off with feeding all of the pets and myself. Around nine in the morning, while reading a new magazine, I felt one kick after another short one in my stomach. I pulled out some new maternity clothes I had bought within the first few days of settling in to the new house and slipped them on. There was now plenty of room for my belly to stretch. I was excited and felt more relaxed to be pregnant again and I couldn't wait to see my “new start baby’s” face.

I also started a garden in the front yard later on in the afternoon. I figured it would be a nice way to relax when I’m stressed, it would be my own ‘getaway’, and if I was ever going through a rough time, I could remind myself that I was going through a bad time when these plants were barely growing… now they’re full grown. It would be a sense of progress whenever I’m struggling… just like how it works with my kids.

I started with the basic plants, tomatoes, apples, potatoes, etc., I wasn't very talented at it, but I know I would get better. It was also nice not having difficulty bending down yet, since my belly wasn't too large, yet.

It was such a nice summer day that the whole family spent the afternoon outside. Jack was a crazy little curious dog, for sure.

He curiously dug up the ground right outside of the garden fence, like I wouldn't see or something. “Seriously, Jack?!” I yelled, walking through the gate door to get a shovel after I noticed he was digging a hole.

Jack just looked at me with the cutest guilty face I had ever seen.

As I returned back with a shovel, Jack let out a little, quiet “Woof,” as if saying he was sorry. I smiled a little, but still disciplined him, making sure it wouldn't happen again.

As I filled the hole with the pile of dirt next to it, Jack stood there licking my face every time I bent down and got more dirt.

He was cute, but he was a bad boy. I needed some other way to distract him.

“Jared!” I called from the front yard.

“Yeah?” Jared replied from the back of the house.

“Can you play with Jack or something to keep him from digging up more holes, please?” 

“Sure,” Jared laughed. He called Jack to him and like a silver bullet, Jack was racing around the house to find Jared, his favorite person ever.

Jack loved that ball and always had it in his mouth while walking around the house. He was so cute and probably the best dog I ever had. Jared would chuck the ball and Jack would sprint as fast as he could, always coming to skidding halts when the ball slowed down.

One of the times, he didn't slow down fast enough and tripped over his ball, tumbling on the ground. Jared and I both laughed, since we both saw the whole thing happen, and smiled at Jack as he got up, all embarrassed.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Jack was so draggled, from falling into the mud chasing his ball, when he walked into the house; I had to give him a bath. He didn't refuse or fuss at all, which made my life a whole lot easier. I let him have his ball in the bathtub, especially since he never wants to leave it behind.

I always pictured him feeling like he was leaving a friend behind or something crazy like that that only Jack would think of. It didn't take too long to get him all clean, leaving me extra time in the night.

Katie walked into the bathroom to see what we were up to, and I figured that I could give her a bath, too, with all of this extra time I had.

“Do you want a bath, too?” I pet Katie on her head.

She looked at me with eyes full of fear and a back with hair sticking straight up. She did not want a bath.

I just laughed, picked her up, and led everyone out of the small and crowded bathroom.

As I walked out, I almost squished Kyle, who was running around the house as fast as he could. His fast wasn't very quick, but it sure was adorable the way he turned the corners with his back feet falling under him from running so fast.

Jared walked in to see what I was laughing so hard at. As Kyle approached Jared, he stopped, looked around, and then pranced on Jared’s leg, as if capturing it.

This made me laugh even harder and Jared joined in. We kept laughing and watched as all three pets started running around the family room, through the dining room, in and out of the kitchen, out the pet door, and back in the house to lay down and catch their breath.

I was then 100% sure that we owned the cutest pets in the world.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

I was sleeping really hard that night, at least until the labor pains kicked in. I had no idea I was so close to having my baby. My stomach wasn't big at all the day before, but I didn't question it. I got up, in a lot of pain, and walked across the hall into the nursery.

Jared noticed about three minutes later that I was gone. He poked his head in and half-asleep-half-awake said, “Oh my God, is the baby coming?” He was obviously really tired and couldn't get himself to wake up.

“Just go back to sleep, I’m fine.” I managed to mutter between the sharp shoots of pain, sending Jared back to bed. 

 forgot how much this really hurt after each pregnancy.

I just had to push the baby out and fast.

About two hours later, I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Ashley Bear. I wrapped her in a blanket and laid her down in her crib just to feel another jolt of pain in my lower abdomen. Twins? Oh God.

It wasn't much longer until I welcomed another baby into my family, this time a boy.

I named him Adam.

I did what any good mother would do after giving birth to twins and fed them both bottles, then making sure they were all wrapped up warm in blankets and comfortable in their cribs.

I looked down at the both of them, thinking to myself, ‘You can do it. You’ll raise these kids up to be the best kids anyone could ever want, despite who their father is. They’ll never meet their father and see what kind of a sick bastard he is. I never want them to experience that. They’ll only experience my burning, raging love I have for them and Jared’s kindness and care towards them.

“I promise,” I whispered, giving them both kisses on their heads as they laughed in response.

I loved both of them so very much.

Adam and Ashley Bear. It even sounded cute. Not as cute as they grew up to be, though.

They both had their father’s ginger hair, Ashley getting her dad’s stunning blue eyes, Adam getting my green ones. Ashley was definitely the more outgoing one, while Adam was the shyer, cute, and quiet twin.

They both loved each other very much, but not as much as I loved them.

Take that, Mystery. I am strong enough to do this after what you did to me, you sick bitch.

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I hope all of you enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I loved making it! I'm truly sorry about the huge delay, but I didn't have a computer, so I couldn't make a new chapter. I finally a got my new one and it has amazing graphics! :D

Sorry, too, for the strong language in this... I just felt like it fit with how Payton felt.

I love you all, and thank you so much for sticking with me! <3

Love, Heather/Payton Bear ^_^