~~~

June 15th, 2022

Chris found that Katie refused to let him go the night of his return. He knew he had phone calls to make. He knew he had statements to give. But he didn't have the heart to tell her no.

"Why? You know I'm busy love."

"...I'm suddenly scared of rooms you aren't in."

"Swear to you, I'm safe now. And I'm willing to stay here as long it takes to convince you of that."

***

"Hello, my name is Reed Duchscher. I'm the manager of MrBeast and the founder of Night Media. I will be giving a statement on the behalf of Jimmy and the entire MrBeast LLC on the events of June 10th, 2022." Reed may have good social skills but for some reason he never did great on camera, attempting to hide the fidgets rising anxiety would release into his hands. Or maybe it was just the content of the video he was having to record. He was given the thumbs up to continue.

"Throughout the entire event, we had a team of 16 security guards keeping watch over the surrounding grounds during and after the competitions. They were to report any suspicious activity and on the day of June 10th, there were no reports that morning. Nor were there any reports on the prior days. None of our staff had any prior connections to the attacking party." He took a moment to breathe. The last thing he wanted to do was rush through the script.

"For those who don't know, the attacker was a man named Vinoth Chandar. Chandar was the founder of a popular children's nursery rhyme YouTube channel called ChuChuTV. He had no criminal record up until October of 2021 where his fingerprints were found at the scene of Jay Leon's murder and he fled the country along with most of his employees. Any employee recorded to work at ChuChuTV either fled with Chandar or was found dead in their headquarters. Jay Leon was the founder of CoCoMelon, another popular children's entertainment YouTuber and the company has since been acquired by Amazon after 5 months of inactivity. Since then, the FBI has described him as the YouTube Assassin. The remains of D-Company began helping them make their attacks more secretive but as the months went on kills got more and more sloppy. Assassinations confirmed to have been done by Chandar and his team include Diana of Kids Diana Show, Kim Min-Seok of Pinkfong, Cesar Morales of Badabun, German Garmendia of HolaSoyGerman, Whindersson Nunes, and Ruben Gundersen of elrubiusOMG. Typically with these assassinations, anyone who was in the same building as the main target was also killed. They were also found to be associated with several cases of breaking and entering related to Felix Kjellberg of PewDiePie and Ray William Johnson." The page was flipped over and Reed got a few moments to collect himself before continuing.

"There were 31 attackers on the island and of them, 23 survived. We had 54 employees on the island and of them 39 survived. Only one YouTuber was killed during the attack. Numbers you hear from any other source are false. Jimmy Donaldson was the one to directly confront Chandar. Contrary to many sources, he was not the one who killed Chandar. His gunshots killed the 4 guards he had protecting him, but NOT CHANDAR. The bullet missed any vital organs and before he could bleed out, he was brutally maimed by allegedly Bhushan Kumar since his fingerprints were found all over the crime scene. This is supported by testimonies from Felix Kjellberg and Mark Rober which state that they did not find his body torn apart. Bhushan Kumar managed to escape the crime scene and since cameras were not near where Jimmy and Vinoth fought, we cannot determine where he went. Bhushan Kumar allegedly has full control over D-Company, an infamous Indian mafia group that previously kidnapped, blackmailed, and tortured Jimmy Donaldson. We don't know what their next moves are but we are going to do our best to protect our talent and employees." The words were bitter on his tongue, knowing Jimmy hated people talking about D-Company but he knew he had to.

"The original million-dollar prize money, with consent from our sponsors has been put aside to use towards medical bills for our employees and talent affected by the shooting and other services for the families of those who had a loved one lost. Our hearts go out to those affected and in these unprecedented times, we ask for your patience and respect. Please do not attack those who are mourning and coming to terms with this. We thank you for your support as we attempt to navigate these unforeseen circumstances." The room fell quiet.

"And cut! That's a good take. We'll just do some minimal edits and this will be up within the hour." The cameraman told him. Quickly, he was back on his feet and leaving the recording room before being greeted by Blake.

"You look stressed, hell you looked stressed the whole time are you good man?"

"Ya just a bit anxious. I get like that on camera..."

"But you record the podcast just fine."

"That's because we're talking about things we love and I have distraction... Blake come with me back to Dallas."

"Huh?"

"There's gonna be so much work to do and I uh... I need a helping hand you know? With both Night Media and MrBeast..."

"I've known you for so long Reed, you do that thing where you wrinkle up your nose bridge when your hiding something from me. Besides, you've seemed anxious since I got here. You can talk to me."

"..."

"Reed-"

"They had the floorplans to my house."

"Wait who did?"

"Vinoth! They knew my house inside out and there was a date, September 25th, 2022. I know for a fact that I'll just be getting home from a major flight I have planned then and whoever these people are that want to hurt Jimmy so bad knows everything about us!" Blake almost flinched as he watched one of his best friends fall into hysterics. "THEY ARE GOING TO KILL ME! ...And I know I'm a grown-ass man and I shouldn't be afraid of empty rooms but Blake... I'm fucking terrified..." In the midst of his breakdown, he was met with something he didn't expect. He was pulled right into Blake's arms, rubbing circles into his back as Reed let out 2 days' worth of bottled-up fears and worries into a waterfall of tears.

"Shh... of course, I'll come back with you. I never want you to not feel safe and I'm gonna do whatever it takes. No one's hurting you on my watch." And for the first time in days, Reed smiled.

***

June 23rd, 2022

It's been a while since Felix got to wake up to some good news. Probably not since the start of the month. But finally, he got a phone call he'd been waiting for.

"One month."

"What did they say?" Marzia asked, peeking in nervously. 

"One month until our family is finally complete." Her eyes lit up.

***

They sat her down. Everywhere they've taken Harshita has felt cold and uncaring. She wanted her family back, and this time it didn't include papa.

"Look Harshita, I know things have been complicated but you have a few choices right now. Then you'll find get some stability back ok?" She nodded. The social workers had been teaching her English but she was still rather lost so a Hindi translator was her new friend for communication.

"We can get you to a new foster home, we'll look for families wanting to adopt you and we'll make sure you're happy and safe. Or in around a month, we can let you go to Felix and Marzia-"

"FELIX!"

"Harshita let me finish-"

"FELIX! I WANNA GO BACK HOME!"

"Alright alright, there are no guarantees but we're gonna do our best to let you go home with them does that sound good?" Jumping up from her seat, she gave the translator the tightest hug she could.

"I can finally go home..."

~~~

(Oh my god only one chapter left, jesus it's just dawned on me I'm going to finish a sequel I've never done that before. It might take a bit longer than the others since I'm finishing up school but I'll make it a banging finale I swear!)