31

Bowser shut the front door with a smile, but immediately frowned once it was shut and he was out of view. Now he had to go find Junior. He knew that Junior was going to try something, he just hoped that Junior wasn't blabbing to everyone about the real truth. Not yet. Bowser knew that he was a good manipulator, but there would be a chance Junior would get "lucky."

He went upstairs first, since he had caught a glimpse of Junior running up the stairs earlier. He looked into the red couch room, and only saw Marvin and Rose, which was a good sign. He popped his head into the room. "Have either of you seen Junior? He ran up here earlier and I don't know where he went."

Marvin paused the TV before responding. "No, I didn't even know he was here."

"Yeah, me neither. The TV was pretty loud, so we didn't hear a thing. Is he okay now?" Rose added.

"That BITCH of a chef brainwashed him into being terrified of me! I knew my theory was true! Now I bet he's hiding from me. He ran away from me as soon as I opened the car door!" Bowser ranted. "I wish I never hired that stupid Chef off of the street!"

"Woah, calm down Bowser." Marvin said, startled by Bowser's sudden distraught-ness. "Here, we'll help you look for your son, right baby?"

"Of course." Rose responded, standing up with Marvin. "Did you see him run up here?"

"I'm pretty sure, but someone might want to look downstairs just in case." Bowser replied. Rose took that job and jogged down the stairs, leaving Marvin with Bowser. They decided to go to Jeffy's room first, thinking that he'd know.

"Jeffy, have you seen Bowser's son? He ran up here earlier and now we don't know where he is." Marvin called into his son's room. Jeffy was still sitting on his bed playing whatever on his cat piano. He looked up to his dad, and shook his head. "Did you at least hear him come up here?"

"Nuh uh." Jeffy answered blandly, continuing to play his cat piano.

"Jeffy, this is serious! His son ran somewhere in the house and we don't know where!" Marvin shouted.

"Yeah, that Chef has him thinking that I'm the bad guy after he literally kidnapped him!" Bowser added.

"Yeah, I bet." Jeffy deadpanned to Bowser's comment. "Also, maybe I'd be a little more serious if you'd give me my phone back."

"Jeffy you threw a desk you aren't getting your phone back!" Marvin yelled. In return, Jeffy made one of his loud and obnoxious grunting sounds. Marvin groaned and left the room, Bowser in tow. Jeffy continued playing his piano once the two men walked out.

"Well that was no help. Hopefully he hasn't gotten out of the house yet." Bowser said.

"I mean he just woke up a few hours ago, and probably doesn't have a lot of energy. I don't think he'll get far if he does. Besides, Rose is down there, so she'd see him." Marvin replied.

"True, and I could easily catch up to him. Come on, let's go look in the other rooms." Bowser said. He first looked in the other bedrooms around the house while Marvin checked with Shrek. They then checked the attic, where they saw Mr Pig and Tony the tiger hanging out, but no Junior. They went back to the 2nd floor, defeated.

"Have you checked the attic yet?" Rose asked, meeting the two men by the stairs.

"Yeah, we just did. Found the tiger and the pig guy, but not my son." Bowser answered.

"There's nowhere else he could be! What do we do now?" Marvin exclaimed.

"We have to make sure he doesn't get out. The back door needs to be locked, because that's most likely the way they got out last time." Bowser said. "Do you guys have any extra security cameras or anything like you have for the front door?"

"Maybe, I'll go check. Where do you want us to put it?" Rose responded.

"Up there." Bowser said, pointing to a wall that pointed to the stairs and the hall. "That way if he comes out of any of these rooms and goes down the stairs, we'll see him."

"Smart, smart." Marvin remarked. "What do we do now? Just wait?"

"Yeah, that's all we can do. I'm gonna be downstairs watching Charleyyy so I'll see him if he comes down there." Bowser said, walking down the stairs and leaving Marvin and Rose by themselves.

"Well, wanna go back to the couch?" Marvin asked.

"Sure." Rose said. Marvin nodded, and started walking back to the red couch room. On the way there, Rose started talking again. "Y'know, it's kinda weird that Junior just ran in here without saying anything and immediately hid."

"I know... but he was probably just scared." Marvin responded.

"But why? Chef PeePee is in jail now. He should've been told that."

"Well, Bowser did say something about his kid being brainwashed by Chef PeePee, so maybe he was scared of Bowser?" Marvin said.

"This is all super confusing..." Rose said.

"I know, baby, but they'll get through it." Marvin reassured her. He turned the TV back on, and they continued watching whatever was interesting.