I’ve had up to here, this feeling, feeling of total isolation, withering away in black and floating in the midst of my dwindling sanity.

Darkness, solitude, agony, feelings befitting for a young man whose lifes been hell since he was ten years old.

How much more can I take? My mind, my emotions, everything, hasn’t been the same since the day I laid eyes on her…

Never would he have imagined this experience, especially one out of a book, fairytale, comic book, or anything abnormal. Wherever he went, a turn, a blockade, there was always hell to pay.

The only thing left that hasn’t rotted away and kept me intact, so long as she was by my side… I remain somewhat sane… for now.

He’s died, experienced every ounce of pain and mild trauma, but he questioned how he can keep going in life? At first he thought it was for the sake of his self adopted sister, but now, he’s beginning to think that’s not the case. In fact, it’s far from it, and he has no clue what's making him strive forward.

What am I doing this for? Going onward, can't it be for Angela, my friends? Mallory! Eric, Candy, whoever! Heh, whatever’s pushing me forward… I could care less at the moment. So long as I can protect those closest to me, I don’t mind these burdens, so long as I can let it out as a sigh, then life to me has no other meaning but to keep going forward.

Whatever feelings he has at the moment, Jack will remain who he is. For the sake of friends and his small family, as long as they smile, Jack Samr can continue onward; down his dark path, whether it’ll bring more pain like no other or bring an end to his miserable life, Jack’s determined to conclude this chapter in his life.

I-I hear screaming? Wait, these screams… they’re—!

Back in the hospital, Jack’s still unconscious and had fallen into the hands of darkness. Tossing and turning, all Jack could hear is her, the girl in white known as Mallory. Her screams of agony, madness, and cruelty, tormented Jack Samr once again. Her sounds of pleading help tortured Jack’s sleep, making him clench his teeth, toss and turn, and ball his fists. The darkness that he’s seeing had no signs of her; not a shine on her pale snowy skin or the reflective deep rooted highlights of purple that only shone every now and then on her hair. As he continued tossing and turning in his sleep, hearing these sounds of captured sadness, Jack felt his heart being ripped out, not by reality, but by the repeated endless guilt.

Why are you doing this… Mallory! Jack thought.

Jack clutched his chest as sweat profusely fell off his face. Her screams continued, and finally, a final sound she produced, printed into his mind to echo into his subconscious, was her screaming, “Help me!”

Jack awakens, rising up and clutching his head. “Mallory!”

Panting, Jack looked around, noticing he’s in the hospital but with no one else by his side. Wh-What? Why am I here… wait!

Jack got out of the bed, and before taking a step, his head pulsed in pain. “Ahh, fucking hell. Mallory—you, damn it.”

Jack questioned why she punished him, why she made those sounds as if someone had taken her away from him. But then he thought about it for a moment. It would’ve been a relief if such a thing was true, if she were truly taken away. Before leaving the room, Jack made sure he had his weapon, tucking his hand into his jacket he did have it. Feeling comfort, Jack walked, but as he made contact with the door, he found it to be locked.

“Huh, why is it locked? I thought only patients could lock it from the inside?”

Jack tried unlocking it with the lock, but it wouldn’t open either.

Somethings not right here, why is it locked? Why am I alone, what’s going on…?

Jack remembered now, words told from the man named William H. Christ, that being Dr. Cato attacking tonight. He checked his phone and it’s past nine, and that brought a conclusion to him on why his doors were locked, trapping him from the outside world and leaving him isolated from society.

“No! I gotta get back to them, but where did they—?” Jack dials his phone, calling Eric’s number but it quickly goes to voicemail.

Fuck… damn it Eric.

Jack tried remembering what he was going to do before his black out. He slammed his hands against his head and thought hard. Feeling frustrated at himself, he punched the door and growled. The young man paced back and forth and finally, he got it. A thought of relief came into Jack’s cluttered mind, that being Veronica’s home. His original plan being that he was going to gather everyone there to announce an idea and what to do going forward.

“They have to be there, I did tell them to go there, so they outta be—?”

This’s no time to think for Jack, he had to get to his friends and family, the worriness of this so-called attack riled up his mind. Without any further conflictions inside his mind, Jack kicks the door open with all his might. The door takes it, he kicks it again, and it bursts open, but without claiming a victim which was Jack’s knee.

“Fuck… I should’ve stretched…”

Jack regains his legs composure, and runs to the elevators. Along the way through the barely lit hallways, he noticed the hospital’s floors eerily quiet. Stopping for a moment to get a clearer clue on what’s going on, Jack ran to the floor's reception desk.

“Nobody here? the hell… shit, then that means that Williams is right.”

Jack ran back on course to the elevators. Going into one, and on his way down, he couldn’t help but feel so worried about the people he cares about.

“First my door was locked, secondly the entire floors were too damn quiet, shit.”

Clenching his fists, and the elevator doors opening and exposing the lobby to him, he runs out. You guys better be okay… if not, there’s going to be hell to pay… Dr. Cato.

Jack glimpsed around the dark lobby as he ran, no one’s here either, raising his suspicion even more. He smacked his lips and ran out of the entrance of the hospital, down the stairs, and made his way to the main street. He ran into the sleeping city, spotted a parked van, and decided to break into it. He elbows the window, breaking it, opens the door, and starts hotwiring it. After a small struggle on fighting the tangled wires, Jack managed to make a connection and turn the van on. He put the vehicle into drive and drove into the road, driving into the misty night.

Please guys… please be okay, don’t you dare hurt them you bastards!

***

Inside her room, and sighing in gloom, the rich girl known as Veronica is sitting on the edge of her bed, kicking her feet. She's having thoughts of hate towards Angela at the moment and wondered how Jack could tolerate such a rude person.

Honestly, what's with that girl? and why does she detest Sarah and I? Nothing about her makes sense. Oh Jack, why did you adopt such a vulgar and rude girl like her.

Letting out another sigh, Veronica stands on her feet, and approaches her window that overlooks another part of her backyard. “Jack… even though we were close friends when we were kids, it’s still hard to believe you’re the same guy I fell for all those years ago.”

Veronica leaned her hand against the window, remembering that night she almost witnessed her dear friend Jack almost commit a murder in front of her innocent eyes.

You’re like a completely different person, a stranger at that… should I even consider you a close friend anymore? You’re a complete mystery to us, but I hope you… no I really hope you only did that to protect me and not do it on occasion.

Veronica’s feelings conflicted with each other, her heart’s telling her one thing while her mind’s reminding her of another. The thought of Jack being a regular murderer really hurt her fragile heart, but these feelings of love didn’t want to push him away. Perhaps to Veronica, in this one instance, she can forgive him and move on, pretending as if it never happened.

“Yeah, I think that’s best for our relationship. I don’t want to lose him—again… like I almost did that day.”

As Veronica fought her conflicting feelings that pushed away her love for Jack, upon looking through her tall glass window, Veronica noticed something or someone in the backyard behind some bushes. Veronica tilted her head, she saw the bushes had bloomed roses unexpectedly, the person standing behind the shadows slowly revealed themselves out in the open. It’s a woman in a beautiful elegant dress, an outfit so mesmerising yet familiar to Veronica.

“Wh...o is… that?” Veronica’s mind started hurting. Ugh, my brain… it’s hurting, why?

Veronica massages her head as she stares at the stranger standing eerily behind her home. But Veronica hasn’t noticed her necklace, the item bestowed upon her by a similar stranger years ago started to emit light. The precious pendant hanging in the middle of it, began to faintly glow red. Her eyes twitched, her mind throbbed, Veronica fought through the random hindrance to stare at the woman more, trying to figure out if she’s just seeing things or perhaps she’s going crazy.

The woman in red lifts her head, clasps her hands, and afterward, gently raises one hand, pointing straight at Veronica.

“Wh-Why is she… pointing at me…?” Veronica said in a frightened tone.

Veronica points to herself. The woman in red responds with a slow no by mildly shaking her head. She continues pointing, indicating Veronica to turn around. Veronica does that, and in doing that made her realise that her house has gone completely dark. She gasps, turns back to the woman in red, and she’s gone.

“What’s going—?”

A random explosion sets off closeby in her garden. The glass window explodes from the shockwave, her house rumbles, Veronica falls on her bottom. Something is then thrown through her window. Making a metal tin crashing sound as it lands, it explodes a cloud of smoke. It’s a canister of smoke that computed shooting smoke as it rolled towards her feet. Veronica coughs as it blinds her vision and engulfs her surroundings. Eric kicks down her door, and grabs Veronica off her feet in a panicked state.

“Wh-What’s… happening?!” Veronica shouted as Eric carried her out of the room, gun in one hand, and heading downstairs.

“We’re being ambushed!” Eric replied in a serious tone.

Her safe home in one of Michigan's most elite neighbourhoods had been tarnished, compromised, and infiltrated by a couple of dozen men in white. The same men who Jack and Eric had been avoiding all these years have mysteriously found their location to bring the past back to the present.

Sarah’s in the living room with everyone else as they cowered and feared for their lives. Sarah, oddly enough, is a little dirty, notably from dirt scuffings, a couple of bruises, and she reeked of smoke too.

Anna even noticed, and raised her eyebrows to her. “Hey, Sarah, were you caught in the explosion while you were in the backyard cause you sure as hell look like it!”

Sarah didn’t reply to Anna, she’s too busy checking their surroundings by scanning everything with her eyes. Eric returns with Veronica, he puts her down as she regains her breathing. To get a better picture of their situation he gazed out the living room window and saw more of those pesky men driving in white vehicles towards her home.

“Son of a bitch… no no no!” Eric checks all his pockets to see his ammo situation.

It wasn’t to Eric’s liking because he didn’t have any extra mags or anything else to fight them back with, only his fists were the only other option when ammo got low. Candy huddled all the girls together, Angela clings onto him, Eric observes the situation further as the house’s invasion begins.

“What's going to happen to us!” Veronica said.

“I don’t know… Mr. Eric, what’s going on… who are these people?!” Anna freaks out, and notices Sarah rather calm and finishing her checkings.

Why isn’t she so freaked? What’s with that poker face… Such a badass… Anna thought.

Sarah wanted to help Eric but she didn’t want her identity to be revealed at this time. “Crap… what do I do… how could I help.” She muttered, brushing off some of the dirt on her gothic clothing.

The houses bombarded with smoke grenades, getting thrown through every window in the house. A dozen men break through her back porch door, and have stormed inside.

Eric turned to Candy as he cocked his gun. “Fruit cup, take the girls somewhere else in the home besides the death trap of a living room we’re in!”

Candy grit his teeth, shutting his eyes in response to Eric’s plan. The girls didn’t want to abandon Eric either, but Candy understood and turned to the girls.

“Let's go, or else it’s over for all of us!” Candy shouted.

One guy in white rushes into the living room, Eric immediately shoots him dead with one bullet to the head. All the girls screamed, Candy ran to Angela and picked her up.

“This way!” Candy makes a run for it, but as soon as he takes another step, another guy appears. “Oh no!”

Candy freezes, the man slaps him without hesitation, dropping Angela as they crash to the ground. Eric got furious, so did Anna who rushed the guy with a courageous attempt. The two wrestle for a couple of seconds but she’s easily overpowered and when he was about to backhand her, Eric shoots him dead too.

Anna covered her ears from the gun’s explosion. “Oww… th-thank you… Mr. Eric!”

“No problem! You okay fruit loop?!” Eric went up to check if Candy’s alright.

Candy’s cheek is swollen, he rubbed it to ease the swelling. “I’m fine, though I’ve been slapped harder in be—”

“Stop! Now’s not the moment to talk dirty shit, my guy.” Eric helps Candy up, Angela stays eerily quiet on the other hand for someone who’s fallen to the ground.

“Baby momma, I’m sorry for dropping you.” Candy said as he approached Angela.

Anna grabs Angela and instead carries her in her arms. “I’ll carry her, we gotta get outta—”

A hail of bullets erupted into the living room, being shot through the wall next to them. It’s retaliation from those pesky men belonging to Dr. Cato after they heard Eric’s gun go off twice. Everyone dropped down, covered their heads, but Eric’s struck once in the arm.

“Fuck! Goddamn big muscles I got!” Eric slams a fist furiously on the ground, frustrated that they’re in this situation.

More men came in, flashlights pierced the smoke and were waving everywhere in the cloudiness. Eric used the smoke to his advantage, hiding within it. When more walked in, he shot three of them dead, scaring the rest to go back to their small group they came inside with. Eric grabbed one of their rifles and bombarded the rest with bullets, shooting blindly from around the corner.

Eric hands Candy his handgun. “Take the girls and get the fuck out of here already!”

Candy didn’t want to take the gun, but he didn’t have a choice. “Fine fine, girls lets—”

Another burst of gunfire erupted from them, but it’s shorter. Candy, though, got struck by a random bullet to his chest. Everyone freezes in horror as Candy blinks to comprehend what just happened to him. His vision blurred as he gently rubbed his wound, seeing his own blood on the palm of his hand,

“My… chest…” Candy drops to his knees and falls to his side, bleeding from his injury.

“Fruit loop!” Eric shouted.

“Candy no!” Anna hurried to his side, putting Angela down for a second.

“No… we’re gonna die!” Veronica cowered back in fear.

Sarah clenches her fists in frustration. Do I do it now?! Do I reveal myself to my friends… what do I do, what do I do!

Candy’s bleeding fast, and he gave it his all to stay awake. “Gu...ys, it hurts… bad. Thi-This… might be—” Candy passes out, and continues bleeding onto Veronica’s floor.

Eric retaliates in sheer anger, grabbing another rifle and storms out the living room to face a dozen men coming down the hall. He unleashes a hailstorm on them, forcing them to take cover and fire back.

Anna covers Candy’s wound with her hands, trying to stop the bleeding. “Guys, hurry! Help me!”

Veronica’s too scared to do anything, Sarah’s fighting herself inside her mind, and Angela’s head seems to be somewhere else. As Eric continued fighting and holding them back, Anna trying her best to treat Candy’s wound being covered by his innocent blood, hope didn’t look too good for them at the moment. In a dire moment when death is approaching everyone's vicinity, what seemed like a glimpse of hope or a light shined on them through the curtains of the living room window.

The girls turned to the flash of light beaming into the living room. Unfortunately when Sarah ran up to the windows to see what was creating this flash, it was just more men in white who were flashing lights from their vehicles parked in front through the front window, wiping away any last glimmer of hope for everyone. Eric had just run out of ammo, he felt so angry, he couldn't believe the situation they’re in. More importantly he questioned how they found their location finally after all these years. The men in white stopped firing because they knew Eric’s done fighting back, then got out of their covers and started walking. With their guns aimed, Eric trying to think of a way to get them out of this mess, gunfire erupted from behind the men, and one by one they went down.

Once the chaos settles momentarily, Eric reloads the rifle he has in hand by grabbing a mag from one of their corpses. “Who’s there!” Eric shouted, taking a peak out of cover.

“Eric!” Jack shouted, who replied to his calling.

Eric looked, and saw Jack approach him. “What the fuck?! You fucking life saver!”

Jack catches his breath. “Wh-Where’s the girls? Sorry if I’m late, here…”

Jack hands Eric another rifle, he takes it and cocks it. “They’re in the living room, how the fuck did you get here?” Eric said, letting out a giant sigh. “Most of all how the fuck did you know this was gonna happen my guy!”

Jack cleared his throat and tried catching his breath, “Long story… god-goddamn, I never ran so fast in my life!”

Eric chuckles. “Come on, we gotta hurry to them.”

The two ran back to the girls, and when Jack entered the living room, the first person to notice his presence was Angela mysteriously.

“Brother!” Angela shouted, scaring everyone.

All the girls looked and she’s right, there’s Jack beside Eric, but Jack ignored everyone. The first thing that caught his eyes was Candy on the floor and to his mind presumably dead.

“Candy… no, no no… NO!” Jack rushed in and was about to scream in anger until Anna ran to him and grabbed his hand.

“Relax Jack, I stopped the bleeding, it’s okay.” Anna rubbed his hand that was coated with Candy’s blood, which made Jack scrunch his face in anger.

Jack gently dropped Anna’s hand and went up to Candy. “Is he gonna be—”

Veronica got up from her cowered state and clinged onto Jack. “Jack!”

At first Jack was gonna push her off but felt her scared beating heart against his chest. “There, there Veronica, it’s going to be—” A butt of a gun struck the back of Jack’s head, cutting off the small cute reunion, making both him and Veronica fall on the ground.

Eric grabs the attacker's gun, forces the barrel to his face after a brief struggle and shoots him. “Fuck! You alright Jack?”

Jack’s head bled, some dripped on Veronica’s face, but he ignores the pain and helps her up instead. “I’m… fine!”

The sizzling pain aggravated him, Sarah quickly came up to him. “Jack… should I?”

“Huh? What are you… wait, uhh, hmm.” Jack thought about what Sarah meant, that being who she is and what she can do. “That would be a good idea…”

Everyone looked at them in confusion about what they’re talking about.

Veronica grabbed his arm. “How the heck did you get here?!”

“Well, I stole a van to get here.”

“Where did you park it?” Eric asked.

Jack rubbed the back of his head as it continued bleeding. “Ah, it’s out back to a dirt trail in the woods. Hurry, all of you, get out of here while I hold the rest off.”

“No! I’m not leaving you Jack.” Anna said.

Veronica nods, ripping a part of skirt and wiping the back of his head. “Anna’s right, we’re not going to leave you alone.”

Angela crawls to her brother, he picks her up and holds her. “You okay— Angela?”

Angela doesn't respond and instead smiles. Eric saw how off Angela seemed, but at the moment it’s not of importance, they had to get out of here. Veronica couldn’t take anymore of the stress and started crying because of her home being vandalised, thinking about what her parents might say.

Jack hands Angela to Eric, and pats Veronica. “I’ll be fine, now go, keep running straight out back and you’ll see the van, can’t miss it.”

Eric nods. “You better come back to us, and don't worry, I’ll make sure Candy lives.”

Eric hands Angela back into Anna’s arms, and he goes to pick up the temporary corpse that’s Candy. Angela holds onto Anna tightly, and Veronica wipes her face. Another wave of men were approaching the front of the home.

Jack cocks his handgun. “Now go!”

Eric pushed everyone out, in that way they wouldn’t have to look back. The entire group besides Jack have left, running through the corpses laying on Veronica’s home. Jack picked up a rifle, brought one of the couches out, kicked it over, and used it as cover. They broke down the door, busted through the window, and Jack fired at them. They were fast to fire back at him. His cushion covers were compromised and he had to retreat on all fours. As the group ran out to the backyard, they saw a huge crater, most likely belonging to that explosion from earlier.

Eric’s left stunned by the sight. “Holy…!”

Veronica clings onto Anna. “My backyard, who could’ve…?”

Sarah grabs everyone’s attention, getting in front of their line of view. “This is no time to be left stunned. Keep going! Or else they’ll get us!”

Eric nods. “She’s right, run around it, this ain’t the time to stand around and get caught by these fools!” Eric made the girls lead first, and before they did run around the crater, they heard Jack screaming.

“Jack!” Anna shouted, but Eric pushed her to keep going.

Veronica stepped forward, bravely. “He sounds like he's in trouble, we gotta—!” But Sarah stopped her, grabbing her hand.

“We’ve gotta go… he’s got this, come on.” Sarah said.

Veronica’s eyes quivered. “But… they might—”

“Let's go Veronica!” Sarah tugs her arm, forcing her to run with her. “We don’t have time… come on.”

Everyone else listens and runs around the crater, and goes into the thick woods coated in darkness.

Jack in the meantime had his hands full. He’s huddled in a bathroom, the walls kept getting penetrated by the gun fire, keeping him pinned against any will of escaping.

He's getting blasted by so many of them he thought this was it for him. “Fuck… shit, damn it!”

Feeling as though he had no chance of escaping, for once Jack thought about maybe he could call his only saving grace. “Mallory!” Jack screamed, but he got no response, only the hail of bullets kept muffling out everything.

Where is she…? Damn, out of all the times I could rely on her, even when she puts me through pain… This is it, but where is she?!

He normally would only rely on the wretched girl who always tormented him in desperate situations, but she’d be the one to call first for any assistance. This time though, Jack’s the one who called for her, and she’s nowhere to be seen, heard, or found.

The last thing I heard from her was those screams before coming here… What happened to her? Why did you make me pass out, you damn—!

The bathroom door kicks open, Jack stops himself thinking, opens fire, and kills the intruder. More gunfire ensued, Jack ducks down as the toilet in front of him explodes, splashing water all over him. Jack fires overhead, blindly into the hallway. When all hope seemed lost for Jack, closing his eyes, screaming as he continuously fired, a sudden gust of wind rippled through the hallway, stopping every sound produced by machinery made by man to kill. Everything around Jack turned to ash, darkness unfolded, and silence ensued, and Jack noticed quickly.

He opened his eyes, got up out of what his cover should be, though he wasn’t expecting to find himself outside on the woods floor covered in dirt.

“H...uh? Wh-Where am… I?”

As he got up to his feet, glancing around, Jack recognized the woods immediately, and ran opposite of his direction.

“I’m outside, but-but how?” Jack shook his head and smacked his face. “Fuck it. The van, it’s this way! I don’t know who just got me out of there, but if it’s you Mallory… I’m sorry!”

The rest of the gang had arrived at the van Jack spoke about. Eric slides the door open and lets the girls go in first before he does, though he’s still in pain from his wound. Despite it, he’s determined to protect the young ones. After all the girls got in, he placed Candy safely on the floor beneath them.

“Alright, you girls ready to go?” Eric said as he walked to the driver seat, getting in.

Veronica hunches down to Candy, making sure he’s still okay. “What about Jack? Are we gonna leave him?”

“Don’t worry about that psychopathic dumbass, he can handle himself.” Eric turns the van on.

Anna digraces, hunching over to get near Eric’s face, “We’re not leaving him, we’re waiting.”

“Look I know you girls care about him and all but trust my word… he’s gonna be okay, he’s—”

All of a sudden, out from the darkness in front of them, a light flashes Eric’s face. He covers his sights, but as he’s about to retrieve his gun, the barrel of a rifle is put to his face.

It’s one of Dr. Cato’s men. “Don’t move or you’re dead, follow what I say and all of you get to see the light of day.” He radios his men, pressing his chest walkie. “Yeah I got the big guy at gunpoint, all the girls are with him.”

Eric puts his hands up, all the girls huddle to each other, except Angela who’s in the back seat very quietly staring off into space. The man continues pointing as he walks to the driver backside, opening the slide door of the van, spotting all the girls afraid.

“Yeah, civilians are involved too, might need to clean up, and…” He flashes his light to the back, and spots Angela dozing off with her mouth open.

“I’ve spotted the girl, alive and—awake!”

The sight of Angela brought fear into the man’s soul, her eyes gleaming lifeless, staring at nothing, brought chills to his spine.

“Yes, report it to Dr. Cato. Angela’s with them… and she’s grown, substantially. Especially her—”

A loud bang goes off, the girls scream in terror, the man falls dead on the ground, his head bleeding, pouring profusely onto the dirt ground. Coming out of the corner of the girl's eyes, the barrel of a handgun then arm showed itself. Anticipating who’s their saviour, the girls held each other's hands, waiting. The person revealing themselves and who killed the man in cold blood without hesitation or second thought, was none other than Jack.

All three girl’s faces were white, shocked by what they saw. No girl would have thought that Jack would do such a thing, let alone do it so casually. The look on his face said it all, it’s the look of a man with no regrets. The girls stared at Jack with frightened trembled eyes, and Veronica slowly shook her head in disbelief. Anna sheds a tear, and Sarah keeps her face still, but a single drop of sweat trickled down her face.

Jack let out a relieved sigh as he faced them, putting his gun away. “You girls alright?” But when he saw their blanched faces, all Jack did in reply to their reaction to him casually killing a man was say, “What?” as he shrugged without a single sign of remorse towards his victim.