Chapter #13: Seelensauger

"I. Found. You," Arius chuckles softly as I feel something grab hold of my legs and drag me out from under the shrub, screaming as the dark world rushes past me. I try to kick free from his grasp, but he simply digs his piercing nails into the flesh of my ankle until I feel them scratch against my bone. I scream louder, only to have him lift me upside down, amused by my helpless struggling before flinging me to the side. For a moment, all is weightless, and I think that maybe I'm dead, until I slam into the rough bark of a bent tree, and all the air is knocked from my lungs, blood trickling down my lips as I crumple down, coughing wildly. Nope… still alive… Can't feel pain if you're dead…

"You made me run around like a fool, FOR HOURS!!! I'll drain you slow, junge, for all the trouble you've caused. But not before I kill your pretty little friends!" the Seelensauger vows as he drags Mara out from the bush. Before Mara can finish reciting the chant she's working on, he punches her hard, knocking her unconscious, her head falling back and her body going limp. I would've assumed she was dead if I couldn't see her chest rising and falling from her calmed breathing. Ella bursts out of the other side of the bush and darts off into the darkness of the woods, leaving us behind yet again. Arius sighs and hurries after her with an annoyed scowl on his face.

With him gone, I finally manage to suck in a large gasp of air before I try to stand and make my way over to Mara. The pain makes me scream out instantly, and collapse back to the ground in agony, lights floating before my eyes from the intensified pain of the stinging wound. It might be broken to hurt this badly. I glance down and notice that it's much worse than I had originally guessed. Crimson flows out of the five punctured holes, drenching my shoe and pant leg, pooling into a small puddle beneath me that slowly begins to absorb into the thirsty earth. The sight of it almost makes me gag, a slight dizziness pulling over me. I'm fine with looking at blood, but it's a bit different when it's your own, and oozing out of you at an alarming rate.

"Come here,'' Arius growls as he lifts me up by my throat, appearing out of nowhere. "Now, you weren't trying to escape, were you junge?" I glare at him hatefully before I see that he's hauled Ella back, with both of the girls unconscious now. He's tugging them along by the back of their shirt collars, their heads slumped over almost peacefully. He begins squeezing so hard I can barely breathe, let alone respond to the psycho. I mouth some words desperately. He rolls his eyes and loosens his grip ever so slightly, pulling me in closer so that he can hear me. "What was that wenig scheisse?"

"Please… let… us… go… We… won't… tell… anyone…" I promise, and he guffaws.

"Ahh, junge, you are a bad liar. And even if I was feeling generous enough to let you go, I know that you would hold a grudge about your little friend who I already finished off. Plus, as I said before, my wife needs the three of you. She is sick, and you three are the only thing that can possibly heal her. Especially this one," he replies, kicking Mara's back roughly. She lets out a loud grunt, yet remains unmoving.

"Let… her… go… Take… me… instead…" I gasp. He tightens his grip angrily.

"Nein, she is the most important of you three, and she has irritated me with her transgressions against me. She will be the main entrée, while you shall be desert junge," he admits, pulling me close to sniff my face like a fucking pervert. "And she is rare… In my 700 years on this earth, I have only come across two of her kind, unless you count those Druid scum. But they do not hold raw power, not like her. They simply borrow it. She is a unique breed, one that is almost extinct. A delicacy we simply cannot pass up."

"Le-…ave… her…" Is all I can manage to get out, his grip to tight to even get the proper amount of air in as my vision begins to fade, though that could also be from my leg that's leaking like a broken bottle of tabasco sauce.

"Oh, poor liebhaber junge, do not fret. You will both be consumed by my Alvah, so you will always be together, though it will not be in life," he says, dropping me to the floor, only to snatch up my ankle and press tight, stopping the blood. "Now, let's get all of you there before you bleed out along the way. I don't like to waste food."

And with that, he rushes off quickly into the darkness. I try to keep track of where we're going, but after about 15 seconds of him flitting through the woods, I have to wrap my arms around my head just to keep from suffering a dull death of blunt force trauma due to all the rocks, logs, and saplings smacking me along the way. I can feel my back being torn up from all the sharp twigs and hard earth, the hoodie adding only the absolute smallest amount of protection for my flesh from the onslaught as Arius continues his sprinting, his legs moving so quickly they seem like a blur.

He casts a glance backwards, noticing my furious glare, and laughs manically before kicking a wave of dirt over my face, blinding and choking me at the same time. I sputter out the loose earth in disgust, trying to blink and rub the dirt from my eyes while still protecting my head. It doesn't work very well. I give up and just wait for the turbulent ride to come to an end.

After another five minutes of having my back torn to hell, we arrive. I rub my eyes diligently and look around, finding nothing but rows of grapevines, and what I can only assume to be a mansion. Arius lets go of the girls and knocks on the back door, waiting for just a few seconds before an insanely old woman opens the door. She has to be at least 100, if not more, seeming only a breath away from rolling over and dying.

"Hello my love," he says as he leans down to kiss her. She smiles at him before peeking over at the three of us. He waves his hand happily, announcing, "I've brought you dinner Alvah."

"Took you long enough," she remarks, casting a glance at him as she notes, "Looks like you've already had your fill."

"Don't be so mad, I want you to have the rest darling. Now, go get everything set up inside so I can bring them to you. I still need to go clean up the mess I made by the cemetery before the authorities arrive. And make sure to take their phones away, this is a rather sneaky bunch," Arius tells her, then he grabs a fistful of my hair, and slams my head back against the concrete, causing the world to go dark…

"Jack… Jack!!!" Mara whispers in a seethe, desperation hidden in her voice. I come to groggily, feeling myself tied to a chair, unable to move.

"Ah, ah, ah, nein! No more words for you! I don't need you trying to break free hexe!" a 60-year-old woman growls playfully, shoving a rag into Mara's mouth and tying another around the back of her head, gagging her instantly. I stare in confusion before peering to the left, finding Ella's shriveled corpse tied to the chair beside me. She was terrified, having struggled so much her arms had broken as she tried to get away, and afterward, her neck had been snapped in half like a dead twig, no blood, just white flesh and bone visible from the open wound. That's when I realized what had happened, glaring at the elderly woman.

"Alvah," I hear Arius call as he shuts the back door. He is dragging the body of Lucas and the deer behind him, tossing them into the corner as he comes to stand in front of me. I try to move my arms, finding no room to wriggle free. I attempt the same with my legs and notice that while my legs are tied impressively tight, the chair legs themselves are a bit fragile and wobbly. I think of breaking free, but I know they'll be on me instantly. And even if I do manage to get away, once I'm gone, they'll kill Mara. I couldn't help Ella, but I have to do everything I can to help Mara. Even though it's more likely that she'll be saving my ass if I can get her gag off. Arius gives me a snide smile before smacking the fuck out of me, my whole head turning from the hard impact. "Do not look at her like that junge, or I will tear your eyes out before I let her drain you."

"Please, I beg you. Let Mara go, and just take me. I should be enough to make your wife as young as you are now!" I plead with them, and they both cackle at me.

"He truly is a gallant Liebhaberjunge, isn't he? Reminds me of you Arius, before I turned you," Alvah purrs, stroking the side of his face before she turns her attention to me. "And as much as I appreciate your chivalry for the one you love, it will not save her. Just as it will not save you."

"Why?!" I cry out.

"Why what junge?" she asks curiously.

"Why kill people? Arius killed that deer and got younger from it, why can't you both just live off of the nearby wildlife? Wouldn't that be better? Safer?!" She merely laughs at my words.

"Why do humans eat meat when they can easily live off of plants and water without ever having the need to take another being's life?" she asks sternly, pinching my chin to make me look up at her with a glowering stare. "Because it tastes better."

With that, she walks over and grabs the back of Mara's chair, pulling her away into a different room, her face stricken with fright as fresh tears begin to seep out of the corners of her eyes. I scream at the both of them, pleading, begging, yet no amount of groveling will persuade them to change their wicked ways. I glance up at Arius, who smirks at my attempts, and begins to walk away with his elderly wife. I shake back and forth until I build up the momentum to hop a few times. It only takes two small hops to have all four legs break free from the chair, sending me toppling over in a heap of wood and jumbled ropes. The Seelensauger whips his head around, sighing at the pitiful sight.

"What's wrong?!" I hear Alvah call from the other room, poking her head out of the doorway to peek at the commotion, before chuckling at my undignified attempt to pick myself up. She laughs louder and continues to drag Mara away.

"Of course she didn't tie you up properly…" he grumbles, grabbing me by the throat and lifting me up high. I mouth a few words, and he rolls his eyes, much like before. He pulls me in close, baring his stank fangs aggressively. "What? Do you have some last words, Jack?"

I open my mouth wide, stretch out my neck as far as it will go, and chomp down hard on Arius' nose, tearing through cartilage, snapping off skin, and scraping against the jarring bone. I chip a piece of my tooth as I chew off the entirety of his nose, taking it into my mouth and spitting it directly into his eyes, blinding him for a moment while he screams in disdain, throwing me in fury as he clutches at his face. I get up with much effort, my back and leg screaming out at me as I hobble to Arius, now clutching a jagged chair leg from the pile. I get close to his thrashing body and swipe at his eyes 3 times, shredding them into a bloody chunky mess. I quickly scurry to hide behind the door as I hear footsteps approach. Alvah rushes into the room, screaming at the sight of her disfigured husband.

"Your face!!! YOUR EYES!!! What happened to your nose!!! WHAT HAPPENED!?!"

"Der bastard did it! He bit off my nose and hit me with something! He went after the hündin!!!"

Before she can turn around and find me, I smack the back of her head with the wooden leg and she faceplants at my feet. I hit her two more times, and stab the jagged end of the stick into her heart through her back, before hobbling off towards the other room where Mara had been taken to. I hear Arius calling out to his wife, but she doesn't respond. I don't know if she's actually dead, or just out until she can heal herself.

I find Mara struggling to break free before I slam the door shut tossing the lock switch to deadbolt the heavy door. I rush over, but tumble over something on the floor. I glance around in horror, witnessing dozens of broken gray and white bodies of the insidious couple's previous victims. And the worst was that the one I had tripped over was small, only about four feet tall, yet still old, giving me the impression that it must've been a child, no older than seven or eight years old. I manage to pick myself up and hobble over to Mara.

"How did you get free?! Why is there blood on your mouth?!" she asks nervously as I begin untying her after removing her gag.

"I bit off his nose," I inform her. She gives me an aghast stare but quickly glances at the door as stomping can be heard against the hardwood flooring just outside. "Can you do anything when they come inside?"

"Uhh… I can try to blind them, but it'll take a minute to set up," she admits as I free both of her hands.

"I'm pretty sure he's blinded, and if we're lucky she's dead. Is there any way you can trap him like before so we can try to get out of the house?!" I question urgently as Arius pounds furiously on the door.

"I'll kill you! I'll kill you for what you did to my wife!!! To my face!!! I can't ever look the same again!!! I can't ever grow this back! You bastard!!! Open this door!!! OPEN THIS FUCKING DOOR JUNGE!!!!!!" Arius bellows as the door starts to crack.

"No, not inside! I'm self-taught! I know a few, but they won't help us in this house, or we'll get caught in the crossfire!!! My mom only left me her journal before she passed, and I can only recite a few of the spells from memory!!! The book is still in my locker at school! The best I can do is burst his eardrums! But it'll still take at least a full minute!!!" Mara replies in a panic.

"Fine, just hurry up!!!" I shout as I begin piling dead bodies in front of the door in disgust, their chalky skin flaking off at the touch of my struggling fingers, with some breaking into pieces as I toss their remains against the door. Since the bodies are dried out, it takes many to even start to hold resistance against the splintering door. For a moment, the pounding stops, followed by angry mumbling. After a short time, the soul sucker resumes his barrage on the door, finally breaking through. Mara finishes her chant as they rush into the room, screaming the last few sentences.

"Cover your ears!!!" Mara tells me, rushing over to me and shielding my ears with her hands as well. Even through her hands and mine, I could hear the deafening screech that emitted from Mara, a roar from the pits of Tartarus, causing Arius to collapse, clutching at his ears as they gush a deep black blood. She takes her hand away once the scream stops, showing the monster stumbling around in confusion, arms outstretched and kicking the bodies around wildly. When she sees a chance, she pulls me after her, out of the room, down the hall, when we hear another door creak open. Alvah emerges from the room I had left her in, the makeshift stake removed from her back. She hurries to her husband, narrowly missing us as we creep down the stairwell back to the 1st floor.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" I groan as I look around. Mara gasps as she glances at our surroundings. The entire 1st floor is empty, with every single doorway and window nailed shut except the front door, which is made of steel, and locked by 6 different padlocks.

"Should we go try the 2nd floor?" She asks and I slip from her grasp, falling down. The pain in my ankle has become overbearing. I think if I stand on it again, it'll snap in two. "Are you okay?!"

"No, but I'll be okay for a sec. Search the floor, see if there's anything on this floor we can use or an opening somewhere to slip through. I'll keep watch here and call you if they come down. Mara searches for only about 3o seconds before she comes rushing back with our phones and two hunting knives. "What the hell, they just had all this stuff down here?!"

"There's a lot more too. It's all the possessions of their previous victims," she says before helping me up and moving me to the room of forsaken treasures. "Stay here and call the cops Jack, I'll be right back!"

"No, what the fuck?! Where are you going?!" I protest but she's already out the door. I crawl to the doorway to see Mara using the knife to unscrew the padlock frame to open the door. Damn she's smart, I didn't even think of that. I stay where I am to keep an eye on her, and dial 911 on the phone. It takes a long time to connect, but when it does, I explain in a hushed voice that my girlfriend and I had been kidnapped for trespassing and gave them the closest address I knew, St. Patrick's Cemetery. Just as they were assuring me they'd be there in 15 minutes, I look up and see Alvah rush down the stairs and slam Mara's head into the steel door, pinning her there.

"What do you think you're doing hexe? Who said you could leave?" The crazy woman seethes in her ear as she chuckles. "You and the junge are quite resilient, I must say. But it ends here. While you were the ones to get closest to freedom, you shall never know it again. This is the end of your pathetic story."

"No, it's not!!!" I yell, causing Alvah to try to snap at me before I can move. But I'm already moving. And by the time I yelled for her, the blade was merely inches from her head. With a most satisfying crunch, I bury the six inch blade into her temple, catching her midway as she turned to face me, slamming her head beside Mara's on the door. Mara flinches and jumps away, choking back a small sob. I can't blame her as I also wept while talking to the 911 responder.

Alvahs body twitches uncontrollably, and I feel the blade trying to push itself out of her skull. I ram the blade back in and feel a sharp snap, before feeling us both tumble to the ground. I take a split second to look down and see that my leg has snapped in two, at the ankle, just like I thought. I look away quickly, feeling bile rise in my stomach before spewing out over the flailing Alvah.

"Oh my God Jack, your leg!!!" Mara cries out in shock. Before I can respond, we hear Arius tumble about on the 3rd floor as he calls out for his wife.

"Don't look at my leg, fucking get the door!" I bark urgently, trying not to focus on my leg either. It doesn't hurt yet, but I know that's just the shock. Once my adrenaline stops, the pain will be intolerable. I know we only have so much time. I'm feeling weaker by the minute with my destroyed leg gushing blood. I can only hold her down for so much longer, and Mara knows that. Within a minute, she's able to get the screw out and the door open.

"Thank you God," I mumble as she lifts me up and drags me out into the night. She drags me five feet away, turns, and chants a very quick spell. At first, I thought it didn't work, until I see Alvah's body slowly catch aflame, a wallowing cry escaping her blistering corpse as it's not able to regenerate faster than the fire as it tears apart her soul. In the distance, we hear sirens faintly getting closer.

"The fire should help them find us quicker," Mara sighs, collapsing beside me. I give her a concerned look but she shakes her head. "I'm okay, fire spells are hard and take most of my energy."

"Good," Arius growls as he emerges from the smoldering house, his hearing back, though his eyes and most of his nose are still gone. I guess he can regrow cochlea's but not retinas. "Then this will be an easy and swift punishment. But first, where is my wife?" We remain silent, hoping he won't remember where our voices came from moments before, only for him to lean down and pull a tile off of the roof. He plays with it for a moment before cooking his head to the side, then tosses it in our direction. I have no chance to react as the tile launches into my right eye, embedding itself into my now hollow eye. There's a numb pressure as it registers with my brain that most of my vision is red and dark. I begin howling as the pain slowly creeps in, the intensity growing with each second.

"How does it feel?" Arius guffaws blissfully, having gotten some revenge on the boy. I just keep screaming. I hear Mara take a step toward me but I throw some dirt at her.

"Leave me and go get the cops!" I urge her. I look up to see Arius now has her by the throat. She mouths a chant and his hair quickly ignites. He lets out a shriveled yip and flings her back toward the house, where she slams against the side of the building and crumples into a small ball, no longer moving, and pats out his hair.

I feel a sharp pain across the back of my head and feel my head bounce off of the ground as something grips my legs and hoists me up. What feels like fire tears across my chest in five jagged lines before they continue to pull me into the vast vineyard, my head ringing and my chest on fire as I see lights flashing once more.

"You are in for a world of pain junge," Arius growls in my ear as he grabs hold of my right hand, pulling up my digits individually, almost playfully, until he snarls at me and breaks all five of my fingers. Then he squeezes my hand, and crushes most of the bones. Arius holds me still, a hand over my throat to keep me in place. He moves up to my wrist, crushing it, then my forearm, my elbow, and my humerus bone. I scream out in writhing agony, biting down on Arius' finger so hard that I tear a small piece of flesh from it. He moves his hand to my clavicle and nonchalantly snaps it in half without any strained effort.

"I could smell her, burning… My Alvah. I know the smell of our kind being roasted alive. We survived eons together, and you took her from me. You took what was mine. My Alvah. My love. I will crush you, but by bit, until you are finally close to death. Then I will turn you, and have you feast of your little girlfriend, before i torture you for all of eternity for what you stole from me," he purrs in my ear, pressing harder on the broken clavicle. "And I am looking forward to taking off your nose and yanking out every single one of those pearly whites, until they just can't regenerate anymore!"

"I hope she rots in hell you piece of shit," I manage to gurgle out through struggled breaths, the pain fading in and out now as I try to stay awake. Nearby, I hear the sounds of voices, followed by a few footsteps.

"Ahhh, now the true fun begins!" Arius whispers as he drops me to the floor and disappears into the dark. As he leaves, the footsteps get louder, until the silhouette of a man appears above me.

"Jesus fucking Christ!!! Hang on kid," he tells me as he radios in a paramedic to the scene. "I FOUND HIM, HE'S OVER HE-"

I glance up to see why he'd suddenly stopped, only to watch his head roll to the floor and come to a stop at my chest, his eyes moving to glare into mine before the light faded from them. I yelp, and look around to find everyone screaming. A group of five men, now cut down to four, was being separated, picked off, and devoured by the Seelensauger. Only one remained now, and he was hovering over me, trying his best to protect the both of us.

"What the fuck did you get us into kid?!" He shouts in a panic.

"Bampurr!" I gurgle, trying not to drown on my own blood now. I point behind him, as I see Arius shirk from his hiding place in the shadows, only to watch the officer's chest burst open, Arius' hand protruding through, clutching the cop's deflating heart. The officer looks at me incredulously, before trying to lift his gun toward the monster. Arius flicks his wrist like he's scolding a child, tatting while he does it, and the gun fumbles to the floor, a single shot echoing into the night.

"Such a waste, so many years I could've fed on. That my Alvah should've fed on," Arius sighs, licking at the blood on his hand and makes a face. "Ugh. That one must've had cancer, it tastes rotten."

While he's distracted, I stretch and grab hold of the gun, loosely aiming before squeezing the trigger until the gun is empty. To my amazement, 2 of the 12 bullets actually hit him, once in the thigh, the other piercing his armpit.

The monster shrieks so loud I hear a loud pop, followed by a pounding silence. I glance up to see Arius yelling something at me, but I can't hear any of it. I know it hurt him, as his human disguise has faded. No longer is he a good looking man in his 20's, but a being almost completely void of color, so pale he almost seems translucent. His jaw unhinges and stretches like a serpent, and his eyes are bright yellow.

As he transforms, two officers come up behind Arius, holding their ears tight and staggering. They catch one sight of my broken body, then catch a look at the demon standing above me. As Arius struggled to stop the bleeding of his artery, they opened fire, and emptied both their clips into the creature. Arius falls to the floor, brain matter oozing from his pierced skull, no longer the image of horror, but a man once more. A white mist begins to seep from his mouth for a minute, and the longer it flows, the older he gets, until he's simply skin and bones, resembling mummified remains, and the spirit seeps back into the Abyss.

I see the officers freak out over his appearance changing again, as well as asking me questions but I can hear anything. I try to tell them I can't hear them but realize I can't even hear myself talk. Everything afterward seemed to be a blur. I was put in an ambulance with Mara, who still was in and out of consciousness.

They found her barely conscious on the ground. After she explained that the couple inside had killed two of our friends and taken us hostage, two of them rushed to secure the house with the firefighters, while five others took her to the EMT before coming to look for me.

While searching, they had found four different rooms full of bodies, with a total of 94 bodies being counted in total. And with so many bodies being found, along with the condition in which they were found, caused the officers to call in other departments, even the FBI. But we don't get to see the rest of the assessment as we're both rushed off to the hospital. I get stuck in the E.R and am put under immediately as they try to fix my arm, leg, eye and chest.

When I come to a few hours later, I'm laid up in the hospital with a full cast over the entirety of my right arm and leg, my chest and head are bandaged from the blows and claw marks, I have an eyepatch and my other ankle was stitched and wrapped up tight. I can hear a bit now, though it's still not 100%, they said I won't have permanent hearing loss, unlike with my eye. Mara is here with me, as her shoulder had been shattered when she collided with the house. At our request, she was able to be put in the same room as me. We've just been talking for the past few hours, happy that we're still alive while having mixed feelings about what happened to Lucas and Ella.

"Thank you, Mara," I tell her once we're finally alone, no cops or nurses around to overhear us.

"For what?"

"For saving me. If it wasn't for you I would've died."

"Well I would've died too if not for you," she replies. I give her a smirk.

"Come on Mara, we both know that you helped me more than I helped you."

"Does that really matter? We were both there for each other. I think that's what really matters at this point Jack."

"Yeah, you're right. I still wish we could've helped out the other two though," I murmur. She gives me a look, but before she can say anything, a man knocks at the door sporting a leather jacket, plaid button up shirt, and denim pants. We both just kind of stare at him before I ask. "Ummm… Who are you?"

"Sorry, forgetting basic human interactions, haha. Are you Jack Bais and Mara Morte?" he asks politely. We both nod after looking at each other. "My name is Jacob Folkvar, I'm a detective. I've been speaking with the officers of Napa county for the last couple of hours about your case, and I'm basically here just to get your statement if that's okay. Are either of your parents around? I'd like to ask them for permission first if that's okay since you're both still in high school, even if you're not minors anymore."

"My mother died when I was 16, I've been living on my own ever since," Mara admits quietly.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to sound inconsiderate. It's been a long night and I haven't had time to research either of your backgrounds yet," he says apologetically. She nods nonchalantly, numb to this sort of reaction. "What about you Jack?"

"My grandparents take care of me," I respond softly. Both of my parents had died when I was eight years old in a car accident. "They should be in the waiting area if you wanna ask them."

"Okay, thank you, I'll be back in a bit," he tells us, heading outside. I glance over at Mara, who sticks her tongue out at me. I chuckle at her and wince as the wounds on my chest ignite all my pain receptors. I groan and lay my head back.

"Sorry, I forgot."

"It's okay, I kinda forgot too. I only remember when it hurts."

"Okay, your grandparents said it was okay to talk with you about everything that happened tonight, as long as it's okay with you Ms. Morte?" Jacob says as he reenters the room. She nods, and he pulls out an audio recorder, starting it up.

"What do you wanna talk about anyway? We already talked with the officers up in Napa before we were transferred back here," I ask.

"I know, but I would like to hear your testaments myself if it's not too much to ask. I can always come back in the morning if you'd like." I peek over at Mara who shrugs.

"Naw, it's okay, we'll tell you what we know, though I'm sure you won't believe us. The guys up in Napa thought we were crazy even though they saw them too. We even had to have a therapist come in here to give us a psych evaluation. We passed, but they still think something's wrong with us," I admit. I mean, I can understand, I would think we were crazy if I wasn't there myself. We basically didn't lie about anything except for Mara's powers. It just didn't make sense to out her like that. And since we had officers there who witnessed Arius' transformation and strange death, not to mention all of the decrepit bodies they found throughout the rooms, we had no reason to lie. So once again, we tell him everything that happened, up until we were transferred over to Oakland Kaiser, where we are now.

"Jesus, you kids have been through a lot," Jacob remarks sadly.

"Wait… you actually believe us?!" Mara asks, wide eyed.

"I went to the police academy with one of the officers who helped you kids, and he's very reliable, so if he said it happened, it happened. And it's not like you kids have anything to gain from telling this to anyone aside from being ridiculed, which is just fucked up after all the shit you've been through tonight. Plus, you guys aren't the only abnormal case I've had to deal with recently. I was the one tasked with solving the case a few weeks ago with the house party massacre. Do you know which one I'm talking about?" Jacob inquires.

"The one where the brothers were the only survivors?" I ask, trying to remember correctly.

"That's the one. And that case is just as strange as yours, if not more mind boggling," Jacob says as he stands, taking out two cards from his wallet and leaving one on each of our food trays, beside our glasses of water. "And because of that case, I also checked out the one up north with the cult attacking those people while they were camping. So, my mind is open to all sorts of possibilities now, if I'm being honest. And I know I'm just a stranger, but if you kids need anything at all, even just to talk, call me or shoot me an email or text, and I'll get back to you."

"Why do you care?" Mara asks tentatively. He shrugs honestly.

"That's a story for another day, but long story short, I want to help people. I always have since I was a little kid. And I like helping people who don't really have anywhere else to turn," he replies as he heads towards the door. "Now, I'm sure more people will come by and ask for your stories. Reporters, other officers, maybe even FBI agents. Tell them what you want, just remember, even if they treat you like you're crazy, I believe you guys."

"Thank you," I tell him. He gives us a small nod and smile.

"I'll be in touch." And with that, he leaves us to ourselves once more, heading out the door and down the hallway. I pick up his card and look over at Mara.

"Why would he be in touch with us?" I ponder aloud. She shrugs.

"I don't know, but if I had to guess, I'd say this won't be the last time we deal with paranormal monster shit," she says solemnly and I chuckle at her. She looks at me curiously.

"What?"

"Of course it isn't, I wanna be with you Mara, and you're pretty much the embodiment of the paranormal," I tell her and she blushes so hard her entire head turns red. I continue to laugh and smile at her sweetly.

"Are you sure that's what you want? I could just bring on more trouble for you to deal with Jack," she questions quietly.

"Well, to me, you're more than worth the effort if I can be with you. You're one of the most awesome people I've ever met before, and that was before I even knew you were a witchy woman," I admit and her blush grows brighter somehow, a large smile unintentionally spreading over her pretty face. She gets up and hurries over, giving me a quick kiss that sends loving shivers of electricity throughout my body.

"Then I guess you're stuck with me loverboy," Mara smirks as she climbs back into her bed.

"Good," I reply dreamily. Mara smiles back at me, then mutters a single word, and the light switch flicks off by itself. She raises an eyebrow before saying goodnight and turning on her side, snoring lightly within a few short minutes. But I can't go to sleep, still thinking of all that had transpired over the past 48 hours. I had gotten the pretty goth girl of my dreams, all it took was an abnormal life changing experience to achieve it. I shut my eyes and try not to think about it too hard, remembering that I had also lost two of my best friends today. Even if it turns out they weren't the best friends I thought them to be, it was still sad, especially with how their corpses looked. Sadly, those images will haunt me for the rest of my life, every time I close my eyes. I can feel it in my bones.

"I guess all that fawning finally paid off!" I hear someone whisper beside me, causing me to jump and groan in pain. I glance over and see nothing, but know that I'd heard something. I feel tears begin to well up in my eyelids, as well as pain to my right eye.

"…Luke?" I ask uncertainly, looking around the room, yet finding no response. I sigh and lie back down, trying to chalk it up to my imagination. Though I know, after all that we went through today, that sometimes even just hearing can be proof enough. There's more to this world than just what we've been led to believe our entire lives. Mara alone is proof enough of that.

I glance at the state of my body and sigh. I wasn't prepared for anything like this, but I will be from now on.

There's evil that lies in wait, amongst the pitch of the Abyss, waiting for some prey to slip into its grasp. I will never be prey again. I will prepare myself.

And I'm going to find out what awaits us, lurking in the dark…