77 Chapter 76: The Terrible Realization

"No!" James cried out in anguish as KJ's headless body fell over on the ground. Red blood tainted the green grass. From his angle, he could even distinctly see the insides of his neck...god! Why was this happening to him?

Right beside him, Aaron bit his lips, struggling to keep himself from screaming or crying. If screaming or crying could get him out of this situation, then he would do those all day long, but since they couldn't...

To be fair, the four people weren't that surprised when KJ lost his head, but it was one thing to expect something to happen, and a completely different one to watch it unfold.

What did make them surprised was when, all around them, at least a dozen pedestrians turned to Katie, Gadreel, Aaron, and James, and started smiling in one of the creepiest ways possible.

"Ok…" Katie tapped the screen of her iPhone with her index finger. "The app store really needs to do a better job verifying the apps they publish...I feel like false advertisements are really gonna hurt Apple's brand."

Even with things so desperate, Gadreel couldn't help but toss Katie a glance. Can you at least try to find a more appropriate time for your jokes?

Despite what Katie was saying, things were clear. The Ghostscanner didn't seem to be working. The group relied on it to save them, but the app was hardly their way out. Instead, it had been fooling them all along, leading them to unsuspecting deaths.

So...was the app entirely a lie? It just outright didn't work? Katie found herself with a small frown. Like she said to the others, she had quite the knowledge regarding supernatural beings who were capable of ending lives with the snap of a finger, but rather chose to take things slowly and methodically. These beings were sadistic, constantly chasing after their sickening sense of humor...wait, why did that sound so familiar? Either way...these beings wouldn't really lie and turn against their own rules, for it would ruin all the fun.

That was like playing chess with someone. The entities might take pleasure in beating players who have never played chess before in a crushing stance, but they wouldn't outright change the rules or remove the pieces of the other players. That would spoil everything.

But...where was the catch? If Caitlin was here...she would surely be able to see the trap behind it! Katie thought briefly before forcing herself back to the situation at hand.

Slowly, the pedestrians all around the group started closing in. All of them looked nice and innocent at a first glance, but it would take a special amount of stupidity to think they were harmless.

"Run!" Gadreel first called out, pointing to a breach in the circle the pedestrians formed. Without another moment of delay, the four of them started moving. Gadreel was the first to move. James and Aaron quickly followed, doing their best to move their shaking legs without falling over.

The wraiths in disguise didn't actively move and intercept them. They maintained a slow pace, gradually closing the breach. Katie keenly noticed that as she started walking as well. There was no drama in surrounding the survivors and outright killing them, at least not as much drama as picking them off one by one, starting from the stragglers. That was how all the horror movies worked.

It was at that moment when Katie realized something very interesting. While she was busy observing and being the detective, she had become the straggler who deviated too far from the group...

And then, she felt something on her leg. Katie looked down and found herself staring at a soft hand. A hand that belonged to the daughter of the woman that killed KJ.

"Hello there." Katie greeted innocently before lifting up her leg and kicking the daughter in the chest. She put all her strength in that kick, and that was enough to send the young girl flying back, but before Katie could push the assault, she found herself spinning in the air.

The last thing she saw was her headless body hitting the ground.

In the auditorium, the woman frowned as Katie died on the big screen. Ok...that is...disappointing. She expected a lot more from this character. In fact, she even expected her to survive this film. Well...maybe she could talk to the owner of this cinema and acquire her soul after the film was over? This girl did look like a cool person.

In the corner next to the big screen, right next to KJ's and Aaron's bloody corpses, Katie's head suddenly slid off her neck and landed on the carpeted ground. It was a smooth process, and if the blood didn't start to ooze out of the wound, it was also a clean one. Katie's headless body just stood there, still and lifeless.

That was when the woman realized something wasn't exactly normal. As she stared at the body, something interesting happened. Slowly, the bleeding stopped, and bone and flesh alike grew right back from the fracture at the woman's neck. Within moments, Katie's skull was formed once again, and her facial features started to return. Finally, under the woman's curious eyes, Katie's entire head was back, unscathed.

If there wasn't a severed head on the ground and blood on Katie's prized black jacket, the woman almost thought Katie never died at all.

When she turned back to the big screen, she realized the same thing had happened in the movie. Katie, or rather the character she was playing, casually stood back up with her head back.

"What the hell…" The woman whispered. This level of regeneration prowess was unbelievable! She had seen many self-healers. She herself could take quite the punishment and recover easily, but...she could only imagine how much a nightmare it would be to fight an entity like this. This woman's enemy could stab her a hundred times and achieve nothing...who even was this girl, and how come she never heard of her?

Either way, as the woman glanced around the seats of the auditorium, her wicked smile suddenly returned to her face.

She shouldn't be the one worried about this. After all, she was just the audience. Just a random movie-goer. The entity who put this girl into the movie, however...he was the one who should be scared.

All she had to do was sit back and watch this drama unfold.

Inside the movie, Gadreel, Aaron, and James were running like hell as they went down the street. None of them bothered to even look back, which meant none of them realized Katie was just beheaded. After all, Katie didn't exactly make much of a sound when she died, and both Aaron and James were busy concealing their urges to vomit.

Of course, Gadreel noticed what happened to Katie. What did he do about it? Nothing. As far as he cared, Katie could die right here, right now and he wouldn't shed a drop of tear. He wouldn't even be in this situation if it wasn't for her!

Plus...given all that Gadreel saw, he doubted a few wraiths could kill her.

As the three moved, Gadreel quickly shared his Plan B.

"We need to get out of the campus. That seems to be our only chance...however small the chance may be." He stole a glance at the pedestrians along the road and was slightly reassured when he saw them minding their own business. "My character has a car in a parking lot nearby. We'll get there, and we're driving as far away as possible."

"Ok...let's hope that works." James nodded before suddenly realizing something was wrong. Someone was missing...Katie! He quickly snapped around and didn't see the brunette anywhere close. This brought a look of horror onto the young man's face. "Oh god! Katie! Have any of you seen Katie?"

Aaron, realizing Katie was gone as well, started looking around. Beside him, Gadreel frowned. He really didn't have the time or patience for these games.

"She was trailing behind us." He declared with a flat tone. "She's probably dead."

The way he said those words, the utter lack of concern and emotion, made the other two boys turn to him in shock. How could he be so cool about this? It was his friend that was killed!

"Well...you don't know that! Should we at least wait for her?" Aaron frowned before suggesting.

James nodded. Both he and Aaron were ready to at least wait a minute or two for Katie in case she made it out, but the Angel didn't share that opinion.

"No. We should keep moving."

That order was what lit the powder keg that was James.

"What are you talking about?" He cried out furiously, attracting the attention of several men and women around them. But at the moment, the young man just didn't care. Fury was in his eyes as he confronted the Angel. "She was your friend! How can you just leave her like this?"

Yes. James was terrified. He never witnessed Luke's death, but he, with his own eyes, watched as KJ was decapitated right there in front of him. Just the thought of the same thing happening to him made the boy's leg tremble in fear. Yet at the same time, he couldn't stand to think that the girl who he was just talking to, Katie, was dead. She was so brave...he just couldn't believe she was gone.

And the total lack of concern by Gadreel, who he saw as Katie's close friend, was just too much for him.

Gadreel suddenly stopped in his tracks. As he turned to face the two young men, who were both looking at him with disdain, he found himself wanting to laugh.

"Well...she isn't exactly my friend." He started, scanning across the faces of the two young men. "But guess what? Even if she is my friend. Even if she is my own sister, I will be walking away the same way I am now. Why should I stay?" He grinned mockingly. "For friendship? For loyalty? Or...or maybe for duty? Guess what? None of those are worth me to die for."

"Aaron, I told you that the only one that matters is yourself, and I meant it. You may not know this...but I have walked away from duty before. I have walked away from my own family." He took a step forward menacingly, and the two boys couldn't help but back off. Somehow, the Gadreel now just looked terrifying. "And I will do it again if I have to. If any of you becomes a liability, if any of you fall behind…" The Angel leaned forward at the two. "I will not hesitate to turn my back on you."

"And trust me...you don't want to die here."

Gadreel finished with a final conclusion before turning around and walking away as quickly as possible. He walked away decisively, but what maybe even the Angel himself failed to realize was that despite all his talks, he wasn't as selfish as he would've liked. If he really didn't care about the others at all, then he would've departed without saying a word when the other two chose to stay. Instead, he wasted precious time trying to convince the boys to leave with him.

After all, Gadreel was an Angel, not a machine. His feelings, however twisted they were, still existed.

Aaron and James exchanged a look. Aaron was the first to bite his lips and turn to follow Gadreel. He didn't want to leave anyone behind if he could, but he didn't have a choice, and throwing away his own life for the off chance that Katie survived was just foolish.

Finally, as he stood on the street, alone, James felt himself shaking. He wanted to stay there. He wanted to be brave and do what his father and grandfather would've done in his place and risk his life for his friend. His comrades. Yet, with every passing second, James felt his heart sink.

He still had such a grand future before him. His education...his family. Did he really want to die here and now?

Finally, with one deep sigh, James turned and started running.

In the end, he still failed to do the brave thing. Again.

When the two young men caught up to him, Gadreel was pleased. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, he somewhat cared about the two young men. They weren't high-ranking Angels who demanded that he sacrifice his life for a distant cause, nor were they low-ranking Angels willing to turn on him at a moment's command. They were just innocent human beings, trying their hardest to survive in this dark, depressing world.

In a sense, he felt sympathy toward them.

The car Gadreel's movie character owned was parked in an underground parking lot. The three of them quickly made their way into the floor portion of the building. After not being able to find the staircase immediately, Gadreel made the risky decision of taking the lift.

Yes, it might result in them getting cornered with nowhere to run, but the Angel was willing to take his chances.

The elevator was old, and as Gadreel, Aaron, and James stepped inside and Gadreel pressed the floor button, the elevator made a loud crack before the doors closed, and the metal box started moving.

As he felt his body moving downwards, Gadreel reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone and clicked onto the Ghostscanner App.

Much like Katie, he had some confusion about the App. There was little reason for Ghostscanner to be used as the title, only for it to be a complete hoax. He...he must've missed something!

Slowly, the Angel scrolled through the pictures uploaded to the app in the past, as well as the pictures after being processed. Something was wrong...he could feel it! But...what was it?

And then, as he settled on a post-processing picture that showed all six of the group, taken after they first showed up in this film, Gadreel suddenly came to a terrible realization.