PART 2 - CHAPTER 4: The Cold Hardened Truth

Jack followed the van closely. He was so enraged that he didn’t care about the public’s safety. He drove through crosswalks, crashed through mail boxes, and almost hit pedestrians. The only thing in his mind was to retrieve Angela. He pressed the gas pedal so hard that it broke, but there was no way for him to slow down. He didn’t care, he was dead focused on that van.

It started raining. Even though it was hard to see, Jack was close to the van. With a huge maniacal smile on his face, he felt relieved because he was about to get the bastards who might have been involved in Angela’s abduction.

Suddenly, from the driver’s side window, Jack saw huge headlights coming towards his side.

Huh?

Lights shone brighter and got closer. “Fuck!” Jack yelled, as the vehicle crashed into him, enough to make him black out.

Everything was pitch black. All Jack could hear was a loud ringing sound. He could hear himself breathe and saw a light. It was dim, but something was there. Within the light Jack heard muffled sobbing. The girl in the white dress walked out of the dim light and then dropped to her knees, with her hands covering her face, seeming extremely upset.

Jack called out to her and she sprung up, then tried reaching him from the darkness, but she started to fade away the moment her fingertips came close to him.

“I’m sorry for everything,” she said before fully disappearing.

Jack felt livid and enraged. The light started spreading throughout the darkness. He felt the heat burning his skin to a crisp. It felt so real that Jack woke up.

“Gahhh! Wh-What?!” Jack looked around and felt something stretch his arms out.

He glanced around and noticed that he was chained up. He looked around some more, trying to get a better understanding of where he was at. From his observations, he was in a small, cold, wet, dark room. There was a huge screen in front of him too. He tried breaking free by moving the chains around, but there was no sign of him escaping the basement.

“Where am I?” Jack asked, continuing to struggle. “G-Get me out of here!”

Jack was bruised and severely injured from the crash, but the amount of adrenaline going through his body made him ignore the horrid pain. The screen suddenly turned on and flashed Jack’s eyes, blinding him for a second. It was all static at first until it cleared out. There was a chair and a candle. The room was white.

Jack was confused. He thought that this might have been another lucid dream, but he wanted to know if he was still in reality, so he bit his bicep to see if he wasn’t dreaming.

“Son of a bitch!” A tiny stream of blood drizzled off his arm. It definitely was no dream.

When Jack looked at the screen again, someone walked to the chair. They took a seat and turned around. Jack screamed out in anger. He knew it was Dr. Cato.

Jack tried getting closer to the screen to break it, but the chains held him back. He stopped struggling to catch his breath, but Dr. Cato didn’t look happy.

“Jack, my dear boy, you’ve become a monster,” he said, his voice booming from a speaker. “I told you it wasn’t a good idea to leave that place, didn’t I?”

Jack gritted his teeth. “Shut the hell up! Where’s Angela?”

Dr. Cato sighed, clasping his hands. “You don’t need to worry about her anymore. She’s home now. It’s best that you move on.”

“You bastard… you… son of a bitch!” Jack tried breaking free from the chains again and viciously snarled at Dr. Cato.

“Jack, watch your mouth! I don’t know where you learned such vulgar language. Calm yourself, boy!”

Jack kept punching the air, trying his best to break free from the chains. “Don’t tell me how I should talk…” He stopped and panted, “…fool!”

Jack dropped to a knee. The doctor sighed. “Stop my boy, you’re doing yourself no good by hurting yourself.”

“Why do you want Angela so bad? What? Is it about the stupid promise you made for her parents? It can’t be, am I right?” Jack let out a brief chuckle.

Dr. Cato got angry and frowned. “How dare you! You detestable wretch!” He slammed a fist on his desk. “Half of it is for that sole reason! But the other promise is the main reason why I have to look after her, Jack!”

“Huh?” Jack tilted his head. “Other promise? Wha-what are you talking about?”

“There’s a lot that you don’t know! This isn’t about you and I! It’s about keeping the people safe, the city, the country… but more importantly, the entire world!”

Jack laughed. He raised his head again and screamed at the ceiling. “What are you talking about? How is she a danger to people? It’s me who should be a danger, you old coop!” He spat at the screen, staining it with bloody spit.

Dr. Cato gasped and stood up, walking closer to the camera. “Jack, what do you mean by that?”

“What do you mean by that, blah blah, blah. Fuck you!” Jack mocked Dr. Cato, which pissed him off.

“Shut your wretched mouth, you little shit!” Dr. Cato yelled, catching Jack by surprise.

Jack’s shock got swept away from his broken emotions, which brought out laughter. “You fucking fool ass bastard. I’m a menace to society, a fucking killing machine! I’m the one you should be worried about, not some little girl! Do you know how many lives I’ve taken by my stupid selfish attitude? Do I have to mention about the bitch who’s made my life a living hell inside my mind?”

“Jack, do you hear the things you’re saying?”

Jack continued laughing and coughed. “You see, doctor! I’m a very sick person, don’t cha think?”

Dr. Cato shook his head. “Yeah, I know and see, but you’ve been sick since the facility you see…” He walked back to his chair and sat down.

“What are you—”

“Every time I saw you speak to yourself, I knew that you were hopeless. No matter how many times I tried to convince you, you wouldn’t listen.”

Hearing that pissed Jack off. He tilted his head in confusion. “Talking… to myself! What the hell is that supposed to mean? I never talked to myself, you fool! You had a nurse assigned to me!”

“Nurse? Assigned?” Dr. Cato shook his head. “What are you talking about? I never assigned you a nurse.”

Jack’s heart started racing. “Stop messing with me! Carolyn! My nurse, the woman with the dark long hair and teal eyes!”

Dr. Cato got frustrated and slammed his hand on the chair. “Jack!”

Jack continued panting, spitting out more blood.

Dr. Cato squinted and extended his hands out to Jack. “You’re a diagnosed schizophrenic.”

Dr. Cato stopped talking for a moment and looked into Jack’s eyes. Jack saw the doctor's eyes shake, showing the guilt for his actions starting to come out at the edge of them. But then the doctor blinked, furrowing his brows and hiding the signs of remorse because he remembered that the boy was no saint. Jack responded with more struggling, blowing steam between his clenched teeth.

The doctor thought to himself in silence as he stared at Jack still trying his damndest to break free from his chained prison. I have to do everything in my power to keep Angela out of society like what her mother wanted. It's for the best…

As Jack struggled, coughed loudly, making noises of anger, Dr. Cato leapt out of his chair and slammed his hands on the desk.

“There was no Carolyn!”

“No… No, you’re lying! How could that be the case when I’ve actually held her?”

Jack looked at one of his hands. Her warmth, her hands… And that smell…

Jack clenched his fists and looked up at Dr. Cato, scaring him back into his chair. “You lying piece of shit!”

With a straight face, Dr. Cato got up from his chair and left the screen, leaving Jack to mutter to himself in darkness. Jack convinced himself that the man was only saying horrid things to bring him further into the hands of insanity, so he didn’t believe a single thing Dr. Cato had said to him. Jack chuckled and assumed Dr. Cato was just messing with his head. It was all a trick to make him more mentally weak. It was the same tricks he’d pulled off on him back at the facility.

Dr. Cato returned with a wagon. There was a TV on top of it and it had a VHS player. Jack stopped his nonsense and paid attention to what Dr. Cato was doing.

Dr. Cato inserted a VHS into the player. “I didn’t want to do this Jack, but this is for your own good.” Dr. Cato looked so sad as he pressed play on the VHS and slowly hovered his finger over the ON button on the TV.

“Quit fooling around, doctor! There’s no way in hell I’m a—”

Dr. Cato turned the TV on. Jack stared at the screen and immediately shut up.

The video was a view of his room. Jack realized that Dr. Cato had put a camera in his room the entire time, which made Jack feel violated.

Dr. Cato pressed fast forward and stopped when it showed Jack waking up, doing his usual routine. It all seemed normal at first, enough for Jack to talk smack again to Dr. Cato, until he started talking to no one.

Jack’s heart sank. He began to sweat and couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Jack laughed at nothing, had no one pat his head, and he was grabbing onto nothing. It even showed him holding nobody’s hand but his own.

Dr. Cato ejected the VHS and inserted another tape. “You were always a special patient to me, Jack. And this shows why…” He pressed play while looking into Jack’s widened eyes.

Jack didn’t want to believe what he was seeing. He refused to believe it. He growled at Dr. Cato and rattled the chains. “You lying piece of shit! You edited those out! Yeah, that’s it!” He laughed. “You’re trying to trick me, you freaking sociopath!”

Dr. Cato picked his chair up and slammed it onto the ground. “No, you delusional, sick bastard!” He quickly calmed down and regained his composure. “Sorry about that. Ahem! You can’t edit VHS tapes easily, even if I were able to, you would notice the edits. What you see is all real.” He pointed at the screen as the video played.

This time it was when Jack thought he was being escorted by Carolyn and confronted Dr. Cato for the first time. It showed Jack pointing at nothing and it even showed he was holding hands with the air. Jack couldn’t believe it.

Dr. Cato kept playing more tapes, showing Jack a harsh reality check: the fact that she was never real. They were videos of him sitting alone, hugging the air, speaking with no one, countless clips of him just being a pathetic boy speaking to absolutely no one.

Old memories of Carolyn flashed in Jack’s mind. Her face, her hair, and her smile that brought warmth to his wretched soul. He had flashbacks of all the times he had with her. “This isn’t right…” Jack moved his head erratically. “How could this be true? She was there… Always there!”

Jack clenched his hands so hard that his nails pierced through his palms and made blood pour out. Jack couldn’t take it and screamed, “You liar!”

“Enough, Jack! There was no Carolyn. She was never there, she never existed. Like I said, you’re diagnosed as a schizophrenic.” Then Dr. Cato zoomed himself into the camera. “She was never real!”

Jack couldn’t believe what he was seeing and hearing. Just as Jack was about to lose control of himself, he remembered Angela had talked to Carolyn. She held her and spoke with her directly.

“Hold up. I remember that Angela knew who she was. She spoke to her, and-and-and held her hand. Yeah! She knew Angela way before I was introduced into her life! You can’t fool me, doctor!” Jack exclaimed, expressing a confident grin.

Dr. Cato sighed and pushed the wagon away. “Not true, Jack. Angela told me the only reason why she thought Carolyn was there was to make you feel better. For Pete’s sake Jack, she was six at the time!” He slammed his hands on his face. “Of course she would believe you. You’re mentally ill, Jack. The fact that you even said that you’re sick is proof of that.”

Jack still didn’t believe him. He looked away from the screen so he wouldn’t have to look at his lying face. “I don’t care what you say. She was real dammit!”

Dr. Cato sighed deeply. “I’m sorry, Jack. I know it’s hard to believe, but overcoming schizophrenia is a difficult task you have to overcome.”

“Shut up.” Jack moved erratically, flinging the chains wildly. “Just give me Angela back! Give her back!”

Jack’s eyes started to water and he dropped to his knees. “Please, she’s all I have left. Without her, I’ll have nothing left. Nothing!”

Jack was on the brink of letting out his hidden emotions, the very feelings that had laid dormant all these years. He hung his head in shame, and let out a loud cry without shedding a tear.

Dr. Cato drew in a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Jack. Wait for a moment, I think this will clear things up better for you afterwards…” Dr. Cato turned around, “…I’ll set you free, and hopefully you can become a better person.” He exited the room, leaving Jack to wallow in his broken and shameful emotions.

Jack’s mind still flashed images of Carolyn. Her voice echoed constantly in his mind. It wasn’t true, but at the same time, if the videos were real, then he really was delusional and sick. He couldn’t bear that feeling. It made his stomach turn inside out, enough so that he vomited profusely.

Dr. Cato finally returned, but with Angela by his side. Dr. Cato called for his attention. Jack vomited one last time and looked back up. Jack was shocked, but something was off. Her eyes were as hopeless as they were empty, and she wasn’t wearing his hoodie. But he didn’t care, he was just glad to see her.

“Angela!” Jack said, expressing a broken smile. “Don’t worry, I’ll break you free. Just hang on for a while until I find you. After that, I-I promise to take you to school.”

Angela glared at Jack with blank eyes. Dr. Cato placed his hand on her shoulder and she nodded. Jack noticed a weird cross necklace around her neck. He kept calling for her, waiting for a response.

“Who… are you?” she asked in a monotone voice.

Jack’s eyes became empty. “Angela, it’s me, your brother!” He sounded desperate, while he rattled the chains more violently.

She twitched a little while staring directly into his crazed eyes that seemed to stare right into his soul. “I-I…” She clutched her head, but Dr. Cato patted her back to ease her pain.

She shook her head and stared back. “I… never had a brother…” Jack broke down and screamed horrifically. Angela, on the other hand, pointed at him like a caged animal. “Who’s this person, father?”

Jack let out a blood curdling scream. He couldn’t believe she’d said that to him. He was absolutely mortified but most of all, he was broken.

“Angela! It’s me!” He tried approaching the screen, trying to slip the chains off his wrists, but that only led to them being ripped open.

“Angela, Angela, Angela!” He let out one last saddened scream and dropped back to his knees, slamming his head against the ground. “Angela…!”

Dr. Cato held Angela and patted her head. “Sorry, I’m afraid this one’s a lost cause, my dear.”

Angela nodded. “Okay. If you say so, Father.”

Dr. Cato took one last look at Jack. “Goodbye, Jack. I am truly sorry. Say goodbye to the strange guy, Angela!”

She waved at Jack with her horrid, blank eyes. “Bye, bye.”

Dr. Cato pressed a button, which released the chains from Jack’s wrists. His arms collapsed to the ground and a door opened, revealing the outside world. He wished Jack good luck and the screen turned off.

Jack was still on his knees with his head on the ground, blood pouring out of his palms and head. He didn’t care anymore, he just wanted to die alone.

***

Back at the high school where all three girls attended, Sarah had just arrived, staring at nature’s darkness coating the building. Lightning flashed and gave Sarah the only light she had. Standing in the rain completely drenched, Sarah was determined to investigate the strange occurrence which took place earlier. The burden weighed on her tiny shoulders and couldn’t be left unfolded. She had to figure out why it happened and who was behind it.

Sarah began walking into the vicinity of her school. Walking in darkness, she still felt the presence of the mysterious eyes that stalked them. She didn’t care if she was soaked and her long hair weighed her down. Her determination to find out about the mystery was the priority. Walking up to the school doors, Sarah knew something wasn’t right because when she turned around, the rain along with the dwelling night had vanished. She’s now standing in a vast void of dawning haunting red, her school building floating in this cloudy red void, Sarah gazing at the fiery red sky.

“I… knew it…” said Sarah nervously.

She places her pale hands on the door handles, and gently pushes the doors open. Loudly did these metal doors creaked and unexpectedly slam against the concrete walls, shattering into dust. A cold howling wind gusted towards Sarah, blowing her dry and sweeping away the dust shattered doors into the vast void of red. Sarah swallows, steps inside, and proceeds to walk with caution. Her fists trembling, erratically glancing around, her senses buzzing off, Sarah felt something or someone telling her to leave.

“Whoever’s doing this detests my presence. How wretched.” Sarah narrowed her eyes and took a deep breath.

Sarah kept walking through the school, looking into every classroom that was empty. Outside, the clouds grew angrier, creating sounds of thunder, and powerful enough to shatter all the glass inside the school. Sarah’s in the main hall that’s wide and open, a dome of glass hovering above it shatters to pieces. The glass rained down on Sarah as she stood there, quietly letting the glass break all around her. The glass shatters beautifully, her hair flutters, the flow of red from the outside creeps in, and surrounds her, creating a rope of death around Sarah.

She tapped her foot on the ground, and the rope momentarily seemed to retreat back to where it came from.

“Ah…!” The rope suddenly grappled around Sarah’s throat and started dragging her away from where she stood.

The sound of agonized crying erupted in the school, echoing it’s sorrow from every direction as Sarah’s dragged away to wherever this noose was taking her. Struggling to get this thing off her neck, Sarah grew her eyes wide, and the rope reacted to that, letting go and fading away into a cloud of smoke. She catches her breathing, grabbing her neck as she frantically coughs her tiny lungs out.

“What was that crap?!” Sarah then saw someone hovering out of a classroom and floating away.

She stood back up, caught her breath, and chased after the being creating this supernatural occurrence. They cried, Sarah covered her ears from the terrible ear piercing crying this being’s producing. From her observation, they had black hair, a white and black dress, and chalk skin. The two continued playing cat and mouse throughout the school while she’s running and starting to go out of breath, and from where they were heading to, it appeared to be the auditorium.

In the auditorium the crying girl went, and before the doors closed, she turned around and let out a horrifying wail, pushing Sarah away and making her fall back. The doors slam shut, and the school becomes dead silent. Sarah rubbed her back and got back on her feet, she glanced around and saw the ambience of silence ensuing.

“This is pure… abnormality. Completely different from what Mom’s shown me.”

Sarah took her time walking to the doors that slammed shut by the crying girl in white. The dead silence drove Sarah in a state of pure nerve racking uneasiness, sweat started pouring out from the pores of her skin, her already pale skin grew whiter, and her arms, she couldn’t stop them from shaking. Arriving at the doors, she opened one, letting herself into the auditorium.

“This is where she came in. Where did she go?”

Sarah looked around the giant school theater, the stage’s curtains closed, completely dead quiet, she started walking and that’s the only sound made, her muffled soft stepping. Observing her surroundings, Sarah then found herself in a predicament.

“The door… it’s gone!”

Sarah began panicking, the crying girl’s sorrow returned to haunt Sarah’s ears. Sarah looked straight forward, the red curtains hurtled apart, and there she was, the girl in white crying on her knees with her hands on her face. Sarah ran towards her, the girl sensed Sarah’s approaching, she sprung up, startling Sarah and making her stop in place. The girl’s hair fluttered as she floated in the air, exposing a face as empty as the void outside the floating building.

Sarah’s eyes glinted, she glared at the faceless girl, and the entire building around them started cracking, falling apart by the void turning into a spiral abyss of this faceless girl’s anger. The two stared into each other’s souls with hatred, detesting each other’s presence, but the girl in white especially hated Sarah’s sight the most, letting out a frustrated wail.

Sarah’s eyes grew wide in anger. “Who are you… And why have you—”

The girl in white didn’t have time to hear Sarah’s nonsense, she sprung forward towards her, but as soon as she was inches away from reaching Sarah, she spotted the necklace around Sarah’s neck. The girl in white screams bloody murder, her head spun like an owl, twitched horribly, and her skin evaporates into white smoke. All there was of her was the dress and hair that made her look human, but now she’s a floating clothed cloud of smokey wickedness.

The girl screams again in agony, she flies away to the nearest exit of the room almost coming to meet its end just like the building around them. Sarah quickly chased after the entity, and it got away through the door. The building’s almost disintegrated, Sarah’s almost caught by the vortex creating around her, she quickly caught the handle to the door, opened it with her eyes closed and sprung herself forward into and out the door.

Sarah lands on a cold wet concrete surface, the cold steel rain hitting the entirety of her back, as she lifts her face off the freezing ground, she realizes that she’s back in reality. Looking over her shoulder, she found herself near the back of the building of her school. Her breathing heavy, creating a cloud in front of her everytime she let’s it out, Sarah feels teased and afraid.

Standing back on her feet, the rain continuing to pour, completely drenched, Sarah gazes up at the rain, letting the cold steel hit her face. So this is who I am and the world, in which I truly belong to and know of… She lowered her head, and clenched her skirt. Mom — I’m scared…

***

It’s already been hours since those last words of Angela’s hit Jack’s ears, he sat there in darkness, muttering words to himself, thinking of how much of a lie his life was… He’s a paralyzed manikin. The water dripped from the humid ceiling, a faint cold breeze blew past him from the outside, Jack began to chuckle with such sorrow, he even begged for that mysterious girl in his dreams to help him like she has… but now he wonders if she’s just an illusion as well.

Jack finally stood up, he held his shoulder, noticing that it may be dislocated, but he didn’t care. He quietly muttered words beneath his breath as he walked to the door. Stepping outside, it’s snowing heavily now when it was just raining a couple of hours ago. The winds were as fierce as a tsunami, the air’s extremely cold enough to freeze your organs. Though being the broken guy he is in this instance, Jack smirks, he didn’t care if he started developing frostbite the moment he stepped into the cruel white world.

Jack started to walk towards nothing. His blood immediately froze from the blizzard, his palms got crusty and wounds got frozen shut. He continued walking for a long time through the thick fog of snow, he had no idea where he was heading. But none of that mattered now because he was dead inside, he had nothing left to strive for in life, his life had been turned to shambles by the only motivation to keep going, and that being Angela.

After walking into miles of thick fog, Jack finally starts to see some civilization, but the people he came across were hollow and cruel, they mocked him, threw stuff at him, tormenting him of his selfish decisions and reminding him how much of a menace to society he is. Jack ignored all those painful words of truth, walking past the street with cars almost ramming him, they too cursed him and tried hitting him. All he could think of was how much he deserved this punishment, hearing all these people tormenting him put a smile on his blue hopeless face. As he kept walking, he didn’t realize that he was getting close to his home, but that changed quickly…

The moment he stepped into the entrance, the sky turned black, and began to cry black, almost like ash. The area’s volcanic hot, snow melting away rapidly, he gazed at the disturbing sky that seemed fiery and enraged, Jack brokenly chuckles.

He stepped inside the neighborhood, walking down the middle of the blacked out road and saw the houses were burnt to a crisp. The streets were covered with ash and there were corpses as black as charcoal laying around the once green yards and gray sidewalks. Jack wiped that hopeless smile off his face and panicked, he started power walking to get away from such horrifying sights. The heat intensified the closer he got to his home, the air’s becoming so thin that he couldn’t catch his breath and breathe properly. There’s a massive inferno starting to appear over the horizon as he got close, and when he did… The flames were as tall as the houses themselves. It’s blistering hot, he could feel his skin melting off of his flesh the deeper he walked into the neighborhood.

Finally, Jack reaches his home and… Jack’s entire home’s engulfed with flames as hot as the sun, he couldn’t take it, he laughed maniacally, watching the crackling fires ravage his home and area. He’s finally lost it, at this point he’s only admiring the horrific beauty the flames were producing, laughing, laughing deranged to himself… Laughing loudly, rising the flames higher the louder he laughed until coughing ensued.

Jack coughs repeatedly, and returns to laughing once again, “Ha-Ha… Haha!” He then stops his senseless laughing and returns his broken smile, “I-I give up…”

Jack drops to his knees, his eyes are dead and he slowly falls to the ground, sideways. “I… gi-give… up…” Jack drew his last breath and lay on the hot ground like a helpless, worthless, hopeless fool that he’s become.

The ash started piling up on him, slowly burying him beneath the ground to become one with the ash and ground.

Jack’s eyes still open and colorless, the inferno started to get brighter, rising higher towards the black skies. Then, a shadowy figure appeared behind the fire, the figure’s feminien shadow slowly got closer to the flames, until the flames themselves twirled around, forming into a fiery tornado and being sucked back into the sky… Revealing the woman in red.

She walks straight past the leftover blazing infernos of hell, and slowly makes her way to Jack’s lifeless body.

Her eyes were melancholy and seemed enraged. “Oh Jack… I’m sorry I couldn’t have helped you sooner, but I had to let you see the reflections of your emotions...”

She stopped for a moment, gazing at the black sky as it slowly turned into the colors of her dress. She placed her hands over her heart, “Didn’t I promise to take care of you? No matter what happens Jack… I’ll always try my best to save you.”

She looks forward again and starts walking again, “There are things in this world that people are oblivious about… You may not believe it now, but there are spirits, demons, strange phenomenon's that occur in our world, but there are also things that are beyond that… horrible things, Jack.”

She stood in front of Jack, looking down on him and slowly dropped to her knees to brush the ash off of Jack, “Besides… I know you haven’t given up, she still needs you, Jack…” She removes her hood, revealing her long elegant black hair and her holy eyes as blue as the frozen lakes on Mars.

She finally removes all the ash off of Jack’s face, grabs his head and gently rests it on her lap. She strokes Jack’s hair and starts singing a soft lullaby, returning the color of his eyes. She kisses Jack on the head and continues singing, and closes his eyelids shut as he regains his breathing very faintly.

She notices the wristband on his hand, it brings a gentle smile on her gorgeous face and she continues pampering him. The fires continued to rise and burn, the sky gleamed the colors of her dress of red and black, the winds blew ash over them. Her hair flutters with the hot wind along with her dress. She whispers into Jack’s ear and tells him that she’ll always be by his side, looking after him along with his friends too, she’ll save him, protect him, and love him for however long it’ll take.

The flames finally started to dim, they were growing shorter as she pampered him. The sky finally faded to a haunting orange, the ash turned into red rose petals, and the houses slowly fell apart, collapsing peacefully. The winds now blew a calm yet eerie chill, the atmosphere alone felt quiet and sad. The woman in red kissed Jack on the cheek and set her hand on it, shedding brightly blood red tears as they dropped onto Jack. They stained his soul and sparkled within it, giving color back to his blue skin. His wounds were healed and his heart began to properly beat again.

She pats his head and speaks softly again, “Jack… you promised me that you’ll take care of her, don’t break that promise. So please… don’t give up.”

She softly blinks, When you’re ready… I’ll tell you everything, your dreams, your awful life, but more importantly...

She stared forward at nothingness, her cheeks were stained by her trail of bloody tears that she shed, her pupils started to glow a rose red and the rose petals flew past from behind her. “To… Rid of that dreadful girl… in the white dress.” The entire area was engulfed by a wave of rose petals fading everything into a sea of wine red.