Chapter 146: The Home Scare

Chapter 146: The Home Scare

Emily finds herself within her own mind, tasked with ending her brainwashing.

Emily sits up on the bed, glancing around the bedroom. The room is decorated with posters of fictional action heroes who wield weapons.

“Why am I in my room?” she asks.

She gets off her bed and walks toward the door. Just before opening it, screaming echoes from downstairs.

“Who was that!?” Emily shouts.

She throws the door open and rushes into the hallway, sprinting down it and down the stairs. The screaming grows louder as she reaches the kitchen.

She gasps. A large brown monstrous beast stands over her father, ripping him apart. His scruffy blonde hair is matted with blood, and the facial hair on his chin is soaked red.

“Dad!” Emily screams.

She draws a sword and slashes in one clean motion, severing the beast’s head.

“Dad, you’re hurt—!” Emily shouts until her father interrupts her midsentence.

“Emily, what have you done?” he asks, dread etched on his face.

“Wait, what?”

“You have led these monsters to our town. You should be damned to hell!”

His life fades from his eyes as he dies in front of her.

Emily stands frozen, her face falling into pure despair.

“I didn’t do anything!!” she cries.

She runs through the house in panic and bursts into the living room. Her little brother looks up at her. His fluffy dark gray hair bounces slightly as he smiles.

“Hey, big sis, want to play cards with me?”

The wall beside him suddenly explodes inward. A T-rex crashes through, snatches him up in its jaws, and devours him whole before stomping away.

“Brother!!” Emily screams.

The monster’s exit leaves the room open to the street outside. Emily stares out as an army of monsters marches through the neighborhood.

“What is happening here!!?” she screams.

Footsteps sound behind her. She turns.

Her mother stands there, aiming a loaded submachine gun at her. Blood covers her body, and her straight dark gray hair hangs down to her upper back.

“You did this!” her mother yells. “Where did we go wrong in raising you!?”

“What are you talking about!?”

“You led an army of demons to conquer our town!!!”

Emily trembles.

“Are you satisfied!?” her mother asks. “My son and husband are now dead!!”

Tears stream down Emily’s face. “I didn’t do this!!”

“You did!! You betrayed your friends and allied yourself with the demons!! You’ve already killed my husband and son! I might as well add my daughter to the dead!”

A blade suddenly bursts through her mother’s abdomen.

“Mom!!”

An identical Emily stands behind her, gripping the Shadow Sword.

“You…” Emily mutters, almost speechless.

The evil Emily pulls the sword free. Their mother collapses lifelessly to the floor.

“Why the hell do you look like me!?” Emily demands.

“Because I am you,” the evil Emily says. “You will conquer this town and kill or enslave everyone in it!” She laughs.

Hyperventilating, Emily places her hands on her head, eyes widening, as she screams at the top of her lungs. “Noooooooo!!!!!”

***

Emily jolts awake with a scream.

She sits upright, sobbing. The vivid blue shading around her eyes is gone.

“No… I don’t want this. I don’t want to betray my friends,” she cries.

Her gaze falls to Kurt’s unconscious body and then to his severed arm lying nearby.

She picks up the arm and walks over to him.

“Kurt, I’m sorry.”

She looks down at the arm, then at the exposed socket.

“This is the arm socket in which they inserted the demon heart. Then that means it can be reattached.”

She presses the arm into place.

Demon veins reach outward, latching onto the innards of the arm. They pull it back into his body as it reattaches.

Kurt’s eyes slowly open, and he smiles faintly.

“I knew you would come to it…”

Emily smiles back, but with a hint of exhaustion.

“Yeah. I’m ready to help stop this madness.”

Emily comes back to her senses, leaving only one more missing hero.

Chapter 146 END
To be Continued in Chapter 147: Zeth vs Subject 42