One sick bastard

Mia blinked in confusion as Maya continued to drag her through the woods. She wanted to ask why Maya was running so frantically and not taking the car, but she couldn't. Yet Maya quickly sensed her thoughts and told her the reason.

"See, Oswald's here and out to get us. I realized it the moment Cameron was revealed to be a ghost. That means Oswald was Angus all along, assuming Angus isn't a real spirit. As for the car, it was probably rigged to blow up when we started it up. Yeah, we saw it in motion for a second, but Oswald could easily rig it on the spot, especially from where he was. That's why I took the keys, so he couldn't unrig it and come after us in the car."

Mia still couldn't quite process what Maya was saying, so Maya briefly stopped and pulled a gun out of he breasts. "Mia, this thing has one bullet left, so we only get one shot if push comes to shove."

Mia blinked in confusion once more as Maya sighed and began dragging her again. "What I'm trying to say, is that Oswald is actually-"

"RIGHT BEHIND YOU!"

Mia turned in terror to notice Sick-O with a deranged look plastered on his face and a scythe in hand. Maya quickly threw Mia to the ground, but that caused her to take the hit, sending her left arm flying and leaving a nasty gash upon her heart.

Mia coughed up a torrent of blood as Sick-O grabbed her by the tongue and pulled out a pocket knife. "And with that, your voice is gone!" Sick-O shouted as he sliced off Maya's tongue.

Mia stared in horror as Sick-O then got on top of Maya and began viciously stabbing her face. "NO ONE'S GONNA RECOGNIZE YOU AFTER YOU'RE STABBED FULL OF HOLES!"

Oswald "Sick-O" Cobblestone was the son of a wealthy politician father and musician mother. In his youth, he displayed no talent in either politics or music, losing every student council election and winning the award for worst musical score, respectively. One day, he heard a rumor of a girl that couldn't speak, but could write the most amazing songs. Jealousy consumed him, but also inspired him in the most twisted way on how to eliminate the girls.

First, he'd change his looks and name to pose as a bully that would target Mia and harass her to no end. Then, when the girls graduated high school, he'd approach them as a music producer and sign them on as a group. Thanks to his family, getting the producer role was a cinch. Now all that was left was to find a scapegoat.

Due to sharing the same first name, Oswald Dennis Osbourne was the perfect target. Oswald managed to kill him, and thanks to Osbourne's loner status, was easily able to fake him being alive through the use of 2013's most revolutionary AI. Since Ai wasn't widespread at the time, none were the wiser that the video messages Oswald Dennis Osbourne put out were actually faked. The tech wasn't perfect though, which often led to Oswald himself impersonating Osbourne via the use of FX makeup while simply using the AI to impersonate Osbourne's voice.

From here, Oswald would slowly bide his time, sprinkling in assassination attempts on the sisters as he waited until Halloween. Then, he'd hire some thugs to pose as ghost hunters, and lure the girls to a haunted farm where they'd be killed. He never expected to encounter people like Shana and Kale though, but luckily for him, Shana was amused by the plan and went along with it.

Oswald dawned the mask of Argus and waited, until the opportunity arose. First he killed Big Guy, then fought with apparitions of police officers of the past in order to goad the sisters to stay put. The plan went a bit off rails when the sisters found out about Shana and managed to get hold of the king of Assïac, but once again, Oswald got lucky. Even if he hadn't cut out Mia's tongue, the king of Assïac could only be used once a day.

What did change his plans was Maya seeing through him. Indeed, just like she theorized, Oswald did have a mechanism on hand that would cause his car to explode upon ignition. However, since Maya also took the keys when she ran, Oswald was unable to make use of his car, even if he deactivated the bomb. Thus, he had no choice but to pursue the girls on foot, which proved to be fruitful.

"LOOK MIA! MAYA'S DYING! SHE'S GONNA DIE, AND IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT YOU SILENT BITCH!"

Suddenly, Maya reached up and grabbed Oswald by his hair. Oswald attempted to just slice off her arm, but before he could, a gunshot rang out.

"LEAVE MAYA ALONE! ...!?"

Oswald went pale with horror, both due to the blood gushing out of his neck, but also the fact that Mia had spoken. "Impossible," he thought as he fell to the ground with a thud, dead.

Mia herself didn't know how she could suddenly speak, but none of that mattered. She needed to save Maya.