It was only after hearing Raven’s words that it dawned on Freddy that he had turned into one of those monsters as well. He was an Ink Crawler.

Raven laughed maniacally, taunting Freddy, telling him that he was forever trapped in this body, fated to feel the pain of every attack, yet never die.

"You will live until the day I live," Raven said. "Even if you’re hurt, I’ll heal you. All until the day you watch me kill your friend. And then... haha, I’ll just continue using you."

Freddy was mad. If he could speak, he would have shouted curses at her. If he could attack, he would’ve crushed her to the ground. However, unfortunately for him, he could do nothing against her.

"Now, follow me," Raven said. "We need to leave quickly."

She turned around and walked away, and even if he didn’t want to, Freddy had to follow her, with the phantom pain of his body still ever-present in his mind, despite him wanting to stay away.

He crawled away in his new body, having become something he had vowed to kill so long ago himself.

* * * *

Neither Sheila nor Stanley could believe that this was how Crawlers were made. Stanley couldn’t believe that Freddy had turned into a Crawler himself.

Stanley was in tears as he watched what happened to his friend. He saw him crawling away and that was as bad as watching his mother and brother get killed.

Freddy had saved him, he had saved the both of them and yet... this was how he was treated by the girl.

"Stanley, we need to leave before she comes back," Sheila said and started dragging him away. She had only used her powers for an hour, so they needed to get out of her quickly.

Stanley ran with Sheila in his arms. With both hands occupied, he couldn’t wipe away his tears at all, but that wasn’t necessary.

His tears slowly dried as he stopped crying. Instead, a look of anger replaced it as the burning intent to kill the girl resurfaced in him again.

He knew he was weak, he knew he would most likely die. However, she had killed his brother, and now she had done the same to Freddy.

He gritted his teeth in anger.

"Just you wait," he said in a low voice. "I’ll kill you."

* * * * *

Raven returned to the mansion that was mostly destroyed. She had made the Crawlers back away and killed the remaining humans herself. With no one posing any threat to her, the remaining kills were relatively simple.

"Go in every direction. Search if anyone is still alive and kill them," she ordered. Even Freddy was forced to move because of her words.

Sheila then walked to where the door to the basement would be and after a few dozen steps in the hallway, she found the door that hid the tech-filled room inside.

However, she was surprised to realize that it was already over.

"Wren?" she called out as she walked inside. "I did it, Wren. Your plan—" 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Her eyes went wide as she saw the corpse of the mayor on the ground. "WREN!" she shouted and went up to him, but she soon calmed herself, telling herself that her brother must have switched bodies.

However, when she turned in that direction, the person her brother was supposed to switch to was also dead. In fact, there were three dead corpses in the room.

Raven immediately ran in and checked through all of them.

There was Bradley’s corpse, whose chest she had turned to shred from her blades. Then, there was the old man Sam’s body, whose body was filled with bullets.

Then, there was Yasu’s body. The one that had a broken wrist and a stab through the chest.

Not a single of them were alive.

"No, no, no, no, no," Raven panicked. "B-b-b-brother! No."

Her words stuttered as they came out. She couldn’t believe that her brother, whichever one of the corpses he was, was most likely dead.

She quickly walked outside and looked at the other 2 bodies.

Gallan was unconscious, and Illan was quite hurt.

"You two," she shouted. "Is either of you Wren?"

She knocked the two of them at once, waking them up. "I’m asking you, is either of you Wren?" she asked.

The two were surprised at her appearance, especially as her eyes were brimming to the top with tears. They quickly shook their head.

The tears finally fell. "What... what happened here?" she asked.

"Ig Wakh Ithangly!" Gallan quickly answered and was surprised by his own words. His jaw had been broken by the punch that had knocked him out.

Raven frowned. "What?" she asked.

Gallan quickly thought of something and pointed to Bradley.

"What about him?" Raven asked.

"Bahradar," he said.

Raven frowned for a bit. "Are you saying brother?" she asked.

Gallan quickly nodded.

Raven thought for a moment. He knew his brother, didn’t she? The young man was in a coma.

As she did, her eyes widened as she finally understood why he looked so familiar. "He... he was the one that killed my brother/" she couldn’t help but ask.

Gallan quickly nodded. That was in fact the case.

Raven quickly fell to her knees. "It was him. He killed my brother," she said, her eyes tearing up as she said so. She remembered Stanley, how he was so vulnerable at that time.

At the time, when she should have killed him like she had wanted to. And now.... It was too late. He had killed her brother.

Raven sat there, crying as the body her brother had died wasn’t even his own body.

However, the tears stopped flowing a while later as anger filled her completely.

"Those bastards not only stole from me, but they also killed my brother. How dare they?!"

The two men slowly stepped back as they heard her speak.

"Just... just you wait," she said with a burning fire for revenge. "I will kill you."

[End of Book 1: The Last Hope]