Kidman kept her hands pressed over her mouth- too scared to say anything, let alone make any sort of noise.
She knew what she was afraid of, but it wasn't what she wished it would be. She wished she could say she was afraid of the Haunted- she wanted to be afraid of them but... the only Haunted anywhere near her had been reduced to bloodied, dismembered pieces scattered around the room. The few remaining bodies still twitched and convulsed in her limited line of sight- their nervous systems not quite understanding that they were dead now.
And it seemed like just twenty minutes ago, this room was going to be their last stand. They could do nothing but watch as the large group of Haunted came storming in through the single doorway. And, as though this situation couldn't get worse with their limited ammo, that high-pitched ringing sang out and almost immediately downed her partner.
It left her as the only one to fight against the oncoming horde.
With no other way in or out, it should've been their bodies that were ripped apart and scattered all over the place.
But it wasn't...
Her back pressed painfully against the wall behind her as though she was trying to convince herself that it could be moved with a little more force. She had backed herself in between two medicine cabinets when the massacre started and had silently waited there until the screaming was over with. And even now, as pinned in as she had made herself, she couldn't convince herself to leave the spot.
She drew in shuddered breaths as she slowly looked over to where he remained standing amongst the carnage. He stood completely still, completely unmoving, almost as though his mind wasn't in this very moment right now. And yet, in one hand, he still held on tightly to the axe- blood and flesh matter messily dripping off of its chipped blade.
And she was reminded of what she was truly afraid of...
Despite the rotted teeth that sank themselves into the back of his neck, Joseph still managed to throw the Haunted off with a quick thrust of his elbow; he struck the creature hard in the soft portion of its ribs, breaking a few as a result. He was quick to follow through with the motion, never minding the flesh that came off between teeth, as he brought his right arm around- bringing the axe along with it.
The blade made contact with the Haunted's forehead and sank inward, easily breaking through its softened skull and severing its decayed, frontal lobe. But he hit with such force that the creature's head snapped downward and an audible crack erupted from its neck as it collapsed.
Kidman flinched as the axe slipped from his fingers and clattered loudly to the ground; the sound was amplified by the heavy silence in the room, making it sound louder than it should've been.
But she noted that he had made no attempt to catch it.
Instead, he curled his bloody fingers into his palm before he moved to readjust the cuff of his glove. It seemed like such an arbitrary thing to do, especially considering what he had just did. But he hardly seemed bothered by his actions.
She found it hard to believe that this was the same man who, hours ago, confessed it was difficult for him to shoot the Haunted. They still resembled humans in a sense and... that kind of psychological game was getting to him. He didn't like to use his gun in the first place and was usually the last one to draw it- to him, there were always other ways to get out of a dangerous situation. But this wasn't another shoot out and these weren't just scared criminals... these were monsters. And even though he knew that now, he would still go out of his way to sneak around them or avoid them all together.
And yet, he didn't even hesitate to break or lop off any limbs that came reaching out towards him.
So this... this was unlike him.
This wasn't him at all.
But he barely seemed phased by any of it.
He didn't even react to the blood that now heavily stained his white sleeves- or really even react to any of the blood or flesh matter that had been splattered over him during the massacre.
Instead, he slowly turned around to face her.
Joseph barely felt the hands that eagerly wrapped themselves around his neck as he dug his fingers into the half-decayed face in front of him.
Or rather, what might've once been a face; the skin had been split down the center and hung loosely to the side to expose the Haunted's skull pushing through stretched muscle strands. Little effort was needed as he pushed his fingers into the loose flesh and finished ripping it off, exposing broken teeth and a half missing teeth. The Haunted shrieked at the quick motion and squeezed his neck tighter; it forced the sharpened barbed wire around its fingers into his skin, and drew out both blood and air from him.
He wheezed briefly, the sudden lack of air finally catching up to him, before he forced his hands upward and jabbed his thumbs into the Haunted's eyes.
Blood ruptured from its black sockets, splattering his face in short, crimson spurts, before he roughly twisted the creature's head enough to snap its neck.
His uniform, which he had always been so strict about in appearance, was torn, disheveled and bloody. His white shirt looked beyond salvageable, and even his black vest showed thick clumps of tissue stuck to it.
The blood that had sprayed out across his face continued to drip carelessly off of his slender jaw, but he hardly seemed to take notice or even mind it. The only thing he seemed bothered by was the blood that trickled out of his nose- as though he recognized that at least that blood was his own. And even then, he only briefly touched it before wiping it off on the back of his glove.
Kidman watched as he reached into his vest pocket and pulled out a small cleaning cloth, which he then used to carefully wipe the blood off of his glasses. And it was odd, almost frightening, at how calm and detached he was as he cleaned the dirty lens before he slowly slipped them back on- tucking the now stained cloth back into his vest.
He looked even stranger now with a blood coated face and clean glasses.
She tried to stifle the brief gasp that edged out of her lips as she caught his eyes; their natural, dark color had almost been completely erased by the white haze that infected them.
He looked like a Haunted himself...
But, instead of having the erratic, aggressive behavior of one... he was simply unmoving, unemotional...
He looked almost dead to her now.
There was no hesitation as he lifted the broken cinder block and held it above the downed Haunted, whose remaining leg was only held on by stubborn strips of muscle and tendon.
There was no reaction as he brought it down and smashed open the softened skull below him.
A mix of blood, skull fragments and decayed brain matter erupted across the dirty floor and over his shoes- which was the only reason that provoked him to step away from the mess.
He slowly walked over to her, never minding the bodies that laid out bloodied and crumpled in his path.
It would've been a lie to say that she wasn't, at the very least, terrified of him. At this point... she didn't even know who he was anymore.
If her back wasn't literally against a wall right now, she might've tried to make a run for it, or at least tried to keep space between them. And yet, she also had a feeling that that might be a bad idea. It might piss him off and he might come after her next... and do to her what he did to all of those Haunted.
Kidman started to drop her hands back to her side, but decided to keep one hand close to her gun just in case. Although she wasn't sure if she would be able to pull the trigger if it came down to that. Or maybe she was terrified because she knew that she would.
She would have to.
Joseph said nothing as he stopped in front of her, essentially pinning her between the two cabinets with no way of escaping- one way in, one way out. And yet, he only briefly seemed to look her over. Up close like this, she could partly see where the skin on the side and back of his neck had been torn open by teeth. She could see the bruising around his neck coming in and she could practically trace the outline of the hands that had left them; she could see every puncture mark from where the barbed wire had been forced into his skin.
There was the open tear in his vest that was damp with blood as well- his blood for once, but he didn't seem the least bit affected by the inevitable pain.
Her fingers squeezed the handle of her gun as she watched his hands move towards her; she wasn't entirely sure why she had holstered it in the first place, but now she was regretting not having it out in front of her.
She felt the warmth of blood against her skin as he moved to cup his hands over her jaw.
His touch was stiff, but... it didn't hold any sort of threat towards her.
Still, she held tight to the fear that he would break her neck the moment she let her guard down.
He partly screamed as the large shard of glass was stabbed and twisted into his ribs, ripping open skin, muscle and thin membrane. And yet, the pain was only brief- a second of distraction.
Joseph managed to wrestle the glass shard out of the attacking Haunted's hands and pulled it out of his own body. Blood spurted out of the open injury, but he hardly noticed it. Instead, he turned the shard around and ran it into the Haunted's open stomach, drawing out a startled shriek.
Keeping his free hand tightly holding onto the creature's shoulder, he stabbed the Haunted again and again, over and over, until the flesh had completely ripped open into one massive wound.
Until the next stab had his hand simply cave into the open cavity of its scrambled stomach.
There was no thought process, no internal thinking, he just grabbed a handful of the messy organs and ripped them out.
Without a single word, he leaned in and pressed his mouth to hers.
Kidman could taste warm blood on his lips and cringed at the bitter, metallic taste- knowing well that it wasn't his.
Her hand never left her gun, but she moved her other one to his chest; her fingers partly tangling in his torn collar. She didn't know what he was still capable of, or what he might even do to her... but maybe she could still get some leverage- just enough to shove him off and make a run for it. Or at least put enough space between them for her to get her gun up.
When he pulled away, she slowly drew her weapon from its holster.
But... her previous plans froze and she stopped when she noticed that the emptiness and the white haze in his eyes were gone.
...
It was him again... the real him.
And it looked as though the realization of his actions had finally caught up to him- there was fear now of what he had just become, of what was now an unavoidable fate for him. His fingers trembled as they curled against her jaw, before he moved one hand to brush the loose bangs from her face, smearing blood against her skin with the subtle touch.
"... It terrifies me to know that... this is what I'm capable of- that this is what I would do for you."