Marianne grabbed her head in agony as the ringing intensified as the three voices begged her. One voice belonging to her long lost sister, Lilianne, another to the shattered visage of her sister's soul; the entity known as Sadness and the final one was one of a thousand echo's, The Maw.
Her malnourished and sickly sister stood in a frail doll dress with little butterflies adorning the brittle dress, Sadness was like any other child if any other child were cracking and missing an arm. The Maw stood 10 feet tall with long pointed legs, broken butterfly wings, skin that looked as if it were sown together from the victims it devoured. All three staring intently has she held all their lives in her hands.
The choice seemed impossible, kill the only family that you have left and live with the guilt and scar or kill herself to prevent The Maw from getting what it wants but leaving her sister all alone, with only herself and her demons for company.
There had to be another way!
Then it hit her, Sadness was Lily's spirit form, just as Thomas, their father had his own physical form and spirit form, but like Lily herself, Sadness was torn, missing an arm that probably manifested as the abomination that stood next to the pair.
The Maw grew into this monster by possessing others and devouring parts of their souls as it killed, but she was still able to help Tori and Nicholas move on even though they were so torn. Even though it started with Lily, this monster was only sustained by being in her for so many years and then Francis unleashed it mistakenly and it fed upon what little life it could find. It was desperate to survive, it was already dying with or without Lily but kept barely alive by her bond with it, that bond being Sadness's missing piece.
If she could somehow separate the piece from The Maw, Lily would be free of it, but how to get it out?
And it seemed someone had a similar idea.
She sensed something else, no someone else. She looked passed the Maw to see a figure, a man in the creatures shadow. She recognized it as Thomas, but which one?
Making eye contact, they exchanged their thoughts in a mere moment and all they needed was a distraction.
Marianne held the gun ready, all three gasped as she put the barrel to her temple, then she pointed up and fired.
The bang echoed off the deafening silence that the shock of the trio.
Thomas acted fast and grabbed hold of the Maw's arm and entered into the twisted beings world.
The Maw's World
"Fuck, thank God. It fucking worked!" Thomas cheered from within the world of the Maw, the entity had developed into a being all its own over the years, using pieces of the souls it devoured in an attempt to make itself whole.
"Now to find this things core. Good thing time flows basically stops here." Thomas said to himself.
He cleared the way through yards of flesh and blood with a Spirit Force Pulse. Feeling the familiar tingle but not as used to it.
"Is this what it always felt like, for you?" Thomas realized he was talking to himself, he'd seen this other half of himself as a separate entity for so long, he was so used to having another voice in his head but when he passed through the breach as a physical body, his Spirit half that was near to becoming the Maw's next meal fused with him in an instant and the two halves of the same coin were finally on the same page as a full whole.
Thomas burned through seemingly endless layers of flesh, which served as this world's only defense since the monster was only that, a monster with stolen bits.
He finally reached what looked like the core, like a withered heart, but all the other masses of heart like mounds were thriving.
"Now, give me back, what you took from my little girl, you sick fuck!" Thomas unleashed a powerful Spirit Force pulse to carve to the center of the husk.
Their he found the entire pale arm of a little girl, a little girl who was helpless when she was molested, the rot that grew from it was the creature that had massacred countless innocents.
Thomas grabbed hold of the rot that held the arm and ripped them off, bit by bit, till the arm was free.
He felt the fear, shame and helplessness from every festering tether that held the arm in place. But most of all he felt her rage, the rage of being alone and defiled, after losing her mother and feeling like she was the only one in the world.
Using his burning love for his daughter, he burned the infection away.
He grabbed the arm, and it grabbed back and clung on for dear life, like child that was left in the dark all alone, finally found by her father, it was time to take her home, to see the sun again.
Physical World
Thomas exited the world of the Maw.
The Monster turned and raised to strike Thomas, even though Lily was in the line of sight it didn't seem to care if it killed it's progenitor.
Thomas dove towards her and pushed her out of the way as Thomas took the strike for his daughter.
Lily was in shock when she was pushed away by an unknown force but the emotions she felt from the contact, she knew instinctively that it was her father… and something more.
She felt a warmness that filled her heart, like a part of herself that was stolen when she was very young, a feeling she never thought she'd feel again, a feeling of hope and security.
Marianne looked to Sadness to see the girls arm had reformed and made her whole. But the Maw was still on the warpath for the one who got away.
NNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOO!
YOU TOOK SOMETHING!
I FEEL EVEN MORE EMPTY!
The Maw was about to strike again but was halted by a blast of light. With one hand grasping the half of her butterfly necklace, now that she knew where the other half was, she drew strength from it, strength she didn't even know was there.
She felt love, a type of love she'd never felt before, it filled every pore with a feeling of safety and security. Giving her an unbelievable drive to defend her family. She pushed harder, surrounding the monster in a shield and caused it to shrink with it still inside.
LEt mE OuT!!! Skinny Skinsack!
Let me WEAR YOUUUUU!!
"You were right." Marianne said with a grin as she forced the ball smaller to begin crushing the Maw.
"It all finally ended…. In you" Marianne clenched her fist tight and the Maw was crushed into a swarm of moths but she kept the shield up to burn every last one of them.
"Be gone! To hell with you! MAW!" With those final words, all remnants of the Maw was finally extinguished for good.
She was motionless for a moment before the fatigue set it, she fell to her knees in exhaustion. She panted for breath as she looked to her sister who already looked to have regained some of her color. She looked back to Thomas to see he had not moved since the Maw struck him.
Lily saw through the now whole Sadness that her father had yet to move and she crawled to him to turn him over.
The slash in his back was deep and he was bleeding profusely.
Marianne limped over to sit next to her father as he struggled to breath.
"No, no, no, no, NO! Why, why, why couldn't you have saved yourself, I've only ever caused death." Lily grasped her father's hand desperately trying to hold onto him but she knew he was slipping away.
Marianne held his other hand tightly, even though she had only just met him, the love she felt for her father was undeniable, she she'd tears, just as she had for Jack.
Thomas looked to Marianne with a warm and loving smile.
"I knew you could do it, you stopped it and saved Lily. You were always the strong one." Thomas lifted his hand to gently cradle the half butterfly necklace around Marianne's neck.
"Just like your mother…" Marianne then realized where that power came from, the necklace she and her sister shared belonged to her mother and their reunion acted as a Spirit Well, drawing the love their mother had for all of them, that empowered her to defeat the Maw.
Thomas lifted his hand to cup Lily's cheek, knowing he didn't have long left.
"You can't let this break you Lily, none of this was your fault. I brought Richard to Niwa, I broke his mind and that's the reason Henry started the fire, none of this was your fault. This was my sin and you shouldn't suffer for it anymore." Thomas pleaded with his eldest daughter.
"Promise me Lily, promise me you won't let this break you, you won't be alone anymore, I'll always be looking out for you, no matter where I go." Thomas pleaded with what strength he had.
Tears finally broke from Lily and Sadness's mask broke, to reveal the face of Lily from when she was a girl.
"I promise, I promise I'll try! I love you, daddy!" Lily cried out.
"And you take good care of your big sister, Little Butterfly. I only wish we'd gotten more time together… Marianne. " Thomas held their hands tight but his grip began to slip.
"I love you, both. I'll say hi to your mother for you two……." Thomas closed his eyes and let out a peaceful last breath as his daughter clung to his hand.
His body then began to fade into specks of light till there was nothing left, but his pocket watch, which Marianne now held in the hand that held her father's hand.
The sisters looked at each other then embraced and fell into sobbing tears.
They said nothing for there was no words to express pain of losing your last living parent.
Lily felt like she did when she lost her mother, while Marianne couldn't remember that, she felt just the same of not worse that she felt when Jack finally passed on.
After a few hours and they had finally cried all they could, the sister thought it was time to leave this nightmare of a landscape.
With her sister clinging to her back; wearing a spare helmet and warmer clothes they found in the bunker, the sisters road off on Marianne's bike.
Marianne and Lilianne gave the Niwa one last look before turning back to the road before them, driving off, hopefully to a new and better life as the Medium sister, the pair of Butterfly wings had finally been reunited after decades.
They only had each other, but that was more then either of them had had for a long time. And they could finally move forward without fear of their demons.