Gore Warning: Injuries relating to Throat, Chest, and Stabbing

Ivor bolted out of the room, heart beating as the creature shrieked "GET BACK HERE!" and started to chase him.

He ran down the hallway, the doors zooming by him, but didn't last long before something caught his ankle and he fell to the ground. He tried to scramble up, but couldn't because black tendrils had wrapped around his limbs, keeping him trapped on the ground.

He heard footsteps behind him, and he was grabbed his robes, and thrown onto his back. He squeezed his eyes shut, tensing as the tendrils only tightened around his limbs.

"Do you even have the courage to look at me?" the creature said, and he had to force himself not to shake at the voice that sounded so much like Jesse's, and a clawed hand grabbed his face, "Look me in the eyes you bastard."

There was an angry cry, and Ivor's eyes flashed open to see Harper tackling the withering monster off him, Otto, Aiden, and Cassie following behind her.

"Cassie, find a weapon!" Otto shouted, the redhead running off as he and Aiden crouched besides Ivor to try and tear off the black tentacles trapping his limbs.

Harper and the Jesse-like creature struggled, the former holding up pretty well against the Witherstorm-esque beast. Harper tackled the creature to the ground, who snarled and said, "Get off me."

Otto and Harper froze, eyes wide, and her hesitance was enough for the creature to throw her off, and as it stood up, Harper spoke.

"Jesse?" she said, and the monster looked at her.

"Should I know you?" it said with a growl, but didn't give Harper a chance to answer as shadowy tendrils wrapped around her limbs and mouth. It turned it's gaze to Otto and Aiden, and flicking it's hand, grabbed them with tentacles and threw them into another room, slamming the door shut keeping it so with more dark tendrils, "I'm only here for one person, I'd rather not kill the rest of you."

Ivor tried to move, but could only let out a gasp as the tendrils tightened, and he could feel his blood pressure getting cut off.

"Ivor, Ivor, Ivor," the creature said, sneering as it knelt beside him, "Do you have any idea how much I hate you right now?"

"Why?" he found himself asking, "What did I ever do to you?"

"What?" the creature said, with a laugh, "Do you not recognize me, Ivor? Are you used to seeing me so ill that I couldn't even get out of bed? Can you not accept the fact that Jesse stands before you?"

"You're not Jesse," the words slipped out of his mouth before he could stop himself. The monster's eyes widened, then hardened, and then he found her hands around his throat and her claws digging into his flesh.

Ivor felt himself choking as she hissed at him, "No, no I'm not. And you were the one who could've saved me. But you killed me instead!" her claws dug deeper into his skin, and something like an infection started pulsing through his veins, "You could have saved me Ivor. So why didn't you?"

He kept trying to breath, but it grew harder, and he squeezed his eyes shut, trying not to look into the enraged pink eyes of this insane monster. His mind started to feel blurry, and he only just noticed the sound of a door slamming open and footsteps running towards him.

A squelch, an unholy shriek erupted from the monster, and the claws torn from his neck, Ivor's eyes flashed open to see Cassie Rose, a sword in her hands that went straight through the monster's side, which lay on the ground shrieking and contorting, Cassie leaping away from the beast as it clawed at her.

Blood that seemed black and purple as opposed to red spewed from the creatures gut, sputtering out of it's screaming mouth as well. The dark tendrils writhed and squirmed, quickly losing their solidity around Ivor and Harper's limbs, and the door that Otto and Aiden had been trapped behind. The two burst out of their room, but froze and kept their distance from the thrashing monster on the ground.

Finally, the creatures breathing became shallow, and their body went limp. Ivor looked into it's pink and purple eyes, seeing them still filled with hatred. Then, it poofed, leaving behind only it's claw markings on the floor and the blood covered sword.

For a minute, no one spoke, unsure of what to say. Ivor wrapped his arms around himself, feeling oddly cold. Then, he looked to Cassie and in a hoarse voice asked, "Where did you get the sword?"

"It was in a chest- in a room with a shattered mirror, that lead into one with a desk."

"The one the monster came from?" Aiden asked, "Why would there be a sword there? Didn't the Judge want the monsters to kill us, not the other way around?"

"Could be a way of cleaning up their mess for them..." Harper said, but then her eyes widened and her face creased with worry, as she looked at Ivor, and she asked, "Ivor, are you okay? Your neck has got claw markings in it, and it looks purple."

Everybody looked to him, and Ivor leaned against the wall, his head and stomach spinning, and opened his mouth to say that he wasn't sure what was going on with him.

Then tentacles burst out of his chest.