Blood. Clothes, as shattered as scattered, and the camera. Curious and confused at the same time, Judy crouched down and took the camera. She turned it over in her paws and carried the lens to her eye. When she did, the vision took over.
Jack, sitting on the floor, murmured something. His leg had been bandaged and the blood-filled the floor underneath the bandage.
What would have happened?
It was the question that filled her mind. In which, the answer didn't take long to be given. Pieces of wood next to the rabbit, made her eyes look where it had come from. And it didn't take her long to realize that the ceiling above her had a big hole.
"I hope Nick will save Judy!" he vented into the void, sighing deeply.
Nick? Nick had gone after her. Oh, no, no, no, no! That explains the previous vision. He was already with Yae. She had made it so far.
Her paws trembled; her eyes opened in shock. Was she late? After all, the vision was the present. Not the future, not even the past.
A scream caught her attention again. Jack now had the camera in front of him. Flash after flash was fired. Whatever was tormenting him, he couldn't see himself on the naked eye. Not even Judy could see him. The only thing she realized, was the frustration stamped on her friend's expression. She knew Nick had told him how the camera worked, but no matter how many flashes were fired and no matter how many photos came out of the camera, whatever tormented him, that didn't seem to want to disappear; and that hadn't happened the first time. Since just one flash was enough to keep the creature away from the time Nick had saved her. Now, there, Jack was desperate and what was to be expected. The camera fell off her paws. He was lifted by the neck. What grabbed him, had no intention of letting go, until Jack lost all his breath. He had succumbed to the shortness of breath in his lungs until he stayed still.
No!
The tears came in force. Judy removed the camera from her eyes, letting it stay on her slippery paw. The other free paw went towards her mouth, covering it. She had lost Jack. Her childhood friends. And something told him that Alisha had had the same fate. What Natsuhiko said was true. She had no way of saving Nick.
Returning to the dimension where she was, Judy began to move. Her spirit seemed to have left her body. Her empty gaze ignored the blood that accompanied her. The blood of her friend. Her legs moved with effort, as her mind prevented her from advancing into the ritual. But Judy ignored it. Her heart was broken. She would go to the ritual and end everything. She had already had her share of suffering and would die completely when she lost Nick.
"If you lose him," the voice said.
"I will kill him!" the words came out of Judy's lips without thinking.
"You can save him!"
"Tell me how!"
"Love is stronger than darkness. Yae will eventually be liberated and your light will be the answer to the end of the demon that possesses her."
"Is it worth having hope?" Judy asked in a sigh. In the meantime, she had reached a door already open in front of her.
"Nick awaits you in the deepest chamber of the village. I will try to delay the ritual, but I ask you to hurry up."
"Can I trust you, Sae? Natsuhiko betrayed me."
"Follow your heart. Follow your feelings. Your instincts will tell you what to do. You just need to focus on the mammal you love. The obscure camera will be your salvation" and as it appeared it disappeared.
The blood was the path that Judy followed, indicating the way. After passing through the door, she crossed to her left. She took four steps and crossed paths again. The water caressed her feet. The paw met the wall. The flashlight that she was carrying, was turned on. The underground passage was not very long, giving way to a door that was already open. The concrete steps smiled at her feet. Judy came down and found them with... nothing. Cement was the decoration of the whole place. A large cave with two candles was the only light. Not wasting time with the admiration, she continued on her way until she gave to a small tunnel on the other side. Candlelight piled up, next to a circle of the earth, wrapped in a single white ribbon. In the middle, nothing! Suddenly, murmurs and whispers. Violet's eyes searched in various directions. Her heart began to beat faster, for no reason. The distant whispers began to get closer and closer, and it was then that Judy recognized where they were from.
"Death. Blood. Suffering. Flesh. We want everything!"
They were the words whispered in distant hoarseness is unsound. The rabbit's body moved everywhere, trying to see where that noise came from. But she didn't have time to react. A brutal force pushed her. Judy fell sideways to the ground, close to the circle. The camera on her paw went to the other corner of the place.
"He's mine. I need the souls, the blood and the skin."
With an elbow on the floor and a bent arm, it was the support for her to rotate her chest and head, looking at every nook and cranny of the place. But there was nothing there. Then she got up. The pain consumed her and made her fur shiver. Without delay, she ran towards the chamber to be thrown once again against one of the cement pillars. She coughed. A thin red line filled the corner of her left lip.
"Sae will be mine!" The voice said, interspersed with the dying murmurs. "I need...more!"
One more effort and Judy straightened up and hurried to the camera. The force applied this time, was enough to push her against the circle of candles piled up. The beat made her grunt, but the candles comforted the greatest impact. Luckily, she had gotten the camera. Quickly, she took the viewfinder of the camera. The creature was horrendous and terribly scary. Instead of the face, a mouth without tongue and the teeth were a simple black hole like her eyes. The claws on her paws, were absurdly large, such as her nails, which if stabbed, would cross a mammal from one side to the other. Two strings, attached to the non-existent of the long white kimono, passed over her shoulders. Behind her, the same black shadow that Yae carried with her. The only difference was the existence of several faces such as that of the creature that screamed louder and louder. A dry swallow. Her legs trembled. That creature intimidated her, and if she touched it, nothing good would come out of it.
"Save Sae!"
These were the only words after Yae disappeared giving way again to the horrendous creature, lost in her lamentations and following her path to the ritual.
Her knees gave way to the ground. Judy was forced to carry her paws to her chest, asking her lungs to recover the shock. A pain. This pain was agonizing. Her right arm began to throb and burn. Tears flowed down her face. Judy took the other free paw to her shoulder and closed her right fist to, in an insignificant attempt, try to compress the pain. No effect. It looked like several knives were sticking themselves in.
Nick ran to her, kneeling in front of her. He took his paws to her arm and was petrified when he took her sleeve away from her shirt. Large lines of various shades were taking shape along the forearm. What at first was not understood, began to look like a serpent.
"It burns!"
Judy closed her eyes tightly. Her chest filled and emptied violently. Never in her life had she felt such torment. What seemed like an eternity, was just a few minutes. All the lines had filled her forearm, reaching the middle of her neck. The drawing had been completed. The lines had taken shape in a brilliant serpent of shades of blue and red.
"Judy!"
He foreshadowed her name tenderly. The rabbit's wet violet eyes met Nick's emerald greens. Without wasting any more time, Judy threw herself around the fox's neck and cried. She cried over the pain of her arm; the anguish of lost hope; the loss of her friends and the relief that Nick was real and there in front of her. Nick hugged her tightly, not believing he was touching her. He had indeed decided to embrace his destiny, but when he heard the voice of the female he loved most, he ran the tunnel through which he walked to his death and managed to reach her. He managed to hug her and to see her one last time before surrendering to his destiny.
To be continued…
