Chapter 41: Andrew DeSalvo

S-M

"Offer the blooood of the Ten Sinnerrrrs …"

"From the Daaaarkness and Vooooiid..."

"..Briiiiinnng fooooorth Glooooom..."

The ghost we were facing right now, Andrew, looked slightly disturbing. His skin was a really bright white with the numbers 18/21 written on his stomach. He only wore a pair of dark ripped jeans and regular shoes, whilst the ghost's frame was rather large unlike Cynthia and Jasper. As I aimed my pistol at him, I couldn't help but grimace at the way he sang. He seemed to dance a little which freaked us out even more.

This one terrified me. And I had a feeling that the next one was going to be more horrifying, considering I ran into him several times before hearing about Eileen's death..

My knuckles had turned white as I managed to pull the trigger, sending bullets whizzing past my friends until they hit Andrew. The latter fell back slightly, stunned from the impact and giving us the opportunity to attack him. Elise and Shadow also began firing bullets non-stop whilst Diego jumped in front of us, baring his fangs and snarling.

"Did you guys get the next sword?!" Tails asked as he got his signature tails working, flying decently close to the ghost and delivering a series of blows which mildly weakened Andrew. I continued pumping bullets into our opponent, not realising that intense pain was beginning to build up in my head. It ... almost reminded me of the first time I saw Cynthia in those visions, right before this adventure started.

Looking back on that, I had a gut feeling that our lives were about to go downhill soon.

"Yeah, we did!" Buck shouted as Flynn threw the sword for me to catch, which I managed to do. "Here!"

Throwing a thumbs-up in their directions to thank them, I pulled out my shotgun and continued firing, since I was nearly out of pistol ammo. Truth be told, I was pleasantly surprised when Shadow gave me some extra bullets so I offered a small grin to show my appreciation. Meanwhile, Sonic curled himself up into a ball and performed three spin-dashes on Andrew in an attempt to weaken him. The good news was that it worked, but the bad news...

A nasty trick was hidden up his sleeve, or arm I should say.

Just seconds after pulling himself together, the ghost pulled off something that we literally didn't see coming. A massive surge of pain flooded through my body as I was sent flying to the steel floor, followed by Sonic and Tails. Apparently, Andrew could curl up into a ball and roll into us at an extremely fast pace! Truth be told, I was expecting him to be like Cynthia and Jasper. But, no. He had to go and perform that horrible trick of his.

It is on, mate. You asked for it.

Struggling to prevent an outburst from occuring, I decided to take a risk and whack our opponent hard with my firearm, just as I had done before. I knew that my headache would gradually become worse, but the blows were weakening him too. Manny and Peaches joined me and whacked Andrew with their trunks, whilst Sonic performed two homing attacks on him. Suddenly, the ghost got up really close to me and started to furiously rake his fingers over my right shoulder and chest, forcing a pained scream out of me.

"Get off HER!"

Just seconds before my vision began to darken, Andrew's grip loosened as the blue blur jumped onto his back in an attempt to pull him away. I fell to the floor with a hard thud and instantly cupped my left hand to my shoulder to stem the bleeding. Elise noticed this and quickly knelt beside me, grabbing my hand and pulling me back up.

"Keep fighting, Megan!" She said reassuringly as she wrapped an arm round my tiny frame, keeping me close as she continued pumping bullets from her revolver. "When this is done, we're getting you cleaned up!"

My chest was even worse than my shoulder. Believe me, I still wanted to help fight Andrew. But due to state I was now in, I realised that I couldn't do a lot. And that definitely sent my spirits falling down. Upon raising my pistol (which I managed to reload before the incident), I saw that my hand was shaking as I squeezed the trigger twice. Shadow was looking at me with concern overwhelming him and took the sword we were going to pin our attacker with. "Kid, I'll finish the job for you. Just keep going, alright?!"

"G-Got it..." I weakly repiled, offering the smallest of smiles to give my thanks.

"Seeeeparate from the flesh too... She who is the Mother Rebooooorn... And he who is the Receeeeiiiveerr of Wisdooom..."

The minutes that followed were a complete blur. Looking back on this, I couldn't remember constantly firing my gun and engaging Andrew physically whenever Sonic or any of my other friends got injuried. I couldn't remember Elise holding me tightly against her, making sure that I was still going strong. I even couldn't remember Sonic and Manny nearly ending up in the same state I was in.

I felt terrible about it ... because there wasn't anything I could do to help those I loved.

M-S

Being injured stinks, I'll tell you that.

Right now, I was worried about Tails and Megan. My little bro wasn't heavily wounded thankfully, but our young friend ... I've never seen her in such a terrible state before until now. She did have a small moment back when she told me about her mother, but... I really wanted to do something to make her feel better and force the pain to leave.

My injury wasn't as heavy as Megan's, but it was getting close to that stage.

Although, a small glimmer of hope began to flood through me as I realised that Andrew was close to going down for good. We all stuck together as a group and continued defending each other, right until the ghost's energy completely ran out. With a shrill scream, he fell to the ground at a slow pace allowing Shads to pin him with our sword, which he did.

Thick silence came afterwards. Noticing that I was injured, Tails instantly ran up to me and took my arm, wrapping it around his shoulder and letting me lean against him. "Oh, thanks Tails.." I said to my little bro, sending a slightly weak grin in his direction. He grinned back to say: "Always happy to help." as he glanced at Megan with a concerned look crossing his features.

"Guys, c'mon!" Peaches shouted in a worried manner. "Let's get out of here and find the next world!"

I kept my eyes on Megan as we walked, feeling grateful that Elise was there to look after her. But my happiness turned to shock as the young girl collasped to the ground with a heavy thud and a pained gasp. "NononoNO!" Our deceased friend yelled, kneeling down besides her. "Chaos.." I muttered worriedly as I clutched my wound, also dropping to my knees.

"Megan, stay with us! We've made it this far! Don't you dare leave us!" Shira cried, looking at Diego who was just as shocked.

Tails was shaking the young girl like mad, begging her to be okay. Squeezing my eyes shut for a second, I wrapped my arm around his shoulders, whilst placing a hand on Elise's in an attempt to calm them both down. Megan was going to have to rest for a while, so we were going to do all we could to look after her. Kiddo, I know you're strong. Keep fighting the best you can, and come back to us!

We all believe in you!