A/N: I think we all know what this update means. Yep, I have officially finished The Thing. Which means we only have a couple of chapters left to go. I will be updating the rest of the chapters on Saturday, so you now guys won't have to worried about updates anymore. Feel sort of relieved that a little weight was lifted off my shoulders now, so I can finally focus on the others stories that I really want to do. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!
Guest: Oh, thank you so much! I hope you'll continue to get impress by the angst!
Alex Ho: If you could see my face right now, I'd be doing a poker face. So, instead, I'll just give you this. 0_0
Ritsu: *Laughs evilly* You should have realized by now I'm sadistic when it comes to suspense! I hope you enjoy the chapter!
Ash wished he never thought he understood pain at all. All that time thinking the pain of being the reason his father abandoned him was a complete mistake because at that point it felt like some sort of relief compared to the pain he was feeling right now. He wanted it to stop. He wanted everything to stop.
But he can't stop it. If he were to stop fighting, then they'll kill his friends. He couldn't let that happen. There was no way he could live with himself if that were to happen. That was why he kept fighting. Some part of him wishes that the pain that came from all the fighting wasn't so intense.
It was like that Psychic attack that held him in place hours before, only this was a hundred times worse. The pressure that's being used to hold him down absolutely devastated his muscles. It was like somebody placed a ten-foot tall block of concrete on him and left it there. It even hurt to twitch his fingers. When he was possessed before, the only pain he remembers about it was an overwhelming headache. Not unbearable body pain!
"P-Please," he manages to choke out when it finally became too much for him. "P-Please don't do this! I-I get that you blame yourself for your sister's death, b-but do you really think she wanted this?!"
He gasps when the pain was suddenly lifted from him. It was so sudden and it felt like the pain was reaching its maximum point it left Ash gasping for air in his lungs. What happened? Why did they stop?
But the idea of finally relaxing after going through agonizing pain manages to overcome his paranoid thoughts. He left himself rest against the bed while closing his eyes as he let his breathing calm down. And hadn't felt this relax since he was staying at the Pokémon Center with his friends before they went out and that blizzard hit.
Everything was alright back then.
"GAH!"
Ash didn't realize he had left a window open until it was too late.
Due to letting his guard down, Ash didn't have time to fully address the rising sensation in his throat. Now Ash will have to pay for his mistake because now he's staring at an arm covered in black goop that's coming out of his mouth
Getting the items they need to defeat Tommy was easy. Actually trying to get to the place where they believed Tommy's dead body resides was actually harder even though Serena basically knew where it was. It all started with them walking down the hallway that Bonnie used to get away from Ash. Things were silent until they heard it.
Gagging noises.
Shooting each other concerned looks, they quickly hid with their backs up against the corner, silently hoping that whoever's there won't see them.
But what they saw made the color drain from their faces.
Out of the darkness came a head floating in midair. That was all; no limbs, not even a body. Just a single head that looked like it was decapitated but the brain was still kept alive. Her bloodshot eyes were wide as the noises she made sounded like she was choking on water. Thankfully, she floated past them with no sign of seeing them in her path.
They all sigh in relief once they didn't hear anything after a while.
"Was that one of the victims?" Serena asked.
"Fleur Blanc, I believe," Clemont informs. "Apparently they found her head decapitated in one of the rooms but they never found the rest of her body after that."
That was enough to make Bonnie shudder. "Can we please just go find Tommy's body and get out of here? I don't want to be inside in this creepy house anymore!"
The two older children couldn't agree with her more on that.
They eventually found themselves back at the torture room without another incident - thank goodness - though they found that piece of the physical being Tommy was using to possessed Ash was still on the ground where Ashe threw it up. Giving it a wary glance, the children turned their attention to the locked door in front of them.
"So, anyone got any ideas on how we're going to break in?" Bonnie asked like she's expecting something random about to happen.
Soon enough, Clemont was already charging towards the door with his lug nut wrench as a barbarian cry escapes his mouth. They girls quickly move out of the way as the lug nut wrench was slammed into the doorknob, completely dislodging it from the door and causing it to open very slightly.
While Serena and the Pokémon had looks of awe, Bonnie did not look impressed. "Well, that certainly won't cause attention to us."
They made their way through the room, actually surprised that there was a charged light bulb hanging over their heads to give them enough light to see their surroundings. The entire room looked like a dug in a cave that was made entirely by man. It even had a few wooden support beams trying to keep the place from collapsing.
In the middle of the room was a white sheet that people would use to cover a dead person. That fact that they see a strange lump underneath it only confirms their suspicions.
Serena was the first person to kneel down in front of the white sheet, her trembling hands reaching out to grip the edges of it so she wasn't actually touching the lump underneath the sheet. Taking a deep breath, Serena pulls the sheet off in a blink of an eye.
The sight before them was enough to make Bonnie yelp. Lying down the ground completely still was the body of Thomas Lewis. Despite being dead for a long time, it looked like his body was already starting to decompose. His skin was deathly gray and appeared to be a little cracked due to the fact all the color was drained from his face. What looks to be dried blood that was previously dripping from his mouth has now been clotted and was now staining his purple lips and decomposing chin. Even his previously white shirt, which was now a dirty yellow color, was stained with dried blood. But what really made Bonnie shriek was the knife implanted in his chest, right where the dried blood was in place.
It was the same knife that Tommy had used to kill himself with.
Serena could feel herself frowning; despite everything he's done to them she couldn't help but feel sympathy for the way his body was treated after death. Nothing could be worse than to leave someone's body like that with a weapon lodged into it.
She was about to remove the knife from his chest when she heard it; footsteps coming their way.
Once the dread began to flood their veins they immediately begin to look for a place to hide. The beams were too thin so the only place left for them was behind the door they came from. It may be cliché and the highest possible chance if the person heard them they would most likely look at that place first but it was the only thing they had.
"Hide!" Clemont whispered and they quickly crowded behind the open door, pressing their backs tight against the wall in order to make themselves less visible to the person that's slowly coming their way while their footsteps kept getting louder than they already were.
Finally, after long agonizing seconds, they saw the person that's been torturing them with their hidden appearance from behind the door.
Or better yet, the ghost that's been torturing them.
When they saw the person walk into the room, it didn't even take them a second to realize that they literally don't have a head on their shoulders. Judging by the torn up, bloody dress that came from the 1940s, this was one of the female victims of the Lewis Manor.
"You..." They held their breath once they heard a feminine and demonic voice talk at the same time but relaxed slightly when they realize that the spirit was talking to the corpse in front of her.
"Do you have any idea of what you've done?" She continues. "My father... My mother... My siblings... They have no idea where I am. I can't even return to them because of you... You killed me, and for what? To be with your sister? Well, imagine what my siblings had to go through when I suddenly disappeared?! I bet your sister deserved what she got!"
Before they could blink, the headless girl suddenly ripped the knife out from Tommy's chest and held it in the air.
"Just like you deserve this you Monster!"
With that, she began to repeatedly stab Tommy's corpse over and over again. It was sort of painful to watch since this was technically being disrespectful to dead, even if the person in question was also dead as well. They were about to wait for the ghost's rampage out and hope that she would leave the room when they saw something appear into the room.
It was that piece of goop that Ash threw up a while ago.
Only it was alive, and moving at incredible speed towards the headless girl.
"W-What...?" She realized what was happening too late and already was that black goop was covering her feet and spreading over body quite fast.
"NO!" She desperately tried to claw the stuff off her, her voice breaking in some form of unexplained fear. In her attempt to get the stuff off of her, she accidently dropped the knife she was previously using to stab Tommy's corpse. "No! No! No! No! NOOO!"
In a blink of an eye, she was covered from head to toe in that black goop, causing her scream to grow louder and more agonizing than before, prompting Clemont to cover his sister's eyes. He never felt more relieved when he did because the screams suddenly turned silent, then suddenly the goop fell from her body.
Only there wasn't body left and a pile bones fell to the ground along with goop.
Serena did her best to not scream while Clemont held in his lunch.
"What's going on?" Bonnie asked, her brother's hands blocking her full view of what had happened to the headless girl.
Clemont swallowed as he slowly removed his hands from Bonnie's eyes. "T-That was Sachiko Kishinuma, the last victim before Tommy stopped his killing spree before we came along. Like Fleur Blanc, she was decapitated but they actually never found her head."
"Let's just burn up Tommy's body and get out of here!" Serena cries as she moves away from her position behind the door. Goodness, she's already panicking. Now she knows how Ash felt when he encountered those ghosts. The sooner they burn up Tommy's corpse then they can get away from this horrible place.
Clemont quickly joins her to bring out the match after Serena's pours the salt over the body. Bonnie stayed a few feet behind with the Pokémon but she was no longer standing behind the door as she watched the older children get to work. But before she could say something, she was immediately grabbed with cool, sharp metal against her skin.
"Serena! Clemont!"
The two older children whipped their heads around when they heard her scream and gasp at the sight right before them.