The display case shattered, and Annie picked the shards aside, pulling the pages free and holding them close to the light so she could see better. Ash looked at them as well, not knowing what they said, but not wanting to feel useless either. Behind them, Jake peered desperately out the window still, regardless of the fact that he'd just been shouting her name from the porch for almost 10 minutes, until they'd pulled him back inside and bolted the door again.
"Where the hell is she?" He demanded, looking back at them.
Ash turned to him sternly. "If she went out in those woods, you can forget about her." He said, then turned back to Annie, holding one of the un-needed pages she was sifting through. Suddenly though, a sharp chill ran up his spine and he shook his head.
"What is it?" Annie asked, noticing his reaction.
"Just felt like somebody... Walked over my grave..." He said, then cleared his throat, trying to shake it off. He looked down at the page. "What's this supposed to be?" He asked, indicating the picture that took up most of the macabre flesh paper.
The picture depicted a man standing between two shattered archways, hefting a spiked weapon over his head victoriously, a headless monster laying at his feet, and another weapon with fire coming from it hung at his side. Behind the man, numerous knights stood, their fists in the air, as though cheering.
"In 1300 AD, they called this man 'the hero from the sky'. He was prophesized to be the one who destroyed the Evil Dead." Annie explained.
"Didn't do a very good job..." Ash muttered, then looked at the page Annie had stopped on. "Find it?"
She nodded. "I think I found SOMETHING at least. There's two passages here that concern the dispelling of the Evil Dead..." She began, indicating a few lines of symbols. "Recitation of the first passage will force this Evil spirit to manifest itself in the flesh, making it a physical creature."
Ash frowned. "Why the hell would we wanna do that?"
Annie pointed at the bottom portion of the page. "Because recitation of the second passage opens a rift, in time and space, forcing the physical manifestation back to it's source, where it will be destroyed."
Ash nodded. "Well alright, can you read it all?"
"Yes, I just have to-"
She was cut off by the loud 'clack!' of a shotgun breach being closed, and they both turned around to find Jake holding the gun, leveling it at both of them.
"Uh huh... That's right, I'M runnin' the show now." He said, a furious scowl on his face. "We're gonna go out in them woods and look for Bobby-Joe, NOW!"
Ash glared at him and stepped forward. "No, you idiot, you'll kill us all!" Jake hesitated, and Ash motioned to Annie. "Listen to me... Your girl is dead by now, and with these pages, at least we have a chance." Ash said, trying to keep his tone even and calm.
Jake's face twisted around a moment, and he looked from the window to the pages a few times. Then his scowl returned and he stalked over to Annie, shoving Ash aside, keeping the gun on him as he went. "Buncha mumbo-jumbo bullshit!" He said, snatching the pages from her in a tight fist. "These pages don't mean SQUAT!"
Ash and Annie watched helplessly as he backed up over to the cellar door, keeping the gun on them with one hand as he bent down, opened the door a crack to prop it open with his foot, then shoved the pages down the steps, where they scattered. He quickly moved away from the door again, letting it shut and nodded.
"Besides... Now you aint got no choice." Jake said with a growl. "Now MOVE!"
The clearing outside the cabin seemed smaller, as though the treeline had moved in on them since the last time Annie had been outside. She and Ash moved out onto the grass, their hands in the air as Jake shoved them on. Ash hesitated, she could tell even HE was scared to go out into the trees, and she didn't blame him one bit.
"I said move!" Jake shouted, then clubbed Ash in the back with the butt of the shotgun.
"You stupid, bastard!" Annie said in a sharp, but hushed tone, then crouched down, helping Ash to his feet. Ash growled angrily and turned to attack Jake, who held the gun to Ash's chin.
"I'll blow your fuckin' head off." Jake warned him.
Annie tugged at Ash's shirt, urging him to keep going so she wouldn't be the only sane person left alive with Jake... After another beat passed, Ash turned and continued forward, his hands held up. Annie shot him a thankful look, which he nodded to as they approached the trees. Jake urged them on until they couldn't walk anymore without going fully into the treeline, which even Jake didn't want to do.
"So... No trail, where to now?" Ash asked, sarcastically.
Jake paused, a look of panic on his face, as though his simple mind hadn't thought even THIS far ahead in his plan, which indeed he hadn't. Annie almost felt sorry for him by now, for he was just reacting out of fear for his wife... "B- Bobby Joe!" He shouted loudly. Both Ash and Annie looked around in fear, knowing his cries would bring anything nasty right to them. "Bobby-Joe!" He shouted again, louder this time.
...
They'd left the cabin. The thing in the woods had been waiting all this time, and now it's chance had arrived. It spurred into motion, speeding through the trees towards the voice that cried out, and could smell the fear building among the three survivors.
...
"Bobby-Joe!" Jake screamed again, shoving past the other two and peering into the trees.
"Stop! You'll get us all killed!" Ash shouted at Jake.
"Shut your mouth!" Jake shouted back, clubbing Ash in the stomach with the shotgun, then swinging it upward into Ash's jaw, knocking him off his feet, and out cold.
"Leave us alone!" Annie shouted, slapping him across the face.
"Get outta here, then!" He snapped, shoving her down with his hand. "BOBBY-JOE!" He screamed again. "Where are you, girl..." He mumbled, as the realization dawned on him that she was almost certainly dead, and no amount of screaming would bring her back. He let the gun fall from his grip and fell to his knees, crying.
Annie sat up and took hold of the gun, pulling it away from Jake, but he didn't even try to stop her. "I'm... I'm sorry." Jake mumbled. "I just... She was my whole world."
Annie's anger with him eased, and she looked around desperately. Ash was unconscious, and she got the feeling that something was approaching... Jake was her only hope right now. "Come on, lets just go back inside, okay? Help me carry Ash."
"She was everything to me... I mean, I aint much to look at, and she was so gorgeous... She loved me anyways though." He said, not hearing Annie's urges. Jake pounded his fist on the ground and stood up. "Fuckin' monsters!" He shouted at the forest. "Gimme one shot and I'll kill ya with my bare hands!"
Suddenly, Ash shot up from the ground into a standing position, roaring monstrously. His face looked sunken-in, and his eyes were blank white like the others had been... He was possessed. Annie screamed and recoiled from him, clutching the gun desperately. Jake spun around and attacked Ash, as though he was the Evil Dead itself, which, in a way he was now. He pummeled him with punches, which knocked him back with each swing. "Take that you bastards!" Jake shouted in defiance.
Evil Ash just laughed, with multiple, deep-throated voices. "Our turn..." It chuckled, then grabbed hold of Jake's shirt, and hefted the big man up over his head with his one good hand. Ash cackled evilly, and hurled Jake with all his might, sending him head-first into a tree.
Annie had seen enough by now, she pulled the trigger, but the gun clicked uselessly, and she breached it, finding both barrels empty. "Oh God..." She said, then looked up to see Evil Ash spin around to her.
"Annie..." It growled hungrily.
She gasped, and sprinted back toward the cabin, still clutching the gun as she ran. She reached the door and slammed it shut just a moment before the stumbling Evil Ash reached the porch. She held the door shut as he pounded violently against it, then bolted the lock.
"ANNIE!" Evil Ash shouted, then stopped pounding and she heard his footsteps pound off the porch.
Annie searched desperately, but couldn't find any sign of the shotgun shells, and realized that Ash probably still had them in his shirt pocket, so she grabbed the Candaarian Dagger instead. She shut off all the lights in the main room, staying still to listen for any footsteps. She heard crunching leaves near the back of the cabin, and made her way down the dark main hall, trying to keep her footsteps as quiet as possible, but the creaky floorboards made it difficult. She reached the back door, and saw the door handle jiggling, trying to keep quiet. She reached for the lock instinctively, but stopped, realizing this could be her chance to get the element of surprise, and kill it.
She put her back to the wall to the left of the door, hefting the knife up, ready to strike when the door opened. The knob turned all the way, and the door slowly creaked open, the sound piercing the otherwise silent corridor, and she saw the figure step in. She lunged forward, and it spun around just as she thrust the knife forward into his gut.
The figure froze, and clutched the knife in surprise, and Annie hit the light switch, revealing Jake standing there before her, the Dagger sticking out of his stomach. He chortled in pain, and fell to his knees, then onto his side, still holding the handle of the knife.
"N-No..." She said, looking down at the blood on her hands. "I... I didn't mean..."
She backed away from the groaning, wounded man, her back hitting the corner of the room. She didn't know what to do, and would have stayed frozen if Evil Ash's hand hadn't plunged through the glass of the window and grabbed hold of her hair through the space between the boards Ash had patched it with earlier. Ash laughed raucously and tried to yank her outside with him, but she screamed and delivered a hard punch to his arm, slamming it against the wooden board.
His grip was broken, and she immediately ran to the back door, kicking it shut.
Except it didn't shut.
A cry of pain told her that she'd just kicked the door into Jake's back, and she looked down to find him blocking the doorway. She cried out in horror and reached down, yanking him clear just as she heard Evil Ash's footsteps on the back porch. She once again kicked the door shut, and latched it this time, unprepared for a fight now.
She grabbed Jake by the arms and started trying to pull him back to the main room, where the axe was still leaning against the desk. Jake cried out in agony.
"Goddamn you, woman!" He screamed. "Do I look like a fuckin' monster!"
"I'm sorry!" She shouted, struggling to heft his weight down the hall. Her blood-slicked hands lost their grip halfway there though, and she slipped, falling onto her rear and dropping Jake roughly to the floor. He screamed loudly again, coughing raggedly as he did.
Annie panicked, she knew Evil Ash would be on them again in a moment, and Jake was giving away their position in the house. "Shut up! SHUT UP!" She shouted at him, then continued to pull him down the hall.
After a few excruciatingly loud, and painful minutes, they finally reached the main room of the cabin, and Annie managed to put Jake up against the front wall, in a position that didn't cause him agony. "Get... Get the axe..." Jake said weakly. "Kill him when he comes back..."
Annie's eyes stung with tears, this was the only person left alive besides her, and she'd probably just killed him by the back door... She grabbed the axe and hefted it up, trying to anticipate where Evil Ash would be coming next.
"Check the windows he's probably-"
The cellar door suddenly burst open, and Henrietta screamed in delight, reaching out. She grabbed Jake by the shoulders, and he cried out in terror, trying to hold onto the window sill, but Henrietta was strong, and being stabbed hadn't helped him out much... She grabbed him on the sides of the head and yanked him head-first under the cellar door, giggling and morphing her head into that of the demonic one that had attacked them earlier.
"NO!" Annie screamed and rushed toward Jake to help him. Jake cried for help, pleaded for her to save him, but the Demonic old woman in the basement was too strong, and his whole upper-body was soon vanished below the door. Annie wouldn't let go though, and screamed as a torrent of blood shot from below the cellar door all over her. Somewhere in her mind she knew that Jake had stopped screaming, and couldn't imagine what would be left of him if she DID manage to pull him free, so finally, she let go, and he was yanked down into the cellar, a trail of blood and chunks of flesh left behind on the floor behind him.
"Oh God no!" She said, backing away from the cellar in horror. There was nobody else left now... The breeze from the open front door was cold against the warm blood covering her now and...
The front door was open.
She spun around to get the axe, but Evil Ash was standing right there, and grabbed hold of Annie's shoulders. She screamed and fought hard, scratching and punching him with all her might, but Evil Ash simply picked her up, whipping her through the air into the wall.
Annie's body hit the floor hard, and Ash cackled evilly, eyeing her fallen form. The bare legs, the blood-soaked shirt... "Oh yeah..." He growled in anticipation, and moved toward her.
He lunged at Annie, who started swatting and screaming, trying desperately to fight him off. Evil Ash was too strong though, and giggled in delight as his hand ripped at her shorts, trying to shred them off her.
"No, no no!" She begged. "Please don't!"
Annie kicked as hard as she could, knocking him back a bit, but he was on her again in an instant, pressing his right forearm into her throat, and tugging her now undone shorts down. She screamed a shrill, desperate cry, reaching for anything to defend her self with. She whipped books, papers, pencils, anything she could at him. Finally, a small, silver chain was in her grip, and she swung it as hard as she could. It struck Ash in the face, cutting him across the lips diagonally.
He grunted angrily and she swung again, but he grabbed her attacking arm with his left hand, striking her across the face with his wrist-stump. Her eyelids fluttered and she passed out.
He looked to her hand, finding a necklace in her clutches, and picked it up curiously. Something inside him stirred at the sight of it, and a realization came over him. 'Linda...' Something inside said.
"No..." Ash said, clutching the necklace tighter now. Not another one. He would NOT kill someone else that he cared for. "NOT AGAIN!" His real voice screamed. Evil Ash fell to his knees, and his face contorted painfully, his eyes regaining their pigment. "AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" He screamed in fury, then fell forward, suddenly in control of his body once again.
Ash rose back up to a kneeling position, cold sweat beading from his brow, and he tried to catch his breath, looking at the necklace, then down at Annie, and he realized how foolish he'd been. Linda had been his first love, but Linda was gone now... and he cared very much about Annie for some reason... Maybe the man he'd become was uncontrollably attracted to the strong, capable woman she'd become, but whatever the reason, Ash felt like he HAD to keep Annie alive.
'CRASH!'
The head of the axe collided with the floor-boards just to Ash's left, and he jumped away from it in fear. He looked behind him to find Annie there, conscious, and wielding the weapon like a warrior woman.
Ash pressed his back up against the wall next to the couch, holding out his hand and stump to Annie. "No! No wait, wait!" He shouted, but she didn't stop, she screamed in fury and swung the axe horizontally at him. He ducked just in time, and the head smashed into the wall where HIS head had been a moment before.
Ash lunged forward, wrapping his right arm around her body and grabbing her axe-holding wrist with his good hand. "I'm alright now, I'm alright!" He shouted. "That thing is gone now!"
He released her, and she fell into a sitting position. He let her keep hold of the axe, and backed away, his heart feeling like it was going to pop out of his chest from his near-death experience... (a feeling he was creepily getting used to now).
He backed away, leaning against the wall once more to catch his breath, but suddenly the axe slammed into the wall next to him once more. Annie thought the Evil Dead was using Ash to screw with her.
"Damn it, I said I was alright!" He shouted angrily. He knocked her hand off the axe handle, leaving it sticking out of the wall, then grabbed her face with his good hand, forcing her to look into his eyes. "Are you listenin' to me? Do you hear what I'm saying!" He demanded. "I'm ALRIGHT!" Ash shouted. He then realized that he must look insane right now, so he released her again, still locking eyes with her and pointing at his chest. "I'm alright..." He repeated, calmer this time.
Annie stared at him, tears in her eyes, and she buttoned her shorts once more. Ash remembered what he'd almost done, and didn't blame her for being so quick to hack him up.
She finished fixing her clothes and glared at him. "Okay maybe you are... But for how long?" She demanded.
If Ash had been on the fence before, he now was sure that he liked this girl... She didn't play into the bullshit, and in some way, she'd seen through the Evil Dead's games faster than he had the night before. Was she right? Was he just temporarily released? This wasn't the first time he'd been possessed, then let go... But was he even really free right now, or had the others all thought they were okay when they'd looked like themselves again? Ash couldn't know for sure.
"Listen," Annie said, snapping him back to attention and placing a comforting hand on his cheek. "We need those pages if we're gonna get out of this alive."
Ash looked at her a moment. "Yeah... You're right." He said, eyeing the cellar door. "So let's get ourselves ready, head down into that cellar... and carve ourselves a witch."
Down below, Henrietta heard them as she picked the last of the meat from Jake's bones... and she cackled in amusement. Another pair of fresh souls to eat. "How delightful." She said, then burst out another guffaw of laughter.