The work-shed door burst open, and two flashlight beams fell across the blood-soaked work benches that Ash had done his best to clean off earlier. Ash was beyond caring about such things now though, and simply dragged his hand across the bench, shoving aside the drying crusty remains of Linda, shoving old screws, wrenches and hammers aside to clear a space to work with. Annie hit the light, so they set aside their flashlights, and a rat scurried away from the humans invading his meal time.
Ash heaved the chainsaw up onto the bench, and Annie passed him the screw-gun. An hour passed as Ash and Annie worked together opening the saw up, and Ash used his knowledge of motors to re-rig the trigger mechanism, attaching a piece of metal, and cable to it. This he fed through the body of the saw and connected it to the rip-chord, effectively making the tool one-handed. After this was completed, Ash found an aluminum pipe-clamp, and screwed the clamp into the back of the chainsaw itself. He then stuck his wrist in, and screwed it tightly to his forearm.
Annie meanwhile had been rigging up a series of leather straps to her father's old shotgun scabbard that they'd brought from the cabin. When she finished, Annie helped Ash don the harness, and attached a V-hook to the front, near Ash's right shoulder, which he hooked the pull-chord handle of the chainsaw into.
Finally, the two looked at one-another, and Annie nodded to him. "Go for it." She said, hopeful that their plan would work.
Ash hooked the pull-chord handle into the V-hook once again, and yanked downward with all his might. The saw sputtered loudly, then did nothing. Ash grimaced, but re-hooked it and yanked down once more, with the choke all the way up. The mechanism inside did its duty this time, and the saw roared to life, the blade jerking as the chain spun.
Ash raised it and let it idle a moment to make sure it wouldn't die, then extended his arm, making the engine roar and the chain spin once again. He smirked and nodded, satisfied.
Annie meanwhile had gotten the steel saw and finished sawing off 6 inches from the tip of the double barrel shotgun, handing it to Ash. He held the gun aloft, testing the new weight.
Satisfied that he could much more easily wield it one-handed, he spun it a few times on his finger, then stuck the gun into the scabbard on his back.
"Groovy." He said.
They were ready.
Back inside the cabin, Annie hefted the axe up, as she had proven herself quite effective with it before, and Ash fired up the chainsaw once again. Jake had the keys to the cellar door on him when he'd been taken down by Henrietta, so he shoved the blade of the saw right through the boards of the door, slicing down the middle. When he'd gotten through, he retracted his arm, letting the saw idle once again, and then kicked hard, shattering the door inward.
Ash and Annie readied themselves in case Henrietta came at them, but all was silent in the cellar. They looked knowingly at one-another, and Ash stepped down onto the staircase. She was gonna make them come to her.
Ash slowly descended, the chainsaw putting softly on the end of his arm, his muscles straining to keep it aloft as he made his way down. His eyes darted all over the cellar, the layout familiar to him by this point. He spotted one page at the bottom of the steps, so he scooped it up and tucked it into his shirt quickly. He looked around, but nothing moved to attack him, so he kept on moving.
Ash spotted another page next to the door on the opposite end of the cellar, the one leading to the room where he and Scotty had found the book and the tape recorder. Ash carefully stepped around the pools of blood that had been collecting in the cellar floor since last night, and kept turning quickly to lessen the chances of being ambushed from behind. He revved the saw every once in awhile to keep it from shutting off, but this put him on edge, as it cut down on his ability to hear well in the otherwise silent basement.
The door creaked loudly as usual when Ash tugged it open. He peered inside, saw nothing, so he scooped up the couple pages laying on the floor. He was about to head back to the stairs, when he saw them... The last two pages, on the floor, at the opposite end of the second room, next to Knowby's desk.
Ash looked over his shoulder at the seemingly empty basement behind him, then back into the other room. This entire thing would be for nothing if he didn't get all the pages, so he stepped inside, revving the saw again to hopefully intimidate Henrietta if she was watching and waiting.
Each step was agonizing, every bit of ground he crossed in the cellar felt like he was walking deeper and deeper into a trap, but he had no choice. He suddenly spun around to face the way he'd come, revving the saw once more... But only silence greeted him when he let the saw idle again.
Ash waited a moment, then backed up the last few steps to the corner until he felt the desk behind him. He kept his eyes on the room, intently as he crouched down to pick up the pages, feeling around on the cold stone floor. He felt something and his fingers sought it out, but it wasn't the pages... It felt gooey.
Ash looked down in horror to find that there, stuffed behind the desk, was the partially devoured corpse of Jake, flesh stripped almost completely down to the bone now. Ash recoiled and wiped the gore from his hand, then grabbed the pages, which were still laying on the ground next to the desk.
He snagged them up, stuffed them into his shirt with the others, then immediately headed back towards the door, passing through it, and ducking under the gourds, still hanging from the ceiling. He passed the burned out projector, the blood puddles from his previous night of horror, and reached the staircase once again.
"The pages!" Annie said in a hushed, but excited tone, setting the axe aside to reach down for them. Ash folded them in half and then tossed the small stack up to her, quickly turning back to the room as he heard something heavy fall towards the back of the room.
"Hurry up, Annie..." Ash said, making his way backwards up the staircase.
Upstairs, he heard Annie starting to recite the words of the first passage, and for just a moment, he considered the fact that they MIGHT have pulled this off... He should have known better.
A beastly screech sounded from below him, and Ash felt two strong, clawed hands seize him by the ankles, having reached out from beneath the stairs. Ash cried out in surprise and pain as the hand squeezed his injured ankle, then Henrietta yanked his feet through the gap between steps, toppling Ash face-first down the staircase, where he hit the ground HARD. The Chainsaw revved, but the dirt floor caused it to choke, and die. Ash groaned in pain, but felt the hands yanking him back even further and pulled him all the way through the stairs into the darkness below them.
Upstairs, Annie heard Ash cry out, then heard his Chainsaw die, but kept reading, until she heard the staircase smash into pieces and a dull 'Thud!' of someone hitting the wall downstairs. She froze, looking at the cellar doorway. "A-Ash?" She said, slowly moving toward the Axe she'd set aside to get the pages.
Suddenly, Henrietta's monstrous, bloated, rotting form shot up from the cellar, floating in mid-air. She screeched at Annie, who screamed in fear, and tried to retreat into the kitchen to keep reciting the passages. She only made it a few steps though, and a hand clamped down on her hair from above. She cried out in pain and looked up to find Henrietta hovering above her head, floating in the air. Annie thrashed to try and break free, but it was impossible, as Henrietta yanked her all over the cabin's main room by her hair, laughing insanely. "What fun!" She shouted.
Ash pushed himself up, shoving the broken staircase boards off himself. His left sleeve had been ripped completely off, and Henrietta had clawed him down the left side of his chest, but the wounds were minor scratches, nothing compared to the anguish he'd already suffered. Something inside Ash shifted, and the pain of his injuries was pushed aside. A fury and will to fight welled up inside of the man, and he reached up as high as he could, gripping the lip of the cellar door, then hefting the heavy chainsaw up, using it's weight and his left hand's grip, pulling as hard as he could and climbing up from the cellar.
He groaned and grunted, finally getting up out of the basement to see Henrietta tormenting Annie without mercy. He'd had enough.
Ash whistled loudly and Henrietta's head turned toward him, roaring angrily. She released Annie's hair and her body swung around in the air to face Ash, who jerked his head in a 'come hither' motion. "Let's go."
Henrietta roared again and shot through the air toward him like someone had fired her from a cannon. Ash re-hooked the pull-chord of the saw and fired it up, but Henrietta landed on the floor in front of him and caught him by the wrist mid-swing. She shoved him back into the wall and lunged teeth-first at him, but Ash was faster. He drove his boot straight into Henrietta's massive bloated stomach and heard something burst inside it, and some kind of goop started plopping to the floor from beneath her shredded dress. He then hefted the saw over his head and slammed it down on top of Henrietta's skull, knocking her to the floor.
A cacophony of garbled, mangled noises emitted from her mouth and her head morphed once more into the Demonic creature she truly was. Her neck shot up and curved around like a snake, now letting her head tower over Ash, who could only stare as she did. "I'll SWALLOW YOUR SOUL!" She screeched, and her head shot down to do just that. Ash simply balled up his fist though, and drove it right into the side of her face, knocking it off-course. He revved the saw up and swung with all his might, but Henrietta's body stepped out of his arm's length, and her head slammed down into his, knocking him dizzy.
Ash looked up as Henrietta prepared to strike again, but then they both heard Annie's voice.
"Hush little baby, don't say a word..." She sang, and Henrietta's body froze. The long neck turned, and her monstrous face seemed to soften a bit, almost looking sad. "Momma's gonna buy you a... Mocking bird." Annie said, trying not to stammer.
Ash meanwhile stepped behind Henrietta, seizing the opportunity Annie had given him, and revved the saw full-blast, thrusting it right through Henrietta's back and out her chest, spraying blood and gore everywhere. Henrietta howled in agony and Annie swung the axe, clubbing her flopping head back toward Ash, who punched it down to the floor. He then swung the saw vertically, lopping off one of her arms, then the other. He then side-stepped and swung the saw once more, cleaving right through her neck and spraying more blood all over the front wall of the cabin. The head plopped down on the floor next to him and dribbled blood from it's neck and mouth as it flopped like a fish.
"Hey!" It shouted. "I'll swallow your soul!"
Ash stomped down on the neck, stopping it's flopping, and pulled the shotgun from the holster on his back. "Swallow this."
'BOOM!'
The shotgun blast echoed through the silence of the cabin and then all was quiet once more. Henrietta's body toppled over and didn't move again. Ash blew the smoke off the tip of his gun, then re-holstered it on his back. He then turned at the sound of Annie sobbing, spotting her leaning against the desk, almost falling over from the quivering in her shoulders. He's just dismembered and killed her mother right in front of her... Demon yes, but it still had to hurt.
He made his way over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him, trying to control the sobs. "I... It just hit me. Sorry."
Ash nodded. "It's alright, let it out, kiddo." He said.
Annie threw her arms around him and pulled him close, sobbing hard for another few moments, then her sobs slowed, her shoulders stopped shuddering so much, and she pulled back, looking up at him. She still had the grief on her face, but there was a sort of peace in her eyes. Ash felt that same sensation and tried to muster the best smile he could for the situation...
Annie leaned her face toward his, and closed her eyes, and Ash couldn't help but do the same.
Suddenly though, the calm silence was shattered as the ENTIRE cabin shuddered like a giant had just kicked the side wall. The two were thrown off-balance by the hit, and looked around in confusion. "Oh God." Annie said.
"What? What is it?" Ash asked, then another massive hit rocked the cabin in the other direction.
"I only read the first of the passages, to make the Evil a thing of the flesh!" Annie shouted over the deafening noise, as more and more THINGS hit the cabin, smashing it so hard the wood started to crack. Ash feared the whole place was coming down on top of them, and the furniture slid all over the place, threatening to knock them over.
"Hurry up and read the second one! NOW!" Ash shouted, then felt the tingle in the back of his head... It was coming.
...
The thing in the woods was angry. It was experiencing something it was not accustomed to, and was NOT willing to let go unpunished... It was in pain. The agony of being ripped from a spiritual form and bonded to the very forests it mastered like a puppeteer was immeasurable. The thing in the woods rushed toward the front of the cabin, feeling a BODY forming around it, the bark of the trees lunging toward it and wrapping around it's essence, the texture of it morphing into flesh, and with it came new agonies. It could feel everything... and the thing in the woods wanted blood for this insult.
...
Ash spun as the front wall of the cabin shattered, and a monstrous face shoved itself through the gap. It was horrible to look at, puss-covered flesh, raw like an open wound was what made up it's 'skin', if one could call it that... It's eyes were open sores full of ever-seeping white fluid, the center of which held a purple sack of purplish sludge. The mouth was a vast maw of teeth, rows upon rows of them, like a shark's, and dotting the face like little white heads, were the faces of those that the Evil had taken. Henrietta, Cheryl, Shelly, Linda, Scotty, Bobby-Joe, Jake, all of them were there.
Ash felt a squeezing sensation on his heart, like the mere sight of it was shaving years off his life, and his mind was buzzing with incomprehensible terror of this thing before him. He backed away from it, grabbing hold of Annie to stop her from turning too. "Don't look at it, Annie, just keep reading. Get rid of it!" He shouted in desperation.
"CANDAAR! IGRATO! CANDAAR!" Annie shouted over the massive boomings of the trees outside pounding on the cabin, the shattering windows, the crunching of the cabin's foundation. Ash revved up the chainsaw, facing the creature without a HINT of bravery left... He was terrified, but with nowhere to go, he chose fight, not flight.
"IGIDIDE, ACADEEM- UGH!" Annie shouted behind him.
Ash spun around, seeing Annie reaching behind herself, a wide-eyed expression of horror on her face as she toppled forward, revealing Ash's possessed hand clutching the Candaarian Dagger... Which was jammed into Annie's back. It hopped off the knife and scurried away as Ash rushed over to her. "NO!" He screamed.
Outside, Annie's words had been getting results, flashes of lightning and a mighty wind whipped through the woods, shaking all the trees, possessed or otherwise, and making Ash's car shudder, groaning in protest as a swirling vortex began to form in mid-air just behind the massive hulking form of the Evil Dead's flesh form. It was ignorant of what was happening though, because Annie couldn't finish the spell, and the vortex would not be able to pull it in.
"WE'VE WON!" A chorus of demonic voices shouted, coming from deep inside the maw of the Evil Dead, and from the mouths of it's victims all over it's face. "VICTORY IS OURS!"
Ash clenched his jaw, holding Annie as she looked up at him weakly, her hair blew wildly in the gusts of wind, and she gripped the pages of the Necronomicon tightly in her hand. Ash laid her down gently on her side, turning to once again face the Evil Dead creature. He revved the chainsaw and rushed at it, swiping across it's face and carving a massive bloody gash just under it's eye. Purple blood sprayed from the wound, hitting Ash, but he ignored it, and shouted a battle cry, shoving the saw right into the monster's eyeball. Another gush of purple blood flowed from it's pupil and it screeched in a deafening cry of pain. A massive hand punched through the ceiling of the cabin, grabbing hold of Ash, but he held fast, revving the saw full-blast in the creature's eye socket, determined to cause it as much pain as he could before it took him.
He felt the hand clamp down around him and could barely breath as it pushed Ash toward it's mouth, chomping it's teeth eagerly. Ash ripped the saw out and swung it vertically down in front of him, ripping through the fingers of the creature, crippling it's hand.
"Ackamemnon! Ackadeem!" Annie shouted weakly from the floor. "Candaar, Candaar!" She struggled, but her strength gave out, and the pages flew from her grip in the strong wind. She rested her face on the wood floor of the cabin, unable to even lift it anymore.
Ash's feet hit the ground again, and he revved the saw full blast once more, preparing another assault.
"Can...daar..." Annie mumbled out, almost inaudibly in the noise around her, but it was enough.
Ash saw his car fly up into the air and plunge into the swirling vortex, but it wasn't alone. The creature screeched, locking it's one good eye with Ash's eyes, and he stared it down defiantly as it was pulled back. Desperately, it clung to the cabin like a life-line, but the cabin would be ripped up too from the pull of the vortex. Ash struggled against the powerful suction, making his way to the creature's remaining hand, clamped down around the fireplace. He raised the chainsaw, gunned the engine, and sawed straight down through it's fingers.
The creature let out one final scream of anger, and was sucked back away from the cabin and into the vortex, where it exploded into billions of pieces, and then burned to ashes, which vanished into the void. Ash stumbled over to Annie's form, struggling over the roar of the vortex as he lifted her up. "You did it, kid!" He turned her over, but saw her eyes fluttering, and blood seeping from the corner of her mouth, and knew she was in bad shape. Ash felt his heart sink. "No, not you too..."
Suddenly, the wind kicked up extra hard, and Ash felt his body lurch from it. The rest of the cabin wasn't moving, Annie wasn't moving, but he was being pulled into the vortex now too! "What the hell!" He shouted, lunging for the kitchen countertop, and his legs were pulled out from under him. Ash screamed in pain as he felt like his fingers were going to be ripped off. The Chainsaw's weight almost pulled him back, but he whipped it forward, and wedged it between the counter and the pass-through window. "For god's sake, how do you stop it!" He shouted, but Annie had gone limp, probably dead.
Then, Ash realized what had happened. He had a piece of the Evil Dead inside him. He had been possessed, and that had tainted his soul, so the vortex wanted him too, it had to purge ALL of the Evil Dead before it would close... Ash felt the cabin itself shudder once again, and knew the vortex would take the whole thing if it couldn't have him... Ash closed his eyes tightly, let go with his hand, and now only held on by the chainsaw blade wedged into the counter. He said a prayer for himself, and begged all his dead friends for forgiveness... Then yanked the saw free.
He screamed and tumbled through the air, spinning around and around toward the endless vortex in front of the cabin, not knowing what awaited him inside. He felt his body hit the other side of the void and his whole being was jerked violently as he tumbled through the vortex into endlessness. Blackness engulfed him and brilliant, blinding lights flashed at him from all directions as he spun. Then, there was no sound at all as he fell. He felt himself still screaming, but no sound could be heard, and he just fell into the inky blackness... Nothing left to do, no way out.
Then, he felt nothing, no falling, no pain, nothing. He didn't even feel his body anymore, and couldn't see anything except whiteness around him. The only thing Ash J. Williams felt now, was an odd sense of calm, he knew, and had accepted, that for him, this was...
THE END.
EPILOGUE
A flash of light, or rather the flash of the VANISHING of light. The whiteness was gone, Ash could feel his body once more, and he was falling again. Not in a void though, he felt gravity and wind hitting his face. Then he opened his eyes, and saw the ground coming up at him.
He hit the ground hard, face-down, and violently, feeling like he may have bruised one of his ribs as he bounced, landing on his back, finally coming to a stop.
"Ugh..." Was all he could muster, coughing to regain his ability to breath. He gasped for air, finally managing to get enough to assure himself he wasn't going to suffocate. He opened his eyes, but the sunlight above stung, due to the amount of time he'd been in the dark... Where the hell was he?
After a few moments, Ash pushed himself up into a sitting position, realizing he heard people and horses around him. Ash looked around, finding dead men scattered all around where he'd landed. "Where the hell...?" He mumbled.
He found himself standing in the middle of what almost looked like a rock quarry, a high-rising cliff edge was a few hundred yards away from him, and the ground was all made of dirt and rock. He thought he could see some kind of stone blocks underneath the dirt though...
Suddenly, a group of men came running toward him, and the first thing Ash noticed about them was that they were, from head-to-toe, dressed in armor, and the second thing he noticed was, they all had swords pointed at him.