What is true can also be false, and what can be false can also be true. Our faith in what we believe can often disappoint us and seldom yield what we desire. Sometimes the path to salvation can never be found consequently leaving us ensnared in an endless despair of misery and hopelessness. Then again, everything is perspective. Perhaps, the only thing beyond what is, what could be, and what can be is ourselves. What is most true is ourselves existing, right now and here, our faith is our own, it is we who must have faith in ourselves and the path to salvation lies with us and nobody else. We can and will…

Lennox felt these words resonate in the deepest corner of his heart. Why? Why here? He couldn’t understand why. Maybe he did, maybe the fear that overwhelmed him restricted him from comprehending what was said but it didn’t matter because he saw that ‘thing’ getting closer to the group. The insidious melodic cacophony grew louder and louder eventually shaking the ‘soul’ of Jon.

Jon, whose bulging eyes seemed to want to leave its eyesockets, no it wanted to leave began to shake violently. He finally let out an ear-piercing scream of dread that shook Chelsea and Lennox to the core as tears of blood trickled down his cheek subsequently the pupil in his eyes turned visibly white. It didn’t stop there, blood escaped from his five orifices and he was doused in crimson red, and through all that he did not stop screaming. Something that brought utter and visible disgust enthralled with fear to the duo occurred and it was grotesque crawling maggots of a green hue that grew out of Jon’s orifices. They wilgged in a very grotty manner and multiplied endlessly completely consuming Jon’s body.

“AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! H…….E…….L….P”, He screamed in a high-pitched tone.

“RUNNNNNNNN!!”, Chelsea said at a moment’s clarity hiding her disgust and fear momentarily before instantly leaping out of the car as her body hit the tar road rolling several times to get as far as away from the car as possible.

 Hearing her voice brought Lennox to reality and he opened the door at a moment's notice, leaping out of the car in the opposite direction of her. He hit the tar road and all the pain he ought to have felt from his preexisting injuries never could be reached.

Chelsea remained prone as she shivered turning to look at the shaking car and Jon who was inside enacting erratic movements trying to escape an inevitable but tragic fate. His hands slammed against the door, windows, and windscreen so violently consequently forming crevices at each instance.

Lennox on the other side witnessed this and too shivered at such a horrific scene. The skeletal creature finally made contact with the vehicle and its maw widened exponentially in a single bite, Jon’ body imploded into a multitude of pieces tainting the car in a mixture of red and black evident with legs, arms, and internal organs painting the scenery in dread. What could be seen thereafter was a subtle glowing object having no geometric shape floating in the darkness but soon after vanishing into the creature's body. A face spontaneously appeared on the creature's left skeletal rib which Chelsea and Lennox immediately identified, it was Jon’s face and it depicted an image of his final moments, Despair.

Chelsea tried to stand up but couldn’t, she couldn’t understand how such a thing could've appeared. She had never seen something this terrifying in all her life since she was exposed to such similar creatures which were never at this level. 

 Although, one thing she understood was that all of them should’ve been dead already but were not which meant the necklace had protected both her and Lennox from such a fate. She noticed one thing, a white tattoo starting from her neck segregated to her arms and reached her abdomen whilst the necklace subtly gave off a faint glow. Tears cascaded down from the corner of her eyes upon Jon’s departure, sadness, fear, disgust, and anger. A plethora of emotions bombarded her psyche endlessly.

The creature consumed whatever 'that' was which could've been Jon's Soul and looked to its right gazing upon Lennox. It seemed its hunger wasn’t satiated at all and thus moved its body in Lennox’s direction. 

Lennox saw this and wanted to stand up but couldn’t due to the injuries that plagued him, even if he wanted his body to do what it was told it couldn’t because it didn't have the ability so he instantly turned in the opposite direction and began crawling. He was unaware of the tattoos on his body and the fact he survived due to it but he didn’t care. That thing was after him now and he did not want to die like …. Like that.

“NOOOO!!! NOOO!!!!!”, A fear-stricken Lennox shouted with all of his might as he crawled away. HE WON'T DIE!!! HE WILL NOT!!!! The creature slowly made its approach salivating at the prey laid before it. Lennox’s terror was a tune played but the devils from the nether, immaculate.

Lennox’s screams awoke Chelsea from her stupor and she finally managed to stand on her own two feet albiet shivering. She walked to Lennox as quickly as she could but threatened to fall with each step. The skeletal creature once again opened its maw and just as it bit down… A body stood in front of Lennox covered in blood.

“YOU!!!!!!”, Lennox shouted as the body he saw was Chelsea’s, the teeth of the creature chomped down on her left shoulder leaving a bloody gush. She stood there with a resolute face and looked at him.

“You….. o..kay?”, she asked in a soft tone.

Lennox was shocked as he looked at her.

“Gu…e…ss y..ou .... are….”, she said once more as the tattoos completely covered her body except the wound on her left shoulder. The creature tried applying more force but couldn’t penetrate any further and suddenly a sonic boom occurred blowing the skeletal creature away from her. It tumbled on the ground before rising once again to gaze at Chelsea. Its menacing verdant gaze grew ever so vividly expressing its distaste at such an occurrence. It identified the white tattoos on Chelsea and Lennox now giving off a faint glow and it didn’t make another move seemingly contemplating on whether to consume them both or retreat.

It eventually chose the latter. The darkness around the proximity receded unhurriedly as it stared down at Chelsea and Lennox who returned a gaze of fury and terror. Seconds then minutes went and finally, the creature’s structure began to fade into nothingness as its verdant gaze dissipated, and soon after order was restored.

Chelsea’s wound was even more ghastly than Lennox anticipated. A large chunk of her flesh was completely disunited from her body exposing raw skeleton hinted with shades of coagulated scarlet. She bled incessantly painting the road beneath her in blood subsequently her breathing grew extremely heavy accompanied by severe lightheadedness that grew more apparent by her wobbling stance that beckoned to shatter.

Lennox crawled to Chelsea who tumbled to the ground, tears began to cascade down the corner of his eyes.

“HEY!! WAKE UP!!!! , WAKE UP!!”, Lennox shouted at the unconscious Chelsea as he crawled towards her, eventually reaching her and attempting to shake her awake.

“GET UP!!!!! I SAID GET UP!!”, Lennox eventually screamed but Chelsea remained unresponsive.  

She was dead…

The tattoos on her body dissipated and the ones on Lennox grew more vivid, more luminescent, and appealing. Lennox didn’t care about what was happening to him and only his unrequited screams resonated across the vicinity.

As time went by his screams and shouts grew slim eventually silence reigned. His vocal cords could not utter any sound and massive fatigue overwhelmed his body so he simply lay on the cold tar road gazing at the moon. Its subtle luminosity was the only ‘light’ he could see in the world. Even then, the fear, shock, sadness, and despair were still evident in his being revealing a great darkness that blanketed his whole entire perspective of reality. He was .. empty….

The necklace around Chelsea detached itself from her body and then slowly floated into the air moved in his direction and landed on his chest. It wrapped itself around his neck and the octagonal shape ingrained in its centre abruptly spun vigorously. Lennox was completely submerged in archaic tattoos glowing like a star in the abysmal night. He seemed to feel better and the wounds pre-sustained healed … He felt all this happening to him but felt no inclination to enact it. Two people died so viciously, tragically and all he could do was wallow in despair and fear. He was utterly useless…. But then again could he have done anything to change anything? No

The tattoos would remain but the light receded returning to normality.

He knew he couldn’t stay here, trying to explain what occurred here would only result in him being dubbed as crazy and thus thrown in an insane asylum with chargers of murder to his name. So, he slowly raised himself from the road and onto his feet. He took a moment to look once more at where Chelsea’s corpse lay. He noticed her shimmering oceanic eyes were dim replaced by a dim grey.

 Tears threatened to trickle down the corner of his eyes but he didn’t let it happen.

He forcibly shut his eyes, took a long deep breath, and scanned his proximity. He turned his head to look at the car and he immediately crouched on the floor regurgitating from the horrifying and disgusting scene he saw before standing up once more.

Jon’s body parts were evident on the windscreen and windows doused in a contrasting red and black that made Lennox’s eyes bulge in fear. He took another breath to calm down and observed his surroundings…

'Where to now?' , he thought helplessly.

And, so, step by step Lennox began walking, disappearing into a dark alleyway as the sound of emergency and police vehicles reverberated at a distance.

With no will to continue onwards, left with the trauma of two deaths, and the lingering fear of a creature from a world beyond his imagination, Lennox was well and truly a man beyond salvation.