(A/N):
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For nearly twenty minutes, the apartment remained quiet.
Only the occasional crackle of the hellfire circle and Ellie's distant growls from the bedroom broke the silence.
Beth sat at the dining table with the broken cassette recorder completely disassembled.
Tiny screws, cracked plastic panels, damaged wires, and worn gears were neatly arranged before her.
Bruce watched with curiosity.
"You really know how to fix these?"
Beth managed a faint smile.
"My father repaired old radios."
"He made sure all of us learned."
Her fingers carefully soldered two damaged contacts back together.
"The casing is beyond saving..."
"...but if the tape itself wasn't damaged..."
She pressed the remaining pieces together.
"...it should play."
She inserted the cassette.
Everyone unconsciously held their breath.
Beth slowly pressed the PLAY button.
For several seconds...
Nothing happened.
Only static filled the room.
SSSSSHHHHHHHH...
Danny visibly tensed.
His hands began trembling again.
Then...
A loud pop echoed from the tiny speaker.
A man's exhausted voice emerged through layers of distortion.
"...If..."
"...if anyone is hearing this..."
The recording crackled violently before stabilizing.
"...then our research has failed."
The voice belonged to an elderly man.
Educated.
Measured.
But beneath every word lay absolute despair.
"My name..."
"...doesn't matter anymore."
"We believed..."
"...death could be conquered."
Silence followed for several seconds.
Then the old man continued.
"There are..."
"...Four Unholy Books."
"The oldest records describe them as fragments."
"Not written..."
"...grown."
Leah slowly glanced toward the living book resting on the table.
Its pages had become completely still.
Almost as though...
It were listening to its own history.
The recording continued.
"Each book..."
"...contains forbidden knowledge."
"Each one..."
"...opens a different door."
"We believed..."
"...that together they could restore life."
The man's breathing became noticeably heavier.
"We were fools."
A loud bang echoed somewhere in the background of the recording.
Someone screamed.
The old man ignored it.
"We succeeded."
His voice broke.
"And that..."
"...was our greatest mistake."
Another burst of static interrupted the tape.
Then...
"It wasn't resurrection."
"It was an invitation."
Silence.
"We released..."
"...something."
"Something that should never exist within our world."
Bruce slowly tightened his grip on the Bible.
The recording continued.
"It isn't merely a demon."
"It doesn't seek worship."
"It doesn't bargain. It doesn't tempt."
"It simply... consumes."
"It will not stop. It cannot be reasoned with."
"It grows. It infects. It turns the dead into extensions of itself."
"It continues... until everyone becomes part of it."
A heavy silence settled over the apartment.
Even the entity trapped in the bedroom had stopped making noise.
It was listening.
The old man's breathing became ragged.
Then...
"There is... one thing we discovered."
Hope flickered briefly across Beth's face.
The recording continued.
"If... the infested host... is destroyed..."
"And... the infected location..."
"...is completely isolated... for a sufficient period..."
"The entity cannot immediately obtain another host."
"It weakens."
"It is forced to retreat."
A loud crash echoed somewhere behind the old man.
This time...
The screams were much closer.
"They're inside!"
Someone shouted.
"They've broken through!"
The old man didn't panic.
He simply spoke one final sentence.
"If you hear this... don't try to save us."
"Burn everything."
The recording abruptly ended.
Click.
The cassette reached its end.
Silence.
No one moved. No one spoke.
Bruce slowly lowered the Bible.
Mr. Fonda looked utterly horrified.
Beth stared blankly at the recorder.
"...Burn... everything..."
She whispered.
Danny looked toward Jojo.
"So... if we kill..."
He couldn't finish the sentence.
Jojo, however, didn't look relieved.
He looked troubled.
Very troubled.
Lorraine immediately noticed.
"Something's wrong."
Jojo slowly picked up the ancient book again.
"The recording..."
He tapped the worn leather cover with one finger.
"...just confirmed something."
Leah folded her arms.
"What?"
Jojo looked toward the bedroom where Ellie remained imprisoned within the hellfire circle.
"The old man said... destroy the host..."
"...and isolate the area."
Everyone nodded.
"Yes."
Jojo slowly shook his head.
"But that's only enough..."
"...if there's a single host."
He turned several pages of the book until he reached the section describing the parasitic demons.
Then he laid it open for Leah and Lorraine to see.
"The book says something different."
His finger rested on a passage written in faded infernal script.
"This species doesn't spread through one body."
"It creates colonies."
"It establishes nests."
"It links every infected organism into one living network."
He looked at Beth.
"When Ellie vomited in the kitchen..."
"...she wasn't simply contaminating the room."
His voice grew quieter.
"...She was trying to build a second nest."
Realization spread across Lorraine's face.
"The recording wasn't wrong..."
"...it was incomplete."
Jojo nodded.
"It was recorded before they understood the full life cycle."
He slowly closed the book.
"If we had followed only the tape..."
"...we might have destroyed Ellie..."
"...sealed the apartment..."
"...and walked away."
His golden eyes drifted toward the kitchen door.
"Meanwhile..."
"...the nest growing inside that kitchen would have continued maturing."
A cold silence settled over the apartment once more.
The old recording had answered one question.
But the ancient book had revealed a far more terrifying truth.
Whatever had come through those Four Unholy Books...
Humanity had never truly learned how to kill it.
They had only learned how to survive it.
The apartment fell silent once more.
Jojo closed the ancient book and handed it to Lorraine.
"Keep it away from Danny."
She nodded without hesitation.
"I will."
Beth carefully switched off the repaired cassette recorder, while Bruce and Mr. Fonda remained in the living room, still trying to process everything they had just heard.
Without another word, Jojo turned and walked back toward the bedroom.
The others followed.
As the bedroom door opened, the crimson hellfire circle continued to burn brightly around the bed.
The infernal runes shimmered across the floor like molten metal.
Ellie's corpse sat exactly where they had left it.
The chains remained intact.
The circle had done its job.
The moment the entity saw Jojo return...
It smiled.
Not the mocking grin from before.
This one was... satisfied.
"Hehehe..."
Its black eyes followed him as he stopped just outside the hellfire circle.
"So..."
"You've been reading."
Jojo remained silent.
The creature slowly tilted Ellie's head.
"Did you enjoy the stories?"
"It won't help."
It leaned forward, resting its chin on its bound hands.
"You've already arrived too late."
Leah narrowed her eyes.
"What are you talking about?"
The creature ignored her completely.
Its attention never left Jojo.
"Even if I fail here..."
It chuckled.
"...it doesn't matter anymore."
Jojo's expression remained unreadable.
"The work has already begun."
Lorraine's hand instinctively moved toward one of her pistols.
"What work?"
The creature laughed softly.
"Hehehe..."
"You think..."
"...we only wanted this little nest?"
Its smile widened.
"No..."
"This city was merely convenient."
"Our true purpose..."
It slowly raised one finger.
"...was always the weapon."
Those words caused Jojo's eyes to narrow ever so slightly.
Weapon?
The creature noticed the subtle change.
Its grin grew even wider.
"There it is."
"Curiosity."
"It infects everyone eventually."
Jojo spoke for the first time.
"What weapon?"
The entity closed Ellie's eyes as though savoring the question.
"A prison."
"It slept for a very..."
"...very..."
"...very long time."
"It took generations to find."
"It took countless lives to uncover."
"It took rivers of blood to just sense it."
Its voice became almost reverent.
"And then..."
It began laughing again.
"...some idiot..."
"...opened it for us."
The room instantly became still.
Leah frowned.
"You mean someone accidentally broke the seal?"
The creature nodded enthusiastically.
"Yes."
"Humans are wonderfully predictable."
"They always open doors marked..."
"'Do Not Open.'"
Bruce exchanged an uneasy glance with Mr. Fonda.
Beth's face had gone pale again.
Jojo, however, wasn't looking at the creature anymore.
His thoughts were already racing.
'A weapon...
Not an artifact...'
If the demon was telling the truth...
Then everything happening in this apartment...
Everything connected to Ellie...
Everything connected to the book...
Had merely been a diversion.
A means to locate...
Or release...
Whatever had been sealed.
The entity watched Jojo think.
It smiled knowingly.
"You've realized it."
"This infestation..."
"It was never the objective."
"It was the key."
Jojo slowly looked back at it.
"What is the weapon?"
The creature's smile slowly faded.
For the first time since they had met...
It hesitated.
Only for a heartbeat.
Then it laughed again.
"You'll find it."
Its voice dropped into a whisper.
"If you survive long enough."
Jojo's gaze remained fixed on the creature.
He wasn't listening to the taunts anymore.
He was studying the hesitation.
That single pause had told him more than the words themselves.
The entity wasn't refusing to answer because it wanted to torment him.
It was refusing because it couldn't.
Either it genuinely didn't know what had been released...
Or something had forbidden it from speaking its true name.
Jojo quietly folded his arms.
"So."
The entity blinked.
"You're only a scout."
The smile on Ellie's face froze.
Jojo continued calmly.
"You were sent to prepare the ground."
"Spread the infestation."
"Keep attention focused here."
"So no one notices what's happening somewhere else."
A long silence followed.
The creature's expression slowly twisted into something far less confident.
It didn't answer.
It didn't laugh.
It simply stared at him.
That silence was answer enough.
Leah smirked.
"You hit a nerve."
Lorraine looked thoughtfully at Jojo.
"So the real battle..."
"...hasn't even started yet."
Jojo gave a slight nod, his eyes never leaving the bound corpse.
"No."
His voice was quiet.
"This..."
He glanced around the infected bedroom, at the hellfire circle, the chains, and the parasitic corpse before returning his gaze to the entity.
"...is only the distraction."
Outside, thunder rolled across the Los Angeles skyline.
Somewhere beyond the apartment...
Something ancient had already begun to awaken.
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(Author's POV)
(A/N):
Check my new Fan fic: Karuppan: King of Openings
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