(A/N):
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The room remained frozen beneath the weight of the revelation.
Jojo's gaze never left the creature occupying Ellie's corpse.
The demon looked back with the same unsettling smile, convinced it had planted enough doubt to buy itself more time.
It never got that time.
Jojo slowly raised his right hand.
Then...
He snapped his fingers.
Snap.
WHOOM!
Crimson hellfire erupted from inside Ellie's body.
Not around it.
Inside it.
The flames burst through her eyes, mouth, ears, and every pore in an instant.
The possessed corpse convulsed violently against the chains.
Then came the scream.
It wasn't Ellie's voice.
It was something far older.
Far more inhuman.
A shrill, layered shriek that sounded as though hundreds of voices were crying out simultaneously echoed through the apartment, rattling the windows and making everyone instinctively cover their ears.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"
The creature thrashed wildly.
Its black veins exploded one after another beneath the skin.
The hellfire didn't merely burn flesh.
It burned the infernal corruption itself.
"You...!"
The demon shrieked.
"You insignificant...!"
Its words dissolved into another agonizing scream as infernal flames consumed every inch of the corpse.
Within seconds...
Ellie's body began collapsing inward.
Skin became ash.
Muscle disintegrated.
Bone blackened before crumbling into glowing embers.
The iron chains clattered onto the mattress as the body holding them simply ceased to exist.
A final scream echoed through the room.
Then...
Silence.
Only a small pile of grey ash remained upon the bed.
Beth stood frozen.
Tears silently streamed down her face.
She knew...
Her sister had been gone long before Jojo arrived.
But watching the last remains of Ellie's body disappear still felt like losing her all over again.
Lorraine quietly rested a comforting hand on Beth's shoulder.
Leah lowered her head in silent respect.
Jojo remained motionless.
His eyes were fixed on the open bedroom window.
A faint ripple...
Barely perceptible.
Like heat distorting the air.
He had felt it.
Just before the flames completely consumed the corpse...
The parasite had abandoned its host.
Not unharmed.
The hellfire had scorched it badly.
But it had escaped.
His eyes narrowed.
"It fled..."
Leah looked up.
"You saw it? I didn't see it."
Jojo replied calmly.
"I felt it."
He walked toward the shattered window.
"It abandoned the body at the last possible moment."
"It escaped through the window."
Lorraine frowned hearing him.
"So we failed?"
Jojo slowly shook his head.
"No. It was wounded. Severely."
He looked toward the ancient book still resting in Lorraine's hands.
"The book was right."
"These parasitic demons don't function independently."
"They're extensions."
"They share one consciousness."
He slowly folded his arms.
"Destroying one host only destroys one branch."
"The root..."
His golden eyes drifted toward the distant city skyline.
"...is still alive."
Without another word, he left the bedroom.
The others quietly followed him.
They entered the kitchen.
The moment the door opened...
The sickening smell returned.
Dark blood remained splattered across the floor.
The dried vomit still clung to the tiles near the sink.
To ordinary eyes...
It looked disgusting.
To Jojo... It was still alive.
Tiny black filaments continued writhing through the dried blood like microscopic worms searching for another host.
"They're still active."
Leah muttered.
Jojo nodded. He stepped into the kitchen.
Beth instinctively started forward.
"Wait!"
Jojo simply raised one hand.
"I know where I'm stepping."
He crouched beside one of the larger bloodstains.
Without hesitation...
He placed two fingers against it.
Then...
Crimson hellfire spread outward.
Not explosively.
Methodically.
Every droplet of blood ignited with infernal fire.
The dried vomit caught next.
Black threads hidden inside the organic matter writhed violently as the flames consumed them.
Tiny, almost inaudible shrieks filled the kitchen.
Like insects dying inside a furnace.
Within moments...
Nothing remained.
No blood. No vomit. No lingering infernal presence.
Even the oppressive smell that had filled the apartment since they arrived slowly disappeared.
Jojo stood.
"That's the last active colony in this apartment."
He turned toward Beth.
"You and the children need to leave."
Beth looked around the now-clean kitchen.
"But... You destroyed it."
"I destroyed this nest."
Jojo corrected.
"I haven't destroyed the source."
His voice remained calm, but there was unmistakable seriousness behind it.
"I don't know how many other nests exist."
"I don't know how many people have already been infected."
"And until I do..."
"I won't ask you to stay here."
Beth looked toward Danny, Bridget, and Kassie.
They had already endured more than enough.
She slowly nodded.
"You're right."
She wiped away her tears and took a deep breath.
"We'll pack only what's essential."
Lorraine spoke up.
"I'll help."
Bruce immediately nodded as well.
"I'll carry whatever they need."
Even Mr. Fonda straightened his shoulders.
"I'll make sure nobody from the building comes in here."
Beth looked gratefully at all of them before turning back to Jojo.
"...Thank you."
Jojo simply gave a small nod.
His attention, however, had already shifted elsewhere.
Out beyond the apartment.
Beyond the building.
Somewhere in Los Angeles...
A wounded parasite had just returned to its colony.
And if his suspicion was correct...
The creature would now be warning its true master.
Far beneath the city...
Far below the streets where millions of people lived their ordinary lives...
Beyond abandoned subway tunnels...
Collapsed storm drains...
And forgotten wartime bunkers...
Something stirred.
A vast biological chamber pulsed in complete darkness.
The walls weren't made of stone.
They were alive.
Layers upon layers of black organic tissue stretched in every direction, beating rhythmically like the inside of an enormous heart.
Thick veins, each as wide as tree trunks, carried a viscous black fluid through the cavern.
Every few seconds...
One of the countless fleshy pods lining the walls would twitch.
Inside each pod...
A dormant parasitic demon waited.
At the very centre of the chamber stood a grotesque mass resembling an enormous brain fused with a tree of flesh.
Thousands of silver threads extended from it.
Each thread disappeared into the darkness.
Each represented one parasite currently moving throughout Los Angeles.
Each represented one fragment of a single mind.
Suddenly...
One of those silver threads dimmed.
The central organism convulsed.
A pulse of pain rippled through the entire chamber.
The wounded parasite that had escaped Jojo's hellfire returned to the collective consciousness.
It carried with it everything it had witnessed.
The hellfire.
The Ghost Rider.
The destruction of its host.
Its memories flooded the hive.
For several long moments...
The entire chamber remained absolutely still.
Then...
Every pod opened at once.
Thousands of eyes snapped open in unison.
A silent command echoed through the colony.
No words.
No voices.
Only instinct.
The Nest has been compromised.
Another pulse spread.
Objective One remains complete.
The wounded parasite's memories shifted.
An ancient underground chamber.
A broken seal.
Human excavation equipment.
Stone fragments.
The image repeated itself again and again across the hive.
The central organism recognised it immediately.
A deep vibration spread through the fleshy cavern.
The parasites did not celebrate.
They did not feel joy.
Only purpose.
The location has been found.
Another command followed immediately.
Proceed to Objective Two.
Across Los Angeles...
The change happened instantly.
A homeless man quietly eating beneath an overpass suddenly stopped moving.
His pupils became completely black.
Without a word, he stood and began walking east.
Miles away...
A nurse finishing her night shift froze in the hospital corridor.
She slowly turned.
Then calmly walked out of the building.
A construction worker abandoned his machinery.
A delivery driver left his van running in the middle of traffic.
A sewer maintenance worker climbed out of a manhole before silently walking in the same direction.
One after another...
More hosts awakened.
None spoke.
None questioned.
They simply obeyed.
Like blood cells rushing toward a wound.
High above the city...
Black birds suddenly took flight in enormous flocks.
Dogs began barking without reason.
Even spirits lingering around abandoned buildings retreated from whatever invisible wave had just spread across Los Angeles.
Within the hive...
The central organism transmitted its final command.
The humans have uncovered the weapon.
It must not awaken.
Thousands of parasites immediately altered their course.
The infestation no longer cared about hiding.
No longer cared about spreading.
No longer cared about creating new nests.
Every available host now shared a single purpose.
Reach the excavation site.
Destroy whatever the humans had uncovered.
Erase it before it could interfere with the colony's future.
Deep within the pulsating chamber...
The immense central organism slowly opened a single colossal eye.
Its pupil wasn't round.
It resembled an endless spiral of writhing mouths.
For the first time in centuries...
It focused upon the surface world.
Not because of humanity.
Humanity had never mattered.
But because something buried beneath the earth...
Something ancient enough that even the parasitic hive regarded it as a threat...
Was now dangerously close to being awakened.
And for the first time since entering the human world...
The entire colony abandoned expansion.
Every thought.
Every host.
Every parasite.
Moved with terrifying unity toward a single destination.
They were no longer hunting humanity.
They were racing against it.
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(Author's POV)
(A/N):
Check my new Fan fic: Karuppan: King of Openings
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