no chance.
Lucas stepped back as far as was possible, then Red hit him with one fist, of an abnormal form, making his arm long like a snake and punching Lucas to the opposite side, leaving a huge hole in the body, from where life escaped fast.
While lucas collapsed on the pots, making a huge noise, Red realized he was actually recovering his strength, increasingly more free and less a genius trapped in anlamp.
But he wanted more, wanted to be the complete ghost, as he were many, many years ago.
Red.
In the hideout, Vanessa broke the silence but not the tension, because she had reached a conclusion that all the others were afraid to admit.
"In the midst of all this madness, we do not want but it is our duty to find a way to end this thing ... We can’t only hope that someone finds the key and open the door, so this murderer go out and do the same with everyone.
It'll be like we're helping him ... ".
Everybody got the message, but no one had words to answer in the next few seconds, only after a while, reflecting, Linda returned to the subject.
"How are we going to do? That thing is a kind of spirit within an object... A weapon could do no effect... Is like trying to kill a desk or a chair ...But alive."
Lisa then suggested immediately: "What if we burn the chairs until they become dust?".
Silence returned, but now all looked at each other wondering how there was a slight chance of that working.
"It must have alcohol in the house ... Somewhere, at least one product made from alcohol ... anything that burns ..." suggested Kazuo.
Moments later, they heard the sound of the pans in the kitchen, Lucas died in the clash against Red.
It was the right time to act, with the creature occupied.
Instinctively, no one needed another sign.
The whole group came out of the hiding as fast as possible with destination to the next room, which was just a deposit of materials and should contain some product that could help.
In desperation, everyone took the greatest amount of things they could carry and went back to the secret room, locking the door, relieved.
Buckets, tools, products, and even land and fertilizer, they collected even what wouldn’t be used, just enough now to see what it was flammable and hope that the weapon they had managed to light a fire with one shot.
They’ve put liquids in separate buckets, small to large, unafraid to mix substances, insisting that everything was flammable.
In the end, they had five buckets that could serve as bombs and four bullets in the gun, enough for a good attempt.
Without delay, they organized, filled with the courage that was left and went up again, seeing no sign of the creature.
Slowly and attentive, they went to the hall toward the kitchen, from which came the sound of falling pots as one of the Jonas mans was attacked.
At that time the house was darker, perhaps for the next rain or next night, since they had little notion of time as inside the house.
Attentive and tight to each other, the group walked to the door on the opposite corner of the hall, without making any noise, then opened and came across the huge table and the objects around, well organized without any fight marks.
Going up the few steps to the kitchen, they already felt the metallic smell of blood, where Lucas met his end and his body was left there, lying between pans and utensils.
There was no sign of the doll anywhere, and he probably left there before Lucas's blood stained the ground, because they could not see any footprint.
Returning to the big table, they regrouped to search in a nearby room, with anguish for not knowing where was the creature.
Once returned to the hall, there was the sound of something coming down the stairs.
The sound was coming fast and wet, like a rolling object and down the steps.
The group has positioned itself to see if someone was coming, then they saw a rounded shape rolling toward them, more and more slowly until it stopped after the last step without more impulse to move forward.
It was horrible, a human head, a man with familiar traits.
The last of the Jonas assistants had died, and in the crudest possible way, without the head and scarred by a fierce attack.
The head came dripping down all the stairs, without staining the carpet because it was red, then stood there, beside, in front of everyone, announcing the arrival of something worse.
Step by step, came the doll down the stairs without haste.
"Congratulations for having managed to hide from me for so long, but as I found you, the rule of my game says what will happen ...".
Seeing the slow steps and disturbing creature, Linda could not bear to remain in that formation and tried to run to the side of the stove, to hide there until it was all over.
Now she was only despair.
In the fifth step of the girl, Red had already chosen his best blade and launched in favorable direction.
Linda was the target, and the blade entered her thigh and brought the body down immediately, with Lisa running out of the group to help her friend, dragging one of the buckets with her, not bothering to knock down some alcohol at the time of despair.
Holding Linda, she realized that the wound was not fatal, but now the two were more likely to be victims of the creature, because not even in that situation they would separate.
Red was already in the hall now holding another blade with Kazuo and Vanessa desperate, pointing buckets and weapon against him.
Coordinated by despair, Vanessa threw the bucket and Kazuo shot, but the doll was faster, deviated from both, even getting his feet wet by flammable substance.
The biggest chance was lost, now the creature was moving too fast to be hit by one of the buckets.
Vanessa tried to hit another move against him, but only spread liquid on the floor, and when everyone least expected, the doll lunged behind Linda and Lisa, on the ground, and plunged the blade into both, wounding quickly while tipping Lisa’s bucket, spilling the chemical on the floor as a result of his rapid movements.
Vanessa emptied the lungs with a scream, seeing her two weak, fallen friends, almost lifeless after the attack.
Just she, who always wanted the best of those two, could now do nothing, nor even hit a single bucket against the creature.
She was shocked and motionless, lost as if time stopped.
Kazuo, desperate, with tears falling, discharged the weapon in the creature, hitting his head and not even scratching that hideous skull.
The last shots that they had not served for anything, the only hope was lost, and the doll standed up as winner of his creepy game.
Not knowing what to do, Vanessa relaxed arm and another bucket turned forward, pouring the liquid that could no longer be lit by the weapon.
Kazuo and Vanessa got together, side by side, waiting for the creature to stand up and come slowly, celebrating his victory.
On the floor, the girls were still united, more embraced than ever, really like sisters and whispering something in between.
Lisa, with the rest of the forces, removed the blade from Linda’s thigh, which endured the pain, then wiped the blade on her clothes to start hitting it against the ground and rub the metal on the floor.
Whatever she was doing was not working, and her strenght, disappearing.
Red continued to walk toward the last survivors, slowly, to prolonging the moment of horror.
Suddenly the fallen girl had one last idea.
With the rest of her forces, Lisa slammed the blade against Lisa’s belt and the metal ornaments in it.
On the second beat, a small spark next to the floor was all she needed to ignite the fluid that surrounded them.
In a second, the entire hall was covered with tall flames, which would end up taking the lives of the two friends, preventing any kind of rescue.
Kazuo and Vanessa had to hold each other to not advance on the fire to try to save their friends, since doing so would end in
their deaths.
In the midst of the fire, Red saw the flames rise quickly through the legs and take his doll body, which was now a dark shape between the light and fire.
With legs consumed gradually he was swallowed down, falling, crumbling.
The view was rewarding to see, as the hideous creature had no way to escape, paying for what he had done, but he still did not feel pain.
In his last moments, he seemed to have admitted defeat, then declared:
"In the greenhouse there is a large sunflower, leafy ... It is false ... And the center of the flower can be opened easily, containing the key ...".
These were the creature's last words, waiting for his body to dissolve completely.
Kazuo went to the greenhouse and Vanessa stood there, watching the horror dissolve, being careful not to be hit by the flames that were expanding more and more.
Soon the young man returned with the key and opened the huge doors, allowing the wind in and further enhancing the power of fire.
Red was now only a head in the middle of pure fire, and the two friends had also disappeared, as if the fire wanted to hide the sad sight that would be the end of both.
Vanessa and Kazuo walked unhurriedly out, letting the fire grow and consume, hoping that the whole house would be surrounded by it over time.
Out there, the duo of survivors walked on a dirt road, almost completely taken by woods until they were found by a search party formed by the guard George, who received all of them when they arrived at the camp.
It was the end of terror and the beginning of the bad memories.
Even saved, they avoided to celebrate the survival for a long time and explained the history hiding the supernatural facts.
Among them, they wondered if it was over definitely, because Red was stuck in that doll body, so ... What would happen now that he was without a body?
Does the flames really put an end to it?
Red Page 6