(A/N):
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By evening, everything had been prepared.
The case files were loaded onto Sara's secure database.
Emergency contact channels were established.
The local DMC branch in California had been informed that Jojo would personally be handling the investigation, although they were instructed not to interfere unless called.
This case felt... different.
Not dangerous enough to mobilize an entire task force.
But strange enough that Jojo preferred seeing it with his own eyes.
Soon, the three of them departed from Forks.
The journey across states passed without incident, and by the time they reached Los Angeles, the afternoon sun had already disappeared behind an endless blanket of dark clouds.
The city looked completely different from Forks.
Instead of endless forests and mountains, towering buildings stretched toward the sky while traffic flowed endlessly through the streets.
Even the air felt heavier.
Warmer.
More crowded.
As Jojo stepped out of the terminal, Sara's voice sounded through the small communicator hidden in his ear.
"I've finished tracing the complaint."
Jojo adjusted the communicator slightly.
"Address?"
A holographic map appeared on the screen of the tablet he carried.
"The complaint was filed by Beth Harrison. She included her residential address when registering the supernatural emergency request."
Several routes immediately appeared across the digital map before one was highlighted in blue.
"The destination is approximately thirty-eight minutes away under normal traffic."
Leah looked over his shoulder.
"Let's hope Los Angeles remembers what 'normal traffic' means."
Lorraine laughed.
"I think that's asking too much."
Rather than wasting time renting a vehicle, the three hailed a taxi waiting outside the airport.
The elderly driver glanced at the address through the rear-view mirror.
"You folks visiting family?"
Jojo smiled politely.
"You could say that."
The driver shrugged before pulling into traffic.
As the taxi drove deeper into Los Angeles, the city slowly began changing.
The bright commercial districts disappeared.
The towering glass buildings became fewer.
Older neighborhoods gradually replaced them.
The roads narrowed.
Streetlights flickered despite it still being daylight.
Then the first raindrop struck the windshield.
Another followed.
Then another.
Within seconds, the sky opened.
Rain poured down in sheets so dense that even nearby vehicles became blurred silhouettes.
The windshield wipers struggled desperately against the torrent.
The taxi driver clicked his tongue.
"Been raining like this for days."
He shook his head while slowing the vehicle.
"Storm just won't leave."
Jojo quietly looked outside.
Water flowed along both sides of the road like shallow rivers.
Storm drains struggled to keep up.
Several intersections were already partially flooded.
Puddles reflected the flashing traffic lights while thunder rolled across the dark sky.
Something about the weather felt...
Wrong.
Not supernatural.
But unusually persistent.
Leah also noticed it.
"Doesn't look like a normal storm."
Jojo nodded slightly.
"It isn't."
Lorraine leaned closer to the rain-covered window.
"The atmosphere feels heavy."
Nobody spoke after that.
The deeper they traveled into the neighborhood, the older everything became.
Paint peeled from abandoned buildings.
Rust stained balconies.
Several apartment complexes looked decades overdue for renovation.
Eventually, the taxi slowed before stopping beside a worn-out residential building standing at the end of a narrow street.
The apartment complex looked exhausted.
Cracks stretched across the outer walls.
Several windows had been boarded shut.
Rainwater continuously leaked from damaged gutters.
One side of the building still bore visible damage from the recent storm, where broken concrete and twisted metal fencing remained piled near the entrance.
The driver looked toward them.
"You sure this is the place?"
Sara immediately confirmed through the communicator.
"GPS coordinates match the registered address."
Jojo paid the fare before opening the door.
Cold rain immediately soaked his jacket.
Leah pulled up her hood while Lorraine simply ignored the weather altogether.
The three silently looked at the apartment building.
Something about it immediately made the hairs on the back of Leah's neck stand up.
She slowly inhaled.
"...Do you smell that?"
Lorraine frowned.
"I was about to ask the same thing."
There was a smell hidden beneath the scent of wet concrete and rain.
Something rotten.
Something old.
Almost like decaying flesh trapped inside damp walls.
Jojo didn't answer.
His eyes remained fixed on the apartment building.
Somewhere inside...
Something was watching.
Several floors above them...
Inside Apartment 803...
The atmosphere was suffocating.
Every curtain had been pulled shut despite it still being daytime.
Candles flickered around the living room because the electricity kept cutting in and out.
Furniture had been pushed against the doors.
Windows were nailed closed from the inside.
The apartment looked less like a home...
And more like a bunker.
Beth Harrison stood near the kitchen gripping a metal pipe so tightly that her knuckles had turned white.
Her breathing was uneven.
Dark circles rested beneath exhausted eyes that hadn't known proper sleep in days.
Standing behind her were three frightened children.
Kassie.
Danny.
And little Bridget.
All three huddled together behind their aunt, too terrified to even cry anymore.
None of them were looking toward the front door.
Their eyes remained fixed on the bedroom.
The bedroom where iron chains had been bolted directly into the concrete floor.
Heavy industrial restraints stretched across the room, securing a bed reinforced with steel pipes.
Bound to that bed...
Was Ellie.
Or at least...
Something that still wore Ellie's face.
Her skin had become unnaturally pale.
Almost gray.
Black veins pulsed beneath her flesh like living worms.
Her body remained completely still despite the dozens of chains restraining her.
Only her head moved.
Slowly.
Following the children with impossible precision.
Then...
She smiled.
The corners of her mouth stretched far wider than any human face should allow.
A low, rasping laugh escaped her throat.
"Hehehe..."
The voice wasn't Ellie's anymore.
It sounded as though several people were laughing together through the same mouth.
Danny immediately covered Bridget's ears.
Kassie buried her face against Beth's shoulder.
The thing on the bed continued laughing.
Its pitch-black eyes stared directly at the children with hungry amusement.
Then, in a voice dripping with mockery, it whispered,
"Why are you all so frightened...?"
It slowly tilted its head until bones cracked loudly inside its neck.
"...I'm still your mother."
Beth's grip around the metal pipe tightened until her fingers began to ache.
The apartment had become eerily quiet.
Even the rain pounding relentlessly against the windows sounded distant compared to the unsettling silence inside the bedroom.
The thing lying on the bed stopped laughing.
Its unnaturally wide smile slowly disappeared.
Then, for the first time in several days...
Its expression softened.
Almost... human.
The pitch-black eyes gradually returned to their familiar hazel color.
The tension disappeared from its pale face.
Even the muscles that had remained unnaturally rigid seemed to relax.
Beth's breathing caught.
"...Ellie?"
The woman chained to the bed slowly turned her head toward her younger sister.
When she spoke, the voice was different.
Gentle.
Warm.
The same voice Beth had grown up listening to.
"Beth..."
Tears instantly welled in Beth's eyes.
That voice...
She knew that voice.
Ellie smiled weakly.
"You still make that face whenever you're scared."
Beth stood frozen.
The children behind her cautiously looked at one another.
Even Danny lowered the wooden baseball bat he had been clutching.
Ellie let out a small laugh.
"You remember when we were little?"
Beth didn't answer.
She simply stared.
Ellie continued speaking, her eyes becoming distant as though she were remembering happier days.
"You were always getting us into trouble."
A faint chuckle escaped her lips.
"You'd dare me to steal cookies from the kitchen..."
"...and when Mom caught us..."
She smiled a little wider.
"...you'd immediately point at me and blame everything on your innocent older sister."
Beth's lips parted slightly.
That had happened.
Many times.
Ellie laughed softly again.
"And remember Dad's birthday?"
Beth blinked.
"The one where we switched the sugar and salt?"
A tiny smile appeared on Beth's face despite herself.
"...Mom nearly chased us around the whole house with a broom."
Ellie nodded.
"And we hid together inside the old storage shed behind Grandpa's farm."
The room seemed to grow warmer.
For just a moment.
Beth could almost smell the summer fields of their childhood.
She could almost hear the laughter of two little girls running barefoot through the grass.
Ellie's eyes became moist.
"I miss those days."
Beth felt something tighten painfully inside her chest.
This...
This was Ellie.
Nobody else knew about those memories.
Nobody.
Not even her children.
Only the two sisters had shared them.
The children slowly stepped closer to Beth.
"Kassie," Ellie whispered gently.
The little girl looked up.
"It's Mommy."
Bridget's small voice trembled.
"Mom?"
Ellie's eyes filled with tears.
"My babies..."
She tugged weakly against the chains.
"Please..."
"Come here."
"I've missed you so much."
Beth's breathing became uneven.
She wanted to believe it.
God...
She wanted to believe it more than anything.
She wanted this nightmare to end.
Wanted her sister back.
Wanted the children to have their mother again.
Slowly...
Almost unconsciously...
Beth took a single step toward the bed.
Then another.
The metal pipe in her hands lowered slightly.
"Ellie..."
She whispered through trembling lips.
The woman on the bed smiled lovingly.
"That's right."
"It's me."
"You don't have to be afraid anymore."
"Come here."
Beth raised one foot.
Ready to walk closer.
Then—
Thunk.
The sharp pain shot through her foot.
She had accidentally kicked the corner of the heavy wooden desk beside her.
The sudden sting jolted her mind.
Her body instinctively flinched.
Reality rushed back all at once.
Beth blinked.
The warmth she had been feeling vanished instantly.
Her eyes focused properly.
And she looked at Ellie again.
Really looked.
The smile was still there.
But now...
It was wrong.
Far too perfect.
The blinking was irregular.
The breathing wasn't synchronized with the words.
The eyes...
They looked warm.
Yet they contained absolutely no emotion.
They were merely pretending.
Watching.
Waiting.
Beth's heart nearly stopped.
A chill crawled up her spine.
No...
No.
Her sister would never smile like that.
Would never look at her children the way this thing was looking at them.
It wasn't seeing family.
It was watching prey.
Beth slowly tightened her grip around the pipe once more.
The realization struck her with absolute certainty.
This thing knew every memory.
Every secret.
Every laugh.
Every tear.
It had all of Ellie's memories.
But memories alone...
Did not make someone human.
Beth slowly shook her head.
A tear rolled down her cheek.
"No..."
The smile on Ellie's face twitched.
Very slightly.
Beth took another step backward, placing herself between the chained woman and the children.
Her voice was trembling now.
Not from uncertainty.
From heartbreak.
"...You're not my sister."
For a brief second...
Everything became perfectly still.
Then—
Ellie's neck twisted nearly one hundred and eighty degrees with a sickening crack.
The loving smile stretched wider.
Wider.
Until it became impossibly large.
The black veins spread rapidly across her face once again.
And the thing wearing Ellie's body let out a low, distorted laugh.
"Hehehehe..."
Its voice was no longer human.
"Very good..."
It slowly licked its lips with an unnaturally long tongue.
"...I was wondering how much longer it would take you."
The chains around the bed suddenly rattled violently.
One of the steel links groaned under an impossible amount of pressure.
The children screamed.
And somewhere outside...
The sound of a taxi stopping echoed faintly through the rain.
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(Author's POV)
(A/N):
Guys My New Fic name is:
-->Karuppan: King of Openings.
Check it out... I hope you will like it
Whats your thought's guys.
Thanks for reading the chapter!
Please give a review and power stone!!!