Rene and the killer stood in silence, staring each other down. The only sound in the room was the loud, grinding chainsaw.
I will live.
The Chainsaw Killer erupted forward. "RAAAAH!!!"
He slashed down at Rene, but Rene dodged just in time. The miss caused the killer to split the oven perfectly in half, and in retaliation, Rene stabbed him in the back with the kitchen knife.
The killer roared again. "RAAAAAAH!!!"
Rene yanked the knife out of the man's back just before the killer turned with a swift, wide swing. Rene backed up into the counter to avoid it. Using the momentum of that first swing, the killer attacked again, and this time Rene slipped to the side, the chainsaw carving the counter clean in half.
Rene lunged forward and slashed the killer across the stomach. Blood came, but not enough to fully open the wound.
I never knew I could fight like this...
The killer's eyes burned even redder, and his muscles swelled as he began swinging wildly. Rene backed away in quick steps, the chainsaw nicking his cheek once, but he kept dodging until his back met a wall.
I almost like every time I hurt him, he gets stronger.
The killer suddenly drove a punch straight into Rene's chest. The blow was so powerful it sent Rene barreling through a wall and into a hallway, though he managed to stumble back to his feet almost immediately.
What hell is the layout of this cabin?!
The killer burst through the wall after him and instantly followed up with a kick to Rene's stomach, launching him through the door behind him. Rene rolled sharply and got back up.
He was in a different bedroom, though it was built the same as the last. The killer rushed in and swung again. Rene dodged and countered with a stab to the killer's shoulder blade.
The killer screamed, "NNNYYAAAAH!!!"
He swung his chainsaw again. Rene dodged it and slashed him across the chest. The killer attacked once more, and Rene slipped away again, answering with another slash across the chest.
I need to go for more critical spots.
Rene went for the killer's head, but the strike was stopped instantly by the killer's hand. Rather than grabbing the blade, the killer blocked the stab with his palm, driving the knife through his hand. He did not even flinch before smacking Rene hard across the face with that same hand, knocking him to the floor. Then he pulled the knife out and tossed it aside.
Dammit, my only weapon...
The killer roared, "RAAAAH!!!"
Before Rene could even process what had happened, the chainsaw—blade first—was thrown at his face like a spear. Rene barely managed to dodge to the side, the chainsaw grazing his shoulder before slamming into the wall behind him.
The killer then punched Rene square in the face, knocking him into the wall beside the buried chainsaw. Rene's nose started bleeding.
The killer shouted in shock and fury, "What is HAPPENING?!!"
Rene stared back, stunned. "What?"
The killer yanked his chainsaw from the wall and prepared to strike again, but before he could, the floor beneath Rene suddenly opened, and Rene fell through it.
The floorboards snapped shut before the killer could react.
Rene dropped through darkness for what felt like a very long fall.
What the- What happened?!
Looking down, he could see light far below.
Am I just going to fall to my death? After all of this?!!
Then Rene fell perfectly—into the arms of A.C.
Rene's eyes shot wide open. "What the hell... A.C.?!"
A.C. stood there beside Arthur.
Rene started to speak, still dazed. "How are you—"
A.C. cut him off immediately. "Arthur and I can regenerate." He dropped Rene onto his butt.
Rene stood up with a grimace, rubbing the spot he landed on.
A.C. looked him over. "I'm surprised you're even alive. You look rough dude."
Rene let out a weak breath. "Yeah... I do—"
A.C. kept going, blunt and matter-of-fact. "Jeeeeez, broken ribs, bleeding nose, bleeding from the mouth, slash on your thigh, back, and chest. Cuts on our arms and cheeks."
Rene stared at him. "How do you know I broke my ribs?"
A.C. answered immediately. "X-Ray vision. One of the many perks of being a monster."
Rene blinked. "You have X-Ray vision, but you didn't see or hear the dude with the chainsaw?"
Arthur spoke up calmly. "The cabin is alive."
Rene frowned. "Huh- What?"
Arthur explained in the same calm tone, "The presence I felt when we entered the cabin was the cabin itself. The cabin has a genre."
Rene stared at him. "And that is..."
Arthur answered plainly. "The Cabin."
Rene sighed. "I should have expected that."
A.C. crossed his arms. "It can manipulate its interior and completely hide creatures within it. That's why we didn't see or hear the chainsaw guy, it completely obscured us from hearing or sensing him. My only question is... how did YOU dodge him?"
Rene looked down at himself, still trying to make sense of it. "My body just reacted on its own..."
A.C. and Arthur both turned to look at him.
A.C.'s tone sharpened with sudden excitement. "Ho-ly shit, did you get a genre?"
Rene blinked. "What- Did I?"
"I mean shoot, what happened up there?"
"I was just dodging the killer. I even fought him a little."
A.C. raised a brow. "Have you ever fought in your life?"
"No."
"And you're the same guy who got killed by a MoPeG..."
"Yep. Yet I was punched through multiple doors and walls..."
A.C. nodded. "Oh yeah, you totally got a genre."
Rene looked between them, thrown off. "What role would I fit?!!"
Arthur answered simply, "It just comes to you."
Rene frowned. "What.. what does that mean?"
A.C. pointed a finger at Rene. Above A.C.'s head, the words THE MONSTER appeared.
A.C. spoke again. "Something like this!"
Rene shook his head. "That doesn't explain how I know what I am."
A.C. lowered his hand. "I mean, you should have an idea eventually. Eventually it'll just pop in your head, and you'll know what you are."
Rene looked at him, still not satisfied. "I- Ok. How are you so sure that I got a genre?"
A.C. answered at once. "Noticeable changes in your body. Your muscles have gotten hellishly bulkier, and your bones are tougher. You're going through rapid physical progression, which means you have a genre, and a genre that might actually be useful. Dude, what do you do?"
Rene frowned. "What do you mean?"
A.C. waved it off. "Nothing, never mind."
Arthur spoke again, still calm. "After the chainsaw killer cut both of us down, the cabin sent us down here."
Rene looked around, uneasy. "And where exactly is 'down here'? Is this a basement?"
Arthur pointed toward the bright light in front of them.
"No, we're in the chest of the cabin. Whatever is down here is its heart, the only way to destroy it."
Rene stared. "Wait, was this cabin once a living thing? A person?"
Arthur shook that off. "Not at all, but now it's living, and it's conscious, and it's helping the chainsaw killer for some reason."
A.C. immediately moved toward the light. "Then lets kill it!"
Rene jolted. "Woah! Shouldn't we—"
Arthur remained calm. "Ah relax brash soul. A.C.C is fine. He's the strongest life form in the world."
Rene looked at him. "What?"
A.C. stepped into the light and saw a giant wooden heart, beating and full of some sort of white energy.
"Time for me to rip you out!"
Then a cabin wall manifested in front of him, blocking his path.
A.C. stopped for half a second, then scoffed. "You think a wall can stop me?!"
He ran through it effortlessly, but suddenly he heard the sharp, ripping sound of a chainsaw cutting through the air above him.
It was the killer, dropping from the sky, ready to cut A.C. down.
The Chainsaw Killer landed in front of him with a violent crash and charged.
The killer roared, "RAAAAAH!!!"
A.C. didn't even flinch. "Unlucky you, I'm on guard now."
The killer screamed as he rushed in, "RAAAAAAH!!! WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME?!!"
A.C. wavered slightly, then looked at him with something almost pitying.
"Oh, oh. I see, you're confused. Poor thing, poor human, you got this genre against your will, didn't you?"
The killer managed to strike A.C. with the chainsaw, but the blade could not even break his skin. It was like trying to cut diamond.
The killer kept swinging and swinging and swinging wildly at him, but nothing worked.
A.C. just stood there staring.
The killer screamed, "I'M SO SCARED, I'M SO CONFUSED!!!"
Rene and Arthur could only stare at what was happening.
Rene finally managed, "What's going on? What is he doing?"
Arthur answered quietly, "I believe that the killer was once a innocent man."
Rene frowned. "Innocent how? He embodied a chainsaw killer enough to actually become one!"
Arthur's tone stayed even. "Sometimes the universe picks people who can be monsters I'm afraid. You don't only need to perfectly fit the description of a genre to get one. If the world believes you can become something, you can just become it."
The killer screamed louder, "KILL ME KILL ME KILL ME!!!" and kept swinging and swinging and swinging.
A.C. only stared at him.
Then A.C. removed his sunglasses, revealing sharp yellow eyes. They looked completely dead and emotionless, yet his head tilted slightly as tears began to run down his cheek.
A.C. spoke softly. "What a pity."
Arthur continued, still explaining to Rene. "Rene. There are countless jobs we've taken where innocent people have been turned into monsters. Admittedly, not all roles can be perfectly fulfilled. Sometimes the universe improvises by picking whoever it sees as the closest to that role, even if the person is nowhere close to a monster, even if they fit the physical requirements."
The killer let out another roar. "RAAAAAAAH!!!!"
He rammed the chainsaw right through A.C.'s stomach.
This time, it actually penetrated.
A.C. still did not flinch. He simply stared at the killer for a moment before pulling him into a hug.
The killer immediately thrashed. "GET OFF OF ME!!!"
The hug tightened as A.C. pressed his own head against the killer's.
A.C. spoke low and firm. "Quit struggling."
Within that instant, A.C. caught a glimpse deep inside the killer's mind.
He saw a man—no older than thirty—sitting alone in a dark room, crying into the silence.
The man's voice was broken, hollow with guilt. "I'm so sorry... everyone."
His name was Gerald Dold. He was twenty-eight years old, a husband, and the father of one seven-year-old girl. He had once been an innocent lumberjack. The night he was forcibly turned into the Chainsaw Killer was his daughter's birthday. Many people had come that day—friends, family, loved ones—and all of them had been killed by his own hands.
A.C. looked down at him, his voice suddenly gentler. "It was never your fault."
Then A.C.'s body began to do something strange.
It started to absorb the Chainsaw Killer's body, almost like sinking someone into quicksand, except A.C.'s own body was the thing swallowing him whole. The killer's form was pulled deeper and deeper into him until, at last, he was gone. The chainsaw dropped to the floor, then dissolved into orange dust.
Rene stared, stunned. "What did he just do?"
Arthur answered plainly, without a hint of hesitation. "He put him out of his misery."
Rene looked between them. "By?"
A.C. responded matter-of-factly, as if this were completely ordinary. "I absorbed him. I can just do that."
Rene blinked. "You absorbed him... through your clothes?"
A.C. gave a small shrug. "Again, I can just do that."
Rene stared for another second, then slowly nodded. "I-I guess."
"Ok, so now that he's out of the way..." A.C. turned his attention toward the wooden heart.
Then, abruptly, the world around them seemed to fall apart.
The space peeled back, revealing the actual sky and the outside world. They had thought they were underground, but they were still above ground. The most shocking sight of all, though, was the cabin itself—because the cabin had grown two wooden legs and was running away.
Rene stared at the fleeing house in complete disbelief. A.C.'s face was unreadable beneath the things concealing it, and Arthur stood there with stoic calm, watching the cabin retreat as though this was only mildly inconvenient.
Rene finally managed, "What the hell—"
"HEY GET BACK HERE!!!" A.C. shouted after the cabin.
Arthur remained composed. "Well, our job was to only kill the chainsaw killer. We have no need to pursue the cabin."
A.C. scoffed. "It could have been a double kill though!"
Arthur answered dryly, "That'd be mean towards the cabin."
A.C. snapped back, "You think the cabin cares?!"
Arthur glanced after it. "Well, it is running away.."
A.C. sighed in defeat. "Fuck it, whatever." He turned and began walking back toward the car.
Rene stared after him, still trying to process everything. "What even—"
Arthur cut him off with the kind of calm certainty that made the whole thing worse. "Get used to it."
Arthur turned and headed back toward the car, and Rene followed after him.
After one long car ride home, the three of them sat on the couch.
A.C. leaned forward and looked at Rene. "Ok, after all of that do you finally believe me?"
Rene answered honestly. "After all of that I have no choice but to believe you."
A.C. brightened immediately. "Great! So... now what."
Rene looked at him. "You tell me..."
A.C. took a long, hard look at Rene's heavily damaged and still bleeding body.
"How are you... still conscious?"
Rene gave a tired breath. "I was wondering the same thing."
A.C. nodded. "It must have something to do with your genre."
Rene looked down at himself. "I had a feeling it did."
A.C. shifted a little, suddenly more serious. "Rene, I have a proposition for you."
Rene glanced up. "Mhm?"
A.C. spoke plainly. "From what you told me earlier today, you're homeless and you have no job, correct?"
Rene gave him a flat look. "I can already see where this is going, and no. I'm still a complete stranger and you're a creepy stranger."
A.C. threw his hands up. "Whaaaat, it's a good idea! Plus you get money, and free shelter—"
Rene looked around. "There's another room in this house?"
A.C. started explaining, as if this was all perfectly normal. "Three people live here, and there are three bedrooms. I don't, so I kind of roam the house at night, so my room is the living room. Arthur sleeps in one room, the other person sleeps in his room, and we do have a fourth member who recently moved out to work further out in the world. That leaves a clean room open for you."
Rene's expression shifted. "Aaand, I get money?"
"Every now and then, we get an equal split of the job money."
Rene thought about it for a second. "If I do live here, do I get to live here for free?"
A.C. tilted his head. "For the most part yeah..."
"For the most part?"
"As long as you join us on jobs."
Rene looked at him again. "Does it have to be every job?"
"Nah, just ones you'd work well in. I wouldn't grab you to fight a ghost or anything."
Rene answered immediately. "I'm in."
A.C. blinked. "I- I didn't expect you to agree so easily."
Rene shrugged slightly. "It's free living and a job."
"Aren't you the same guy who wanted to die a couple of hours ago?"
Rene's gaze drifted upward. "For some reason, I feel like dying is impossible for me, it's almost like... I'm a survivor..."
And suddenly, above his head, the words THE SURVIVOR appeared.
A.C. jolted with excitement. "EEEEEE!!! So that's your genre! You're the... survivor?"
Rene looked up at the words hovering over him. "I... am?"
He stared at them a little longer.
"What does that... mean..."
A.C. shrugged. "Don't know, but you can figure that out on your own. Your room is to the left."
Arthur stood up and started to leave. "I'm going to bed."
A.C. waved him off. "Sure, whatever man."
Arthur entered his room.
Rene let out a breath. "I guess I should sleep too."
A.C. glanced at him pointedly. "Yeah, sleep while you're profusely bleeding. Maybe your survivor abilities will heal you."
Rene didn't seem especially concerned. "Honestly, I don't care if they do."
He walked toward his room.
A.C. called after him, "Hey, if you die in your sleep, I'll just bring you back alive!"
Rene replied over his shoulder, "Ok..."
He entered the room. It was empty and clean, with a single bed sitting in the middle of it.
Prayers to dying in my sleep.