A loud crack of thunder made the air around me shake. Then, there was silence.

I slowly opened my eyes, ready to see my son torn apart, ready to see myself torn apart.

Instead, I saw the sadist, with nothing but torn flesh where its head had once been a moment before.

"Jared!" Aaron yelled out while looking behind me.

I couldn't believe it.

Standing directly behind me, was Jared. He held the gun in his remaining arm, while he bled profusely from the stump where his other arm had been. I was speechless. I thought we were done for, I thought that there was no way we would ever survive, but he had wrested victory from despair.

He looked at the sadist’s wound where its head had been, then at me.

He smiled, pushed the gun into my arms, then collapsed.

The sadist... was still standing.

Although its head was reduced to nothing, it still stood there and... twitched its arms.

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Jared had said there were four shots left... he fired three times so...

The sadist's legs twitched, it turned to Aaron, ready to spring at him in one last spiteful strike.

...You aren't touching my son.

The sadist leaped... and I pulled the trigger.

Before it could even get into the air, its chest exploded in a burst of blood and gore.

I set the gun aside and quickly moved to Jared so I could check his pulse.

He was still alive, for now. I had to think fast and treat his arm before it turned into a fatal wound. Damn it, I didn't know too much about first aid, let alone how to treat a severed limb. Shit, shit, shit... I started to scatter around the room to look for a cloth or something to stop the bleeding.

"Uh, dad..." Aaron muttered in a frightened tone behind me.

I turned towards him, to see him staring at the sadist's body. A shiver ran through my entire body. Its left arm was twitching. Instantly, I was on my feet, picked up the gun, lifted it above my head and slammed the butt of the gun onto the sadist's arm. Again and again and again, I clubbed it as it continued to twitch. It wouldn't stop moving.

You're kidding me... there's no way it's still alive! After all that, after all of that... It can't be alive! Stop moving... stop moving... stop moving!

At some point, I realized that I was screaming. "Don't get back up! Stay down! Stay dead! Die! Die! Die! DIE!"

The arm suddenly snapped off, prompting me to stop swinging, and for a moment all was still.

"Is it... dead?" Aaron asked, his voice shaking.

My entire body was shaking. I looked around wildly, my vision blurring. As everything went black, I thought I could see the severed arm of the creature slowly crawling on the floor.

"Dad!" Aaron screamed, and I lost consciousness.