Alice trembled in fear as she watched James lift Elena up into the air and squeeze. She flinched as the warm blood and chunks of flesh splattered on her face.
Stunned, all she could do was wipe her face and slowly lower her hands to see the bits and pieces of Elena on her hand.
"Quickly!" someone said as they roughly grabbed her gory hand and pulled her in the direction of the door. All Alice could do was stumble after them in shock. All around her were screams of pain and terror. The sobbing, the begging, and the rushed prayers sounded muffled like she was underwater.
The person pulled her out of the classroom and into a nearby supply closet.
“Snap out of it!” they hissed at her from under their breath.
But Alice couldn’t. Until this day, she had never seen a dead body before. Not to mention her phobia of blood. I took everything in her to keep from gagging as the smell and taste of blood overwhelmed her senses.
The person pulled her into a cleaning supply closet and locked the door. The lights slowly flickered on, and she could finally clearly see the face of her savior.
“J-Jay?”
“Yeah.”
“Wh-What the hell happened in there? Everyone turned into fucking monsters! And Elena! Elena’s fucking head!” Alice couldn’t continue and burst into tears. She kept replaying the moment her head popped off in her mind. The horrified blank stare that met her eyes.
Jay held a finger to his lips, and said quietly, “We have to be quiet, Alice. We don’t want them to hear us.”
Alice nodded as she choked on her breath, “What, what happened back there Jay?”
Jay grimaced. “I don’t know, but I’m sure that we weren’t the only ones hit.”
For what seemed like forever, they hid in the closet, listening in fear as they heard heavy, rapid footsteps pass by and the sobbing screams of schoolmates.
The only thing they could do was sit and wait. They tried contacting people on their phones, but the lines were down.
When the power shut down, all they could do was sit in the darkness. They only used their phones for time since they were trying to conserve the battery.
4 hours later, they heard gunshots and then the sound of the monsters running towards the sound. The screeches and low growls sent shivers down their spines.
“They’re drawn to the sound of the gunshots,” Jay whispered, “I think we should try to leave.”
“But what if some of them stayed behind?”
“Some might have, but we might not get another chance like this.”
“Where are we going to go?”
“My house is a block away. We could go there.” Jay suggested.
“Do you think we’ll be able to make it?”
“I don’t know, but we have to try,” he said solemnly.
They waited for two minutes before they slowly opened the door and peeked outside. Alice quietly gasped when she saw the splattered blood and pieces of flesh decorating the walls and floor.
Jay motioned for her to follow him as he crept towards an exit. Alice stopped staring at the carnage and crept after him, her body tense with fear.
When they got out of the school building, they started to quickly walk out of the campus, passing by torn bodies and scattered glass shards.
A couple more gunshots could be heard in the distance before they were replaced with screams.
Alice shivered in terror at the thought of what happened to the poor soul who was caught by the monsters. Jay didn't visibly react, but he sped up.
After a couple of tense, exhausting minutes, they reached Jay's house.
He pulled the key out from his pocket, unlocked the door, and carefully opened the door.
The metallic stench of blood hit them like a semi. Jay's eyes widened. His body tensed. He walked in slowly, grabbing a baseball bat from the umbrella stand near the door. Alice followed closely behind.
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There were some shuffling noises coming from the kitchen. As Jay crept closer to the kitchen, the metallic smell grew stronger and stronger.
His grip tightened on the bat when he saw his mutated mother crouching over his father, blood pooling around him.
His mother's kind mouth which used to smile warmly at him was now a sharp, wicked beak that was caked with blood and pieces of flesh. She had the same sharp claws as a bird of prey’s and her arms were coated with colorful feathers.
Jay could feel his heart ache and head throb in time with his rising heart rate.
"Mom…" he croaked out.
"Jay! How was school honey?" asked his mutated mother.
"Hey, Jay. Are you ready to go to practice?" she said in his father's voice.
Jay's throat tightened and a tear rolled down his face.
"Hey, Jay. Are you ready to go to practice?" she repeated, like a broken recorder.
Jay gripped his bat tighter. He knew she wasn't human anymore, that she killed his father and that she would try to kill him, but he couldn't bear to strike the thing that was once his mother. Alice saw the broken look in his eyes.
She touched his arm. "If you can't… I'll do it for you…" she said gently.
Jay inhaled. "No… I need to do this myself."
He walked forward slowly, his resolve growing stronger with each step.
"Hey, Jay. Is it OvEr? WheN wiLL Your GaME eNd?" she warbled as she cocked her head and lowered her stance, preparing to strike.
"It will end soon mom," he said in a choked voice.
He raised the bat above his head and swung down with all his might. There was a crack. He swung it again. This time a wet thud. He swung again and again, even as his mother fell to the ground, even as the sound of impact became wetter and wetter.
He felt his throat tighten. It felt hard to breathe.
He was crying now. The tears streamed down his cheeks as they blurred his sight.
"Jay."
Jay stopped and dropped the bat at his side. He fell to his knees beside his mother's side and sobbed. He buried his face in his bloody hands and cried silently.
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Staring down into the sink as the blood spiraled down the drain, Jay sighed and looked up to stare at his haunted eyes in the mirror.
Every time he closed his eyes he could see the scene replaying as though it were a movie. Everything felt surreal and it didn’t feel like his body belonged to him.
Suddenly an out of place cheery chime rang and a screen popped up in from of his eyes.
Do you wish to view [ACR]'s offer? (If you say no, you may need to go through an official channel in order to use our services.)
[Yes] [No]
“What the fuck?”
There was a blue screen.
'Really great timing too. A hallucination right after I see my classmates die and have to bash my mother's head in.'
Hello, we are [ACR]! We offer our services to you! Weapons, food, entertainment, and much much more. We are a reputable company with many customers across the multiverse. What you are using right now is the [ACRS]. The [ACR System]. If you wish to use our services, then just think "Open ACR shop' in your head". If you wish to get a tutorial, then think yes in your head!
Jay was stunned. This hallucination was strangely upbeat, and if it wasn't then why could this weird blue box read his fucking mind?
'Yes.'
So you have decided to use the tutorial. Let's start with the basics. You can choose between mental, touch, and speech interfaces, but you can, of course, customize it. If you pick mental, then you only need to say it in your mind like before. We're not talking about just thinking about it. We're talking about saying it in your head. You need to focus on the thought. The screen will not be visible to others.
The ACR shop has an auction and a normal shop. The form of currency is U coins, but we can, of course, convert your currency for you once we determine the value.
We have analyzed the value of your currency and believe it to be 1000 USD to 1 U coin. The ACR company, of course, owns a bank, so feel free to get a loan. Or you can connect your bank account or input physical items like cash or gold.
Now for how to put physical items into the shop. You just have to go to your balance page and select the option deposit and physical for a box to pop up.
We ask you not to leave your hand in the box before closing it, as you might lose it. The same for auctioning or receiving items. When you are going to send or receive something, our friendly [ACRS] box will pop up.
The box can not be used for combat, so don't try. If you have more questions, there is a query page.
[Jay], would you like to accept our offer?
Stunned by the impersonal customer service tone, Jay reread the thing over at least 10 times.
"Fuck it. Yes."
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Back at the ravaged school, monsters were roaming the hallways and rooms, searching for hidden morsels. One of them seemed to have more sentience than others. It knew words. Letters. It knew its letter.
J