Ralph woke up with a start. He would've puked from the pain but he had already taken the worst of it before dying.

The nurse was there again. Ralph walked to the counter with great mental effort, tolerating the pain that made his head feel heavier.

Upon seeing Ralph's expression of pain. The nurse got up from her seat and called out to him.

"Are you okay, Your face looks paler than it should be. Should I call an ambulance for you?"

Ralph felt relief after hearing from another human after such a long while. He was about to tell her everything before going home, even if it meant him going to an actual asylum. He opened his mouth to speak up, and that's when he saw the nurse disappear from his sight.

It took less time than it took to blink once.

He kept looking at the place where she disappeared from in a daze which was broken by the sounds of several crashes that took place all over the town.

He walked out of the hospital once again. This time, not so sure about whether he could save his parents.

'They hadn't gone somewhere else, all of them disappeared. I think I will need some time to digest this information.'

With an empty gaze, he dragged his feet back the way he had grown accustomed to.

He sat down and just sat there for hours, ignoring hunger and thirst, his head ached from low blood sugar and the new stress.

He stood up when he could no longer contain it. He picked up the car keys and raced across the town looking for a shadow to take out his anger on. The last death he had was too scary even for him.

His long search ended when he found one inside a dark garage. This discovery somewhat matched his hypothesis.

'So they can be formed inside houses, but my house hasn't been dark at all, and that one looked different than these guys, It had a face, it smiled when it stabbed my heart.'

'The shadows don't even go away from the places they are born at. So either it somehow formed inside my house or came from elsewhere. That would mean that Mr Smiley is strong enough to last for some time in the sun.'

'It's most likely that it followed me from Wiltsville. I've been cleaning up the town a lot recently. Even if it wanted to kill me in my sleep it could've done it already had it been following me all this while.'

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'It must've had a greater search radius than the normal ones. It all boils down to my strength. If I can kill it, I can become even more stronger. Surely, the variant will give more strength.'

"I should start hunting now that I have another challenger waiting for me.'

He swung the machete down on the shadow that was waiting for his monologue to end.

He went around the town again and couldn't find any more shadows.

Then he decided to take a look at the assault rifles at the gun store. The store had a locked front as usual.

Ralph took out the bolt cutters and secured an entrance.

' I think I should try the shooting range.'

He picked up an assault rifle and navigated through its parts. After a while, he figured out how to reload it.

It wasn't much different from the gun he had been using. The media had several depictions of its use as well.

He braced his shoulder with the stock and set the gun to single-fire. He took a rough aim at the target and fired his first round. Most of them didn't land on the target at all. A few landed due to the adjustment by recoil.

'It appears that increasing proficiency will take some time. I should try my hand with the sniper as well if Smiley is on the lookout. Let us play a game of hide and seek. If I find you first, don't expect to live. If you killed me again wouldn't that be too shameful?'

He picked up a sniper and walked out of the store with his loot. The hunger was getting to him now.

'Let's cook up something for the occasion, shall we?'

He parked outside and took a shower. He felt clarity about his goal.

'I need more power if I want to survive.' The food tasted better after a long day.

After eating he tried to sleep but every time he felt like he was drifting to sleep, the paranoia hit and left him wide awake. The safety that one felt in bed was always false but no one knew that death was roaming outside.

Ralph got up after an hour of squirming around. He locked up every window and door throughout the house. The door to his bedroom was locked as well after he entered. He turned on the air conditioner which dried his eyes usually and slipped inside his blanket.

Some sense of safety arose from these precautions and he finally went to sleep. No creature haunted his sleep that day, he was just that tired. No nightmares for the heavy-hearted.