The elevator door opened up. James and Aaron were the first to march out after making sure there weren’t twenty wraiths outside the elevator ready to ambush them. It took them a while to realize Gadreel didn't join them.
The man simply stood there in the corner of the elevator, silent.
“Gadreel?” Aaron frowned before speaking up carefully. “Are you alright?”
Gadreel wasn’t alright. He just stood there in utter silence. His hands formed tight, trembling fists as his face twitched. It was clear he was furious, and for the right reason.
At this moment, everything made sense to the Angel, but that realization didn't bring him relief. Instead, it made him really, really angry.
“Yes.” Hearing Aaron’s question, Gadreel looked up at the young man and gave him a small nod. He was struggling to contain his anger. Both James and Aaron could see it, but they didn't know what was going on, and Gadreel had no intention of explaining.
The three of them made their way to Gadreel’s car, a black Sedan. Without a word, Gadreel got into the front seat while James and Aaron got into the back. The Angel drove the car out of the underground parking lot via a ramp.
The entire time, despite what James and Aaron were afraid of, the wraiths didn't do anything. It was as if they were taking a snack break after another kill.
The black Sudan made its way onto a main road of the campus. Gadreel drove as quickly and recklessly as he possibly could. People and objects on the side of the road flew by, but the Angel wasn’t paying any attention to them. Instead, his hands gripped onto the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles were turning white.
“Gadreel.” Aaron called out once again from the backseat. “Are you alright? What’s wrong?”
This time Gadreel didn't even bother answering him.
The car kept on moving, and it took a few minutes for the teens to realize they weren’t leaving the campus. All Gadreel was doing was circling around the campus, looking for someone. But...why? Just as they were about to protest, the Sedan came to a stop on the curb, and the brunette who everyone thought was dead climbed onto the passenger seat of the vehicle.
Katie didn't look too well. Her entire body was covered in blood. Her white t-shirt? It was a red t-shirt now...which was odd considering, as far as James and Aaron could see, there wasn’t a single wound on her body.
“Katie!” But James didn't have time to wonder how that happened. As soon as he saw Katie, alive, he called out in utter surprise. He thought she was dead! But...has she been lost the entire time? “How…”
“Well...those wraiths back there killed me for at least five minutes straight.” Katie growled as she scratched her hair, pulling out a piece of her own flesh that somehow got mixed up in there. “Eventually they just gave up. Disappointing, really.”
When Katie was brought back to life, she barely had a chance to see what was going on when she was killed once again. In this film, these wraiths seemed invincible. Perhaps that was how they were designed by the director of this film. All Katie knew was that they could kill her with the snap of a finger, and that was what they did. For five full minutes, they killed her a thousand different ways, only for her to recover within moments.
Finally, the wraiths just said ‘fuck it’ and abandoned this meaningless mission. Fair enough.
Just like that, Katie started wandering across the street rather aimlessly...until Gadreel found her on the side of the road.
James and Aaron were still confused by what Katie was referring to as the brunette turned to Gadreel. She saw the blank look on his face. “Wow...what’s wrong? Are you feeling guilty for leaving me? Or are you disappointed I lived? Come on...cheer up!”
She slapped Gadreel on the shoulder. The Angel looked up at her before handing her his phone, which showed a single picture. A single processed picture, returned to him via the Ghostscanner App.
In the picture were the six survivors of the group. Katie. Gadreel. Aaron, James, KJ, and Luke. Two of them were now dead.
“Ok...what?” Katie shrugged. She has seen similar pictures countless times in the past hours.
Gadreel didn't answer Katie directly. Instead, in an angle that only Katie could see, his eyes lit up briefly.
That was enough of a hint to make Katie come to the same conclusion Gadreel did.
“Oh shit…” The brunette whispered, her heart sinking as her lips curled up in a look that resembled both surprise and amusement.
----------------------------------------
In a bedroom in an unknown apartment, the countless pieces of flesh and bone scattered across the room suddenly started moving. Slowly, like a set of self-assembling lego, the pieces came together until they formed the woman. In her reassembled hand was her phone.
In the bathroom of the Starbucks, a similar thing happened. Skin, flesh, blood, and bone previously splattered all across the bathroom started twitching. One by one, they combined together before settling in the form of a familiar figure.
Luke.
On the grass field, sunk in a pool of Katie’s blood, a severed head started rolling across the ground. It rolled and rolled until finally finding its target. Soon, the head reunited with its headless body, and a young man stood back up.
Inside the vehicle, Katie gulped while screaming in excitement inside. Oh...Ghostscanner! Ghostscanner! That was the catch with the app! Nice one! But as she turned around and looked at James and Aaron in the back seat, both of whom having no idea what was going on, she couldn’t help but feel a little bad for the two.
She turned to Gadreel, ready to find an excuse for the two of them to get off this car and run for safety. But the fact was that Gadreel had no intention of running. No...his running days were over.
Now, for the first time in a while, he was fighting back.
The Angel turned around in his seat and faced Aaron and James. His voice was cold and emotionless. Only the fire in his eyes showed what he was really feeling.
“Aaron. James.” He said quietly. “You two don’t know this, but Katie and I are not human. I...I am an Angel.” He gestured at Katie. “I don’t know what the hell she is, but she just killed twenty Angels yesterday. Twenty Angels with their powers nearly depleted and their essence mingled with mortal bodies...but Angels nonetheless.”
“Are...are you joking?” James gulped. He wanted this to be a joke. He wanted Gadreel to suddenly crack a smile and say it was all for lightening the mood. But that didn't happen, and this...this was anything but a joke.
“Both of us...we are supernatural entities.” Gadreel stared into the boys’ eyes as he handed them his phone. On the screen, in the post-processing picture, all six of the group were clearly shown.
“The app returns the same picture, but with only the supernatural content remaining. In all the pictures we took...the backgrounds were all greyed out. The chairs...the tables. They weren’t supernatural, so they were no longer in the pictures. That's how this whole app is supposed to work.” Gadreel continued slowly, his voice still low and grave. “Katie and I were still in the picture, and rightfully so.”
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“But tell me...boys. What is so supernatural about you two? If you are human, then you should’ve been greyed out like everything else. But...that didn't happen, did it? No...you two remained in the photo...right beside Katie and me!”
“I…” Aaron stared down at the photo blankly. For a moment, he really didn't know what to say. “But...it has to be a glitch or a plot hole or something, right? I mean...this is a movie! This has to be a plot hole!”
Even as he spoke, Aaron’s body started shifting. His eyes were getting filled with blood, but he didn't seem to realize it. Katie watched as the young man who entered the movie with her started to transform into one of the monsters he tried so hard to run from.
“But…” Aaron made a last stand. “Luke...KJ! They were killed! I...I saw it!”
“Is it so hard for those already dead to die again?” Gadreel declared coldly, crushing Aaron’s last hope. “If my deductions are correct...then the Ghostscanner App doesn’t only reveal supernatural beings. For the people scanned that aren’t already supernatural...they will be converted to wraiths. To...ghosts.”
At that moment, Katie wanted to smile. To laugh. How ironic. If the six of them never used the app, then there would be no wraith on the campus. No threat at all. But whoever was behind this film made sure to toss the six of them into the movie after showing them the misleading original plot. As far as Katie and the others could see, the original cast would’ve been wiped out easily if it wasn’t for the app. Even the opening scenes with the woman were designed to confuse everyone.
These tricks made sure that as soon as Katie and the others entered this movie, they would start taking pictures, and with every picture taken and uploaded, several wraiths would be created. The more cautious the survivors were, the more deadly the situation became.
Of course, the first pictures the survivors took included themselves. The Angel and the Masochist were left alone, but the others...their fates were sealed from the very beginning. They...regardless of how hard they fought, they were never going to leave this movie alive.
Katie should’ve expected this. It was this sense of plot twist and irony that horror movie producers wanted to create. The feeling of trying so hard, only to be met with utter despair.
The interesting thing was that Katie didn't know if this movie was what the director originally had in mind for the four boys. Perhaps that was the plan all along, but perhaps...perhaps this movie was only made like this because Katie and Gadreel joined in. In other words, perhaps it was the two of them that spelled the certain doom for the four boys.
In the back seat of the car, James and Aaron were twitching in pain and disbelief. The terrible realization was just too much for them to handle. They tried so hard...but...why? Why? Why was this happening to them? Why!
Aaron was the first to fall. Within moments, he was no longer the boy who talked to Gadreel about his mother and faith. He was a different beast altogether, and as he stared at Katie and Gadreel with eyes of utter hatred, that fact became terribly clear.
“Die…” He whispered, his voice sounding more animalistic than human. “Die! I...we...we will kill you all! Why should you two deserve to live while we die?”
“So…” As the situation became deadly, Katie glanced at Gadreel. “congrats, Sherlock, but I expected you to run to safety first before doing all these deductions, considering we’re now trapped in a car with two wraiths…and you don’t have your power anymore, remember? Oh wait...”
She suddenly sighed, remembering what she just saw seconds ago. “You sly, self-preserving bastard!”
In the driver’s seat, Gadreel’s eyes lit up brighter than ever before, and now, Katie wasn’t the only one that could see it. So could Aaron and James, who was still struggling in his seat. The boy showed incredible strength, but he was fighting a battle that was already lost.
“Here’s the thing…” In the driver’s seat, Gadreel was whispering, but it was a whisper that no one could ignore. Even the maniacal screams of Aaron paled when compared to the Angel’s voice.
“When I first found myself in this mess, I just wanted to ride things out. I just wanted to live through this without any trouble...and if everyone else dies, then so be it. I didn't give a damn about anyone.”
Angelic power radiated from his body, raising the temperature in the car to an uncomfortable level, but Gadreel didn't mind that. Slowly, he opened the car door and stepped onto the road. A distance away, pedestrians were pointing at him in sheer shock of the celestial entity, but Gadreel didn't care about them either.
He was no longer talking to anyone in the movie, but rather, he was talking to the audiences watching him right now. Oh, and also the very owner of this cinema that had been manipulating him since the very moment he stepped into this cinema.
“But you didn't want to let me off the hook, did you? No...you wanted to hurt me. You wanted to mock me. That’s why you sent these puppets…” He glanced at the boys, especially Aaron. “to talk to me. To talk to us. You wanted to make them seem human, seem likable, just so you can use them to wound me. You wanted to exploit my rare moment of sympathy and selflessness and bring me under your fingers. Make me your toy. Who do you think you are? God?”
The light was getting even brighter. So bright that Katie couldn’t even look at Gadreel anymore without getting blinded. Slowly, as she stumbled off of the car, she felt her skin hurting. From her more than plentiful experience with pain, she knew it was because her very skin was slowly boiling from the sheer heat.
Not far away, Aaron and James struggled their way off the car as well, but they were in an even worse situation than Katie. The celestial power of Gadreel ravaged through their bodies, threatening their evil existence. Inhuman screeches left their mouth, only to fall upon deaf ears.
“Well, guess what?” Gadreel looked up into the sky. Already, certain parts of the car he was in were catching fire. “Your wish just came true. Congrats, you have struck me where it hurts, and now, I’m not gonna leave this place. No...I’m gonna tear this place down to the ground, and soon, between you and me, only one will stay standing.”
With that final declaration, golden light exploded from all around the angel, consuming everything in its way. The black Sedan was the first to be melted into a ball of flaming semi-liquid piece of metal. Aaron’s twisted body lasted mere moments before completely evaporating off the surface of this world.
For the boy, it was an act of mercy. Gadreel saved him from the fate of forever being enslaved by his killer. And...perhaps he’s now with his mother? Did his mother even exist, or was Aaron’s whole story crafted by the owner of this cinema to insult Gadreel? No one knew, and truth to be told, no one cared.
Not far away, James was lying motionless on the ground. The young man has demonstrated a surprising level of resilience. Even as his body was being boiled and his soul was hit hard by the tidal wave of celestial might that Gadreel was unleashing, James was still alive. Even with all the strikes landing on him, he still did his best to persist.
He refused to give up. At the last moment of his existence, even as his soul was already damned, James finally did what he couldn’t do his entire life. He stood his ground and fought.
That was when a figure collapsed right next to him. James’ eyes were half-blinded, but he could distinctly tell the figure was a certain brunette. Of course, considering half of her head was on fire, she wouldn’t be a brunette for too long…
James could no longer speak, and nor could he move. All he could do was watch Katie lean up against his ear.
“Don’t worry.” Katie whispered in a charred voice. She could tell James was still fighting. He just refused to go down, yet...if the will to fight was everything, then a lot of people she knew would still be alive. She couldn’t save him, but she could do something else for him. “I’ll make sure whoever is behind this place joins you in death. That person...that person dies today. I promise.”
Protecting was never her strong suit. Vengeance, on the other hand…that was something she had quite the experience with.
As if satisfied with the promise, James gave Katie one last nod before he stopped fighting. His body started transforming into a monster, only to be immediately obliterated by the apocalyptic prowess.
As the last of the four boys perished, Katie turned her attention back to Gadreel. She had to admit the Angel was a lot more powerful than she expected. Honestly, after picking off the Angel kill team one by one, Katie had little respect for these so-called celestial beings. Truth to be told, she wondered how they even survived against the Dark Pantheon and other factions out there.
But now, she was humbled. Perhaps the foot soldiers she killed have exhausted their powers already, but Angels like Gadreel that have been careful with their spending...they were still capable of immense destruction. Maybe that was why the Dark Pantheon never made its way into Los Angeles. A frontal assault would lead to great casualties and open the Pantheon up to attack from other factions.
Since her body and soul were immortal, Katie couldn’t die in this movie, but her healing factor didn't exist on the body she was in. Skin, flesh, and bone alike peeled away under the scorching heat. Gadreel, in his fury, didn't bother exempting Katie from his strikes, and Katie was completely fine with it. Sometimes, rapid healing really took away a lot of fun from her.
As Katie’s mind wandered to a million places and her body was turned into a piece of overcooked meat, things were finally starting to turn. The very fabrics of this world started falling apart under the celestial wrath. Space itself folded, and before Katie knew it, she was back in that cinema auditorium.
And judging from the lack of pain...yep, she was back in her own body.
In front of her were dozens of rows of seats, most of them packed with all sorts of audience. Some of them appeared normal on the surface while others were clearly not human. Many of them stood up from their seats in shock at the abrupt end of the film.
Right beside Katie, Gadreel’s eyes snapped open, revealing two pupils that were radiating golden destructive energy. Breaking out of the movie was anything but easy, but as Gadreel took a step forward, it became clear that he wasn't quite done just yet.
Screw self-preservation. Screw peace. Today, the Angel is going to war.