Act 20

` Three years passed, Lily and Xavier moved from their apartment to a new house down their street. Xavier managed to fit in the neighborhood without anyone recognizing him even the men who hunted him were oblivious of him but he chose to forgive and forget. He found a job one year after and worked at the same library as Lily did as a janitor, they worked side by side and enjoyed each other’s company and Lily’s life wasn’t been any sweeter from that day forward but that not the ending of the story for the creature of the abandoned manor. Over the past months the crime rates began to increase in the town near them, robberies, murders, child kidnappings, psychopaths escaping from their holding cells, etc. Lily feared that one day their town will soon be infected by this disease and their streets will no longer be safe anymore. Her grasp on Xavier’s arm tightened and he noticed the fear on his beloved’s eyes, “I have to do something” he thought then he remembered the wish. A spark of enlightenment flashed into Xavier’s mind that day, a sense of purpose so he reassured Lily that everything is going to be alright and put his arm around her. A faint smile was painted on Lily’s face and Xavier returned his attention to the news on the television. A few weeks had passed since that day and the two was walking to buy some groceries when they noticed a missing person flyer posted on the town’s bulletin broad, “MISSING, Tommy Rogers went missing after a midnight hangout with friends” the headline said. Tommy was the local errant boy in town, doing jobs for the elderly and never been to any sort of trouble was an all-around good young man. The two gasped in shock at the sight of it, they knew him dearly and he would occasionally greet them on their way to work and sometimes he would help Xavier in heavy duty tasks in the library. Xavier saw this as a calling, a trial of his new purpose so he urged Lily to go on ahead that he would make a quick stop and he would catch up, Lily nodded and he kissed her on the forehead before separating. He made his way to the police station and ask for further information on the disappearance of young Tommy, Xavier was already known by the townsfolk and was trusted by everyone including the police. The officer that was in charge of the case was friend on his and he gladly gave the info saying that he was heading home for a late-night video game session at his friend’s house, when they asked his friend “Scott” said that he left around 12:30 but he didn’t come home according to his folks. We speculated that it was a kidnapping on the count of a psychopath far from repair escaped from the mental hospital on a town not far from here. “Well, where did Scott live?” Xavier asked. “Well, he lives 5 blocks south of the entrance of the forest. A concerned citizen reported that he saw Tommy passing by him while he was talking a smoke, Tommy even waved at him but we he took another glaze at him he just gone. He scoffed it off from the lack of sleep then he saw the posters.” the officer answered. Xavier was lost in his thought at this point but he had a theory of where he was probably taken to his old mansion and pondering if he was still alive but he had to make sure, he thanked the officer and went to the grocery store. Later that night, he told Lily that he was going to take an evening walk around town saying he felt like it. Lily disagreed but he reassured her that he would be careful, she eventually agreed and Xavier said that we already deadbolted the windows and the backdoor and if anything happens Brutus was there to protect her, Brutus was a large dog and was capable for the job. The faithful companion barked in agreement and Xavier patted him on the head, kissed Lily on the chick before heading out into the night.

He found himself in front of the entrance to the forest and still remembered the old days. Luckily, he was wearing all black and it blended into the darkness of the forest and headed to the old mansion. After a few minutes of striding deeper into the woods, he eventually arrived at the old house still the same as he left it a few years back. He strained his ears and could hear the faint sound of sobbing and a soft maniacal laughter coming from inside the house. His suspicion was correct and he began morphing into his shadow form, his skin began to darken and shadowy cloak wrapped around him, his eyes glowed and he jaw became bared fangs. When he was finished transforming, he quietly stalked towards the left side wall and climbed using his dark tentacles. When the crying and laughing became more audible, he picked between the crack in the wall and see saw Tommy tied up from the leg up to his mouth in the very room he saved Lily once before. He had bruises and slashes all over his body, “He was torturing him.” he muttered to himself then another feature came up in his peripheral vision, he was wearing an all-white shirt and pants signaling that he was indeed the psychopath who escaped the mental institution, he brandishing a bloodied knife towards the sobbing boy and laughing harder as his cries intensified. Xavier had enough and slowly passed through the cracks in the walls to ambush the demented fiend. Tommy cried and wailed as his assailant came closer and closer preparing for another strike while laughing but Tommy stopped as he saw black ooze coming out the walls. When the serial killer was inches in front of him, he didn’t cry nor plead for mercy, he only watched as a shadowy creature showed his full form and gestured for him to keep quiet. Tommy just looked at him confusingly and the serial killer noticed this immediately. “What’s wrong boy, you look like you saw a ghost” he said and laughed at his own joke then with a blink of an eye, Tommy watched as a black tentacle wrapped around the demented serial killer’s waist and was raised to witness the thing that grabbed him then Xavier pulled him out of the room leaving Tommy alone. After a few seconds of contemplating on what was going on, Tommy heard distant breaking of wood and the laugh of the murderous serial killer was replaced by cries of fear and pain.