Chapter 108: S#18. Bleedy Witch (5)
by fnovelpia
The blueprint depicted an axe-wielding killer.
A muscular giant with a fierce expression and a sharp hand axe.
It was my current appearance.
“You’re my masterpiece, Summer.”
Reiko approached, placing her soft hand on my cheek.
Her black eyes were as deep as a bottomless well – an abyss of madness.
“Now, guess how I made you.”
I couldn’t possibly know.
This body’s owner was the current Yeoreum.
He was the axe killer. I’m merely a body snatcher who seized control…
For some reason, an old memory surfaced.
The first horror movie I ever saw.
While my parents were out, I secretly watched a videotape – an 80s slasher flick.
A forest killer brutally butchered victims with an axe. A complete psychopath.
Until now, I thought I had possessed that killer.
But the current Yeoreum didn’t seem like a heartless murderer.
He was too kind to kill people.
“Dad always came home late,” Yeoreum said.
“He never told me what he did for a living. Even now, I don’t know what his job was.”
“…”
“My father… was he a killer?”
I realized.
The forest axe killer I saw on that childhood videotape wasn’t Yeoreum.
It was his father.
“I get how you made my original body. Mom must’ve been a killer too. That nasty personality that ruined my childhood says it all. You bred killers.”
“No. Your mother wasn’t a killer.”
“Then?”
“She was the Final Girl.”
Final Girl.
At this unbelievable statement, Yeoreum’s pupils shook violently.
Reiko stroked a smooth crystal ball as she continued.
“A twist of fate, you could say. The woman who survived the killer’s bloody axe rampage fell in love with him. Ironic, isn’t it?”
The love between a killer and the Final Girl.
The child born from that union.
It was a soap opera-worthy secret birth.
“Well, strictly speaking, they weren’t your parents.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s a secret.”
Reiko smiled wickedly at the shaken Yeoreum.
She turned to look at me.
“Anyway, well done. You’ve figured out my masterpiece’s identity and how it was made.”
“Now release Ellen.”
“I can’t do that.”
Reiko shook her head.
“Summer. You defied the moment Ellen was supposed to die by strangulation, didn’t you? So I’ll just kill Ellen.”
Once again, tentacles wrapped around Ellen’s neck. Her struggling form blurred on the giant screen.
At that moment, it was Yeoreum who moved, not me.
He picked up the hand axe he had set down and buried it in Reiko’s crown.
Thwack-
The sound of a splitting watermelon rang out.
The axe blade smashed Reiko’s skull and sank deep into her brain.
“Ow.”
But Reiko didn’t fall.
She simply pulled out the axe lodged in her head, unfazed.
Skull fragments and brain matter clung to the axe blade. The wound on her head healed instantly.
“How rude. Is it okay for an actor to rebel against the director?”
Reiko reached out and grabbed Yeoreum’s hair.
I wasn’t about to just watch. I picked up the axe and chopped off Reiko’s forearm.
The severed white forearm rolled on the ground. I turned to look at Yeoreum.
“Yeoreum, I’ll handle this. Go find Ellen.”
“But…”
“Hurry!”
Ellen’s eyes rolled back as the tentacles tightly squeezed her neck.
She would suffocate soon if not rescued quickly. Yeoreum had to save her while I dealt with Reiko.
Yeoreum ran towards the bushes.
I faced Reiko.
“My, my, Summer. Cutting off the director’s arm. Do you want to get fired?”
Reiko’s severed forearm instantly regrew. Her regenerative ability surpassed that of planarians.
She tried to chase after Yeoreum, who had gone to find Ellen. But I blocked her path.
The inevitable final battle. I charged at her, axe raised.
Reiko gracefully dodged the swinging axe blade. She extended her small fist and struck my abdomen.
WHAM───────────────────────!
A shockwave spread behind my back. Unprecedented impact. My internal organs spat blood.
“Urgh…!”
I hunched over and coughed up blood. Reiko marveled.
“I meant to knock you out, but you’re still standing. Impressive.”
“This weak punch… I could take it all day…”
“Indeed. You truly are my finest creation.”
Reiko raised her fist high.
She struck my swaying back.
An enormous impact hit me. It felt like a meteor had fallen on my back.
My vision spun as my body slammed into the ground. Cracks formed.
My eyes closed. Consciousness faded. But if I lost consciousness here, I’d lose Ellen too.
I had to keep Reiko occupied until Yeoreum found and rescued Ellen.
Through the rising dust cloud, I extended the axe from my prone position.
I sliced off Reiko’s ankle.
“Oh my.”
Reiko fell.
I hurled the axe at her head. Reiko tilted her head back, dodging it easily.
“Did you forget I’m a medium? I can predict the future.”
Her severed ankle regenerated rapidly. She’s completely invincible.
As a cool breeze blew, the ‘BEST’ blueprint depicting this body flew away.
Reiko approached me as I lay fallen.
She stepped on my head with her fully regenerated foot.
“You can never defeat me, Summer.”
“Ugh…”
“The final victor in a horror movie isn’t the hulking killer, but the pitiful beauty.”
Reiko went to the bushes and broke off a branch.
It was as thick as my forearm.
She brought the branch down on my fallen form.
It pierced my chest.
The branch punctured my chest wall and crushed my heart. Blood soaked my internal organs. Hot blood gushed from my mouth.
My vision darkened from the excruciating pain.
Reiko gripped the branch impaling my chest like a handle and lifted my body.
“You know what, Summer? People can fly.”
She swung her arm with all her might, launching my massive frame.
People really could fly.
The starry night sky was beautiful when seen from midair.
Not a bad final view before death.
I’d die instantly if I fell like this.
I’d taken a formidable punch from Reiko, and a branch had impaled my chest, mangling my insides.
I’d lost too much blood. The impact from the fall would double the internal bleeding.
I closed my eyes and prayed Yeoreum had saved Ellen.
The flight didn’t last long. I fell.
Splat-
A much smaller impact sound than expected rang out.
“Urgh…”
I groaned.
It hurt terribly, but I wasn’t dead yet.
The ground was soft. This was a mud swamp.
I would’ve died if I’d fallen on hard ground. A stroke of luck.
Still, my body was in tatters.
I couldn’t fight Reiko again.
Reiko was the mastermind of this horror movie. The final boss, in gaming terms.
Only the Final Girl could defeat her.
Final Girl…
Just then, I saw a dark figure beyond the bushes.
It was Yeoreum, walking while carrying the limp Ellen on his back. Seems he succeeded in rescuing Ellen.
I squeezed out my voice. Yeoreum approached, startled.
Seeing me half-buried in the mud swamp with a branch stuck in my chest, he wore an incredulous expression.
“Summer? What are you doing there?”
“Ellen… is Ellen okay…”
“She’s unconscious. Thankfully still alive.”
One worry lifted.
But we were still on the brink of despair.
“I… I can never beat Reiko…”
“…”
“Only the Final Girl can defeat the mastermind…”
At the end of the forest massacre, that last scene is decorated with a showdown between the killer and the Final Girl.
That’s the law of horror movies.
Yeoreum turned to look at Ellen’s face on his back.
“Final Girl? Then Ellen…”
“Ellen can’t be the Final Girl… because she’s not a virgin…”
I looked at his (Nancy’s) face.
“But you could be…”
I gazed at him(her) desperately.
Yeoreum, grasping the meaning in my eyes, shouted angrily.
“What are you saying?! I’m a man!!”
“But right now… you’re a woman, aren’t you?”
Nancy’s body. Virginity and courage.
She perfectly fits the conditions for a Final Girl.
I crawled out of the mud swamp, coughing blood.
I reached out with trembling hands and grasped Yeoreum’s shoulders.
“Go, Final Girl.”
The forest trees swayed ominously in the chilly wind.
A woman emerged from beyond the bushes.
Long black hair and pale skin.
“…So this is where you were.”
It was Reiko.
Her eyes, fixed on Yeoreum standing alone, were dark and deep.
“You’re alone. Where are Summer and Ellen?”
“They left.”
“Without my permission?”
The dark forest. Only Yeoreum and Reiko remained in the green space surrounded by bushes.
Yeoreum clenched both fists. She declared to Reiko:
“Director. If you don’t want me to ruin your movie, you’d better let me live. You can’t kill me anyway.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m the Final Girl.”
“…Final Girl? You?”
Yeoreum nodded.
Reiko’s face, which had remained expressionless, contorted.
She crouched down.
“Pfft… Bwahahahaha!”
She burst into loud laughter.
0 Comments