The House at the End of the Street

Chapter Thirty: Finale Part Two

Jhett threw his spear at Salvullaz, but it bounced off his skin without harming him. Salvullaz swung his sword, hitting Conner and Jack and flung them across the field. I threw my machete towards Salvullaz, but he blocked it with his double-sided sword.
"Get the fireworks!" I whisper-yelled to Mae.
She ran back into the woods to light them, but the fuses were soaked from the rain. Mae ran back over to me to tell me what I already knew.
"Fuses are wet. We can't light them since they are wet," Mae said, running back to us.
Jhett threw his spear into Salvullaz's back, finally able to stab him. Unfortunately for us, he just pulled out the spear from his back and threw it backwards.
"We need to find his weak spot. Once we do that, we can stab him with the stuff from Ruby's Knife," Jhett said, running over and catching his spear mid-air.
"You were able to pierce his back, but it barely went through," I replied.
I ran up to Salvullaz and thrusted my machete into his stomach, piercing him. Salvullaz was stunned for a little bit, but he came back to reality. I pulled out my machete, trying to get another hit on Salvullaz, but he kicked me, sending me flying backwards into the street.
"Zack!" Jhett said, dropping his weapon and running over to me.
I lifted up my head to see Mae shoot an arrow at Salvullaz, but it missed and hit Jack. Jack fell to the ground and the arrow was pushed through his chest.
"Oh no," I said, getting up off the ground and running over to Jack's body.
Jhett helped me walk over there, Mae and Conner were already over there. Salvullaz backed up away from us, smiling like he knew what was going to happen. I kneeled down next to Jack's body, but his fingertips were turning a dark, pitch black.
"What...?" I mumbled, looking up at Salvullaz.
"I'm surprised you haven't figured it out yet," Salvullaz said, suspicious.
"Figured out what?" Conner asked.
I looked back to Jack and saw that his entire body was engulfed by the black substance and was now completely a pitch black. Jack opened his eyes. His pupils were black with a small little white spot in the middle.
"Jack..." Jhett asked, scared by what was happening.
Jack started to levitate upwards and stood upright, lying a few feet above the ground.
"He's not Jack..." Mae said.
"No, he's a shapeshifter," Salvullaz finished.
"Why did it take you sooo long to figure it out!? I tried to kill you multiple times!" The shapeshifter yelled at us.
So, what this means is that Jack had actually died in the explosion and the shapeshifter had taken over Jack's body to seem like he was Jack, but he wasn't. The shapeshifter was needed by Salvullaz so he could trick us and try to kill us easily, but when that failed, he decided to try and kill us himself.
"I'm outta here. You can keep my soul, I don't really care anymore," The shapeshifter said, snapping and disappearing into thin air.
Jack was gone.
"Haha. I win," Salvullaz said, thrusting his sword into the ground and throwing us far backwards.
I hit a tree and fell to the ground, hitting my head on the ground with a thud. I opened my eyes and looked up where I was greeted with the same forest I had seen in a vision that I had a little bit ago. My body hurt so bad and I could barely move.
"Jhett! Conner! Mae! Anybody!?" I yelled, my voice echoing through the forest.
I tried to stand, but the pain coursing through my body was too much and I collapsed onto the ground, lying against the tree. It hurt to breathe. I felt like I was going to die, right then and there.
"Zack!" A voice yelled.
It was Jhett!
"Zack!" Another voice yelled.
Mae was with Jhett. It was probably all three of them looking for me.
"I'm over here!" I yelled, trying to stand, but still couldn't find the strength to do so and fell back over.
Jhett, Mae, and Conner came running over to me where I was lying next to the tree.
"Holy crap, we thought you died!" Conner exclaimed.
"What happened?" I asked.
"Salvullaz did something to fling us far away from the house, probably wanting to kill us," Mae replied.
"Are y'all giving up?" I asked.
Nobody answered.
"I'll ask again, are y'all giving up?" I asked, finally finding the strength to stand up.
"There's no possible way to defeat him... and unfortunately, that's the head truth," Jhett said, looking down at his feet.
"After everything we've been through... y'all are just going to give up??" I asked, mad at everyone for not going through the plan.
"We just can't fight anymore. Kaycie died from Salvullaz and we can't risk losing anybody else," Mae replied.
I jumped onto a rock that was placed right next to us.
"We have been fighting for our lives since Halloween. We have gotten so close to winning, then someone dies and we fall apart. I blame myself specifically for falling apart when Dade died. We have lost many people, Philip, Kaycie, Jack, Gracie, Philip, Ethan, and Dade are just some of the people who lost their lives to help stop Salvullaz.
We've traveled deep into the underworld to wheld the Ruby's Knife, we've tried countless things to try and kill Salvullaz and all have failed. We can't give up now... we're too close to victory to give up now. We don't even know if Salvullaz is still over there, but if he is, then let's go beat the crap out of him," I finished, the other three trying to process what I said.
"I'm in," Conner said, pulling out an arrow from her stash.
"Me too," Mae replied, doing the same as Conner.
"Jhett?" I asked, trying to get him on board.
"Let's do this," Jhett said, smiling.
"Alright. So, the plan is for Mae to stay back and handle the fireworks. Jhett, Conner, and I will weaken him enough so we can kill him easy with the fireworks," I told the others.
"The fuses are wet and won't light unless they are dry," Mae pointed out.
"Then find a way. We'll stall Salvullaz long enough for you to find a way," I replied to Mae.
"Alright. Sounds like a good plan, but what if one of us dies?" Jhett asked.
"Then we'll move on. It'll be alright," I replied, turning around, starting to walk off.
I picked up my machete from the ground right next to me and started walking off. I turned around to see the others following behind me. We were ready to beat Salvullaz until he was dead. Death was looming over us... but we were ready.