SUNNYVALE

(47) THE FOURTEENTH VICTIM

The whole town of Sunnyvale felt a true thunderclap over their heads when they heard about Bob Mewis' death. 

Maybe it had to do with the different method used by whoever killed him than the bathtubs - maybe it wasn't even the same murderer - including his eyes being taken out of his body, and all of his teeth pulled out. Maybe it had to do with the fact that he was the town's sheriff, and that killing him would be a personal vendetta. Maybe it had to do with the fact that he was the mayor's (Andrew Dahlkemper) best friend. 

But either way, for whichever of the reasons cited above, the sudden and graphically/physically violent murder of Bob Mewis just made the citizens of both West and East parts of town fear for their lives even more.

While most of the town - or at least the Eastside - was having an open ceremony in honour of Bob Mewis, with notable personalities such as the mayor himself and his daughter Abby present, Crystal was sitting by Krisite's side, sighing. Now that the prodigal daughter hadn't returned home even after her father's passing, the whole town knew that she had just vanished - especially now that Sam agreed to play her part perfectly. She had to go to her father's funeral on her own, absolutely shattered, while lying about her dying sister. 

Sighing again, Crystal shakes her head.

"Alright" she states, before staring where Shelina, Tobin and Christen were standing, looking at her with concern on their faces, "Going in again: if anything goes wrong, just slap me back to reality."

As the three girls nod, Crystal could feel the pressure on her shoulders: now that Bob Mewis was gone, she was the only person able to find out what happened to Kristie and try and save the past family member of Sam. 

Therefore, without fear but with apprehension, Crystal reaches for Kristie's hand, before the scenery entirely changes: after a dark fog, the scene starts to clear out, becoming less and less blurry, until Crystal watches as Kristie was lying down on her bed. It was 7:30 AM, about thirty minutes before she collapsed, and right before her last vision started last time. Instead of just watching Kristie's eyes being dilated and her behaviour erratic, now Crystal was able to understand why. 

In Krisite's hand, a small transparent bag full of some pink pills - probably drugs such as MDMA or something of sorts - inside her hand, whose fist was clinched. Staring at the ceiling, Kristie then empties the whole bag by swallowing the pills five by five without water, until she lets go of the bag, shivering. 

Then, her eyes start getting blurry, and before reliving the scene of Krisite getting out of the room leaving a note, as if she'd known someone would be watching her, Crystal feels her breathing accelerating, before she is brought back to reality by a light pain on her cheek. 

She regains consciousness, realising that Christen still had her hand raised after slapping her violently. 

"What the hell?" Shelina exclaims, quite annoyed, "you didn't have to hit her this hard."

"Well, excuse me if I don't know how to prevent a girl from getting stuck in someone else's memories" Christen sassily answers, rolling her eyes.

"Enough, you two!" Tobin orders, before putting her hand on Crystal's shoulder. After a moment of silence, she asks in a soft voice: "Dunn, you okay?"

This is when Crystal's body suddenly puts itself in a seated position, as she is now fully back into her present consciousness.

Before anyone of the three girls in front of her could speak, Crystal declares:

"Kristie Mewis purposely overdosed because she knew she was the Bathtub Killer and that it would be the only way to escape the witch's grip for a while. She is not dead yet, but she definitely is in a coma - and she needs medical attention."

"But-" Tobin starts, but is unable to finish as the dark-haired insists:

"Now, or else she will die"

***

If there was one thing that was scaring Abby more than the shadows she cannot control, it was for her father to find out about her romantic involvement with not one but two people - that also appeared to be WOMEN. 

As she is standing on the centre stage of Bob Mewis' funeral right next to her father - the town's mayor about to give a heartfelt speech - Abby starts shaking: she crosses eyes with Sam, who was sitting all alone on the first row. All she wanted to do was to go there and hug her tightly, but she knew she couldn't. Thankfully, Shelina and Rose arrived a few moments later, surrounding her with the support she truly deserves.

Before going up and telling his speech to everyone, Andrew Dahlkemper turns to his daughter and whispers so that only her could hear him: 

"Whoever this son of a bitch is, they're gonna pay, trust me"

With that said, the mayor walks up on the stage, starting a long and lovely speech about his and Bob's life-long friendship from the nursery to Sunnyvale's most powerful spaces - while his daughter just feels her headache intensifying. She crosses eyes with Sam again, before finding Tierna's in the crowd as well. She shivers, before a sensation of bitterness, as if a disgusting liquid was invading the bottom of her mouth.

That's when she sees them from afar: the shadows, floating terribly quickly toward her father, who couldn't see them. 

But then, the shadows just dove straight into the crowd, and it didn't take much time before their long hands with nails as long and sharp as knives stuck in the necks of innocent people - Abby immediately pushes her father away from the stage in a rugby-like way, as they both fall on the ground. As Andrew Dahlkemper got up, confused, Abby got herself in between him and the shadows.

One of those faceless creatures just dives right on her and, as Abby puts her arm in front of her in order to protect herself, she doesn't feel anything. Frowning, she dares to look up, and realises the shadow had abruptly stopped. 

"What the-" Abby starts, shaken up. 

Satan never allowed his loyal servants to harm his offspring, the shadow's voice fills Abby's head, as the blonde just frowns. 

Then let go of them, Abby thinks loudly in her mind.

The shadows all stopped harming the citizens, all staring Abby's way, visibly confused (although they did not show any human emotions on their faceless faces) : it was like they had received contradictory orders from two different people.

As Abby's eyes quickly wander through the crowd, she realises three of the creatures was holding Shelina's neck, on the verge of killing her. 

LET GO OF THEM, GO AWAY, she orders in her mind, even louder than before. 

Feeling Abby's anger running through her veins, as her eyes would turn red and bloody, the shadows just start making a high-pitched sound, before they all fly away quickly, letting go of everyone, including Shelina. 

Feeling her nose bleeding, Abby falls on the ground, and everything turns black.