SEVEN: Cursed Souls

CHAPTER 18: NECROMANCER

At Reaper's lair.

"Ryder, my group will not be on lookout next week so we only have a few more time to get out."

"Tomorrow is going to be the last time, we have been lucky that no one caught us but we have to be careful now. I just have to do something tomorrow," Ryder answered.

"If you see someone's death again then you could tell me. We will do our best to save them."

***

Back at the SKULL's hideout.

"Doc? Why did you join that group?" Steve asked.

"Why should I tell you?" Ina answered.

"Don't you have loved ones? You've been treating people, and I guess you have seen the pain in others when they lose their loved ones, right?"

"Can you just..."

"Yeah, why did you join that group that kills people? Don't you know how hard it is to be all alone?" Hope intervened.

"You don't know what I have been through! My mother left me when I was young! My father who took care of me was killed by that man that my mother chose over us! My father's family blames me and they left me alone! I have no one!" Meditrina yelled as she cries.

Hope and Steve was shocked.

"Doc, I'm sorry! I didn't know," Steve answered. Meditrina just wiped her tears and looked away, while Hope still looks at Meditrina, unsure on how she'll react, pity and anger still in her heart.

***

The next day at a cemetery.

"YOU! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" Ryder said, looking at the man in his arms. His heart is full of rage and he fails to think through what to do next other than to kill this man.

Ryder's eyes suddenly turned dark, his hands were at his sides but it is as if he is summoning something. A dark smoke were cast from his hands while he looked straight at the person that stabbed a woman. What got Ryder enraged is that the woman they stabbed is his loving girlfriend, Jamila.

Everyone was too shocked to even react. The breathless Jamila started moving. Banging inside the graves. Howling of canines nearby. Ryder floating in the air. Both James and Steve are frozen to their shock.

Steve backed away out of fear. The lifeless Jamila suddenly held the man by the neck while the man started stabbing her hand again. James was still too stunned to react.

What shocked them more was when something came towards them, it's a rotting body with worms falling from its skin, its stench is uncontained. A moving corpse, the undead. 

The banging from the graves were louder while the undead man went to Jamila and grabbed the knife the man used to stabbed Jamila. It stabbed the man immediately when it got the knife while Jamila continued to grab him by the neck.

Steve and James were about to puke because of the scene: the stench of the corpse is making their stomach feel bad, and the look gore is too much when blood sprinkles to the air. 

Ryder didn't move while this happens, his position before was still the same as he continue to hang in the air, even smiling uncannily as he looks at the man being stabbed and choked to death.

The air turned red from the man being stabbed multiple times. Ryder suddenly passed out after the man stopped moving. All the banging stopped, and both of the undead and Jamila suddenly fell to the ground.

The two, James and Steve, were still too stunned to move. They could not believe their eyes.

"B-Boss? Did Ryder just raise the dead?" Steve asked nervously, his hands are shaking.

"Jamilaaa!" James yelled while running towards her sister. He hugged her the moment he got close.

"Why did this happen to you?! Please wake up!" James cried while shaking his sister.

"I SHOULD'VE BEEN THE ONE TO STAB THIS RAPIST TO DEATH! JAMILAAAA!" he yelled. "Steve, help me carry her, we have to get her to Witch."

"Boss, how about Ryder?"

"JUST HURRY UP AND HELP ME CARRY HER! WE WILL COME BACK FOR RYDER!"

James and Steve hurriedly got Jamila to the car.

At the hideout.

"Witch! Get the Witch!" James yelled.

James and Steve carried Jamila inside then pulled the Witch (Ina) close to her.

"HEAL HER!" James commanded but the Witch can't do anything. She was stabbed by the neck and lost too much blood. She isn't breathing anymore. 

Witch placed her hand at Jamila's chest but her hand didn't glow.

"I am sorry! She is dead. I can't raise someone from the dead. I can't heal her anymore," Witch said.

"Why can't you?! HEAL HER, please...!" James cried. "My only sister. Jamila! Why must this happen to you?" He hugged his sister tightly.

***

"Jamila, I must save her." Ryder thought.

"Why am I here again?" He asked loudly when he saw the person that looks like him. "Why am I here? What have you done?" he asked the person.

"It's not me. It's what 'we' did. I only helped you do what you wanted."

"Was I able to save Jamila?" Ryder asked.

"Jamila is dead, Ryder! Can't you remember how you badly wanted to kill those who tried to rape her?"

That's the time he remembered. His last memory was wanting to kill the man they saw.

"I am not your enemy, Ryder! I am you! Death itself and the master of the dead, a necromancer!"