The Return

Chapter Eight

Lin pulls up to the building, her car having trouble driving over the potholes and overgrowth. She hadn't seen this building personally, but she knew what it was. The bowling alley, which was in progress of becoming the pizzeria, was in a shopping center that had been abandoned since everything happened twenty years ago. Now the whole place was overgrown and very rundown. There was a clearing in the vines where the buildings entrance was, being illuminated by only the Impalas headlights. Lin climbs out of the car, going to the trunk and pulling out a gas canister. She kept one back there incase she ran out of gas on the road, but now she was putting it to a different use. Just as she was about to enter the building, Jacob arrives, having quickly chased Lin after Jamie told them about the note. Lin looms at him and gets an idea, calling him over and beginning to devise a plan.

"Hey, girlie. Wake up." Monster says and slaps Sam, who yelps a little. She slowly sat up, looking between him and William. There was a sharp pain in her leg, from where William had shot her. "I say we kill her now. We're gonna do it anyway, plus the physiological damage it'd do on Lin." Monster says and roughly grabs Sams face as she begins to squirm. "No, don't you want revenge? She cost you you're eye, why not get even?" William says with a chuckle, crossing his arms. "Y'know? That's not a bad idea." Monster says, bringing his sharp fingers up behind him and then swinging them at Sam as she screams.

Lin went running into the depths of the building, following Sams scream. She goes room by room in the seemingly endless maze until she comes across Sam. She was being kept in the former furnace room, facing away from the door. "Sam...?" Lin says quietly, relieved to see that Sams still breathing. She goes around to her front and her blood runs cold. Sams left eye, or the lack there of, was extremely slashed and bloody. Sam looked up at Lin weakly, letting out a pained "Mom..." before passing out. Lin hugged Sam gently, crying out in sorrow. Jacob came in and Lin looked up at him, standing up. "Change of plans..." She says and has Jacob pick Sam up. "Carry her outside and get help." She says and he nods, moving quickly to get Sam help.

The others pulled up as Jacob came outside with Sam. Janet and Jamie quickly ran to him and grabbed her. There were several gunshots from inside, Jacob quickly running back inside. Lin had caught William off guard, blowing off both his legs. He hadn't felt any pain due to being a possessed costume. "You're not making it out of-" he begins to say, but Lin shuts him up with a bullet that blows apart his head. Jacob comes up to here and looks at Williams body, then proceeds to stomp on it and crush it to dust. She smiles some and picks up a wrench off of a workstation nearby, handing it to Jacob. "Go bust the gas pipe. With any luck the gas is still on." She says and he nods, together they walk off into the building.

Lin poured the last of the gas onto the floor and drops the canister with a huff, looking down the hallway through vines and debris at Jacob, who was bashing open the gas line. While she's waiting for Jacob, Monster comes running out of the darkness, brandishing a knife. He lunges at Lin, but she was caught off guard by him and the knife hits. He had sunk it into her stomach, smirking a crooked smile. "Isn't this just sad? Almost everything Jacob died for, gone to waste." He says, but Lin just laughs and laughs. Jacob rushes up and knocks Monster back, quickly grabbing Lin and runs off. Lin was already coughing up blood and barely unable to stay conscious.

Jacob comes to a stop and sits down, Lin sitting on his lap. She looked at him weakly, smiling. "I did good...I raised our daughter well. She grew up without her father, but I told her the story of him. She knows that you were a hero, and that you gave her life for others..." She says with a pained smile, Jacob rubbing her cheek. With those as her final words, she goes limp and her final breath leaving her lips. Monster starts approaching, laughing and chuckling maniacally. "She's dead! Hahaha!" He says, not noticing Jacob picking up her gun and aiming at him. "I...lov...ou..." is all his broken voice box is capable of croaking out before he pulls the trigger.

Janet and Jamie had gotten Sam into the backseat, Linda helping apply pressure to her eye. "We need to get her to the hospital, fast." Janet says and Jamie nods, constantly looking back at Sam. Just as they were about to pull out of the lot when the building suddenly erupts with fire. An explosion blowing out the roof and the entrance, some of the force causing the surrounding buildings to shudder and one collapses. Janet, Jamie and Linda all look back at it, completely mortified. "W-we need to get Sam to the hospital first." Jamie says shakily, Janet looking at her. She hesitantly nods and floors it to the hospital, Linda watching the rising smoke in the distance.