"What do you want from us?" Julie screamed at the top of her lungs. That was necessary to be heard amidst the blaring speakers. She did not understand what was going on Max's mind, but the music was definitely not in accordance with the current scenario, and that made it very annoying.

'What does she mean by us? This woman is at my house, and today is probably the first time Julie is meeting her...' Max shook the unnecessary thoughts out of his mind. Being a loner for so many years, he was yet not fully comfortable with people associating themselves with him.

Agna opened her mouth as if about to answer Julie's question, but then a pissed off look came on her face. Her lips twitched in annoyance.

Max and Julie stared at this sudden change in her expression.

"You people call this noise music?" she asked, "I won't bear this anymore. It's such a disgrace to my people, who practice the true form of music. I should have taken care of it while I was there."

What she did next left them stunned. She walked towards the edge, and in an instant, with no hesitation, jumped off the terrace!

Max and Julie's heart skipped a beat. They ran towards the spot and looked down.

'What the heck is wrong with this woman?' Max thought. Although she jumped from such a height, Max's conscience told him that she was not someone who would die so soon. His eyes squinted as he looked for her. However, he couldn't see any sign of her, nor any bloodstains. Wait, he couldn't see anyone down there!

Then suddenly, a loud scrunch was heard. What followed was complete silence... the music had stopped.

Julie poked Max's arm to get his attention, to show him the horrifying sight that her eyes were seeing.

"Wha-" Max had just opened his mouth when his eyes went in the direction of Julie's gaze. He saw Agna standing right beside the speaker. He squinted to look at the thing she was holding and soon realized that it was the voice coil. It wasn't much difficult to figure that out with the huge hole in the speaker. She somehow managed to claw her way in and pull the voice coil out.

"How did she do that? And how is she even fine after jumping from this height?"

"Someone should tell her about the OFF button," Julie muttered, trying not to think about the horrific possibilities to answer Max's questions. 'That was so wild! Is she even human?'

Not seeing anyone in the backyard made him even more anxious. There was no way the party could be over so soon, and even if it was, why wasn't anyone inside the house? Something terrible happened while Max and Julie were gone, and he was fine with not knowing what it was. He just wanted everything to go back to normal. This was turning out to be his worst birthday... more like a nightmare.

Before going down, he decided to do a quick check inside the house.

"Kevin?" he called out as he walked up to his room. But there wasn't any sign of him, nor anyone else. His heart started palpitating with terror. His forehead was beaded with sweat. 'Aunt May? She returned just after the cake was cut. Why isn't she here?'

He was in such a rush that he hit his leg real bad on the side table, almost breaking the glass top. His leg started bleeding under those brown trousers. But that wasn't the time to take care of that. Trying to ignore the rising pain with every step, he jolted down the stairs, into the backyard.

Just as he stood on the door that led to the backyard, his eyes fell on the unbelievably horrifying sight which he had missed from the terrace. Everything went numb for a moment. Dozens of bodies lay unconscious on the immaculate emerald grass surrounding the great Red Oaktree.

He stumbled down the path, breathing heavily. Everything was now coming off as a terrible mistake. His mind had started blaming him for all this, and maybe it was correct to some extent. He shouldn't have left the party. He felt that it was because of his selfishness that he thought of talking to Agna in the first place. The desperation to know about what he had already lost made him unknowingly risk the relations he had.

Horrible thoughts were all his mind had at that moment. The cold winds were not ready to stop whistling in his ears at any cost. He felt as if they were mocking at the bizarre situation he was in.

Julie couldn't follow. She froze at the door, too shocked to say or do anything.

Blinded by those pearly white drops, he stumbled upon something and fell right on his face. He let out a petite cry as his already hurt knee rubbed against the ground. The pain was getting unbearable, but he still turned around to see what had come in his way. It turned out to be Lucinda.

"Lucinda! Wake up!" he yelled, dragging himself to her. He lifted her head, placing it gently in his lap, and called out her name again. There was no movement.

They did not share much of a bond. Her veracious nature and attitude of a typical muckraker only brought trouble for him and Kevin. She had always been snooty, and not to mention, a terrible cook- capable of making only burnt toasts. But she was someone Max had been living with for so long. He now craved for that crooked smile on her awfully still face. He never thought that he would admit it, but she was a member of his family... the family which he truly never acknowledged.

The carnage in front of his eyes shot a gut-wrenching panic through him. But then he noticed that Lucinda was still breathing, and so was everyone else. None of them were dead. He looked around to find himself surrounded by so many familiar faces. 'What happened here?' Even before he could take a breath of relief, he realized that Kevin was nowhere to be found.

'Your brother would be waiting for you, Max' were the last words Agna said when Max was absconding from the park. Even the thought of something happening to Kevin made his head throb.

"You spiked their drinks, didn't you?"

Max turned around to see Julie already screaming at the lady. He was about to go and confront her, but Julie did that before him.

Agna seemed a little shocked at the question and started laughing hysterically.

"You kids are seriously very naive," she said. "Just show me what you both have got and let me end it real soon."

"Huh?"

Agna shook her head in discontent. "I knew this was not going to be as simple as it seemed," she said, as she rubbed her forehead.

Max lifted Lucinda's head from his lap and stood up to move when he heard a heavily distorted voice.

'You need some help?'

Max looked around but couldn't find the source of the sound. The voice was a tad strange, not melodious like Agna's, but kind of distorted.

'Oh come on! I'm itching for some action,' said the voice.

"Wh- Where are you? And who..." Max asked. He already had to deal with Agna, and now this unknown voice. Why was all this even happening with him in the first place?

'Calm down. I'm here to help you. That woman is seriously getting on your nerves, isn't she? Taking away your brother from you... you wouldn't like to let her get away like this, would you?'

Unable to find the source of the voice, even replying seemed weird. But what the person said was indeed correct. Agna was getting on his nerves with that stupid game of hers.

The voice was warped but seemed as if came from very near, from within. It almost cloaked over all other voices around him. He could no longer hear the wind whistling, the frantic cries of birds who were also not liking Agna's presence. He could not even hear Julie yelling at Agna.

'You hate that woman, don't you?'

Yes, he hated the very arrival of that lady into their lives.

'Kill her. You know you can do it very easily.'

The coldness in that tone sent shivers down him.

Max had a very gentle heart. There was no way he could even think of killing anyone in his current state.

'Is that empathy I sense? No one knows what she did to your brother. It's because of her that you might not see Kevin ever again...'

"Shut up!" Max screamed. His hands clutched his ears.

'He was your brother, Max. The bond you both shared might be greater than any stupid compassion.'

Max yelled again. The anger and hatred triggered something dark within him. He went totally silent. He shook his mind to get rid of the voice and walked up to Agna, with his fists tightened. Julie had a look of concern in her moist eyes. She knew what he was going through.

"Oh- look who's all fired up," Agna said with a smirk.

Julie bolted towards her with the intention of punching the creep, but Max grabbed her hand and pulled her back.

The pathetic smile on Agna's face became even worse. It was as if she was mocking at him for being so weak that he couldn't even protect the people he cared about.

"Kevin, was it? Poor guy... tried stopping the storm, and got blown away like a weightless leaf," she said. "This is the game, Max- save your brother if you can and I'll let you know about your birth parents."

Agna went so ahead of the line that it was now merely a dot to her now.

"Agna, whoever or whatever you are, I don't care about this game of yours," he said. His head hung down, and his voice sounded very different than usual. The gruffness in his tone was disturbingly baleful. "Tell me where Kevin is, and leave."

Julie felt the difference. He was no more like the Max she knew.

"Max..." she gasped. The words disappeared between the rising heat she felt.

"Is this really coming from the scared brat you were a second ago?" she said in a shaky voice, trying not to sound as scared as she was. She took a step back.

Her moving back didn't help much. It was too late for Max to stop. Just the thought something happening to Kevin shattered the chains which had been holding him all along.

Max remained surprisingly calm. Agna's words didn't bother him anymore, and this was freaking her out. She knew what Max was capable of, but she didn't think him to be a threat without having any idea of his knack.

"You wanted to know who I am, didn't you?" she asked, turning towards Julie. "See it yourself." A sly smile came on her face.

Julie stammered in bewilderment, unable to say anything when she heard the cracking sound.

It was of Agna's bones. She seemed to be increasing in size as every bone in her body twisted and turned, ripping her gown into shreds. Her emerald eyes turned glassy black, and within a blink of eyes, her mouth was filled with many sharp fangs. Blood was drooling down her lips as her tongue repeatedly hit against those pointed canines. Even before she could realize, she was staring at a giant bird monster hovering its head over her.

"What the-" she said aghast. The beautiful monster had turned into a whole different kind of monster.

Surprisingly, Max didn't react to it. He didn't even raise his head to look at her.

"You are now annoying me," Agna yelled in her monstrous voice which was hardly comprehensible because of those excessively large teeth.

Without even thinking, Julie picked up a log lying near her, and flung it at the creature with all her might. It did hit it, but couldn't do much damage. 'Uh-oh.'

"Wrong move, Julie," the monster said as its eyes twitched. It lunged forward, to clutch her in its giant claws.

She closed her eyes tightly, believing that there was no escape for her. It was the end for her. But that's when the situation took an even weirder turn. She slowly opened her eyes to see why it was taking so long for the monster to jump at her.

It was just a few inches away from her face, struggling mid-air while something held it back.

"Wrong move, Agna," said Max. He raised his head. His eyes were so cold that it sent shivers down Julie's spine.

Dark clouds started covering the shiny moon above them. Even the winds seemed violent. Trees swayed with such strength that it looked as if they could be uprooted any moment.

An invisible force pulled the monster away and threw it on the ground. It turned back into the Agna. She looked terribly hurt, as she squirmed on the ground, naked.

Julie looked at Max in shock. His eyes were filled with anger, hatred, and something else which she could not comprehend.

"How- how did it... I wasn't told about this," Agna said. Her voice was so fragile that it felt as if she and her voice could break any minute.

Max didn't wait for her to say anything else. He raised his hand up towards the sky and then abruptly pulled it down.

"Begone."

Just as his hand came down, bolts of thunder jolted down straight from the dark clouds and fell on Agna with a deafening roar. Even amidst the loud noise, one single painful scream of Agna was heard prominently. The impact was so much that even from quite a distance, it threw Julie behind... but Max stayed where he was.

Agna's last cry brought Max back to his own senses... or maybe sent him into a whole different zone.

He was horror-struck with what he just did. He didn't want that to happen, but his mind and body were not under his control.

'Oh boy- Look what you did.'

The voice he heard a while ago, echoed in his head once again.

"I- I didn't want to..."

'You killed her, Max, and that's what counts.' That was the last he heard from the voice, and then it just disappeared like it wasn't ever there.

"I- I killed her," he said, not to anyone else, but himself. 

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Arrghhh! Finally!!!
Sorry I took so much time for this one •́  ‿ ,•̀

Hope you enjoyed this thrilling chapter! Be sure to vote, and let me know your opinion on it.

See ya! ♥

~Shubham