RÍONE held Jake's corpse in her arms and wept.

She lost track of time. If asked how long it had been, she would have gazed with widened eyes, bewildered by the question. Nothing mattered anymore. Everything was futile. The things she thought she would accomplish that day flitted from her mind faster than a spider ensnaring a gnat.

Jake was dead. He would never speak to her again. They would never spend time together.

Memories bled out of her eyes as tears. The countless careless days of childhood spent fooling around, him taking her in when she was too scared to return home, the taste of his bisque, his expression on meeting her for the first time after so many years, all those images flashed in front of her as if a motion picture was being played.

She could see both of them walking on the beach, hand-in-hand. Young Ríone's face was flushed, her skin as smooth as cream. Jake looked scrawny and had a goofy smile on his lips. Ríone raised her fingers, trying to touch the moment. To be locked in it forever and evermore.

A fresh bout of tears streamed down her face.

The sun dipped underneath the horizon. Its colour was a soft cerulean, turning rapidly into a dark agaric. Shadows of the trees loomed over the two of them. Their branches drooped, as if mourning the loss they had witnessed hours ago.

Ríone's throat burned. Sharp jolts of pain racked her chest. Her face was a mask of pale agony. Holes punctuated many parts of her clothes while her hair was askew. She fixed her gaze on Jake's face.

Death had restored much of his former beauty. His face no longer looked agitated, but pleasant and at peace. Ríone had closed his eyes, making the resemblance to a sleeping man even more stark. A soft hue emanated from his body. His cheeks looked fuller while lips seemed to be drawn into a smile. And then it quivered.

At first Ríone did not realise what happened. But when it happened for the second time, she noticed it. Wiping her tears with the back of her palm, she peered closer. Was she seeing things? Or could there be a chance that Jake was still alive? Her eyes glinted as his lips quivered once more.

Hope is a dangerous weapon, after all. It makes you what you want to see. Sometimes that gets one out of the unthinkable, but many times it lets down. Badly. When hope lets down, it becomes so much more difficult to overcome the setback.

That was what happened to Ríone. She watched it with utmost patience when the rear end of a white tendril crept out of Jake's lips. It writhed on his skin as it pulled out the rest of its body, thick like an obese tapeworm. Once out of his mouth, it slithered down his neck, down his pants before plopping on the bed of leaves, some of which crunched as the thing made its way towards its destination.

Ríone stood up with a start. Chills traversed the entirety of her being. She knew that thing. It was what she had pulled out of her mouth on her first day back in Loutham, the sheddings of which Jake had collected and stored it in the mason jar. It belonged to that thing. That which lived underneath. The Guardian.

The killer.

It was inside of Jake. At least a part of it was. Ríone was sure it was what had killed him. It never enjoyed being messed with, did it? Sean's killing was its way to make that clear. But Jake never stopped. This was how it took revenge.

The underside of her feet chilled. She would have to do something. And the first thing would be to get out of the forest. Yes, that would be a good idea. She would go to her house, get some things and summon help to take Jake out of here.

"I will be back, okay?" She stared at his cadaver, her voice a croaky whisper.

Then she turned and sprinted out of the forest, from the fire into the frying pan.

***

Ríone started the sedan. The engine groaned and sputtered before coming to life. She held the steering wheel with both hands and took a prompt turn to the right. Putting her feet on the brakes, she drove down the winding road.

The red hands of the speedometer pointed at ninety. Ríone swerved, raced down the streets. The landscape zoomed past her, a mere whooshing sound in her ears. She took no notice of the silence or the lack of people on the streets.

Because her mind was on her plans. She was determined to expose that bloody bastard that killed Jake and Sean and goodness knew how many others. It liked to hide, did it not? She would make sure that they would pull it out of its home, never to harm another life.

Ríone wiped the angry tears forming in her eyes. She would make it understand the true meaning of loss.

She took a turn towards the left and continued driving in the same direction. But instead of hitting the familiar bump that declined into the beach on which her house stood, it continued on a straight path.

The numbers on the speedometer dropped. From ninety, it went down to eighty and slowed down even more. Ríone raised both her eyebrows. She tried the brakes and gears, but nothing seemed to change the course of the slowing car. When the car came to a halt, a grasp escaped her lips.

"Oh, my goodness!"

She was on the other side of the beach. The place where no one went. Where, twenty-two years ago, she and Jake had witnessed the cops hauling out Miss Eloise's eyeless corpse. The very place from where everything had begun.

Ríone tried to start the engine. It emitted two mechanical burbles before dying. She tried again. And again. Yet the car stayed the same way. She could not make it work.

"No!"

She punched the steering wheel hard. In an instant, her fingers swelled like five fat flower buds. A drop of sweat dribbled from her forehead. Her sobs filled the uncanny silence, as deep inside, she understood what was happening. All she prayed was for someone to find Jake before decomposition could degrade him.

She would never return, and she knew it.