A wave of agony ripped through Lionel's chest, nearly shattering his nerves.
His hands shook as he tried to grab the claws buried in his body.
Shlick!
Freddy yanked his blades free with a disgusted twist, spraying blood across the pavent.
Lionel's legs gave out. His knees hit the ground hard.
"Mama's boy. That little girlfriend of yours is still in the truck, huh? Just lie there and watch while I peel her apart one strip at a ti."
Freddy flicked the blood off his claws and started toward the fire truck cab, grinning.
He'd only taken two steps when sothing felt wrong.
The guy who should've been dying on the ground wasn't gasping his last breaths. Instead, Lionel was breathing hard—deep, heavy, and very much alive.
Freddy spun around.
Lionel was already pushing himself back to his feet, swaying but upright.
"What the—?"
Freddy stared in pure shock.
Lionel looked down at his own stomach in disbelief.
The wound was a ragged, gaping hole. He could see yellow fat and twitching muscle inside. It hurt like hell.
But when he poked at it, nothing else was wrong. No weakness. No loss of strength. He could still move just fine.
Grandma's words from before they left the store flashed through his mind.
"Go on, child. You have this ability."
So that's what she ant.
Lionel lifted his head. His eyes locked onto Freddy with burning hatred.
"RAAAAH!"
A raw, strangled roar tore out of his throat. He charged straight at the dream demon with zero hesitation.
He didn't understand what had happened to his body, but one thing was crystal clear: as long as he could still move, Freddy was not getting anywhere near Paki.
Freddy snorted and casually sidestepped the wild rush.
At the sa ti his wrist flicked. The claws flashed downward.
CRACK!
Lionel's entire right forearm hit the ground in a spray of blood.
"AAAAAAAH!"
The pain should've dropped him. Instead it ignited every ounce of rage he'd been holding back for days.
Lionel didn't even glance at his missing arm. He threw himself at Freddy again with everything he had.
"What the hell are you?!"
Freddy actually froze for a split second. Nobody had ever attacked him like this—like a rabid animal that didn't care if it lived or died.
That split second was all Lionel needed. He crashed into Freddy's chest, driving him backward with his shoulder and head.
"Get off , you worthless piece of shit!"
Freddy snapped back to reality, furious. He was already weakened by holy water and stripped of most of his dream powers in the real world. Now this nobody was actually hurting him.
He slashed wildly, carving deep, bone-deep gashes across Lionel's body.
Lionel didn't flinch. He didn't even seem to feel it. He just opened his mouth and bit down hard on Freddy's neck.
Freddy instinctively blocked with his clawed arm.
CHOMP!
Lionel's teeth sank into the at of Freddy's forearm.
"AAAAH! You bit , you crazy fucking dog!"
Freddy grabbed Lionel's hair with his other hand and tried to rip him off, but the kid's jaws were locked tight.
Out of the corner of his eye, Lionel spotted his own severed arm lying on the ground. The jagged, broken bone at the end was razor sharp.
A wild idea flashed through his head.
He snatched up the severed arm, rubbed the bloody bone against his holy-water-soaked clothes, then started stabbing it into Freddy's stomach over and over.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Every thrust of the blessed bone burned a smoking black hole straight through Freddy's gut.
Inside the cab, Paki covered her mouth, tears streaming down her face.
"Grandma… what's happening to Lionel? How is he doing this?"
The old woman watched the feral figure outside with a complicated, sorrowful expression.
"I warned Vera years ago. Her need to control that boy was too strong. I never thought she'd actually do sothing like this."
Paki's voice shook.
"What did his mother do to him?"
The old woman shook her head.
"Vera turned her own son into a voodoo doll. Sothing else must have happened to make it this bad. His soul is only loosely attached to his body now. As long as the body isn't completely destroyed, his soul won't fade."
Everyone in the cab stared at the raging Lionel in stunned silence.
Outside, Lionel had completely overpowered Freddy. He slamd the dream demon backward against the still-spewing holy water outlet, grabbed him by the scalp, and forced his ruined face straight into the high-pressure stream.
"Ghh—glurk—glurk—!"
Holy water flooded down Freddy's throat. His stomach ballooned outward like an overfilled water balloon. Excess liquid poured from his eyes, nose, and mouth.
Then his belly finally burst.
BOOM!
Freddy's gut exploded in a wet spray of purified black sludge.
"Nice work, kid!"
On the other side of the street, Luke and Jason had stopped fighting.
A new, much bigger monster had entered the battlefield.
Vera—Lionel's mother—had devoured every last zombie. She was now a bloated, four-ter-tall abomination. Her face was gone, replaced by a grotesque, snarling mask. A massive second mouth lined with jagged teeth had split open across her swollen belly.
She was dragging her enormous body straight toward the fire truck.
Straight toward her son.
Jason turned away from Luke without hesitation. In his mind, anything bigger and uglier than him had to be destroyed.
Luke took the opening, quickly reloaded his shotgun, and used the mont to catch his breath.
Jason charged first, massive boots pounding the pavent as he ran straight at the towering Vera.
The two monsters collided in a brutal, disgusting tangle of claws, teeth, and spraying gore. Blood and pus flew everywhere. It looked like sothing straight out of hell.
Luke cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted across the chaos.
"Lionel! Get that spare hose connected—now!"
Lionel looked up, saw Luke firing shotgun blasts to keep Jason and Vera distracted, then scrambled to his feet. He ran to the side storage compartnt, grabbed the spare hose with his one remaining hand, and tried to reach the still-spewing outlet.
The high-pressure water hamred against him like a living wall. Even though it didn't hurt, the sheer force made it almost impossible to get close enough to connect the line.
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