Although she already had a vague premonition that the stitched-together corpse in her hands was not the “source,” she had co this far—there was no way she wouldn’t try.
Following Orff’s instructions, Everly hoisted the corpse and moved it to overlap with the position of the invisible flesh monster. As she adjusted its position, she watched Orff’s expression.
His face was deathly pale, with no sign of relief whatsoever.
“Failed, right?”
Orff nodded. “The monster is still in the sa spot. It hasn’t been absorbed by the corpse.”
If they couldn’t “lure the snake into its hole,” then burning the corpse would be aningless.
“Alright, I get it. Don’t panic—keep operating your equipnt. Misha should be here soon. I’ll drive, and we’ll try to speed things up.”
“O-okay… just hurry. The other phones are almost out of battery too.” Holding his phone, Orff awkwardly shifted between the seats, giving up the driver’s position.
Everly didn’t bother worrying about the ss. She tossed the body bag onto the back seat, climbed into the Grand Cherokee, and started the engine.
“It’s fine if I just drive straight through, right?”
“Go ahead. I’ll turn around and keep the cara pointed at it.”
“OK.”
Everly didn’t waste another word. She slamd the accelerator, and a powerful surge pushed them back into their seats as she sped wildly down the night road, dragging Orff along with her.
“Hurry—another phone just dropped to 20%…” Not long after they set off, Orff’s trembling voice urged from beside her.
Everly glanced at him briefly. Orff was sprawled over the seat, cold sweat pouring down his forehead, like a duck about to be sent to slaughter, his lips quivering with anxiety.
“Each phone can record for about two minutes. After recording, clearing the gallery mory takes six and a half minutes. Whether it’s filming or clearing storage, both drain a lot of battery. The car’s charging port is too inefficient— even if they stay plugged in, the battery still keeps dropping… Everly, I have to keep four phones running at all tis, or there’ll be gaps in coverage. So hurry, faster, faster… I really don’t want to die again…” He muttered nonstop beside her, like chanting under his breath.
In truth, Everly already had the accelerator pressed all the way down—no amount of urging would make a difference. Orff was simply under too much pressure and needed soone to vent to.
Faced with the boy’s exposed vulnerability, Everly’s voice remained calm, cold, and sharply rational. “Where’s my laptop?”
“I used it once. The mory’s full, and I haven’t had ti to clear it… It clears much slower than a phone.”
“Then clear it now. When the phones die, switch to the laptop. If there’s no ti to clear storage, start a livestream instead—so lag doesn’t matter. Mark tested it; a single stream can last about a minute.”
“But if we livestream, the device will overload and break. Then—”
“Misha will reach the ‘inner zone’ only twenty minutes later than . We’re heading toward each other, so by the timing, she should be almost here.”
“But—”
Everly hit the brakes and cut him off, “Stop thinking about it, Orff. What you need to do right now is use the devices in your hands to keep the monster under control. You don’t need to worry about anything else. Just believe—believe in , believe in Misha, believe in yourself… This loop has gone on far too many tis. It should have ended long ago. Those who’ve escaped justice—it’s ti they face judgnt. We can end everything tonight, end it in this loop… right?”
Orff was thrown backward slightly by the sudden brake. Grabbing onto the seat, he steadied himself with effort, then turned his head, looking at Everly with a dazed expression.
When his eyes t the girl’s—blue eyes shining with a steady, star-like determination—he froze for a mont. Under her encouraging gaze, he slowly nodded.
Everly gave him an approving smile. “Good. Orff, look—Misha’s here.”
“Ah…”
Following her gesture, Orff turned to look out the window. On the other side of the road, a car had pulled over with its hazard lights flashing. A girl, carrying a cara on her shoulder and tucking an old laptop under her arm, was hurrying toward the Jeep at a brisk pace.
“Ah… she’s here… finally…”
Maybe it was the glare of the headlights, or maybe he was just too overwheld—but the mont he saw Misha, a sharp sting welled up in his nose, and Orff began to sob helplessly.
Tears stread down his face uncontrollably as he worked with practiced efficiency—switching phones, clearing mory, holding one phone up with one hand while reaching out with the other to take the old, blood- and dust-stained cara from Misha.
“Let’s try it—see if it still works without being connected to a computer.”
“Mm!”
Unlike the plug-in cara at Mark’s house, the one Misha brought was a hybrid—battery-powered as well as plug-in. It had plenty of charge, and she had already turned it on during the drive over.
Orff set the cara on the back of the car seat, switched it to recording mode, and aid the dark lens at the flesh monster hovering about a ter away inside the car.
When captured by ordinary recording devices, the creature would freeze in place as if paused—suspended in midair, completely motionless—until the device’s mory ran out or it left the cara’s field of view.
However, when it was locked onto by this cara—the one that had recorded countless t*rture and murder scenes—the flesh monster Xipe Totec began to change.
“Bzz… bzz…”
In Orff’s ears sounded the sa interference noise that accompanied each of the monster’s teleportations. Along with the static, white, snow-like streaks appeared across Xipe Totec’s body—at first just a few thin lines, then gradually spreading to cover its entire form.
In all the previous loops, the flesh monster had never made a single sound while killing, leading Orff to believe it had no vocal cords at all. Yet just as the web of interference was about to engulf it, as if it had encountered sothing utterly terrifying, Xipe Totec clutched its head with both hands. Its grotesque mouth—lined with molar-like teeth—stretched wide open to the sides, and from deep within its throat ca a piercing scream.
That scream was mixed with countless voices of won crying out in despair—young, old, childish, mature, hoarse, sweet… Like countless sharp spikes, it stabbed straight into Orff’s eardrums, making his head feel as though it would split apart. His eyes rolled back involuntarily as flashes of horrific scenes flickered before him like a slideshow.
He saw it—saw himself bound to a heavy tal chair, facing a pitch-black cara lens. A brutal, powerful butcher gripped a dull blade, chopping off his fingers one by one. Following the livestream viewers’ demands, the butcher used a saw to sever his limbs, cut open his abdon, and—
In the next instant, he was whole again, bound before the cara once more, repeating a new cycle.
No… that wasn’t him.
Those were the girls who had died in the t*rture livestreams.
They injected the girls with dr*gs, so no matter how much pain they endured, they could not lose consciousness. They could only watch, wide awake, as parts of their bodies were removed piece by piece. The blood flowed more and more, their bodies falling apart, the pain endless, the terror unceasing…
So much pain, so much pain, so much pain, so much pain.
So much hatred, so much hatred, so much hatred, so much hatred!
“Ah! Aaaahhhhh!”
Orff’s face was soaked with tears, his head thrown back as he scread. For a fleeting mont, under the overwhelming ntal shock, he almost let go of the cara, ready to release the monster ford from the girls and let it vanish from the lens.
But just one second before he could, Everly and Misha each took hold of the filthy cara—one on the left, one on the right.
“Don’t stop! Don’t put the cara down!”
“Do you want them to keep suffering?”
“W-waa… ahhhh… n-no, no, no!” Orff cried uncontrollably, struggling desperately, but he could not break free from the grip of the two girls.
One second… two seconds… three seconds…
As ti passed, the interference patterns covering the monster grew denser, until it was completely engulfed.
The horrifying visions disappeared. Through his tear-blurred eyes, Orff saw Xipe Totec’s surface covered with countless white noise specks, like a projector whose display had been shut off. The monster itself condensed into a beam of white light, vanishing into the cara in his hands.
“They… they got sucked into the cara…” he sniffled hard, handing the cara to Everly.
“Got it.”
Everly took the cara and quickly stepped out of the Jeep, heading into the nearby woods. She found a small clearing, set the cara on the ground, poured gasoline over it, and ignited it.
“Boom!”
Crimson flas roared up, sending thick black smoke spiraling from the cara. Though it was just tal and plastic, the burning device gave off a sll as if a corpse were being incinerated. If one listened closely, anguished screams could be heard amidst the crackling of the fire.
“The snake has gone into its hole, returning to the burning bowels of the earth.”
At the mont the acrid stench of burning protein hit his nose, Orff could no longer hold it in. He stumbled out of the car, rushed to the edge of the woods, and collapsed to the ground, vomiting.
Standing nearby, Misha thought of Nori and Barbara, who had died so tragically. Covering her eyes, she began to sob as well.
“How long are you going to rest? It’s not over yet!”
Everly wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, strode over to Orff, and roughly grabbed him, hauling him back toward the car like dragging a limp animal.
“None of this is over—the people the girls couldn’t kill, the things they couldn’t finish… we have to carry it on!”
“We… can we really do it?”
“That depends on you, Orff.”
Everly took out the old laptop Misha had brought from the ranger’s cabin and placed it in Orff’s hands. Though worn, it still had plenty of battery from being kept charged.
“Do you know about the ‘Butterfly Fall Incident’?” she asked.
The boy’s face stiffened for a mont before he nodded. “You’re going to use that video…”
“Exactly.”
More than four years had passed since the outbreak of the “Butterfly Fall Incident.” Despite continuous crackdowns by the United States governnt, s**cide cases related to Seradiya still occurred from ti to ti.
After all, no matter how powerful a governnt might be, its reach is limited—it cannot extend into every corner of the internet. As long as the internet exists, forbidden videos can never truly be eradicated. There will always be people, for all kinds of reasons, secretly downloading, keeping, and spreading them…
“I need you, before midnight tonight, to find copies of that video that people have secretly kept—and then upload it to the new t*rture-streaming site.”
Weren’t they planning to upload Orff’s execution video after midnight, for all mbers to watch and celebrate the launch of the new site?
Then let them watch.
Let them watch, beco addicted, and then destroy themselves—offering everything to the monstrous entity nad Seradiya on the dissection table.
Death is the only thing they deserve.
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