Long-term salvation

"I heard there have been many cases of missing children here, and one of them is your brother?"

"...Yes, sir." Bill didn't want to recall the moment he heard the news of his brother's death. He still felt guilty, but when the boy raised his head and looked at the man wearing a strange eye mask, he couldn't help but say:

"I think he was washed into the sewer and then washed into the wasteland... I was going to call some friends... Um... Sorry, sir, just treat it as nonsense."

"No," Rod squatted down, took out an ID from his jacket pocket and shook it at Bill, then lowered his voice and said in a deep voice, "I'm an agent from the FBI. I'd like to hear your opinion - even if it's just for reference."

"!!!"

Aiden, standing nearby, shielded his eyes from the bright sunlight with his hands. He watched as Rod easily tricked Bill into submission, and he swore he would never tell his parents. He wondered if Mr. Rod had used similar tactics to trick his own brother back then.

Sighing, the Wendigo boy began to look forward to the barbecue in the evening.

He was hungry, very hungry.

Chapter 356 Why Don’t You Scream? (1/3)

Sewage flowed quietly in the concrete ditches, floating dead leaves and scraps of fabric followed the direction of the water flow and gathered in the darker depths, piling up with smelly kitchen waste and swollen cigarette butts. After accumulating for a few days, they were washed into the canals and wastelands by the torrential rainwater.

Now, something thicker than silt is seeping out from the pipe wall, crawling against the flow of water like melted asphalt, looking out from the narrow sewer entrance with malicious and hungry eyes, licking the children passing by, especially those... outsiders.

"!"

Sharon stopped abruptly and turned her head, only to see children riding bicycles passing by. However, that cold gaze still did not retreat, and even became more unscrupulous.

Exhaling slowly, Sharon put her hand on her chest and whispered:

"Calm down, Alyssa, we can't catch it now."

Reaching out to wipe away the ashes that had fallen on her shoulders at some point, the girl continued walking forward.

Perhaps attracted by the fleeting dark power, the "thing" hidden in the sewer began to move along the pipe, extending its fingers from the drain towards the girl, but retracting them before being discovered by the latter, or turning into a real phantom, sliding through the crowd holding a red balloon.

Sharon finally felt a little annoyed by the inconsistency. She stared indifferently at the red balloon in the distance, then quickly turned into an alley. This place was quiet and remote, a dirty and messy place that no one would come to unless it was something important. However, both parties were satisfied with this.

Sharon looked up and saw the clown holding a red balloon opposite her waving at her with a wicked smile, but when she looked back, she could only see the clown's back and herself looking back as well.

The alley seemed to have transformed into an infinitely looping mirror corridor, converging thousands of possibilities into a rushing river of sewage, soaked with the desperate cries of countless children.

The clown Pennywise thought that the girl in front of him would be the same.

What should he do next? Tear off her face and eat her organs bit by bit while she was still alive? Or should he rip off her limbs first and watch her scream the names of her parents and siblings, finally staring despairingly at the people passing by in the alley?

As Pennywise the clown's imagination flourished, the mirrored corridor also presented a corresponding scene, but there was something missing here -

"Why aren't you screaming?" the clown asked, genuinely confused. "Why aren't you scared?"

The girl in front of him didn't scream or run away, she just looked at him coldly!

Suddenly, Pennywise the clown felt something strange. He took a step back and bumped into something.

Like a real circus clown, Pennywise reached back and fumbled around with... well, the apron-like thing, the cold flesh and tendons, and the strange metal object.

The clown raised his head and looked into the eyes of the tall triangular head.

"Oh fuck."

Before the extraterrestrial monster could comprehend the cause and effect, a piercing air defense warning suddenly pierced its ears, and its vision began to rapidly distort and blur... That was the last thing it saw as its head was grabbed and slammed into the wall:

Like a rotten watermelon, the clown's head exploded on the tattered iron sheet of the abandoned factory, and the foul-smelling supernatural flesh and blood along with the victim's broken bones burst out together, instantly covering the entire iron wall!

Slowly moving forward on the ashes, Alesha/Sharon stopped beside the headless corpse, raised her finger—Pyramid Head raised his foot—waved his finger—and then Pyramid Head stepped down heavily, crushing the chest of the body directly!

The splattered blood and broken bones passed before Alessa's eyes, causing a hint of a sneer to curl up at the corner of her mouth:

"Why didn't you scream?"

Pennywise the Clown: "..."

What's going on? What's going on?! How could this little girl have such a dark thing hidden in her body... Are all the lives of outsiders so wild?

There was no response. The filthy flesh and blood that covered the entire wall quickly shrank and burrowed into the ground, and the strange environment around it also dissipated.

The fear-devouring monster fled along the sewer like a dog whose tail was stepped on.

"Damn... despicable outsider," Pennywise murmured in hatred. He would never give up so easily and spent several minutes finding his next target, also a girl, also from outside the town. "I don't believe I can fail!"

The clown leaped through the shadows of the pedestrians, slipping into 11's shadow, carefully exploring the girl's inner fears—fear of darkness, emptiness, and narrow spaces? Fear of sensory deprivation? Ah ha, what a good goal.

Regaining some confidence, the Joker stretched out his hands and suddenly covered 11's eyes from behind. He spoke a low, hoarse voice into the girl's ear... It was the voice of a research director in a superpower laboratory. He said coldly:

"The fifteenth otherworldly immersion experiment begins!"

Hey, fear! The smell of fear is coming!

Pennywise the clown flashed a ferocious grin, his mouth full of fangs, but he immediately realized that he seemed to have missed something. What was the "Superpower Lab"? What was the "fifteenth time"? However, he knew exactly what the term "otherworld" meant.

"Oh fuck."

But when his neck was twisted twenty times by the invisible telekinesis and rolled on the ground, the clown still didn't understand the other two words, or rather, he figured them out.

Silently picking up his head that had fallen to the ground, the clown ran away. He did feel some fear... but the source of that fear was chasing him right now! The little girl was crying loudly and trying to tear her head off!

No, no, no, the world shouldn't be like this.

Diving quickly into a sewer, the shrunken clown Pennywise swung his feet and fled in a panic from the constantly collapsing pipe behind him - the inner wall made of poured concrete exploded layer by layer, and dirt, gravel and sand cut through the air like metal shrapnel, emitting a shrill scream.

Pennywise himself wanted to scream!

After so many years on this planet, this is the first time I’ve suffered such a big loss!

Following the sewer pipe back to his "haunted house," the clown took a long, unseen breath. He was on the verge of revealing his true face in front of so many people... But what would happen if he did? Would he lure the even more powerful little dark girl over?

Filled with resentment, Pennywise tried to maintain his form, but his hands could not help but turn into claws, scratching at the walls of the abandoned haunted house, thinking about how to get back at the place. But just then, he heard footsteps approaching the building:

It sounded like a boy's footsteps.

Suppressing his inner joy, Pennywise the Clown extended his power and carefully sensed the breath of the newcomer:

A very normal boy, strong, lively, with vitality beyond his peers, but with a little sadness and fear in his heart... Is there any better food than this?

With another hideous smile, the clown merged into the wall of the haunted house, snaking forward like a python, and transformed behind the next door that was about to open for the boy who was searching this place - a slender, skinny skeleton-like body covered with dry, gray skin, and sharp claws scratching from the outside of the bright but cold heart, bringing an endless hunger - this was a Wendigo who only thirsted for human flesh and blood, just like Pennywise.

"Very good," the clown controlled the monster's head with a human skin mask to split to both sides, revealing a weird smile, and then waited for the boy to arrive.

In just half a minute, the door handle of the room trembled a few times and the sound of being turned was heard.

A boy's stunned face appeared before Pennywise the clown—yes, that's it! That's the feeling of fear! An incomparable delicious smell entered the monster's nostrils, causing it to open its mouth in satisfaction and roar.

The dust in the building was shaken off by the roar, but the next second, bullets from the UMP45 submachine gun pierced through the dust and mist, dotted dozens of blood flowers on the monster transformed by Pennywise!

As the door was slammed shut, the Joker looked down at the grenade rolling on the floor and fell into deep thought:

"Has the world outside of this town become so wild?"

Chapter 357: Wendigo Brothers (2/3)

In an abandoned haunted house on the outskirts of Delhi.

After Lucas Weaver threw the grenade and slammed the door, he quickly rushed towards the corridor and pressed the emergency call button on the communicator. The next second, the shock wave of the explosion brushed past the boy's heels, and the remnants of the wooden door and metal fragments drew a clearly visible track in the dust.

"I'll tear you to pieces, boy!!!"

Pennywise, the clown who transformed into a Wendigo monster, could no longer suppress the anger in his heart. He limped over, dragging his constantly reconstructing body. Rotting flesh and blood dripped onto the ground like mercury, and the floor was corroded with strange hissing sounds.

But the only response was another flurry of fire from the UMP45 submachine gun.

Bullets exploded on the monster's body like raindrops. When Pennywise used his arm to block the bullet shot at his head, his leg joints were broken, followed by the joints of his arms and wrists... The boy's proficiency in shooting these parts seemed to have been trained countless times in reality and in his mind!

Does this kid have some deep vendetta against the Wendigo? It ate your dad?!

Without further hesitation, Pennywise quickly changed his form, transforming into his usual dancing clown, with his lower body seemingly embedded in a spider's body. The spider's legs sprouted out and stabbed at the boy, but the latter nimbly dodged them.

The other party's fear is fading... replaced by anger.

Pure human rage was pulling at this still young body, driving the boy to shuttle between the monsters' attacks and the furniture in the abandoned buildings, and each counterattack was with impeccable precision.

Eyes, joints, mouth, you can even throw grenades into that bloody mouth!

Pennywise angrily chased the boy, constantly creating monsters and illusions in the abandoned haunted house, but the boy's will was as hard as steel - even adults could hardly match it! Fortunately, humans are only humans after all, and even if they can use gunpowder, there will be a moment when it runs out.

When the submachine gun in the boy's hand made a clicking sound, the clown Pennywise's face full of blood holes finally showed a smile.

However, the smile was quickly hidden in the arc flash wrapped around the black blunt knife:

The boy threw away his submachine gun and pulled two blunt black knives from his backpack, each nearly as long as his forearm. These weapons, derived from Aperture Technology's "electrical massager technology" and equipped with high-capacity batteries, were now emitting a brutal crackling sound.

"Go on, monster," Lucas said flatly, licking his cracked lips to make his heart beat faster. "I will fight until you scream."

Provoked by this, Pennywise let out a low roar, and slowly shrank his body, transforming from a spider into a clown, and then into a boy:

Becoming Aiden Weaver… Becoming Lucas's brother.

"What's the point of you changing your form in front of me?" Lucas said so. He lowered his eyes slightly to hide the growing anger within. "If this is the only trick you have, then don't..."

Aiden's appearance changed again, becoming thinner and looking a little malnourished, and more strange scenes began to spread from where the little boy stood - the walls and dust disappeared, the sunlight from outside the house gradually faded away, and a familiar dim corridor that appeared in Lucas's mind thousands of times appeared here - this was Lucas's home in the small town of Sips Falls, Oregon, and the place where the nightmare began.

A strange tingling sensation penetrated Lucas's mind, making him dizzy, fragile, and like his past self... An ancient and evil power was gradually peeling back the boy's mental defenses, testing the weak points of his will in order to find the most appropriate opportunity.

Suddenly, a skinny, withered man burst open the door at the end of the corridor and shouted at Lucas incoherently:

"leave!"

"Father has been infected. So, brother, will you leave me?" Aiden turned his head and looked at Lucas with a sad face as he slowly walked towards him. "You won't leave me, right? After all, I'm your only relative."

"……I won't."

"That's good," Aiden said with a warm smile, his eyes flashing yellow. He then extended his hands, as black as asphalt. "Let's hug, Lucas."

"……antlers."

"what?"

“Antlers grow like branches.”

"!!!"

The monster transformed into Aiden heard a cry of pain, and it turned its head suddenly, only to see a pair of deer antlers sticking out of the chest of the withered man!

crackle.

The death knell began to toll.

The monster turned back and saw only Lucas's eyes filled with rage, and saw only the black blunt knife with arcs of electricity swung down in rage - hitting his head!

The muffled sound of the skull exploding was made unusually crisp by the sound of electricity, and the flying bone fragments drew a nearly perfect charred arc in the air. When the first piece of bloody scalp with hair follicles hit the wall next to it that had returned to its original state, the clown Pennywise let out a scream!

The second time he uttered the sound, another stick was used to whip him in the throat.

Aiden, with antlers growing on his head, let out a long howl, which was like the distorted echo of an elk's cry repeated thousands of times in a cave. The next second, he tore the already fragile phantom in half with his bare hands.

Blood splattered and fell, but soon disappeared. Only the two boys and the abomination that was rapidly reassembling its body remained in the room.

Blowing away the dust, Aiden stood beside Lucas and said breathlessly:

"I don't have much time left..."

"Since Mr. Rhodes is here too... well, I don't have much strength left. It seems I have no choice but to teach it a lesson today." Lucas twisted his neck and pressed the start button of the blunt knife again. A bright arc of electricity flashed across the dim room, illuminating the human faces of the two brothers. "That thing's screams were so beautiful. I want to hear them again."

Aiden reached out and took off his mask, revealing a bloodthirsty smile.

Pennywise, having re-condensed into a clown, clung tightly to the wall, almost merging with the building. It wanted to stare at the Wendigo brothers in front of it, but the next second the wall it was attached to was shattered by Aiden's shoulder - an arc of electricity followed - Lucas's eyes were illuminated by the flashing electricity, as if emitting a beautiful bright blue.

Although they rarely practiced together, the two boys worked in perfect harmony, beating the clown to a pulp. The clown tried to transform into a more terrifying and powerful form, but something... something was gazing menacingly from outside the abandoned building.

Pennywise the Clown: "...I'm a sparring partner?"

When Lucas realized his next blow had missed, he didn't hesitate, but quickly retreated. He was only a teenager, already exhausted. If his blood brother hadn't arrived in time, the boy would have been in grave danger.

As the dust flew, the monster's strange laughter, a mixture of anger and understanding, could be heard from afar:

"I understand... Your fear is your brother. You're afraid that he will turn into a monster and devour you completely!"

"I don't deny that," Lucas took a few deep breaths, trying to keep his tone steady. "At the same time, Aiden is also very clear about this - don't underestimate the family bond between us, you filthy monster who only knows how to scream!"

"..."

Pennywise didn't respond. It had already returned to the dry well in the basement along the wall and floor. Its eyes, full of malice and hatred, were not fixed on the Wendigo brothers upstairs, but on the man standing on the street outside the abandoned haunted house, through layers of walls and wooden boards.

The monster instinctively sensed danger.