Hours later, under a leaden sky with no moon or stars, the group set off in silence toward the forest.
To be honest, time had seemed to stop ever since Sean's possession. Everyone assumed it must be around 3:00 a.m., but clearly, none of them could be sure. What they were sure of, however, was the disturbing realization that all clocks—digital or analog—had frozen at the exact same time: 12:23 midnight.
Even the car clocks, wristwatches, and the time on mobile phones, tablets, and other devices had stopped at that same moment.
They were travelling in two cars. Sean's mother led the way, with Beverly in the passenger seat, while the others—Lucy, Frank, Daniel, and two of the parents—followed behind with headlights off, as if trying to avoid being seen by something lurking in the dark.
The road twisted through crooked trees and roots that seemed to reach out in an attempt to drag them down. A few kilometers in, they lost cell signal, and a constant shiver settled in their spines.
"We're almost there," Beverly whispered, not looking at anyone.
Her heart was pounding, as if she could sense something terrifying was about to happen.
Sean's mother didn't reply. Her white knuckles gripped the steering wheel so tightly it looked like she might snap it off.
Fear filled the air—but so did determination.
They were ready to face whatever awaited them on the other side.
Even though they had no idea what was truly going on after what they'd seen on the news—because one thing was clear: what was shown on the news was one thing, and what was actually happening out there was something entirely different.
Finally, they reached a clearing where Beverly's grandmother's old cabin stood.
Dark and leaning to one side, it looked like it might collapse at any moment. Moss-covered and with a single flickering yellow light hanging at the entrance, it looked almost like it was breathing.
Beverly was the first to step out of the car, and the air hit her with an unmistakable scent: blood.
"Do you smell that?" Lucy whispered, hugging herself as a chilling shudder ran down her spine.
"Yes," Daniel replied, his voice cracking.
They moved slowly, all together, until Frank came to a sudden stop, pointing with a trembling finger toward the ground near the front door.
"There… on the ground…"
A dark stain spread from the doorway, as if someone had been dragged or had bled out right there. They nearly slipped on it—Sean's mother, the teens, and their parents—staining their clothes as if they'd stumbled into a crime scene. There were claw marks on the wood, like someone had tried desperately to hold on to life.
Beverly swallowed hard. Her steps were the first to touch the porch boards. The creaking sound was nearly unbearable. With trembling hands, she turned the doorknob.
The door creaked open slowly, revealing a scene none of them would ever forget.
Her grandmother was pinned to the wall, crucified with rusted nails.
Her stomach had been slit open, red intestines hanging like snakes, and her brain matter lay scattered across the floor, just centimeters from an old book covered in strange symbols.
Had she been the victim of some satanic ritual?
But that wasn't the worst part.
The worst part was the smile.
That twisted, macabre grin—identical to the one Sean had shown on TV.
"No… it can't be…" Beverly muttered, backing away. "She… she knew how to protect herself… There's no way anyone could've gotten in without her knowing!"
Sean's mother covered her face in horror. Lucy vomited. Daniel collapsed to his knees. Frank stood frozen in shock.
Then, a creak echoed from within the house. It wasn't any of them. It was coming from the basement.
Beverly clenched her jaw and, with tears in her eyes, forced herself to look at her grandmother's body. Carved into her chest with a knife, in shaky letters, was a message:
"You're welcome too."
From the darkness emerged the figure of a teenage boy, about their age. He was wearing a filthy, blood-stained hospital gown, his bare feet dirty, and his backside exposed. But what struck them most was the disturbing, chilling smile on his face, confirming that everything the news had said about him was true.
Sean had become a monster.
The kind of monster you'd rather die than face.
When his mother recognized him, she fainted instantly, collapsing to the floor under the weight of the shock. The other parents rushed to help her, while the teens battled to stay brave—now more than ever, they needed to be.
"Sean! Damn it! Are you okay? Please, stop this and come back to us!" Beverly screamed desperately, hiding her urge to break down in tears. It wasn't just her grandmother's death that made her want to cry—it was also seeing Sean like this, because they all knew this wasn't the Sean they had gone to high school with for years.
The rest of the group instinctively took a step back, but not too far—not enough to leave Beverly alone, not now, when she needed them the most.
But Sean just smiled coldly, clearly unwilling to comply with her plea.
"No. I won't. I'm so much better like this, and I'm not going back. Look at me, Bev. Look at what I've achieved—how I've brought the world to its knees with this incredible power. At last, I can be everything I ever wanted to be. And no one—no one—will take that away from me. Got it?"
He spoke with total conviction, looking at his closest friends with eyes that no longer belonged to the boy they once knew.