Dale stood open-mouthed as his gaze alternated in disbelief between the young man approaching and the smoking mountain of headless flesh behind him.
...What the hell just happened?
Did that gigantic being... just explode?
Nina shrank even further behind Dale, her eyes fixed on Lief with a mixture of horror and fascination.
"You all... who are you exactly?" Dale finally asked, recovering a fraction of his consciousness. His gaze swept between Lief, the exhausted Carrie, and the three unsettling girls.
This question, the same one that had bugged him since he saw Carrie doing strange things, finally came out.
But Lief paid him no attention, and went directly to Carrie and held her gently, feeling that she was about to collapse. He hugged her again, supporting her against his chest, feeling her trembling.
But before he could say anything, the three little ones looked at each other and a spark crossed their eyes.
They ran with synchronized steps and lined up in front of Dale and Nina. Lillith cleared her throat and put her hands on her hip.
"Since you ask!"
Emma, beside her, made a gesture with her hand as if adjusting glasses she didn't have, her face expressionless.
"We will reveal it to you with great mercy."
Esther made a grimace of evident disgust, but under Lillith's threatening gaze, she played along:
"To prevent the world from being destroyed..."
"To protect the peace of the world!"
"To carry out wickedness, love, and truth..."
"Here we are!"
Then, the three gathered and adopted a strange pose Lillith with her fist raised, Emma with her hands crossed and Esther with the sharpened bone in an attack position.
"Lillith!"
"Emma!"
"Esther..."
"We are the Powerpuff Girls who travel through nightmares!"
"..."
Dale and Nina stood staring at the three, totally petrified.
They had just escaped from a slaughterhouse where flesh was flying everywhere, and now they had a ridiculous children's play? The Powerpuff Girls?
Lief rubbed his temples hard, feeling his blood pressure rising to dangerous levels.
He looked at the three who were posing in postures that they considered "cool" and then at the two survivors who seemed to have lost their connection with reality.
Carefully, he left Carrie leaning against the trunk of a tree and approached.
"Alright, the show is over, kids," he said, sounding incredibly tired.
He hurried the three girls aside, grabbing them by the shoulders and giving them a push.
"Let go of me! We haven't said the final moral yet!" protested Lillith, kicking her little legs with indignation.
Completely ignoring her tantrum, Lief pushed them toward Carrie's side and then turned to Dale, who was still in a state of petrification.
"Are you okay?"
Dale's Adam's apple moved and he looked at him.
His lips moved several times, seeming to have a thousand questions, but in the end he could only concentrate his bewilderment into a single one.
"What... what was all that?"
"What thing?"
"That!" Dale pointed at the headless corpse on the ground. "Its head just... exploded. And the cannibals... and she..." His gaze darted toward Carrie, who was on the verge of fainting, "She can make things move by themselves! And that childish show? Explain yourself!"
A confident smile appeared on Lief's face.
"Sir, calm down," he said, raising his hands in a gesture of peace, "Listen to me, you and the girl have just been through hell. You've been hunted, you've seen people close to you die, and you've been running for hours on maximum adrenaline."
Lief took a cautious step forward.
"The human brain has a limit and when it breaks due to stress, it begins to fill the gaps with whatever, for example, hallucinations, cognitive lapses..."
"Hallucinations?" Dale's voice rose in indignation and he pointed at the carnage around him, "Are you telling me this is imaginary? Is the blood on my hands a hallucination? Is the pain in my ribs also a lie?"
"No, no. This of course is real," Lief conceded quickly, nodding seriously, "A group of inbred psychopaths attacked you, and they attacked you brutally."
"But, think about it sir. Heads don't just explode and high school girls don't move objects with their minds. That's from comics."
"You probably shot him yourself or he hit his head when falling, and your brain, tired from the stress, invented the rest to process the trauma. In the specific field this is called 'Dissociation'."
"..."
Nina remained confused, but her mind latched onto that explanation strongly.
'It... it makes sense, right?' she thought, 'Heads don't explode... it is impossible. Perhaps... perhaps I'm losing my mind.'
However, Dale wasn't so easy to break and he stared fixedly at Lief. His instincts told him the boy was completely lying.
He had seen what he had seen.
But he was exhausted, wounded, and outnumbered.
And most importantly: Lief looked at him with an unquestionable authority that said: "This is the official version. Accept it and go home."
Lief saw the doubt in the man's eyes and decided to close the deal, he stepped closer and, with a bold movement, placed a firm hand on his tense shoulder.
"You are exhausted. You need to get out of here, find a road, and call the state police."
"But I have to tell you something... you have guts," he added looking at him with sincere admiration, "Facing those things with a knife and getting the girl out alive... You're a damned hero."
The praise, aimed directly at the military man's wounded pride, worked and the tension in Dale's shoulders dissipated slightly. He needed to hear that. Not that he was crazy.
"We're taking off, I suggest you do the same before it gets darker," Lief concluded.
Without waiting for a response, he turned toward Carrie.
The girl was pale, with glassy eyes, struggling to remain standing leaning against the tree.
"Come here," Lief murmured softly.
Not caring about the others, he bent down and passed one arm behind her knees and another across her back, lifting her in his arms with ease, like a princess.
Carrie, too weak to protest, let her head fall against his shoulder, inhaling his scent and closing her eyes, letting herself be carried away.
Lief nodded to the three girls.
"Let's go."
"Is that it? Are we leaving just like that?" whispered Lillith, walking behind Lief, making a disappointed pout, "I wanted to see if the soldier collapsed and started peeing himself...."
"..."
Motionless, Dale watched Lief's back moving away, and then looked at the monster's decapitated body at his feet.
Finally he shook his head, rubbing his face with his stained hands. "The hell with this."
.....
When the group returned to the camp, the sun was already low.
John and Sarah were next to the SUV, looking like they were starting to worry and upon seeing Lief appear carrying Carrie, Sarah's expression changed from impatience to pure alarm.
"For the love of God! Where had you gotten yourselves?" She shouted running toward them and upon seeing Carrie's pale and sweaty face, her face filled with anguish, "What happened to her?"
"Dad! You won't believe what we did!" Lillith stepped forward with shining eyes, ready to narrate the carnage in full detail, "There were some ugly men and Carrie did—"
Lief didn't need to physically cover her mouth, he simply silenced her with his telekinesis, giving her a look that said 'shut up or there will be purification for you'.
"We played hide and seek and it got out of hand," Lief continued, lying with the ease of a professional, "We went farther than intended and the place was difficult. I think Carrie got heatstroke or a drop in blood sugar, she is not used to long walks."
Sarah brushed the hair from Carrie's forehead, checking her temperature.
"Poor girl... she is trembling. Lief, sit her in the chair, quickly."
"I told you not to go so far away," John reproached, crossing his arms and trying to put on an authoritative face, although the relief of seeing them all whole was evident.
However, his attempt to be stern lasted exactly five seconds and his gaze darted toward the cooler at his feet and he couldn't resist. A childish smile broke his façade.
"But well... since you are all here and whole..." He crouched down and opened the lid of the cooler with a theatrical gesture, "Behold dinner! Look at this beast! A giant sea bass!"
Inside, on a bed of ice, lay a fish of considerable size.
"I had to fight it for twenty minutes. It was a battle of wills," he boasted puffing out his chest, "But in the end, superior intellect prevailed."
The three girls surrounded the cooler, leaving him with a slight disappointment. They had just seen deformed cannibals being decapitated and shredded, and now they had to feign amazement for a dead fish.
...
Night fell quickly and the family packed up the camp under the light of the car's headlights.
Seeing that Carrie could barely stay standing without getting dizzy, Sarah made an executive decision, Carrie would sleep in the guest room.
Carrie tried to protest out of courtesy, but the gratitude in her eyes gave her away.
The trip back was a mixture of sounds.
John drove the SUV, with the window down and his elbow out, talking non-stop about the nuances of fishing and how that day would go down in the history of the Connor family. The girls slept in the back seat.
Lief rode behind on Fenrir.
The cold air of the road hit his helmet, scrubbing the disgusting monster from his memory.
He accelerated a bit, feeling the vibration of the engine between his legs and looked toward the horizon, where the last trace of violet light disappeared behind the mountains.
"Sigh…."
Upon arriving home, Sarah prepared the guest room and brought Carrie a cup of tea with lemon and honey.
"Drink it all, it will help you sleep," she said, sitting on the edge of the bed and stroking Carrie's head with a tenderness that made the girl's eyes well up with tears, "Rest."
"Thank you, Mrs. Connor... thank you for everything," Carrie whispered, holding the cup with both hands as if it were a treasure.
Meanwhile, Lief entered his own sanctuary and closed the door to take off his jacket and boots before walking toward his bed and dropping face-first onto the mattress.
Feeling how his body sank into the softness of the sheets with that familiar smell that enveloped him as he turned his face and buried it in the cool pillow.
"Ah... blessed bed…"
________
Time: If you're craving more (and I know you are!), I have just what you need. On my Patreon, you'll find exclusive chapters. Join our community and be the first to discover what happens next!
👉 [patreon.com/Athome790]
Your support fuels me. Thank you for the support! 💖