Chapter 27：The Final Last Kiss

Jerard finds himself back in the dark forest, the red glow illuminating his now torn up human body. His clothes struggle to stay on him with thin strands. Though blood and wounds cover him, he feels no pain.

Crunch.

Footsteps. He turns to see the faintest of silhouettes disappearing behind a tree.

Crunch.

He turns back around to see another one. The footsteps start to quicken, as more and more things can be seen darting between the trees. How many, it's impossible to tell. Everything suddenly goes silent and the forest sits still. With the deafening sound of several screams, creatures emerge, completely surrounding him. Ghostly, distorted voices come from the creatures as they close in on him.

"It's time...You're stuck with us...You'll feel the pain you caused us…"

Before the creatures can get within reach of Jerard, a bright light suddenly appears in front of him, almost blinding him and causing the creatures to keep their distance. The light dims down and his eyes slowly adjust.

"C-Clara…" Jerard says at a loss for words. She stands there, her body see through and made of a glowing light. She has a happy but sad look in her eyes as Jerard brings a hand up to her face, warm and soft to the touch. Tears start falling down his face as she puts a hand on his.

"I-I, I'm so sorry for-" He tries to apologize but she puts a finger up to his lips, hushing him.

"I know. I've heard your apologies, and seen you suffer as you kept yourself in isolation," Golden tears start to form in her eyes as she continues to speak, "And I've seen you and Red finally get to meet. I know you still doubt yourself, but I know you''ll be a great father, just like you were a great husband,"

"...b-but, I'm dead, aren't I?" Jerard asks, full of confusion.

"Almost. I wish we could spend more time together...but they need you, Red needs you. All the souls claimed by the demon, we're all trapper her until it's banished back to hell,"

"I, don't stand a chance against it…"

"Yes you can, it just takes a touch of love…" Through her teary eyes, she smiles warmly, "It's time for our final, last kiss...tell Red that I'm so proud of her and how she's grown and I love her very much...and tell dad he was the best father I could have asked for, and that he needs to stop smoking," Clara puts her hands on the back of Jerard's head and pulls him in for a kiss.

"W-wait, what are you doing? Clara, I don't want to leave you-" Jerard pleas, but he get cut off when their lips connect. Jerard tries to keep his eyes open to see her for as long as he can, but she starts glowing brighter, once more becoming a blinding light. As everything goes white, a warm, almost burning pain starts to feel his body.

…

"Dad!" Red cries out as she starts to run over to him. The demon slams one of his wings down, almost impaling her, blocking her path. Randy limps out of the locker room and shoots flames at the demon, but it puts down its other wing, shielding its body from the flames.

"You humans, have troubled me quite enough. It's sad seeing you try to kill the unkillable," The demon mockingly says as the flamethrower spits flames at the wing, but it's unable to do any permanent damage. The sudden screeching of metal being crushed catches the demons attention. It turns to where wolf had been to see a large hulking creature that looks to be a blend between man and wolf. Though as massive as the werewolf is, it still stands a couple feet shorter than the demon.

The werewolf lunges at the demon, its force enough to knock it off its feet. It starts clawing furiously at the demon, its claw tearing through the demon with ease. The demon fights back, clawing at it and stabbing it with its wings. The demon puts its wings under the werewolf, scrapping its claws against its chest before pulling them quickly, cutting into the beasts body.

The beast roars in pain, getting off the demon. The demon quickly gets up, only to be picked up by the neck. The werewolf looks over at the giant saw blade as it begs for something to cut. As the werewolf carries the demon over, it retaliates, cutting at anything it can reach with its claw and wings, even using its clawed feet to scratch at the creatures body and legs. Fighting through the burning pain, the werewolf brings the demon over, and slams it down onto the blade, which happily starts tearing into it.

The demon's disturbing screams fill the air as the werewolf pushes its body up the track, ther blade slicing through its body with ease, dark red, almost black blood spraying everywhere.

The werewolf throws the two halves of the demon into the center of the yard, the two halves of the demon's head groaning in pain as it struggles to get up. As the werewolf stomps over to it the demon starts to laugh as its body starts to shrink, its two halves coming back together. As it becomes the size of a human, it's missing hand comes back. Even as the werewolf slams a claw around its neck, the demon continues to laugh.

"You think you can kill me. You can't kill what's already dead,"

"No," Randy says, dropping the flamethrower and limping over to it, "But you can be sent back to where you came," Randy heads over to the locker room as the demon stops laughing as hard.

"Dad?" Red asks as she cautiously walks over to the large creature. Though its left ear turns to her direction as she asks that, it keeps its attention on the demon under its claw. Randy comes back with a bible.

"You can't send me back, you don't know my name," The demon says angrily.

"You still can't banish me, you don't have any faith, you don't have any of the, 'holy power' in you," the demon says mockingly.

"That's why I called the Priest. So know we sit here," Randy throws the bible at the demon's head, the book hitting it in the eye and bouncing onto the floor, "And wait,"

It feels like forever as they sit there, the demon trying to break free of Jerard's grip, not even able to make any of his claws budge.

"Dear lord...what is that?!" A man in clergy clothing exclaims as he gets out of his car. Randy limps over to the Priest.

"I'll explain later, right now I need you to send that mother, FUCKER, back to hell," Randy says pointing at the demon. The Priest looks at the demon and at the giant creature holding it down.

"A-alright," The Priest says, clutching his bible close to him, "Do you know its name?" He asks nervously as they approach the demon.

"Gerald,"

The Priest opens up his bible, and starts reading a verse, the demon mocking him the whole time.

"In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, I condemn Gerald back to where it came!" With those words the demon suddenly screams in pain as it's body starts to become engulfed in a fiery light. The demon flails about as it's body starts to burn away, and before they know, nothing but burn marks on the ground are the only evidence of it ever being there.

"That went a lot smoother than I expected for a first, exorcism, of sorts…" The Priest says to himself as he stares at the burnt silhouette in the ground. The werewolf, falls to one knee as it starts to shrink, losing its fur and becoming human.

"Jerard?!" The Priests exclaims as Jerard kneels on the ground, naked, and catching his breath. Randy takes off his jacket and puts it over Jerard, who shivers from the cold. He quickly ties it around his mid section to cover himself.

"It's a long story," Randy says as Red hurries over to her father, "To make it short, he, was, the demon wolf. But we got that taken care of, and now the demon that started all this is back in hell," The Priest just looks at him completely baffled.

"Okay, maybe we should grab a drink first, it'll be my treat," Randy says as he puts an arm around the Priest's shoulder and turns him around so he stops staring at Jerard with fearful eyes.

"Wait," Jerard says as he turns himself to Randy, "C-Clara, wanted me to tell you something," Randy stops in his tracks and turns to him, "She wanted me to tell you, that you were the best father she could ask for, and to stop smoking," Randy just stares at Jerard with no expression.

"I'll do my best," Randy says with a smile before turning around and continuing to walk with the Priest to the car.

"Your mother also had something to say to you," Jerard tells Red, "She's proud of you and how much you've grown, and she loves you very much," Before Red can respond Jerard hugs her tightly, "I promise to keep you safe and be the best father I can be,"

As Randy and the Priest near the Priest's car, they hear some moaning off to the right. They turn to see Helena as she gets up.

"What, happened?" She asks as she looks around, "What did I miss?"

"One hell of a fight," Randy replies with a slight chuckle, "Now come on, we're gonna grab some drinks. Red, Jerard, come on!" He calls out. Jerard and Red stop hugging, getting up and joining the others. Luckily the Priest has a large car with three rows so they all fit in fine, though the man is a bit shaky having Jerard in the car. The engine waking breaking the silence of the forest, they take off.

"So, what happens now?" Jerard asks as they drive towards the town.

"I have no idea, but I'm sure we'll figure it out," Randy replies as he gazes at the approaching town in the distance, "As far as anyone is concerned, we killed the demon wolf and we shouldn't have anything else to fear, hopefully," He looks out the window and gazes into the woods, "Who knows what else is out there…" He mutters to himself.

With the knowledge of monsters being real, the group heads into town finally able to have a moment of peace after a week of living through a nightmare. Though it takes awhile, they explain to the Priest the events, and he agrees to keep what really happened a secret. The bodies of Pierre, Grotto, and Granny along with the others that had been killed were never found, but the air had lifted, the gloom slowly going away as time progressed. The story of the Big Bad Wolf is still told, but not as common as it use to be.

Jerard, Red and Randy end up building a house close to town where they all live. After months of repair work, the sawmill was brought back to its former glory and the priest once more had to bless gallons of water and flamethrower gasoline. Life went on as normal as it can, with Jerard occasionally bringing back entire deer and sometimes bears for food.

Randy made sure to teach Red how to hold, reload, and shoot guns properly before she started her first year of middle school. Everything was good, till the new kid showed up and Red swore she saw his eyes glint yellow for a second during lunch as he ate his ham sandwich.