Hidden behind the gnarled trunk of a wilting tree. Crickets whispered and frogs snickered. Allison cradled her child, desperate to keep the eerie silence of the woods from breaking. She rocked the infant back and forth, her breast in its mouth to stifle any sound. But then, the snap of a twig made her heart hammer against her ribs. Fear surged, and the baby unaware of mother's terror. let out a long, piercing wail.
Before she could move, a cold click echoed behind her ear. Melissa stood there, a gun pressed hard against Allison's temple.
"Got you, bastard," Melissa hissed, her hands quaking as she swallowed hard.
Allison breathed in unable to contain her fear, holding her baby protectively, waiting for the inevitable bullet. But Melissa's resolve flickered. "Damn it, I can't!" she screamed, looking down at the girl she once called a friend and student.
"I'm sorry, Madam," Allison whispered, seizing the moment. "It was a mistake. Spare my baby".
The mercy lasted only a heartbeat, disappeared like it had appeared . Melissa's face contorted, a "possessed" rage masking the "hazy fog" in her eyes.
"No! You're a family breaker. My husband is dead because of you. You have to pay!".
She lunged. Melissa's fingers locked around Allison's neck. Keren and Miss Brandon rushed forward to pull them apart, but Melissa was a woman possessed . She shoved Keren face-first into the "rotting leaves," her strength fueled by the ghost of Robert—his face still fresh in her mind, leaking blood from a bullet hole
.
In the struggle, the baby slipped from Allison's grasp. It rolled down the slanting forest floor, its cries dying out with a sickening snap as it hit the ravine below.
Melissa didn't stop. She dragged Allison by her hair, striking her head against the tree again and again until Allison's face was a shattered mask of blood. Even as Keren and Brandon pinned her to the ground, Melissa thrashed, screaming, "Let me finish her ! She did this!".
But Allison wasn't quite gone. From the mask of blood , a faint, unearthly whisper emerged . "My baby..." she wheezed. "You will pay... all of you".
Ryan twisted in the dirt, trying to crawl toward a shelter of bushes, his fingers clawing from the fingers of mist. He hoped against hope for refuge, but a hand suddenly locked around his ankle. He was hauled backward, dragged through the "rotting leaves" like a fresh corpse until the world went black.
Melissa's eyes snapped open to the sterile white of a hospital ceiling. Her arms were bound in bandages; her leg was suspended in a heavy plaster cast.
"Where is Ryan?" were the first words to tear through her parched throat.