Chapter 59: The Abnormal Leatherface

Chapter 59: Chapter 59: The Abnormal Leatherface

Chapter 59: The Abnormal Leatherface

Axel Vance moved quickly through the Carson estate, staying close behind the fleeing Leatherface as the huge masked killer twisted through one hallway after another. Despite his massive frame, Leatherface knew every corridor and narrow passage in the mansion and moved through them with surprising speed. Axel followed closely, but at one sharp corner he almost ran straight into a wall before recovering his balance. By the time he looked ahead again, Leatherface had already disappeared at the far end of the passage.

"Damn it," Axel muttered as he prepared to continue the chase, only for a familiar voice to call from behind him. "Wait for me!" He turned and saw Lionel Cosgrove staggering toward him with the still-smoking chainsaw lodged completely through his torso. The sight was so absurd that Axel stared at him for a second before asking, "Can you at least take the chainsaw out before running around?"

Lionel looked down at the blade protruding from his chest and hesitated. "If I pull it out, won’t I bleed even more?" Axel silently pointed toward the long trail of blood Lionel had already left across the floor behind him. Lionel followed his finger, stared at the evidence for several seconds, and finally nodded. "Right. I guess that ship already sailed."

Lionel reached backward and tried to grab the chainsaw handle, but no matter how much he twisted his shoulders, his arms could not reach far enough. After several increasingly ridiculous attempts, he gave up and turned his back toward Axel. "Fine, help me pull it out." Axel sighed, stepped forward, wrapped both hands around the handle, and yanked hard.

The chainsaw came free with a wet ripping sound, dragging shredded tissue and chunks of flesh from Lionel’s back. Lionel lowered his head and examined the enormous hole through his torso with a distressed expression, though his concern was not what Axel expected. "How much food do you think I’m going to have to eat to recover from this?" he asked. After the last few days, Lionel had apparently accepted catastrophic bodily injury as a grocery-budget problem.

Axel looked at the pieces of torn flesh scattered across the floor and considered Lionel’s abnormal recovery for a moment. "Pick up anything that still looks usable. Maybe Paquita’s grandmother can put some of it back instead of making you grow everything from scratch." Lionel’s eyes immediately brightened as if Axel had just saved him hundreds of dollars in food. "Why didn’t I think of that?"

The two actually crouched down and gathered the larger pieces of Lionel’s flesh from the floor. Lionel wrapped them as best he could and shoved the recoverable scraps into his pockets, planning to ask the grandmother about them later. Axel decided not to question how quickly collecting one’s own body parts had become normal behavior. He instead turned his attention toward the chainsaw he had just removed.

The chain and cutting assembly had clearly been modified, and the saw felt unusually heavy and aggressive compared with an ordinary commercial tool. Axel tested its balance in his hands before resting it over one shoulder. "This thing might actually be useful. I’m keeping it for now."

Lionel stared at him. "You’re stealing Leatherface’s chainsaw?" Axel gave him a flat look and replied, "I’m a cop. It’s called confiscating evidence." Lionel considered the distinction for a moment before deciding it was probably safer not to argue.

The two continued searching through the estate until they eventually rejoined Heather Miller, Ryan, Nikki, Seth Brundle, and the others. Nikki had already regained consciousness and was clutching Heather’s arm while rapidly describing what had happened near the basement. The moment she turned her head and saw Lionel walking toward them with a massive open hole through his chest, her eyes widened in horror. She screamed once and fainted so cleanly that Heather barely caught her.

Ryan looked no better. He stared at Lionel’s wound, then at the blood covering the floor, and finally raised one trembling finger without managing to form a single word. Seth, on the other hand, reacted exactly like a scientist who had just discovered something impossible. He rushed toward Lionel with barely concealed excitement and immediately began examining him from several angles.

"Incredible," Seth muttered as he leaned closer to the wound. "By every normal biological standard, you should already be dead or at least in terminal shock." Lionel shook his head and answered honestly, "I don’t really feel much because I shut off the pain. Mostly it just feels like there’s a draft going through my chest."

Seth stared at him in fascination, but Axel stepped between them before the scientist could start requesting tissue samples. "Lionel, you put some kind of sympathetic binding on Leatherface downstairs, right?" Lionel nodded and explained that the connection should still exist as long as he had not deliberately broken it. Axel immediately asked, "Can you use it to find him?"

Lionel closed his eyes and focused on the strange connection still tying him to the masked killer. After several seconds, his expression shifted as he began sensing movement somewhere inside the mansion. "He’s still moving around the house. He hasn’t gotten far."

Everyone became quiet as Lionel slowly turned his head. "Closer... closer..." His hand rose and pointed toward a tightly closed door at the end of the corridor. Then his eyes snapped open. "He’s right behind that door."

The words had barely left his mouth when the door exploded outward with a violent crash. Leatherface charged through the opening carrying another running chainsaw, his human-skin mask fixed directly toward Axel’s group. Axel immediately started the chainsaw he had taken earlier and stepped forward without hesitation. The roar of both engines filled the hallway as the two men faced one another.

Leatherface’s masked head tilted when he noticed Axel holding the same weapon he had been using only minutes earlier. The confusion lasted less than a second before he released a deep roar and rushed forward. Axel met him head-on, and the two spinning chains slammed together with a violent metallic shriek.

Sparks scattered across the corridor as the chains ground against each other. Axel immediately felt the strength behind Leatherface’s arms and realized the huge man was far stronger than any ordinary human should have been. Unfortunately for Leatherface, Axel’s Physique 3.1 placed him well beyond ordinary human limits too.

Axel drove forward and forced Leatherface backward several steps. Leatherface planted his boots and tried to recover his balance, but Axel slammed the chainsaw against his weapon again before he could stabilize. Another violent collision forced the huge killer back until his shoulders nearly struck the wall.

Leatherface swung wildly in response, but Axel shifted aside and let the attack pass. He turned his wrists, brought his own chainsaw down against Leatherface’s, and steadily forced the larger man lower. The pressure continued until Leatherface’s knees slammed heavily against the floor.

A second impact sounded behind Axel at almost exactly the same moment. He glanced back and saw Lionel kneeling in the same position with a completely confused expression. Axel immediately understood what had happened and snapped, "Lionel, cancel the binding."

Lionel blinked and looked down at himself. "Oh, right. I forgot that was still active." He began wiping at the dark markings on his face, only to discover that Leatherface’s dried black blood had become sticky enough that rubbing alone would not remove it.

"Water!" Lionel shouted. Seth immediately grabbed a bottle and tossed it toward him, and Lionel caught it before splashing water over his face. He scrubbed away the dried markings until the last trace disappeared, and the invisible damage-sharing connection finally broke. Axel felt the difference immediately and turned his full attention back toward Leatherface.

Leatherface surged forward again, but Axel no longer had to worry about accidentally injuring Lionel through the binding. He sidestepped the attack, shifted his weight, and used his superior strength to force Leatherface down against the floor. Before the killer could recover, Axel brought the running chainsaw across his right arm.

Leatherface screamed as the arm separated and dropped to the floor. His huge body rolled violently across the hallway while Axel stepped back and watched him convulse. Then Axel noticed something strange leaking from the severed stump.

The blood was thick, dark, and almost black.

Axel’s expression immediately changed.

He had seen blood like that before.

The record factory.

The cultists.

The tall man whose flesh had refused to stay destroyed.

Axel stared at Leatherface and felt the last traces of curiosity disappear. "So it’s you people again," he muttered as the familiar pattern finally clicked into place. He had originally assumed that Leatherface was simply an unusually durable human killer, even after recognizing him from the movies.

Now the situation was different. Jed Sawyer might have been human in the story Axel remembered, but this version had clearly undergone the same kind of supernatural modification connected to the cult Axel encountered in Miami. The unnatural strength, abnormal blood, and resistance to injury were no coincidence.

The discovery was far more troubling than Leatherface himself. Axel had crossed multiple states, left Miami behind, and somehow stumbled upon another person altered by the same organization. If the cult had modified someone in rural Texas, its influence was clearly far larger than he had previously believed.

He remembered the businessmen connected to Shark Renovation, their sudden deaths, the disappearing records, and the way Chief Woody had eventually told him to stop digging. At the time, Axel had suspected the organization reached high places, but now it seemed possible their network extended across the country. Whatever he had uncovered in Miami might have been only one small branch.

Axel had initially considered leaving Leatherface alive for questioning. Despite everything, Jed was still someone who could potentially provide information, and Axel had no interest in killing suspects unnecessarily. But seeing the familiar cult modification made it clear that the situation had become much more dangerous and complicated than an ordinary criminal case.

He turned toward Heather, Ryan, Nikki, and the others. "Everyone out of the room." Heather hesitated for a moment, but the look on Axel’s blood-covered face and the severed arm on the floor quickly convinced everyone not to argue.

Ryan helped Heather move Nikki while the remaining civilians backed away from the scene. Within moments, the hallway was nearly empty. Only Axel, Lionel, Seth, and the wounded Leatherface remained.

Lionel looked down at the dark blood spreading across the floor and frowned. "What exactly is wrong with him?" Seth also leaned forward slightly, clearly realizing that Leatherface’s condition went far beyond abnormal biology even though he had no idea what it meant.

Axel shut off the chainsaw and rested it against the floor. He looked at both men before releasing a slow breath. "This thing is connected to the reason I ended up getting sent to Crystal Lake as a forest ranger in the first place."

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