Chapter 78: Carrie

Chapter 78: Chapter 78: Carrie

Chapter 78: Carrie

Just as the supernatural energy surging through Carrie White seemed ready to erupt, a hand gently settled on her shoulder. The violent force immediately found an outlet and rushed toward that point of contact, pouring into Axel Vance before Carrie could completely lose control. Axel grunted softly as an indescribable, magnificent hue appeared across his palm.

The trace of Color of the Stars inside his body reacted greedily to the incoming power. That beautiful yet deeply unnatural shade spread between his hand and Carrie’s shoulder, swallowing the energy overflowing from her body almost as quickly as it appeared. A warm current traveled up Axel’s arm, and several of his aching wounds immediately became less painful.

This energy was nothing like the vitality he had drained from the Creeper. It felt closer to concentrated psychic force, filled with fear, rage, humiliation, and emotional chaos rather than simple life energy. Once converted through Color of the Stars, however, it still replenished Axel enough to make his battered body feel noticeably better.

Carrie’s trembling gradually subsided as the pressure inside her diminished. She slowly raised her head and looked through tear-filled eyes at the blood-covered stranger standing beside her, confusion and fear written across her face. At the same time, the suffocating emotional pressure filling the bus finally began to fade.

The students did not instantly return to normal.

Carrie’s power had amplified resentment that was already present, and although the supernatural pressure disappeared, the anger it had stirred up still needed somewhere to go. One by one, the students stopped glaring at Carrie and turned their attention toward Axel instead.

The blond teenager who had challenged Axel earlier was the first to speak. Chris pointed toward him with an angry flush spreading across his face. "What, are you Carrie’s bodyguard now? You fall out of the sky looking like some monster and suddenly you’re protecting the biggest freak in school?"

Axel removed his hand from Carrie’s shoulder and looked toward Chris with tired disbelief. He had no interest in getting involved in teenage drama when he was covered in blood, nursing a fractured leg, and potentially still being hunted by an immortal flying cannibal. Unfortunately, Chris mistook Axel’s silence for weakness.

The teenager’s confidence immediately swelled. "I knew that badge was fake. You’re probably some fugitive trying to scare everyone." Chris raised one arm toward the other students and shouted, "Come on, we can take him together!"

Several boys immediately moved toward Axel, and even students who had remained seated began shouting from the aisles. "Call the cops!" one yelled, while another shouted, "Throw him off the bus!" The sudden wave of hostility became so chaotic that the driver abandoned his seat and tried to pull the most aggressive students apart.

"Knock it off!" the driver shouted, but somebody shoved him backward almost immediately. Carrie anxiously waved her hands as though she wanted to explain that Axel had just helped her, yet fear locked her voice in her throat. All she could manage were several broken sounds while the crowd around her became louder.

Axel watched the scene and understood that patience was no longer going to solve anything. His left leg was fractured, his body had been through several supernatural disasters in less than a day, and he did not have the energy to negotiate with a bus full of emotionally unstable teenagers. He braced himself against the nearest seat and slowly straightened.

Then Axel inhaled deeply.

"ENOUGH!"

His voice exploded through the cramped bus.

With Physique 3.6, the shout carried enough force to make several students physically flinch, while the girls in the closest seats felt their hair move from the burst of air. The entire bus fell silent as ringing filled dozens of ears and the last traces of mob courage disappeared almost instantly.

Axel’s eyes moved across the students one by one. "I don’t care who hates who, what happened at school, or who started whatever argument you’re having. Sit down, shut up, and stay in your seats."

Nobody answered.

Axel continued, "If any of you decide you still want to make this worse, I’ll personally explain the difference between being brave and being stupid." Most of the students immediately stepped backward and returned toward their seats without needing another warning.

Chris remained standing.

Too many people were watching him.

His pride would not allow him to retreat quietly.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" Chris shouted, although his voice was far less confident than before. "You’re just some cripple who fell through a roof!"

Axel slowly nodded.

"Very good."

A smile appeared on his face that made Chris immediately regret speaking.

Axel raised one hand, fully prepared to remind the teenager that a fractured leg did not make the rest of him harmless. Before he could move, however, a faint hiss came from the damaged opening above them.

Axel froze.

His head snapped upward.

Something was hanging upside down from the edge of the hole.

The creature was no larger than Axel’s palm and completely black, with a body shaped vaguely like some grotesque cross between a beetle and an unfamiliar arthropod. Six jointed legs clung to the metal roof while a sharp stinger-like appendage extended from the end of its abdomen.

Axel narrowed his eyes.

The creature turned slightly.

It had noticed him looking.

Then it launched itself downward.

"Watch out!"

Axel reacted instantly and grabbed for the back of Chris’s shirt. The creature moved too quickly.

Its tail snapped outward in midair.

The stinger drove into the back of Chris’s neck.

"Ah!"

Chris managed only one short scream before his entire body went limp.

The black creature struck the back of his head a fraction of a second later and locked all six legs around his skull. Before anyone could move, something thin and dark shot from its mouth and attached to the torn metal surrounding the hole in the roof.

The filament looked impossibly delicate.

Then it tightened.

Chris’s body jerked upward.

Students screamed as his feet suddenly left the floor. His hands scraped uselessly against the seats and walls while the tiny creature hauled his entire body toward the ceiling with strength that made absolutely no sense for something its size.

"Chris!"

Several students tried to move toward him.

They were too late.

Chris reached the opening.

His body vanished through the roof.

For one stunned second, the bus went completely silent.

Axel was already moving.

Ignoring the pain in his fractured leg, he pushed off with his good one and caught the damaged edge of the roof with both hands. He hauled himself upward before the driver or students could stop him.

Axel emerged onto the top of the moving bus and immediately spotted the thin black filament. It stretched away from the road and into the woods, dragging Chris across the ground at frightening speed without showing the slightest sign of breaking. Whatever that small creature was, Axel had no intention of letting it disappear.

If it was currently weak or incomplete, this might be the only chance to destroy it before it recovered whatever abilities it normally possessed. The possibility of another flying monster hunting him across Louisiana was enough motivation by itself. Axel clenched his jaw and moved toward the edge of the roof.

"Damn it."

He dropped from the bus.

The moment Axel hit the ground, agony tore through his fractured left leg and nearly sent him to his knees. He caught himself, forced his body upright, and began limping after the black filament as quickly as his injury allowed.

"Hey!" the driver shouted from the bus. "Where are you going?"

Axel did not answer.

He disappeared into the trees.

Inside the bus, the earlier hostility had vanished completely. The students stared at the hole in the roof with pale faces, while the skinny boy who had previously been talking about tunnels to the center of the Earth rolled his eyes upward and fainted from sheer terror.

Carrie remained frozen for several seconds.

Then she looked toward the trees where Axel had disappeared.

He had protected her.

He had stopped the others.

And now he was chasing whatever had taken Chris despite barely being able to walk.

Carrie slowly stood.

The driver immediately noticed. "Carrie, don’t even think about it."

She moved toward the door.

"It’s dangerous outside!" he shouted.

Carrie looked toward the woods once more.

Then she gripped the door rail, stepped down from the bus, and ran after Axel Vance without hesitation.

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