Dwight stopped and followed Nea's gaze. There, just a few feet in front of them, human footprints crossed the narrow path they had just walked mere moments ago. The step size was huge, the footprints had to belong to a big person.
"Were they there before?" Nea asked nervously and Dwight shook his head. "No, no I do not think so. Damn, I know they were not there before. We would have noticed."
Dwight and Nea both knew only one person walking barefoot through the forest with such footsteps.
"But she must have seen us," Nea wondered, peering between the trees. "We've just been in Jake's cabin for half a minute. It can't be that she didn't discover us."
"How do you know that?" Dwight replied, "Maybe we missed her by sheer luck."
"You're right, let's get out of here," Nea said, already starting to run. But Dwight hesitated. "What's going on, Dwight? Come on! Or do you want her to get us?"
"What if she has Jake?"
"What?"
"Maybe he's in trouble," Dwight said, his eyes following the tracks until they disappeared into the thicket. "Maybe he needs our help."
"Dwight, we're not in the fog anymore," Nea shouted in a subdued voice, "If she gets us, that's it."
"The same goes for Jake," Dwight countered, sounding more daring than he felt. "If anyone knows how to free people from the clutches of bloodthirsty psychopaths, then it's us. Jake might be in grave danger right now."
"How do you even know that she has Jake?" Nea wanted to know. "Dwight, that's crazy. We just got out. Dwight, please!"
"I don't know. That's why we need to make sure," Dwight replied, "She didn't see us, so she has no idea we're here. That's our advantage." Dwight straightened his shoulders and made a decision. "I'm going in there now."
Then he started walking. Nea remained indecisive. She watched Dwight follow the footsteps of the Huntress. Then she looked down the path to the city, only to turn back to Dwight, who was already several metres away from her. Nea stifled a scream of rage and instead stomped her foot in frustration, before hurrying after him.
"If we die, it's all your fault," she whispered to him, fully aware of the absurdity of her words. Dwight did not reply, for they had now covered the last few meters to the tree line. Soon, they would plunge into the darkness of the wood and go back into the cave of the Cyclops, from which they had just escaped. Nea looked over her shoulder and saw the setting sun on the horizon. Then she turned away to face what was ahead of her.
Meanwhile, Dwight meandered through the trees, being careful not to lose sight of the footprints.
It was not hard to track the Huntress. She did not walk cautiously in her rambling through the undergrowth, and it was obvious where she had broken through the bushes. It was not that she could not hide her presence. She certainly could, but evidently she didn't care to. Broken branches lay on the ground and lined the trail of footprints that led Dwight and Nea deeper and deeper into the forest. For quite a while they just followed the track, but eventually Dwight picked up a familiar smell. Nea seemed to notice it as well and the two exchanged a look.
"Are we back again?" Dwight asked. The Swede looked up and listened to the sounds of the forest. She saw the treetops swaying in the wind and a heard a woodpecker who had loudly gone to work somewhere.
"No," she replied, "We are still in the real world. But somebody lighted a campfire here."
Dwight looked forward, peering through the trees. By now, the sun had almost completely set, which made it easier to spot the faint orange glow between the tree trunks. He made Nea aware of the fire, whereupon she nodded and took cover.
"We have to get closer," she said. "We can't see anything from here."
"You're right," Dwight replied, "That was all my idea. You stay here, I'll try to sneak up and scout out the area."
Nea just raised her eyebrows and gave Dwight a disparaging look.
"Stay here. You may know what needs to be done, but unfortunately you have never been the best in doing it yourself."
Dwight was about to protest, but Nea silenced him with a finger on her lips. Then she looked at the campfire, which was burning brightly in the distance. Nobody was visible from position, but that did not mean much of anything. Maybe Jake was injured or tied behind one of the trees. Maybe the campfire also acted as bait for a trap. No, Nea thought, that's not how the Huntress hunted. She pursued her prey and brought it down in savage chases. She did not wait in ambush.
"Nea, listen-" Dwight started, but she silenced him again.
"Hush. No sound now. I'll get closer. You don't move from this spot unless the Huntress spots you here. In that case, distract her and run as fast as you can."
With these words, Nea emerged from the tree behind which she had sought cover and sneaked up to the campfire. She did not take the most direct route, but tried to set her steps so that she could disappear behind shrubs and bushes every few steps while approaching her target. The Huntress would not see her coming.
After a good minute she had covered most of the distance and kneeled down behind a tree. The branches of the plant reached down to the ground and provided excellent cover, while allowing her a clear view. Carefully, Nea pulled one of the branches aside and glanced toward the campfire. Neither Jake nor the Huntress were anywhere to be seen. Instead, a slightly smaller, stooped figure sat on a stump and warmed her hands at the flames. She was wearing an old-fashioned white dress with a pillowcase over her head and an old rusty bone saw was lying next to her.
The Nurse is there too, Nea thought, cursing inwardly. Meanwhile, Dwight had kept his guard and watched his companion creep up on the campfire. He subconsciously began biting his nails as he nervously shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Then he heard someone breaking through the undergrowth. With pounding footsteps, a figure emerged behind Dwight, and as he turned, he suddenly found himself exposed to the Huntress's icy gaze. She seemed as surprised as Dwight, for she paused for the glimpse of an eye. For a moment, the two stared at each other silently. Then the Huntress dropped the wood she was carrying under her left arm and gripped her big axe with both hands. Dwight knew it was time to leg it.
He started running out of panic, storming through the bushes and shrubs. Small branches and twigs stuck to his clothes and tore scratches into his skin, but he couldn't care less. He had to escape. Flee. In panic, he jumped over a rock and heard the Huntress let out a furious scream. With stomping footsteps, she took up the chase and approached quickly. Under no circumstances could she catch him. He was no longer in the fog and death in the real world was final.
By the campfire, both Nea and the Nurse had heard the scream and turned around, the Nurse was surprised and Nea startled. Fortunately, the Swede was well hidden, otherwise she likely would have been discovered as well. With panic growing inside her, she saw Dwight approach with the Huntress close on his heels. He ran straight for the campfire and the Nurse followed him with a questioning look. Dwight tried to dodge a low-hanging branch, but then he tripped over a root. With a cry, he stumbled and fell on the ground next to the Nurse, who rose hastily. For a moment she looked at Dwight, cocked her head a little, and then turned towards the Huntress. The big woman angrily crashed through the forest, her axe raised high over her head, ready to split the boy's skull. Nea could do nothing but sit in cover and watch. Her eyes widened in terror as she stared at the scene.
The sound of a wind gust swept through the air and Dwight was pulled a meter to the left. The Nurse now stood in his place and reached out in the direction of the Huntress. At any moment, the axe would hit her head and split her body apart, Nea thought. But the Huntress abruptly stopped and froze in her position. The Nurse distinctly shook her head at her and for the first time Nea heard her speak: "No."
The killer then turned to Dwight, who was crawling on the ground in a frantic search for his glasses. Once found, he hastily put them on his nose and looked around in fear, surprised not to be dead yet. He could see the Nurse's faceless mask bent over him. Over her shoulder was the Huntress, who growled menacingly as he met her gaze. Dwight tried to pull himself away from the beasts, but soon he felt the campfire behind his back. There was no way out. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Nea staring at the scene from behind a bush. The Nurse reached out to him, wanting to help him up.
"Quiet, we do not want you any harm," she said in a grating and toneless voice. Dwight just stared at the killer's outstretched paw, frozen by terror and breathing heavily. For a moment, the two just stared at each other, then the Nurse withdrew her hand. Slowly, she floated back to the tree trunk she had been sitting on and again settled down it.
Nea could see an orange light in her palm that faded as soon as she closed her fingers to a fist. The Huntress had not lost sight of Dwight. She let out another aggressive growl that made him flinch in fright before she finally turned away from him. She dropped her long axe, letting it fall to the ground with a clatter. She headed back into the woods, just down the path she had just chased poor Dwight along. The Huntress marched right past Nea, and the Swede held her breath with a racing heart. A moment later, she looked back at Dwight, who was still lying on the floor, keeping his eyes on the Nurse, who had laid her hands in her lap and was watching Dwight with her head tilted a little to the side.
"Why did you come back to the forest?" She asked after a while. Dwight finally freed himself from his rigidity and scrambled up awkwardly. He took a few steps back, but he did not run away. The Nurse seemed to have no interest in stopping him in any way. She just looked at him questioningly.
"I ... we ..." Dwight stuttered but couldn't produce a coherent sentence. Nea bit her tongue. Did he seriously just put the word "we" in his mouth? After all, the killers did not know that she was here too.
"I've ... been looking for a friend," Dwight said now, brushing the dust off his clothes. His eyes remained fixed on the Nurse. The pale woman nodded silently. After a moment she asked: "Did you want to go back into the fog?"
"No, we ... we just wanted to see if he ... if he got out. He lives around here."
"Why are you constantly saying we?" The Nurse asked, looking around. Nea hurriedly pulled her head behind the tree and held her breath. "Is anybody else here?"
"No, no," Dwight hurried, "I'm alone here. Just me."
His eyes shot briefly in Nea's direction and she immediately wanted to tear his head off for it. The Nurse hadn't missed the sidelong glance and turned her head briefly in the direction. Then she looked to Dwight again and said: "Come, sit down, I won't hurt you."
Dwight hesitated for a moment, before he finally accepted her invitation. Silently he sat down on a half-rotted tree trunk, still watchful and mistrusting. With pounding footsteps, the Huntress returned and for the first time Dwight looked away from the Nurse. The tall woman dropped a pile of wood by the campfire, threw two branches into the flames, and then sat down on a stone directly across from Dwight. She paid no attention to the boy.
"Sally," the Nurse said suddenly, frightening Dwight.
"What?"
"My name is Sally. Sally Smithson."
Dwight stared at her for a moment. The killers had names?
"Dwight Fairfield," he answered after a moment. The Nurse nodded. "As I said, Dwight, you have nothing to fear from us. We are no longer in the fog. Those days are over."
Dwight did not answer. He did not trust the Nurse a centimetre.
"I'm glad you escaped," Sally continued, "Me and dear Anna here have gotten out as well." She pointed towards the Huntress, who had pulled a knife from her belt and started to work on a piece of wood. "But unfortunately, I do not know about anyone else. I'm sorry, your friend is not here. Or he hides pretty well. Anyway, we did not see him yet."
"I don't understand," Dwight stammered, but the Nurse just looked at him a little irritated.
"Why aren't you killing us anymore?" Dwight clarified his question. The Huntress had now begun to quietly hum a Russian lullaby and the two survivors felt a shiver run down their spines. They knew the song, knew its verses and its melody. It meant suffering and death, or at least, it always had up until now. The Nurse seemed to sense Dwight's fear, and with a sigh she said: "I know, no horror in this world can be compared to what we've done to you, and I'm endlessly sorry. Our actions are unforgivable and I would never dare to ask you for it. I only ask you to understand that we too were captives of the Entity."
Dwight glanced at the Huntress, or Anna, as the Nurse had called her, and then looked back toward the masked lady. He had no clue what to say. In a trembling voice, Sally continued. "The Entity is a ruthless and cruel lord. One does not resist his orders. He threw us into the hunts just as did it with you and drove us to kill. Every time we tried to resist or performed poorly, he took revenge on us. I never wanted to harm you, you have to believe me. But I had no choice. None of us did."
She nodded to Anna and then looked down. A drop of water broke from the pillowcase that hid Sally's face, and Dwight was shocked to realize that it was a tear. He said nothing. Back in the fog, he had wished the Nurse every pain and suffering in the world, but now Sally almost reminded him of Meg, who was lying in bed at his home, broken and tormented by inner demons.
Nea, who had followed the conversation from her hideout, decided to show herself as well. Cautiously, she circled the campfire by a quarter, then stepped out from the forest behind Dwight. The Huntress, who had already heard her footsteps, immediately interrupted her lullaby and looked up. When she saw Nea standing there, she quickly stood up and dropped her woodwork. The threatening stature of the Huntress prompted Nea to take two steps back again, ready to flee, but Sally gave Anna a sharp look and shook her head again.
"No," she said and after a moment, the Huntress dropped back onto the rock, growling menacingly. Silently, she picked up the piece of wood from the ground and started working on it again. Nea cautiously approached the campfire. She kept her eyes on the Huntress as she settled on the tree trunk beside Dwight. Sally, on the other hand, watched the newcomer patiently and waited a moment before asking, "And your name is?"
"Nea," the Swede replied.
"Nea, I'm also pleased to see you here in the real world," Sally said. "Are you two the only ones who got out?"
Dwight and Nea looked at each other for a moment. Should they tell the Nurse that almost all the survivors were safe? She did not seem to want to hurt them, but could she be trusted? Nea figured that she had already made the decision when she stepped into the campfire.
"Almost all of us are safe," she replied, "but we're still waiting for two. That's why we came here to look for them."
"Didn't you think of the danger that might lurk here?" Sally asked, "And why did you not appear in a larger group if you wanted to search the forest?"
"Some of us did not fare as well as others," Nea replied bitterly, and one could almost see the guilt pushing down the Nurse's shoulders. She looked down into her lap.
"I'm sorry," Sally said, "Are you hurt? Do you need help?"
"Physically, they are well," Nea replied, not taking her eyes off Sally. The Nurse shook her head and buried her face in her hands. Dwight realized that she had lost all menace and that the killer, who had always seemed so merciless, so unrelenting, was nothing more than a woman, broken by the guilt of her own actions.
"And of the killers, it's only the two of you?" Dwight asked after a short pause. Sally looked up sharply when she heard the word killer.
"Yes. At least, I think so," she answered. "Anna and I, we met each other here in the forest. We didn't see anyone else, but it might very well be possible, that some of the others have escaped too."
For a short time there was silence around the campfire. Then Anna started humming again. Finally Sally asked: "How is the red-haired girl? Did she make it?"
Again, Dwight and Nea exchanged a look before the Swede replied. "Yes, she made it. But she's not in a good condition."
"Her name is Meg," Dwight added, and Sally nodded. "She was the last one I saw in the fog. She looked so afraid… I mean… more than usual. I'm glad she's out."
Again there was an awkward silence. Then Nea glanced at the Huntress. "If you do not want us any harm, why did she chase after Dwight?"
Sally followed Nea's gaze and then answered: "Because she's afraid."
"She is afraid?" Nea asked in disbelief. "Of what?
"Of you."
"Us?"
Sally nodded. "I don't know from where the Entity abducted her, but it must have been somewhere in Eastern Europe. She doesn't understand English and I barely even got her name out of her. Believe me, Anna may look threatening, but inside she is a little girl who has just learned to speak. In the fog, the Entity tortured and abused her, but Anna never knew why she was hurt. The only thing that seemed to be connected with her pain were you. I believe she knows that you are not the authors of her agony, but only by killing you could she save herself from further torture. At least for a while. She's scared to death of you."
Nea and Dwight looked at the Huntress at the same time, who was humming softly and still working on her piece of wood. As always, half of her face was hidden behind a rabbit mask and Anna paid no attention to the conversation around the campfire.
"The mask seems to give her security, and the lullaby she keeps humming seems to act as an anchor she can hold onto," Sally explained.
"How do you know all this if you never talked to her?" Dwight asked. The Nurse thought for a moment before answering, "Before I was abducted into the fog, I worked as a Nurse at Crotus Prenn Asylum, a lunatic asylum. I spent half my life behind these walls, caring for mentally deranged people. There are patterns and phenomena that occur again and again. Anna is no exception. "
"Does that mean you once were a human?" Dwight asked carefully, looking at Sally.
"Actually, I still see myself as a human," she replied. "But you're right, maybe the label is not quite appropriate anymore."
Once more, silence fell over the campfire until Nea spoke up again. However, this time she didn't address Sally, but the Huntress.
"And your name is Anna?" She asked in bumpy Russian. Dwight and Sally looked up in astonishment, and the Huntress stopped working too. The lullaby was gone again as the Huntress stared at Nea. Tension was in the air. There was nothing to hear except the crackling of the flames, and Nea got ready to run in case the Huntress should react in an aggressive way. Maybe she had made a mistake. Only moments later, her fear proved to be wrong.
"Anna," the Huntress said slowly and put a hand on her chest as to clarify that she meant herself.
"My name is Anna," she said again in Russian. It seemed to Nea, as if Anna had not made use of the language for a while, with the exception of the lullaby. Sally and Dwight were spellbound. They watched carefully, though they did not understand a word.
"My name is Nea," said the Swede, pointing to herself. "That's Dwight," she pointed to her comrade. "And that's Sally," she pointed to the Nurse. Anna followed her gestures and looked at each person as Nea introduced them. Then she repeated the names and finally smiled. This simple act of showing pleasure already took away some of her menacing aura. Suddenly one could see the young woman behind the killer, who sought nothing but affection and friendship. Only the rabbit mask remained expressionless.
"Where are you from?" Nea wanted to know. She spoke slowly, trying to be clear as neither she nor Anna had mastered the language properly.
"Forest in Russia," Anna replied, "Lived with mother in house in forest."
"She probably lived with her mother in a house somewhere in Russia," Nea said to Sally and Dwight, "apparently in some forest."
"Where is her mother now?" Dwight wanted to know. As Nea conveyed the question, Anna's smile disappeared as quickly as it had come. Nervously, the two survivors tensed again and Nea regretted that she had brought up the subject. Anna had just become so friendly. Now she was closed and repellent again.
"Anna alone," the Huntress answered after a brief pause, "No mother."
Nea waited a moment before she said, "I believe her mother is dead. And she said she was alone. I think she has no other family members. Or her relatives have expelled her."
"Why should they do that?" Dwight asked nervously, but Sally interjected, "Tell her she's not alone. Tell her she has me."
"You're not alone," Nea translated, gesturing to the Nurse, "You have Sally. And we're here, too."
Nea did not know why she had said the last part, it simply had slipped out before she could have held it back. Fortunately, Sally's message seemed to work, because Anna's face brightened again. She looked first to Sally, then to Dwight and finally to Nea. The conversation with the Huntress had occupied her so much that she had not noticed that the night had fallen around them.
"****, Dwight, we wanted to be back before sunset," Nea shouted as she felt a cold wind on the back of her neck. "Dammit, the others are probably worried."
Nea got to her feet and jabbed Dwight her elbow in the side to hurry him.
"We have to go," she said to Sally, who asked, "Can I help you and your friends somehow? Can I do anything?"
"No, we'll be fine, we ..." Nea started, but she broke off in the middle of the sentence and thought for a moment.
"Nea?" Dwight asked, already turning to go.
"We have to prove to our parents and the police somehow that the whole story of the Entity is true," Nea thought aloud. "If we show them Sally, that would probably wipe any doubt from their minds. Besides, maybe she can give us information about the fog."
"You want to take her to the city?" Dwight asked in disbelief.
"If she wanted to kill us, she would have done so long ago," Nea replied. "Of course, we can't force her ..."
"Whatever I can do to help," Sally said readily, "I'll come with you. I just hope I don't scare the others to death."
"We've survived," Nea said with a shrug, "but we should hurry."
Then she looked at Anna, who had also stood up. The Huntress did not understand what was being said, but it understood it to be about leaving the campfire. Nea explained it to her. "Me and Dwight have to leave. Sally comes with us. You stay here. We will come back later."
Anna obviously did not like the idea of her staying alone in the forest, but she nodded grimly then sat back down on the rock.
"She understood," Nea confirmed, motioning for the others to leave. Sally wanted to pick up her bone saw, but then decided against it.
"I better leave that here," she murmured softly.

"What the ****, Dwight, are you crazy?" Ace shouted, getting up.
"Please, listen to me," Sally said, raising her hands to show she was unarmed, "I don't want to hurt anyone. I know, I'm the last one you expected or wanted to see here, but please, hear me out."
The Nurse floated a few inches above the floor and Dwight's mother blanched as she spotted her dangling feet.
"Ja ... James. Her Feet."
James looked down and displayed a similar reaction to that of his wife. The Karlssons had almost lost their ability to speak as well.
"What's going on here?" Nea's father wanted to know.
"We want to tell you where we've been over the last six months," Dwight replied.
"Why is she here?" Someone asked anxiously and Dwight turned around, only to see that the whispering voice belonged to Meg. The girl was panic-stricken, with her eyes fixed on the Nurse. Her lower lip trembled and Dwight realized that he had to act quickly to prevent the situation from escalating.
"She is not here to harm any of us. She wants to talk to us, nothing more. She can help us. Please listen."
"How do you know that?" Ace asked angrily. "Can you read minds, boy? Where did you even find her?"
"Like you, I escaped from the fog," the Nurse said, "We met in the western woods. I assure you, I do not wish you any harm."
"But we remember that differently," Feng squeaked and pressed herself against the wall as Sally looked towards her.
"I know and there is no excuse for my actions."
"What? Who are you anyway?" Dwight's father wanted to know.
"My name is Sally Smithson," the Nurse replied, "I'm here because I want to help you. I know you have other memories of me, but we are not in the fog anymore. We are free."
"What fog?" Nea's father asked angrily. "Could someone please explain what the hell is going on here? Nea, where have you been for the last six months?"
"In the realm of the Entity," Sally replied bluntly. Suddenly, silence filled the room. "Nea, like all the other missing persons, was abducted to the realm of the Entity. We call it the fog. It is hidden from this world and lies beyond our reality."
Of course, the survivors knew this already, but the faces of their parents showed ever greater consternation. They obviously did not know what to believe.
"The master of this kingdom is the Entity," Sally continued, "at least that's what we call him. A dark being, an existence that we can't explain. We do not know what he is or where he came from, but the Entity has created a realm from nothing and he can change and deform it after his will. In some way, he is God in his own little world."
"I do not understand. What does all this have to do with Dwight and Nea and all the others here?" Dwight's father asked.
"The Entity may be powerful, but it also needs energy," Sally continued to explain, "His empire does not sustain itself, and he, too, relies on a constant supply of energy. However, we are not talking about conventional, physical energy here. The Entity needs something completely different. He needs hope. It nourishes him, strengthens him and keeps his world together. To do this, he kidnaps people from the real world to use them as survivors in his hunts. These hunts take place in such a way that four survivors find themselves in a big arena together with a killer. The killer is tasked with finding, catching and killing all the survivors."
At the mention of the word 'killing,' Nea's mother gasped in shock.
"The survivors have a chance to escape," Nea continued, "They can escape from the arenas and thus the killers and certain death. At least for a while. Because no matter how the hunt ends for one, after a while you end up in an arena again. Death is no escape. It only brings agony and pain."
Dwight looked around. He could see Meg staring at the ground, trembling at the memory of the Entity. Feng and Claudette were also quite disturbed by the report. Only Ace and Nea hardly let anything show.
"This entire cycle has the sole purpose of depriving the survivors of all hope for as long as possible," Sally concluded. "The Entity squeezes the last bit out of them until at some point they break and become useless to him. What happens then I do not know."
Silence spread. Nea's mother got up without a word and hugged her daughter. The story had shaken her. Nea's father rose a moment later and took an angry step toward Sally. "You do not think we'll buy you this nonsense here? My Nea kidnaped by a magical creature and thrown before killers for six months. And what's with the masquerade anyway?"
"Dwight and Nea already thought that an explanation would be difficult. That's one of the reasons why I'm here. As living proof," Sally said. Slowly, the distance between her feet and the floor increased. After a moment, she was floating just under the ceiling. Nea's father backed away, cursing breathlessly. "The Entity has deformed, distorted and shaped me. I am a product of his wickedness and will remain scarred forever."
"And that's what happened to all of them?" Dwight's mother asked, "Her gaze fell on Meg, who was still staring at the ground, lost in her fear. Then she looked to her own son. "Oh my God, James, but if that's true ... that means ..." Elizabeth stuttered, trying to grasp the situation. It was obviously too much for her to think about. and her husband hurried to take her in his arms.
Meanwhile, Nea's father sat down again and Sally now hovered so closely to the ground that it barely stood out.
"Yesterday morning, we escaped," Dwight said to break the silence, "None of us know exactly how or why, but somehow the Entity seems to have lost control of the fog. Maybe he has grown weak, maybe he died or maybe he was just looking for new victims. We don't know."
"If you escaped from this fog," Nea's mother asked, still holding her daughter in her arms, "Then those killers you spoke of may have escaped. They're not running around here in Waltonfield now, are they?"
Sally sighed before answering, "One of them is in this room right now."
Silence returned for a moment, then Elizabeth asked quietly, "You did that to our Dwight? And Nea? And Meg? And all the others? That was you?"
"Please don't get me wrong," Sally replied, "I'm not trying to justify my actions, not at all. But we killers were also only slaves of the Entity. We had no choice but to obey his word. If we resisted... we could not... The Entity had under control, he played with our minds. His cruelty wasn't reserved for the survivors."
"Do you have the faintest idea what we've been through in the last six months?" Meg asked with disbelief in her voice. "Do you have the slightest idea what torments you have exposed us to? We will never be able to live normal lives again. Because of you!"
Meg would have shed tears again if she had any left. But it would not have been tears of sorrow, no, in this moment, Meg felt nothing but rage. Her fiery gaze seemed to pierce through Sally.
"Even if you do not want to believe it, but I know exactly how the touch of the Entity feels," Sally tried to defend herself, but before she could continue, Meg interrupted her. Shaking with rage, Meg got up and shouted at the height of her voice. "AND STILL YOU DID IT! OVER AND OVER AGAIN! SIX MONTHS! FOR SIX MONTHS WE WERE TRAPPED IN THIS ****** UP FOG AND EVERY DAY YOU HUNTED US THROUGH THE FORESTS AS IF WE WERE ANIMALS! EVERY DAY! SIX MONTHS! I PLEADED, I BEGGED, BUT YOU DIDN'T SHOW MERCY EVEN ONCE! FOR SIX MONTHS! AND DURING THIS, MY MOTHER SLOWLY DIED A WRETCHED DEATH!"
Meg ended her hate-tirade and fell back into her chair, limp and exhausted. She hid her face in her trembling hands. Nobody said a word.
"Meg, I ... I ..." Sally began, "I do not dare to ask for forgiveness. I know that no atonement in this world could ever cleanse my guilt, and I am so utterly sorry for what I have done to each one of you. But I suffered as well. The Entity has played with me as well as it has with you. Look at me. I can never walk among people again. I'm a monster, marked for the rest of my life."
"How am I supposed to look at you with that thing on your head?" Meg replied hatefully. Sally did not answer and only after a moment did she slowly raise her hand to the pillowcase above her head. Meg looked up. With trembling fingers, Sally opened a knot near her neck. Then she grabbed the fabric with her right hand and carefully pulled the cloth back. Without exception, everyone in the room held their breath.
At first brown curls emerged, playfully falling on Sally's shoulders. It was not what the survivors had expected. Further and further she pulled back the textile, revealing skin as pale as the rest of her body. With a final jerk, she fully removed the cloth from her head. Then she brushed her hair aside and looked around.
Half of the people in the room couldn't suppress frightened screams, the others made horrified gasps. Maybe Sally had been a pretty woman once, but those days were over. A long, ugly scar stretched across her face. It started by the chin, went over her mouth, disfigured the bridge of her nose, and finally crossed through Sally's right eye, which had remained closed ever since. The other one, however, blazed with an orange glowing iris and Sally let it slowly gaze around the room. Dwight could make out blue strangulation marks on her neck, and now that her head was exposed, her scratching breath was clearly audible.
"Did… did the Entity do this to you?" Claudette asked after a short pause and she subconsciously took a step back as Sally turned her head to her and nodded.
"I think we can all see now, that we're not the only ones who've been through a lot," Nea said, breaking away from her mother's arms. "We can't change the past anymore. What is done is done. But the future is another matter. There is still no trace of Jake and David and we still don't know if, besides Sally and Anna, other killers have escaped from the fog. Maybe they're roaming around Waltonfield in this very moment. Furthermore, we are currently the only ones who know about the existence of the Entity. That's why we have to do something."
"Who is Anna?" Ace asked. "Now don't tell me you've met another one of them."
"We did," Dwight replied. "Anna is the Huntress."
"Excuse me?" Claudette asked timidly, which caused Sally to turn towards her. She managed to resist Sally's gaze and asked: "How are the others of… of you… How will they react, if they meet people?"
"Anna is in the woods and won't meet anyone there. Besides, I think we've made it clear to her that she shouldn't kill anymore. I also wouldn't worry about Philip or Lisa. If they harm someone, then only in self-defence. Evan and Herman, on the other hand, might pose a bigger threat, and if Max is running around here, we need to find him as quick as possible. He doesn't know what he is doing and could massacre anyone in his path."
"Yeah, I'm sorry, but those names aren't telling us very much," Ace commented.
"Please forgive," Sally answered, counting off the killers on her fingers. "So, you know Anna as the Huntress. Evan has a predilection for bear traps. Herman is wearing a white doctor's coat. Lisa has received strange rune magic from the Entity. Philip can make himself invisible with his wailing bell and Max ... Max has a chainsaw."
The survivors now knew exactly which name belonged to which killer. Elizabeth winced at the mention of the chainsaw, and Nea's father began to shout. "What kind of sick shit are we talking about here? So you're telling me that an insane person armed with a chainsaw is running around the neighbourhood slaughtering people?"
"I think if one of them was here we would already have noticed," Nea said. "Of course, we can't be sure. I hope they are still trapped in the fog."
Sally nodded. "I feel sorry for Max, but it's probably the best for him."
"The best for him?" Feng revolted. "He is a cold-blooded killer. He used a ******* chainsaw on us. He deserves nothing but hell."
"No, Max does not," Sally said. "He doesn't know what he's doing. Max has the mind of a child who was never raised by his parents. For his violence and cruelty, the Entity and the Entity alone is to be held responsible. Just like Anna."
"This banter here won't get us anywhere," Nea intervened before Feng could retaliate. "We have other things to discuss. First, we need to find out if Jake and David are still in the fog, and if so, how we can help them. Second, we need to make sure none of the killers have escaped unnoticed and are now hunting for innocent people."
"We need to inform the police," Dwight's father shouted. "Initiate a large manhunt. Why did you wait this long?"
"Because the police would never believe us," Ace replied. "If we went to them and told them the whole story, they'd simply label us as some conspiracy theorists or panic makers. They don't organize a big manhunt when some runaway guys tell them about monsters and alternative realities. Understandable, I would say. But now..." Ace nodded his head in the direction of the Nurse. "Now we have Sally."
Sally had put the pillowcase back over her head and said: "That's why I'm here. I've done enough damage, I can only try to make it up to you. If the police see me, they will certainly believe. Once we have convinced them, I will participate in the search for the missing persons. If we encounter one of the killers, I'm the most likely to be able to get through to them and avoid a bloodbath."
"We have to act," Ace decided. "Now. Does anyone of you have a car to take me and Sally to the nearest police station?"
Dwight's father nodded. "I can do it."
"What are the rest of us supposed to do?" Nea asked.
"Nothing," Ace replied. "For now you should stay here. We don't know how dangerous it is out there before the police have secured the area. I hope the Fairfields are willing to extend their hospitality for a while..."
Elizabeth nodded. "Of course."
"But what if someone is already in danger?" Dwight shouted. "We need to help people, warn them. They don't know anything."
"And it should stay that way. A mass panic is the last thing we need now," Ace countered. Then he got up and walked across the room. James followed and the two went out into the hall. Sally paused for a moment and looked at Meg, who had lowered her eyes to the ground again. Slowly, the Nurse knelt down to be at one eye level with her.
"I'm sorry," she said, "for everything that happened."
Then she got up and followed the two men who had already left the house. A moment later the front door was closed and silence filled the living room. Nobody crossed glances and nobody said a word until Dwight's mother broke the silence. "You must be hungry. I'll make you something to eat. Just feel at home."
With these words, she disappeared into the kitchen. Then Nea's father took the floor. "How is that even possible?" He asked. "That over all that time a dark creature has hidden in the woods and nobody ever noticed?"
"I know that's all a bit hard to digest," Nea responded only to be immediately interrupted by her father.
"You can say that aloud!"
"But it's the truth," Nea claimed and sat down at the table.
"I can't believe you had to go through this," Nea's mother said tearfully, "that all of you had to go through this."
"I think we can hardly believe it ourselves," Claudette said, looking from one survivor to another. She stopped at Dwight, who slowly nodded.
"It all feels so surreal," she continued, "As if the last six months had been a terrible nightmare."
Claudette now looked down at herself and noticed the tea she had spilled on Sally's appearance. "I should clean that up," she said, heading into the kitchen.
"We have a guest room ready, if someone wants to rest," Dwight remarked and moved to the table. Nobody answered and Nea shook her head. "I don't think anyone is up to sleeping right now."
"It's going to be a long night," Dwight said after nodding in agreement.
"Hopefully not an exciting one," Feng said as she peered out the window. Meanwhile Claudette returned with a rag in her hand, set to mop up the tea from the floor.
"I'll do it," Dwight intervened, quickly rushing over and taking the cloth from out of her hand. Claudette thanked him with a timid voice, before she sat down again.
Suddenly the call of a police siren was heard in the distance and everyone rushed to look out the window at the same time. Each of them knew that Ace, James and Sally could not have reached the police station yet. Someone else must have caused the alarm.
The siren came closer and closer and finally a patrol car raced by on the street in front of the house. Blue light flooded into the living room for a moment, and the shrill sound suddenly dropped in altitude as the car passed. Dwight's mother came out of the kitchen and walked over to the window. With her eyes she followed the police car as it turned into a side street. The sound of the siren grew more faint as the car went further away, but it did not disappear entirely.
"I can still see the blue light," Dwight's mom said. "They stopped not far from here." Nea cursed and spoke out what everyone was thinking. "Damn, that's gotta be one of the killers. I knew it's been too quiet out there."
"We don't know that," Dwight replied.
"What else could it have been?" Nea muttered. "I hope a patrol car is enough. They're never prepared for the Hillbilly."
"I'll call somebody," Dwight's mother said. "She lives over there. Maybe she has seen something, knows something. Dwight, would you look after the pots?"
Dwight did as requested and went to the kitchen. Meanwhile, Elizabeth pulled the phone from her pocket, searching the touchscreen device for a specific contact. As soon as she found it, she selected the number and pressed the green call button. Then she held the phone to her ear and waited for someone to answer. It rang once, twice, trice, while everyone in the room kept watching her anxiously. Finally, someone picked up.
"Hi Kate," Dwight's mother greeted. Only after a moment did she continue: "Listen, I've just seen a police car stop near you. Did something happen? Do you know something?"
The woman at the other end of the line seemed to be answering and Elizabeth listened for a brief moment. Nodding her head several times, she muttered a faint, "Aha."
Then she said goodbye to her acquaintance, terminated the call and turned back to the room. All eyes were on her and the tension in the air was almost tangible.
"Apparently, there has been a break-in," Dwight's mother said, "Right next to Kate. The culprit seems to have disappeared without a trace. The family was at home, but was not attacked. The burglar probably fled when he was discovered. An ordinary crime, nothing more."
Exhaling in relief, everyone began to relax again. No killer had escaped from the fog and attacked a defenceless suburban family. Nea hardly dared to imagine what the Doctor or the Hillbilly would do should they ever set foot into Waltonfield. She could only hope that no one else but Sally and Anna had escaped the fog.

Anna sat comfortably by the campfire with her bare feet stretched out toward the flames and her hands working on a rough piece of wood. Softly, she hummed her mother's lullaby. Over the embers, the Huntress had impaled a rabbit she had caught earlier. The animal's skull was completely shattered.
Anna's throwing axes rarely missed their target.
Her fingers were red with the blood of the animal, for she had skinned and gutted the hare after the hunt. It was true, her mask showed the snout of a rabbit, but that did not mean that she would spare that particular species. She was hungry and her mother had taught her how to fill her stomach. The hunt was one of the two things Anna had mastered with flying colours. The other was crafting with wood, whether it be wooden figures, toys, or masks.
Back in her cabin in the Russian forest, Anna had often tried to craft presents for the little girls she had kidnapped from the surrounding villages. The art of working with wood had been a skill taught by her mother, just as hunting and surviving in the wilderness was a skill her mother passed down. Sadly, none of her skills had been enough to prevent the girls from getting sick, growing weaker and finally dying.
Anna weighed the piece of wood in her hands and stared into the flames. With a practiced look, she controlled the rabbit. It wasn't quite done yet.
The girls had been so young, so lovely and so innocent. Anna had never wished for anything else but a daughter for her own. A girl she could nurse and teach all the things Anna had once been taught herself. She had provided the children with food, given them blankets against the cold. She had made them presents and kept them from running out into the night.
But it had not been enough. Every dead girl had left a scar and filled her heart with darkness.
She took their corpses to a special place, which had slowly become filled with more and more burial mounds. Anna decorated every single one of the graves with flowers and toys, before turning around and looking for a new daughter.
A gust of wind pulled the Huntress out of her thoughts. She had been listening to the wind her whole life, and she knew whether or not a blast fitted into the orchestra of nature. The leaves of the trees were rustling and the temperature suddenly dropped by a large margin.
Anna quickly rose to her feet and looked around. Her black eyes peered from behind the rabbit mask, penetrating the darkness and gazing deep into the forest. With a suspicious growl, she picked up her big axe from the ground. The edge of the weapon was razor sharp, reflecting the flickering flames of the campfire.
Anna growled again, knowing instinctively that she was no longer alone in the forest. Slowly she turned around her own axis, looking for potential attackers. She couldn't let anyone or anything approach her without her noticing. Her axe was ready to strike down any enemy who dared to take her on.
Then she discovered a black mist that was coming through the trees. Anna backed away and growled again, this time in the direction of the dark fog. Her hands were shaking, but she was not allowed to show her fear. Fear meant weakness and weakness meant defeat.
But within the blink of an eye, the fog retreated again and disappeared into the darkness, revealing the shape of a disgustingly formed creature. Black, mummified skin spanned over a strikingly protruding skeleton and grey, ruffled hair fell from her head. A brown, torn shred was wrapped around her body, hiding less than the bare necessities.
With an audible groan, Lisa Sherwood lifted her head and turned her shapeless face towards Anna. The woman's features had long since decayed. Her mouth had been converted into a predatory biting tool and her eyes were as dark as the fog itself.
The Hag stared at the Huntress for a moment, who quietly stared back with her head tilted to the side in confusion. Then Lisa lifted one of her ugly paws that she had pressed against her stomach and looked at the blood-smeared claws. Finally she dropped to the ground lifelessly.