Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-32513491-20180630090649

(( This particular story is almost ready to go, but it needs some last minute adjustments before it's ready to go. Help me iron out any issues with the dialog and whatnot, if you possibly can! ))

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I'm not really one for telling stories, sharing adventures or writing fanfiction, but I just had to come and tell everyone about a recent experience I had with a videogame called "BattleBlade Girls: Fight For Survival."

I should probably warn you, though: This is going to be a LONG story, so make sure you got some food and a drink ready before you begin.

I loved the game with all my heart. It's as if Devil May Cry and Lollipop Chainsaw had a baby that used a similar play style to Devil May Cry. It was just full-out hack and slash mayhem with your chosen character, with plenty of cut-scenes and dialog to keep you interested in the story. The game also had very heavy elements of Metroidvania in it, too, which of course meant the entire game world was open to you, so long as you had what you needed to progress. I loved this kind of stuff in Super Metroid, and I loved it here, too.

Some people call it overrated, seeing as how it's a game where you must survive from a zombie outbreak that's overtaken Chicago, guiding the four BattleBlade girls to safety against the undead hoards, but to me, I love this style of game.

When the trailers for the game first appeared on YouTube, it BLEW ME AWAY! I couldn't believe how beautiful the game looked, in an anime style similar to that of the Persona series! I was eagerly awaiting the day I could finally play it for myself, but luckily for me, my first experience with the game came sooner then I'd ever expected. A friend of mine managed to get his hands on a copy of the game because of a contest he had won.

The two of us spent the majority of the next twenty-four hours playing the game non-stop. We even got in trouble because his parents could still hear the sounds of the BattleBlade girls weapons cutting through the undead hoards at four in the morning. That's when they decided it was time for me to go home.

I spent the majority of the next week counting the hours until the game hit store shelves, but little did I know, I was going to get much more of the game then I bargained for.

At around nine in the morning the following Friday, my mom and dad came into my room and got my attention away from my collection of Final Fantasy games. I was just looking over the box art for Final Fantasy VII when they walked in.

"Sweetie, there's a letter and a package here from your cousin in Phoenix, Arizona." My mother said to me.

I got up from my desk and walked over to look at the package and letter. They looked like everyday, ordinary mail, except they were labeled "Priority Mail". My cousin must have wanted these to get here in a hurry.

"Honey, don't you think this is kind of strange? His cousin doesn't write to him unless it's a holiday. And the last time she did, it was because her father had been in a car wreck." My father inquired, giving my mom a puzzled look.

My dad did have a point. My cousin wasn't the kind of person to write to anyone, much less send them a package, unless it was a holiday, or it was EXTREMELY important. This had me slightly worried that something had happened to her.

My mother, however, hand-waved it off.

"I'm sure everything's fine, darling. She probably just wanted this to get here in a rush." She told him, pointing to the package I was holding.

My father shrugged and gave me a happy smile.

"Well, sport, I hope you like whatever's in there. Must be pretty important, if your cousin sent it by Priority Mail." He chuckled. They both then left the room, closing the door behind them.

When they were both gone, I went back over to my desk and opened the letter first. However, as soon as I saw what was on the paper inside, I found myself wishing I hadn't.

The words "HELP ME!" were smeared all over the paper in what I could only assume was red paint. It looked nothing like my cousins beautiful handwriting, or her beautiful works of art she often loved to produce. Sure, she loved video games as much as I did, but when it came to art, she could have been running the company! She would have never allowed this in her house.

The letter had me slightly worried, but as soon as I opened the package, I let out a loud gasp that I was sure my parents had heard.

It was an authentic copy of BattleBlade Girls: Fight for Survival! There was no mistaking that box art! The four girls standing in a tightly packed ring, weapons drawn, as the zombies were closing in all around them.

My initial reaction was: "OH MY GOD! IT'S BATTLEBLADE GIRLS! I CAN'T BELIEVE MY COUSIN SENT THIS TO ME!"

But then I took a closer look at the box and noticed a few things were off.

The four girls on the cover looked extremely worried. Usually they'd have determined looks upon their faces as they prepared to fight off the zombie hoard, but here they looked downright terrified. And as soon as I peered in closer, I could see why.

There was a fifth girl in the background, behind some of the zombies, who seemed to be paying no mind to her. She looked nothing like any of the BattleBlade Girls at all. She had long, pink hair that went down to her waist, and she was wearing a bright red dress with dark red trim. She had blood red eyes that unnerved me the second I looked at them. She was holding a very menacing looking weapon. It had a black hilt with bat wings and bright red jewels embedded into it, and a long, golden blade. It looked to be extremely bloodstained.

The mystery girl was starring directly at me, as though peering into my soul. I won't lie, she creeped me out. I'd never seen her in any trailer or promotional artwork for the game before. But seeing as how the game hadn't even been publicly released yet... maybe she was the final boss?

I then noticed the title of the game looked off, too. The "BattleBlade Girls" part looked normal, but the area where it should have said "Fight for Survival" was crossed out, and the word "THOMPSON" was pasted over it in dark red letters.

'Huh... could this be a fanmade bootleg? But how could that be when the games not even out yet?' I wondered to myself. There were only one hundred copies of the game out and about in the world at that time, and they had been given to people who won a special contest hosted by the developers.

There was no way this could be a full-fledged fanmade modification of the game... could it?

Regardless, I decided I might as well try it out. Just to see if everything was still the same. Having played an actual copy of the game not long ago, I would be able to pick up on any differences with the real thing right away... even if I'd only played the first third or so of the entire thing.

I went over to my PC, booted it up, inserted the game disc, and installed the program. It looked just the same as when me and my buddy installed his copy on his PC before, so I wasn't really alarmed by anything just yet.

When the title screen appeared, it showed the four BattleBlade Girls standing atop a building, looking out over the vast, destroyed city of Chicago before them. Zombies in the streets, fires everywhere, and an apocalyptic look that rivaled the Resident Evil series. Nothing out of the ordinary here... until I saw her, that is.

The mysterious girl from the box art was standing on another building just to the left of the "START GAME" button, grinning madly as she looked at the four main characters from her perch. The sight of her there sent a shiver up my spine, but I decided to just ignore her.

I picked "START GAME" and started up a new file, then I let the opening cut-scene play out. The four girls were enjoying a nice summer day at a swimming pool in Chicago when the zombie outbreak begins, causing widespread panic all over the city. The four girls grabbed their weapons and rushed away from the pool as the other people begin to fall one after another to the approaching zombies.

"Hmm. Looks okay so far." I said to myself as the screen faded to black.

I soon found myself wishing I'd kept my mouth shut.

Instead of the tutorial level starting up, which featured the four girls running away from the pool and back to their house as they fought zombies along the way, mainly so the player could get used to how the game was played, it loaded up a completely different area.

I looked at the level title when it appeared on-screen and quirked an eyebrow at it.

"E Pima Street."

One, I knew that was a street from Phoenix, Arizona, not Chicago. So that street shouldn't be in the game. Two, why was the game putting me in Phoenix? It was supposed to take place in Chicago. Three, why wasn't this the tutorial level?

As soon as the title disappeared, I saw the four BattleBlade Girls standing there. They were scratching their heads in confusion, as though they had no idea what was going on. To be frank, I didn't know, either. This was all wrong. The lack of background music wasn't helping much, either.

Then they got a look at their surroundings, and I felt myself gasp again.

This street looked to be utterly obliterated. The buildings were mostly leveled, either by being smashed to pieces or burned to the ground. This wasn't like the regular game at all, where the buildings were still mostly intact.

Then I noticed the sky, which also creeped me out. It looks discolored and shockingly dark, as though a nuke had gone off. Again, this was unlike the normal game, where the sky was pretty much the same as in real life.

And of course, there was the lack of any enemies. The game was usually littered with zombies and other fiendish baddies for you to slaughter, but here, the street was empty. Just dead, charred bodies all around.

I took one look at some of the corpses and realized something was seriously wrong. All of the bodies looked as if they'd been slashed with some kind of sword. Some of them were completely hacked apart, leaving hundreds of pieces all over the place. Some of them had their throats slit or their head and limbs removed. A handful were even sliced in two from head to pelvis, leaving their organs lying on the pavement.

Normally when you kill a zombie in the game, they just fall over and die. Sure, it's possible to slice their limbs off for swag points, or to just show off, but not this kind of dismemberment.

Not long afterwards, the camera zoomed up to the four girls and I was given the option to pick one to play as, with the rest of them following my chosen character around. This was something that happened in the normal game, too: You picked one girl to play as, each with their own advantages and disadvantages, and the others follow you around until you switch to one of them.

I considered playing as Yuki, my personal favorite of the bunch. She had middle-length purple hair with a long strand that went down in front of her, reaching halfway to her waist. She wore a purple costume with a very short skirt and footwear that looked similar to what Samurai Jack wore, except purple in color. She had long, fingerless gloves on her arms and was carrying a long, purple broadsword. Her pink eyes were wide with worry about what had happened here. She was the second fastest of the bunch and had decent damage output. A great character for newbies.

I then considered playing as Melody, probably the most beautiful of the bunch. With her flowing light blue hair that reached halfway down her back, it was hard not to fall in love with her. She had dark blue eyes and was wearing a dark blue bracelet on her left wrist. Her aqua blue floral dress, complete with light blue stockings and dark blue sandals, made her even more appealing to the eye. She was carrying a baseball bat that said "Good Night" on it. She had the lowest damage output, but she was excellent for knocking zombies back into other zombies or knocking them down outright, making for easy kills. She was looking terrified by the sight of the area around her. She always was the most scared of the bunch.

I then highlighted Brittany. She had silky smooth blonde/yellow hair that reached halfway down her back, bright green eyes and was carrying her red katana. She was wearing her usual attire of a black tank top with an open yellow long-sleeve jacket over it, as well as a black and yellow skirt with some kind of barbed wire lacing over it, and her short black socks and yellow shoes. She was by far the fastest of the bunch, making it easy for her to slip around the enemy and get in plenty of damage. She looked awfully nervous to be standing in a wasteland like this, and she held her katana in both hands at all times.

And finally, I highlighted Amber. With her bright red hair that went to her upper back, her bright pink eyes, and her full suit of red armor, she was without a doubt the strongest-looking of the bunch. Her giant bright red claymore meant she had the highest damage output of all the girls, and though she was the slowest of the bunch due to her heavy armor, she could tank A LOT of damage! She was great for those who just want to plow through everything at a slower pace. She didn't look as scared as the other three, but there was no denying the fright on her face as she looked around the area.

After some thought, I decided to just play as Yuki. I figured if there was something about to happen, I'd have the best chance for survival playing as the character I had the most experience with.

As soon as I picked Yuki, the camera zoomed back out to it's third-person angle and the stage began. As I had already plugged in my wireless gamepad, I pressed "UP" on the control stick to get Yuki moving. And this she did, running forward down the street, with Melody, Brittany and Amber right behind her.

Pretty soon, I had run past a gas station on my right, which like everything else, was completely destroyed. It looked as if someone had blown up the gas pumps, because there was a giant smoking crater where the pumps were supposed to be. A little ways ahead, I passed a shopping mall, which was somehow still standing, despite some heavy damage to the building. There was a flashing red light from a giant hole on the top floor, and just as I panned the camera over to it, a waypoint appeared on my screen, telling me to head for that light.

Normally waypoints only appear when you flip a switch or something, so you know where your supposed to go next after flipping the switch. They didn't appear when you were just running around like this.

So of course, my curiosity got the better of me, and I started making my way toward the mall.

"Yuki, this is a really bad idea. We really need to get out of here!" Melody said to Yuki, obviously terrified of what could be awaiting the four inside the mall. But of course, I ignored her and kept going.

Once I entered the building, a music track started playing. It sounded like a theme from the Silent Hill games, except much darker in tone and much creepier. It instantly made me second guess my choice of action to come into this mall, just to follow a waypoint.

"What the hell is that music!?" Brittany commented, now looking as though she'd just been jumpscared. I won't lie, the music kind of came out of nowhere, and it spooked me, too.

The games soundtrack was normally very upbeat, but had an apocalyptic feel to it that no other game I've ever played has perfectly captured yet. And I know for fact that this song didn't belong in this title. What the hell was going on here!?

As I had the girls move toward a tall staircase to my left, I felt a growing sense of dread the closer and closer I got to the waypoint. I had the sudden urge to turn around and run away from the mall, but I couldn't bring myself to turn Yuki around now.

After finally reaching the top floor and rounding a few corners, I found myself directly outside the room where the waypoint was. I turned the camera around to look at the other girls first. Yuki herself looked heavily unnerved by what was going on, Melody looked like she was close to fainting from fright, Brittany was trying to figure out where that creepy music was coming from, and Amber looked like she was prepared for the worst when they entered the room.

After a short breath to calm myself down, I pushed forward on the control stick and entered the room. And a cut-scene began.

As the four girls entered the room, Amber got the others attention and pointed to something to their right. The other three all gasped in horror as the camera panned over to what Amber had seen.

It was the girl from the box art and the title screen. Her back was to the camera and she looked like she was posing for a picture in front of a broken mirror. She had a hand held up to her mouth and a finger was on her lower lip. Her other hand was holding her elbow and she seemed to be deep in thought about something.

Now that I could see her in more detail, I noticed that the skirt of her dress only reached halfway down to her knees, and she had on long, black stockings that led down to her red shoes. She also had a large ribbon on the back of her head and a hairband with a smaller ribbon tied to it. They were both the same colors as her dress.

She had her sword sheathed at her side, something that made me slightly less scared, but even so, she was giving me a dark, murderous vibe that I could have sworn would have left the worlds bravest man scared stiff.

As the four girls watched her carefully, weapons drawn in case she tried to hurt them, she suddenly dropped the hand that was up to her lip and turned slowly to face the four.

She had normal looking white eyes, except that they were blood red in color. And at that moment, she was giving the four girls a look that made them all recoil on the spot.

"Hello. It's so lovely that you could finally join me." The girl said, more to me then to the girls, because they had just gone off-screen again.

Yuki stepped forward, but only by one small step.

"Who are you?" She asked the mysterious girl, clearly scared out of her mind of what was going on.

The girl simply laughed out loud in response to her question.

"Why don't you come play and find out?" The pink-haired girl responded, now grinning widely to the BattleBlade Girls.

Before any of them could ask what she was talking about, the girl raised her hand and snapped her fingers, causing a bright red flash to erupt. The four girls all shouted in alarm as the screen cut to black.

I sat there in stunned silence at what just happened.

"Well... that's something else." I said silently to myself.

It was about a minute or so later when the next levels title card appeared.

"Yuma County Detention Center."

Yuma? That was a town that sat directly on the border between Arizona and California. From what I knew, there was a military base and a prison there. And it looked like I was going to be in the prison for a while.

When the scene returned, I received a minor shock when I realized that the other three BattleBlade Girls were nowhere to be seen. Yuki was all by herself.

"Alright, that's just... wrong." I told myself. It was a staple of the game that the four girls ALWAYS stuck together no matter what, in order to guarantee their survival. Safety in numbers, as they say.

So why was Yuki here, separated from the other three?

As soon as she was on-screen, she began looking around in minor panic. Clearly, she wasn't used to being separated from her teammates, and it showed in her facial expression. It looked akin to that of how someone would look right before being brutally murdered by Jason Voorhees of Friday the 13th fame.

The prison, much like the town beforehand, was in ruin. No living soul in sight, and the prison itself seemed about ready to collapse on top of Yuki any moment. Entire chunks of the building were missing. Some of the prisoners cells were on fire. Bloodstains were visible on the walls, floor and ceiling. They looked just like the bloodstain textures used in the normal game whenever you kill an enemy.

Panning the camera around, I could see that my only way out was a door on the other side of the room. So I pushed forward to have Yuki head in that direction. She had her weapon drawn and ready.

I entered the mess hall of the prison. It as well was in dismay. The giant tables where inmates ate were smashed to splinters, and the kitchen looked like it had exploded. The walls inside the kitchen were charred black, and the oven had a roaring fire inside of it that I knew would have killed Yuki if I got to close to it.

Looking at the island where the cooks prepare their food, I could see what looked to be a butchered human body lying there. It's limbs were hacked off and it's head was missing. It also looked like it had been burned to a crisp, no doubt because of the flaming oven nearby. It honestly disturbed me to look at it.

I had Yuki press onward to leave this room. I really didn't want to be in here any longer. I knew something bad was about to happen.

And sure enough, it did.

No sooner had I reached the other door and pressed the action button to open it, the door flew open with a thundering crash, causing Yuki to back-flip away from it in shock. And when I saw who had thrown it open so violently, it was my turn for a massive shock.

The mysterious girl with pink hair was standing there, giving Yuki a very disturbing grin. She had her sword in hand and I could tell it wasn't just there for show.

"ReADy tO PlaY!?" The girl shouted, raising her empty left hand to Yuki, as if reaching for her. Though she didn't move from where she stood.

Yuki assumed a battle stance, the girl walked in, and the doors she had just passed through slammed shut behind her, as did the doors Yuki walked through to get here. I could already tell that they were locked somehow. I was now trapped in this room with this weird girl.

"Who the hell are you!? Where are my friends!?" Yuki demanded, pointing her sword directly at the pink haired girl, whom simply laughed at Yuki and raised a finger to her purple blade, moving it aside easily.

"If you really want to know, it's Anna Thompson. And if you also want to know, I haven't hurt them... yet." She gave Yuki another creepy smile, and a split second later, Yuki pulled her sword away from Anna and leaped back, now looking angry.

"You better stay back!" Yuki threatened, and I knew she meant it.

This, however, only made Anna laugh again, and then in a flash of red light, she disappeared.

This confused me, and judging from Yuki's facial expression, she was confused too. She was looking around the room trying to find where Anna went.

I wanted to try and have Yuki break down the door to escape, but before I could, the room suddenly went pitch-black. I could hear Yuki stumbling around in the dark, trying to find out where she was, but I couldn't see anything.

"What the hell?" I asked myself.

A second later, I heard a sound that made me let out another gasp. I really didn't want to, but I turned the camera around in what I could only assume was the direction of the kitchen.

Anna was there, standing on top of the giant flaming oven. The fire didn't seem to be bothering her or her clothing at all. But she had a demonic looking smile upon her face as she raised her left hand. The fire in the oven grew more intense and began turning a bright red color.

I could hear Yuki let out a gulping noise.

"Welcome... TO MY NEW BARBECUE!" Anna shouted, as she thrusted her left hand forward, causing a wave of fire to shoot out of the oven and run all along the floor, all over the kitchen and into the mess hall.

Yuki screamed and tried to climb on top of one of the nearby walls to escape the blaze, but there was nothing for her to grab into. Not even a small nick in the ceiling. It didn't take long for the flames to reach her.

I had to cover my ears to block out the sound of Yuki's screams of pain and agony as the flames licked all over her. Her clothes burned away, her hair slowly caught fire and begin flaming itself, and she fell to the floor and began withering in agony. It was honestly heartbreaking to watch.

After what felt like ten minutes, but in reality was only one minute, Yuki finally went limp, having burned to death inside the mess hall's inferno. I was on the verge of tears at this point and just wanted to turn the game off, but I couldn't seem to move my arm towards the computers power button.

Anna teleported closer to the camera and smiled down at the incinerated, lifeless corpse, which was still turning black due to the flames, and then she turned to me.

"Too bad about your favorite character. But don't fret. You've still got three more chances to survive... or at least, TRY too!" She told me, grinning happily.

My head was shaking at this point, but I just had to know.

"How the fuc-!?" I ended up cutting myself off mid-sentence. But she seemed to understand what I was about to ask, because she gave me an even more sadistic grin.

"I'm sure you have many questions. Don't worry, they'll all be answered soon enough... if you survive, that is." She said in a dark tone. The screen then cut to black as Anna let out a deep, demonic sounding laugh.

I sat there in stunned silence for at least a solid minute. Then...

"WHAT THE FUCK!?" Was all I could say. What in the actual seventh layer of hell just happened!?

I knew that when the BattleBlade Girls died during normal gameplay, they just let out a scream and fall to the floor, right before the screen cuts to black. They never burned to death like that or anything!

This was all very disturbing to me. I had no idea how any of this was happening. Was this really just a fanmade bootleg? Or was this some kind of practical joke sent to me by my cousin?

I quickly squashed out that thought when I remembered her letter. She wouldn't pull this kind of a joke on me, even at April Fools or Halloween.

I had half a mind to go and ask my parents to come and see this, but then I figured they would probably freak out and run screaming from the house. I really didn't want to bug them with a creepy game they probably didn't care much for.

I then recalled what Anna said. She said her last name was Thompson. The same as the name that was pasted on the box for the game in red paint. So she was the one the game was talking about.

She also said that she'd answer any questions I had about her if I was able to survive long enough. I couldn't WAIT to see what she meant by that.

I turned my attention back to the game as the screen finally returned and the next levels title card appeared.

"E Polk Street."

So I was back in Phoenix now, huh? This made me wonder what the point was of sending me to Yuma.

As soon as the title card disappeared and the stage loaded up, I saw Amber standing in the middle of the street all by herself. I couldn't say I was surprised, due to what happened with Yuki, but this had me worried for Amber's safety.

It looked the same as the last street I had seen. The houses were obliterated and ruined, and the sky was dark, as though a nuke had exploded. I could see that the entire city was on fire from where I was standing. A few dead bodies and many destroyed vehicles littered the street.

Amber was looking around nervously, wondering where her friends were.

"Yuki? Melody? Brittany? Where are you girls?" She asked out loud, not caring that nobody could hear her.

I knew that leaving her standing there would accomplish absolutely nothing, so I pushed forward on my gamepad to make her move forward down the street. I noticed right away that Amber was slower then Yuki, no doubt because of her bulky armor that she was wearing. But maybe it would keep her safe from whatever that sick Anna person had in store for her?

And now my mind was wandering back to Anna. What was she exactly? She looked just like a cute, sweet and innocent anime girl with long pink hair, a red dress and some pretty hair accessories. But the way she murdered Yuki... it was more horrific then anything I could have possibly imagined.

It wasn't long before I reached a fork in the road. One street was cut off by a solid wall of debris, a crashed propane truck, and a massive wall of fire, no doubt caused by said truck. The other street leading both directions was open, so I had to choose which way I had to go to proceed.

I decided to head south, toward Sky Harbor Airport. Maybe, just maybe, there was something there I could use to escape this nightmare. An airplane, perhaps. Or even a helicopter.

The next half hour was just spent running through Phoenix, making my way toward the airport. All the while, I kept my eyes peeled for any sign of Anna. I really didn't want Amber to suffer the same fate as Yuki. Her screams of torment as she burned to death were still ringing in my ears.

It was very scary to be running through this city. This was THE capital city of the state of Arizona, and it was usually filled with hundreds of thousands of people. Too see it like this scared me to death. What happened to all these poor people? I saw the distant ruins of what used to be skyscrapers. Skyscrapers that once stood as tall as the Washington Monument, if not taller. Now, they were just empty husks of their former selves.

Something drew my attention back to Amber. She had stopped dead in the middle of the street, and was starring ahead at something that was blocking the way forward. As soon as I panned the camera to take a look, I saw what it was.

Anna had reappeared in front of Amber. However, her sword was sheathed and she had a slightly mournful look upon her face.

"Here. It all began here..." She said silently, pointing toward a nearby house that, shockingly enough, was still fully intact. Compared to everything else in this ruined city, this house looked perfectly normal... minus the brown, dead grass and the incinerated trees.

The house looked like it was built about thirty years ago, during some time in the 1980's, and it definitely showed in it's design. It was on a fairly sizeable, fenced in yard. I could see the remains of what looked to be a tire swing lying next to one of the trees.

"I was happy once, but they said I was a monster." Anna continued to say, as she suddenly teleported close to Amber, nearly causing her to leap back in horror. Anna reached forward and laid her hand upon Amber's forehead before she could even react, and the screen flashed to white.

When the scene returned, I wasn't sure WHAT I was looking at!

Everything was in black and white except for Amber, who was heavily transparent. The scene itself showed the inside of what I could only assume was the house Anna pointed to on the destroyed street, only everything looked perfectly cheerful.

I moved Amber over to the window and panned the camera to see outside. The town looked to be perfectly intact, with no sign of any apocalypse in sight. Cars drove down the street. A couple of kids were walking down the street cheerfully, not a care in the world. The skyscrapers stood tall and proud in the background.

I came to the conclusion that this was some kind of flashback. And Amber was nothing more then a specter here. She looked extremely curious about where she was and what was going on here.

A noise caused me to turn the camera back in the other direction. Two people had just walked into the room, one a young adult female with long purple hair, and the other a tall, muscular man with blood red eyes and dark hair.

The pair walked over to the window and looked outside.

"How's little Anna doing?" The woman asked the man. I figured that they were a couple of some kind.

The man gave the woman a most displeasing look.

"They came by again earlier this morning requesting we bring her to the church. I wish they'd just screw off already. Just because she has red eyes, she's been chased out of school, picked on, and even tormented by the police and churches." He said to her, as the pair watched something outside.

I hit L2 on my controller to enter first person view mode and turned the camera back around to look outside. There was what appeared to be a 9-year-old girl with long, pink hair sitting on a tire swing in the front yard. She looked just like a younger version of the Anna I saw before, right down to the fact she was wearing a red dress.

Amber looked very confused by what was going on, but I swung the camera back around to face the two adults when the man spoke up again.

"I know I promised you that I wouldn't murder anyone else ever again, when we finally married and had our precious Anna, but if those cultists come back looking for Anna..." He cut himself off before he could finish his sentence, but the woman could already tell what he was going to say.

"Do whatever you have too, to keep our Anna safe." She responded, giving him a loving look. A moment later, the screen returned to white.

I got a couple of messages from that flashback. The first one was that Anna was once just an innocent girl, just like any other. The other was that, according to her father, some kind of group from a church somewhere had shown up looking for her. But why?

I had so many questions bubbling up inside of me, and I wanted answers to all of them right then and there. But somehow I got the feeling that if I kept playing the game, I would get all the answers I wanted, and possibly more that I didn't want, in due time.

Speaking of the game, the scene finally returned. I was back in the destroyed, apocalyptic Phoenix, and now Amber was standing in the middle of Sky Harbor Airport. All the airplanes were destroyed, and there wasn't a usable aircraft I could see anywhere.

Amber was obviously worried sick about what was going to happen to her here, and I was as well. I knew this was where I was trying to get to, but now that I was here, I couldn't see anything that could help me escape from this nightmare.

"Well... shit." I said aloud, causing Amber to turn around and give me a confused look, as if she didn't understand why we were coming here in the first place.

Just when I was about to have Amber go somewhere else and try searching for another way out, Anna suddenly appeared to her right. I let out a sharp gasp as Amber turned to face her, sword in hand.

"DIE, MONSTER!" Amber screamed, rushing forward to attack Anna. However, before the blow could connect, Anna caught the massive sword in her hand, gave it a small flick of the wrist, and snapped the blade easily.

"H-H-HUH!?" Amber stammered, shocked at the destruction of her weapon. Anna then grabbed her around the throat and gave her a sadistic grin.

"Oh, what a pity. Looks like you'll be reunited with your friend Yuki soon enough..." The pink haired girl said.

She began to levitate off the ground and rose up a few dozen feet into the air, carrying the choking Amber along with her. Anna put her other hand around Amber's throat and laughed demonically.

"Time to roast!" She shouted, as her hands began glowing bright orange, and without any warning, Amber's mouth, ears and eyes suddenly burst into flames.

The girl began screaming at the top of her lungs as the fire rapidly engulfed her entire body. She tried to rip her armor off in a desperate attempt to put the flames out, but it was no good. Her body was already turning black from the flames.

It then hit me like an anvil what was happening. Anna was burning Amber alive from the inside out! I couldn't imagine the amount of agony the girl must have been in, having her insides burning away with her unable to do anything about it.

Anna released Amber from her grasp and Amber fell to the ground. She hit it with enough force to cause a small amount of blood to spaltter on the ground around her. She withered in agony for a few seconds more before she finally went limp. I could already tell that she was beyond dead. I watched as her armor melted away from the flames.

The screen panned back up to Anna, who was starring directly into the screen with much malice in her eyes.

"This is so much fun, it should be illegal. I can't wait to see how the other two girls die. They won't last long, I can promise you." She said to me, giving me a dark smirk all the while.

I couldn't help myself; The question tumbled out of my mouth before I could stop myself.

"Who are you? WHAT are you? And what the FUCK was that flashback for!?" I silently asked, not caring if she could hear me or not.

She cackled in delight for a few seconds before looking back at me.

"Continue on, young mortal. I'll tell you everything you want to know." She said to me. Then the screen went black again.

A dialog box popped with two options in it. One was "CONTINUE TO NEXT LEVEL." The other was "QUIT TO MENU."

Did I really want to continue? After all the crazy things I'd seen? I really didn't want too. But Anna herself told me that if I wanted answers to my questions, I'd have to press onward.

I knew in my gut that I should have uninstalled the game, and destroyed the game disc, freeing myself from this mess. I was silent cursing myself for having not done this after Yuki was killed.

I was also cursing myself because of my curiosity. That flashback had left me very curious as to what had happened to Anna, who was once an innocent little girl, to make her into the murderous being she was in this game. Obviously something like that doesn't just happen for no reason.

However, that would have to wait, because I heard my parents calling me from downstairs. I looked back at the continue screen and stood up, deciding to leave the game be, and went downstairs.

I was sure I was paler then usual as a result of all the horrific things I'd seen in the game, but amazingly enough my parents didn't pick up on this. In fact, they looked downright worried to death. My mother had just hung up the phone, which she was placing back on the receiver.

As soon as I approached them, they gave me an extremely grim look.

"Sweetie, have you heard from your cousin at all in the past week?" My mother asked me, looking as though she were going to faint.

I shook my head at her, which caused my father to give me a rather upsetting expression.

"Did something happen?" I asked them. I soon found myself wishing I hadn't.

"Your cousin has just been confirmed to be missing from home. She's actually been gone for nearly eighteen hours." My father told me, causing the color to drain from my face.

"Say WHAT!?" I exclaimed, catching them both off guard.

"That's what I said! The police department had just called and has asked your mother and I to come down to the station to answer some questions." My dad said to me, picking up his car keys and his smartphone. I then noticed that they were both fully dressed.

My mother let out a frustrated sigh.

"And here I was looking forward to a girls night out with my crochet club today. But instead, I have to answer questions at the police station." She said in an irritated voice.

I quirked an eyebrow. Something about what they were saying wasn't adding up in my mind.

"Wait a minute. Eighteen hours? But how could that be? I just got a package from her today. And it was shipped via Priority Mail. If she's only four hundred miles away from here, it wouldn't have taken it eighteen hours to get here." I told them, and having done some volunteer work at the local post office only a month ago, I knew this to be true.

Priority Mail always gets to places faster then other deliveries. And the deliveries around here were LIGHTNING fast. When I sent my cousin a cute hairband for her birthday two years ago, it only took it seven hours to get there because I had sent it via Priority Mail. And that was only because they had many packages to deliver on that day. Otherwise, it likely would have only taken six.

This was not connecting at all, and I could tell my parents were thinking deeply about what I had just said.

"We'll be sure to bring that up when we talk to the cops, but we need you to stay here and keep an eye on the place. Our neighbors are out of town and we don't have anyone else we can trust with watching the house right now." My father said, as the two approached the front door. I followed after them.

"How long are you guys going to be gone?" I asked them, clearly worried that I'd be here alone for the bulk of the day, with that creepy Anna girl in the game causing me untold amounts of torment in that time.

"Hopefully we'll be back in a couple of hours. If not, you know how to handle the house on your own." My mother said to me, picking up her purse.

The two stepped out of the house, wished me good luck in watching the place, and as soon as the front door closed, I felt a sudden surge of deep, dark dread.

I was home alone for the next two hours, with that demonic Anna girl serving as my only company. And that was the kind of company I didn't want.

I paced back for forth on the spot, trying to decide what to do. Do I run away in terror? Do I call someone? Who would I call? Would they even believe me? Probably not, since the game in question hasn't been publicly released yet.

I decided that there was only one person I could talk too about this problem.

My best buddy.

I quickly ran upstairs, grabbed my smartphone, and dialed his number. It took a few seconds for him to answer. The games continue screen was still there, waiting for me to do something.

"Hey, man. How's it going?" My friend said to me over the phone. I decided to cut right to the chase.

"Dude, you are gonna flip when you hear about this." I told him. I then went into detail about everything I had seen in the game thus far. And just for good measure, I took a picture of the box art, and went back to the main menu of the game itself, on which Yuki and Amber were noticeably absent, and took a picture of that, too. I sent both pictures to him.

As they were sending, I got a closer look at the environment on the title screen. The sky and the state of the Chicago buildings were now replicating that which I had just seen in Phoenix in the game. Something my friend was very quick to point out once he believed my tale.

At first he thought I was just fooling around with him, but as soon as he saw the pictures, and heard about my cousin's disappearance, his tone went from goofy to downright fearful.

"Holy shit, dude. You sure your not pulling my leg right now?" He asked me, with a hint of nervousness in his tone.

"Since when have I ever pulled your leg? We're best friends." I answered him. He remained silent for a minute or so.

"Dude, that sucks. You get a copy of the game that's been hacked and bootlegged, and then your cousin goes missing. What's next?" He told me, and I wished he hadn't said that. Because it reminded me of what I still had to do to finish the game.

"Well, that Anna character said if I wanted some answers, I'd have to play the game some more. So I'm going back in." I told him. This caused him to sputter in disagreement.

"Dude, no! Haven't you ever read a creepypasta in your life!? That's what the game wants you to do!" He tried to warn me, but I quickly brushed it off.

"I got too. There's no other choice." I said to him, now getting even more scared to keep playing the game. If he was right, then I just knew something was going to happen to me as soon as the last BattleBlade Girl was dead. But it was the risk I had to take.

"Well, just to be sure, I'll get dressed and come over. Safety in numbers, as they say." He said to me, but I quickly cut in.

"No, we don't know what this thing is going to do. I'd rather you stay there. But listen: My parents are gone for the next two hours, so I'm gonna do it now while they're away, so they aren't in danger, too. If you don't hear back from me in the next two hours, assume the worst has happened and call the cops. Tell them to get over here pronto. Got it?" I told him. I waited for his response.

"Alright. I'll do it. Just be careful, dude." He told me, and I knew he meant it.

"I will." I replied. Then I hung up the phone.

I was beyond spooked at this point. I had no idea what awaited me in the final stretch of the game, but if I wanted to learn about who Anna was and why she was doing these things, then I would have to swallow my fear and face it head-on.

So I went back to the computer, and I selected the "Continue" option. Once I did, there was a black screen for a few minutes. Then a title card appeared.

"Main Street."

I could already tell this was going to be the end of the game, because as soon as everything loaded back in, Brittany and Melody were standing there together, in the same apocalyptic setting as before with Yuki and Amber. Except now, the sky seemed to be getting darker, and the music, which had stayed mostly the same for these exploration sections, was sounding much more demonic then before.

Brittany and Melody both looked extremely scared, especially with their friends missing. When it came time for me to pick one to play as, I chose Brittany. If I was going to be either her or Melody, I would rather be the character who's better by default. Not that Melody was bad, only that I wanted to play as someone who was both fast and did decent damage.

I began guiding these two down the street, occasionally stopping to pan the camera around and see more of the area. Compared to everywhere else I'd been thus far, this place seemed the most screwed up. Everything was smoking rubble on the ground, and there was nothing for me to even comment on. No bodies, and hardly any animals or anything of the like. There were large piles of ash scattered around, though, which led me to think the bodies had all been incinerated and destroyed.

I quirked an eyebrow at this. This didn't look like it was done by fire. But what else could have done it?

Just as I was considering my options for how this could have happened, I rounded a corner on Main Street, and without any warning, Anna jumped out from behind a telephone pole, startling Brittany and causing Melody to scream in terror. Anna gave both girls a sneer, then gazed around.

"It was here... where I lost them..." She said solemnly in a soft tone, one that made me give her a curious look. Lost them? Who?

"Uh, what?" Brittany asked, clearly confused as well. As soon as she asked this, Anna teleported right next to her and put a hand on her forehead, triggering another bright flash. I knew I was about to watch another flashback.

"Please, don't do this! We're not bad people!" Someone's voice, a female, was screaming at the top of her lungs. As the black and white area came into focus, I recognized it as Anna's mother. She was being dragged into what looked like a giant church on the intersection of Main Street and another road. Two strong-looking men were hauling her by the arms into the building, and she was fighting frantically to escape.

"YOU BASTARDS!" Someone else screamed. I knew who it was right away. It was Anna's father, only he didn't look like a human anymore. He looked more like a smaller Diablo of videogame fame, except much more menacing looking. It took six guys, all using special powers, to drag him into the church.

The head of the church and one of his missionaries stepped up to one another.

"Where is the girl?" The head asked his lackey, who sighed in response.

"Nothing. She's flown the coop. She probably caught wind of our plans and booked it." He said, making the church head growl in anger.

"Shit. I want that girl found. She is the key to the whole thing. Murder these two if you have to, but get some answers out of them!" The church head said. A minute later, both he and his missionary disappeared inside the church.

Not long after, the scene changed again, and younger Anna could be seen crouching in a dark alley, gazing into the church through a window. She looked to be on the verge of tears.

I switched back to first person mode and moved the visually disturbed Brittany next to the window and looked inside.

Both her parents were being hung by chains over a large pool of molten lava. They were halfway between scared and furious. A massive crowd of people, all wearing white robes with what I could only assume were golden crucifixes upon them, were standing around the pool. The head of the church stepped forward.

"Once again, we find ourselves in mortal combat with the Devil, and now we have his most trusted lieutenant AND his unholy human wife! Praise God for our vigilance and our clarity!" He was saying, as the other robed people all said "Amen" in response.

The younger Anna was practically crying at this point. She was about to lose her parents, and she was helpless to do anything about it. All she could do was watch and cry.

Her father let out a mighty roar of fury.

"Let it be heard, you accursed fools! And a curse upon you if you deny what I'm about to say, but my death here means absolutely nothing. My daughter will return and make you all suffer! Your God will be cast down from power, and this world as we know it will end!" He shouted, causing the robed people to freeze up as his words processed in their minds.

Then the church head walked over to a lever nearby and flipped it, a look of malice upon his face.

It was absolutely unbearable to watch. I watched in stunned silence as Anna's parents fell into the lava and slowly burnt to death. I watched as their eyes melted, their hair burned away, and their skin pealed off. All the while, the robed church-goers laughed and pointed at pair.

Anna, meanwhile, turned away and buried her face in her hands.

"Mommy! Daddy! NOOO!" She had screamed, which nobody heard due to her voice being very soft, as she wept into her hands. I honestly felt a little sorry for her. She had been mistreated, chased, and eventually orphaned just because she was a little different from everyone else. All because she had a powerful demon king for a father, and had inherited his crimson red eyes.

This still didn't fully explain why she was the way she was. Some people went through similar hard upbringings and somehow managed to turn out alright. So why was Anna a demonic creature of such vast power? And with such a passion for killing people?

Before I could get an answer, the scene switched again to a shot of Anna fleeing from Phoenix, as the church head stood atop a nearby rooftop, searching for her. His robe was discarded on the ground next to him, and he was wearing a police officers uniform.

Well, that answers my question of how they were able to grab Anna's parents so easily, I thought to myself.

The screen then went white again, and when it returned, I wasn't prepared for what I was seeing.

Anna was holding Brittany in a death grip, with the blonde samurai girl dangling helplessly over a small pool of lava. It definitely looked big enough to kill Brittany easily. She had a look of pure terror on her eyes that made me regret continuing the game.

It then dawned on me that they were inside the remains of the church where Anna's parents were both killed. The building itself was pretty much still intact, much like Anna's old house, and the lava pool was definitely still intact. And it looked like Anna was about to kill Brittany the same way her parents went down.

"Looks like this is the end of your life, little samurai girl. But don't fret. I'll take very good care of your soul... once it's imprisoned within my Soulsword!" The pink hair girl said, grinning darkly as she dropped Brittany, who fell straight into the lava.

I had to watch as Brittany shrieked in raw agony as the lava completely destroyed her. She tried frantically to get out, but she failed, and within half a minute of landing in the lava, she too gave her final breath as she was eventually melted into nothingness. All that was left of her was her katana, which she had thrown out right before she landed in the molten rock.

I couldn't believe what I had just seen. Did that really happen?

The dark grin Anna was now giving me said that yes, it did indeed happen.

"Only one girl left. And I can already tell she's going to be the easiest to kill. So I may as well try and have some fun before we finish this." She said to me. I was left shaking in my chair, and before I knew it, a question came tumbling out of my mouth.

"W-W-What are y-you...!?" I found myself asking. This seemed to amuse her, because she laughed lightly at me.

"Haven't you been paying attention? I'm half human and half demon. Surely, this isn't the first time you've heard of such a person, no?" She asked me, still giving me that malicious look that made me want to look away.

She put a hand to her mouth and giggled. Coming from anyone else, this would have been absolutely adorable. But at this moment, it made me want to get up and run as far away from the computer as I could.

"No matter. It'll all be over soon enough." She said. Not a second after, the screen went black.

She was right. I only had Melody left now, and being the weakest and most easily scared of the four, I could tell that her death was going to be extremely unpleasant.

I got a chance to rest and collect my thoughts before the next level began, so I thought back to what I had seen in Anna's flashbacks.

So far, what I was getting was that Anna was half human and half demon. She had the physical appearance of a beautiful young girl with long pink hair, but underneath, she was a cruel, sadistic psychopath who only wanted to destroy everything around her.

She was once a sweet, innocent young girl who just so happened to have a powerful demon for a father. And from what I saw and heard, he was likely the Devils right-hand man. Anna had inherited his crimson red eyes, which caused her to be picked on by bullies and pursued by church groups, who believed her to be some kind of dangerous demon.

Eventually, thanks to one particular churches head being a crooked cop of sorts, they tracked down her parents and captured them, and presumably tortured them to learn of Anna's true nature and her location. With their glass of answers only half full, they then decided to destroy her parents, leaving Anna to run for her life from Phoenix.

This was all I got thus far, but there were still a couple of pieces of the puzzle missing. And I already knew how I was going to get them.

It was just the process of doing so that had me terrified.

I waited in silence for another ten minutes, wondering whether or not it was worth it to continue. I wanted to know what happened to Anna to make her into such a ruthless killer, but at the same time, I was worried about what would happen to me when all was said and done.

I considered calling up my friend again, but I ultimately decided against it. I didn't want to bug him unless I actually had something to tell him. And right now, I didn't have a whole lot to say to him.

At long last, the next section loaded in, and I was left scratching my head in confusion when I saw the title card.

"Picket Post Drive."

Oh great, I thought to myself. That's all I needed. To be sent to Superior, the worst town in the state of Arizona.

I'd only been to Superior once in my entire life, and I had no desire to ever return. It was a poor, decaying mining town where copper was plentiful, but actual economy was endangered. There were very few people in the town itself, only housing about one thousand residents and twenty or so businesses, and last I heard, people were already saying they were predicting the towns demise ten years from now.

As soon as I was in control of Melody, who looked petrified on the spot from fear, I panned my camera around to get a good look at the environment.

Honestly, if it wasn't for the fact that the sky was still dark, and the plant life was looking as if it got the life sucked out of it, not to mention the fires burning in the small town itself, it wouldn't have looked any different then it normally looked. And considering how the town was slowly becoming a ghost town, that was a compliment in itself.

Many of the buildings looked the same as in Phoenix, and it still managed to unnerve me. Had Anna successfully cast this entire state into ruin? Or the entire country?

Or worse, the world?

I made Melody move forward, which she reluctantly did so. I was in the Superior Highlands, which was a considerable distance from the rest of the town. Many of the houses here were built around the 2000's era, so they were still somewhat new. It didn't change the fact that they were all destroyed now.

I was soon heading for the exit to the Highlands, and shortly thereafter found myself taking a right and running down the street towards the elementary school and cemetery on my right, and the fire department and swimming pool on my left. The buildings were completely obliterated.

Shortly after getting here, I saw Anna standing by herself in the cemetery. Melody got scared at the mere sight of that long pink hair that was waving in the breeze. I seriously considered running the other direction, jumping into the pool, and letting Melody drown, to spare her whatever cruel fate Anna had in store for her.

But I figured Anna would probably notice Melody drowning from that distance and come kill the blue girl herself, so I decided against it and instead steered Melody toward Anna, jumping over the cemetery fence as I did so.

As I got closer, however, Melody eventually slowed to a walk. No doubt because she was scarred to death over what was about to happen.

I stopped about three yards from Anna, and she grinned at the nameless tombstone she was standing in front of.

"And it was here where, at long last, I became a perfect vessel of evil." Anna said, a mournful look upon her face that left me tense, as I was expecting something bad to happen to Melody.

The blue haired girl slowly approached Anna, and I had a growing sense of dread as she did so. I desperately wanted to tell her to stay put instead of putting herself even farther into the line of fire, but it was already too late. Anna raised a hand to her chest and let out a tragic sigh.

"If they hadn't killed them... if they were still alive... none of this would be happening." Anna said out loud, prompting Melody to stop dead in her tracks. She still looked scared out of her wits, and it only got worse as Anna slowly turned to face her.

"But instead, my parents are dead. And now, all of humankind is facing extinction." The girl said to Melody, before teleporting away out of sight.

Melody gazed around in confusion for a moment, worried to death over what was about to happen, when Anna suddenly appeared directly in front of her. Melody let out a loud shriek and fell backwards onto the ground, as Anna reached a hand out and placed it on her forehead.

Another bright flash of white light, and I was back in yet another black and white flashback. It showed a young Anna standing in the middle of this very same cemetery, starring down at the ground with tears in her eyes. She looked ragged and exhausted, as though she had walked the entire way here from Phoenix. It was honestly disheartening to see.

"Mommy... daddy..." The young girl said mournfully, falling to her knees and weeping into her hands. Melody had a sad expression on her face, as though she felt very sorry for Anna and what she went through as a child.

It wasn't long before a thunderstorm began, making the scene even more upsetting. As the rainwater fell down and soaked Anna from head to toe, I felt a deep, inexplicable sorrow for the poor girl. I couldn't imagine how it must have felt, watching her parents melt into nothingness before her very eyes, and having to go on the run to save her own skin.

The rain wasn't striking Melody, but she had tears in her eyes over hearing Anna's story. This didn't last long, however.

Eventually, a loud noise got my attention and I panned the camera back to Anna, who was now looking around confused. Clearly, she hadn't been expecting that noise, either. Melody as well was watching this event with minor fright in her eyes.

Another one happened, and now Anna was standing up, gazing around frantically. She looked pretty scared over what was happening.

It wasn't long afterwards that a loud, demonic voice called out to her from out of nowhere, although me and Melody could hear it just fine. Melody let out a gasp and took a step backward, now looking frightened.

"Young daughter of my most trusted lieutenant, I share your pain and agony over my best mans destruction..." The voice said to her. Anna gazed down as a giant, demonic pentagon appeared at her feet. It started glowing brightly, startling the pink-haired girl.

"W-W-Who are you!?" She asked out loud, trying to fight the urge to run away screaming.

"Your father called me boss. I called him my friend. And I can feel it within you. A deep desire to make these mortals pay for their treatment of you throughout your life." He said. This prompted Anna to nod slowly, drying the tears from her eyes.

"So... are you..." She asked out loud, and this made the being behind the voice laugh in delight.

"You are a clever girl. Some people call me Satan, I prefer to call myself the Devil." It answered. And for some reason, Anna was no longer scared or frightened. It was as if she had been dying to meet the Devil for a long time, and finally had the chance to do so.

"I cannot walk on this mortal earth anymore, and this world is rapidly approaching it's end. When that happens, it will be time for you to go to a new world and seek out your own destiny. I want you to have something before that happens." Satan said out loud to her, prompting her to give a confused look to nowhere in particular.

"What is it?" She asked. This caused the pentagon to glow even brighter, making Anna gaze down in minor surprise.

"My power." The Devil replied, as Anna became consumed by the bright glow of the pentagon. Melody had to shield her eyes from the bright light, and I considered turning my monitors brightness down.

But after about a couple of minutes, I heard Satan speak again, as the light began to fade.

"Go forward, young Thompson. Make these mortals suffer like you did. Whether it be in this world, during what little time it has left, or what other world you find yourself in. With this Energy Dress and this Soulsword, you will be truly invincible. Do your God's work!" The Devil shouted, as his presence faded. And at long last, the glowing pentagon disappeared.

I nearly had a heart attack when I saw what had happened to Anna.

Not only was she now in full color, unlike everything else around her, she now looked exactly the same as she did when I saw her killing the BattleBlade Girls. She was just as tall, telling me that Satan must have caused her to age by about eight years. She was wearing her red dress and the Soulsword was sheathed on her waist. She was in a kneeling position right now, but as soon as the pentagon vanished, she stood up and opened her eyes.

Her eyes, from what I could tell, were now black with red dots for pupils. I hadn't seen them like that previously, and I instantly assumed that she had the ability to make her eyes look normal whenever she wanted. Seeing as how she had all the powers of Satan himself, I figured there was next to nothing she couldn't do now.

She gazed down at her grown up body and at the weapon at her side, and, as if she knew how to do it all along, she made a bright purple sphere appear in her hand and fired it at the nearby fire department.

The building exploded with the force of a small hydrogen bomb, similar to the blast that took down the Hindenburg. Debris, fire, and several bodies went flying in all directions, as a giant mushroom cloud of smoke rose into the air.

Anna gave a sadistic grin when she was this.

"What a trip! I've never felt this strong!" She said to herself, as she quickly walked away from where she was standing and into the nearby street, taking out her Soulsword and slashing the fence apart as though it were made of butter on the way.

Melody let out a loud gasp of shock when a car came out of nowhere and sped right into Anna, only for her to make a sudden turn, stop it completely by grabbing the front grill if the vehicle, then picking it up as easily as Superman and launching it into the nearby school, causing it to explode and destroy a large chunk of the building.

"This is gonna be fun." She said in an evil, demonic tone that I recognized all to well. As she walked away, laying waste to everything she saw along the way, the scene faded to black.

It stayed like that for a solid five minutes while I collected my thoughts.

So now I knew Anna's full story. She was once an innocent, young girl who was half human, and half demon, who spent the majority of her life running away from everything because of her blood red eyes, and everyone assuming she was a monster. Eventually, a corrupt church group, led by a corrupted policeman who knew how to find people with the greatest of ease, tracked down her parents and destroyed them, forcing her to run away from her home and her life. Eventually, she met up with her fathers best friend, Satan himself, who bestowed upon her all of his abilities and power, thus allowing her to take her revenge upon everyone who treated her wrong.

And as if to confirm my theories, the screen suddenly returned and I saw multiple short scenes of Anna brutally murdering everyone she had ever known growing up as a child. The teachers of her school, her bullies, the church group who destroyed her parents, and of course, the crooked cop who tracked them down...

I watched as she mercilessly gutted them, sliced them in half, incinerated them, blew them up, dissected, drew, quartered, and even hung some of them by their own intestines. And it didn't stop there.

I watched, in stunned silence once again, as she gathered up all her power, and went on a mad rampage through the city of Phoenix, killing and destroying everything in her path. Just her mere presence was causing the sky to turn dark and creepy, as though a nuclear weapon had gone off. This explained why it was so demonic looking before.

The scene returned to darkness, and remained there for a few minutes more, as I processed everything I had just seen in my mind.

If only they hadn't attacked her parents, if only they'd left them alone... I thought to myself. All this happened because her parents were killed. She caused this worlds destruction, and claimed all the powers of the Devil Satan himself, because she wanted revenge against everyone who treated her like a monster with no soul.

I got the impression that she just hated humans in general, because she didn't seem to care that she murdered them in the most horrific ways on a routine basis. I couldn't imagine what her thought process must be like, and I really didn't want to find out.

The next levels title card appeared, turning my attention back to the screen.

"Diamondbacks Stadium."

A baseball stadium? What a weird place to take me next.

Melody appeared in the middle of the field, and of course, the stadium itself was in ruins. Large rings of fire burned all around her, causing me to instantly begin fearing for her life. If the last three girls deaths were any indication of anything, it was that I was sure Melody was about to meet an evenly horrible fate.

As soon as she she looked in front of her, however, she saw something that caused her to drop her bat, raise both hands to her face, and let out a startled shriek.

"Yuki! Amber! Brittany..." She said in a harsh, dead voice, as the camera panned over to the corpses of the other three girls.

Yuki and Amber's bodies were both burnt to a crisp, while Brittany's katana was sitting in a large pile of ash; The only remains of the other three BattleBlade Girls after Anna killed them in such horrific ways.

Melody walked forward slowly and eventually fell to her knees. Unable to go on any farther, she broke down completely and started crying like mad.

"Why... why... why did this all happen to us? Why us, out of everyone in the world!?" She repeated over and over as she wept over the deaths of her three best friends.

As if in answer to her question, Anna suddenly appeared in front of her, with yet another sadistic grin upon her face.

"Because I can. Mankind almost destroyed me. Now I'm going to destroy it. I will leave no survivors. No man, woman, or child." She told Melody, as she landed on the ground and began walking towards her slowly, a flaming Soulsword in her hand.

Melody quickly got up and tried to run away, but Anna simply snapped her fingers, causing Melody's leg to explode in a violent, fiery blast.

She screamed bloody murder and fell to the ground, trying desperately to crawl away from the pink-haired girl who was closing in on her. But it was no good. Melody could hardly move due to the amount of pain she was in.

"And why am I killing everyone? Because I am the bringer of the End of Times. I am the one who ended this world, and will eventually end all others across the known universes. I am life, AND death." Anna said in her dark, demonic voice, as she slowly reached down, grabbed Melody around the neck, and hoisted her up into the air. I held my breath as I waited for what I knew was coming.

Melody looked at Anna with raw terror in her eyes as the girl raised her Soulsword.

"DIE!" Anna screamed, as the swung the sword at lightning-fast speed, chopping Anna's body into hundreds of tiny pieces, all of which fell to the ground in a massive pile at Anna's feet. For some odd reason, she kept Melody's head intact, and as she gazed at it, she giggled in delight.

She went over and retrieved Melody's dropped bat, used her powers to carve it down into a tall wooden stake, and speared Melody's head on it. She then drove it into the ground next to her and laughed out loud. Her most terrifying, demonic laugh yet, as she stood over the remains of the four BattleBlade Girls.

The screen cut to black mid-laugh, and I was left shaken and deeply disturbed. All the girls were dead. What was going to happen now?

The answer to that question came in what was the single most horrifying thing I could have ever imagined.

A picture of Anna appeared on my screen, only it was a close-up of her upper body. She was starring directly at the screen, her head cocked slightly to one side and the blade of her sword visible in front of her. There was the sight of a burning city behind her, which I could only assume was Phoenix. She was giving me a demonic grin that almost spread from cheek to cheek. It didn't take long for me to let out a startled yell when I saw it.

Then, a flash of red light, and the picture changed. Anna was now wearing a pitch-black dress with crimson red trim. There was some kind of stripped pattern in her hairband and ribbon, and her skin had darkened considerably. Her hair had also turned a deep, dark shade of purple, and her eyes were now pitch-black with red pupils. Her mouth was open in the most demonic smile I had ever seen in my life, which almost spread from ear to ear. Her sword was now also covered in dark blood. A bloody message had also appeared at the bottom of the screen:

"YOUR SOUL IS MINE!"

I almost had a heart attack when I saw that message, for a loud, terrifying screech had come from the game when it appeared.

After about thirty seconds of starring at that screen, it went black again. After that, the game closed out of itself and I was back on my desktop.

My breathing was extremely stagnated and my heartbeat was irregular. That image of Anna saying my soul was hers had left me almost speechless.

"What... the actual fuck..." I silently told myself. What had I just seen? What had I just PLAYED!?

This made me never want to touch a BattleBlade Girls game, or a videogame in general, ever again. Who would make something like this? This was sick and twisted in a way I didn't think was humanly possible.

And then I remembered: It wasn't a human that made this.

It was a half human, half demon monster.

Just when I thought nothing else could happen, my monitor suddenly turned bright yellow. As I watched it closely, it slowly turned orange, and eventually bright red. When it did this, the computer started emitting dangerous black smoke.

Before I could even react, the computer exploded, lighting my entire room on fire. The blast also knocked me from my chair and caused part of the ceiling to fall down, pinning me to the floor.

"Fuck! No!" I screamed desperately as I tried to free myself, but it was no good. I couldn't move.

The smoke was suffocating, and I knew the water heater would blow any second, and as the fire creeped slowly toward me, I could have sworn I saw Anna appear before me, transparent and still smiling as she watched me burn.

"This world will perish." 