(A/N):
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Meanwhile...
BASTION CHURCH...
Meanwhile, inside the church, the priest gripped his walkie-talkie tightly.
"...."
"Jerry?"
He hissed under his breath.
"Jerry, report."
Only static answered him.
-CREAK -CREAK
His brow furrowed.
-Frown
"...."
He tapped the device, tried again—nothing.
-Click -Click
A faint unease crept up his spine.
Then—
Creeeak.
The heavy church door behind him opened.
The sound echoed unnaturally loud in the hollow sanctuary.
The priest froze.
"...."
Four elongated shadows stretched across the stone floor, cast by the pale moonlight spilling in from behind them.
Slow, deliberate footsteps followed—unhurried, confident.
-Thud. -Thud.
-Thud. -Thud.
He turned.
Standing in the doorway were the tourists who had arrived four days ago.
The Four women, their gazes sharp, unreadable.
The priest forced a smile, smoothing his robes as his pulse quickened.
"Oh,"
He said gently, voice warm and practiced,
"you startled me. Is everything alright? Do you need some help?"
Before he could say another word—
"...."
Caroline vanished.
-FWOOSH
One blink—she was standing there.
-Blink
The next—
She was in front of him.
His eyes widened in sheer terror.
"V–vam—"
The word never fully left his mouth.
BAM!
Caroline slammed him into the stone wall with brutal force.
The impact rattled the candles, sending dust and flakes of stone raining down as the breath was violently knocked out of his lungs.
He gasped, choking, feet lifting slightly off the ground as he slid down the wall.
-GASP
"...."
Caroline leaned in close, her voice calm, almost cheerful.
"Hi, We're done pretending."
The priest coughed violently, clutching his chest, fear finally shattering his composure.
-Cough -Cough
His eyes darted toward the others—
Toward Inadu, who stepped forward slowly, her presence alone making the air feel heavier.
Behind her, Debbie and Gayathri watched in silence.
"...."
"...."
"...."
The priest swallowed hard.
-GuLP.
The priest's back hit the stone wall with a dull crack, knocking the breath out of him.
Before he could even slide down, Inadu was in front of him.
Her eyes were cold—ancient, merciless.
"Where is the contract?"
She asked calmly.
"And what is the demon's name."
The priest swallowed hard.
Sweat poured down his temples as he glanced at Caroline, then at Gayathri and Debbie, finally settling on Inadu again.
Whatever hope he had left drained from his face.
"I–I swear,"
He stammered, voice shaking,
"I don't have it."
Caroline's hand tightened around his collar, lifting him slightly off the ground.
"Careful, Lying makes this much worse."
He gasped looking at them in panic.
"It's the truth! The contract isn't written on paper. It was… bound."
Inadu's gaze sharpened.
"...."
"Bound to what?"
The priest's lips trembled.
"Saw Tooth Jack."
The name echoed unnaturally through the church, as if the walls themselves recoiled.
"The first contract was written generations ago,"
The priest rushed on, words spilling out in panic.
"Blood for harvest. A soul for protection. The demon demanded a living vessel—someone who would carry the pact itself. Every year, the hunter kills the monster… and becomes it. The contract renews with fresh blood."
Debbie's face paled.
"...."
"So the boys… they're sacrifices which even their parents knows about."
"Yes!"
The priest cried feeling the pressure on his neck increases.
"They think it's tradition. Honor. Survival. But it's slavery. The demon owns the town, the crops, the people—everything."
Gayathri clenched her fists.
"And the demon's name?"
The priest hesitated.
"...."
Inadu raised her hand slightly.
The air around them pressed inward, invisible weight crushing his chest.
"Say it,"
She ordered softly.
He broke.
"Moloch of the Furrow. The Reaper Beneath the Soil. He wears the mask of Saw Tooth Jack."
Silence fell.
"...."
"...."
"...."
Caroline released him just enough that his feet touched the ground again.
"You really thought you could keep feeding kids to a demon forever and no one would notice?"
Tears streamed down his face.
-Sob
"We were starving! Crops failed, children died, sickness spread. Then he came. He promised abundance. Protection. All we had to do was obey."
The priest collapsed to his knees.
"Please… the contract can't be destroyed unless the vessel is destroyed at the moment of renewal. If you kill Saw Tooth Jack too early, the demon will simply bind himself again—to another child."
Inadu's eyes flickered, calculating.
"So the harvest night is the key."
He nodded frantically.
-Nods
"Yes. When the monster is fully manifested. When the bell rings. That is the only moment the contract can be severed."
Outside, far away, the ground trembled.
A roar—metallic, infernal—rolled across the fields.
-VROOOOOMMM!!!
Caroline smiled slowly.
"Sounds like someone's already working on that part."
Inadu turned toward the church doors.
"Bind him."
Vines of dark magic erupted from the stone floor, wrapping around the priest's arms and legs, pinning him in place.
"You will stay here, And if you try to pray to your demon—he won't hear you."
she said coldly while turning to look at the new arrival.
A middle-aged man wearing spectacles stepped hesitantly into the nave.
His hands were raised—Not in defiance, but surrender.
"...."
He had clearly heard everything.
The moment his eyes met Inadu's, his knees gave way.
He collapsed onto the stone floor, bowing low.
"Please,"
He begged, voice breaking before any one could question him.
"Please… save my son."
Caroline stiffened.
"...."
"...."
"...."
Debbie inhaled sharply.
Gayathri's eyes narrowed, reading the fear pouring off him.
-Frown.
"My second boy—Richie,"
The man continued, choking on his words.
"He wants to win the Dark Harvest. He thinks it's a way out. A chance to leave this town."
His shoulders trembled.
"He doesn't know the truth."
Inadu stepped forward, her presence alone pressing the air flat.
"And the truth is?"
She demanded coldly.
The man swallowed hard.
"The one they hunt… Sawtooth Jack…"
His voice cracked completely.
"…is his own brother. My first son."
The silence that followed was suffocating.
"...."
"...."
"...."
Inadu's eyes darkened.
"Then why did you let it happen? Why did you allow your elder son to be taken?"
she asked, her voice sharp as glass.
The man brokedown crying.
"I didn't!"
He cried, slamming his forehead to the floor.
"I tried to stop him. My wife and I begged. We locked him inside. We pleaded with Jerry—"
His breath hitched violently.
"But Sheriff Jerry came in the night. He locked us inside our own home. Took my boy away."
Inadu clenched her fists.
"...."
"He wanted to prove himself,"
The man whispered in low voice.
"To his girlfriend. To the town. He wanted to be worthy."
His voice dropped to almost nothing.
"He won the Harvest."
Caroline felt the helplessness in his tone.
"And that, was our punishment."
He lifted his head, tears streaking down his face.
"Jerry came back after. Told us what winning really meant. That our son would never leave. That he would become the next Sawtooth Jack."
He laughed weakly, hollow and broken.
-Haha
"He threatened Richie. Said if we ever spoke, my second son would be next."
Gayathri whispered, barely audible,
"So fear kept the town quiet."
The man nodded while looking at the Jesus statue before him guiltly.
-Nod
"We became cowards but not all some send their sons willingly for the prize amount, To save one son, we damned the other."
Inadu turned away from him, disgust flickering across her face.
"...."
"Your silence only worsen your sons suffering,"
She said flatly.
"But, it ends tonight."
She continued, eyes narrowing.
-Frown
Hope flared in the man's eyes.
"Richie? Can you save him?"
Before anyone could answer—
"...."
"...."
"...."
The entire church shook.
A roar echoed from far beyond the walls, rolling like thunder across the fields.
Firelight flickered through the stained glass.
Even without seeing him, they felt him.
Gayathri whispered, awed and afraid,
"That's him…"
Inadu's lips curved into something dark.
-Smirk
"Yes, The Rider has found the hunt."
She turned back to the kneeling man.
"If your son lives, it will be because the monster was judged—not because this town deserved mercy."
Another roar echoed—closer this time.
-RAAAAAAAA!!!
The Harvest had begun.
The Saw Tooth Jack's body staggered through the dying corn and into the quiet edge of town.
Its steps slowed.
The house stood there—
Small, wooden, crooked in places, paint peeling from years of sun and wind.
'Home.'
For a moment, the monster hesitated.
"...."
The flames licking from its ribs dimmed slightly, as if something inside remembered.
The front door creaked open under one clawed hand.
-Creak
Inside, dust hung in the air like ghosts that never learned how to leave.
The living room was unchanged.
A cracked sofa.
A crooked photo frame on the wall.
A faint stain on the floor where his little brother once spilled juice and cried until Jim scooped him up, laughing.
A memory surged—
"...."
Jim, younger, breathless with joy, racing his brother across this very room.
Their mother shouting for them to slow down.
Their father pretending to be angry, then smiling when he thought no one noticed.
'We were happy.'
The thought wasn't spoken—but it burned worse than the fire in his chest.
The creature staggered toward the hallway.
The bedroom door was still there.
His parents' room.
He saw them as they were—not as the town forced them to become.
His mother brushing his hair before church.
His father gripping his shoulder, proud and afraid all at once.
"You don't need glory,"
His father's voice echoed from the memory.
"You're already enough."
The monster howled.
-GRAAAA!!!
The sound was wrong—too deep, too fractured—but the pain behind it was unmistakably human.
Fire poured from its mouth, not as an attack—
—but as a scream.
Flames erupted across the walls.
Photographs curled and blackened.
Wood cracked and split.
The ceiling groaned as the house began to die.
The monster stood in the center of the living room as the fire consumed everything that had ever mattered.
This house had been warmth.
This house had been love.
This house had been a choice he never truly had.
Now it was ash.
As the roof collapsed inward, the Sawtooth Jack lifted its head and roared again—a sound woven from rage, regret, and the unbearable weight of memory.
Not a victory cry.
A funeral.
The Saw Tooth Jack straightened coming back to his senses.
Its burning eyes of his pumpkin head slowly moved toward the church at the edge of the fields—the place where every lie began,
"...."
The place where pain was dressed up as tradition.
'If I reach it… If I cross that door… I'll finally be free.'
That belief—false, desperate, and cruel—pulled at what remained of Jim Shepard's soul.
Then—
A sound tore through the night.
-VRRROOOOOMM!!!
An engine—not mechanical, but alive.
The ground trembled.
Corn stalks bent outward as something massive forced its way through them, flames carving a blazing path.
Red hellfire reflected in Jack's hollow burning eyes as the monstrous truck burst into view—its body forged of scorched steel, tires wreathed in fire, engine roaring like a caged beast.
It stopped inches from him.
Heat slammed into the monster's chest.
"...."
"...."
"...."
The driver's door creaked open.
-CREAK
A boot touched the ground.
THUD.
Fire spread outward in a slow, deliberate circle as Ghost Rider stepped out.
Chains clinked softly against bone.
Flames curled up his spine, skull blazing brighter than the burning house behind Jim.
Saw Tooth Jack froze.
"...."
For the first time since the Harvest began—
He didn't feel hunted.
He felt seen.
The heat in his chest flared violently, his dead heart pounding, the heat visibly rising and cracking the blackened flesh around it to red.
Ghost Rider tilted his head slightly.
"...."
Then he spoke.
"I KNOW WHO YOU ARE."
The voice wasn't loud—but it carried, heavy with judgment and certainty.
"I KNOW WHAT THEY TURNED YOU INTO."
Jim's claws twitched.
"...."
Memories clawed at the edges of his mind—his mother's smile, his brother's laughter, the fear in his father's eyes the night the doors were locked.
"I'M NOT HERE TO HUNT YOU."
Ghost Rider took a single step forward.
THUD.
Fire followed.
"I'M HERE TO END IT."
The Saw Tooth Jack staggered.
The flames inside his pumpkin head flickered violently as something human surged up beneath the curse.
Free him.
That was the word he'd been waiting his whole damn afterlife to hear.
Jim hesitated.
"...."
Just for a second.
The church loomed behind him—dark, waiting, lying.
The monster took a step forward.
The heat in his chest spiked sharply, his dead heart beating harder, louder—-Thump -Thump
Ghost Rider raised a burning hand, palm open—not as a threat.
As an offer.
"THIS ENDS ONE WAY, JIM SHEPARD. WITH TRUTH, WITH FIRE.... WITH YOU FREE."
The flames roared higher, illuminating the tears burning their way through soot and ash on the monster's face.
Saw Tooth Jack took another step forward—
Not as the Harvest's champion.
Not as the town's curse.
But as a boy who never wanted any of this.
And for the first time since the night he was sacrificed—
He believed.
Suddenly—
Corn stalks exploded outward.
Three boys burst from the field, breath ragged, eyes wild with adrenaline.
They raised improvised weapons—
Hooks, bats, rusted blades—hands shaking not with fear, but excitement.
"THERE!"
One of them shouted, voice cracking with triumph.
"TWO OF THEM!"
"WE HIT THE JACKPOT!"
Their laughter echoed—
-HAHAHA!!!
Sharp, cruel, hungry.
To them, this wasn't horror.
This was the hunt.
Ghost Rider slowly turned.
The flames in his skull dimmed—then flared brighter.
"...."
His burning gaze locked onto the loudest boy.
And in an instant, sins flashed—
Locker rooms, broken noses, smaller kids pinned to lockers, laughter as someone cried, cruelty done for sport.
A certified bully.
Ghost Rider threw his head back and laughed.
-GRARARARARA!!!
A deep, thunderous laugh that made the cornfield shudder.
"YOU CALL THIS A HUNT?"
The boy faltered.
"...."
"...."
"...."
Before any of them could react, Ghost Rider snapped his wrist—
The chain screamed through the air.
Fire followed.
-SWISHHHH!!!
The links spun in a perfect circle, slamming into the ground and erupting upward into a ring of hellfire, boxing the boys in.
Heat washed over them instantly; their weapons clattered uselessly to the dirt.
Panic replaced excitement.
The bully screamed.
-Ahhhh!!!
Ghost Rider stepped closer, fire rolling off his shoulders.
"YOU WANTED A MONSTER."
"LOOK AT ME."
The boy collapsed backward, sobbing, unable to meet those eyes.
"...."
Ghost Rider didn't waste another second.
He turned, flames trailing behind him, and strode back toward the truck.
The hellfire engine roared in approval.
He stopped beside the open door and looked at Jim.
The Saw Tooth Jack stood frozen—
Still trembling, still burning—
But no longer snarling.
For the first time, he wasn't being chased.
Ghost Rider nodded once.
-NOD
"GET IN."
Jim hesitated only a heartbeat.
"...."
Then he climbed into the passenger seat.
The door slammed shut.
Ghost Rider took the wheel.
-SCREEEECHHHH!!!
The engine screamed as the truck launched forward, tearing through the cornfield like a meteor, fire carving a blazing path through the night.
Behind them, the ring of flames collapsed inward, extinguishing itself and leaving the boys on their knees—alive, terrified, and forever changed.
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(Author's POV)
(A/N):
Thanks for reading the chapter!
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