Back to the present…
"What do you mean, Roland!?" Harker exclaimed running towards them "That's my Mom! Why are you aiming your guns at her!?"
Roland yelled back. "Can't you see what she's doing to Chloe right now!? Would any mother do that to her child!?"
When Harker and Mina finally reached the scene, he could now see what's happening. Josephine's bony thin fingers with long nails wrapped around Chloe's small neck and was trying to squeeze the life out of her.
"Mom! What are you doing!?" Harker exclaimed.
"Oh, son. We were just having a mother-daughter bonding experience, that's all. But these folks had to butt in, and they're gettin' on my nerves. Can you kindly tell them to buzz off?" She said in that sweet tone.
That tone was not like the Josephine Jones that Harker knew at all.
He felt like the realization hit him like a truck. He had been so blinded by the thought of seeing his mother again that he had barely paid attention to her actions, her words, and these little details that felt off about her.
Maybe Harker had always noticed them, but it was subconsciously ignored due to his own self-denial.
It was easier to wave away the red flags than to accept that this person was not his Mom, and that she was truly gone.
And now that he did come to realize and accept it, it was already too late. His sister was now in danger because of his ignorance.
"Let go of her." Harker said, the scent of peach blossoms coming for the zombie impostor.
The impostor sniffed about. "Where that lovely scent come all of a sudden? That came from ya? Is it another magick of yers again, like that growing hair?"
Harker's eyes widened. So the zombies could smell it after all. It was not because they had their olfactory nerves malfunctioning, but because they were simply not affected.
Harker's eyes burned with seething rage. "I said let her go."
The impostor chuckled. "Oh, look at those green demonic eyes. Ya looked like that snake that tempted Eve to partake in the Forbidden Fruit. Truly frightening."
The hypnotizing didn't work either. His Enhanced skills were not working on these zombies.
Harker's hair quickly shot out to tear the zombie's arms off her body, and release Chloe. It did work, but the zombie moved fast to leave the limousine. Its mutilated hands followed after her, and she just continued running despite the bullets that littered holes in her body.
Roland yelled. "Don't let it escape!"
Mina had followed after it and tried to reach out with her claws. But the zombie just naturally separated itself from the chest up so the hand would pass through. It reattached, and Mina's hand got stuck inside rotting, moving flesh.
"Tamade!" She cursed in Chinese and grew her pectoral fin that turned into a large blade on the side of her forearm.
It sliced through the zombie enough for her to wrench it out, but brought no damage to the zombie.
"Hahahahaha! How divine! I am truly blessed! I am blessed beyond anyone in this world, for God have chosen me! I am His form on Earth as it is in Heaven!"
The religious fanaticism was so obvious to Harker now. He simply thought that it was because his mother was raised from a Catholic household down in New Orleans. But she would never go so far to talk about God and sin every other sentence.
Just who is this bastard living inside his mother's body!?
Harker continued following after it, and had his hair wrap around the zombie to scatter it to a million pieces. He then collected the pieces and kept them in his hair, as he ran back.
"Quick, prepare some fire! We need to burn everything besides the head!"
Roland frowned. "Besides the head?"
Harker nodded. "I need to know who this is, and how this person got inside my mom's body. It must be related to what Victoria said earlier."
The people from the convenience store and the gasoline station were scared beyond comprehension, and rightfully so.
"W-Who are these people?" The cashier asked.
The manager elbowed him. "Just call the police!"
Harker heard them, and so he used his Enhanced Succubus ability to make them look at him, and then his hypnotism to erase their memories and put them to sleep.
It worked, so that means he still had these skills. It's just that these zombies….
Were somehow immune to them.
Everyone set to work, and eventually they had burned down the zombie's body except for its head. It was still alive, and writhed in pain as its flesh were set to flames.
"Ahhhh!!! No!!! The fires of hell have come for me….. No, this place must have always been hell! For how can little demons such as you two exist!? Has the child been a test to give me redemption for my sins!? I have failed! Oh, Heavenly Father, your servant have failed miserably!"
Harker kicked the head mercilessly. "Cut that bullshit! This isn't hell, but I can send you there! Who the fuck are you!?"
The zombie head continued screaming and wailing. "Charlotte…. Oh, my darling Charlotte! Forgive me! I wasn't able to resist temptation, and ye were lookin' so helpless as a lamb….. Forgive me!"
Chloe had caught her breath and was given some water to drink by the guards, along with her pills. She was in a daze by everything happening so fast, but she narrowed her eyes when she heard this name.
"Charlotte? Which Charlotte was it? What's her last name?"
"Charlotte Thierry…. Sob…. I regret everything that I have done to that poor child…. Please forgive me, Oh Lord."
Chloe had confirmed her suspicions. "I know that name. I read from the newspapers that in Dallas, Texas, a girl named Charlotte Thiery had been sexually assaulted, murdered, and cannibalized by a priest. She was part of the church choir, and was only 12 years old. This incident happened 18 years ago already, and that priest was put into the death row."
"The newspaper said that he was executed by lethal injection just 1 month ago, and that his body was provided to the State for research. So that means…"
Chloe stepped out of the limo, and looked at the head of the zombie that pretended to be her mom. "Are you Father Gerald Schmidt?"
The zombie stopped crying after hearing his name, and nodded.
Everyone was stunned. A man of God that had committed grave sins was the one who now possessed the body of Josephine Jones. Now that they know his identity, the question remains…
How? How could this have happened? A criminal from Texas was suddenly in the body of a kind woman from New York.
Harker had thought about it, and started to connect the dots.
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