Epilogue

192 5 4
                                    

Warning: mentioned violence, death, smoking

~

As the evening dragged on, the campfire crackled like the fire that had burned down Lyra's home over a year before. Gunshots and screams could be heard from outside the abandoned shop, but the fallen angel knew everything would be alright. She couldn't die again, and she wasn't going to let her best friend get hurt. She was known for being reckless, but she wouldn't put Liu in a situation where she knew he was going to be overpowered. And the gunfight in the street outside was as ferocious as a legitimate battle in the middle of a war. She could join the fight if she wanted to, and win it easily. But as much as she loved the idea of crushing skulls under her feet and breaking people's ribs with her baseball bat, she didn't have the motivation to cause mayhem today.

Lyra looked over at her best friend, who was sitting in a corner and cleaning his handgun. In all honesty, he didn't look too different from when he was seventeen: he still had the longish dark brown hair, the bags under his forest green eyes, the pierced ears, the sharp cheekbones, and the sickly pale skin. He hid his scrawny figure with a black overcoat, and he kept a striped scarf wound around his neck at all times. But the most intimidating thing about him was the scars and stitches in his cheeks and on the bridge of his nose. To others, he could be cold and frightening. But to Lyra, he was still that tall, sarcastic, protective and loyal kid who joked around with her, smoked weed with her, and went to her for advice.

"You doin' alright, Woods?" Lyra asked as she lit a cigarette.

The nineteen-year-old shrugged.

"Just thinking," he answered. "Didn't know how useful the slums could be."

"Well, glad we came when we did." Lyra responded. "Slums are a homeless man's treasure trove."

Liu nodded in agreement.

It had been two months since the two had found each other once again. Lyra couldn't be more grateful to be reunited with one of the only people who had ever truly understood her, and she had been overjoyed to learn that her suspicions of Liu Woods - now called Homicidal Liu by the public - still being alive had been true all along. And she was happy to join him on his quest to find and protect his younger brother - as long as he helped Lyra exact revenge on hers.

"Think it's safe enough to spend the night here?" Liu asked. "I mean, I've been on the run for two years: I know how slums work."

"We'll be fine, Frankenstein," Lyra answered, using her nickname that she had come up with for him due to the stitches littering his face and torso. She took a puff of her cigarette, smoke flowing out from between her cut lips. "Are you underestimating my immense power and strength?"

"Ya know I wouldn't, boss," Liu reassured her, and he smiled back at her. He knew she was joking.

At last, the violence from outside died down, and the two left the building to collect anything that the dead would no longer be using. From the pockets of the corpses' clothes, Lyra found a sewing needle, some safety pins, a package of Band-Aids, and a vape.

"You want it?" Lyra offered Liu with a mischievous grin, holding out the vape to him.

Liu's nose wrinkled as the device was shoved under his face.

"Bitch, no, someone else probably hit it already," he declined with disgust.

Lyra laughed.

After a few more minutes of scavanging, Liu led Lyra back inside, where their campfire in the corner of the abandoned shop was starting to wither away. Liu threw another log onto it before it could, and the flames roared back to life.

"Let's take another look at the files," Lyra suggested.

Liu nodded and opened his overcoat, pulling out some folders from the inner pocket. Spreading out the files and posters from within on the floor, fallen angel and wanted serial killer sat down on their knees and pored over the information. As they did, Lyra's eyes darted to the wanted posters plastered with police sketches:

WANTED
for mass murder, attempted
murder, armed burglary
Jeffery Alan Woods
Adolescent age 15-17
If seen, call 9-1-1
immediately

WANTED
for mass arson and murder
Tobias Erin Rogers
Young adult age 18-20
If seen, call 9-1-1
immediately

The posters seemed to be glaring at them, laughing at them, taunting things such as, 'you'll never find them.' As Lyra glared down at the sketched version of her brother's unfeeling face, she didn't realize her jaw had tensed and her hands had been clenched into fists. It hadn't taken her too long to realize how much damage Toby had done to her and Connie after she had discovered the wreckage that had once been her childhood neighborhood. Now she knew that Toby was a monster - plain and simple.

"Fuckin' little cunt," Lyra muttered under her breath.

"We'll find him, Lyra." Liu said suddenly, pulling Lyra out of her enraged thoughts.

Lyra looked over at her best friend, the caring and true brother she had never had. He was the only one she could trust anymore, the only one she was close to. She knew he meant it.

Lyra reached over to ruffle Liu's head of wavy brown hair.

"I love you, little bro," she said. Her mouth wasn't smiling, but her eyes were.

For the first time in what seemed like an eternity, Liu felt a sense of warmth in his heart. Finally, he could be a brother again. He would die before giving up on his brother Jeff. But Lyra, despite being older than him, reminded Liu of the boy he had raised with blood, sweat, and tears.

"Love you, too, sis," Liu responded.

Lyra stood up, retrieved her lighter and a new cigarette from her pocket, and picked up her bat before she turned around and approached the front of the shop. The sun had set, and as the full moon began to rise, Lyra thought of her poor mother: burned, traumatized, and left all alone back in Glengrave.

Lyra's grip tightened on her baseball bat. From drug addicted delinquent to a spirit with ungodly powers: she was no longer that feared college dropout from Michigan.

Now, Lyra was feared everywhere her feet touched. And Toby would learn to fear her, too.

Luring Lyra | Creepypasta Fanmade Spin-off [COMPLETED]Where stories live. Discover now