"Uurghh..." I groaned in agonizing pain, feeling as though an entire freight train had slammed directly into my skull. The headache that pounded through my brain was unlike anything I'd ever experienced—not just physical pain, but something deeper and more disturbing, as if the very structure of my consciousness had been damaged by forces beyond normal human understanding.

Frowning against the waves of disorientation that threatened to overwhelm me, I slowly raised my gaze, blinking repeatedly as my vision remained stubbornly blurry and unfocused. The world around me seemed to shift and blur, colors bleeding together in ways that made it difficult to distinguish between reality and whatever nightmare I might be trapped within.

When I finally managed to straighten my head and my vision began to clear enough to make sense of my surroundings, the first thing I saw was Jasmine sitting directly in front of me. She was bound to a chair with what appeared to be the same cruel restraints that held me captive, her wrists secured behind her back and her ankles tied to the chair legs with materials that looked both strong and deliberately painful.

"You're awake, Ryan," she said, her voice carrying a mixture of relief and terror that immediately put me on high alert. Her face was pale, her eyes wide with fear, and there were signs that she'd been crying—though whether from pain, fear, or despair, I couldn't tell.

"Y…Yeah, what happened?" I asked, instinctively trying to move my arms only to discover immediately that I was restrained in exactly the same manner as Jasmine. My arms were pulled behind the chair and secured with something that felt sharp, while my legs were bound to the chair with materials that bit into my ankles whenever I attempted to shift position.

"What..." I gasped as my eyes adjusted enough to take in our immediate environment, and the terrible reality of our situation became crystal clear.

We were in the radio station's technical operations room—the same space where Rachel and I had encountered the alien Screamer device back then to register the Scream. The room looked exactly as it had before, with banks of electronic equipment lining the walls, cables running across the floor in organized patterns, and the oppressive atmosphere of a place where unnatural forces were at work.

And there, at the center of the room exactly where it had been during my previous visit, stood the Screamer device itself.

I swallowed hard, feeling my throat constrict with a combination of fear and recognition. The alien technology that had nearly killed both Rachel and me was still there, still operational, still radiating the kind of malevolent energy that made every cell in my body scream warnings about imminent danger.

Looking around the room more carefully, I noticed that we appeared to be alone. The six enhanced infected creatures that had been positioned around the Screamer device during my previous encounter were nowhere to be seen, their absence creating an eerie emptiness that somehow felt more threatening than their presence had been.

More significantly, the Screamer device itself looked different than it had before. The pulsating light that had emanated from its core during my previous visit had stopped completely, leaving the alien technology dark and seemingly dormant. The entire apparatus appeared worn out, exhausted, as if it had expended enormous amounts of energy and now required time to recover.

It had released its massive transmission—the devastating scream that would summon infected creatures from hundreds of miles in every direction. Now it was resting, gathering strength for whatever came next.

But that raised the most important and disturbing question: what were Jasmine and I doing here alive and conscious instead of dead or infected?

I remembered collapsing with Jasmine in my arms after the Screamer's full-power transmission had overwhelmed my enhanced abilities and knocked us both unconscious. I'd been certain that we would be torn apart by infected creatures or transformed into mindless virus victims before we could recover from the sonic assault.

Instead, we'd been captured and brought to this place for reasons I couldn't begin to understand. Someone or something had made a conscious decision to keep us alive, which suggested purposes that were probably far worse than simple death.

"Ryan..." Jasmine's voice broke through my thoughts. "W…what's happening to us? Please tell me what's going on."

Looking at her frightened face—her eyes wide with the fear of someone who'd been thrust into a nightmare beyond her comprehension—I realized that I could no longer protect her from the truth with comfortable lies or partial explanations. Our situation was too desperate and too dangerous for anything less than complete honesty.

"Don't worry, Jasmine. I'm going to get us out of here," I said while testing the strength of my restraints.

But immediately I groaned in pain as I discovered the true nature of what was holding us captive. My wrists weren't tied with rope or cable—they were secured with barbed wire that had been wrapped around the chair and my arms in ways that would cause severe lacerations if I tried to force my way free. Every movement I made caused the sharp metal barbs to dig deeper into my skin, and I could feel blood beginning to trickle down my arms.

"Fuck!" I grunted through gritted teeth. These weren't restraints designed simply to hold us—they were designed to cause escalating pain and injury if we attempted to escape, weakening us physically while ensuring we remained conscious and aware of our helplessness.

My ankles were bound with the same vicious material, and when I tested the restraints around my torso, I found additional barbed wire that would tear through my clothing and skin if I struggled too forcefully.

"Damn it!" The full scope of our predicament was becoming clear, and none of it was good news.

"Ryan, please tell me what's happening," Jasmine spoke again, her voice smaller and more vulnerable than I'd ever heard it. "I'm so scared, and I don't understand any of this."

Looking up at her terrified face, seeing the trust and hope she was placing in me despite our impossible circumstances, I realized I couldn't protect her for anyone else from the truth any longer. She deserved to understand what we were facing, even if that knowledge was more horrifying than comfortable ignorance.

"The infected creatures aren't caused by a normal virus, Jasmine," I said, meeting her gaze directly. "They're the result of alien technology, alien intelligence that's been systematically taking control of our world."

"What?" She stuttered in shock, her face going even paler as she processed what I was telling her.

"And my enhanced abilities—the power you saw me use to fight infected—come from the fact that I've become the host of another alien species," I continued, watching her expression shift through disbelief, recognition, and growing horror as the pieces began falling into place in her mind.

"R…Ryan, what are you saying?"

"You saw what I could do with the wind blades, didn't you?" I asked gently. "That's not normal human capability. That comes from a symbiotic relationship with alien organisms called Dullahan that have transformed my physical abilities while giving me other supernatural abilities."

Jasmine nodded slowly. She was connecting the dots between the impossible things she'd witnessed and the broader implications of what I was revealing. Though I was pretty sure she was still confused.

"Then what's going to happen to us?" Se asked, her voice trembling.

"Nothing bad is going to happen to either of us," I said with as much conviction as I could muster. "Just stay calm, and I'll figure out how to get us free."

I took a deep breath and began focusing my enhanced Dullahan abilities on the problem of our restraints. I needed to use the power of my right arm to destroy the barbed wire carefully, without causing massive injury to myself in the process. The key would be precision—using just enough force to cut through the metal without lacerating my hands and arms so badly that I'd be unable to fight when we needed to escape.

I might have enhanced healing and a stronger body than normal humans, but I wasn't immortal. Blood loss would compromise my abilities significantly, and I was already feeling dizzy and disoriented from the effects of the Screamer's massive transmission. Taking unnecessary damage would put both Jasmine and me at even greater risk.

As I began carefully channeling wind blade energy around my right wrist, trying to cut through the barbed wire without severing any major blood vessels, the sound of approaching footsteps echoed from the corridor outside the technical operations room.

Both Jasmine and I widened our eyes in shock as a familiar figure appeared in the doorway, but what we saw made my blood freeze with horror and recognition.

It was Jason, but not the Jason we'd known and cared about. His face was twisted into an expression of malicious satisfaction, and dark veins protruded visibly from his skin like some kind of alien circulatory system. His eyes had become dull white, similar to infected creatures, but somehow he still seemed conscious and aware rather than mindlessly aggressive.

The combination was deeply disturbing—he retained his intelligence and personality, but both had been corrupted by whatever alien influence had taken control of his body and mind.

"Jason!" Jasmine exclaimed in shock, her voice carrying a mixture of relief and confusion as she saw someone she recognized and cared about. "Oh thank God, you're here! Please help us get free from these restraints!"

"That's not Jason anymore," I said immediately, my Dullahan senses detecting the wrongness that radiated from the figure standing before us. "Jasmine, don't trust anything he says or does."

Jason chuckled with obvious amusement at my warning, the sound carrying cruelty that the real Jason had never possessed. "That's not very nice to say about an old friend, Ryan," he said, his voice still recognizably Jason's but carrying undertones that spoke to alien influence and hostile intentions.

"We were friends, weren't we?" Jason continued, his twisted smile growing wider as he spoke. "We escaped Lexington Charter together when the outbreak began, we slept in the same room for several days when we first found the shared house, we have been together surviving those first terrible weeks."

Yeah, that was true but…

"What happened to you, Jason?" I asked warily, trying to keep him talking while I continued working to free myself from the barbed wire restraints. "What did they do to you?"

Jason's expression shifted to something approaching ecstasy as he turned toward the Screamer device at the center of the room. He approached the alien technology with obvious reverence, running his hands along its surface.

"I discovered the truth, Ryan," Jason said, his voice filled with the fervor of someone who believed they'd found religious enlightenment. "The Screamer showed me reality, gave me purpose, granted me the power I'd always deserved but never received."

"That's not true!" I shouted, struggling against my restraints despite the pain it caused. Maybe because i had overused my Dullahan Abilities, it came painfully. "Don't believe whatever lies that thing told you! The Screamer is evil—it's controlling you, not helping you!"

Jason turned back toward me with a glare that contained more hatred than I'd ever seen in his eyes before. "That's easy for you to say," he replied with venom in his voice. "You've been benefiting from alien power all along, haven't you? The Dullahan symbiotic relationship has made you special, made you strong, made everyone look up to you and depend on you."

I felt shock wash over me as I realized that Jason knew about my enhanced abilities and their alien origin. How had he learned something I'd worked so hard to keep secret from most people?

"Jason, listen to me," I said urgently, trying to reach whatever remained of my friend beneath the alien corruption. "I can control the Dullahan symbiosis because it was with me since birth. It's part of who I am, not something foreign that's taken me over. The Screamer is different—it's an evil device that summons and controls infected creatures, and right now it's destroying Jackson Township and everyone we care about."

I gestured as much as my restraints allowed toward our current predicament. "Look at what it's done to us! Look at what it's done to you! Does this seem like the behavior of something that wants to help?"

Jason merely laughed, the sound carrying no warmth or genuine humor. "The Screamer is the only thing that's ever responded positively to me, Ryan. All of you rejected me when I needed support, when I tried to find my place in our survival community."

His gaze shifted toward Jasmine with an intensity that made her press back against her chair in obvious fear. "Especially her," he added with bitterness that had been festering for months. "I tried so hard to show her how much I cared, how much I wanted to protect and support her, but she couldn't see past her fascination with you."

"Jason, please stop this," Jasmine whispered, tears streaming down her face as she watched someone she'd cared about being consumed by alien influence and twisted emotions. "Please come back to us. This isn't you talking."

Jason approached her chair, his corrupted smile returning as he looked down at her terrified face. "You don't have to be scared, Jasmine," he said with false gentleness. "It's still me—still Jason. I just understand things better now, see the world more clearly than I did before."

Jasmine shook her head vehemently, pressing herself as far back in her chair as her restraints would allow. "You're not Jason," she said with surprising strength despite her terror. "Jason was kind and gentle. He would never tie us up like this, never threaten people he cared about."

The rejection struck Jason visibly, and his false gentleness immediately transformed into rage. He slammed his fist into the concrete wall beside Jasmine's chair, the impact creating a crater where his hand struck and burying his knuckles deep into what should have been impenetrable material.

Jasmine screamed in terror as chunks of concrete showered down around her chair, and I could see the superhuman strength that the alien influence had granted Jason along with its corruption of his personality.

"Jason, stop it!" I shouted angrily, struggling against my restraints despite the pain it caused. "You're only scaring her! This isn't solving anything!"

Jason turned toward me with cold fury, his enhanced strength obvious as he grabbed the barbed wire around my wrists and squeezed hard enough to drive the metal barbs deeper into my skin. I groaned in pain as blood began flowing more freely from the lacerations, but I forced myself to meet his hateful glare directly.

"This is all your fault," Jason said with quiet viciousness that was more frightening than his previous rage. "From the very beginning, since the day we first met at Lexington Charter, you've taken everything away from me and made me look weak in front of everyone who mattered."

His grip on the barbed wire tightened, causing more pain as he continued his accusations. "You took Rebecca from me when she started looking up to you more than she did ever to me in class. You made me feel inadequate and worthless in front of the entire community. And then you took Jasmine from me, turning her attention toward you when I was the one who truly cared about her wellbeing."

"Ryan didn't do anything wrong!" Jasmine spoke up, defending me despite her own terror and helpless situation. "H..He's always been kind to everyone, always tried to help people and keep them safe!"

But Jason ignored her completely, his attention focused entirely on me with laser-like intensity. He clenched the barbed wire around my wrists even harder, causing me to bleed more freely.

"The Screamer has messed with your head, Jason," I said through gritted teeth, looking past the pain to try to reach whatever remained of his original personality. "You have to fight back against its influence! You're stronger than whatever it's done to you!"

Jason laughed with genuine amusement, releasing his grip on my restraints and stepping back to look at me with obvious superiority. "Now you're annoyed that you're not the only special one anymore," he said with satisfaction. "For once, someone else has power while you're helpless and weak."

"Cut the bullshit, Jason!" I said angrily, my concern for his wellbeing transforming into frustration at his willful blindness to what was happening to him. "You're not in control at all! That thing is using you as a puppet!"

Jason's smile widened as he began removing his pajama shirt, revealing something that made both Jasmine and me gasp in shock and horror.

Embedded in the center of his chest, directly over his heart, was a silver stone that pulsed with the same alien energy I'd observed in the Frost Walker and Fire Spitter devices. The stone appeared to have grown into his flesh, creating organic connections with his circulatory and nervous systems that spoke to integration far beyond simple implantation.

It was the core component of the Screamer device, but now it resided within Jason's body, making him a living extension of the alien technology that had corrupted him completely.

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