Lightning flashed.
Flash.
The brief burst of light revealed dozens of creatures—
Their twisted forms crawling, climbing, and stomping through the mud-soaked valley toward the house.
Their hollow eyes glowed faintly, mouths drooling, claws dragging along the ground.
Among them, at the very centre, stood the masked killer, motionless for a beat, before slowly beginning to walk forward.
"____"
"____"
"____"
Silence fell in the house.
Megan stepped back, her lips trembling.
Abel clutched the wall for balance.
Clover's eyes widened in disbelief, whispering,
"It's over…"
Even Bonnie and Caroline looked stunned.
The numbers were worse than they'd expected—
ten... no, maybe more.
Elena backed away from the window, muttering,
"I never should have come…"
As the group moved furniture and cabinets to barricade the door,
Jojo suddenly raised a hand.
"Stop."
The sound of heavy rain and approaching growls filled the air behind his calm voice.
He turned to Caroline, Bonnie, and Elena.
"Keep them safe. Don't open the door."
Then, without waiting, Jojo stepped toward the entrance.
"Jojo! Are you crazy?!"
Clover shouted.
"There are too many!"
Megan cried.
Max didn't speak.
"____"
He just watched.
Abel ran forward to stop him.
"You'll be ripped apart out there!"
Jojo looked back with a small smirk.
Smirk~
"I've faced worse."
With that, he opened the door.
Wind howled into the house.
He stepped outside and shut it behind him with a quiet click.
Click~
Outside, the wind howled.
Rain lashed around the two houses like a ring.
The creatures slowed when they saw him—
confused.
One of them growled lowly, crouching to pounce.
Grr-
Jojo stood still, letting the storm whip around him.
He cracked his knuckles.
Crack~
His voice was calm, deadly.
"You picked the wrong night to come out."
Lightning flashed again.
And for a split second, in the illumination, Jojo's eyes were no longer normal.
They burned with fire.
Inside the house...
The howling wind mixed with the faint, terrifying growls drawing closer from the darkness.
Clover spun around to Caroline, Bonnie, and Elena, her eyes wide with panic and disbelief.
"Why didn't you stop him?!"
Abel slammed his fist on the wall.
"He just walked out like it was nothing!"
Nina, pacing near the window, added,
"You could've held him back—now he's going to die!"
Caroline didn't flinch.
"____"
Her eyes stayed fixed on the door, cold and unreadable.
Bonnie calmly replied,
"You don't know who you're dealing with."
"Neither do you!"
Megan shot back.
"We've been watching those things. They tore that dead man in the video's flesh—Jojo is just one guy!"
Elena exchanged a glance with Bonnie.
They have heard of Jojo. Hope told them about him once.
Alaric tried to contact him before... to save Lizzie and Josie from that Gemini curse.
Even though they knew he was strong but they felt this was too much to handle.
Clover looked confused by their silence and exchanged gazes.
"Why are you guys silent?"
Bonnie stepped forward, tension flickering in her tone.
"But even knowing Jojo's strength through Hope's words... seeing this many Wendigos out there... I'm not sure if they're full Wendigos or something else."
The group moved back toward the windows.
And then it happened.
A massive boom of thunder cracked across the sky.
And in that split second—
Jojo was no longer Jojo.
A burst of black smoke exploded outward, curling in mid-air like serpents.
The raindrops sizzled and evaporated before touching his body.
Flames burst to life, engulfing him head to toe.
His skin burned away to reveal a fiery skull, and chains coiled themselves around his arms like serpents returning home.
Jojo had become Ghost Rider.
The windows shook as a wave of hellfire rolled across the ground, pushing the Wendigos back.
The group inside the house froze.
The fire's reflection danced in their wide eyes.
Clover whispered,
"What... is he?"
Caroline's lips curved into a small smile.
"Someone who likes to show off..."
Outside Glore Valley House...
Rain hissed into steam the moment it touched the ground near him.
With every step Ghost Rider took, the hellfire from his boots scorched the earth, burning glowing sigils into the muddy ground that circled the entire house—
A blazing barrier warding off evil, sealing the house in a ring of infernal protection.
The axe in his hand had transformed—
Its blade engulfed in hellfire, jagged and snarling like a beast in mid-roar.
It pulsed with rage, thirsting for vengeance.
Jojo—
Now, fully the Spirit of Vengeance—
Stood alone before the sea of Wendigos.
They didn't slow down.
They only growled.
They didn't feel fear.
They only wanted to feed.
All of them were charged.
Claws extended,
Jaws unhinged unnaturally wide, their limbs twisted, sprinting at demonic speed.
Ghost Rider tilted his flaming skull ever so slightly.
A dark, guttural chuckle escaped his throat.
"YOU SHOULD'VE STAYED IN YOUR HOLE."
WHAM!
The first Wendigo leapt—
Only for Jojo to catch it mid-air, slam it into the ground, and split its skull open with the flaming axe, sending out a geyser of blood and burning ash.
Another one slashed from behind. Jojo turned unnaturally fast, grabbing it by the throat with one hand. The Wendigo screeched—
FOOOM!
—before being consumed entirely by hellfire, reduced to cinders in seconds.
The rest swarmed.
Five from the left.
Three from the right.
One leaping from the trees above.
But Ghost Rider moved like flame given form, every strike of his axe splitting bodies,
His chain lashing out like a serpent—
Coiling one around the legs, pulling it to the ground, then stomping on its chest with a fiery boot, exploding it like rotted fruit.
Inside the house, Clover and the others stood at the window, watching in disbelief.
"He's... winning,"
Megan whispered, eyes wide.
The room was silent except for the sound of flames crackling outside and distant, wet thuds of Wendigos meeting their end.
Everyone stood frozen near the window—
Clover, Megan, Abel, Max, Nina—
Faces pale, eyes wide.
Even Caroline, Bonnie, and Elena were shaken.
They had heard of Jojo's other form.
They had seen powerful vampires, Originals, witches, even hybrids.
But this—
A flaming skeletal figure wielding an infernal axe, surrounded by a blazing sigil—
Moving like a wrathful god—
This was something else.
Bonnie, her voice barely above a whisper:
"This… this isn't just vengeance. This is divine fury."
Caroline swallowed hard, her usually confident voice faltering.
"I've seen Klaus in rage. I've fought werewolves mid-transformation… but this… Jojo is something… ancient."
Elena stepped back from the window, her hands trembling.
"All I hope is he wins…"
Underground Surveillance Room...
The glow of dozens of CRT monitors flickered across Dr. Hill's pale, sunken face.
"____"
He stared unblinking, the cheeseburger in his hand slipping and falling to the floor, unnoticed.
One camera feed—
Angled from atop a nearby tree—
Still showed the chaos outside.
Wendigos,
Once unstoppable monsters were now being dismembered, incinerated, one after another.
Limbs flew. Ash rained.
Screeches echoed.
But the flaming figure only laughed as it fought.
Dr. Hill leaned forward, whispering almost reverently:
"What… are you?"
'Whatever that thing was—was burning through decades of "research subjects" in mere minutes.'
He slammed a fist onto the desk.
"You weren't part of the plan! You're not part of the design! You're an anomaly!"
Around him, warning signs flashed on remaining monitors:
"Subjects Eliminated: 27"
"Threat Level: CRITICAL"
"CCTV Feed 4...Offline. CCTV Feed 5...Offline."
The creature wasn't just fighting—
He was systematically dismantling the trap Dr. Hill had built over the years.
"If you think fire scares me,"
Hill growled through clenched teeth,
"You haven't seen the real nightmare I've created."
He slammed a switch.
Somewhere deeper in the forest…
A steel containment vault hissed open.
And from the darkness, a grotesque, deformed figure—
Taller than the Wendigos, armoured in bone-like plating, a hybrid monstrosity of flesh and metal—
Stepped out.
Screeeech!
Its roar echoed across the valley.
Dr. Hill leaned back in his chair, a smile slowly forming on his lips.
"Let's see how you handle... the Alpha Project."
Outside – Glore Valley House...
The Ghost Rider stood in the centre of a field littered with ashen corpses and burned limbs.
Wendigos lay scattered—
Half-melted, charred, cleaved.
But they kept coming.
More of them emerged from the woods, shrieking, crawling over their fallen like mindless beasts.
Five of them—
Larger and faster than the rest, leapt at him in unison, claws slashing, mouths wide.
He didn't flinch.
"____"
With a roar of his own—
Like a thousand damned souls screaming—
Ghost Rider swung his left hand, his flaming chain exploding outward in a wide, deadly arc.
SCHWAAACK!
The chain, wreathed in hellfire, sliced through them cleanly, tearing through flesh, bone, and fury—
Leaving five bisected bodies collapsing in twitching halves at his feet.
He stood tall, spinning the chain once, letting the blood and burning viscera scatter around him.
Ghost Rider let out a growl.
GROWL!
"YOU SENT THESE ANTS TO HUNT ME…?"
He turned slightly as the Alpha Wendigo's roar echoed again—
This time closer.
The ground shook, trees snapped, and even the fire around the house flickered for a moment.
The Wendigos began to retreat, eyes filled not with fear… but subordination.
Something stronger was coming.
From between the trees, under a glow of unholy moonlight, stepped the Alpha Wendigo.
It stood nearly ten feet tall,
its skeletal frame wrapped in plated, armor-like bone, its mouth filled with rows of mismatched jagged teeth.
Its glowing yellow eyes locked on Ghost Rider.
Inside the house...
Caroline and Bonnie rushed to the window, sensing the change in pressure—
Feeling the weight of the Alpha's presence.
Bonnie looked tense.
"That… that thing isn't like the others."
Elena gulped and suggested they go out and help.
Gulp~
"Jojo's still out there. We need to help him!"
But Caroline shook her head in denial
"That thing isn't just a Wendigo… It's something that the mad doctor had built. We need to be here, who knows, he would send one of those here."
Meanwhile, Dr. Hill, watching through his only remaining outdoor CCTV, leaned closer, a twisted grin forming.
"Meet your match, bonny-man. My Alpha doesn't feel pain, doesn't burn easily, and doesn't stop."
Just like Caroline predicted, that mad doctor really did send Wendigos.
While others didn't hear anything,
She clearly heard the sound of the door being opened.
"____"
"____"
"____"
She immediately turned to look at Bonnie and Elena.
Seeing Caroline's reaction, both understood that someone had entered the house.
They didn't waste time.
Caroline alerted the others, and everyone became vigilant.
Without making noise, they quickly moved to hiding spots—
Behind walls, furniture, and corners.
They knew whoever entered wasn't here to talk.
The door creaked open slowly.
A long-barreled shotgun came in first, scanning left and right.
Then Dr. Hill entered, his expression tense, his steps careful.
He looked around suspiciously as he moved deeper into the house.
No one made a sound.
He went straight to a bookshelf, pulled out a few books,
And then pressed a red button hidden behind them.
The sound of something unlocking or activating could be heard from deep below the floor—
Maybe a hidden passage, or something worse.
Just as Dr. Hill turned around to leave—
A hand shot out, grabbing his neck with lightning speed and slamming him against the wall.
Bang!
The wall cracked.
"____"
Dr. Hill struggled, his shotgun falling to the ground.
Caroline stood before him, holding him up with one hand, her eyes glowing coldly.
She didn't need to say anything—
Her expression said it all.
Dr. Hill tried to speak, gasping for air, but Caroline didn't loosen her grip.
Bonnie and Elena came out of hiding, staring at the activated red button with concern.
Bonnie quickly said,
"He's activated something. It might be something dangerous."
Dr. Hill managed to whisper,
"Too late... It's already awake…"
Caroline narrowed her eyes.
"What is?"
Dr. Hill coughed out,
Cough~
"The Alpha Wendigo… buried deep… now free."
At that moment, the whole house shook.
A massive roar echoed from deep underground—
Like something dangerous beast had just been disturbed.
Everyone froze.
Hearing the same deep, monstrous roar coming from inside the house,
Ghost Rider paused mid-fight.
"____"
That sound wasn't just any Wendigo. It was the same as the one before him.
Something stronger than an ordinary Wendigo.
He turned to rush back to the house—
Only to be grabbed.
Two massive, razor-sharp claws gripped his shoulders tightly like steel traps.
Before he could react, the Alpha Wendigo pulled him into a crushing, bone-breaking hug, its massive jaws snapping open, aiming right for his skull.
But Ghost Rider didn't flinch.
His flaming skull twisted unnaturally to meet the creature's face head-on.
"RRRRAAAHHHHHH!!!"
He opened his mouth—
And a violent blast of hellfire exploded from within, flooding the Alpha Wendigo's face.
GRAAAAAA!
The creature screamed, a horrifying, ear-piercing wail that echoed through the valley.
Its fur and skin burned violently, chunks of flesh melting as it stumbled backward, crashing into a nearby tree with a thud—
But it didn't run.
It just stood there, smoke rising from its half-burnt face, still glaring at Ghost Rider with eyes full of pure hatred and hunger.
As if even hellfire wasn't enough to stop its bloodlust.
Or it could not identify what the feeling of pain is.
Ghost Rider stood straight, lifting his flaming chain in one hand, his axe blazing in the other.
"YOU THINK YOU CAN SCARE ME, MUTT?"
"I'VE BURNED SOULS WORSE THAN YOU."
"COME THEN. TRY ME."
RAAAAA!
The Alpha Wendigo let out another roar, louder than before.
And charged.
This time, Ghost Rider didn't play around.
The moment the Alpha Wendigo lunged at him again,
He caught it mid-leap with inhuman strength.
The beast clawed and thrashed,
But Ghost Rider slammed it to the ground with a burning fist, his skull blazing brighter with fury.
"ENOUGH."
He straddled the writhing beast,
Grabbed the top and bottom of its massive jaw with both hands,
And forcefully pried its mouth open with a sickening crack.
The Alpha Wendigo let out a guttural screech, struggling, trying to claw at his arms and chest—
But Ghost Rider didn't budge.
"LET'S SEE HOW YOU LIKE THE TASTE OF HELL."
He opened his mouth wide—
And unleashed a raging inferno of hellfire, pouring it straight into the Wendigo's throat and flooding its entire body from the inside out.
The creature's roars turned into screeches of agony as its body ignited, muscles melting, skin charring, bones blackening.
It kicked, twisted, and resisted.
Even now, it didn't beg.
Even in its final moments—
There was no fear.
Only hunger.
Its eyes locked onto Ghost Rider until the very last second—
Before they burned away into ash.
And then, with a final twitch—
The Alpha Wendigo crumbled into smoking remains, nothing but charred bones and silence.
Ghost Rider stood up slowly, dragging his flaming chain behind him, embers falling around him like snow.
"ONE DOWN."
**********************************************************************************************************************************************************
(Author's POV)
(A/N):
Thanks for reading the chapter!
Please give a review and power stone!!!