Joe staggered forward, as stars filled his vision. The dizziness took a moment to subside, and then Joe looked behind him.

Not all had been dispelled, it seemed. Because the shadow was there, standing behind him, a living silhouette, wearing a smarmy grin. The backdrop behind the creature was nothing but wavy black and white lunacy that wavered and rippled with the pain and dizziness that coursed through him.

“Oh, that was beautiful, Joe, really,” it said, in a voice just like Joe’s, only dripping with cruelty. “But give me a break.”

The villain held a plate of stone in its hand, ripped from the ground somewhere, probably from one of the steps leading up to the memorial. It was what had struck him.

The dizziness was overpowering, and Joe fell backwards onto all fours. He backed away in a desperate crabwalk, while vacantly observing that the beach, the Outer Banks, her home, and any sign of Jennifer were all gone—and the virus had taken over completely. The waves finally subsided, and he could see his surroundings, but it was all drawn in black and white ink strokes, like it was from a comic book. He could even grasp them, and they felt like the taut cords of a rope. They even strained as such.

The plate of stone came at him again, swung by the shadow with devastating force, aimed for his head. Joe brought his arm up just in time and intense pain lanced through his forearm amidst a shower of stone fragments that stung his face. But then the shadow’s foot came and got him under the chin. Joe felt his teeth clench together and the pain shot through his neck and ears as he tumbled backward.

“You’re a mess,” the shadow said. “You’re always a mess. Just let me take over. At least I have some balls.”

It kicked him again in the stomach and Joe couldn’t breathe.

“She’d like me more,” the monster added, its voice dripping, sulfuric. “At least I know who I am. At least I know what I want.” It watched as Joe tried to get up to his feet. A steady trickle of blood came from his mouth and stained much of his shirt collar. The world around him was a spinning black and white sketch and it was difficult to realize which way was up and which way was down.

“Why do you think she broke up with you in the first place? You’re a waffling mess, right? You give a half-ass effort at work, at relationships. At… everything. You can’t even have fun properly.”

Joe wiped the blood from his chin. More dripped down right away.

The shadow stared at him evilly.

“She wants to fly, Joe. She wants luxury. She wants action. She wants to go skydiving. Jet skiing. She wants to have sex on the beach. And what do you want? To sit at the bar all day? Like a loser.”

Joe felt the back of his head. It was wet. The blood flowed from there too. His shirt was a crimson mess, already fully soaked through down to the end of it.

“She wants me, Joe. And I know how to handle her.” The shadow did a little dance then, as though having sex with a woman from behind, while also slapping her ass.

Joe felt something snap, as he charged at the villain with all the fury he could muster. He tackled it cleanly, and landed atop it on the hard stone floor. They grappled, a primal, brutal fight, as Joe clawed at the monster with his fingers and nails, and he even dug his elbow into its head that was pinned against the stone. Joe realized he was stronger, and he gained the upper hand. Sitting atop the shadow, he began lashing at it with both hands, punching with clenched fists into its face and bashing it in. With each strike he felt the shadow’s head bouncing on the hard stone and black blood stained the ground around them. Joe’s fists also came away stained and dripping with blackness. Finally he felt his opponent had stopped resisting—its body had gone limp. The sky around him was clearing again and the sun shone through the haze.

Joe rolled off of it and laid on his back, panting, but sure that he had won. He wondered if the shadow was actually dead.

That was, until he saw it standing over him, blocking the hazy sun from the swirling sky, and Joe was blinded.

“Oh, Joe. Always the novice.”

Another of those stone plates came down at him. He raised a forearm in time to block it, but still the shattered chunks of it struck him painfully.

Joe rolled away and stood rapidly to his feet.

The creature grinned at him from its misshapen face. “You can’t stop me, Joe. Don’t you see? You can’t ever stop me.”

Joe stood in a crouch, with one hand on the stone floor, like in the three-point stance of an offensive linemen. He felt his fingers dig into the black cords as he also unearthed one of those stone plates. It was more like a boulder, the size of a beach ball, something that a human couldn’t lift, much less yank from the ground, but Joe did so now with incredible ease. He launched it at the shadow, who sidestepped it, and it shattered on the stone ground in a thunderous blast.

“Where’s the orb, Joe?” the monster barked. “I’d like to take that off your hands now. It’s my time.”

Despite everything Joe felt satisfied at hearing those words. He almost smiled. Indeed, it was the orb that the creature was after, and he’d already parted ways with it. Jennifer was already off and running with it, and with any luck she’d hopefully passed into another world by then.

“It’s gone, asshole,” Joe muttered, feeling such incredible relief that he’d done the right thing, and passed it along. He felt his teeth clench in grim determination. He knew the game now, as he unearthed another great boulder, this time from the steps of the memorial, a great rectangular chunk the size of a dresser drawer. Joe whipped it at the shadow like it was a Frisbee.

This one was unavoidable, and it devastated the shadow, pancaking it on the ground. Joe could hear the sick crunching sound of bones breaking as black blood spilled out from underneath the massive rock. It was held beneath it, pinned.

Joe put his hands on his knees, wondering if it was finally over.

But of course it wasn’t, and he watched in stunned rage as the villain wriggled out from beneath the rock, its limbs now as misshapen as its head and face. But it still moved with a scary speed, only now staggering, like a classic Hollywood monster. It’s voice was similarly sickened, gurgling with blood as it spoke.

“I already told you, Joe. You can’t ever stop me.”