As Vanessa looked at everything before her, countless thoughts flashed through her mind in an instant. Time itself seemed to slow.
Was she Maeve?
The charging monster was hideous and terrifying. How could anyone still make out the slightest trace of a human?
How had Simon recognized her?
Even if he had, why wouldn't he let Vanessa hurt her?
Turning into a monster meant that [it] had completely devoured its host. Simon had said so himself. He had known all of this long ago.
He had known from the beginning. He had stopped communicating with Maeve. He had known that the sister he lived with day in and day out had been replaced by a monster.
Yet he had neither driven Maeve away nor left himself. He had simply kept living under the same roof as the monster.
Vanessa suddenly understood something. Simon himself, who had shouted for them to beware of Maeve, had failed to do so.
And now, faced with Maeve, who had turned completely into a monster, he still couldn't bring himself to harden his heart.
Vanessa sighed softly to herself.
She didn't blame Simon. If it were her, if the monster before her were the only family she had, the one she depended on for survival, she probably couldn't bring herself to strike either. Perhaps death was a blessing. Perhaps it was a release.
The two could never return to the past, but at least they could go to the same death.
Perhaps Simon was thinking the same thing.
Simon's expression calmed. He closed his eyes, ready to face his pitiful fate.
The monster didn't slow in the slightest. Instead, she sped up, hurtling toward him like a mountain.
But that mountain went around Simon.
The wind from her charge swept over him, gently brushing the