There once was a man named John Riven Goren, he had a horrible life, for the most part. John was horribly abused as a child by his parents in just about every way a child could be abused, at the time he lived in a large house and facility run by his father out in the middle of nowhere to exploit children, more specifically their children. Why they did it or what they gained out of it is still up in the air to this day, though people can't exactly ask them for reasons that will soon become clear. At the age of 17, John Goren would escape from the household by brutally murdering several of the men keeping him captive with a wooden board. The man was a mystery for the next several years, as if he disappeared off the face of the earth. 

In 2021, John had... a life, surprisingly. He had a small group of friends and a romantic relationship with a woman named Claire Vale Halden. These things wouldn't last, he drifted away from his friends and broke up with Claire over John becoming an alcoholic. His mental state only worsened after this, and he began to feel immense hate for just about every person he felt had wronged him. So he set out to get his revenge on all of them. He compiled a list of the locations and names of every last person he felt disdain towards. He got in his RV, put up a map of the United States, and hung up the pictures of said targets over the places they lived. He felt an immense urge to spill blood, and so it began, the murder roadtrip. 

His first victim was simply a man who worked at a fast-food restaurant as a teen, John didn't like the way he was treated, so he targeted the man and his family. He barely knew why the man was on his list, but he felt that if he didn't get back at him now, he never would. And within a night, John had killed a whole family, and before leaving he left a note for the police stating "You may be surprised, but trust me, the reason for this makes sense, and plus, I needed to blow off steam anyways." Since John had hidden in the shadows most of his life, nobody knew who he was, or even that he was the one who committed the crime. 

He kept going, killing everyone from pedophiles to gang members to normal people he had disagreements with, all while the police were baffled by the killings. There was no rhyme or reason in their eyes, in fact, most assumed the killings had nothing to do with each other and it was simply a burst of killings from random people. And in John's eyes, it no longer felt like there even was a reason anymore, he had fixed his alcohol issues, but what replaced it was worse, he was addicted to the thrill of murder. But in the background of it all, a group had found him, and their leader was determined to get him help. 

Elias Doug Monroe, Kieran Elliot Maddox, Rhea Calloway, and Sloane Mercer were a group of four random people that had somehow came together through what seemed like magic, or stupidity. Elias found the three others through means he refuses to speak of, and convinced them to come with him, they left their lives behind. The three others aren't certain in their cause, but they came anyway, Elias is convinced that he can fix John Goren, he just has the feeling that all of this was happening for a reason.

John, by the time the group had reached him, had just killed an entire military base and sent a targeted missile to bomb his ex's home in Los Angeles. John found it funny, and he enjoyed knowing the woman who broke up with him was now dead. This base was the last location he needed to get to. When he exited, he was greeted by the four, Elias walked up to him. Elias knew John didn't truly enjoy what he had done, he was suffering through it all, as if some unseen force were pushing him to kill.

John went with them, reluctantly, though. He had some unfinished business, though, so one night, he left the group to go find his father, and to make sure not a single other person would end up like him. He returned to that place, and found it still running. One by one, he brutalized every last abuser in that facility, and made sure to save every victim. After he went back to the group, who were inside of his RV, he still didn't feel good. Even if they had wronged him, it felt worse to kill them. It seemed fine to him as he did it but looking back at his actions made him sick.

John had begun to realize it was immoral to take somebody's life even if they were terrible, but the thought felt incomplete. But behind the scenes, there was a much larger issue forming. Suddenly, a large cult had appeared out of the shadows all across America, nobody knew where they came from or what their true goal was. It felt wrong to call them a cult, they were more in line with terrorists, but nonetheless, they had just begun a war.

John felt the desire to fight, to figure out what was going on, but the group of four was coming with him. Rhea Calloway spoke to Elias about John, not understanding what he saw in him. Elias explained that he had this feeling that John could redeem himself, and that at that point no matter what happened to him in this world, he'd be happy, rather than constantly feeling guilty and depressed over his actions.

It was time to fight back, John went into several of the bases formed by the cultists, who had begun calling themselves The Guided, and they all wore strange masks, called halos. Their leader said that he was god, but his true motive was unclear. The bases felt militarized, and the cultists in them acted bizarre, as if they were part of a hivemind. John still killed them, but noticed that all the others came swarming to him if one of them was attacked.

The group found out the disturbing truth about the cultists soon enough in one of their bases. The halos had long metal rods that stick deep into the head of the wearer, allowing for essential mind control. If the halo were removed, it would kill the wearer. These masks were forced onto unwilling victims to make them part of the hivemind, and to truly believe their leader was god. John went straight for the leader, but before he did, he had a more personal target.

A culmination of dark thoughts overwhelmed John, as if a battle were raging in his head, but this time, he needed to win. He had to fight himself, he had to overcome this dark cloud once and for all. It had followed him ever since that day he escaped, a combination of trauma and guilt resulting in violence. He had realized that he had to give others the same chance the group had given him. Elias believed in John, it would be immoral to not give others that chance, your life defines you, it's not okay to end that early.

He wasn't afraid anymore, that darkness no longer had a grip on him, he knew the truth now. So he went into the leader's lair, ready to fight, and somehow he fought better than ever before, every past experience lead up to now, and nothing was going to stop him. Maybe it was true, Elian was right, all of this happened for a reason, and John took down the leader, and took off his mask. The leader was a man named Ezekiel Norton Crane, a narcissist who hadn't believed a thing he taught, simply manipulating people to quench his thirst for fame.

John had the chance to kill him, but he didn't. He allowed the police to take Crane away, and along with Crane, John turned in himself. He was finally happy, however, because he knew that the remorse he felt for his actions was enough, and that he had finally been redeemed. He was executed not too long later, ending John's story.

There was a creature in the woods, nobody knew where it came from, or what it wanted. People were afraid of the creature, it resembled a large, hairy man with piercing red eyes, it looked like a monster. One night every week the creature would try to catch another human being, and the people ran. People didn't understand what it wanted, but they feared the worst. People hated the creature. "It must want to hurt us" the people thought. 

Every day the people grew more paranoid of the creature. The people began to find strange symbols made out of wood on the ground and scratched into trees. The people were ready to fight back against the creature, fearing for their lives. This creature came to the people, and showed itself, and a man from the crowd shot the creature with a rifle. As the creature laid there bleeding, it thought one thing. "Why?" the creature asked. Why was it so hated? What did it do to the people there to make them hate it? All the creature wanted was to give somebody it's heart, and for them to not break it.

The creature crawled away back into the woods, and as it did, it wept. Thoughts spun around in it's head. "Was this just who it was? A monster?" As it got to the middle of the woods, it laid there, waiting for it's wounds to heal. But something happened, the longer it sat there, the more it's tears went to flames. It gave all it could to these people, it tried it's best to be happy with them, and this is the response? The creature wasn't sad anymore, it was angry. After it's wound healed, it got up and headed back towards the people, thinking this was all that was left. 

It found the house of the man who shot it, and ripped apart his children and wife, and looked at him. One thought spun around in it's head, "I hate you." It then decapitated the man. The creature did this again and again until there was no people left. The last person laid bleeding out on the ground, looking up at the creature in horror. The creature crouched down the the person, and wept again. It looked at them, and one thought was in it's head, "I will never be enough for you, will I?"

I once heard a story about a man named Albert. A dark presence followed him everywhere he went, unshakable the presence was. Every night he drifted to sleep, in the corner of his room would be a blackened figure that brought along with it an eerie aura. It followed him to work, watched his every meal and knew every intimate detail of Albert's life. He was afraid of it when it first appeared, screaming in horror when he would awake to it looming over his body. 

He was the only one who could see it, not one other person reacted the presence. Whenever he asked what it was or what it was doing it simply responded "Inescapable..." Now he wanted it gone, yelling to get the presence to leave. It stood there, still, and responded again with "Inescapable..." He began screaming at the presence, wishing it to leave him alone. "Why me? Why me?" he thought. He settled down, he couldn't get it to leave no matter how hard he tried. He got used to it, but every now and again would notice it in the corner of his eye, still following him. So that night, and every night after it, he would try to get the presence to leave. 

His life was like this for 14 years, he would learn what not to say and what may work in this time. Every day he'd talk to it, try to see how he could make it leave, he was unsuccessful every day, until one day, he said "I'm not afraid of you anymore." The presence slowly began to bubble, expand outwards and dissipate. Finally, he was free and had felt a way he hadn't felt in 14 years.