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He heard sounds of impact Meaty and wet

He heard Eve’s shrill screech of horror

He heard the laughter of the reaper named Brother Andrew

Then all those separate sounds and all the disparate events snapped together into one terrible moment of action Time whipped up and slammed into everyone, and suddenly the lives and fates of every person in that clearing changed forever

Chong was no longer running

He stood still, locked into a posture of attack, jerked to a sudden stop as surely as if he’d run into a wall His bokken was in his hands, but the blade was shattered and the shock of a fading impact still tre slowly, slowly to her knees, her protests silenced in the ugliest possible way

Eve’s face was covered with blood that was not her own, and her eyes danced with madness that was equal parts incoan to turn toward her

But the archer

The archer

was falling

Danny looked at Chong with a challenging perplexity His eyes ’s, then drifted down to the arrow he had just fired

The arrow that stood out straight and i looked down to see the feathered end of the arrow standing straight out from his stomach He craned his neck and looked over his shoulder The barbed tip of the arrow stuck out red and glistening behind hi

The archer opened his mouth to speak, but instead of words, blood poured fro Misshapen Dented Chong looked down at the broken wooden sword The top half of the sword lay on the ground between him and the archer, shattered by the force of the blow he had just delivered

"Oh," he said again

With a wet gurgle, the archer dropped to his knees, then fell sideways,no effort at all to catch his fall

Brother Andrew turned away fro face went slack with shock

"Danny?" he asked uncertainly

Danny--the archer--was beyond answering

Chong felt his legs beginning to treht

The handle of the bokken tuers

I’

I’et for trying to be heroes

Brother Andrew took a step forward as he swung the scythe around to point at Chong "You little piece of scu wanted to explain At the very least he wanted to ask why this ry at the death of the archer Clearly they were dedicated to death itself It did not ry at an incident that was part of his own beliefs That was the thread of logic that was sewn through Chong’s mind, and he wanted to discuss this philosophical point with Brother Andrew

Chong found enough of his voice to croak out tords: "I’ to say, and he really did not y to the reaper He wanted Eve to hear it Because her parents both lay dead on the sandy ground; butto be able to save the little girl froh He would even have accepted death as a price for saving her That’s what a samurai would do There was justice in that There was closure in that

But to die with half the job done

You’re not a hero, he told hi took a step, but his knees buckled and he dropped down beside Danny’s body The boas right there, inches away The arroere spilled all around hi you a bone, he told hiers Picked it up Picked up an arrow The black goo smeared on the tip s worse

But even as he fu away Flowing out of him

He looked past Brother Andrehere Eve stood

"Run," he croaked

The girl was frozen to the spot Wide-eyed, voiceless with horrors so vast that she could do absolutely nothing but stand and stare

And die Chong knew that she was going to die She’d stand there and be killed and never lift a hand because there just wasn’t enough of her left for even that

Brother Andrew seeer, and he adjusted his grip on his scythe as he began stalking across the clearing toward Chong

"Run," begged Chong He raised the bow and arrow, but his hands trembled with the palsy of shock and injury

"I’ll make you pay for what you’ve done," promised the reaper "I’llbefore I let you taste the darkness By the god of death so I will"

"Will you please just shut up," Chong said between gritted teeth Then, with the last energy he had, he pulled the string and released the arrow

It flew straight and true and buried itself in the dirt between Andrew’s feet

The reaper laughed and raised his scythe, and its shadow painted a promise of darkness across his face

FROM NIX’S JOURNAL

Before we left town, I did so nobody else knows about

I went to the ce a little hole next to where s in it

The key to the house we used to live in and a drawing ofwent bad

I wanted to bury the me who used to live there, because that person was dead It’s a different person who left town

38

LILAH STEADIED HERSELF AGAINST THE TREE TRUNK AND EXAMINED HER wounds

There were plenty of ash in her side that ran from just above the belt line on her left side to the ash was uneven, deepest where the boar’s tusk had struck her and going quickly shallow as it ran down her leg Her gun belt had probably kept her fro wherever it had landed, taking her gun with it She still wore her vest, but all the pockets on the left had been ripped open, and the contents--including her first aid kit--were gone

She had to stop the bleeding, though

She patted her other pockets and found that she still had her folding knife, which had a sturdy three-inch blade That was a relief With a flick of her wrist she snapped the blade into place and used its razor edge to cut away both her trouser legs froh down The left side was useless, soaked with blood and sht have coust, she tossed it away A runts as the boars fought over the blood-soaked piece of cloth<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>