I’m never going to get rid of him, I think, as rage burns through my veins. It’s not enough that I have to deal with Beverly throwing bodies into the garden, ruining the vegetation, but the fact that she still seems in love with her father won’t do.
I make my way past the treaty line into the territory of the Others because I know they won’t harm me. I usually walk carefree through their lands when the mood strikes me. However, this is different, and if any of them try to stop me, I’ll fucking end them on my way to Pollyx.
With an angry growl, I lower my head and start running.
I see him.
He sees me.
He thinks this is a fucking game.
“MOVE!” I shout at one of the Others as I barrel straight through it, ripping its already fragile body in half with brute force. I stumble slightly, but manage to keep my footing and pick up speed again.
I’m gaining on what used to be Pollyx, and it’s only now amazing to me how quickly men can change into monsters. I guess we’re all monsters in our own ways—I just happen to be the kind who understands more than they do.
Pollyx leaps for a tree, his feet and hands hitting the trunk with such force that he splits the damned thing in half and sends it barreling back toward me. It’s easy enough for me to side-step and only fuels my hatred of him further.
Little does he know I’m the cure for all that’s happened. Mom told me a long time ago when she was slipping into her fever that only one person can kill me, and it’s not him.
A ferocious grunt escapes me as I catch a glimpse of him almost directly above me, turning on his tail and running back toward the treaty line.
If he crosses it, they’ll kill him—the ones who haven’t changed—but that’s my fucking honor and I won’t leave it to anyone else.
“ARGH!”
I leap into the air and smack him back down to the ground below just as he tries to leap from one tree to the other. Pollyx lands with a hard thud, rolls onto his back, and instantly crawls over onto all fours.
He wants to fight. Good.
“You’ve never been a good man,” I begin in an even, low tone. “You corrupted your family. It was easy for you to give up your wife. You turned your daughter into a deviant. Your daughter,” I grind out, “and you don’t deserve to live any kind of life. Let alone one as simple as being an Other.”
Pollyx stands up on his slowly decaying legs and puffs his chest out. I shake my head as a chuckle escapes me.
“You think there will be honor in dying, don’t you? There is none. You’ll be returned to dust. You’ll lay decaying, forgotten by time, by anyone who knew you—by the Earth itself. I know you can understand me, and I want you to go into the darkness knowing that, Pollyx.”
Cracking my neck, I quickly pull off my protective clothing. Fuck the elements. Let them eat away at me. Let them try in vain to end a life that none can except for the only one who still hasn’t had the heart to.
Once I’ve pulled off my overcoat, the shirt below it, and even my eye-patch, I roll my shoulders.
“Think you can take me, Pollyx? Let’s try it.”
He rushes me without thought for himself, our hands instantly crashing against the other’s. Our fingers become interlaced as our palms begin to push back against the other’s. Both of us maintain ground as we dig our feet into the soil.
I grunt in frustration and anger, pushing back with all the strength I’ve long since forgotten to use, and grit my teeth together. A bead of sweat rolls down the side of my face as I continue forcing him back down to the ground, letting out a huff of relief when I hear his bones start to crack from the effort.
One of his wrists suddenly gives way as a long bone breaks through his skin, causing him to howl in pain. With a malicious grin, I put more strength into forcing him down and hear the quick succession of bones snapping throughout his body.
When Pollyx is on his back, I climb on top of him and drop his hands. His body is broken beyond repair, and even if I had any sympathy for him, which I don’t, he’d never be able to survive.
And maybe that’s a fate worse than death.
Leaving him to lie in the soil, rotting in his own piss and shit, until his last breath finally leaves him.
I rake a hand back through my hair as I weigh the option.
I think it would honor Heidi if I left him to fester here, but I just can’t shake the feeling that Beverly would find him. She’d no doubt fuck his rotting corpse as long as there was still life left in him, then come home to me and Lils. She’s spread the disease without even realizing it—or caring.
No.
Pollyx can’t live to see another sunset or sunrise.
Not if I want to keep Lils safe.
I lean down and wrap my hands around his neck. I press down as tightly as I can and hold him in place. Pollyx thrashes as I cut off his air, but his body is so easily battered and so damn broken that he can’t fight me off. He can’t save his own life—nor does he deserve to.
Around me, I can hear the sounds of Others approaching. They’re watching me kill one of them and more than likely wondering why. I’ve always been good to them, and in turn, they’ve stayed away from me.
And here I am.
Making a martyr out of an immoral man.
A gushing whoosh of air escapes his open mouth as a white, thick substance starts to pour down the side of his face. The disease, I realize grimly.
I grunt and apply more pressure, feeling his neck caving, then close my eyes when the snap greets my ears. I let up slightly, breathing heavily and telling myself I’ve done something that not only should have been done, but done a long time ago.
When I open my eyes again, I look at Pollyx’s.
They’re wide open, devoid of life, and fixed on the trees above us.
I finally let go of his throat and get to my feet, giving my hands one violent shake to get the disease off of them.
As I go back to retrieve my protective gear and fix the eye-patch over my face, I warn them, “Stay on your side of the line,” I say in a loud, stern tone as I pull my shirt over my head, “Or you’ll end up like he did.”
I can see them out of the corner of my eye, hunched behind the trees, their shapes completely distorted from one to the other, making them unique in their grotesqueness.
I take a deep breath and wonder just how grotesque the Others can be and glance at the one closest to me.
“Get rid of him.” It looks at me with drooping eyes, fear shining, confusion bright like a far-off galaxy yet to be discovered. “You’re hungry, aren’t you?” I ask it as I begin to walk out of the forest toward the border. “Then eat.”