JULIE
A wave of black fire crashes into the mayor, and the blade flies from his hand.
I scream and fall to my knees on the harsh gravel. I press my hands to my ears and squeeze my eyes closed. Limp bodies join me on the ground one by one. Grotesque sounds of splattering blood, shattering bone, and splitting flesh bombard me. I continue to scream as loud as I can. Anything to block out the horror.
I wait for my turn, for my body to be torn to bits. The beast, that evil creature has been unleashed, and we have no hope to resist.
I always knew one day our town would face whatever evil was destroying our world. We would join the rest and succumb to that evil power.
But not like this. This isn’t how I expected it to happen.
My voice grows hoarse, but I keep screaming. I keep crying until finally, everything grows still. The moans of pain, the begging, the tearing flesh, the fire crackling—it all stops. The ground beneath me grows still. Cold.
I stop my screaming and wait again. How… am I still alive?
I look up, to find a pile of dead bodies all around me. A perfect circle of pale, lifeless limbs surround me. A dismembered head stares at me, mouth gaping open. Fuck. Eye casts down to the gravel beneath my feet where a gentle flow of blood trickles, pooling just inches from the torn knees of my jeans.
There is one still standing. Malcolm stands just feet from the carnage. His eyes are pitch black. No whites, no color. No life.
“What did you do?” I whisper.
His lips curl into a smile that sends terror through me. That is not Malcolm. Black flames lick at his feet. “That felt quite good,” he says.
He crooks his neck until it cracks, and I whimper.
“Why haven’t you killed me?” I ask, my raggedy voice just a whisper.
“He made a deal for you, lovely girl.”
A deal? For me? I let myself mourn for only a moment. Then, I pull myself together. If he made a deal, then I am safe. And though I have no power to stop him, so long as I am living, I can try.
“What did you do to him?” I force the words to be firm, my head up high. This horror can’t be real. It can’t be.
“He is still here,” the monster inside Malcolm’s body says. “Only now, I own him.”
I shake my head.
“I’ll allow him to talk to you once I’m finished.” He smiles again, and nausea sweeps through me.
I whip my head toward the town. “Let’s go,” I say quickly. “Don’t waste your time on this dinky place. There is so much more for you out there.” I point past the mountain range.
He chuckles, his black eyes harsh. “Nice try, girl. No, there was another part of my deal. I am to make them all pay.”
A limb of black magic appears out of the air. It swirls toward me slowly. No. I pull away, but there is nowhere to go. I’d have to climb over the dead bodies to get away, and I… can’t. Not right now.
The magic clenches over my wrist. I frantically pull at it.
“No!” I yell. “Stop, please!” But my voice hardly carries at all.
Malcolm—or that monster inside of him—walks away, toward the town, toward the rest of my family and friends. I am trapped here, helpless. Hopeless.
Minutes later, the booms begin. The smoke rises. The screams cascade over the valley.
And this time, when the ash falls, I don’t have to wonder where it came from.