The light flared violently, flashes of white and green and blue, moving faster and faster as the gaping wound in the creature’s body was torn open from the inside out and fleeting shadowy figures fled the scene.
The souls the creature had consumed were finally going home.
As they did so, Olivia shrieked and screamed in agony as the natural entropy that she had held off for so long began to reassert itself, aging her body in seconds until she was nothing more than a pile of ash.
The same held true for the weird, doppleganger creatures that she and Mr. Dark had been controlling to carry out their schemes. Their bodies folded in on themselves, collapsing into nothing more than piles of wet tissue that resembled a jellyfish more than a human being.
In moments, Matt stood along on the edge of the pool watching the creature’s vast bulk sink out of sight toward the bottom.
Of Mr. Dark, there was no sign.
Matt had stopped the soul eater, but he felt anything but jubilant. He’d come close to failure this time, not because he didn’t know what he was doing, which wasn’t surprising given the circumstances, but because he’d let his own expectations guide his way.
He vowed he wouldn’t let that happen again.
There was going to be one hell of a mystery for the locals to solve come morning, Matt thought. It wasn’t everyday that the acting principal, the school psychiatrist, and over one hundred students just up and disappear without a trace. He didn’t envy the officers who were assigned to the investigation for it was awfully hard to prove foul play when the bodies of both the victims and the perpetrators had vanished in the night.
Lest he give them one more clue to work with, Matt knew that he had one final chore to deal with.
He jumped into the pool before he could give it much thought, swam for the bottom, and felt around until his hand landed on the haft of his grandfather’s axe. Snagging it, he swam for the surface.
He couldn’t leave it behind, for it held too much sentimental value to him. Never mind that he was going to need it in the days ahead. He hadn’t seen the end of Mr. Dark.
His enemy had gone on the offensive against him for the first time, which meant he had to be getting closer to understanding something important.
He just wished he had some clue what that something was.
Give it time, Matt, give it time.
And with that thought repeating itself inside his head, he turned, left the swim center behind, and walked out into the bright sunrise of a new day.
THE END
The Dead Man: Eater of Souls (Kindle Worlds Novella) Page 9
