“Too late for that. I gave you two choices, and now you sleep in the bed you made. I don’t want to hear any more from you, do you understand? I’m done. You’re going to listen to what I say or I am going to break every bone in your body and make you eat that stupid empty gun of yours. I could do it right now, if I wanted to.” Ben grabbed the hatchet off the ground, Harry felt himself shrink as he jerked back in fear. “Oh, don’t worry. This little thing is too light for me. I would cut you into pieces with a butterknife before using this.” he said and dropped it on the bed. “Why are you arguing anyways? You were planning on killing yourself, Greg told me. You were going to kill yourself like a coward on the roof of your trash-house apartment complex. Is that even high enough to die? A coward and an idiot. You’re the perfect suicide candidate. You should have gone to the roof and did a cannonball off tonight. I don’t know why you’re crying, Harry. I’m only here because you needed someone to make the decision for you. And here I am.” Ben said.
He pointed to the door and said, “Shall we go?”
“I… Please…. Okay.” Harry said, but started walking when Ben looked down at his other thumb. Harry clenched his fist and avoided making eye contact. He was ready to give up. There was no excuse to cry since Harry was considering suicide, again, only a little bit ago. He had his chance, and wanted to give up, again. Why would he cry when death was standing in front of him? Shouldn’t he deserve this kind of death? He did. He was garbage and needed to be taken to the incinerator. Harry was too big of a coward to kill himself when he had a choice. Now, Ben took the choice from him and wasn’t giving him another second chance. No way. No how. When life decides you’re the nail, the hammer will land on its mark.
Every way Harry once defined himself as a man died as he walked out of the hotel room and down the hallway. He wept in the stairwell like a prisoner walking the green mile. This was his trip to the electric chair. Or firing squad. Or lethal injection. Ben, his executioner, did not need to tell him how, but he made it clear, Harry was going to die.
Each step weighed heavy. A mix of tears and sweat hung on his unkempt mustache. The floating ash felt cool against his skin as he walked onto the sidewalk. The night’s air was cool but thick with fog and the residue hanging in the air. Harry could barely see each step ahead of him. It burned his lungs like a fat cigar. He wasn’t sure if it was from the air, the fear, or the shock of his broken thumb.
“Be a man, Harry. You sound like a dying animal,” Ben said, and pushed Harry further into the middle of the street. His momentum moved the fog around in a swirling motion. It created a confusing grey and white tornado around him. Harry could see above the fog when he looked up to the Grand American, but could not see Ben, who remained camouflaged close by. Harry didn’t search for him and lost the desire to fight back, not that he ever wanted to bad enough to actually try. Instead, he dropped to his knees and offered himself to Ben.
Even though he was giving up, he was still afraid. His lips trembled as he spoke, “I’m not going to fight back. You win. Whatever you want to do, go ahead and do it. Kill me and make yourself happy.”
“Happy? You think killing you would make me happy?” Ben said and came into view to Harry’s right. He weakly raised his hand to defend himself, bringing his broken thumb back into view. “What pleasure is there in killing you? We’re not out here because I have some psychotic bloodlust, old man. We’re here because… well, let me ask you something.” He blew some of the ash out of his face. “How do you hunt wolves?”
Harry looked at him, blank with answers. “I… I don’t know. I’m sorry. But I don’t know. People don’t hunt wolves. They don’t… I don’t know.” He shook his head trying to find an answer.
“You wouldn’t know. It’s okay. Sheep were never supposed to know how to hunt wolves. They’re sheep. That would be silly. Could you imagine seeing a sheep chase down a wolf? That would look ridiculous. Hunters hunt wolves. Not sheep. So the answer to the question is…?”
“A hunter.” Harry answered.
“Bingo. Now, how does a hunter hunt down a pack, or population of wolves when they’ve recently left town?”
Harry shook his head and said, “I don’t know.”
“Me neither. I have a few ideas. But this is where calling them wolves is always tricky. I mean, they’re not wolves, right? That would be stupid. They act like wolves, but not always. They also act like sharks. Hunting, circling, feeding frenzies. You know. It can work too. So let me ask you this, how do you attract a pack of sharks?”
“Blood.” Even Harry knew that. Did it matter? No. None of this did. Harry was dead no matter what he said or did. He would have died tonight, tomorrow, or some other time, but eventually he would have been dead in a brutal way. It was always supposed to end like that. Harry looked back at Ben and…
Pressure exploded through Harry’s right leg and knocked him over. Hot wetness splashed all over him and through him as tried to gain his footing but dropped to the ground. Ben broke through Harry’s leg with his hammer and destroyed the space that used to be bone, muscle, and skin between his ankle and his kneecap. He reached down and felt the crooked mangling midway up from his ankle.
-
Edie could only see figures come in and out of the white avalanche. “Oh my-lanta,” she said watching Ben stand over Harry. It was too hard to make out exactly what was happening, until Ben brought his hammer up high and slammed into down into Harry. The poor guy wiggled around on the ground like he was a worm. “Oh my-lanta. Oh my-lanta. Jenna get up and see this. Harry is. Ben is. He just… Oh my…”
“Someone has to save him!” Jenna shouted. Someone should save him, but it wasn’t going to be Edie or Jenna. “He needs someone. Harry needs help.” Jenna’s pretty eyes were bulging out of her face. Edie agreed with her, but they stood there together and did nothing but kept watching. Edie pulled the blinds away from the window, so she could see the whole street. The black-eyes were coming and she needed to see where they were. Harry, sadly, was going to die, no one can survive something like this. It was really sad, but Edie needed to know what should happen next.
“Edie. What do we do?”
“Nothing. There’s nothing we can do. Are you a hero? Because I’m not.”
“You were a hero for me.”
“It’s different. I was a hero for you, because I knew you had a chance. And I saw something in you worth saving. But Harry, I’m sorry. Harry is going to die. He isn’t you, Jenna.”
Jenna didn’t say anything. She knew it was true and wasn’t going to argue anymore. Edie liked Jenna, she didn’t know why. Somewhere deep inside of Jenna was someone worth believing in, but it was deep inside of her. Like deep. Edie saw it though. Jenna would see it someday too. Edie’s purpose was to protect Jenna above all else, which sounds dumb, but that’s how Edie felt about it. Why else would she go down those stairs last night into that horror-story basement with plans to kill Toppy? Only because she knew Jenna was worth saving.
“I hope someone saves him.” Jenna said, staring out the window.
“Harry, Hey, hey, stay alive alright? Keep that blood flowing for me.” Ben patted his hand on Harry’s shoulder. The shock stole his ability to speak. He winced and cried and shook. Harry tried to think about something, anything, other than the pain. The pain was too loud and too hot. He couldn’t put together any thought other than the one circling around his agony. He even forgot about his broken finger.
“It hurts so bad. Oh, why? Please. Why did you…?” Harry reached back down to his leg and his fingers sunk into the open wound. His leg was still attached, but was flatted in the middle. “Please, no more. I don’t want more. Just kill me, I’m begging you.”
“Yeah, you’ve been doing that a lot. Sorry, I hope you know, there is a part of me that really is sorry to have to do this. I just don’t see any other choice.”
Flashes of light came over his eyes.
Darkness.
Light.
Darkness.
>
Light.
A voice came out of the light, “You’re not dead, Harry.”
“Yes. I’m dead. Please. Let me die. I want to go…”
The pain washed away. A peaceful coolness washed over him and replaced the pressure on his ravaged limb. Harry sighed in relief. The light went from a fluorescent, soft yellow to a clear, pure white.
“Too much is planned for you, my friend.”
“I don’t have friends.” Harry replied.
“You’ll see. I have a friend for you.”
“Who are you? I don’t want to live anymore, okay? I’m done with my life. What don’t you get about this? I’m better off dead. Everyone would be better off if I was dead and gone. I don’t want to live anymore. What do you want from me?”
“I don’t want anything from you, bud. I want you to live. A friend is coming, she will help you. She’s going to save you.”
“No one can save me.”
“You will see. Your life is going to turn around, Harry. I promise. But you need to believe it can happen. Your story is going to heal so many people. The purpose you needed is just around the corner, hang on a little longer, okay? Don’t let the pain stop you from shining. There is more for you than this dirty street. I’ve sent someone, but there is going to be more pain before there is peace. Peace is coming though, trust me.”
“I can’t do it.”
“A redemption story wouldn’t be a very good story without redemption.”
The light faded from white to yellow to grey. Harry looked around him, surrounded by a flat pale color and alone. Slowly, pieces of the grey began to wilt and float away becoming the fog. Pieces rotated and spun in front of him, some turned red, others black. A tingling sensation on his hand as he looked at his broken thumb. It felt like it was asleep.
His leg was covered by the dust. It was hot and the pressure was uncomfortable, but Harry was not in pain.
He looked up and saw Ben standing over him, “Here come the wolves, old fart. Blood is in the air tonight. Thank you for being my sacrificial sheep. I’ll let you watch until you bleed out. Judging from your heart rate, I give you another five minutes.” Ben turned away, looking out into the fog.
“You didn’t hear…”
“Shhhhh.” Ben hushed him, “I hear ten wolves. No, I hear twelve. Fourteen. Oh, yes. I hear so many. Come to papa. You’re in for a treat before you die, old man. And then I’ll take you out of your misery if you’re still alive. I’ll even use your hatchet, is that what you want?”
“No. I want redemption.” The pain washed away. Peace replaced the pressure on his ravaged limb.
-
He’s going to kill Harry.
Harry wasn’t the nicest person, but no one deserved this. Edie and Jenna stood shoulder to shoulder watching as Ben taunted Harry after crippling him. The silence made watching it feel worse. Jenna knew she should do something, but she didn’t know what to do. Someone, anyone, has to save him. He doesn’t deserve to die. Harry wasn’t a bad guy, Ben was.
Here they come.
The first monster jumped ten feet high into the air leaping after Ben. It looked like a tiger pouncing on its prey, except Ben’s hammer smashed into its chest making the monster disappear into the distant fog. Several more of the attackers were erased into the fog by Ben’s perfect power. It was like his hammer had a stick of dynamite on the end; each time it landed on a target, they burst in the other direction. The hammer’s precision was crafted and careful. Sometimes swooping just inches from Harry before bashing into a monster. Blood was spewing into the air and caught onto the floating dust, making it look like a snow storm of blood and soot.
Harry is bait. He should have taken you, the crippled girl.
Edie said, “I think he’s going to kill all of them. Holy Guacamole, he is going to kill all of Salt Lake City and not even sweat. This sick monster might actually pull it off. Look at him move, oh-my-lanta. It’s amazing.”
“What is he doing?” Shelly said as she entered the room, “Did you know about this?” she accused the girls.
“Oh no,” Edie said. “We had no idea he was… wait, what is that?”
Jenna looked away from Shelly and saw Ben drop his hammer and stare ahead at a dark figure walking towards him through the fog. It was a woman wearing cute, skinny jeans and a flowy tank top. Ben fell to his knees as she came within arm’s reach of him. The same man who killed almost thirty of those monsters had been stopped by pretty woman coming close in the red mist.
She’s not one of them. She’s not running. She’s not attacking.
They looked at each other, the woman crouched down to him and took hold of his hand. They ignored Harry as he writhed on the ground only a few feet away. Jenna couldn’t hear him through the sound-proof window, but he was screaming at them with all of his might. The woman’s face had the same black stains as so many of the other wolves, but there was a calming effect about how she held Ben.
And then she kissed him.
She’s not one of them. She’s worse.
-
The eighth wolf stood over him kicking at Asher’s face and shoulders. He was fortunate to be able to see despite the onslaught of attacks into his blocks. Each time he matched the wolf’s rhythmic strikes, a ninth wolf clawed at his face and throat. Asher’s best protection was the heavy body crushing him. Its dead weight seemed to have doubled his mass and volume. Asher could have moved him off easily, but that would have required his hands. To move his hands from his head and face would have meant losing an eye or worse. The spade’s handle rubbed against Asher’s ear while being stuck in the behemoth’s throat.
Ben was out there, taking on the wolves by himself while Asher was trapped by the two remaining predators. His brother’s confidence was not enough to defeat the high number of murderous wolves. Ben could be dead. Asher had failed him, again. Another opportunity to do right by his little brother and another massive failure. Despite these new abilities, Asher remained the big brother who was never there for Ben.
Heat. Sweat. Asher’s temperature rose to a fever but not his skin, not his body. His insides were on fire. It was like Asher’s heart began pulsing molten lava through his veins as the rush surged inside of him. The fear of failing his little brother again, the reminder of Lucy’s death being on his hands, the truth of Asher’s inability to save Benny became gasoline on white-hot coals. Burst. Flames. Higher. Not anger, but similar. A new fire ignited within Asher.
The oncoming foot of the eighth wolf moved towards Asher’s head. It was moving at a fractional speed. The eighth wolf’s body was in slow motion. The ninth, the clawing wolf, inched towards Asher, giving him time to anticipate its next attack. The suspended ashes softly trickled down onto Asher’s cheeks. He felt one explode on his hand and watched another run into the boot of the eighth wolf.
Seconds for the wolves became minutes for Asher.
Asher rolled the behemoth off of himself.
As the weight came off, Asher pushed the large body into the eighth wolf’s kicking leg. The knee bent backwards into a right angle as the long sound of slow breaking of bones echoed into Asher’s ears. Blood spouted into the air as the wolf reached down and took hold of himself.
Asher pulled the shovel’s blade from the behemoth’s neck and sliced through the ninth wolf’s hands removing both at the wrists. Their black eyes opened wide as more tears ran down their cheeks. Their cheeks were withdrawn, lips were a dark blue. Asher kipped himself off the ground, twisting in mid-air and bringing the spade across the ninth’s neck, decapitating him. The momentum of the eight’s body as it continued falling forward in slow motion while holding its broken leg gave Asher the window to drive the tip of his blade into its head.
Asher exhaled deep as both bodies hit the ground with black blood squirting into the air.
Grabbing his spear, Asher sprinted off towards his brother.
-
“Call Asher!” Shelly yelled at Edie. Both girls stood at the window with J
enna. Jenna had forgotten about the walkie talkie altogether.
“Their radio is dead,” Edie replied monotone. Jenna looked into her pretty eyes and saw nothing. She was lost as she watched Ben and the woman kiss. “Who is she?”
“What? What did you do to the radio?” Shelly continued. “Edie, look at me. What is wrong with the radio? Did you even try? We need to tell Asher about this. That woman must have hypnotized him or something. Snap out of it and find the walkie talkie!”
Edie continued staring out the window, “I don’t understand this. Why would he do that to Harry? They were leaving, migrating and he brought a bunch of them back. Harry was, he was bait. Ben used Harry to kill them. But the woman… what was she?”
“Are you even listening me to me?” Shelly put her hands on Edie’s shoulders. “Edie.”
“Ben dropped his hammer.”
“Edie”
“They kissed.”
“Edie!”
“Does he know her?”
“Edie!” Shelly yelled and slapped Edie across the face.
Edie clinched up and looked directly into Shelly’s eyes. “What?”
“Call the guys at the pharmacy on the walkie talkie.”
A red mark grew on her beautiful skin. Edie rubbed her cheek and said, “Why? So Asher can come? Even if we could call them, anything we say now isn’t going to help. Asher can’t come here and save Ben. Anything that woman did to Ben, she can do to Asher too.”
Jenna looked away and back to Ben. He was the woman’s puppet. She brought him to his feet while still holding him in close. Ben was crying.
“Call Greg. He will know what to do, call Greg,” Shelly pleaded. Her father waddled into the room and stood behind the women. He looked out the window too, like he was trying to will himself to see. Jenna didn’t know if he was joking.
Dark Genesis (Shadow and Shine Book 1) Page 23
