“I’m sorry,” I whisper as I line up my sights once more.
It’s easier to pull the trigger this time. Maybe it’s because I did it once before, maybe it’s that I’m ready to feel the jerk of the shotgun or hear the blast of fire and gunpowder, or maybe it’s that killing a beast is easier than killing a man—no matter that neither is what they appear to be.
The steed’s front legs kick up, its body briefly contorting as it lets out an agonized bray. It collapses onto its side a hundred feet from its master, and then it doesn’t move.
I spend several seconds catching my breath.
It’s done.
God save me, I actually did it.
Setting my weapon aside, I head for the road, my eyes glued to the horseman. His armor is a mess. I can’t tell if the pellets bit through his breastplate or if they simply twisted the metal, but several of them have torn through that pretty face of his.
Hot bile burns the back of my throat. Already a corona of blood is blooming around his head, and even though his face is a mass of wounds, I hear him groan.
“Oh God,” I whisper. This thing is still alive.
I barely have time to turn to the side before I retch.
His breath is coming in wet pants. He reaches for me, his fingers brushing my boot.
I jump back, letting out a cry and nearly falling on my ass.
I didn’t even realize how close I’d crept up to him.
Need to end this.
I race back to my gun on unsteady feet.
Why did I leave it behind?
Through my haze of panic, I can’t remember which tree I left it at, and the horseman is still alive.
I give up my search for the weapon and head back to the little camp I set up for myself. Among my things are matches and lighter fluid.
My hands shake as I grab them. Mechanically I head back.
Are you really going to do this? I stare dumbly down at the items in my hand. He’s still alive and you’re going to burn him while he breathes. You, a firefighter.
Fire is no clean death. In fact, it’s got to be one of the worst ways to go. I don’t hate Pestilence nearly enough because I can barely stand the thought of what I’m about to do.
I step back up to the horseman and flip open the lid of the lighter fluid. I bite my lip until it bleeds as I overturn the bottle, the liquid glugging out of it. I douse him, head to foot. I have to pause to vomit again.
Then the bottle is empty.
I can’t manage to keep hold of the matches I pull out. My hands are shaking so badly I keep dropping them. Finally my hand steadies enough for me to grip one, but then the issue is striking the matchbox.
Again the horseman gropes for my ankle.
“… leeeeeseee …” he groans from the ruin of his mouth.
A cry escapes me. I think that was a plea.
Don’t look at him.
It takes five tries, but finally, I light one goddamn match. I don’t consciously mean to drop it—if I had it my way, I probably would’ve stared at the flame until it burned down to my fingers—but alas, my hand shook and the match fell.
Pestilence’s clothes light on fire immediately, and I hear him give an agonized shout.
The smell of burning flesh wafts up from him as the fire builds on itself.
I realize belatedly that his armor is blocking the bulk of the fire, making an already slow death that much slower. He’s burning too hot and too thoroughly to touch, or else I might’ve removed his armor or stamped out the flames.
I begin to dry heave. I’m not sure I could’ve given this creature a dirtier death.
He screams until he can’t.
No one deserves to go like this. Not even a harbinger of the apocalypse.
I back away, and then my legs give out.
This doesn’t feel like some noble deed. I don’t feel like the hero, saving the world.
I feel like a murderer.
Should’ve packed myself a beer—or five. This is not something to watch sober.
But I do. I watch his skin bubble and blacken and burn off. I watch him die slowly, each second so obviously agonizing. I stay rooted there for hours, sitting along this abandoned road that no one travels anymore. That entire time, my only witnesses are the trees that stand like sentinels around us.
Snow gathers along his body, melting against his smoldering remains.
At some point, I look up from him, only to notice that his horse is gone, a trail of blood and trampled snow leading off into the woods. Rationally, I know I should retrieve my shotgun and follow the horse’s trail until I find the beast, and then I should kill it.
Rationally, I know it—but that doesn’t mean I do any such thing.
Enough death for one day. Tomorrow I will finish the job.
The sky darkens. And still I sit, until the cold has seeped its way into my bones.
Eventually the elements force me to my tent. I unfold my stiff limbs, my entire body sore and sick. I don’t know if the creature’s plague has taken hold of me yet, or if this is simply what it feels like to neglect eating and drinking and finding shelter and warmth all day. Either way, I feel terribly sick. Terminally sick.
I collapse onto my sleeping bag, not bothering to pull it around me.
For better or worse, I did it.
Pestilence is dead.
Chapter 4
I wake to the feel of a hand at my throat.
“Of all the vile humans who’ve crossed my path, you just might be the worst.”
My eyes snap open.
A monster looms over me, his face pockmarked with bloody holes, his skin charred and twisted and missing in places.
I wouldn’t recognize him except for the eyes.
Angelic blue eyes. The shit they’re always painting on ceilings of churches.
This is my horseman.
Alive from the grave.
“Impossible,” I say, my voice hushed.
He smells like ash and burnt flesh.
How could he have survived that?
He squeezes my neck tighter. “You foolish human. In all the time I’ve existed, had you really never thought another hadn’t already attempted what you failed at?
“They tried to shoot me in Toronto, gut me in Winnipeg, bleed me out in Buffalo, and strangle me in Montreal. They tried to do all that and more in so many other towns with names I doubt you’d recognize because you fickle humans never bother to look beyond yourselves.”
Someone else has already … tried?
Tried and failed.
It’s like taking a glass of ice water to the face. Of course someone else has tried to end him. I should’ve known better. But I hadn’t seen footage of it, hadn’t heard any reports of the attempts. Whoever had tried to take him out hadn’t managed to alert the public that he can’t be killed.
“Everywhere I go,” he continues, “there’s someone like you. Someone who thinks they can kill me to save their malignant world.”
It’s hard to stare at his face, grotesque as it is. And yet it looks so much better than it did when I left him, back when he was nothing but ash.
Pestilence pulls me in close. “And now you will pay for daring to do so.”
He yanks me up by the throat.
Whatever vestiges of sleep clung to me, they’re now gone. I reach for his hand, yelping when I touch bone and sinew.
How can he possibly use a hand when all that’s left of it is bone and tendon? His grip is like iron, unyielding.
Pestilence drags me out of the tent, throwing me to the ground. My palms and knees sink into the shallow snow.
A moment later, a knee digs into my back. He runs his hands over my torso, feeling me for extra weapons. I shudder at the sensation. He’s touching me with raw bone. He reaches for my pockets, emptying them of my Swiss Army knife and my matchbook.
In the deep blue, pre-dawn glow, the forest has an almost sinister feel to it. It’s silent as the grave, its former inhabitants long gone.
Pestilence pauses after his inspection. “Where is your fight?” he asks derisively when I continue to just lay there. “You were fast to act before. Where is that damnable human fire now?”