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A sharp cut slices through every other sound in the night. The crackling fire, the rain, the gunshots, and screams—it all ends with a disturbing gurgle bubbling from my comrade’s throats.
It stops all of my thoughts. All my dreams.
Everything.
My eyes meet Vinnie’s, then Rowan’s. The commander’s flaming crescent sword hit them both at once. Their blood sprays into the night air like the wings of fireflies—they seem to glow with the heat from the Darkfly’s fire.
I watch their lights flicker out. Their short lives spent.
I tremble as my veins start to chill. Cold seeps in and I can’t tell if it’s from death reaching for me or parts of my soul being ripped to shreds.
Vinnie’s glasses project off his face and land against my forehead, the glass already shattered. Shards pierce my eye but I don’t feel the pain. I just blink through the blood, unable to stop watching.
Half. They were cut in half. My friends are, they’re?—
I watch the two of them fall soundlessly, their innards tumbling out and surrounding their vacant bodies. Steam rolls off from their centers and I gag. Vinnie’s eyes are bulged and wide, cheeks smeared with dirt and debris. Rowan’s eyes are narrowed, twitching and distant as his lips mumble something before going still.
My stomach curls but vomit won’t rise. Then I hear a wrenching scream from Alani. She’s fallen to her knees at what became of Vinnie and Rowan. Her body shakes with terror and Tamaris stands in front of her in a sad attempt to protect her from the approaching commander. He stalks slowly toward them, lazily even, as if this is all so meaningless to him.
How many times have Alani and Tamaris fought with each other? How many times had they sworn hate for one another? Yet here Tamaris is protecting Alani. Selflessly. Foolishly.
I take another short, wheezy breath, my lungs losing their strength to take in air. I want to close my eyes. Desperately wish to look away to save myself from witnessing it. But I can’t.
Tamaris lets her Shadow whirl around the two of them in an attempt to escape, but the commander cuts through it easily, his flames burning nearly white.
Tamaris holds strong, still standing above Alani as if she can actually do anything against the fucking monster. Her gaze flicks to mine in her last moments.
I see fear in its rawest form. I see the grief that she feels already from all the death that’s come tonight. But more than that, I see the question in her eyes: Why? Why did we come here? The look of betrayal burns into my soul.
Why did I bring them here?
My heart twists and cracks. I want to fucking scream and scream until I cannot bear it any longer.
Tamaris closes her eyes and Alani braces against her leg. The commander brings down his blade with a single swing of Shadow hellfire. He strikes it straight through Tamaris’s heart, piercing all the way through her torso and Alani’s neck behind her.
There is no crying—no pain or blood.
Their bodies ignite into abnormal black flames, evaporating all but their bones in a matter of seconds. Their skeletons hold the positions they were in just moments ago. Their jaws open in the silent wails they weren’t able to let out.
Tears spill from my eyes. The pain inside me cannot be described. It’s vicious and rotting.
I’ve lost everything. Everything. In a matter of moments. And the worst part is that it’s all my fault.
It’s my fault my friends are dead.
Pain crackles across my eyes, forcing them shut. I let out an anguished wail. Not for my own agony, the bleeding of my heart and soul, but for my mistakes that others paid for in blood.
Footsteps crunch on the gravel near my head and I know the commander has returned to finish me off. My eyes open enough to see a large boot crush Vinnie’s glasses.
Four fireflies take to the sky from the barley around the boot, drawing in my weakening consciousness.
Fireflies. We were fireflies. Terra’s words soak into my soul. “Because they gave all they had to show us their light. They must rest—as we all do.”
I cry and the taste of death blooms across my tongue.
You were right, Terra.
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