This isn’t how it’s supposed to be. I need to be better than this. For Rafa, for Emma…
I’m blacking out. And literally dying in a fire.
And I don’t feelanythinginside! Certainly nothing that’s going to save the day. Or me.
What if Collin was wrong? What if I really am useless, after all? What if I just committed suicide? Like I almost did with the druid lady. Because there’s no secret power inside me. The only thing that’s deep within?—
—is my monster.
The part of me that refuses to die. The part that will never give up. No matter what.
When I look, it’s right there, waiting, as always. The abyss staring back.
I expect it to laugh at me. At my weakness. My stupidity. But it doesn’t. It’s in its element. And maybe it’sbecause I’m dying, but now I can tell it’s curled around something. Fiercely. Protectively. Something much stronger than both of us. Something I need. All I have to do is say yes to my monster and I can have it.
All I have to do is let go of who I am.
The pain has stopped. My nerves must have burnt away. The only sound is the roar of fire in my ears. And it feels like I’m falling into oblivion, which means everyone will die. I thought I was dying before with the elf’s Obligation, but this is truly game over.
I literally have nothing to lose.
OK, monster.
You win. Do your worst.
Yes.
I don’t actually see a creature when I look inside myself, but it sure as hell feels like whatever is in there gives me a wink.
Something gets pulled open—and then everything that was Alvin blasts away in a wide white shockwave.
All fear. All doubt. All worry. All gone in a scouring burst.
In its place comes pure, naked power.
And it feelsmagnificent!
The church door explodes out so quickly, it takes me a moment to realize it was my fist that smashed through it. But it’s not Alvin’s fist. My hand is massive and made of fire. Both of my hands! I grip the sides of the door frame and pull myself outside. When I stand, I rise up and up and up until I tower over this house of God. There are four vampires out front. Clearly, they were waiting to pounce, eager to hurt Alvin. And to hurt Rafa, who’smine.
Their hideous fanged faces moon up at me, jaws dropped. Their thin arms hang bonelessly off their cadaverous bodies. They’re scared.
They should be.
My entire arm is flame. I extend it toward the parasites below and, with the barest whisper of effort, douse them all with hot death. As I burn them to skeletons, they try to scream, but I already know there won’t be enough air for that. The only sound is the stream of crackling fire I spread across them, rendering them ash with a sweep of my hand. It is deeply satisfying.
But my work isn’t done. More vampires would have spread out around the church as we suffocated within. Surely, they wouldn’t want the poor, helpless victims inside to jump out a side window and get away, right?
I step forward, turn around, and realize that I straight-up dwarf the building. My whole body is made of flame. And just as I expected, several of the undead along the sidesarerunning away. But I’m unstoppable now.
I bring down a torrent of destruction on both sides of the church at the same time and scorch a dozen into tumbling husks. I miss a few, but there’s time. And now I see the ones in the back. The ones so sure we’d run into their trap. Six or seven, running together over the backyard fence toward a decaying, boarded-up house, all clumped up on top of each other in a desperate attempt to escape. A squealing pack of pigs, ripe for slaughter. I twist my massive fingers under the eaves of the church, bend forward over the roof separating us, and breathe a firestorm onto them. They flash to cinders like all the others did.
This is just too easy! I raise myself up. The church is on the corner with an empty lot to its side. The remaining fang-heads are scattering, running into the street and into the patchy plot of land to the side. Looks like I’ll have to pick them off one by one.
It’s nice to have at least a little challenge.
But wait! I missed one of the pigs from the back! I watch him make it into the abandoned building behind the church, running inside. As if that could protect him!
I flow over the top of the steeple and the roof beyond. I don’t even need to step. I’m a force of nature, after all. In an instant, I’m in the backyard. I bring my full rage down on that house, using both my arms and my breath to create a cascade of immolation. The structure ignites beautifully. A twisting torrent of flame reaches into the sky and becomes even taller than I am.
