Episode 10

A slight gasp. It was as if she'd just been punched in the stomach, but Plague had actually stabbed her with a tentacle through her armor and her body cleanly.

“Oh.” Worthy of appearing on a list of famous last words.

No, but seriously, what else was there to say? Even I was surprised at how fast it had all happened. Quick and brutal

I could see her insides, although I tried not to look too closely. It wasn't a pretty sight.

The woman took a deep breath (I suddenly remembered I didn't even know her name, as if that mattered). Or tried to, what she actually did was spit blood. Her face had already lost color, but even so I could tell that now it wasn't just the fear of Plague that had been killing her inside, like a poison.

Now she was really dying. Evidently.

But what she didn't lose was her courage. With both hands, she struck at the tentacle as it writhed, churning her insides as if it were a.... As if it were a thick bowl of soup or.... Fuck. I'd seen some pretty horrible stuff, but I'd never expected to see a tentacle monster almost play with its food and....

And if I'd had a stomach, I would have thrown up right there. Fuck. If she had to kill her, just kill her. Without all the fuss, without...

Without enjoying it. Enjoying it?

I was worried that I couldn't answer the question. As much as her exterior was human, as much as she spoke my language, inside she was a monster who didn't experience the world the same way humans did or feel. Right?

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The woman, whatever her name was, was already trapped. No escape. And I couldn't look away. As much as I wanted to be anywhere but here, to see anything but that.

Well. Almost. Almost anything.

“At least... don't let me die like this. Oh, boy. Please... I don't want to...”

She had given up.

It was hard to accept reality, it took a lot of strength. I knew it better than anyone, since I was fighting against it even after I had died.

I approached and ran the sword across her neck. Starting the cascade of blood.

Through which she smiled.

And at some point, she was gone. Without me noticing, she was simply gone. Perhaps to rest in peace. I could only hope that was possible. A rest, a happy ending, after all the suffering.

Not heaven, maybe, but peace.

At last. She probably deserved it.

After the woman exhaled her last breath, I exhaled too. My body relaxed. There were most likely others chasing us, but I wasn't thinking about that now. I was just thinking...

“Dude, that was so sudden.”

I just said that.

“Seriously, you don't fuck around. Not that I'm complaining. She wanted to catch me and everything. But it was sudden.”

Plague withdrew the tentacle, reconstructed the princess's face, and looked at me silently. That was it. Creepy as fuck, without even trying. Probably. But she had proved useful.

We were still running around with our illegally acquired money.

If we were politicians we wouldn't even have had to run. I should reconsider my career. I could be a ghost, but things hurt somehow and then I found that I could get tired too. We stopped running in no particular direction because I still didn't have a hint , just a lot of money, when it got dark.

And I was like a dog. Breathing heavily, tongue hanging out.

I had to stop for sure. Putting a hand on the wall of a cave to keep me on my feet. People said that children never get tired, well it was either a lie or ghost children didn't count. Even though I had no lungs and breathed no oxygen.

I raised my head. There would be things more uncomfortable and irritating than hair wet with sweat sticking to your forehead, but right now I couldn't think of any.

I looked up at the night sky and the mess my life had become from one second to the next.

“Fuck, this has been the longest Monday of my life. I know I say that every Monday, but this time I mean it.”