With a yelp, Leah was suddenly yanked away. Liam coughed out a mouthful of bile and sucked in fresh air. The strangulation-induced blurs faded a beat.

Like a child gripped by a bear, Leah dangled helplessly against Kurt’s massive fist.

He pressed his palm around her throat and held her head up high. “One squeeze and it’s over, boss.”

She gasped. “What the fuck are you doing!?”

“No, Leah. What are you doing!? We’re supposed to be helping Liam, not killing him.”

“He almost killed me!”

“Yeah, after you goaded him. Seems where I’m standing that you got what was coming.”

Again Leah tried to wriggle free, and again she failed. “You fucking bastard… After everything I’ve done for you!”

“And I’ll never forget.” He pulled her in an inch. “Doesn’t mean I won’t kill you, right here and now.” He thrust her into the ruins of a nearby tent, then held out a hand for Liam. “Come on. Get up.”

Liam embraced his arm and limbered to his feet. Part of him couldn’t believe what had just happened. All the time that they’d been together, and he’d never seen Kurt rebel against her in the slightest.

Leah stayed where she’d landed, as crippled with the shock as the rest of them

“Why?” she begged.

To that, Kurt grinned. “Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment. There is no why.”

Liam stared at him sideways. “Kurt, that was… Surprisingly poetic.”

He shrugged. “I read it in a book.”

Leah still laid in place, even as the others moved against her. Liam scooped up her suppressed 1911 that she’d lost during their confrontation, and aimed straight for her head. When Mastermind drew his own MP5 and did the same, she didn’t even flinch. She just sat and stared as the inconceivable unfolded.

The group stood in silence, their weapons trained on her. Whatever could’ve been said about the camaraderie they’d shared had all but evaporated. This wasn’t some simple misunderstanding. Leah would’ve killed Liam had Kurt not stepped in. The burn in his throat stood as a constant reminder to how close of a call it had been.

“Go on and ask it,” Leah said, staring into the barrel of her 1911 with unblinking eyes. “We both know what you’re thinking.”

“What did you do to the Clarks?” Liam asked. He needed to hear the words out loud.

“I Hunted them. Started with the woman. Jabbed her straight in the eye. The kid didn’t put up a fight either, though it helped that he never saw me coming.”

“How could you do that to them? They helped us. Clothed us. Fed us.”

“And then they died, and I did not. I am a survivor. That’s what separates me from them, and me from you.” She looked to each of her companions. “Sure, you can all act tough now, but who else would’ve done what was necessary? Who would’ve had the strength to turn our hosts into sustenance? Last I checked, each of you just sat by and let it happen.”

She narrowed her gaze. “Don’t give me that look, Mastermind. You knew what I was when you joined me.”

His eyes watered. “And what is that?”

“The leader you never were.”

“I stood up for you, mum. Time and time again, I vouched for your judgment, even when you were so terribly wrong.”

Leah snorted. “You think that means I owe you? Please. All you’ve given me is vindication. A leader acts, but you’re just an indecisive child. You hide behind my coattails and call me ‘mum’ because you’re too much of a coward to admit the obvious to yourself. Your precious little Munchkins died because of your hesitation, not your vanity. The only reason I’d ever keep a weakling like you around is because your Rez is cheap to maintain and full of the type of strategy that I can use to my advantage. But you’re no leader and you’ve never been one.” She leaned in. “Want to prove me wrong? Pull the fucking trigger and end me!”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Mastermind lowered his gun in silence.

“Boss…” Kurt said.

She turned to him. “Wouldn’t forget about you, Kurt. Just didn’t think you were worth the time. What have you read… The same five books over and over in all the time I’ve known you? Your reservoir would burst if it took anymore. You’re a meathead, and I was lying whenever I said otherwise. We used to throw sacks of muscle like you into herds before the Styx came up. All brawn and no brain. The perfect follower.” She beamed. “And you won’t prove me wrong either. You don’t have the balls to kill me without being ordered. Well, no one’s going to, so if you want to cave my skull in, then it’ll be up to you to decide. Let’s see what you’ve fucking got!”

Kurt wrapped his knuckles tighter against his sledgehammer, but then he took a step away and relaxed, the tears streaming from his eye.

“What about Buttercup?” Liam challenged. “Was he just another pawn to you?”

She nodded. “Even Buttercup. Saw some potential and handed him a rifle. Made for a good shot from behind a wall, but throw him in the front lines, and he dropped as fast as any other freshie. Oh well. That’s what I get for picking an amateur.”

“He saved Liam’s life,” Mastermind sobbed. “He died for this mission!”

“A lot of good that did him, huh? Dead is dead. Doesn’t matter what stupid thing you do to cause it.” She grinned. “My only regret is that I didn’t get to eat him myself.”

Liam wanted to puke. “You are a monster.”

Her eyes lit up to that. “Yes, Liam. Speak your mind. Utter your truth. I am a monster, born from a race of monsters. You want to know why camps like this one fell apart? Why every concerted effort against the Hollowing failed? Because of me. I was the first Hunter. I was the first creature to go bump in the night. When Hades told me of his plans to protect our kind by wiping out the rest of yours, I didn’t shy away. I led the charge.

“And you want to know what else? When we were in Pandemonium, I made a deal with Hades. Your life for my survival. I would’ve done it too, had you not chased after that dead fucking family of yours. Funny, right? If only you managed to stay put, you could’ve died quickly and brutally like they did.”

She laughed. “Wouldn’t that just be fucking priceless too? Imagine if you ran halfway across the continent after them, and in the end, it was the person right next to you that ripped out their jugulars while they begged for mercy. For all I know, that’s how it went down. I’ve destroyed so many places like this one that I can’t even keep their memories in my Rez anymore. There’s been so fucking many.

“Would you like to see the face of your reaper, Liam? Do you want to gaze upon her naked self!?” She ripped off her scarf.

Liam had always known that her Mark lay beneath that burgundy scarf of hers, but the damage was more than he’d expected. Her otherwise smooth skin gave way to a tangle of rotted flesh around the mouth, with the cheeks reduced to strands of shredded meat, and lips missing entirely. Misshapen teeth had been exposed by the injury, stretching out inhumanly before disappearing into folds of blackened gums.

“Look at me!” Leah shrieked, her eyes ablaze. “Look at your monster! That’s what I am, and that’s all I’ve ever been.”

There was no denying that she was unpleasant to look at, but that wasn’t what made Liam feel so repulsed.

“This has nothing to do with your appearance. You chose to do those things.” He blinked through the tears. “Just as you’re still choosing to do them now.”

“Fuck you! Pull the trigger already, you coward! I know you’re the only one who has it in them.”

God, what a miserable creature. This was no longer the fearless stranger who had saved his life, but a heartless demon who killed because she could. What was her life, but a fruitless exercise in survival? Existence with no point other than to snuff out any threat to its own existence. No better than the disease that had created it.

Liam shook his head. “I trusted you, Leah. I really did.”

“You shouldn’t have,” she said. “Trust died the moment the Hollowing came.”

The 1911 quaked in his hands. “You raised this gun to Hades when he came for me. Why? Why didn’t you sell me out if I’m nothing to you!?” He just couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

“Because…” Leah started, but her voice cracked halfway through. The reddish liquor began to roll down her cheeks and into her mess of a jaw. Fists curled into dirt. “Because I was weak, and I didn’t want to die without ever having the chance to live.”

She cried. It was a deep, heavy bawl that came out unnaturally. The tears and snot flowed without restraint, and drool began to ooze through the holes in her jaw. She cried and cried, pounding her fists against the cruelty of it all.

How had it come to this? No one had ever asked for such injustice. Not Liam. Not Nelly or Lilith. Not Kurt or Mastermind or Buttercup. Not even Leah. They were all just cogs in this horrific machine, all subjected to the same avalanche of struggle. What could be done against such unrelenting torment?

Life. What did the term really mean? Was it truly no more than the beat of his heart, or was there something more? An ineffable, irreplaceable essence that could never be understood, much less explained. Liam knew what he’d wanted. He knew what had driven him to this point. But now, those visions were gone, and his own future extinguished. All that remained was seeing if any of this survival had ever had a point.

All that remained was to give his own life meaning.

Liam walked to Leah. “Get up.”

Her eyes widened, but she did not move.

“Don’t think this makes us friends, or that I forgive anything you’ve done. But the way I figure it, there’s still over a hundred miles between us and Cheyenne, and nobody’s better at surviving this hell than you. Do you still want to live, Leah?”

She blinked. “Yeah.”

“Good.” He handed over her pistol. “Then earn it.”