The ethereal red tether plunged into the chest of the woman. She was young, maybe mid to late twenties. Her long hair spilled over her face as she snored away, blissfully unaware of the world around her. Her time in the service was etched across her body, a mismatch of scars and burns along her slender legs and arms. Beside her lay a portly man whose face, half hidden by a book, carried the lingering image of a fitter man in his youth, his chin and cheeks still sharp despite his round belly. The husband was not important, however.

"I sense no other souls. It's just you three."

He did not like what he was about to do. Noah wanted to run, but the weight of the dog tags around his neck and the lighter in his pocket held him in place. The sleeping woman hadn't pulled the trigger, but she willingly ignored his parents' plight. His terrified, panicked cries that night went in one ear and out the other as she stood there and did nothing, even for a helpless child. Rage boiled in his veins as he took a step closer to the bed.

Noah's right hand shot to the woman. He ripped her from her peaceful dreams and held her in the air by her throat. Terror filled her and she flailed pathetically, her hands and legs cutting through the air as she struggled to process what was happening. The husband jumped out of bed, paused for a split second as he watched this demon of the night attack his wife, and reached for his nightstand.

He shouted at Noah and grabbed a pistol off the nightstand. "What the hell? Put her d–."

A bolt of fire shot from Noah's left hand. The flames engulfed the man and he crumpled to the floor, screaming and rolling and trying to quell the fire searing his flesh. No matter how much he rolled on the floor, Noah's flames did not relent. His tortured cries would reach no one in the depths of this empty mansion and with the chaos at the gate spreading. Even if they heard, he doubted these kinds of people would dare stick their gold encrusted noses into others' affairs.

Seeing her spouse spasm and squirm as he cooked, the woman struggled with renewed vigor. Her nails dug into Noah's forearm, tearing fabric and skin, trying to loosen his hold. Her eyes, wide with fear, darted from her husband to Noah, a silent plea for mercy. She was trapped, helpless like a rabbit ensnared, her desperation mounting with each passing second as her husband's life turned to smoke before her. But, like he'd been, she was powerless to stop this. Reliving that fateful night, Noah's fury surged, his grip tightening like a vice. As his fingers clenched tight enough to push his veins against the skin of his hand, her face began to pale, her eyes started rolling back as she struggled for breath.

Noah would not allow her to run from her sins so easily, though. Voice a low snarl, he loosened his hold just enough to let her breath. "Tell me where Colonel Victoria is and I'll let him live."

He flung her at her burning husband. She landed next to him and coughed fiercely as soothing air rushed into her lungs. She crawled to her husband, hands reaching out but recoiling at the heat of the flames. As a show of good faith, Noah focused his gaze on the barely alive man and quelled the inferno to a dull smolder.

This had been the most difficult aspect of Eris's power to learn thus far, closely followed by learning how not to burn his clothing away when using her power. It was a matter of visualization. To cast fire was easy, only requiring him to envision the flames leaving his hand. But to control destruction was far more challenging than to simply cause destruction.

Noah's head throbbed with each pulse as he sifted through the chaos before him. He strained to visualize the unseen air currents, to predict their dance amidst the flames. Every flicker had to be reeled back, demanding his utmost concentration as he fought to shape the erratic energy to his will.

Noah managed to keep the flames from outright killing the man. Still, the flames consumed the portrait of the man she knew moments ago, leaving in its place a seared husk of black flesh and bone whose chest rose and fell in the shallowest of breaths. Left alone, the man wouldn't last more than a few minutes. The wife realized this as much as Noah did. Glaring at him with pure hatred behind her tears, she threw herself toward the fallen gun, but Noah shot a small firebolt at her hand, scorching it black in an instant.

Noah let her scream, let her savor a fraction of the pain she was complicit in causing all those years ago. After letting her suffer for a bit, he shouted for her to shut up and watch him. Noah knelt by the ember of a man and rested his hand on his chest. The same glowing light that sealed Noah's wounds spread from his palm and over the man like a veil. Strips of healthy flesh and skin slowly spread like vines across the man's body. The woman looked past her pain for a moment, baffled by the sight before her.

Just when her hope for this nightmare to be over reached its peak, Noah pulled back his hand, leaving the husband a half-burned mess. The red light shrank back into Noah's palm, condensing into a lingering flame aimed at the man's face. Noah repeated his question without looking at the woman.

"Colonel Victoria, where is she?"

The rest of the flames from Noah's initial onslaught, children left to go wild without supervision, had crept across the floor and scaled the walls, leaving behind a trail of fresh fire. The room devolved into an inferno around them, heavy with black smoke and hot enough to ignite the fabrics around the room. Curtains, sheets, even the carpet, all of them disappeared under the hellish scene. The inky black smoke choked the woman, dropping her in her tracks as she tried to crawl, but Noah gave her the mercy she hadn't spared his parents and kicked her back to her husband like a scared dog.

She spoke sheepishly through raspy coughs, hardly able to draw air and afraid to look at him.

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"Who are you? What do you want with us? Who's Colonel Victoria?"

Noah snapped at her feigned ignorance. He drove his boot into her face the same way she did to Aunty Melisa.

"Don't play stupid, you bitch."

He pinned her to the ground under his foot like a predator pinning down his prey, leaned down, and tore off his goggles so she could see his full face. "Don't you remember me? From the mountains five years ago? Don't you remember kicking my aunt to death right in front of me?" Spittle flew onto her face as he shouted.

Her nose was broken. Blood and snot covered her hands as she pressed them against her face. As recognition dawned in the recesses of her mind, a curtain lifted, revealing the terrifying truth of whom she faced. A torrent of excuses tumbled from her bloodied lips as realization struck with her like lightning. Waves of fear swelled, overriding the agony coursing through her, compelling her to throw herself at Noah's feet in a desperate bid for mercy.

"I'm so sorry, please, I'm begging you. I had no choice, I was just following orders. The Colonel, she... she went out west somewhere, I don't know where. Most of us got wiped out by those freak Deviants and the Floridians. She ditched me and a few others after that, just said we were discharged. It wasn't my fault, I swear. He's innocent, he's got nothing to do with any of this. Please, just let him go." She looked to her husband. His half burned, half healed chest moved shallower every passing second. A piece of burning lumber fell from the ceiling, hitting Noah in the back, but he did not flinch. Whatever scrapes and burns the burning beam left sealed before the lumber hit the ground.

He stood silent and looked down at her, a demon in her personal hell. Panic birthed desperation as the house began to collapse around them. Frantically, she looked to the nightstand, pointing for him to look. "Please, I have kids. Don't do this."

I have kids. Don't do this...

His presence hadn't mattered to her when she shattered his world and left him with nothing. Still, a small part of Noah's heart buried under the torrent of flames went out to her when she mentioned her children. Broken and pathetic as she was, he saw the faintest resemblance of his own mother in her. The determination, the love, the need to care for her family.

He looked out the corner of his eye to where she pointed. On the nightstand was a single picture. Dressed in her finest uniform, smiling with beaming eyes, she held two young boys on her shoulders as they made silly faces at the camera. The oldest one, a boy poking a toddler girl, couldn't be more than four or five in this picture. Noah's heart plunged, his rage suddenly dissipating.

What was it the Colonel said to his parents?

They had carried out her orders because they needed her to get them home. What if this woman had done the same, only seeking to return to her boys? This woman was a coward, but the fact was that she had not pulled the trigger.

And then Eris spoke, her alluring, silky voice casting a fresh spark to restart the powder keg. "She was only following orders, just like your mother and father were. But know, dear Noah, that no one ordered her to kick your aunt to death. That was all of her own choice. She kicked your dear aunt like a filthy mongrel until her ribs punctured her lungs and her brain swelled with blood. Is that someone deserving of your mercy?"

Noah screamed and stumbled back as a pulse of pain shot through his head. The image of Aunty Melisa on the ground played in his mind's eye. The sounds of steel-toe boots against her ribs and cracking against her head echoed in his skull.

Above all, the sight of the woman's manic eyes, rabid as she assaulted his aunt even after she posed no danger, fueled the simmering rage within him, reigniting it with even more fury than before.

The justification of self-defense was gone after the first strike at his aunt's head.

Everything after was a matter of pride.

Any doubts left Noah like the smoke rising from the crumbling house. The sound of boots striking flesh sung once again, but this time this woman was the one on the ground reeling and groaning. The inferno crescendoed with each barbaric shout as Noah lost himself, tears streaming down his face, and struck her with the same fury she'd decimated Aunty Melissa with.

Her terrified screams devolved into sickly wet gurgles as she drowned in her blood.

"No, she can't be free yet. Let her scream, let her see death coming for her, let her pay for what she did."

Noah touched her with his hand, cursing her with healing so that she could not escape her fate. Noah felt the black mark on his hand creep ever upward, roughly a half way up his forearm now. As he beat on her again, Eris giggled between his ears, basking in the splendid display of wrath she incited.

In his frenzy, Noah found a flicker of clarity. It emerged like a fleeting spark of light as the woman hovered an inch from death's release. Halting his assault, Noah knelt beside her, their faces close enough to feel each other's breath, his grip on reality momentarily firm.

"You let a wife watch her husband get shot. Let me return the favor." What little willpower that remained in her shrunk like dying ember as Noah drew his pistol and thrust her face to the side, so she could watch as a single bullet ended her husband. Blood seeped from her head wounds, drowning her with each tortured sob. Noah threw her head down on the ground, his skin crawling from touching the bare skin of this wretch.

The house was fully engulfed in flames from top to bottom, threatening the homes to either side. Men and women shouted outside, calling for help. The roar of the flames and crash of collapsing framing masked any screams from within, and even if they slipped through the fiery pillars swirling high into the night, those outside would assume what they heard were the death cries of a poor couple burning to death.

They would be correct in that assumption.

Noah left the shattered woman to stew in a puddle of blood beside her husband's ashes. His fiery will made the flames roar and swell with even greater ferocity. She might cling to life for a few more heartbeats, just long enough to grasp the weight of Colonel Victoria's ominous words from that night.

As the flames closed in, scorching her skin, consuming her muscles, and devouring her bones, she would come to understand the meaning behind the words of that woman who played god in a world left godless.

Actions have consequences.

Faint trails of steam rose from Noah's face. As he strode toward the window, he touched his cheek. Tears, evaporating from the heat, and her blood streaked his hand as he wiped his face. He paused by the nightstand. The picture of her with her children was burning at the edges, the glowing flames creeping inward. Maybe the kids were with friends or family, enjoying a night with those they loved.

Dawn's light would bring with her nothing but sorrow and pain for these kids.

"You were innocent, Noah. Where was the sympathy and comfort owed to you?"

The picture crumbled into a heap of glowing ashes on the nightstand. Noah swallowed a rising bubble of remorse—futile, distracting remorse—and leaped out the window, disappearing into the night as the devil's abode crumbled behind him.