Page 69 of Together We Rot

Ba-dump. Ba-dump. Ba-dump. The ground rumbles with the echo of the forest’s heart. I feel it stronger than ever before. And above it still, I hear the patter of wings in my core. Moths swarm from every direction, scurrying out of the treetops and landing on my skin. They break up the night in a prism of blood red and dusky brown.

My father unsheathes a knife from a leather case. The blade is tinged black with centuries of dried blood. Despite its age, the tip looks so very sharp. I understand that the last time it was used was on my uncle; it’s the closest connection I’ll ever forge with him. My dad’s voice is a whisper above the wind as he leans in, his breath spilling in a smoke cloud against my cheek. “From the earth you were forged, and to the dirt you shall return.”

And then he plunges the blade right into my chest.

CHAPTER THIRTY

WIL

A boy sways up ahead, his bloody body strapped tight to a tree. I recognize the slump of his posture and the mess of his hair. He’s wearing the same raggedy sun-bleached jeans and faded plaid as the day he left. Only the plaid is soaked through with a telling, taunting red.

“Elwood!”

But it’s too late. The clouds break and his skin is illuminated by the milky spill of the moon. That’s when the screaming starts.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

ELWOOD

It’s a quiet pain.

I expected to feel more. The blade carves through my skin like the brush of a finger. I see it wedged deep, blood gushing from the cut and splattering on my father’s face. I see it all, but I don’t feel a thing. If the knife is trying to get more from me, it will be disappointed. I am only a hollow ringing. I won’t fight this. I will give myself over willingly to the trees.

The moon breaks on my back, washing over my skin and drowning the rest of the world in a sharp, lethal blue. It pours over me like an acid. Every whisper of silver is a searing heat against my skin. It engulfs me in a pain so deep, so full, that all I know how to do is howl. The noise scrapes my lungs and breaks from my lips all at once. It starts and it doesn’t stop.

My skin peels back, too human to belong to me now. Moth wings erupt from my spine, a splash of burnt autumn against the dark woods, and feathery antennae tear through either temple.

“Elwood!” Wil’s voice cuts through the trees, and with my fading vision, I see her standing there like a mirage in the darkness. She’s my own angel of death. I soak in every part of her as the pain mounts. I let her be the last image etched in my vision.

The demon in me tears through.

Wil’s features turn muddy in my mind, disappearing into a blur. One second she’s there in perfect detail; the next she’s gone. All of her. Gone.

I close my eyes to the world I know.

I open them to hunger. Consuming, crushing, everywhere.

The earth calls for me. Every corner of the forest flashes in my eyes at once. Gray wolves with their heads moon-bound; hares among mounds of fresh ice; snowy owls in high trees, their saucer eyes wide and watching. They know better than to get close to me.

But not all creatures shy away.

Humans flank me on all sides. There are swaying figures ahead, their bodies an ultraviolet mosaic, bright light against a black canvas. I follow the stars and the constellations pull me closer. I home in on them and block the incessant buzz of the world out. There is only their stammering pulse and the slick of their sweat cropping like fresh dew.

“Ezekiel! What have you done?” Heat twists and spirals in the air. I hear words, but they don’t process. They’re garbled, familiar once but lost now. The only thing I’ve kept close is my hatred. My feeling for the men in front of me is a buried thorn. The man opens his mouth, speaks to me again in his incoherent, babbling tongue.

There’s a whirr of something man-made, an unnatural piercing static. “We need reinforcements stat. Hurry up, he’s already—” The noise dies.

His fear tastes nectar-sweet. I lick it off my lips and it drips, drips, drips. I lap it up and I think it’s blood.

Have I killed him so easily? There and gone in the blink of an eye.

But the thorn is still there. I turn to the last man and breathe him in.

“Oh God... Lord in heaven, hear my prayer... Elwood, son. I take it back, all of it. I didn’t mean—” The sound ends with a crunch.

There’s a body beneath me now. A heart still faintly beating. I scoop it up and dig my teeth in. Gobble it down until there’s nothing left. The human’s body is no different than a fallen log or clump of snow.

Useless. Quiet.

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