SOMETHING ROAMS THE NIGHT...

THIRTY EIGHT

The explosion of luminous white light in the middle of the room blinded me, and I raised my hands to shield myself from its rays. What the hell was that?

"Noooo!" the reaper cried out in agony. "What's happening to me?"

Before my very eyes, the reaper began to glow, as if light was penetrating it from the inside. Its dark scaly skin began to wear away to expose black, decaying flesh underneath. Its face was starting to distort, melting into some sort of black goo. It was the most horrendous thing I had ever seen. 

"This can't be happening," the reaper wheezed the words through its disfigured mouth.

I scoured across the room at the other reapers-the same thing was happening to them. Some had already vaporized into thin air, leaving thick puddles of black ooze on the floor where they once were. What the hell was going on?

I turned my attention back to the reaper, gasping when I saw that it had once again changed forms. Before me knelt Damon, his head bowed, his hands pressed against his temples. He was wailing in misery. 

"What have you done to me?" Damon howled. "What have you done to us?"

The rest of the reapers had completely vanished-the only evidence of them ever being around was the mess of disgusting black liquid all over the once-clean floor.

"What have you done?" Damon repeated, standing up slowly. His legs were shaking-was he getting weaker? "I'm gonna kill you!" he spat at Ezra, and reached in his holster for the revolver. When he realized it wasn't there, a petrified expression crossed his face. 

"Looking for this?" Ezra aimed the gun at Damon's head, just touching the top of his left brow. 

Damon raised both hands in a surrender position. "Please, don't kill me," he said, almost inaudibly. Was he actually begging for mercy?

"You're getting weaker, aren't you?" Ezra's finger moved to the trigger. "You're still not used to the sun, are you?"

"Yes, we...we're not a hundred per cent immune yet," Damon said. He had his imploring eyes on Ezra. "Please, I'll do anything, just don't kill me."

"Shoot him," I said to Ezra. 

"What?" Ezra turned to look at me, and in that flash of a second, Damon rammed into him, knocking him to the ground. The gun fell from his hands, clattering to the floor.

Ezra immediately tried to reach for it, but he wasn't fast enough. 

"You almost believed me," Damon cackled. He bent down, picked the gun up. "Like I said, you humans are so stupid."

"Go to hell," Ezra swore.

"No, you go to hell," he was grinning like a maniac as he trained the loaded weapon at Ezra's face. 

My heart was in my throat. No. Ezra couldn't die like this, right in front of me. This wasn't how things were supposed to be. I couldn't let him die.

I needed him. I was nothing without him. I loved him.

Oh, God. 

Ezra coudn't die. I loved him!

"Goodbye, Ezra Kane," Damon snarled. 

I wanted to do something, I wanted to move, I wanted to shove Ezra out of the way. But it was all happening way too fast.

No. Ezra couldn't die. He couldn't-

The gunshot reverberated throughout the house, the sound as loud as a bomb detonating inside my head.