The Monster Apocalypse

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Brin stared at Droz, mortified. She pulled the sword closer to her chest and tried to make sense of the two words he had just uttered. She didn't break her perplexed expression for at least five seconds.

Then Brin Skar started to laugh.

"Oh my God," she said. The belly laughing started quiet at first, then just kept increasing with volume. "The Devil? Are you serious? That has to be the funniest thing I've heard in my entire life."

"It's not a joke," Droz said.

"Clearly it is!" She didn't laugh so hard as to collapse onto the wooden floorboards—she didn't want to put herself in a vulnerable position—but she laughed hard enough to lose her grip on the sword, momentarily. "I can't be Satan. I don't have anger flowing through my blood. I don't have a single evil bone in my body. I'm just... me. And you're making this up, asshole, to make me lose sight of what's really at stake here."

Now it was Droz's turn to laugh. He snickered and then took another step closer to her.

"What's so funny?" Brin asked.

"Nothing. You said, stake. Brin, listen to me." He started to bring his sword up. Brin did the same with hers. "You must be coming up on your seventeenth birthday here soon, huh?"

"Uhh... no."

"No?"

"I mean... it's not until April."

"You don't have to believe me," Droz said. "But on the morning of your seventeenth birthday, trust me, you will."

Brin clamped her mouth shut for a moment and breathed out of her nose. Then: "You seem like you want me to make it to my seventeenth birthday."

"No, that's not what I—"

"So... that means..." She paused, then let out a big smile of her own. "You're not going to try to kill me, are you?"

Brin leaped forward, so fast she hoped he'd be unprepared, and swung her sword at Droz's chest. But he was quick; he tightened his grip on his sword and pelted the sword right out of Brin's hand. She fell to the ground and crashed against her arms and face.

"Brin!" Ash shouted.

"Brin, nooooooo!" Paul shouted even louder.

"You really are a stupid girl," Droz said, stepping toward her. "It's so unfair. If I had been blessed with the soul of Satan, I could really do wonders in this world. Instead, his soul leeches onto the most banal, thoughtless white girl, in the most boring, inconsequential city in the world. Here you are, having almost made it to your ultimate day of reckoning, and you crawl against my floorboards, bruised, scared, and weak. For the first time in my life, I'm ashamed of Satan, and his powers."

Brin reached her left hand out for the sword. It was mere inches away. She saw Paul and Ash in the corner of her eye looking to run over and help, but she just shook her head, no. "How many times do I have to tell you, you goddamned freak? I'm not Satan!"

"You are. His powers just haven't consumed you yet. But thankfully for me, and for all the monsters out there, you don't need to be alive for Satan to rule this world. He will live on forever, whether or not you stick around. He deserves better!" Mr. Barker held up the sword. "Are you prepared to die, Brin?"

Brin's fingers touched her sword. She looked up at Droz. "I'm starting to think I might be this Devil person."

"Oh really?"

"Mmm hmm."

Droz lifted an eyebrow. "And why is that?"

"Because," Brin said, leaning up and staring into Droz's eyes, "I think there's some evil in my bones after all."

She latched onto the sword, rolled to her left just in time, and swung the sword at Droz's legs, striking both of them with a heavy force.

"Owwwww!" the clan leader screamed at the top of his lungs. He slumped over to his side, giving Brin just enough time to leap back up to her feet.

"Yeah, Brin!" Ash shouted. "Check it out! The Omen's kicking ass!"

Brin shook her head at her friend. "Really, Ash? It took you a whole minute to reference The Omen? What took you so long?"

Brin readied herself for her most gruesome act ever. She brought the sword up over her head, closed her eyes, then swung the weapon down at Droz's neck.

He stopped it with his hand before it even touched his skin.

"It's not going to be that easy," Droz said, then kicked Brin hard in the stomach. She smashed her back against the wall and shielded her body with her sword just in time as Droz jumped back up to his feet and swung his sword at hers.

"Oh shit," Brin said, as he lunged toward her.

"No more talk," Droz said. "I don't care if you're the Devil. I don't care if you're Lucifier in disguise." He swung the sword at her shoulder, missing it by inches. Instead, he cut off a tuft of her red hair. Brin watched it fall to the floorboards. "It's time... for you to die!"

He swung his sword again, this time at her head. But Brin ducked just in time and missed a beheading of her own.

"Jesus Christ," she said, as she tried to pierce his chest. He jumped back and stopped the sword with his own. "Guys," Brin said, pushing Droz's sword away again, and glancing at the two boys in the corner, "I could use a little help now—"

"Get off of her!" Ash shouted, running over and leaping onto Droz's back without a concern for the sharp swords at play. He tried to pull the man down to the ground, but Droz shook him off and kicked him in the gut. Ash tumbled backward and smashed the side of his face against the floorboards.

"Ash! Oh my God!" She wanted to help him, but when Droz swung his sword at her head again, she knew she had to keep moving.

Brin tried to run to her right, but he blocked her with the sword, so she jetted to her left and ducked just enough to miss his sword again. She ran toward the window in the back left corner.

She turned around and tried to pierce his stomach again, and then she aimed at Droz's neck. But he was too fast for her, too quick on his feet. He kept shielding himself with his sword and making a lunge for her every time she made a lunge for him. He knocked his sword against hers so hard she almost lost a grip on her weapon, a second time. She couldn't afford to do so again.

She brought her sword down to her side and started running away from him.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked, his enthusiasm never weaning. "You can't back out of this duel to the death now! We've only gotten started!"

Brin looked back at Ash, who was still moving, thank God. And then there was Paul, who still hadn't budged from his spot in the back.

"Brin," he said.

She locked eyes with Paul and gave him a knowing nod.

Then a severe pain stopped her in her tracks.

"What the—"

Brin looked down to see Droz's sword sticking all the way through the right side of her stomach.

"Nooooooooo!" Paul shouted.

Ash couldn't stand back up, but he reached his hand out for hers. Brin looked down at Ash, whose eyes were already welling up with tears.

Droz pulled the sword out of her chest. Brin tried to breathe; she tried to think. She let out the world's quietest gasp.

Then she tumbled forward and struck the window. The glass shattered into a thousand pieces.

"No..." she whispered, as she started to fall.

Down, down, down, down...

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