Tim O'Rourke - Dead Flesh

“Not anymore,” Seth grinned. “I haven’t killed anyone for years. I wish the same could be said for your lover over there,” and he looked at me.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked him.

“You’re just about to let McCain die, aren’t you?” he grinned back at me, and I had to fight the urge to knock his crumbling teeth down his throat. “I think the execution is just about to start.” Seth, then lent forward and switched on the TV.

The screen flickered into life and revealed an aerial shot of Wembley Stadium, where the execution was to take place. A news reporter was chatting excitedly about how people, most of them parents, had queued through the night to get tickets to watch McCain’s beheading.

“But he hasn’t actually murdered anyone,” I breathed, and looked at the so-called victim, sitting across the table from me.

“I know,” Seth chuckled. “What a dilemma you face.”

“Dilemma?” I quizzed him.

“So, what is the great Kiera Hudson to do?” Seth hissed, his anger simmering again. “Sit back and watch an innocent man die or…”

“I can’t do that,” I said, looking at the TV which now showed a close-up of McCain. He was stripped to the waist, hands tied behind his back, his right foot sticking out at an odd angle. They hadn’t even bothered to fix his broken foot, I realised. Behind him stood his hooded executioner, sword in hand.

“So what are you going to do, Hudson?” Seth gloated. “Only you can stop this from happening. You could call your friend Banner right now and tell him that you’ve made a mistake, and get McCain a stay of execution. But if you do that, everything goes back to the way it was before. McCain goes back to being in control of the matching, and we all know what will happen to those poor little children. On one hand, you could sit back and let him die. I mean the guy isn’t entirely innocent of child cruelty and playing mind tricks with all of those parents. On the other hand, you could let the execution take place and the wolves will react with violence. The Treaty that has kept an uneasy peace over the last two hundred years will fall apart, and the wolves will go back to killing indiscriminately, and this time around, there are no Vampyrus to stop them. The humans will fight back and there will be war between the wolves and the humans again.”

Realising the decision that he was forcing me to make, I looked at him and said, “You bastard, Seth.”

“What will it be, Kiera?” he screeched at me. “Time is running out!”

I looked at the TV screen at the eighty thousand people crammed into Wembley Stadium, as the billions of people and wolves around the world watching the TV waited with drawn breath for the sword to fall against McCain’s neck.

“Choose!” Seth screamed at me. “Make your choice, like the choice you should have made in The Hollows!”

I looked at the TV again and with gooseflesh crawling all over me, I watched in horror as I realised I was too late to make my choice; McCain’s head was sliced from his neck. It spun away, and the crowds in the stadium went into a frenzy. They roared with delight but others roared in anger. These were the Skin-walkers who, hidden beneath their human skins, had snuck into the stadium. McCain’s head hadn’t even stopped spinning across the ground when the Skin-walkers changed back into wolves and started to devour the humans cheering all around them.

Wembley Stadium erupted into something that looked close to a bloody slaughterhouse. The screen then flickered and changed shot, as other news reports started to come in from across the country, as wolves took to the streets and ripped the first human they came across to pieces.

Seth stood and snapped off the TV. Then, turning to look at me, he began to slowly applaud. “Kiera Hudson, you really are something else.”

I just looked back at him, the consequences of what was now unfolding, barely comprehendible.

“I’ve got to give it to you and your merry team of misfits,” Seth sighed, heading for the door. “You‘ve been back such a short time, and already you’ve destroyed a Treaty that had been working to keep peace for the last two hundred years, and reignited the war between humans and the wolves. And for every human woman, man, and child that dies, their blood will be forever on your hands.”

I watched speechless, as Emily and Dorsey stepped out into the hall, leaving Seth alone with us.

“I should rip your fucking head off,” Potter roared at him.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Seth smiled at him.

“Give me once good reason why not,” I spat.

“Because only I know the secrets of how to put this whole mess right again. You were right, Kiera, the world has been pushed , but you’ve just gone and knocked it over!” Seth laughed, staring into my eyes again. “And besides, Kiera, I know you don’t want me dead just yet.”

“How do you figure that?” I asked, using every ounce of willpower to not leap across the room and rip his crazy-looking eyes from his skull.

Looking at me, Seth said, “You don’t remember how I killed you back in The Hollows, do you?”

“No,” I said, shaking my head.

“But you do want to know,” he said, running his grey tongue over his cracked lips. “And one day I will tell you. But for now, let’s just say that you loved every moment of it.”

“Get out of here!” I screamed at him.

Smiling one last time at me, Seth said, “I’ll be in touch.”

Then, he was gone, and all I could hear was the sound of him laughing as he made his way down the hall. I turned to face Potter and whispered, “Oh my God, what have I done?”