Monsters of Men

He opens up his Noise.

Opens it and opens it and opens it–

And there he is, all of him, open to me, showing me everything that’s happened, everything he felt–

Everything he feels–

Everything he feels for me–

“I know,” I say. “I can read you, Todd Hewitt.”

And he smiles that crooked smile–

And then we hear a sound up the beach, back where the trees meet the sand–

(THE SKY)

My battlemore makes the final leap onto the beach and for a moment I am dazzled by the ocean, the sheer huge fact of it filling my voice–

But my mount races on, turning towards the abandoned Clearing settlement–

And I am too late–

The Knife’s one in particular is here with her horse–

But the Knife is nowhere to be seen–

Only the leader of the Clearing, grabbing onto the Knife’s one in particular, his uniform a dark blot against the snow and the sand, and he is holding the Knife’s one in particular close to him, imprisoning her in his arms–

And so the Knife must be dead–

The Knife must be gone–

And I feel a surprising hollowness because of that, an emptiness–

Because even the one you hate leaves an absence when they go–

But those are the feelings of the Return–

And I am not the Return–

I am the Sky–

The Sky who made peace–

The Sky who must kill the leader of the Clearing in order to secure that peace–

And so I race forward, the figures in the far distance coming closer–

And I raise my weapon–

[TODD]

I squint thru the snow, which is getting thicker by the minute–

“Who’s that?” I say.

“That’s not a horse,” Viola says, stepping away from me. “That’s a battlemore.”

“A battlemore?” I say. “But I thought–”

And the air is torn from my lungs–

(THE SKY)

He pushes the girl away, seeing me coming, and I have an open shot–

I hear a voice behind me, shouting something in the distance–

A voice shouting Wait–

But it is hesitation that has hurt me in the past, being at the moment to act and not acting–

And that will not happen now–

The Sky will act–

The leader of the Clearing is turning to me–

And I will act–

(but–)

I fire my weapon.

{VIOLA}

Todd makes a sound like the world collapsing and grabs at his chest–

His bloody, burning, smoking chest–

“TODD!” I shout and leap for him–

And he’s falling back onto the sand, his mouth open in pain–

But no air is coming out or in, just raking, choking sounds in his throat–

And I’m throwing myself down on top of him, blocking another shot if it comes, reaching for his burning clothes, which are disintegrating across his chest, just vaporizing away–

“TODD!”

And he’s looking into my eyes, terrified, his Noise wheeling wildly out of control, spi

“No,” I say, “No no no no no–”

And I can barely hear the hoofbeats of the battlemore still racing for us–

Barely hear another set of hoofbeats behind that–

Hear Ben’s voice echoing across the sand–

Wait, he’s yelling–

“Todd?” I say, tearing the melting clothes off his chest, seeing the terrible, terrible burning beneath, his skin bleeding and bubbling and still that awful choking sound from his throat, like the muscles in his chest have stopped working, like he can’t make them move to take in a breath–

Like’s he’s choking to death–

Like he’s dying right now, right here on this cold, snowy beach–

“TODD!”

And the battlemores are closing in behind me–

And I hear the Noise of 1017, hear that he fired the weapon–

Hear as he realizes his mistake–

That he thought he was shooting the Mayor–

But he wasn’t, he wasn’t–

And Ben is riding in behind him–

Ben’s Noise ramming forward with fear–

But all I can see is Todd–

All I can see is him looking back at me–

His eyes wide open–

His Noise saying, No, no, not now, not NOW–

And then he says, Viola?

“I’m here, Todd,” I say, my voice breaking, shouting with desperation. “I’m here!”

And he says, Viola? again–

Asking it–

Asking like he’s not sure I’m there–

And then his Noise falls completely silent–

And he stops struggling–

And looking right into my eyes–

He dies.

My Todd dies.

{VIOLA}

“Todd!” I shout–

No–

No–

No–

He can’t be dead–

He can’t be–

“TODD!”

Like saying his name will make it untrue, will make time go backwards–

Make Todd’s Noise start again–

Make his eyes see me–

“TODD!”

I shout it again but it’s like my voice is underwater and all I can hear is my own breath in my ears and my voice rasping his name–

“TODD!”

Another set of arms crosses mine, Ben, falling into the sand next to me, his voice and Noise tearing to bits, saying Todd’s name–

And he starts grabbing handfuls of snow to pack onto Todd’s wound, trying to freeze it, stop the bleeding–

But it’s already too late–

He’s gone–

He’s gone–

Todd is gone.

And everything is suddenly moving so slowly–

Angharrad calling out Boy colt–

Ben putting his face close to Todd’s, listening for his breath, not finding it–

“Todd, please!” I hear him say–

But it’s like it’s from a great distance–

Like it’s happening out of my reach–

And there are more footsteps behind me, footsteps I can hear as if there were no other sounds in the universe–

1017–

Off his battlemore, his Noise reeling from his mistake–

His Noise wondering if it was a mistake after all–

And I turn to face him–

(THE SKY)

She turns to face me–

And though she has no voice, I see enough to step back–

She rises to her feet–

I step back again, dropping my weapon onto the snowy sand, only now realizing I still held it–

“You!” she spits, coming towards me, the chirping sounds from her mouth making a terrible sound, a sound of rage, a sound of grief–

I did not know, I show, still stepping away from her. I thought he was the leader of the Clearing–

(did I?)

“You liar!” she shouts. “I can hear you! You weren’t sure! You weren’t sure and you fired anyway–”

It is a wound from a weapon of the Land, I show. The medicine of the Land might save him–

“It’s too late for that!” she shouts. “You’ve killed him!”

I look beyond her to the Source who holds the Knife in his arms, packing more ice onto the Knife’s chest, knowing it does no good, his voice rending with grief, his human voice wailing from his mouth–

And I see that it is true–

I have killed the Knife–

I have killed the Knife–

“SHUT UP!” she shouts–

I did not mean to, I show, realizing too late that it is true. I did not want to.

“Well, you did!” she spits at me again–

And then she sees my weapon lying on the sand where I dropped it–

{VIOLA}

I see the weapon, the white stick weapon of the Spackle lying on the ground, lying there white against the white snow–

I hear Ben crying behind me, saying Todd’s name over and over again and my own heart is painful in my chest, so painful I can barely breathe–

But I see the weapon–