Copper Thomas shoved another unnamed corpse aside. He was one of the soldiers assigned to clear the town of the dead. "There is no end to the dead" had become his grim motto.
“No end to the dead,” he muttered again as he helped lift another body onto a cart.
The men were exhausted. They needed rest, desperately.. but the bodies of the corrupted had to be removed. No one knew what the corruption could do. Spread, mutate… or worse.
Each time a body was thrown into the cart, Copper made a mark in his journal. He counted every one he could. He needed a number, needed something to grasp in the chaos. A tally of the lives lost.
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A commotion from the Command Center drew his attention. Taking a brief reprieve from the dead, Copper moved toward the noise. When Rhaine ordered the two men separated, Copper was among those who stepped in. He grabbed hold of one of them, the real Alex, though he didn’t know it yet.
Rhaine demanded the password.
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All eyes turned to the first Alex. When it came time for the second, Copper couldn't break staring at the first Alex. That Alex was staring directly at him. Copper’s stomach turned cold and then the man winked.
That was all it took.
He knew who the Harbinger was, seconds before the real Alex shouted, “Wench!”
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Copper remembered the look on Dareth’s face when Tyler killed him. That moment had burned itself into his mind.
He was exhausted, had nearly passed out more than once but now the Harbinger stood before him.
The pain disappeared. The weariness vanished. In its place was something sharp and cold.
Hate. When Rhaine gave the order to kill, Copper didn’t hesitate. He lunged for Tyler, shoving and clawing his way forward, determined to be the one to end him. No one else would have that satisfaction. He would avenge Long Legs. His hands closed around Tyler’s throat.
But in his fury, Copper didn’t see the bigger picture. His reckless charge had opened a gap, and Tyler slipped through it.
Copper was tossed aside in the chaos but scrambled back to his feet, chasing after him. He wasn’t giving up that easily.
Then Tyler stopped at the town gates and pointed.
Even Copper froze.
Because whatever was coming down that road, the thing Tyler had seen, was worse than anything they’d imagined.
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Marcus walked the dirt path, a strange silence clinging to him like a shadow. The Crimson Mist lingered nearby, watching, but none dared speak.
“Children,” Marcus said quietly, “why so silent? You usually have so much to say.”
He had lost control again… not as badly as before, but enough. He’d hurt one of them.
“Please... speak.”
One of the children finally answered, voice lilting with mock innocence. “Yes, Father. What would you like us to say? Will you not hurt us if we do?”
Their smiles stretched across pale faces, wide, knowing grins.
Marcus closed his eyes. He deserved that. He deserved all of it. “Say whatever you wish,” he said softly. “I won’t stop you.”
The Crimson Mist children stopped in front of him, hand in hand, gazing up at him with mournful delight.
“You know, there will come a day when you’re brought to Hell,” one said gently. “We’re sorry, Father.”
Then they began to dance around him in a circle, chanting in eerie harmony.
“You’re going to burn in Hell. You’re going to burn in Hell.”
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Marcus held back his anger. They weren’t the reason he was going to Hell, that burden was his alone. They were just the reminder. “I know…” he said quietly. “But before I go, I want to try something.”
He had wrestled with the idea, but now it felt right. Maybe even worth the pain.
“I want to give you the chance that was taken from you. I want to undo what happened that night… and let you rest.”
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The children stopped cold. Their voices rose in unison, sharp and shrill.
“You lied, Father! You said you didn’t want to hurt us anymore!”
Their cries were deafening.
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Marcus shook his head. “I don’t want to hurt you—I want to bring you back. I want you to live. Not as this… not cursed to linger like this.”
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The children fell silent. It was a thought they’d never truly considered. Truthfully, they’d been having too much fun to imagine another fate.
“We don’t want to be alive, Father,” they finally said. “No one can hurt us now… no one but you. Once you burn in Hell, we’ll be safe forever!” Then, laughing again, they resumed their dance.
“You’re going to burn in Hell! You’re going to burn in Hell!”
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Marcus saw there was no use in continuing the conversation. “Maybe all creatures are damned in the end,” he muttered.
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He pressed forward. The children floated beside him, keeping pace, still chanting in sing-song voices, “You’re going to burn in Hell! You’re going to burn in Hell!”
As he walked, that familiar, dreadful cold returned. It crawled into his bones. Marcus collapsed to the ground, breath ragged.
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“Do you think you have it?” came Lorna’s voice, smooth and sharp.
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Something twisted inside Marcus. He clenched his fists. “Be gone, woman,” he said through gritted teeth. “If you’re asking that… then I already know I don’t have it.”
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The cold pulsed through him in waves, each one stealing more warmth, more life. He curled into himself, groaning.
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“The it, my love,” Lorna whispered with a chuckle. “As in, are you enough to stop him?”
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Marcus grit his teeth and forced himself upright, trembling with the effort. The cold didn’t stop, it kept spreading, devouring the life around him.
“I said begone,” he growled.
And then he saw them, Lorna and Conner. His wife. His son. Standing in front of him like ghosts painted in memory.
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“How about me, Daddy?” Conner asked softly. “Do you want me to be gone too?”
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Marcus froze. He couldn’t say it. Couldn’t tell his son to leave. “No,” he whispered.
He kept walking toward them. With every step, everything around him withered and died, plants, grass, insects.. all drained, all reduced to ash and silence. All of it, feeding what stirred inside him.
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"I want to know, Daddy… and this time, without the lies," Conner said.
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Those words cut deep. It was something Conner had said when he was alive.. on his birthday. Lorna had baked his favorite: peach cobbler, using fresh peaches from the tree out back. Marcus couldn’t resist. He stole a taste, just a swipe of his finger across the top.
When Conner saw the mark, he’d asked if Marcus had done it. Playfully, Marcus denied it.
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That’s when Conner said, with a knowing grin, "I want to know, Daddy… this time, without the lies."
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Marcus swallowed the lump in his throat. “What do you want to know, my son? I promise… no lies,” He said, voice trembling. Gods, how he ached for his boy to be alive.
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Conner looked at him with eyes far older than they should have been. “Are you strong enough to beat him?”
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Marcus blinked. “Who, Conner?”
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Lorna and Conner said nothing. Instead, they stepped apart, opening the path before him. The Crimson Mist retreated, clearing the way. It was just Marcus now… and what came next.
“Come to Daddy!” Tyler shouted from the gates of River Hallow.
The moment Marcus saw him, The Hunger awakened.
The Coldness surged.
Birds dropped from the sky as Annihilation fed on the world around him. Life shriveled. Color drained. The ground blackened.
Marcus charged forward.
Tyler was going to die.
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Inside Katherine’s home, Melissa returned from helping defend the town. Blood stained her clothes, streaks of crimson cutting across her sleeves and chest. She moved toward her room, desperate for a hot bath. She began gathering clean clothes when a voice caught her off guard.
“There’s no end to the dead. Did you know that?” Elle said.
Melissa froze. Elle hadn’t been there when she walked in. “What was that?” she asked, heart skipping.
Elle didn’t answer right away. She was staring out the window. “That’s what Copper said,” she murmured and sat down, watching the townspeople collect bodies.
Melissa kept her distance, one hand inching closer to the doorknob. Something felt off.. Elle felt off.
“Doesn’t that bother you, Elle? Seeing so many dead?” Melissa asked carefully.
Elle swung her legs in the chair like a child, expression vacant. “Not really. I mean… we’re all going to die anyway.”
The way she said we made Melissa tense. Did Elle really mean everyone? Or had she just let something slip?
Melissa forced a soft smile. “Well, I’m sure that won’t happen for a long time.”
“No,” Elle said flatly, still staring out the window. “The bad priest from Silver Falls is here.”
“What?” Melissa rushed to the window. “What’s happening out there?”
Elle pointed. “One of them is the Harbinger. The other… is just Alex.”
Melissa’s breath caught. Slowly, she stepped away from Elle. “How do you know what’s going on out there?” she asked.
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“Stop pretending, who are you really, Elle.”
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