Sil gawked at the lightning bolt practically prancing on his hand; she was engrossed by it, enthralled by the product of his mastery. When she had gazed into his eyes just seconds before, she had seen a haze of insanity over his vision: he was fully intent on hurting her, killing her even.

“What do you want to know?” she asked, gulping simultaneously. She could feel her eyes getting wetter, ashamed of what she was about to do.

“I told you already,” Stanis spat, “What is the plan to kill me?”

“The necromancer,” she said, casting her head down.

“Jen? You guys actually trust that wench over me?” he asked incredulously.

She looked up and saw his eyes wide and mouth agape, his face one of pure shock. His expression shifted to one of dismay for the slightest of a second before he exploded out into laughter. He withdrew the lightning bolt into his body and stepped away from her, turning to face the village. His laughter was chipped at the corners and sounded fractured, broken, just like him.

He dryly coughed before turning around to consider her once more.

“A fitting person to trust. Backstabbers find other backstabbers, I guess,” he said while looking right through her. “So, what’s been done?”

She shook her head in response, casting her head down once more in fear.

“I hope I don’t have to remind you what you’re betraying everyone you love for,” he said, simultaneously allowing another bolt to crackle to life.

His words directly stabbed her open wounds, causing her moist eyes to finally break. Droplets of tears burst out as she began to sob.

Stanis leaned in and took in her features. “I don’t care if you’re going to start bitching right now, you whore. Give me details on what you backstabbers have already done,”

She scrambled away from him and glared. “That’s why you chose me, isn’t it? Because you’re jealous I got with someone else.”

“Jayesh?” he spat back. He turned around and looked into the distance, hiding the ugly expression he currently wore. “I don’t care which whoreson you get with; our relationship was already over with the second I left. Stop begging for rope to help you out of this ditch: there is none to be thrown.”

She swallowed the truth pill and gulped at the loss of hope. He was right; she was stretching her logic too far, there was no way Stanis would have been jealous of her or anyone else.

“So, what has been done?” he repeated once his emotions were under control. He hadn’t expected such a curveball, especially one that hit home as freshly as hers had.

“Nothing,” she said, “the plan only came about recently anyway,”

He grunted. It made sense, after all, he had only felt something wrong recently. Besides, it was only Jen that fared a danger to him.

“Ha. What’s their reason for rebelling anyway? What’s your reason?”

“Reason? Who needs much reason when handling someone as unreasonable as you?” she answered.

“Unreasonable?” he said. “I’ve fucking defended that piece of shit village how many times now? How many times have I been the saving grace? How many times have I saved it from destruction?”

“You wasted the potential of the village. You wasted every opportunity you had to improve it, instead choosing to only prove yourself in battle.”

He sniggered bitterly at this. “And you think the others actually hate me for that? Don’t lie you wench, you know that’s exactly what you and they wanted. Someone who never interfered in the village’s happenings apart from in battle, in which he’d save everyone’s arses,”

Her jaw fell slack and she stared with disbelief. It had been Alyona to bring up that point. From what she knew of Alyona, she was truthful and an overall joy to be around. Surely she hadn’t been lying about her point then, had she?

He scanned her expression and then looked away. “Please tell me you chose Jen for more than just that.”

“Of course,” she responded. “You’re an indiscriminate meat-grinder in battle, murdering just as many of ours as theirs. You’re not worth your cost in lives,”

He cocked his head around and raised an eyebrow. “Who told you that? I know you’re too smart to actually think that,”

“No-one. It’s not my fault it’s the truth,” she retorted. In truth, it had been Moonshine who had brought the point up, however Sil wanted to act confident in her points now. One had already been demolished by Stanis and she feared their whole argument for killing him was a lot more selfish than she had initially believed.

He stood there silently for several seconds, ignoring the evil eyes Sil was giving him. “Whoever it is who brought up such bullshit,” he then answered, “I’d like to see them against the monsters I was killing. I don’t even want to see them achieve the same things I did, I just want to see them last 5 seconds,”

They stood and sat in silence respectively. Sil’s organs rolled in fear and indignation. She had been played for a fool: how could she have not seen? But no, because their lies had gone so well with Stanis’s new character, it just seemed too truthful to deny. He was now dangerously cold, volatile and even more self-assured than before. He didn’t even show any emotion to his allies. Of course she would believe their lies, of course.

“Well, I think you’ve told me everything I needed to hear,” he eventually said.

“No, no, no,” she begged. “We were wrong. Please, I was wrong.”

He looked directly into her eyes, the lightning bolt in his hand freezing in place.

“I know,”

****

“We’re here for help,” Moonshine coolly answered, hiding away her nerves.

“Help with what?” Jen asked. “And what do I get in return?”

Orena feared her grip would grow wet any second and break, whereas Tanya was infatuated by Jen’s face. She knew they were in a precarious situation but it still begged the question; how did the woman in front her still look so beautiful and clean, despite it being months into the apocalypse.

“With killing someone. Stanis Volkov, we’ve heard you know of him already,”

Jen squinted her eyes and covertly intensified her aura in the surrounding area. She saw the effect on the 3 in front of her immediately. Pathetic.

“How do you know of him and what do you know of him? Tell me,” she demanded. The zombies who had been working in the surrounding area began to crowd towards her, causing the trio’s nerves to worsen.

“He’s the strongest in our village,” Tanya answered through clenched teeth. “But he’s—”

“A stain on humanity,” Moonshine finished.

“Ahh, you must be from the village from before,” Jen said, simultaneously lowering her aura. “The one that acted as last battle’s backdrop. Well, isn’t that funny? To believe his own people hate him; I’m not surprised,”

“Yes, he’s more monster than man,” Moonshine added.

Jen narrowed her eyes and focused her aura solely on Moonshine. “I know what he is. No need to kiss my ass, you waste-of-air,”

Orena felt Moonshine trembling and feared she would ruin everything, although she sighed a second later as Moonshine managed to keep it in. “Yes. I’m ---”

“I was going to kill him without any reminder anyway,” Jen cut through. She turned around and slowly began walking away. “No use in ants like you,”

“We can help. The whole village can aid you,” Orena pleaded. “Make sure you get the kill,”

Jen turned around and sneered. “Help? Me? From wastrels like you? Don’t make me laugh!” she spat. She ordered her zombies to indulge themselves and then walked away, careless of the screams that followed her steps…