It was a grey evening turning black at the edges, just bright enough out to see. The rain was a light mist but the flashes and rumbles promised a downpour. The tavern was old stones and flaking mortar under a roof of odd tiles. The streets around had cleared out when the sun went down and the eyes that watched out the windows were blind to murder. It was that part of town.

He came out of the door of the tavern with an orange glow to his back. The door slammed and left him out in the quiet grey. He was smoking a pipe and when the cherry glowed I could see the marks on his face where she had clawed him. The scabs were just beginning to flake off. He walked smoothly to the sewer opening to relieve himself and stopped. He saw that someone had taken the grate off and it was leaned next to the stone mound. The opening was wide and dark.

“Marsten.”

He turned and already had the knife in his hand. It was worth the risk for him to see me. He snarled and struck out with his knife and I moved in with mine. I got his blade on the outside of my left forearm and got my knife into him up to the hilt. I grabbed his knife arm and twisted the blade in his guts and he buckled up. His other arm swung at me but I didn’t even feel the hit. I took the knife out of his guts and slid it up under his jaw, through the tongue and past the roof of his mouth. Then I got close to him.

“Angel Ethelyn is gonna fly you to hell now.”

I pulled the knife out and slashed his other hand away from me as I pushed him back hard. He fell through the hole with a thud and I heard him land in the filth below. I heard him gurgling and thrashing around as I cleaned my knife off in the dirt and put the grate back on. I took my pipe out and packed it as I walked over to where his lay, still glowing. I picked it up, lit mine with it then dropped it on the ground and crushed it under my heel. I went back and sat down on the grate. I could still hear him. I took out the flask and poured some whiskey on the gash on my arm then took a drink. I smoked three pipes there, just like that, listening to him whimper and die.