Legion's Arc

Chapter 11 of 22

The men carried Diana into a town that looked half-dead. Boards covered broken windows. Empty houses leaned along a muddy road. They brought her into a small pub and set her by a stove. Warmth crept into her hands. Someone draped a blanket over her shoulders. She kept her eyes low and told herself the lie would hold. An older woman came from the back. Gray hair pinned tight. Her hands were rough and steady as she set down a bowl of stew. She did not smile. She watched Diana eat, and her stare did not move. "You said you got lost," the woman said. "You said the barn was already burning." Diana nodded. "That's what happened." "No." The woman pulled a chair close and sat. "You came from the woods with blood on you. I know those woods. I know that barn." Her voice stayed low, so the men by the door could not hear. "I know what lives out there." Diana's spoon stopped. "You don't know anything." "It's been out there longer than this town," the woman said. "Longer than my mother's mother. It isn't one thing. There are thousands of them, all wearing one face." She leaned in. "You saw the face. I can tell." The stew turned cold in Diana's mouth. She set the spoon down. "I know because it took my family," the woman said. "My three sons went into those woods to hunt it. James. Seth. Brandon. They swore they'd end it." Her jaw tightened. "None of them came home." The names hit Diana like a fall. She saw the three brothers in the trees. She saw Seth raise his gun toward her back. She saw the swarm break loose and cover them. She had led those men to their deaths. Now their mother sat across from her, waiting. Diana's hands shook. She could keep lying. The men by the door would believe her. But this woman had buried a hope and nursed a wound for months, and she was asking to know. "Your sons found it," Diana said. Her voice cracked. "They died in the woods. I was there. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." The woman closed her eyes. She did not cry. She had done her crying long ago. When she opened them again, something hard had settled in her face. "So you know it's real," she said. "And you lived. It let you live." She gripped Diana's wrist. "Nobody lives. Why did it spare you?" Diana looked at the old woman's grip and felt the whole truth press up behind her teeth. The book. The shirt. The man the swarm had been. The fire. "Because it knew me once," Diana said. "And I burned what tied it to this world. I think it's gone now." The woman released her wrist. She stood slowly. “You have no idea what you’ve just done.”