Legion's Arc

Chapter 17 of 22

Margaret was gone. Her body lay still among the broken pews. Legion pulled itself back into one shape and turned its black eyes on Diana. The rats around her feet ran past but never bit. Diana froze in the wrecked doorway of the church. She had seen this before, in the woods, when the creature spared her. Now it looked at her the same way. Inside Legion, the hunger roared. It wanted her blood. It wanted every warm body in the room. But something quieter pushed against the noise. A voice it could not place. Protect her. Do not harm her. Legion shook its great head. The words came again, clearer. She's family. Diana held its stare. She did not run now. She saw a face she almost knew buried in the fur and teeth. Her husband's eyes. Or was it? So familiar. "You know me," she whispered. "You know me." A man broke from the far wall. He was one of the townspeople who had barricaded the church, a farmer with a pitchfork raised over his head. He screamed and ran at Legion. "Kill it! Kill it now!" The hunger swallowed the quiet voice whole. Legion moved fast. It ripped the pitchfork from the man's hands and threw it against the pulpit. Then it seized him by the shoulders and bit him in the neck. The man dropped. He did not move again. Blood spread across the church floor. The rest of the townspeople screamed. They clawed at the boarded windows and shoved at the walls, searching for any gap. But there was no use. No one could get past Legion. No one stood a chance. It stood in the middle of a pile of bodies, covered in blood, and lifted its head toward Diana. Diana had backed against the door frame. Her hands shook. She had watched it kill without effort. Yet it had not touched her. It never touched her. The truth settled cold in her chest. This thing knew her. It chose her out of every person in the room and let her live. Legion took one step toward her. The hunger wanted to close the gap. The voice inside fought it, weaker now, but there. Family. Legion did not understand the word. It only knew the pull. It stopped an arm's length from Diana and stared, waiting, confused by its own mercy. Diana slowly opened her eyes, expecting to already be dead. She could feel the hot breath of Legion blowing over her face. She should be terrified. But she wasn’t. She didn’t feel danger. She didn’t feel anger. She needed time to think. Slowly, she slipped through the broken door and into the dark. Legion did not follow. It let her go, and the hunger screamed at the loss. The barn held the entirety of the last of the small village. Not one living soul was spared. The brutality. So severe. Diana ran toward the pub. Maybe there was something. Anything that could explain what was going on with her and this violent beast who took her Mark from her. And now he was a part of it. And he was all she had left.