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What Remains 
by Lee Mitchell  

Just look at him now. So peaceful. I can hardly believe it. The ache deepens in my chest, and I remind myself to breathe. I steady my hands by balling them into tight fists, crossing my arms in front of me along the wooden banister as I lean in and look down at the remains.

Breathe. Be still.

Like him.

Why am I crying? What am I even feeling? Is it grief? Relief? No, it’s more than either of those, but also somehow hallow and empty. Where do I even start? A memory flashes across my mind’s eye, and the brief waking nightmare seizes me. Those eyes. So hateful. Staring down their mark. Contemplating the next assault. Jekyll one moment, Hyde the next. Barely recognizable. Foaming at the mouth.

It could just as easily have been my mangled body lying down there on its back, eyes glazed, blood and brains leaking out the back of its shattered skull, I remind myself. The brawl had been close, and I had gotten lucky.

But now that the monster has been vanquished, what remains of me? I fear, now, that perhaps the price might have been too steep. Must a new monster be born for another to die? Will I ever know innocence again?

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Fiction © Copyright Lee Mitchell.
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from Author Lee Mitchell:

Alisha Brown led a mundane life until the day monsters started trying to kill her and random strangers began to shy away from her in awe.

All hell broke loose, quite literally, after Randy Thomas turned right on Main for Honey’s instead of making a left for home and then murdered his beloved wife in an unusually gruesome way. Escaping police and stopping traffic in New York City with a gas-spewing tentacle erupting from his mouth, his fears are confirmed: That one small backslide would serve as the final tipping point for all mankind, inviting in a timeless destructive force that would lead him to the frontlines of the war to end all wars.

A growing population has succumbed to their worst fears, some transforming into dreaded fictional monsters—leaving the streets flooded with vampires, werewolves, spontaneously combusting humans, and other horrors—while others have become angels and demons determined to fight in the holy war they believe is upon them.

Questions soon arise as Randy’s and Alisha’s roles in this bizarre apocalypse become uncertain. One is a professed sinner, the other an asexual virgin. Each has been touched by the hand of fate, and each believes they are humanity’s last hope. But belief can be a funny thing…

The Divine Darkness is the first installment of The Divine Darkness apocalyptic horror trilogy.

Available on Amazon!