before Benjamin's snipe nose. He finished loading the musket and lugged it level with Mural's broad chest. The bayonet's tip pierced Mural's coat.
"You should've stabbed me."
"You sonovabitch," Benjamin said fumbling the musket.
The hammer seemed to hit down in slow motion as Mural's mammoth hand batted the barrel aside. The bullet blasted into a wooden support beam and propelled splinters in a shower around the men. Mural raised the knife amidst the chips of wood and slashed it down into Benjamin's arm. Splinters stabbed at both their faces and Benjamin bellowed into the night air as the blade cut deeper. While the knife ate through all his flesh, Mural smiled and pushed it down until the bone stopped him. The musket clanked on the porch and Benjamin continued to shriek, pressing out puffs of breath in a veil that surrounded his head.
In awful shock, Benjamin watched the colossal killer rip the knife out from his broken flesh like it was a stubborn weed, rupturing his arm in an explosion of blood. Swinging the blade back for momentum, Mural stabbed down again with blinding speed, landing it right into Benjamin's chest. The knife crunched and creaked past ribs and neatly punctured into his lungs. Mural smiled and lifted the impaled Benjamin off the ground. His broad body branched out in support as Benjamin dangled like a noose from his arm, raining blood onto the splinters scattered about the porch. A stretch of pink saliva suspended from Benjamin's lips as Mural shook the knife around within him to hear more cracks, forcing out fewer and fewer of his dying sputters.
"I've been saving this for you," Mural whispered in Benjamin's ear. "I've been waiting for so long. It all ends with you. You who has taken so much from me."
Realizing his knife had drunk its fill, Mural flung the carcass into the bushes in a crumpled mess of mud and blood. Benjamin's body was out of sight and Mural dropped his blade to the soil and raced to his wife. He hoped his eyes were deceived and his wife's flesh wasn't torn apart, that sorrow and terror hadn't swallowed her eyes into the abyss of death. Crumpling to one knee with his outstretched hands over her, his every fiber quivered as his fingers prayed that she was alive. He nudged a shuddering hand under her shoulder and flipped her limp body over, immediately seeing her frozen eyes rolled up into her head.
Burning out a cry from his sore throat, tears streamed down but seemed to evaporate before they reached his cheeks. All his rage was scalding behind his eyes, as the solemn moonlight floated down and beat steadily against his head. His wife became illuminated, framed by hard shadows, completely shaded in black, white, and a stark shade of gray. With head buried into her muddy breast, his thick shoulders heaved in a deep sob while the moonlight congregated around him and watched.
Chapter 9
Pain swirled around him until the moonlight was plush. It then peeled away from him, scurrying into the shadows like spiders down his back, neck, and shoulders.
Mural began to pray. He had almost forgotten how, it had been so long since it seemed pertinent, but it came back without flaw in his head. From his mouth, however, came mumbled sentences, forming nothing coherent on his tongue. His trembling lips forgot how to create words. His bumbling prayers nevertheless persisted until the moonlight ate at him like a fire. He turned to the sky, but only saw pitch-black clouds, outlined in thin white, without a moon to illuminate the sky. But the light still burned and pulsed, pleading for his attention, and Mural obeyed. He turned completely away from Veronica. The glow was strange.
Mural knew it to be blue from the shade. Confused and tired, Mural focused harder, hoping his eyes were wrong again, and saw a static leap about the light as it came closer. Eyes focusing better, he saw a ball of light holding steady in mid air dozens of feet away, at eye level. This ball of electricity was cupped,
"You should've stabbed me."
"You sonovabitch," Benjamin said fumbling the musket.
The hammer seemed to hit down in slow motion as Mural's mammoth hand batted the barrel aside. The bullet blasted into a wooden support beam and propelled splinters in a shower around the men. Mural raised the knife amidst the chips of wood and slashed it down into Benjamin's arm. Splinters stabbed at both their faces and Benjamin bellowed into the night air as the blade cut deeper. While the knife ate through all his flesh, Mural smiled and pushed it down until the bone stopped him. The musket clanked on the porch and Benjamin continued to shriek, pressing out puffs of breath in a veil that surrounded his head.
In awful shock, Benjamin watched the colossal killer rip the knife out from his broken flesh like it was a stubborn weed, rupturing his arm in an explosion of blood. Swinging the blade back for momentum, Mural stabbed down again with blinding speed, landing it right into Benjamin's chest. The knife crunched and creaked past ribs and neatly punctured into his lungs. Mural smiled and lifted the impaled Benjamin off the ground. His broad body branched out in support as Benjamin dangled like a noose from his arm, raining blood onto the splinters scattered about the porch. A stretch of pink saliva suspended from Benjamin's lips as Mural shook the knife around within him to hear more cracks, forcing out fewer and fewer of his dying sputters.
"I've been saving this for you," Mural whispered in Benjamin's ear. "I've been waiting for so long. It all ends with you. You who has taken so much from me."
Realizing his knife had drunk its fill, Mural flung the carcass into the bushes in a crumpled mess of mud and blood. Benjamin's body was out of sight and Mural dropped his blade to the soil and raced to his wife. He hoped his eyes were deceived and his wife's flesh wasn't torn apart, that sorrow and terror hadn't swallowed her eyes into the abyss of death. Crumpling to one knee with his outstretched hands over her, his every fiber quivered as his fingers prayed that she was alive. He nudged a shuddering hand under her shoulder and flipped her limp body over, immediately seeing her frozen eyes rolled up into her head.
Burning out a cry from his sore throat, tears streamed down but seemed to evaporate before they reached his cheeks. All his rage was scalding behind his eyes, as the solemn moonlight floated down and beat steadily against his head. His wife became illuminated, framed by hard shadows, completely shaded in black, white, and a stark shade of gray. With head buried into her muddy breast, his thick shoulders heaved in a deep sob while the moonlight congregated around him and watched.
Chapter 9
Pain swirled around him until the moonlight was plush. It then peeled away from him, scurrying into the shadows like spiders down his back, neck, and shoulders.
Mural began to pray. He had almost forgotten how, it had been so long since it seemed pertinent, but it came back without flaw in his head. From his mouth, however, came mumbled sentences, forming nothing coherent on his tongue. His trembling lips forgot how to create words. His bumbling prayers nevertheless persisted until the moonlight ate at him like a fire. He turned to the sky, but only saw pitch-black clouds, outlined in thin white, without a moon to illuminate the sky. But the light still burned and pulsed, pleading for his attention, and Mural obeyed. He turned completely away from Veronica. The glow was strange.
Mural knew it to be blue from the shade. Confused and tired, Mural focused harder, hoping his eyes were wrong again, and saw a static leap about the light as it came closer. Eyes focusing better, he saw a ball of light holding steady in mid air dozens of feet away, at eye level. This ball of electricity was cupped,
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