Love and War Epilogue

Gerrik looked up as his boy was carried off but barely had enough time to pay him even a visual good-bye. Somewhere inside, this broken old warrior found the will to fight on. The Phantoms charged the roof and rampaged toward him, swinging their blades, ready to gnash him to mincemeat. He grabbed the first appendage he could get his hands on and broke it, as if a Phantom’s arm could break.

Somehow he avoided all lethal strikes. Unfortunately for him though, all he needed were his rapidly accruing scratches. Gina screamed over the grunts and roars. He did not have, and would not be given the time to work his way through the crowd to her. The poor girl was probably being ripped apart.

Arbello shot up over the crowd and then dove down at him, slashing across his chest and then kicking him, launching the old man off the side of the tower. Gerrik plummeted down far enough to come to the realization he was falling. This was going to hurt. An entire lifetime as the greatest warrior man had ever known, undone by his own offspring. In this, he found logic; no matter how much he had tried to raise his boys right, his own violent and monstrous tendencies had passed on to them, and there was no saving them now.

With no will to live, as if he’d had a choice, he accepted his fate and braced for impact. What would his sentence before the Peacemakers be? He had killed so many men and had only one person to blame, Harmony. And with that final thought, his body touched down, crushed under the velocity of the fall.

From above, Gina did not have the time to look down but was aware of Gerrik’s fall. She hid behind her shield as long as she could before a hand finally pulled it aside.

“Help! Somebody, please! Help!”

A voice, Gerrik thought lying in his snowy grave. No one can help you now, he thought as he listened to a woman scream. Can I help her? No, I am dead. I can help no one, not that it is much different than life.

“Help!” she shouted through hysterical tears.

What is she doing here? Did she come with the army? Can I help her? Is this perhaps the first test of the afterlife? Can I move? A hideous laughter cackled through the chasms of his mind, getting louder and louder until he was sure his skull would explode. His hands flew to his ears. When finally he began to kick his legs uncontrollably, the laughter died down. He sat up in the snow, taking a deep breath, clinging to life.

He looked up at the ice palace from its base, then at his hands. A glinting in his eye revealed Gina’s sword. He grabbed it and began to mirror himself in it, starting with his face and down his chest and back. No damage, no wounds he didn’t know were already there; everything in his body seemed to be functioning normally. He could move his legs and feet with little problem. No doubt about it, he survived the fall. Alive? But how? His stomach sank suddenly, having an epiphany as he ran his hand across the wound on his chest. He had been cut. He was becoming one of them, a Phantom.

“You there, please help me! My husband!” a woman’s voice called.

Gerrik sat a moment and stared at the sword in his hand, then stood up ominously, his eyes never leaving it.

“Hello?” she asked, looking at the sword in his hand.

By Harmony, he wanted nothing more than to dive on her and cut into her, to slice her apart as if she were his worst enemy. He hated her. Why do I feel this way? he thought. I want to kill her. I can kill her … No! I won’t. She’s done nothing to deserve this, he fought. He came out of his trance, throwing the sword into the snow beside him.

“Oh thank Harmony,” he heard her say as she romped through the snow, soaked and freezing. “My husband, they took him,” she called out to Gerrik.

“C’mon!” he said, taking her by the hand. “I’m sorry, he’s gone! There’s nothing we can do, but you can still get away!” he yelled.

“Wait! You don’t know that!” she cried.

Gerrik wasn’t going to leave her though. “You have to trust me if your life is important to you. What’s your name?”

“Marilynne! Please, we have to go back for my husband!” she persisted. “Do you know what it’s like? He’s all I have!”

Gerrik stared into her icy blue eyes. “I lost all I have on top of that roof. They are gone, and I’m not okay with it, but there is nothing we can do if we are killed as well. I choose to live. How about you?” he said, releasing her hand and beginning to walk off.

She stood for a moment, biting her lip and letting the tears pool up in her eyes, thinking about the loss of her husband. But as she watched Gerrik walk away, something inside compelled her to follow him away from this horrible place and toward a world that had officially ended.