Chapter Twenty-Nine: Worse Than Dallas Winston
"I shall take you from your sorcery," Mordred said. "It will be so much quicker and painless if you do not struggle. You know the end is inevitable."
"Isn't it always though?" Carmen said softly. "The only certain thing in life…is death."
"Indeed. And yours shall be now."
"You promised me a moment alone with Two-Bit?" Carmen said. "Before…" she refused to put a name to the event.
Her face was straight and blank, her eyes flatly neutral. Mordred could search all he wanted, but he would find no emotion with which to deduce her true intentions. Without Carmen's sorcery and mind-reading, he couldn't beat her at her own game.
Mordred glared suspiciously at her. Carmen could feel him trying to penetrate her mind, but to no avail. He's going to know I have something to hide if he can't read my mind, she realized. So show him what he needs to see.
She opened her mind a crack and tried to appear as hopeless and innocent as possible, which was no mean feat.
"I suppose," Mordred said after a while. "But make it quick. I shall deal with Trayakal whilst you two sort out your muddled teenage affairs. After many months in pursuit of you, I grow impatient."
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"Kill me," Carmen whispered before Two-Bit could say a word. "Kill me now, so Mordred can't get my magic."
Two-Bit couldn't talk for a moment. "What?" he finally blurted.
"You heard me," Carmen said. "And you heard him. As soon as my power is his, he'll be so powerful, the world won't be able to survive it."
Two-Bit finally managed to get a coherent sentence out. "I won't do it," he said stubbornly.
"Two-Bit," Carmen said. "Don't pretend you haven't known this wasn't going to happen all along."
"No," he breathed aloud.
"This is the only way," she whispered.
No, Two-Bit said desperately, switching back to mental communication. There must be another way.
If we get out of this, Mordred is just going to find another way, Carmen pointed out. If living means living this life, then I don't want to live.
I thought you were stronger than that, Two-Bit said bitterly.
I'm not, Carmen said. I can't do this.
I can't do this to you! Two-Bit exclaimed. What you're asking me to do…I can't do it.
Yes, you can.
No, I can't.
You have to, she said. If you don't do it I'll do it myself.
Two-Bit shook his head. You can't do this. I won't let you.
Carmen's mirthless laughter echoed hauntingly in his mind. What can you do to me that Mordred hasn't already? she asked, but not mockingly. The sincerity of her question raised an unfamiliar ache in Two-Bit's heart. He let go of her hand and blinked furiously even though there were no tears in his eyes.
He swallowed hard. His mouth was dry as he said, All right.
You're not a murderer, she told him.
Their eyes met.
Is a soldier a murderer? No, he's just doing his job. So are you. It's not murder, and you're not a killer, she told him.
Two-Bit nodded, although he knew he would never be able to look at himself the same way again. Drinking, fighting, sleeping around, gambling…minor child's play. Even Dallas Winston had never murdered anyone, per say.
I'm worse than Dallas Winston, he thought. I'm really going to hell now.
He was a murderer. He would never be able to live with himself after this. And yet he was doing it, for Carmen's sake.
Two-Bit's hand crept slowly to his pocket and drew his blade. Neither of them blinked once. He tried to open his blade as quietly as possible. To cover the noise, he started talking, a load of nonsense.
"Did you hear, Tim Shepard's got a sentence with no parole? He screwed up big time. And that stupid Soc, James Curloff, his car's fixed now. They said it must have rolled down by itself, even though he keeps saying she didn't park it on a hill or anything."
He stopped talking. He wasn't saying anything worthwhile. Carmen's eyes were shining with brief amusement.
Two-Bit was blinking away real tears this time. He felt no embarrassment for crying, though. Only remorse. "I'm sorry," he whispered, and slid the knife through her heart.
In the next few seconds, he took her hand. He could feel the pulse from her wrist throbbing against his palm, could hear it thumping in his ears like he could hear his own heartbeat underwater. Already it felt slow, shallow.
Her eyes closed. Two-Bit could see the thin blue veins through the translucent skin of her eyelids. Her lips tried to form words, but Two-Bit couldn't understand a word. This shouldn't happen so fast, should it? He didn't break his gaze from her face, afraid to look anywhere else. He didn't want to see her blood, though he could feel it seeping through his clothes, sticky on his hands.
Mordred saw it, however, as he burst into the room, and he roared in infuriation, but Two-Bit barely heard him through the tumultuous roaring in his ears. Mordred's spell cut through him as Carmen collapsed, and somehow Two-Bit found himself on the floor, crying like a baby and desperately hanging on to Carmen, lifeless and cold beneath him.
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Ding dong, the witch is dead…actually the sorceress. But whatever.
