PART VIII

"The ants go marching one-by-one," I mumble as the little black specks maintain their uniformity through the packed, desert-like dirt. It's a sweltering day and they have food aplenty to salvage from the carnage the heat has reaped upon the local fauna.

"Hurrah, hurrah," a sardonic voice finishes for me. Once, that voice gave me shivers and frightened me. Now, it invokes pity. "I've got to admit, I'm getting pretty excited. My time is nearly served and I have immensely enjoyed reviewing my life's triumphs."

I scoff, "you have clearly learned nothing from your service then."

"Bella, Bella, Bella," he tsk's. "I've learned much, I'm not as thick as some."

"How to prolong torturing your victims?" I offer.

He barks a humourless laugh, "I only ever took my fill… I just prefer a challenge."

I sigh, "what do you want?"

He moves and seats himself beside me. "My time is nearly up, and we get the same deal, regardless of sins or humility. I just wanted to point out that even the greater good recognise us as a different species, and survival isn't murder; it's nature."

I roll my shoulders and sigh heavily. "I've never held that against you, James. Or anyone. I couldn't care less if your count was double. What I have a problem with, is your sadistic tendencies and the unnecessary torture of sentient beings." I pause a beat, "why would you even care enough to come to me with this?"

He chuckles humourlessly, his blonde hair covering a good portion of his face. "I was bored."

"Well, you have a mate that can entertain your flights of fancy."

He leans forward, a smirk on his face. "And you think I have learned nothing." I roll my eyes at him, but don't retort. "Mates," he spits. "More horse-shit fed to us. More like, 'someone you can tolerate, until you can't."

I smile a bit at that, "you should look into starting your own greeting-card company… you won't have competition for a while."

"I can think of better things to do with my time."

I raise an eyebrow, "will you continue down the same path?"

James scoffs, "we both know the course is already set."

I half-shrug, "only the destination is set, James, our course is our own to choose."

"Well," he smirks and rubs my cheek with his thumb, "a leopard never changes his spots, Bella."

I pull away from him and shake my head. "A leopard, no. But perhaps you should compare yourself with an adaptive creature, like a chameleon. Change to your environment, not be defined by it."

"That was deep," he patronises. "But I think you are glamorising a chameleon's thought process and motives."

I chuckle, "probably… it sounded better in my head."

"I'm sure everything that comes out of your mouth sounds better in your head."

I roll my eyes at him, "whatever."

"Well, I'm off," he stands and dusts himself off, even though nothing will cling to him.

"Oh," I halt his departure. "Did they say if you will remember everything?"

"No… they did not."

He disappears from sight, leaving me to my solace. A wild dog, chasing a rabbit enter the scene to my right from a crest, the pair scurrying past me and leaving the scene as quickly as they came, a path of destruction and mayhem left in their wake. The ants scatter in a panic. Their fallen brethren lie broken while they attempt to regroup and reorganise. I place my hand on the ground, the five casualties instinctually climbing into my palm.

"Let's go home guys."