Riverwatch

Chapter Forty-two: Inferno

Somehow, the beast had climbed to its feet.

Katelynn and Sam watched in fascinated horror as the Nightshade took one step toward the roof’s edge, then another.

And another.

The flames were burning fiercely now, the homemade napalm smeared across most of the creature’s torso. The frantic beating of its wings simply fanned the flames, adding to its own destruction.

But they could see that it wasn’t burning quickly enough.

While the heat was intense, the fire had not spread to the rest of the creature’s body, burning only where the gasoline mixture had soaked into the skin. With its supernatural healing, Moloch would survive the burns if he found some way of putting out the flames before they consumed him.

The beast took a fourth step.

A fifth.

Each step bringing him closer to freedom.

Crouched against the far wall, using his body to shield Katelynn from the heat, Sam realized what the creature was going to do. Once it reached the edge of the roof, it would launch itself into the open air. While the wind of its flight might fan the flames, it would also allow the beast to reach the lake on the other side of campus. Once there, it could plunge beneath the lake’s surface, extinguishing the flames and finding a place to hide. There it would have the safety to gather its strength and slowly heal itself.

Sam knew he could not allow that to happen; they’d gotten two chances at the beast. They would not get a third.

He had to act now.

The creature’s agonized shrieks of pain echoed off the room’s stone walls; nearly deafening in their intensity. Sam pulled Katelynn’s head closer to his own and put his lips next to her ear so she could hear him over the noise.

"Take care of Damon."

Before she could react, he sprinted across the room at full speed directly at the tall burning figure that was just reaching the edge of the roof.

Halfway in shock from the pain of her broken leg, it took a moment for Katelynn to realize what Sam was doing.

When she did, she screamed in horror. "Sam! Noooo!"

It was too late to stop him, and deep inside she knew it.

At the edge of the roof, the Nightshade spread its wings wide, preparing to cast itself off the rooftop and escape.

Sam was only a step or two behind it, and with one, great wordless scream of rage and despair he launched himself at the beast.

In that moment, just before his body collided with the burning form of the beast, Sam realized something.

It was okay to be afraid.

Fear is what makes us all human. It is fear that allows us to rise above ourselves, to reach that much further and that much higher, to strive to achieve just that little bit more. If we had succumbed to our fears, man would never have made it past the Ice Age. There is too much to be afraid of in our lives; fear of ourselves, fear of others, fear of our emotions and our lack thereof, fear of every action we might take every day of our lives. We rise above that and we move forward, facing our fears with a sense of courage that lives within us all, waiting for the chance to be let out.

As Sam’s body closed the distance that separated him from the beast’s burning form, he was very, very afraid.

But that was okay.

I guess I’m not as much a coward as I thought, he mused to himself as his body crashed into Moloch’s, the momentum taking them both over the edge of the roof. The intense heat of the flames against his flesh only caused him to lock his arms that much tighter around the body of his enemy, effectively pinning the creature’s wings against its sides.

As they dropped over the edge and the ground rushed up to meet them, over the shriek of the creature and his own wordless cries of rage, Sam thought he heard Katelynn call his name.

In the second before he and the Nightshade crashed to the ground, Sam whispered a single word.

"Goodbye."