Season 03 - Episode 22

‘suddenly it is’

Ko is scared, more scared then he's ever been.

He is standing with Vo and the last few members of The Order of The Beast in a darkened room, a machete weighing heavy in his hand. They are waiting for the signal, each lost in their thoughts. Ko's heart is hammering in his chest and he thinks he's going to be sick.

“It's ok, Wa,” Vo whispers to him suddenly.

“It is?” Ko whispers back, not recognising his own voice.

“I know what you're worried about,” says Vo. “I know your secret.”

“You do?” says Ko, a new wash of cold fear rushing through him. He turns to look at Vo through the gloom and can just about make out his friend's single eye gleaming.

“Of course,” says Vo, laying a hand on Ko's shoulder. “I've always known.”

“What..?” says Ko. “You mean that I'm...”

“Afraid to give up your eye?” says Vo. “Yes, I know. You've always been afraid of the ceremony and now you're worried it's too late, that The Beast won't accept you.”

“Oh,” says Ko, surprised to find he's actually disappointed. “Right. Sure.”

“But Wa...” says Vo kindly. “The Beast knows you, he's in your heart. You have nothing to prove to him. When this is done, we will sit at his left hand, together, I promise you.”

“Ok,” says Ko, swallowing hard and fighting the sting in his eyes. “Thank you, brother.”

They lapse back into silence and Ko's stomach churns even more. They're about to die and he's never told his best friend his real name. Vo has done many terrible things. Ko has seen him do these things, sometimes he even helped him. Vo's not a good man, he's a zealot and a thug and a murderer, but when Ko calls him brother, he means it.

For everything else he's done, Vo has never shown Ko anything but unconditional love. From the moment Vo found him sleeping in a doorway, lost and alone, to the now countless times they've saved each other's lives. He knows this man would die to save his life and that he would do the same.

“Vo,” says Ko then, suddenly urgent. “There's something I have to tell...”

But then the signal comes, a shrill, piping whistle.

“This is it!” Vo roars. “Our orders are clear. Kill as many people as you can. Do as much damage as you can. Don't get captured and don't come back. To the death! For the Beast!”

“For the Beast!” they all scream.

The wall before them explodes, showering the unwitting EnFo's on the other side with masonry. Ko and Vo lead their brothers through the hole and start swinging. As they go, more walls explode and more Orders pile in. At one point a part of the floor collapses and bodies tumble through and down.

Ko loses all sense of reality. All that exists now is a swirling nightmare of violence and death. He swings the machete over and over, the muscles in his arm knowing where to place the blows. He kills and kills until the machete sticks and won't come out. He uses his hands then, beating and tearing and throttling.

Finally, peace, of a sort. Almost everyone is dead, only a handful still stand. Ko stumbles and stares and blinks dumbly. Then he sees Vo, laid out on the floor, bloody and broken. The others are regrouping, pushing on to find more people to kill, more things to destroy, an unstoppable tide of suicidal carnage.

But Ko can't leave Vo. He falls down beside his only friend and touches his face gently with trembling fingers. Ko closes his friend's eyes and feels something hot and wet on his own face. He realises he is crying. Suddenly nothing makes sense. He is alone and lost and broken, all over again and for what?

He sees the others leave and knows he won't follow. He sobs over Vo a little longer then finally composes himself and prepares to flee, even though he has nowhere to go. As he starts to stand however, a single thought occurs, not a plan, just a thought. With absolute care and reverence, he slips his hand inside Vo's shirt and retrieves a small object.

Then he walks away.

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