Chapter 14
He’d watched the Logan woman running down the beach this morning. He was able to keep her in his sights almost the entire duration of her jog. His partner had informed him late last night that it was nearly time to finish them. Tony knew why he wanted to kill them both, but he was definitely stumped by his partner’s reasons. When Tony was approached a few months ago, he’d been more than a little surprised and definitely skeptical. He got over that quickly and figured whatever the reason was it worked in his favor. He shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
He couldn’t track her the whole time because the creature was flying overhead. He was watching her too. Tony knew the creature would sense him, but he’d been able to block him enough to hide his position. That damn thing flying around meant he had to stay in the shadows. He’d been spotted at the restaurant, and he couldn’t risk being seen again. It would spoil everything. He wasn’t afraid of it. Oh no. He couldn’t wait to stand in front of it, look it in the eye, and drive a bullet through its black heart. In fact, he came up with a hundred different ways to kill it. He spent hours trying to formulate the most torturous ways to do it, but it had to be at the right time. He also had to be sure there were no other creatures around. Taking down one was hard enough, the last thing he needed was a swarm of them.
Tony sat in his room for hours, cleaning the various weapons in his arsenal. He had them all carefully laid out on his bed. He had a twelve-gauge shotgun, a long-range rifle with a sight scope, and two twelve-inch serrated daggers. His personal favorite was an enormous black crossbow with stainless steel arrows. It was perfect for puncturing the wings of the creature. He picked up the bow and carefully inspected every angle. He checked the sights to be sure the alignment was as it should be.
This was a graceful weapon. Exactly the kind of weapon one of God’s chosen would wield. Tony knew that’s what he was. He was a chosen one. He was sent to save the earth and save the humans from annihilation. He knew that one arrow in the wing wouldn’t kill it, but would render it flightless. Best thing of all, it would make it suffer. A smile spread across his face at the very thought of it.
He rubbed the polishing cloth along the cold steel of the arrows. He loved the way that they glinted in the sunlight from his window. Satisfied with that, he moved on to the black-handled daggers. He meticulously rubbed the steel to a mirror finish. Tony worked on the blade, slowly at first. However, the more he thought about killing the creature, the more furiously he polished. Soon beads of sweat formed on his brow, which was knitted in fierce concentration. After several minutes, he admired his handiwork and saw his own reflection.
“The end is almost here.” He spit on the knife and feverishly rubbed it with the cloth, striving for perfection.