"Stop!" a man’s voice shouted.
Everyone turned. Salim stood tall despite his severe wounds. And Megan left his side, to cross toward the table. She moved between Leon and the crowd. They still had guns and lengths of bamboo and sickles of their own in hand.
"Leave him be," Megan told them. "He’s one of you."
Leon watched the stalemate for a moment. Would the next war begin so soon? The war between Damned and Damned? It was inevitable, wasn’t it? It was the way of things.
But the crowd recognized the woman as one of those who had come amongst them to sow the rebellion, and free them, so they did not move on Leon. They watched him, as he resumed breaking the containers and liberating each head so that it could fully regenerate again, into a whole person.
And with each person he freed, it was like he freed another part of himself, bottled up and trapped inside him. Something demoralized into numbness, something beaten into submission, something terrified into helplessness. With each bottle he shattered, with tears in his eyes, he felt his own wounds healing. For the first time in what seemed all eternity, he felt like a whole person, himself.
Biography
Jeffrey Thomas is the author of the following books from Dark Regions Press: The Fall of Hades, Voices From Punktown, Thought Forms, Nocturnal Emissions and Doomsdays. Other of his books include Punktown, Blue War, Deadstock, Health Agent, Monstrocity, Letters From Hades and A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Dealers. Some of his short stories have appeared in such books as The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, The Year’s Best Horror Stories, The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction and The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric and Discredited Diseases. He lives in Massachusetts, and his blog can be found at:
http://www.JeffreyEThomas.com/blog/
Jeffrey Thomas, Voices from Hades Page 19