Hot for Slayer

by Ali Hazelwood

“But you still tried to . . .” Kill me, I want to say. Because he did. For centuries. Over and over. “After I formed my opinion of you, I focused on the rest of your bloodline. Two other women who, like I said, don’t hurt innocents. I decided to spare them, too. But after that . . .” For 80the first time, I sense some hesitation. As though what comes next, he’s not too comfortable with. Something harder to admit. “I missed you. Watching you. Observing you. I just . . . liked you. It was a new feeling for me, wanting to know someone. Wanting to be known by them as I truly am. So I tried to do that.” “You tried to . . . what?” “To talk to you. To explain that I no longer wished to kill you.” “When?” “In Italy. Then in Derbyshire, during the nineteenth century. In Turkey, a few years later. Thailand and Indonesia. A few more times, too.”