When I removed the pouch, the cruciform on his chest fell away also. Just…fell right off…long, bloody roots. Then the thing…the thing I’d been sure was a corpse…the man raised its head. No eyelids. Eyes baked white. Lips gone. But it looked at me and smiled. He smiled. And he died…really died…there in my arms. The ten thousandth time, but real this time. He smiled at me and died.”
