9. Hearts and Heads

The dark man walked all day. His feel developed blisters and every step became harder for him. He needed to reach the heart and he needed to do it fast. He thought about the gray places, the pathways between this world and the Other. He would not do it. He was too weak. The fatigue of years took over him and his knees buckled under him. He fell to the ground and turned to his side. The sinking sun's rays were bright and he closed his eyes against the glare. 

A small girl in a blue frock watched him fall. The child had painted her face with white powder and she held a pumpkin in her hand. 

Recognition of the day washed over the dark man. This was hallow's eve. The day of demons, when the barriers between this world and that were weakest. Maybe, just maybe he could risk it...

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Nife was blind. The nails stuck out of his destroyed and bleeding eyes like rotting branches from hard ground. He still didn't scream. He didn't sigh or curse. He just languished in the pain. He tasted it and felt it crawl all over him like spider legs. An involuntary groan escaped his lips. The Nailwidow moved her wrist and the nails dug in deeper, reaching for Nife's brain, to end his agony. 

Then the air near Nife's makeshift grave exploded. A dark man fell out the rip in the air. His clothes were on fire. His eyes were wild and as he digested the scene in front of him. 

"Evil witch!" he yelled and raised his hand at the Nailwidow. The Nailwidow felt fear like she had never felt it before in her life. Her body was lifted off the ground as if in an invisible grip and her magic over Nife broke. She saw the boy roll over from the grave and grab at something in his sleeve. The invisible force around her increased the pressure and her ribs cracked, puncturing her lungs. Then she felt another hand on her neck. Fingers feeling and prodding as if unsure. Nife handcrawled over her neck and his other hand came up with a black knife. The nailed poked out of his eyes and a mad grin was locked on his face. He ran the knife through the Nailwidow's throat and kept cutting till he chopped through her neck and her head rolled off her neck. He fell to the ground, panting with pain and exertion. The gold coins in his pocked picked that moment to roll out and fall to the ground in a heap, skittering here and there.

The dark man looked at the coins with amusement. 

"I know the stink on these coins. You took gold to stop me?" he asked.

Nife said nothing. He could not say anything. He was dead.

The dark man looked at the carnage in the gray place and opened another rip in the air to reach the heart that belonged to him.

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A blue-green light filled the small shop and the dark man stepped out of the gray place. It was his luck that he stepped into the remains of a dog. The shop stunk of death and rotting meat. He looked around and found the jar under the table. He picked it up and put it on the table. After so many years. They were together again. 

He opened the jar, put his hand in and took out the heart. It pulsed slightly in his hand. Finally at peace on finding its true owner.

The dark man sat down on the ground in the dog and man carcasses, and started to eat the heart.

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Thank you for reading!!

LET'S DO NANOWRIMO NOW!!!