Jason had heard the shrieks of pain and suffering as Reza walked through the city, killing its denizens.  Through the slaughter, he began to hear the sound of breaking glass and smashing wood.  As the sounds grew closer to the tower, they grew in intensity.  Soon it sounded as if entire buildings were being toppled, as if some monster approached, growing in strength with every step, bringing devastation in its wake.

            Jason hid like a child in his chambers, cradling his head in his hands, cringing at every cry.  He began to shake when the army engaged with the killer, knowing that they stood no chance.  The Reaper was coming to get him, Jason knew, and he knew that no one could stop it.

            Intent on the clamour of battle, it took a moment to comprehend the silence when the tumult ended.  The silence crept up on him the way night slowly creeps over the land as the sun sets and the shadows of the world lengthen.  It just crawled and lurched into his chamber, a silence that was loud in its significance.

            It meant that everyone else was dead.

            As that thought struck him, Jason’s trembling increased by an enormous degree.  He looked up from his hands like a trapped animal listening for the hunter, his eyes glazed with terror.  Panicked in the extreme, the trembling became a compulsion to move, and he fled from the solitude of his rooms in a mad dash for the door.  He was driven by the impulse to find someone, anyone, who was still alive in this tomb of a world.

            He screamed so loud that he lost his own voice to the quiet when he found, not the living, but Death standing on his doorstep instead.  Jason fell over, whimpering on the stone floor of the corridor, shaking at the feet of the dark figure looming over him.

            “Why, hello there, little Jason.  Aren’t you happy to see me?”  Reza asked, his grin that of a shark.  He reached down and gripped Jay by the neck, his hands clamping just under his jaw.  He effortlessly lifted Jay until his feet dangled six inches above the floor.  Jason was sobbing quietly, with tears running down his face and hocks of snot escaping his nose.  He stared into Reza’s eyes and finally saw them for what they were:  empty and soulless.  Unable to stop himself, Jason felt his bowels cut loose.

            “You’re such a child.”  Reza laughed.  “Let’s go see if your cousin is a real man or not.  There has to be one around here somewhere.”

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