The Guillotine

My take on 'The Guillotine' by 'Escape the Fate'

“Listen up men�"�"and woman,” Sargeant said, beginning his the pre-battle pep talk. “These monsters won't go down easily. They have us out-numbered by a few hundred, but does that mean we're going to back down?”

“NO!” everyone cried simultaneously.

“That's right! We won't back down! Not now, not ever! So, let's lock and load our weapons! I can see the smoke from their hilltop, as they march down to meet us for battle! They want to kill what we have started, but no! We spark a flame in the darkest hours for those we are saving! They need to know that we will fight to live�"�"we won't back down! If they knock us down, they'll have to fight us from the ground!

“Now, let's move out! Go, go, go!”

Then, loading our weapons, we charged out onto the battle field. Just after we'd left the preparation sight, I felt Ron grab my shoulder. “We stay here tonight,” he said. I nodded. “I need you to promise something.”

“Anything,” I said.

“Promise me you won't leave my side.”

I nodded again, and we began to run to catch up with the others. By the time we got there, the smoke had cleared, giving us an advantage against the demons we faced. I could feel the ground trembling as their underground armies swept up our men, one by one. “Look out!” Ron knocked me down, saving me from being swept away with the others. “Be careful,” he said, helping me to my feet.

“Are you two lovebirds just going to stand there and make goo-goo eyes at each other,” Sargeant called out to us, “or are you going to go out there and slay you some demons?!”

Ron and I nodded to Sargeant, saluted, and ran deeper into the battle field. Something exploded a few yards in front of me, creating a large crater in the earth. I looked into it for an instant, seeing that the grenade had blown a hole in one of the giant earthworms that had been taking our men. It's purple blood had covered the crater with it's goopy-ness.

I felt Ron's hand on mine, pulling me away from the edge of the hole. “Remember,” he said to me, “we fight to live. We won't back down. We can't back down.”
I nodded, throwing a grenade and watching it explode, sending parts of demons flying in all directions.

Ron's and Sargeant's words were ringing in my head, overlapping each other. We stay here tonight... They'll have to fight us from the ground... Promise me you won't leave my side... We won't back down... We won't back�"�" A blade whizzed by my ear, missing me by millimeters.

“Someone's got good aim,” I muttered, then threw my own blade at the creature that had thrown at me. It struck it in the chest, sticking there. The creature let out a shriek of pain, terror, and surprise as black liquid spouted, as if from a fountain, form the wound.

Then, somehow, Ron and I had ended up on top of a small hill. It wasn't as high as the one that we had come charging down from, but it still gave us a good view of the battle raging around us. Then, as if from an old movie, I felt Ron take my hand, bringing me in to kiss him. The noise of the battle was drowned out in those few moments. As he pulled away, he said what he had before: “We stay here tonight. Promise me you won't leave my side. When they try to strike us down, just promise me you won't leave my side.”

I smiled and nodded, tears gliding down my cheeks.

Then there was a cry from Sargeant. “Charge the gates,” he cried, “of this abomination! Let us wreak destruction and kill the demons!” The men let out their individual battle cries and charged for the gates that led to the demonic city of hell.

After what felt like days of battle, we finally overcame the demons that had been torturing us for so long. Three hundred years is shorter than you'd think for demons.

The battle was dark, and many of us were bathed in our blood. We had expected that the worst was yet to come, but it was all over. Over for good.

When we'd reached their main fortress, we'd found their original leader's grave, with a guillotine acting as the headstone. The walls of the tower behind it were the colour of ash, but were turned white as we splashed water on them, casting the soot away.

It had always rained ash in the City of Hell, no one quite knew why. It was said that once the city was a place of ritual for the elves, but one day the demons rose up through the earth and took it over. And now, three centuries later, we've taken it back. As soon as every last demon was gone�"�"either slain or retreated back into the depths of hell�"�"the sky had begun to clear. Now it had gone from it's blood red and raining ashes, to white, fluffy clouds that rained down pure water, washing away every last inch of ash.

I stood and stared at the guillotine for a moment before I realized that someone was watching me. I turned and saw Ron. “It's easier to look at than I thought it would be,” I told him, gesturing towards that instrument that had taken my parents' lives when I was no more than nine years old.

Ron nodded, walking towards me. “It's been so long,” he said. “I never thought that I would live to see the day that the demons were slain, let alone be second-in-command of group that destroyed them.”

“Nor had I. Yet here we are.”
Ron smiled softly, sadly, and took my hand. He leaned over and kissed me gently. “I'm glad that you volunteered,” he said. “You're very brave. Not many women, in all of history, would have thought that they could do what you have done.”

I didn't know what to say, so I said nothing. I just stood there and stared at the guillotine as the rain washed away the blood from it's blade, and I couldn't help but think about the humans, oblivious to this part of our beautifully terrifying world.

Reviews

[Alyx Aaland]

This is a very nicely written piece that plunges us straight into the heart of an other-worldly battle. The one question that's on my mind after reading this is whether this story is part of a bigger piece of work. Is this an extract from a novel you've written or more of an exercise in writing an extended action scene?

Stylistically you demonstrate that you understand the genre very well. There are all the usual suspects we'd expect to find in a piece of fantasy writing; including elves and demons blended with the appropriate dash of heroic action. The only aspect I'm a little uncertain about is the unusual weaponry. I was expecting swords and shields but encountered guns and grenades. Perhaps the anachronism is something explained elsewhere but other than that this is a very well written story.