Monsters of Men

And he hits me again harder than ever and the world goes white but I keep thinking Viola in my head and grip the planks of wood and I pull myself to my feet and I think with the heaviest buzz I can muster, GET BACK!

And he steps back.

“Whoo, Todd,” he says, still acting impressed.

“I ain’t taking yer place,” I say, stepping out from the wreckage. “No matter what.”

And he takes another step back, even tho I didn’t tell him to.

“Someone has to,” he says. “Someone has to control the Noise, to tell people how to use it, tell them what to do.”

“Nobody has to tell nobody nothing,” I say, taking another step forward.

“You never were a poet, were you, Todd?” he says. He takes another step back. He’s on the edge of the sandy square now, still holding out his broken wrist, a bloody bone poking out thru the skin, but it don’t look like he’s feeling no pain. The only thing behind him is a long slope down to the waves and the dark shapes lurking beneath–

And I see how black the eyes of the Mayor are, how echoey his voice is becoming–

“This world is eating me alive, Todd,” he says. “This world and the information in it. It’s too much. Too much to control.”

“Then stop trying,” I say and I hit him with a VIOLA.

He flinches but don’t fall down. “I can’t,” he says with a smile. “It’s not in my nature. But you, Todd. You’re stronger than I am. You could handle it. You could rule this world.”

“This world don’t need me,” I say. “For the last time, I ain’t you.”

He looks down at my uniform. “Are you sure about that?”

I feel a rush of anger and hit him hard again with another VIOLA.

He flinches again but don’t step back and hits me with his own blast. I grit my teeth and ready another one, ready to fling it into his stupid smiling face–

“We could stand here all afternoon blasting each other into gibbering wrecks,” he says. “So let me tell you the stakes, Todd.”

“Shut up–”

“If you win, you take over the world–”

“I don’t want–”

“But if I win–”

And suddenly he’s showing me his Noise–

The first time I’ve seen it, seen all of it, in I don’t know how long, maybe even old Prentisstown, maybe not ever–

And it’s cold, colder even than this freezing beach–

And it’s empty–

The voice of the world surrounds him like the black beyond coming in to crush him under an impossible weight–

Knowing me made it bearable for him for a while but now–

He wants to destroy it, destroy everything–

And I realize that’s what he wants–

That’s what he wants more than anything–

To hear nothing–

And the hate of it, the hate in his Noise, of his Noise, is so strong, I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to beat it, he’s stronger than me, he’s always been stronger, and I’m looking straight into the emptiness of him, the emptiness that lets him destroy and destroy and I don’t know if–

“Todd!”

I look away and the Mayor calls out as if I’ve ripped something from him–

“TODD!”

And there, thru the snow, riding my horse, riding my bloody great horse–

Viola–

And the Mayor hits me with all he’s got–

{VIOLA}

“TODD!” I yell and he turns to see me–

And he calls out in pain from an attack by the Mayor and he reels back, blood flying from his nose, and Angharrad screams out Boy colt! and rides right for him across the sand and I’m still calling his name, calling it with all my voice–

“TODD!”

And he hears me–

He looks up at me–

And I still can’t hear his Noise, just what he’s using to fight–

But I see the look in his eye–

And I say it again–

“TODD!”

Because this is how you beat the Mayor–

You don’t beat him alone–

You beat him together–

“TODD!”

And he’s turning to the Mayor and I can see the nervousness on the Mayor’s face as I hear my own name roared out as loud as a thunderclap–

[TODD]

Cuz she’s here–

She came–

She came for me–

And she calls my name–

And I feel her strength coursing thru my Noise like a fire–

And the Mayor staggers back like he’s been punched in the face by a row of houses–

“Ah, yes,” he grunts, hand to his head. “Your tower of strength has arrived.”

“Todd!” I hear her call again–

And I take it and I use it–

Cuz I can feel her there, riding to the end of the world to find me, to save me if I needed saving–

Which I did–

And–

The Mayor staggers back again, holding onto his broken wrist, and I see some blood trickling outta his ears–

“Todd!” she says again but this time in a way that asks me to look at her and I do and she stops Angharrad at the edge of the square and she’s looking at me, looking right into my eyes–

And I read her–

And I know exactly what she’s thinking–

And my Noise and my heart and my head fill up fit to burst, fill up like I’m gonna explode–

Cuz she’s saying–

She’s saying with her eyes and her face and her whole self–

“I know,” I say back to her, my voice husky. “Me, too.”

And then I turn to the Mayor and I’m filled with her, with her love for me and my love for her–

And it makes me big as an effing mountain–

And I take it and I slam all of it into the Mayor–

{VIOLA}

The Mayor’s flung backwards down the slope, tumbling and sliding towards the crashing waves, before stopping in a heap–

Todd looks back at me–

And my heart leaps to my throat–

I still can’t hear his Noise, even as I know he’s gathering it for another attack on the Mayor–

But “I know,” he said. “Me, too.”

And he looks at me now, a twinkle in his eye, a grin on his face–

And though I can’t hear him–

I know him–

I know what he’s thinking–

Right now, at this moment of all moments, I can read Todd Hewitt without hearing his Noise–

And he sees me doing it–

And for an instant–

We know each other again–

And I can just feel the strength of us as he turns back to the Mayor–

And he doesn’t hit him with Noise–

He sends a low buzz through the air–

“Walk backwards,” Todd says to the Mayor, who’s slowly got to his feet, holding his wrist–

And he starts to walk backwards–

Backwards towards the surf–

“Todd?” I ask. “What are you doing?”

“Can’t you hear ’em?” he says. “Can’t you hear how hungry they are?”

And I glance into the surf–

See the shadows, the huge shadows, big as houses, swimming this way and that, even in the crashing waves–

And Eat is what I hear–

Simple as that one word–

Eat–

And they’re talking about the Mayor–

Gathering around where he’s walking backwards towards them–

Where Todd is making him do it–

“Todd?” I say–

And then the Mayor says, “Wait.”

[TODD]

“Wait,” says the Mayor.

And it’s not a controlling thing he’s trying, not a buzz returning along the one I’m sending to him, the one that’s making him walk towards the ocean, to drown himself in it, to be eaten by the creachers that are swimming closer and closer, waiting to get a bite. He just says, “Wait,” like he’s asking politely.