The Mate They Threw Away
The not-Asher went down hard, crashing into the blood-soaked floor with a wet, heavy sound, skidding several feet through the red and leaving a dark smear in its wake.
I waited for it to stay down.
It didn’t.
Slowly, horribly, impossibly slowly, with the casual unhurriedness of something that has no concept of being hurt, the thing reached up and began pulling the knives out of its own neck. The blood that followed was black. Thick and black and threaded with something silver, like mercury had gotten into its veins. The smell that came with it was rot. Old, deep rot. The smell of something that had never been truly alive.