The lizard in a man-suit looked down at the ground and his handiwork. He smiled, feeling one of the few pleasures he allowed himself, the subtle thrill of a mission accomplished without a hitch. The bodies were all arranged in a line, filling the shallow grave he spent an hour digging before he began his work. Most of them fell without much of a fight, a dagger thrust to the spine, a garrote around the throat, a blow to the back of the head.
All but one of his victims were dressed in dark colors, which he found somewhat somber but fitting. Even the little boy was dressed in black, the one who tried to run back to the house. A crossbow bolt to the head had dropped the boy quickly and efficiently.
The nude brunette woman though, she had put up a fight. She had been bathing in a cast iron tub when he walked into the bathroom. She had flashed him a perfect leg and breast, perhaps in a quick attempt to distract him. It didn’t work. While he was working on business, not even perfection would distract his broken lizard brain. She leaped out of the tub quickly but awkwardly, pregnant as she was. She had taken a short sword into the tub with her. He smiled, respecting that kind of dedication.
The fight would have taken longer, perhaps even taken a different turn, but her luck ran out. The wet tiles under her feet betrayed her footing at the wrong moment, her head striking the tub hard. She struggled with her footing as he thrust once into her perfect breast with his long dagger.
It was all business. He was happy with the results. Target B would react properly to this travesty. Target C would then be removed. He hoped this would deal with the problem.
As he looked down at the naked woman, the man raised a solitary eyebrow. She wasn’t completely dead. He was impressed. Her heart must have been slightly displaced within her chest, preventing a perfect death strike. It happened rarely. She shook in the grave, her legs opening.
The human lizard was about to finish her for the second time when he realized her seizures were actually her giving birth. He turned his head sideways, watching with curiosity as the woman died while giving birth to a small helpless child. A boy. The boy fell in the dirt, among the angry ants displaced by the digging. The ants began to crawl over the bloody and crying baby, biting him.
He watched, fascinated. The woman was dead now, ants crawling up her legs and empty belly.
This would certainly push target B to attack target C without hesitation. Perfection.
As he looked down at the child, something clicked in that broken lizard mind.
This might be too much.
Target B might react too strongly to the sight of his child consumed by ants in the dirt. He might not stop at target C. He might not stop killing.
The risk was real.
The human lizard reached down and picked up the baby, cutting the umbilical cord with one swipe of his dagger. He quickly knocked the angry ants off the screaming boy.
The human lizard had a new project.
He would try being a father.