A point when the boy was trying to shoot him.
“Tsetse,” the General weakly said. “Is that you?”
The man silently nodded, his eyes locked with the General’s.
“Did you come here to kill me?” the General bluntly asked. There was no fear or regret in his voice. Somehow, he felt some fatherly pride in the man before him. After twenty years, he had finally decided to finish what he’d started.
But Tsetse shook his head: “No. I didn’t come here out of vengeance. To do so would prove your stupid ramblings correct. I am here to talk.”
“To talk?” The General’s eyebrows went up in surprise.
“Yes,” he said. “I attended your service last week. I wanted to see what kind of man you are. You were preaching about forgiveness and change in people. That we change for the best. And as I was listening, I couldn’t help but wonder… were you talking from experience?”
“Ah, I see.” The General gently smiled. “So you wanted to check on your old mentor?”
Tsetse didn’t react to the question. After a few seconds, the General continued: “Yes, people can change. I’ve done many horrible things in the past, but since then, I’ve let God into my life. I’ve realized that I was seduced by the Devil all along. And—”
“What about the children?” Tsetse interrupted him.
“The children?” the General wondered. He didn’t understand the question.
“Do you regret what you did to the children?” Tsetse pressed on, and the man nodded: “Yes, certainly. Many of the kids were left fatherless because of my beliefs, and—”
“I meant your children.”
The General stopped and, for the first time since the beginning of this conversation, he frowned: “I don’t understand what you mean, Tsetse. What have I done to children?”
“Do you regret what you did to the children under your command, General?” Tsetse leaned forward. His eyes remained calm, but his body was betraying the fact that he was restless to hear the answer.
“I don’t like your tone, Tsetse.” The General pursed his lips. “I’ve said that I’ve done many horrible things and I regret them. Do you need the specifics?”
“Yes,” Tsetse immediately answered. “I want the specifics. Do you regret what you did to them or not? I bet you’ve never admitted it to anyone, have you? You probably said that you were a soldier during the First Civil War. Did you tell anyone that you were guiding children into battle?”
“Times were different, Tsetse.” The man snarled. “If it wasn’t for me, they’d be dead.”
“Most of them ARE dead,” Tsetse interrupted, his voice ringing with the steel of his resolve to get the words he needed out of the man. “And those who live now wish they were, too.”
“Well they could’ve left the brigade then!” the General exclaimed. “Walked out into the wilderness. I never held them hostage, they were begging me to let them stay!”
“Children are always hostages of their environment,” Tsetse objected. “Besides, they knew you’d put a bullet in the back of their heads if they ever tried to leave.”
“Bullshit, I—“
“Enough with the lame excuses, General,” Tsetse interrupted him in a tone that showed that he wouldn’t tolerate it all anymore. “Do you admit that you were wrong, General? Yes or no?”
The man went silent and didn’t speak up for a long time, but Tsetse could see that he had hit a nerve—judging by his face, there was a storm brewing inside him.
Finally, he spoke up, and his tone was laced with poison and ire.
“No. I made them tough. I made them warriors, Tsetse. A warrior does not stop being a warrior when he leaves the battlefield. When the war’s over he doesn’t get soft—he is always ready for the next one. They are only alive now because I prepared them for the adult life.”
“You didn’t make them tough,” Tsetse objected. “You left them no choice but to be tough. They have blood on their hands only because of you.”
“Better to go out like a warrior than to lead a meek life, waiting for a bullet to end you!” the General burst out.
“Do you want to see what kind of warriors you were crafting?” Tsetse suddenly asked him. “Do you?”
The General didn’t answer, and Tsetse stood up. For a moment, the General thought that Tsetse was going to show him by killing him, but the man just walked past him.
Carefully, not taking his eyes off of the General, Tsetse walked over to the door, opened it, and waved for someone to come in. The man who walked in was in his early thirties, but the General could only recognize that fact due to the fact that he had seen many people over the years, and he knew what a heavy toll living in their country was putting on them. If not for his experience, he’d think the newcomer was in his fifties. His back was arched, his arms and legs thinned out so much that the skin seemed to be hanging on bones and tendons alone, and judging by the way his clothes hung loosely on his chest, the stranger was all ribs underneath. His eyes were sunken and had bags under them, and when the stranger walked in he threw only a short glance at the General, before directing his stare back at the floor.
“Here, here.” Tsetse patted the man on the shoulder. “It’s all right.”
The captain turned around and faced the General. There was something new in his eyes. Some fire of emotion.
“Look at this man.” Tsetse pointed toward the newcomer. “Do you recognize him?”
The former General squinted at the man, but couldn’t see anything familiar or even unusual about him.
“What, am I supposed to recognize this alcoholic you’ve brought into my house?” he grunted. “Looks the same as all the other losers to me.”
“This is Puppy Slayer,” Tsetse explained. “Does that name mean anything to you?”
“Puppy Slayer…” The General slowly repeated the name, rolling it on his tongue as if tasting it. “Hold on, is he from the brigade? Is it that boy that was good for nothing?” The General laughed. “Yeah, it’s coming back now. He was with us during the last days of the brigade. I never imagined that he was the one to survive.”
“He almost didn’t,” Tsetse noted. “Corpse Eater found him when he was already on his last breath and led him to the surface.”
“Corpse Eater?” A new intonation entered the General’s voice; he was worried. “Is he…?”
“No.” Tsetse shook his head. “He’s still faithful to his oath. He guards the Keep as he had promised.”
“Huh,” the General simply said. The sound was full of relief, but also something else. Disappointment. “What an idiot.”
“So, why’d you bring him here?” The General pointed at Puppy Slayer. “Do you want me to feel sorry for him? Shed a tear of regret over someone like him?” The man made sure that the last word sounded as demeaning as possible.
Puppy Slayer looked away. Even when the war was over, when the General didn’t hold any strength over him, he still couldn’t face him. It was one of many other traits that he could never lose.
“You don’t think he deserves your tears?” Tsetse calmly inquired.
“Him?” The General repeated his question, laughing at the ridiculousness of the suggestion. “He was good for nothing as a child, everybody knew that. I knew that! Can you tell me that I was wrong? Look at him, he can barely even look people in the eyes! He’s like a shameful dog”
“And you don’t think it’s your fault?” the captain asked.
“My fault? I wasn’t around for twenty years! The war was over twenty years ago! I didn’t make him into what he is today! It’s his own fault that he’s the mess he is!” the General exclaimed, honestly taken aback by Tsetse’s words. He expected to be blamed for pulling them all into the war, but not what came after it.
“You didn’t have to stick around. The damage was done when he was a boy in your brigade.”