“You’re already dead. I just need you to accept it and move on. If you don’t, he’ll just keep on using you. You need to move somewhere beyond his grasp. You need to move on to the place where he can’t follow. Without your power, the Nachtmar will become weak, vulnerable. It’ll try to take someone else over…Probably me. But if it does, they can put me to sleep before it gets too strong, just like they did to you before.”

“That’s nuts. You don’t know what you’re asking for. The dreams. They never stop. They get worse and worse until you can’t tell what’s real. Don’t volunteer for that.”

“You volunteered for a tough job knowing damn well you might die, but you got stuck with something even worse. At least I know what I’m getting myself into. I need you to die. We all need you to die, Marcus.”

“I can’t…” he stammered.

I slowly drew my kukri from its sheath. “Yes, you can. Problem is, if you want to live, you’ll just come back. I don’t understand how this works exactly, but for men like us, our will makes a big difference, and if you give us an inch we’ll take a mile. You need to move on willingly. If you don’t, the Nachtmar will just keep using you, and more innocent people will die. They killed you before, but between your desire and the Nachtmar’s magic, you came back. That’s why they put you to sleep, but the Nachtmar’s done sleeping. You need to die and stay dead.”

Marcus watched my knife, but he didn’t move away or try to defend himself. He was pondering what I had said. There was steel in his response. “What do I need to do?”

“Just don’t come back.”

He slowly nodded, finally understanding what was at stake, and he stood there bravely, awaiting his fate.

I raised the kukri. “She’ll still be waiting for you,” I assured him.

Marcus kept his eyes open. “Do it.”

I struck.

The mummy stood before me in the foggy storage room. My arm was extended. The heavy blade of the kukri had sliced cleanly through Marcus’ neck.

And then he collapsed. Skin ruptured into dust and the bones fell with a clatter.

The Nachtmar’s scream shook the world. The fog boiled, furious, away from Marcus’ body, fleeing.