Mirael and Jacob: Part 4

     Six months of this shit had been taking its toll. Isaac was once a moral, good, honest soldier. That had all changed. He was hardened, cruel and violent. He wasn't sure if he would ever be able to go back to the life he once had. The life he had given up in the hopes of doing some good in the world. Now, he feared he had done so many things wrong he would never be able to atone for them, no matter what his reasoning for doing them was.
    One was still breathing. It was shallow, but his his highly attuned ears picked it up. Isaac could hear better than any man he'd ever met. It was an invaluable advantage for a person in his situation. He found the source of the breathing. A young girl, not more than ten years of age. She lay bleeding under the corpse of a woman, probably her mother, with a hole in her gut that Isaac had put there. It is for the greater good, he told himself. Though he wasn't sure if he believed that anymore. Part of him was wondering if he was actually beginning to enjoy it.
     He knelt down over the body, pulling his knife knife from his belt out on the way, and slit her throat. Blood spurted weakly from the wound for a few seconds while she gargled and choked on it, then her eyes went blank One more corpse in a hundred, two hundred? He'd lost count a long time ago. No point in keeping track now. He did what was required and then put it behind him. If he dwelt on it too much the weight of all that murder, all those innocent lives taken, children orphaned, wives widowed, families wiped completely from the earth, would crush him.
     What had these people done to deserve this? He did not yet know the reasons for his orders, but little by little they were giving him information. Trust was being built, relationships made, secrets revealed. He would discover their plans and he would do everything in his power to stop them. Until then he would kill, torture, lie, steal and slaughter to accomplish his goals. Nothing, not even his own soul could stop him. The order was dark, and corrupt and evil to its very core. He knew it; he believed it with all his heart. It was was the only think that kept him going. They must be stopped, and he was the best chance anyone had of stopping them. What he had to do was wrong, but it was justified. He would save thousands, maybe even hundred of thousands of souls, even if he lost his own. It was a price he was willing to pay.
    He stepped over the corpse of the man, most likely the father, and left the room. He didn't even spare a glance at the two other children that still lay peacefully in their beds, throats slit wide open. They reminded him too much of his own.