"There's more of them out there, you know," they said.
He looked up and took his hands away from covering his ears. "They don't let me do that anymore. I'm not supposed to do that anymore."
"Bah." The sound of their scorn was like a slap. He turned his face away.
"They don't understand," they said. "It had to be done. It still has to be done."
He began rocking as he sat on the edge of his bed, his voice a low moan.
"But they told me--"
"Are you going to listen to them?" They sounded angry. "They're the ones responsible. They do nothing. Someone has to."
He stood, swaying slightly. "But why me? Why do I have to do it?"
"Who else will?" they asked. "Who else has shown they could?"
He shuffled over to the wall, running a shaking hand through untidy hair.
"I don't like it here."
He looked around. The room was bare except for a metal-framed bed standing against the opposite wall.
"The light's too bright."
"All the better to see you," they sang. "All the better to find them."
He shook his head violently.
"I can't. I can't. All that blood--"
"That, actually," a new voice said, "was the part I liked most."
His eyes widened. He was there. Him. The one who had done all those horrible things. Sitting, there, on his bed.
"Well," the man continued, his voice soft, "that and their screams."
He whimpered as he looked at the man sitting where he'd been sitting minutes before.
The man was handsome, though sharp-featured. He was dressed in a business suit, an elegant tie held in place by a diamond stud. He was examining perfectly trimmed fingernails. His hands seemed almost delicate.
The man looked up, the smile on his face that of a predator.
"There are still more of them out there. Our work isn't finished yet."
"Yes, there's still more to do," the other voices joined in. "Still more to die."
He sank down against the wall, rocking from side to side. "Please go away. Please, please, go away".
The door opened. Dimly, as from far away, he heard someone say "Sounds like Jack needs his dosage upped."
Two nurses led him to his, quite empty, bed. One laid him down while the other prepared a syringe.