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bollywoodupdate-bysejuti · 4 years

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12 Most Tragic Endings in Bollywood Movies Where The Hero Dies | Dil Bechara, Taanaji. There are some hindi film which have Most Tragic Endings in Bollywood Movies and these BOLLYWOOD MOVIES WILL MAKE YOU CRY. These sad ending movies are Dil Bechara, Sushant Singh Rajput, Taanaji , Ajay Devgn, Kyon Ki , salman khan, Agneepath, DEVDAS, Shah Rukh Khan , Bajirao Mastani, Aashiqui 2, Raanjhanaa, Barfi. #bollywoodmovieswithsadendings #bollywoodmoviesmakeyoucry #SushantSinghRajput Today Malisha Jarin will tell you about 12 Most Tragic Endings in Bollywood Movies Where The Hero Dies | Dil Bechara, Taanaji Dil Bechara 2020 coming-of-age romantic drama film . film features Sushant Singh Rajput, debutante Sanjana Sanghi . Story is about two cancer patients. Today Dil Bechara full movie release on disney plus hotstar . And fans are watching Dil Bechara full movie, they are making Dil Bechara review and Dil Bechara song and miss Sushant Singh Rajput. This flm endiing has Sushant Singh Manny who got hospitalised and died there . And this is the most tragic part among all the bollywood movies . You can also watch - Sushant Singh Rajput Hit And Flop All Movies List With Box Office Collection Analysis https://youtu.be/LF0K74GI3gU RIP Sushant Singh Rajput Was Rejected From 15 Bollywood Movies https://youtu.be/L7EidW0Dm54 30 South Stars Reaction About RIP Sushant Singh Rajput | Allu Arjun, Mahesh Babu https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymIp8... 12 Most Tragic Endings in Bollywood Movies Where The Hero Dies | Dil Bechara, Taanaji Taanaji The Unsung warrior 2020 biographical historical period drama film . Directed by Om Raut . starring Ajay Devgn, Saif Ali Khan, and Kajol in the lead role . Story is about 17th century Maratha Empire founder Tanaji Malusare life and during fighting against Uday Bhan, Tanaji Malusare passed away .And this historic tragic scene make people cry . Kyon Ki 2005 romantic drama film directed by Priyadarshan. starring Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor in the lead role . Story is about Anand mental patient and how he passed away from us . Rang de Basanti 2006 Hindi drama film . It featured Aamir Khan, Siddharth , Madhavan in the lead role. Ending of this film has Aamir Khan or Sidharth and both are smiling and welcome their death . 12 Most Tragic Endings in Bollywood Movies Where The Hero Dies | Dil Bechara, Taanaji DEVDAS 2002 romantic drama film directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali . follows Shah Rukh Khan , Aishwarya Rai, Madhuri Dixit in the lead role. In this movie Devdas become alchoholic and he died in front of his lover Paro . And this scene make people cry . Agneepath 2012 action drama film . Film cast Hrithik Roshan, Sanjay Dutt, Rishi Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra in the lead role. Story is about Vijay Chauhan fighting against Kaancha . And the ending of this film belong Vijay Chauhan death and which is the most sad part of this movie . Bajirao Mastani 2015 epic historical romance film directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. it stars Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra in the lead roles. Story is about Maratha veer Peshwa Bajirao and his second wife Mastani relationship .The ending of this film with the hero Ranveer Singh who got hallucinationated and died a most tragic ending in bollywood movies . 12 Most Tragic Endings in Bollywood Movies Where The Hero Dies | Dil Bechara, Taanaji Barfi 2012 comedy-drama film . The film stars Ranbir Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, and Ileana D'Cruz in the lead roles. Barfi and Jhilmil got hospitalised and they died peacefully . Raanjhanaa 2013 romantic drama film .It stars Dhanush, Sonam Kapoor and Abhay Deol in lead roles. Story is about Kundan and Sonam relationship. But Sonam betrayed with Dhanush. Dhanush died in the ending part of the film which is one of the most emotional part of bollywood . Aashiqui 2 2013 romantic musical drama film . Starring Aditya Roy Kapur and Shraddha Kapoor in the lead roles. Story is about a relation between Rahul and Aarohi . And the ending scene of Rahul comitted suicide by depression is really hert touching scene ever . 12 Most Tragic Endings in Bollywood Movies Where The Hero Dies | Dil Bechara, Taanaji Akshay Kumar in Khakee 2004 neo-noir action thriller film. Khakee stars an ensemble cast consisting of Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgan, Aishwarya Rai in the lead role. This film has a lot of murder scene but the most tragic scene was Inspector Shekhar murder scene . Ishaqzaade 2012 romantic action film. starring Parineeti Chopra and Arjun Kapoor in their first lead film. This ending scene is really heart touching .

#Bollywood #dil bechara #sushant singh rajput #Movies

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thedyingmoon · 5 years

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💜 This I Promise 💜

***

LIX. Choice

***

YOU FUCKING BITCH!

You're worthless.

Do not show your face ever again!

You,... fucking liar!

I will never abandon you,...

"Look at you, three." Kenny drawled. "The man who sold himself and the woman he loves in exchange for knowledge. The man who drove away the woman who loves him dearly. And the woman in the middle of it all,...

... how very, very interesting,..."

Kenny observed with mild interest as the two younger men kneel on the floor before (F/N). Poor creatures who couldn't do anything against him in fear that the woman they love would be murdered if they so much as move a single toe.

(F/N), on the other hand, was as calm as the calm before a storm. Maybe she's keeping it all in?

He scratched his temple as he gazed at her.

"No complaints now, Princess?" he told her with the annoying amusement in his old, yet playful, eyes.

Slowly, (F/N) gave the man she trusted once a look of utter disdain.

"There is no need to spill blood this time, Kenny." she said, her tone deprived of that cheerfulness it once had the last time they met. When everything was still okay.

"And why?" Kenny still asked, even though he knew the answer all along.

"The people need these men. I, on the other hand, am not needed." she simply said. "I' am,... nothing. Trash. Useless. Kill me instead." she had accepted her fate just like that.

And it didn't amuse the men even the tiniest bit.

"NO!" Levi bellowed, still on the floor and trying not to tackle Kenny. "Don't lay a single finger on her! Kill me! KILL ME INSTEAD!"

"No." argued Erwin, who was also on the floor and struggling not to do anything but speak. "It is I who started all this. If I didn't intervene with (F/N)'s life in the first place, this wouldn't have happened. A lot of people died because of me, and now I will she's going to die because of me. Kill me."

"NO! DID YOU NOT HEAR WHAT I SAID?!" (F/N) screamed in anger at the top of her lungs, getting tired of all the shit that's happening to her all over again. "I SAID I'M USELESS! WORTHLESS! I NEVER DID ANYTHING TO HELP HUMANITY AND I' AM A FUCKING COWARD!"

"You're not a coward, (F/N)!" Levi retorted. "Listen to me; I'm so sorry I - "

"SHUT YER FUCKIN' TRAP UP!" Kenny roared as he fired a single shot that made them all silent. He brought his gun down and inhaled sharply in a strong effort to control his temper. Then, he turned to (F/N), a vein seemingly popping angrily out of his temple. "Didn't I tell you that I didn't want to kill you?"

"Then, what madness is this?!" (F/N) screamed at him. "If you're going to kill me, just get on with it and set them free!"

All of a sudden, as Kenny was distracted with (F/N), Erwin stood up and ran towards the man to disarm him. However, Kenny's reflexes was too fast, even for a seasoned Soldier like him. In the blink of an eye, Kenny turned, pointed his gun towards Erwin, and shot him in the right arm at the exact momnet before he could be disarmed, sending blood splattering all over the floor and unto Levi, whose eyes widened with fear.

(F/N)'s fear escalated completely as Erwin fell to the ground, writhing in pain.

"Erwin!" (F/N) strained too hard to escape, but she was met with the muzzle of Kenny's gun just inches away from her face.

"Now, if you truly wish to all die here, then be my guest." Kenny warned in a low tone full of dangerous and murderous threat. "That man had it coming for him. If you don't want the other one to get hurt badly, then sit back and obey like a dog."

"Let them go, please!" (F/N) pleaded, her stupid tears already starting to fall down her face. "It is me you want. I told you! Kill me now! Kill me and set these men free!"

"Oh? Are you sure about that?" Kenny said then turned towards the two men. Upon seeing his stupid nephew as he hesitantly helped the suffering Erwin, a thought crossed his mind. A thought so interesting that it made his blood boil in excitement. He turned back towards (F/N) and the girl noticed something sinister playing in his cold, steel - blue eyes. "How about this, then?"

Kenny walked away from (F/N) towards Levi who was still on the floor trying to stop Erwin's bleeding with his hand. Then, he grabbed Levi's hair and pulled it so hard that his head jerked.

"TCH!" Levi clicked his tongue helplessly, knowing that he couldn't fight back, for Kenny might really (F/N) for real.

Then, the older man smiled as he pointed the gun at Levi's temple. This earned an extreme reaction of fear from (F/N). Her eyes widened and she struggled even more to escape.

"NO! DON'T KILL HIM, PLEASE! I BEG YOU!" (F/N) cried, begging Kenny even though she knew it was useless.

"Oh?" Kenny drawled, both amusement and murder dancing devilishly in those eyes of his. "From what I deducted, this man in particular,..." Kenny pulled Levi's hair even harder to make him look up. "... has caused great suffering towards you."

"If you want to kill me, then do it." Levi whispered to Kenny savagely. "I know you. You've shed too much blood than I could ever see. If it's bloodlust you're looking for, then do it already!"

"But, I don't want to kill you, either. What's the fun in that?" Kenny let go of Levi's hair, making the younger man fall just beside Erwin. The Commander noticed this and gave Kenny an angry look.

"Oh, you going to say anything?" Kenny asked Erwin calmly as he stalked his way back towards (F/N).

"I know,... what you're up to." Erwin muttered, then winced in pain at his slight movement.

Levi's eyes widened as he looked at Erwin.

"Hey, what are you blabbering about now?" he asked the Commander, but he was ignored.

"If you're going to kill anyone, do it to me!" Erwin bellowed. "DON'T MAKE HER DO IT!"

"Oh? You catch up fast." Kenny said as he loosened (F/N)'s binds.

(F/N) couldn't quite catch up with what's happening around her as she was forced out of the chair by Kenny and was made to stand up. And when Kenny gave her his gun, it finally dawned upon her.

With eyes wide as saucers, she looked at all the men in the room, then at the gun in her hand.

No, this can't be happening,...

"YOU SICK BASTARD!" Levi screamed at Kenny.

Kenny just laughed really hard at this as though it was the best piece of entertainment he had ever seen. Then, he took another gun from his holster and pointed it towards the men.

"Now, you decide, Princess." he said calmly. "Or I'll make the choice. Murder one, just one, and I'll set you and whoever you spare free. Then, I'll never bother you ever again. I promise that."

"And what if I don't choose one?" she asked, still shocked of what's happening.

"Then, I'll kill all of you. I'm actually being generous here. I'm even letting you make the choice." Kenny dralwed lazily. "Now, choose. Which one will you kill? Is it the man who misled you and gave you a false identity or the man who hurt you to the bone? Which is it? Oh, but it doesn't matter, right? They're both liars, after all!"

(F/N) held the gun firmly and looked at the men who both hurt her. But, seeing them in such a state just hurt her feelings.

But, Kenny was right. They're both liars.

Is there no other way out of this mess? There is no justice with her spilling anyone's blood, and Kenny would just kill all of them if she tries so much as point the gun towards him.

Is there no way out?

"Come on, Princess, I'm losing my patience here!"

"(F/N), listen to me." Levi started. "If,... if you kill me, that's fine. He's right, I hurt you terribly, and there is nothing in this world I could do to atone for all of my sins against you. I'm sorry that I hurt you. And please, believe me when I say that I love you. I want you to live a long and happy life away from pain. So, please, point that gun towards me and end my life now,..."

"(F/N), listen,..." Erwin almost coughed his own words. "Forget all of this and just kill me. I was the one who manipulated you. I' am a sick bastard who used you to gain knowledge and power. I' am the one who deserved to die. Kill me now."

(F/N)'s tears fell down her face relentlessly as her shoulders dropped helplessly.

"I - I can't,..."

"What is that?" Kenny strained to hear her words, his gun still pointed towards the men. "I can't hear you - "

"DON'T MAKE ME DO THIS! I CAN'T KILL THEM!" (F/N) screamed at Kenny, her tear - stained face ripping the men's heart into pieces.

"And why is that, huh? Oh, I know,..." Kenny grabbed (F/N) by the collar and almost lifted her up the ground with just one hand. "You both love them, don't you?!"

"DON'T HURT HER!" Levi shouted. "(F/N), kill me and set yourself free!"

"I CAN'T!"

"AND WHY NOT?!" Kenny bellowed as he dropped (F/N) to the floor and grabbed her by her hair. He pulled so hard until Levi and Erwin could see her forehead. Until they could see the ugly stitches that marked the pain that started all this misery. "Those are some ugly stitches, Princess. I wonder where you got them, eh? Oh, I know!" Kenny pointed his gun towards Levi, his fingers playing with the trigger. "YOU caused it, DIDN'T YOU?!"

"No, he did not,..."

"Aww, stop lying to me, sugar. You know he was too blind for his love towards his dead girlfriend that he did this thing to you. How evil of him to do that to you!"

Levi's blood ran cold as he was reminded of that night many months ago.

Of that night when he broke his teacup unto her forehead.

It tore his heart apart just thinking of that painful night, but one thing certainly unnerved him,...

... how did Kenny know about the details of his life? Was it because of that spy, Rodrick Pauls, he sent to woo Petra and use her to kill him?

No, Rodrick Pauls was a member of Sutherland's cult. There was no way he was connected to Kenny. Unless, there was a missing piece here,...

"Isn't that fact not enough for you to kill Levi?" Kenny asked (F/N), still pulling hert hair. "Or perhaps, you wanted to kill the former Commander?"

"I-i can't,..."

"Then, I'll just kill all of you - !"

"(F/N)! POINT THE GUN AT ME NOW!" Erwin roared. "I ORDER YOU!"

"NO!" (F/N) screamed.

"What now? You can't kill him, too?" Kenny said with a raised eyebrow. "And here I thought Rod was a playboy. Didn't know there was female counterpart of him,..."

"I can't! I can't kill them! Please, I beg you, Kenny! Kill me now!" (F/N) cried, dropping her gun to the floor.

"(F/N), Kenny is right." Levi said all of a sudden. The calmness in his tone made (F/N) look up at him. Right then and there, he did something that (F/N) didn't really expect.

He smiled at her.

And the sight stabbed her heart over and over again like a cold knife.

"(F/N), do you remember the first time I saw you?" he asked her calmly. "It wasn't exactly filled with happiness. I hurt you, slapped you hard enough to give you an ugly bruise. But, what did you do? You still held unto me in the hope that I will accept you. But, I didn't and I even hurt more. Humiliated you. Bullied you. Hurt you to no end. Then, I lied to you and disgraced you. Do you remember that? There is nothing in this world that could heal that wound I dealt to you last night. I' am a sinner, and there is no repentance for people like me."

(F/N)'s eyes widened in the realization that Levi really wanted her to kill him because he thought that he would never forgive her.

"Erwin, on the other hand, may have hurt you, but that was just to protect you. He deserved you more than I do. He'll even give you the life you deserved. Now, grab that gun and point it towards me. There is no regret for killing a person such as me." Levi said as the smile on his face slowly vanished. "Do it, and you will be free from all this pain."

"I don't have much time, Princess! Do it now!" Kenny screamed angrily and impatiently.

(F/N) grabbed the gun with shaking hands and looked at the men for one last time. Erwin was on the floor was steadily losing blood, if she don't act now and fast, he will definitely die of bloodloss.

Levi, on the other hand, was as calm as he ever could be.

She was about to point the gun when she saw Levi's smile once more. His lips opened and out came the words that she would never, ever, forget,...

I will never abandon you, even after death. This I promise,...

(F/N) smiled upon realizing what Levi just said to her. A single tear rolled down her flushed cheek as she stood up. Kenny smiled; she had made her decision.

She raised the gun, her finger on the trigger,...

... and pointed it against her head,...

***

~ @levi4mikasa , @yepps , @chocolate-mmilk , @nerdyphantomlady , @shewolfofficial , @unhappysap , @super-peace-fangirl , @fangurl-ontgeside , and @emilyackerman78 . 💜

***

💜💜💜

***

#shingeki no kyojin #attack on titan #levi ackerman #captain levi #this i promise #levi x reader #levi x you #chapter 59 #choice

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paintingtheirhistory · 6 years

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Ivory Hert

WELCOME TO MY RESISTANCE

They came again this month, they came by to take us away. They took Bobby this time. The people in this orphanage are being taken away one by one.

The next time they came, they took Clara. Clara was my best friend, she kicked and screamed bloody murder to get back to me. But they covered her mouth and took her, justs like all the rest, just like me.

When they came to take me, I didn't kick or scream or fight. I knew it would no use, they would take me like all the others.

It was dark, the room they took me to, it was musty and smelled like old mold. They told me to sit down until they came back. I did.

They came back for me an hour later, I stood behind them as they pushed in stone in the walls, soon they stopped clicking the wall. The wall fell to the ground, like a sandcastle on the bay by the water, the water rushing over it as it would slowly melt to the ground.

We stepped in a room, that had endless hallways. I know this place, this is where all the other children had been taken to, they call it crazy farm. None of the kids at the orphanage were crazy, well, except me. I blamed everything on them.

There was a lady at a desk, she was dressed in white and blue. A Nurse, I thought.

Ivy Hert ,” the nurse had asked, “Ivy Hert, please come here.” I stepped out of the protection of them and came forward just enough for her to see me.”Good,” she said. She grabbed my hand and led me to my room, and that’s where i stayed for the next ten years.

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I am nineteen now, I was put in this funny house when i was nine. I am lounging my rock solid bed- if you can even call it that- when i heard a crash at the window, I looked over to see two people stand on my boarded in window seal. One was male, one was female.

“ ‘Ello,” the male said, he had an scottish accent to his smooth voice. He is a dirty blond with a bit of stubble on his chin. Kind looking doey brown eyes, and lightly tanned skin. He’s wearing a crinkled gray shirt that has grease stains on it, and brown cargo pants that also had grease smeared onto the thick piece of clothing.

The woman has sharp brown almond shaped eyes and straight dirty blond hair and cool brown toned skin. She is wearing a jade colored shirt that looked worn, it was two or three years old at least. She is also wearing gray bootcut jeans and black slip on shoes that seemed to be two sized to big.

“ Ye still’ there lil’ miss?” The woman had a yorkshire accent with a hint of jersey. ‘ Strange mix,’ I thought.

“Yes” I answered simply.

“Good, we ‘ad thought we lost you there,” said the man.

The man stepped down off the window seal and came over to my bed. I tilted my head to the side the result of that was my bushy ginger hair fall onto my face, I brought up my pale arm to brush the untamed beast off my face.

By the time i had successfully cleared my face from the monstrosity people call hair, the man was right in front of me.“May I ask the name of the maiden in front of me?” Ace said.

The woman that still seems to remain unnamed stepped on the window seal that she was still standing on, then said,” Ace stop flirting, you’re making me barf,” the lady sounded sarcastic, and by the looks of it looked like she is sketchy. ‘I’ll make a mental note of being careful around her, she probably has have been in her fair share of street fights,’ I thought making a few mental notes.

Those two thought i was strange, i can't blame them for it. I could tell from their demeanor, it's not hard. Everyone thought i was strange every nurse or doctor, everyone, i was alone. Alone in life, and alone mentally.

“What's your name?” I finally ask after a long period of silence. The words rolling off my tough in a choppy manner, for i have not talked- at least to humans- in ten years, every since i was admitted to this funny farm.

“I’m Ace De Cards” the man had stated with a grin forming on his chapped lips.

“Your name, ‘De Cards’ its Latin, although you come from an Irish

background,” I realized this while he said the simple words he did not a few moments ago. Not letting him get a response in i turn to the woman.

“And yours?”

“Vale Fortitudo”The woman replied to my answer, again latin. Obviously from New Jersey, She doesn't look like one you can trust.

“Now what about you?” Ace asked. Turned to him confused.

“What?”

“We told you our names, it's only fair if you tell us yours.” The man had a point, it was only fair, but i don't play fair. I stay quiet, they ask again, the same question as before. Finally they stop asking realizing that the two of them sound like records that fell off a shelf, shattering.

“A man plays a game with three different people,” I say, void of any emotion.

“What's she goin’ on ‘bout?” The Scot asked.

“Hell if i know, that chicks crazy.” Came the sarcastic remark.

“He gave each of them a choice of two pills, then he chose the one that was unwanted. He offered the victim a glass of water with the pill, later that week all three victims were found dead. How did they die but not him?”

Vale gave Ace a funny look, He shrugged. He sat on the edge of the window seal, resting his head on his hand.

“Wasn't that an old riddle from a book? Sherlock was ‘it?” Vale asked

I gave no response, only sat still. My unblinking eyes settled on the Jersey native, her jacket had rips in it. A clean slice, not made from a branch or tough rock, a small knife from the size of the thin rip.

“ ‘Old on a second,” my head hung low, my stringy brunette covered my bright green eyes, a ghost of a smile rested on my face.

“Was it…...The water?” Vale asked, uncertain if her answer was correct.

“You sound uncertain,” I stated.

“The water. It was the water.” She confirmed with a stern face, was she already getting tired of my games? Oh boo, i was just getting started. Oh well, a games a game.

From my spot on my bed i said, “Ivory Hert.” They tilted their head, did they forget they asked my name?

Ace took my hand and pulled me from my bed, he lead me towards the window -- changing his position of hand to accompany my waist, Vale followed closely behind.

“Well, Ivory Hert,” He got up into the window seal, pulling me with him so his shoes and my feet were sitting half on and half off the seal, “ welcome to our resistance.” He pushed his feet off the window, hand still holding tightly to my waist, his gear hooked to the top of the window which i hadn't noticed before. Vale followed and pushed her feet out the window and soon we were all falling towards the ground.

WELCOME TO OUR RESISTANCE

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ghostamit · 4 years

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cepmurphy · 7 years

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Lizard Country

The sun was going down and the laelaps – not that you called them that on this expedition, here they were “dryptosaurs” – were roaring in the distance, so it was time to get Professor Hatcher out of the saloon before he got eaten.

Matthew Edginton had been a pale, neatly moustached man two months back but Wyoming was leaving its marks. It was an Edginton with mud caked to his thighs who rode out behind the guide Broken Horns, four bullets between them and eyes alert for threat. The farther they got from camp, the drier it got and the ferns disappeared and the grass turned from green to sickly yellow to the full jaundice. A bit farther east, past the town of St George, it would be outright desert and a whole mess of impatient people waiting to move out west, once it was safe enough.

At the very edge, a lone male hadrosaur – adolescent, bruised; the loser of some mating ritual or herd conflict, but no less magnificent for that – was grazing. It bellowed as the horses passed, hit the ground with its tail, in the naïve belief it was chasing them further away. Edginton’s soul ached for it.

You know what’s farther east for you? It’s death. God or man, it’s coming for you.

Death was in town too. “Welcome to St George”, with dinosaur skulls nailed to it. Edginton and his friends had once found that quaint – Marsh, when he’d been there, had spat and thundered and almost got them shot – but now he curled a lip at it. (Marsh had been right but don’t tell him that.) Broken Horns showed no sign of caring either way, but that’s what he always looked like. It used to be Edginton thought injuns were just all like that, too different to not be inscrutable, but as the good people of St George scowled as he passed (‘least nobody was spitting this time), he knew Broken Horns just didn’t want the attention.

Marsh could thunder because he had money. Horns and him had butt all.

Due to Marsh, most of the time.

It was two minutes cantering to the saloon, and out came John Bell Hatcher, top Yale man and worldly, walking backwards with a pistol in front of him.

“Winnings, Mr Hatcher?”

“Two hundred,” he said, not looking away from the door even as he saddled up onto his own waiting horse. “I’d advise going to Argonaut to gamble for the next few days. Some people are sore losers.”

Argonaut was two hours further away and Edginton scowled because damn it, at the ‘frequency’ Marsh paid them, they’d have to ride it to eat and send telegrams. Marsh had the money to buy magazines and slander his enemies, he had the money to pay for fancy pictures of his expedition, and he had the money to send telegrams demanding “more,” but somehow it never trickled down to his team.

On the way out of St George, Hatcher swore: the hadrosaur was dead, shot through its head and the crest sliced off. Crests were an aphrodisiac for morons. And that was all anyone had stripped off the body. The waste made Edginton sick, even if he didn’t yell it.

The exterminators were back.

And likely sheltering in St George, intentionally making sure they took out a dinosaur that the scientists would see.

Most people thought dinosaurs should be dead.

There were a lot of reasons. Some even had a bit of legitimacy – they could menace smaller towns – but most boiled down to dollars. Dinosaurs stopped cattle grazing or mining. Dinosaurs stopped towns spreading. Dinosaurs stopped the manifest destiny of America.

Their habitat – the inland sea of Wyoming and its wetlands – was drying up and dying out, taking them with it. That meant God was hired for the argument. “See, the Lord is removing them now we’re here!” Killing a dinosaur sped things along.

Science said the dinosaurs had once lived all over the Earth. Mantell and Owen had even worked out that the big lizards of England, the squat iguanodon and wolf-faced megalosaurus, were the distant ancestors of dinosaurs. They now only lived in a few zoos like Crystal Palace or as the heraldic animals on the royal crest. America would soon follow.

That’s why Othniel Charles Marsh had whipped and cajoled and bribed Yale into this expedition, even putting his money up: the dinosaurs could die out in a generation and needed to be catalogued now, fast, before that happened. “The great scientific adventure of our time,” he’d said in a great meeting where Edginton, frustrated with book work, had decided he had to go out west.

The other reason Marsh did this was because his great rival Edward Cope was overseeing the United States Geological Survey and they were studying dinosaurs on the way. And Marsh was going to ‘win’.

In a few months, the Yale team had seen how the triceratops fought for mates and how their mates raised the young on the move, constantly searching for food and feuding for it. They’d heard how the hadrosaurs could sing and realised each herd had its own subtly different call, and on some days a concert would spread across the whole wetland. As great risk, they’d learned the gorgosaur existed at all and was a vicious rival with the laelaps (and how, in direct combat, the laelaps won).

They’d lost three men in the process, and come close to running out of food when they ran out of wages, and their native guides walked out once before until Mr Hatcher won a really big game.

All of the hardship was a price Edginton was glad to pay – not that he didn’t wish Marsh would pay – for the chance to watch those herds and hear those songs and gape at the battles.

The camp was a fungal growth of army surplus tents, wagons, and skittish horses, where the campfires were in a circle around them to deter theropods. Gould and Barnes, who between them had enough hair for two normal people, were on night watch with half-empty shotguns. The beer was running low too, mainly thanks to Gould and Barnes (which is why they were on night watch).

Inside the circle was the usual bitching about pay and gushing about the work despite that. Earlier, Edginton had seen a young triceratops run right up to him and its mother come thundering after, coming within inches so she could nudge the infant away from him. Two inches between life and death. And even that story got trumped when Judas – actually Albert Allanson, but his father and grandfather had been Harvard heathens – said he’d seen something new.

Ruth Herts had seen it too. She was there for that, a high-society artist that Marsh had paid to document his expedition – she always got paid – and the only such artist to dare go out and do it. The lone woman, Ruth got her own tent because it was unseemly otherwise. When she wasn’t in earshot they all talked about how they’d like to get unseemly with her and Edginton joined in like he cared.

What he cared about was what she’d drawn: something lithe, hunched like it was about to pounce, feathered. (Feathered?)

And after that quick slash of a sketch, Ruth showed a more thorough sketch of what had once been a hadrosaur. This corpse had definitely been stripped for meat.

“I’m thinking of calling it dromaeosaur,” said Judas, meaning ‘running lizard’, “because those bastards fairly sprinted when we saw them.”

“From what they did to the hadrosaur, I’m quite glad they sprinted,” said Ruth, in the bright sunny tones of someone who wasn’t bright and sunny but had to fake it. Only Edginton noticed that, far as he knew. “I don’t think this painting will be good for polite society.”

Someone was going to crack a joke about why didn’t she paint anything girly, and Edginton jumped in first to keep it on dinosaurs: “If they sprinted, they must know what a human is, surely? Dinosaurs only seem to care if they’re familiar with guns.”

“Exterminators,” Barnes muttered darkly. “Wiping them out before we’ve even found it.”

“Nothing to be done about it,” said Hatcher, ending the conversation. “We’ll just have to beat them to the punch.”

It would be a truly stupid thing to go out at night to see what you could see and Edginton hadn’t even been drinking. Hatcher had made it clear how stupid it was, many a time. Even Marsh wouldn’t tell you to do it. And normally Edginton was level-headed. But the skulls and dirty looks in town, and the dead hadrosaur, and Hatcher’s damned acceptance – and Hatcher, he knew, must be burning too so how did he hide it? All that churned up inside him at once, making a fury better than drink.

Matthew Edginton was gonna go out and see something new before some bastard shot it.

It wasn’t hard to sneak past the guards, not when Gould and Barnes were having a quiet debate on laelaps behaviour. It was harder to sneak past Broken Horns, who got up to go with him – “I am being paid,” was all he said. His tone and face could not quite hide that he knew, and knew that Edginton knew, that any dead Yale men on his watch meant he wasn’t gonna get paid. Edginton felt guilt that he was forcing a man along with his folly, but not enough to stop.

He tried to justify himself by describing Judas’ new find and was startled when Broken Horns swore in his native tongue. “Terror claws,” he said. “If we see them, you shoot on sight.”

“You know about them?”

“They’ve been seen, sometimes. They kill men.”

Edginton was rational enough to know that should scare him back to the camp but still drunk enough on fury to keep going.

At night you could see little and nothing you could see looked the same. The half-moon barely picked out the grass and the remaining trees, and a slumbering ankylosaur would loom out of the blackness like it had divinely planted. The roaring of predators ripped through the silence, and where could they be coming from? If there was a dromaeosaur and it was as bad as the guide said, would you ever have time to see it?

But Edginton went anyway. Somewhere in the dark was a new discovery, a new behaviour, a new anything related to these magnificent, doomed creatures.

The way the others talked about Miss Herts, that was how he felt. It burned. He had to consume it.

He was so wrapped up in this that he did, in fact, crash into an ankylosaur.

It was like being punched by a mountain. Edginton thought he could hear Broken Horns laugh (he briefly felt rage that the man would mock his bosses and then shame for thinking like a boss) but the beast barely snored. To this great, hulking mass of stone armour and leather hide, he was as nothing. These dinosaurs looked and acted like they’d been here since the second day of Genesis.

You could almost forget that he’d seen one shot dead in his first week, a look of angered surprise on its face and its legs shredded. Such a being should not die like that. It was against God.

That’s when someone fired a shot.

The ankylosaur noticed that.

Edginton dived on his back just before the beast reared out of its sleep, the great hammer on its tail coming around like judgement. It hissed – you’d expect a roar but you got a dull hiss – and slammed its tail on the ground, and when a second shot hit its armour, it charged in the general direction, too stupid to know this made it a better target.

Logically, Edginton should have run back to camp. The exterminators may not have noticed him, or maybe they’d hoped he’d be ‘accidentally’ killed, but neither option meant challenging them. His brain knew that but his blood didn’t, and he was running past the ankylosaur, off to wherever the damnable shot came from, swearing blood.

His revolver roared. His brain told him he should have waited for a clear shot. His brain also told him the ankylosaur was turning back towards him, mistaking that noise for its attacker.

Edginton threw himself through the bushes and then, on instinct, back the way he came. The ankylosaur was coming through as he was coming back, chasing phantoms. It would keep going until it assumed it had scared its foe off. So there his trip was justified: he’d got closer than anyone else and he’d saved it from bastards. It made the blood sing.

Up until Edginton found himself staring down a rifle barrel.

“Y’all got no business being here.”

“I’m a scientist.”

“You’re an ass and a fool and a busybody. All y’are.”

The talker with the gun – there were two other guns in the darkness, silent, with vestigial men – sounded like a tired father reprimanding a toddler. His words stank of a man who was trying to sound more ‘frontier’ than he was. In the dark, all that could be seen was a beard.

“All we want is to go west and succeed, like is our right as Americans and men, what God has charged us to do. We just want what’s ours. These big lizards matter more than us? We had ta kill men to get this far and lizards matter?”

Broken Horns laughed. The exterminators had dragged him to Edginton at a gunpoint and the guide had looked, for the first time Edginton had seen, disgusted. He still looked disgusted.

“You never thought we were men.”

The rifle roared, petty and violent, and Broken Horns’ left foot ceased to be.

“You will treat us with respect!” said the beard, yelling to be heard over the screaming, forgetting his fake accent. “Nobody has to die if you just leave! But you need to watch and listen!”

That was as trustworthy as Barnum in a poker game and Edginton knew it. Certainly, Broken Horns was likely to bleed out and the exterminators wouldn’t give a damn.

“I need to stop the bleeding—“

“He needed to learn!” As Broken Horns got control over his screaming, the lead killer lowered his voice, but he’d already said it all quite loudly. “Now you shut up and you’re going to watch us work and y’all are gonna tell the others to go away.”

“Professor Marsh won’t let us go,” said Edginton. “And if we just walked he’d only sucker someone else to replace us. Once all the dinosaurs are gone, he’ll send us to collect the bones. That’s what the Devil charged him to do.” And me, he thought but dared not say.

That shut the killer up. The other two guns and their men looked at each other. A blind man could see that they’d expected the soft brains of Yale to whimper and run in the face of threats from real men, and now that wasn’t happening they didn’t know what to do. Soon they’d resort to violence but Edginton found it hard to get excited, now he had their number (and now he was certain it’d be violence, he found he was no longer as scared of it).

“Broken Horns is going to die if you don’t let me stop the bleeding. Right now that’s all I want to do.”

He was calm, rock solid. There was even a slim chance the exterminators would give up in the face of confidence and if not, at least he’d die like he lived.

Then he saw a ghost appear behind the exterminators.

An eye caught the moonlight and shone hellish green.

He recognised the creature’s gait from the sketch.

Now he looked scared, and the exterminators relaxed because, of course, they thought he was scared of them. So now there was no chance. When the beard turned round, making some speech in which he clearly felt secure enough to turn his back, the dromaeosaur had slipped away. When he turned back, still in the throes of some cutting speech Edginton didn't give a piss about, the dromaeosaur slid back.

Another joined it.

Broken Horns began to mutter something in his language. He saw them too.

“When y’all see us kill your precious lizards, you’ll say: hey, you were right, they’re just lizards,” said the beard, ignorant of a second shape behind him. “What will you say?”

“Broken Horns, we may have to run, will you be able to—“

“The hell do you think you’re talking about—“

“—lean on me if we’re going to—“

“You arrogant bastard, do you really think we’ll—“

Broken Horns said: “Three, now.” The sign-song voice of fear.

The third dromaeosaur kicked the furthest man in a delicate sweep, and the man fell to the ground screaming. When the others turned, the second beast was already leaping and the second gunman fired wild before falling hard. The first was running right for the beard.

Give him his due, he recovered fast and swung his rifle butt-first at the dinosaur’s incoming head. With a dull thwack, it fell to the ground. His gun was back around and he was aiming for a headshot.

Edginton slammed into him from the side, or tried to but he never weighed that much. It was enough to jostle the beard and cause him to drop the gun. That was enough for the dromaeosaur to get back up on its feet, shaking its head, focusing eyes on the humans.

Behind it, flesh ripped and men stopped screaming.

“I can’t get my gun,” said the beard. “Please, get my gun. You can’t let it. My name is Sam, you can’t let it, you can’t—“

The dromaeosaur fell into Sam and his guts hit the ground before he did.

Edginton watched it all dispassionately, or so he wanted to think. The killings took ten seconds, average, but he was pretty sure the lead terror claw had started eating Sam before he was dead. After that, another twenty seconds.

I said I wanted to see, he thought giddily.

Broken Horns could hobble and Edginton’s ripped shirt served as an impromptu bandage, and the two shuffled as fast as they could before the predators thought of killing them too. Neither talked nor breathed too loudly.

The camp exploded once they came back and it didn’t help when Broken Horns said “revenge” had happened. Hatcher was first to Edginton, eyes wild, demanding the story out of him. Ruth was the second, pencil out, and as Edginton talked he was dimly aware that the artist was drafting everything he said about the dromaeosaurs, three little slashes of granite stalking around a figure and one leaping, the monstrous claws on its toes raised.

He hadn’t even realised he’d seen that until he saw her drawing.

Hatcher heard it all and never broke eye contact.

All Hatcher said at the end was: “They got what was coming.”

He didn’t even ask if Edginton wanted to stay on with the expedition. That surprised Edginton because he was sure people would assume he was too rattled to go on, but Hatcher got it.

See something new before some bastard shot it. He’d done it.

Who wouldn’t want to see more?

#writing #Alternate History #weird west #dinosaurs #bone wars #dinosaur stories #short story

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