Meldan and Kylestin wanted to lure Doreth out of her hiding spot and had a plan to set up a trap for her. Unfortunately, this meant that Meldan was the bait in this plan; he was the first to leave the house, after Kylestin reassured him again that she and a few cops would shadow him. Yet, he felt more paranoid than ever before walking through these streets. He decided to take some random paths through the town, hoping Doreth would follow her, even narrow alleys where they wouldn’t be seen as much. But wherever he went, he heard nothing following him. It wasn’t working. He had to change plans. Perhaps she would think she could ambush him in a more rural location, where there are more places to hide. But to give himself a slight advantage, he would pick the one road he was very familiar with: the road to his parents’ house. Heading towards the edge of the town, he saw the forest next to the path ahead of him on one side, and a larger open field surrounded by forests on the other. He had walked down this road many times, but never was he so scared as he is now. Despite his determination to catch her, the thought that Doreth could sneak up on him and kill him was giving him the creeps. Or that she would have gathered reinforcements from her fellow co-conspirators, and start killing in the name of their God. The nusent hatred usually made him furious, but never before had it made him terrified…

Meldan was stopped in his tracks. He heard something cracking in the bushes. Could it be Doreth following him? He quickly looked around, but he saw nobody.
«Could it be her?» he thought, «It’s probably some birds.»
Meldan tried to walk on but he stopped again after hearing some more cracking from the bushes. He took a few more steps. More cracking. He twisted his equine ears around to listen carefully.
«No, this can’t be a coincidence. Every time I take a step, I hear someone in the bushes. She must be close…»
He turned around and still saw nobody. But in his head, it was time to tempt fate. Time to face his demon.
“Alright, stop playing games, Doreth,” he said in the general direction of the bushes. “I know you’re following me. Show yourself, you coward!”
“Nobody calls me a coward!” a woman’s voice spoke from the bushes, “Especially filth like you!”
Doreth came out of the bushes, with her six-shooter revolver drawn. She looked scruffy, her police uniform torn and dirty. In a pseudo-instinctive reaction, Meldan raised his hands when he saw the gun was pointed at him.
“So, who are you, and what are you and that witch doing together?” Doreth asked. “Just curious…”
“As if you’re really interested in that,” Meldan replied. “You’re going to kill me soon anyway.”
“JUST ANSWER THE QUESTION, YOU MULE!”
“Right, right, I’m Meldan, her fiancé’s brother… you shot him!”
“Ah, family, I see… That makes things more interesting…”
“Interesting? In what way?”
Meldan figured Doreth’s curiosity was the one thing that kept him alive at this moment. As long as they kept talking, she wouldn’t shoot him…
“Well, if I kill you… I’d hurt a lot more people. All those bloody traitors and soulless miscreations… I can’t hurt them enough… Even though I actually want to kill that woman, what was her name again? Stina?”
Meldan started laughing.
“What’s so funny?” Doreth asked, confused.
“By Stida’s Wisdom, you want to kill here and you don’t even care enough to remember her name!”
“THEN TELL ME HER NAME!”
“Kylestin Radeikos, reporter at the Morning Post.”
“The Morning Post? Ah yes, that traitorous newspaper… I should’ve known, must’ve gone past my ears the first time when they mentioned it… But enough fiddling about. I may have failed to kill your brother, but hey, there are more ways I can hurt that witch’s feelings…”
“WHO ARE YOU CALLING A WITCH?!” another voice shouted. Doreth was surprised and lost her attention on Meldan. Kylestin rammed into her and floored her. When they hit the ground, the revolver fell out of Doreth’s hand. Kylestin was clearly on top of the situation and she held a firm grip on Doreth’s arms. Meldan quickly ran towards them and grabbed the revolver before Doreth could get her hands on it again.
“You’re gonna pay for what you and your friends have done!” Kylestin said. “The killing stops here and now, right Meldan… Meldan?”
She looked up towards Meldan, and saw he aimed the revolver to Doreth’s head. His face showed a resistance they could barely hold in his bottled up anger…
“All these years, I’ve been so angry towards humans. Always thinking they’re better than us, treating us like second-grade citizens. It has made me miserable, and I’ve been told time and again to let go of it… I was trying to cope with it, stimulating young centaurs to look for a better future. Helping them was pushing my anger towards humans to the background… and then you showed up! You shot my brother, burned down the temple, and you’re seeking to destroy everything I care about. And all of a sudden, I’m being reminded of why I was so angry at humans in the first place… you… you show all that I hate from humans, and more. You… disgust me!”
“As if you’re capable of having real feelings…”, Doreth snarled. “You soulle-”
“I’M NOT SOULLESS! They only tell you that to make you not feel bad about killing us. It’s a lie those old Bernovian used to cease power.”
“THEY ARE NOT LIES! YOU ARE LYING!”
“You’re too far gone now… consumed by your own hate…”
“Go on, shoot me!” Doreth snarled. “Finish the job!”
“MELDAN, DON’T!” Kylestin shouted. “This is exactly what she wants! To die a martyr! You’d prove her point!”
“Then so be it! She gives me very little reason to let her live.”
“Don’t lower yourself to her level. You’re no murderer. She’s not worth putting a permanent stain on your soul. Don’t let hate consume you too… Please!”
Meldan reluctantly lowered the revolver, and sighed in defeat. If he would kill Doreth right here and right now, that would make him a murderer. No matter how well deserved it was, killing an unarmed person would weigh in heavily on the Soul Trial. It would make all the good things he had done for naught…
“You’re right,” he said. “I shouldn’t give in to my anger. We’ll take her to the police.”
“They should be right behind me,” Kylestin said.
Officers Tomtenmann and Tornvald approached them, and although the danger was neutralised, Meldan was still afraid. Had they seen his inner darkness surface, holding Doreth at gunpoint?
“Sir, madam, are you all right?” officer Tomtenmann said to them.
“Yes, we’ve got her under control. She walked right into the trap,” Kylestin told them.
“We’ll take it over from here.”
Officer Tomtenmann took out a pair of handcuffs and put it around Doreth’s wrists.
“Officer Blekvinn, you are under arrest under charges for homicide, attempted murder on multiple counts, conspiracy, abuse of your function as an officer and illegal use of service weapons and equipment.”
“Whatever, your words hold no value to me!” Doreth said.
“That’s up for the judge to decide, not you. You know what happens next.”
“You throw me in jail and interrogate me, blah blah blah, as if that’s gonna scare me.”
“You know, with that tone of yours, I don’t feel so bad anymore to put you behind bars…”
“Is that her weapon,” officer Tornvald asked Meldan.
“Ummm, yeah,” he replied.
“Could you give it to me?”
“Sure, just a sec, let me check one more thing…”
There was still something Meldan wanted to answer for himself before he handed over the gun. He wanted to know that if Kylestin hadn’t stopped him, he would’ve shot Doreth. Quickly, he opened the ammunition barrel, and glanced inside…

It was loaded…

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This scene is an except from chapter 10 of The Cleansing. It's one of the key scenes of the story, and one of the darkest points at that. Even in the brightness of daylight, we can show our darkest sides when provoked.

It's a nice counterpart to this scene. One scene at day, with Meldan wielding all the power of the scene, driven by hate; the other at night, with Meldan at his most vulnerable, but driven by love. Both take place on the same day, but Meldan had to face his own inner darkness first before he could find his light. It's quite poetic...

This illustration is drawn by  reigohoo, who did a wonderful job in visualising both of these key scenes.