Ahh! Darn it! Why do I need to fight monsters? They never give up!

The monsters and I are at a stalemate. The two kids are right behind me, close to a tree, and around fifteen monsters are surrounding us. There are two ethereal ones capable of possessing a body; its weak point is the head. They look like black smoke. There are four tentacle-like ones, those are very erratic and throw themselves like projectiles. The rest are animal-like, but with more claws and fangs.

This situation is hopeless. I don’t have the energy to fight forever. Eventually the kids will die.

“Sorry kids, I don’t want to see you die.”

With humans, you can stop fighting and hope they won’t go overboard and kill you. But monsters never stop, they don’t know other things apart from killing people.

I look at the monsters, waiting for the moment they’ll attack. When a tentacle-like one throws itself at me, along with bear-like and wolf-like monsters, I throw my weapon to the ground and put myself in the trajectory of the attacks to have a fast and painless death.

…

The wind reaches me, nothing more. The bear-like monster slammed the other two, and the tentacle one grabbed it and stopped its momentum. They annulled their attacks. I’m fine. Why?

I take off my chest-plate and extend my arms.

Come on. Kill me now.

All the monsters turn around and scatter.

…

I’m speechless. Just what happened…? This isn’t normal; it should be impossible. Monsters don’t know how to stop. They fear nothing. Why?

Why does this feel so familiar?!

“Ugh, uhh, uhu… Uhh!”

“Don’t cry or they’ll come again!”

I turn around and breathe a sigh of relief. I pick my saber and walk towards them. We need to keep moving, though the monsters recently left and a girl crying will give them an easy time pursuing us.

“I’m glad you’re fine.”

I hug her and caress her head. I signal him to come to join the hug too, but he shakes his head while wiping his tears.

“What’s your name?”

“I, I’m Ben-Benson. Ha, ha, hiugh. And she’s Rose.”

“What was going on back there? Did you get lost?”

“Urgh. I. I…”

Benson drops to the floor and hides his face. It seems he couldn’t endure it anymore.

I’m just glad I didn’t see them die. You’ll never want to see another human being ripped apart. I wait for them to calm down and tell me their story.

“Rose, are you okay?”

“Hm.”

“Then, can you let go?”

She tightens her grip on me, clinging more to my chest and almost stripping me.

“You can let your brother protect you…”

“No!”

I’m taken aback. I look at him, but he looks away.

They’re siblings, aren’t they? She called him brother, so they must be.

“Do you know how to go back to your house?”

Rose looks at me and shakes her head.

“If we could get back, I know how to.”

Get back? To that place?! It’s too risky, and I don’t know where it was.

“Do you remember the way back?”

“I could try.”

“Then take your sister with you and have a nice trip.”

“No! I don’t want to go with him! Don’t leave me!”

“Why?”

It seems they had a fight. But even if they didn’t, I don’t plan to risk my life for them again. It’s a miracle I didn’t die.

“He’s a bad person! He was friends with those people who hurt me!”

“That’s not true! They lied to me!”

“Come on. Don’t scream, we’re not safe here.”

“They invited me to see something interesting, so I brought Rose with me.”

“He’s lying. They said he wanted to have sex with me and planned with them to kidnap me.”

“That’s not true!”

Benson approaches, but I extend my hand for him to stop.

“They talked about where they’d do it, so I was nervous and scared, but he didn’t let me go.”

“I never wanted that to happen.”

He cries again. I don’t know what to do. If they came here, then someone may come to rescue them. That’s good news. I can rest assured they’ll survive. But if they came without telling anyone, then…

“Okay. Benson, tell me your version of the story. Don’t interrupt him until he finishes, okay, Rose?”

“Why him first?”

“He knows what the plan was about, he knows if he told someone else or no one knows you two went into the forest.”

I sit to rest. It’s essential to rest each time you can, and Rose won’t let go of me.

Mm. It’s taking him some time to start. It’s obvious he’s hiding something.

“They told me about some strange flowers, so I wanted to take Rose with me to see the flowers.”

“What type of flower?”

“It doesn’t matter now, they lied.”

“Okay, then?”

“They told me to go in the morning to the big rock. They’d mark the way with a blue rock. I followed it and then they came out and talked with us for a while.”

“Did you tell your parents?”

“I didn’t. They told me it was near, so I didn’t need to tell them.”

“So you would see the flowers and return, right?”

“Yes.”

“And you’d keep it a secret from your parents?”

“Yeah.”

“Why, did you want to surprise them with the flower?”

“I, yes.”

“I see. So you had no idea your sister would end up with a penis inside her, right?”

“… I-”

“Shh. That’s enough. It’s Rose’s turn.”

“But they lied to me! They wouldn’t touch her!”

“So who would, you?”

“…”

“He wanted to have sex with me, but our parents wouldn’t let him do it. That’s why he asked them to help him and deceived me. But before he could do anything to me, they told him they’d do it first.”

“That’s not it! They promised to keep an eye for monsters, so I could do it without worries!”

“I don’t want to do it with you! Dummy! You’re not my brother anymore!”

I hate this. I hate them. I don’t want to have anything to do with this.

I push Rose and grab my chest-plate before running away.