“Where am I?”

I remembered talking with Leon at the inn but . . .

“You’re unconscious”

I turned my head towards the voice.

“WHO ARE YOU?”

There was a dark figure approaching me that looked like dark fog with red eyes.

“Relax child, it is as I said. You are currently unconscious, that’s why we’re in a black void right now”

I looked around and it was true, I could see nothing.

“What happened and what do you want with me?”

“Well, shortly after you and Leon had your little talk, demons attacked the inn. They came sprawling through the windows.

The knights managed to kill the first wave but more soon came. You helped them set up a barricade and to fend them off.

But eventually their leader came and you took a hit for Leon. He killed the demon and now you’re here. I just want to . .

meet you”

“Why?”

There was something ominous about this being but currently I was in no shape to resist him.

“It’s only appropriate, I was looking for a new . . . partner”

“You want to possess me you fiend? Well I won’t let you”

“Hahaha as if you can turn me away. No, I want us to enter in to a mutual relationship. A pact if you will, it’ll make us

stronger . . . among other things”

He motioned to my missing hand.

“I don’t need anything from you, get out!”

“Are you sure? There’s always something you humans want”

“I finally got a decent chance at a good life, I don’t want you to ruin it with your schemes demon”

“Demon . . . yes I was once a demon. I remember conducting experiments on humans to feed off their emotions. But it was

all useless, until I discovered a way to live beyond death. Now I am so much more and you could be too. Come, just let me

inside”

“You’re not going to get a different answer, I rather you kill me now than to steal my soul”

“Well then, . . . I guess you leave me no choice HAHAHAHA”

As his laughter rang through my ears, I felt like I was falling somewhere.

“AGH”

“Trisha, it’s only a nightmare”

“M. . Mom?”

I couldn’t believe it; my mother was currently hugging me and . . . I was in my room.

“Who else would it be? Come on, time for breakfast your father is waiting”

She left me some clothes on the side of my bed and went downstairs.

I threw off the covers and realized something.

My hand, it was there.

I stretched my fingers out and worked each individual finger.

I felt so relieved, it was good to be able to have ten fingers again.

The clothes we had here weren’t exactly fashionable like the capital’s.

But then again, no one here was trying to be.

Except for festivals and celebrations, our normal clothes in the village all looked like rough gray cloth.

But it didn’t matter, I was just glad to see her again.

I walked downstairs after I got dressed and saw my father.

While my mother was slender with auburn hair, my father was well built with dark black hair.

“Morning, you ready for another day’s hard work?”

My dad said as he finished off one of my mother’s meals.

“Of course,”

I nodded.

My parents didn’t really have enough money to support another child, so they stopped at one.

But I still had to help out with farm work even though I was a girl.

We owned a small field outside the house but recently it hasn’t been growing well.

My father, like a lot of villagers, decided to go work for the big farm owned by some rich man.

The man wasn’t a noble but apparently, he had a lot of money and decided to return here where his grandparents lived.

He was nice enough to help the village out during bad seasons like this one.

Usually the workers on his farm came from the surrounding villages and were rotated out with the seasons.

And so, I was going to help my father earn some money for the day.

I sat down at the table and my mom placed a bowl of soup in front of me.

I missed the taste of my mother’s cooking.

It wasn’t exquisite in any sense but it felt like it to me.

I looked around the house and felt strangely nostalgic.

The sun shined through the kitchen window and on to the dining table.

Our house had two floors but the kitchen was the fourth room we had.

The bedrooms were two rooms and the storage closet made another.

This room was most of our house.

Still, it mattered little.

My dad constantly joked about expanding when we could but my mom and I never took his word for it.

The usual breakfast banter took place as we ate.

My mom would tell us gossip that the other wives would pass around and ask when I was going to find a husband.

My dad would say that I was strong enough to run a farm on my own and that he would run anyone not worthy of me away.

We would all laugh and finish our noisy breakfast.

Mom waved us out as my dad and I walked down the road to the workplace.

But I had a sense of dread, I knew what would happen.

And it did. . .

I walked with my dad until there was only one hill left to the farm.

Then we would see smoke and run ahead.

We would be appalled at the sight of the entire place burning down.

The people already there would be either dead or in the middle of being cut down by men on horses.

My father would tell me to run and as we both turned around to leave . . .

An arrow would hit him in his back.

Tears welled up in my eyes and I clutched his dead body.

What’s the point of showing me this again?

Do you just want to see me suffer?

“No I wanted to remind you”

Time froze and the figure appeared behind me.

“HOW CAN I FORGET? Everyone was killed except for the young women . . . We were taken captive”

“They had their way with several of the girls before they got to you. And to avoid their fate, you became their puppet. Didn’t

you?”

“. . . .”

I couldn’t deny it, I begged them not to touch me and somehow it worked.

Their boss decided it was worth it to have one girl untouched and on the inside.

But they beat me to keep up the façade.

“You lost count of the days and became . . should we say quite heartless?”

I was only looking after myself at that point.

They took all the village girls later and I never saw them again.

They were probably sold or killed for all I know.

The bandits kept bringing in new batches of girls every couple of weeks.

And I was there to report on them, whenever they wanted to escape.

I would tip the bandits off and the girls were separated from us.

This went on for god knows how long.

Eventually I learned how to smile while being dead on the inside.

Should they ever reneged on their promise, I was ready to slit my own throat.

It took weeks, but I managed to sharpen a rock enough.

I could only sharpen it when nobody was suspicious, so I only managed to scrape it once every few hours.

I wanted to one day get their trust enough so that I could kill them and run to freedom.

“And then she appeared, right? She was strong unlike anyone else along with being impatient and proud. She was

everything you weren’t and so you were free”

I scoffed at this.

Hardly, when she left the other girls to decide my fate, I let loose.

Rage, hatred, pain, and adrenaline ran through me.

They circled around me, ready to administer their own justice and perhaps I deserved it.

“If you believed that then we wouldn’t be here, would we?”

No, I did believe it.

I just didn’t want all my planning to go to waste just to die there.

“Quite a sight to behold if you remember correctly”

I learned that if you brutally maim someone in a fight with multiple people they will hesitate.

And then they’ll run when you cut another down.

Their fear took over and I caught them easily.

“Then you took the gold and ran. Made a new life for yourself here. What was it again? Oh, yes you were traveling with

your father who was a merchant, when you were attacked by bandits. You escaped but lost a hand and your father in the

pursuit. He was all the family you had left and that couple in the inn bought your sad little story”

I smiled.

So, you know everything, that still won’t make me budge.

That’s all in the past.

“Oh, you poor child. You can’t see what I do. This city is about to become a battlefield”

What?

“Yes, haven’t you noticed it? The demons running around, the disappearances, and the squabbling nobles. Do you think

anyone will care for a weak scarred girl when the fighting starts? You feel those pitiful looks everyone gives you secretly”

Aren’t you a demon also? Isn’t it good for you

“I have become more than a demon now after I died. I understand humans can be of some use other than test subjects. I

had hoped Leon would prove useful to me. He was gullible to feed me. But he won’t do what’s needed, he has too much

good in his heart”

Leon? You’ve targeted him?

“He’s not my host but he listens to me and without me all those knights and you would have died before he killed the

demon. No I need someone strong and willing to do anything in order to bring out my true power. So, you can watch your

life fall apart again or take the chance to fight it. After all there seems to be more than one faction of demons running

around”

. . . No I still won’t throw my lot in with a demon

“Very well then, I’m sure you’ll change your mind. I’ll be waiting for when you do and I know you WILL”

He was gone and time flowed once more.

I looked upon my father’s body that I had seen die for a second time.

“Dad, I almost forgot what you looked like. Would you and mom be disgusted at what I have done?”

I cried for a little more and finally I hugged his body one last time.

I could feel the dream fading away to cold reality.

“Trish! Are you alright?”

I woke up in a bed and the first thing I saw was Leon’s concerned face.

I touched my hand to his face and smiled.

“Don’t worry I’m fine”