4 A Choice, Given by a Devil

Fresh blood stained the dirt, creating a mud that stuck like glue. His arm hit the ground, separately from the rest of his body.

It happened so quickly, he couldn't react. He couldn't scream. He couldn't cry. He only fell face-first into the dirt, the blood mixture clinging to the skin.

The sound of stumbling footsteps reached them both.

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Faster, he had to run faster. He needed to get there before he got hurt. He was acting too rashly, didn't he know how weak he was? How ironic it was that he was breaking every rule that he had made? How... cruel, it would be to leave him behind like everyone else?

Another root caught his ankle, this time it was sprained. He wouldn't be able to stand without severe pain. But he had to. Even if he had to crawl.

He heard something impact the ground just ahead of him.

He slithered over like a worm, and forced open one of the prickly masses of vine, just enough to allow him to view what was behind.

His pupils narrowed to pinpricks.

Nakimi rubbed his eyes. He must be dreaming. He must have been knocked out when he fell earlier.

His throat felt like it was filled with cotton. His eyes felt dry, and he couldn't blink. Suddenly, the faint chills of winter felt like knives, and he couldn't help but shiver.

He wasn't dreaming. The throbbing pain in his swelling ankle forced him to realize that quickly. That girl, who didn't look any older than him, had cut off Sam's other arm. Her features were contorted into a mix of anger and disgust, contempt, and enjoyment.

She turned her head, and Nakimi noticed that half her face seemed rotted off. How both eyes, one not belonging to her, bore directly into his own. He wasn't sure how he knew that eye wasn't hers, for all he should know she was born with a strange goat eye, but his instinct refused to acknowledge it as hers, even if it was set in the rotted mess of the right side of her face. He couldn't make out any of her other features, as that eye refused to let go of his attention.

He was only brought back by Sam's screams. Nakimi thought it was a child, but no; the six-foot-tall giant was sobbing. His clothes were covered in blood and dirt, tears carving through them to create clean pathways, as if nothing was ever there. For a moment, Nakimi felt as if this was a familiar scene; as if he had lived this moment before, in his dreams. But only now he realized it was never him who suffered at hand of this creature, but Sam.

Sam. Sam. He needed to help him, he needed to move his legs and stop him from bleeding out.

But when Nakimi looked up, he felt a feeling in his stomach.

You know when you fall a short distance, and it feels as if your organs are floating? As if only they defy gravity, while you are bound to the earth? And then you land, and your stomach remembers it can't float, and it crashes against gravity, to the pit of your very being.

This is how Nakimi felt when he saw that smile. She was smiling, not like a wolf. Not like a predator. Not even like a monster. She had the sweetest smile he had ever seen.

He shivered, his skin trying to crawl off his bone. Brushing her hand against his cheek, even though his flesh only more violently tried to rip away, he couldn't help but notice how soft her hand was. Was this really the hand of someone who so easily ripped off an arm, and could smile so kindly afterward? Was she really one who could do such a thing?

Just like how he couldn't acknowledge her ownership of that eye, he couldn't understand how such a person could be a cruel and horrific demon, that had been used to scare children into submission for centuries.

"Oh, don't look at me like that. If you stare at me with such a hideous expression, I might just have to pluck out your eyes."

Her voice was sweet, and her face remained kind. Even the cold winter air hung her words in mist, not wishing to let it vanish just yet.

The harsh words she spoke didn't even hit Nakimi, until her thumb slid up. At first, it looked almost like she was brushing away tears, but she didn't stop. A stinging sensation in his eye brought to his attention that she was pressing on it.

"W-wait... s-stop..."

He could barely speak the words, and he noticed that he hadn't taken a breath since he had seen her.

Gripping his hands around her wrist, he attempted to pull it away from his face. He could hold up against Sam in a wrestling match, he should be able to pull away from her arm! She relied on magic, from what he heard! It should snap like a twig!

... but beyond the silk flesh, he felt hardness like steel. Her arm didn't budge.

Feeling her thumb slowly press down, he switched from trying to pry away her arm, to trying to just move her thumb.

"s... S-STOP! PLEASE, DON'T! I-I'M SORRY, I'M SORRY, I'M SORRY!"

He wasn't sure what he was apologizing for, but he couldn't help but beg. She didn't offer even more than a smile. Her thumb kept pressing down, slowly, agonizingly. It should have punctured by then, but it didn't. A dull migraine spread throughout his head.

"Ah, did you know you can't really feel pain in your eye? Sure, it stings a bit, but it is somewhat fascinating how little it hurts, even when doing something like this!"

She spoke to Nakimi in a tone reminiscent of a child describing a particularly fascinating discovery, an innocent excitement. Tears welled up in his eyes, as he attempted with all his strength to pull away, or to pull her away from him.

But, helplessly, he couldn't do anything. The vision in his left eye blackened as a sickening pop was heard.

"Oh, it has been longer than I thought. I suppose I'm a bit rusty. Usually, they don't burst."

Nakimi scrambled away from her, clutching the left side of his face. But with a broken ankle, he didn't get far. She pulled his wrist back from his eye, and he felt something ooze onto his cheek.

"Well, you're lucky it's clean. It's not even bleeding! Ah, how interesting! Hmm, well I suppose for this entertainment, you can keep your other eye."

"A-ah... m-my eye, it's..."

"Hmm? Yeah, it's gone. You can wear a cool eyepatch now. Ah, speaking of which, I picked up one you could use!"

She reached within a pocket, and placed a piece of black cloth in his hand.

Liane's. It was Liane's eyepatch.

"A... AAA...."

He couldn't scream, his throat was filled with cotton once more.

His remaining eye rolled back, and he fainted.

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"You are quite cruel, are you not?"

She spoke, staring at me.

"Now now. If I were so cruel, you wouldn't love me so much."

I smiled, but unlike hers, it didn't shine with childlike innocence. She looked away, and walked over to the larger man. The child was only a treat, after all. The one thing we both could agree on, was that he couldn't just sleep off his punishment.

"Well, I suppose I will take over then. I'll call you over when I'm done."

I patted her on the shoulder, and planted a kiss on her forehead. I suppose I grew soft, but she did remind me of myself as a child. I suppose centuries of absolute loneliness do break down walls, and it was nice to not want to strangle someone for once.

"Ok."

She replied curtly. I could read her like a book; she was only pretending to throw a tantrum because she didn't get to speak with the boy.

As soon as she was gone, I dropped the kind facade. I wasn't a good person, I knew this already. She knew it too, but it was better for us both to keep up the act of thinking she didn't.

"Wake the fuck up, Samuel."

I spat into his wound, and when he refused to open his eyes, I kicked him there too. As it had only barely managed to create a thin scab, with dirt clogging the gaps, it was no surprise it reopened.

He coughed up a glob of mucus, all that sobbing earlier must have done the honors of shutting him up. Grabbing him by the beard, as his hair was too short to get a good grip, I dragged him over to where the kid was.

He stopped pretending to be asleep quick after that.

"N-Naki- YOU! I'LL KILL Y-"

Having stood up suddenly, he failed to realize that while he was asleep, his feet were twisted to face the wrong way.

"Stop screaming, you little bitch. Listen close. I ain't as nice as her. So for every time you do something without my permission, I'll remove a limb from the kid you love so much."

"H-her...? Who do you-"

I tore the loosely-hanging eye off of the kid, but he was too deep asleep to feel it. The eye had been bothering me somewhat anyway.

"I didn't permit you to talk. Shut the fuck up."

His face went white, and for a moment it seemed he was about to do something, but hovering my hand over the kid's shoulder caused his knees to buckle.

"Hm, are you listening now? Good. You have two options. Would you rather be ripped in half horizontally, or vertically?"