O' Kindness, O' Naiveness

Leah has witnessed plenty of murders.

The act of severing one's head from their shoulders, piercing one's heart with cold steel and even lighting someone's body on fire as they die screaming. Leah has seen it through the eyes of the Hero of Hope. The horrors of war, the fight for your life in the nightmare that the Demon Lord force-fed everyone.

The hero's hands were definitely not clean, perhaps his was more drenched in blood than anyone in the army he led. He was alive through most of it all when others perished. The monsters Leah has seen him cut down, the atrocities that scarfed down people through their throats, the humans who stood across from him that he had to kill.

Although she wasn't the one holding the broadsword, she had the lovely first-hand experience of seeing the light fade from people's eyes. Over, and over, and over again. She couldn't even cry or close her eyes, not even scream the distress she was under. She could just watch, oh she could just watch as the path to peace slowly unfolded itself with blood.

Leah rinsed her hands in the lake, blankly staring at the hero's reflection above the thin swirly line of blood merging with the water. It was so easy, morbidly easy. Like twisting the bottle cap of a mineral bottle. Without effort, without worry, the park ranger's neck snapped rather easily like a twig.

Most people would feel something when they end someone's story so abruptly. Once upon a time, Leah would've as well but she felt nothing of the sorts. Her hands didn't even feel that cold when the park ranger's body went limp. She could only hear the crickets and her thoughts racing as to how to deal with the body.

Bears. One of the posters stuck on the pin board was about the increasing number of bear attacks, the amount of injuries and fatalities. That will do.

Predators usually bite their prey around their neck in order to suffocate them, bite marks would be left on the carcass. Leah took a pen and began carving away at the flesh like a surgeon with a scalpel. Most people would find it impossible to start digging out the epidermis layer efficiently with just a pen but Leah or the body whom she resided in was not most people. Deep incisions, small ones, trying to make it look convincing enough to be canine teeth.

Then, the wrestling that would occur. Scratch marks, shredded clothing and speckled in dirt. Recreating them was easy with brute strength, drawing more blood into her fingers and nails as it dribbles onto the lamp shards and carpet.

She rolled up the body in the carpet from head to toe, making sure that no stray shard was left and carried the park ranger's corpse outside of the watchtower. There was a nearby cave west from the structure based on the park map, so she dumped the body right outside of it. The carpet was burned to ash with magic from the other world.

Leah flicked the water from her damp hands, one more sin that won't wash away. Climbing the stairs, she pondered if she really did have to kill that park ranger. He was just an unfortunate bystander, at the wrong place and at the wrong time.

...No, he was a necessary sacrifice. She couldn't really count that he'd actually be silent about it. It's a risk and she resolved it.

"Goddammit, Leah." She buried her face with her hand as she arrived at the top. "Not even half an hour in and you fucking killed a man."

But it didn't mean that she would forgive herself for it.

After taking a moment to think about the crime she had committed, her brain suddenly diverts itself to the law enforcement that would definitely come here. She couldn't risk going through the park ranger's belongings too much. The more she lingered, the more they might be able to track her down. It was better to just take the map and get out. She was lucky that the ranger didn't immediately report her through that radio first things first.

And so she did. She carefully ripped it off, charted the way out of the national park in her mind, hopped off the railings and ran into the night. Out of sight, but not out of mind.

The woodland critters scurried away at the furious sprinting that scrunched the grass with each step, the birds sleeping atop the branches of trees were alerted by her presence and the shadow of a hero whom she had rightfully taken away would never fade so long as the moon shined upon her figure.

Leah stops sprinting after a while, after reassuring herself that she was far enough from that damned watchtower that she could at least relax a bit. Maybe take in the nature of her own world for once. No bipedal monsters, no sudden ambushes, just her and the woods.

Could she really? Did she really deserve to drop onto her knees and lay down for once? In the body of someone else's? Is she really comfortable with that? Being in someone else's skin, loafing around while looking at the stars that are judging her?

No. No, she couldn't.

She wasn't physically exerted, but she wanted to just sit down and… and think. As she begrudgingly walked through the dreary forest, she asked herself constantly. Was it really worth it? Worth it to just abandon everything in that world? The people that she had likely hurted, the children that she left fatherless, the kingdom that she had left without a ruler.

No… They already lost him when she came into existence. When she woke up that night and was able to move her head. To be able to look at the queen who slept soundly, to be able to look at the window that shined brightly, to be able to curse at herself in the royal mirror who glared spitefully.

Leah continued walking upon the rough path she had set herself in as more thoughts stammered in her brain. The Lake of Disparity, one the few ways to exit or enter a world, recalling it inclined her to ask herself-- Would they also try to find her? It was certainly not out of the question for them to attempt as such. Given how Alga was seething when told the truth of it all, there's no doubt that she may tell them if they asked her.

Living life on the run... Leah didn't consider it until now. She's never met the king's subjects personally but she knows of their might. If they can survive the war against the twisted Demon Lord, then they can surely trace her no problem in this world as well. Now she has two forces potentially looking after her.

Every single risk, every single outcome that she had started, it made her scared beyond belief. It all breaks down to 'Why?'. Why again was she risking two worlds collapsing on each other? Why was she throwing everything away, throwing away the riches she could've had, throwing away the glory of being a king?

"Mom!" A little child's voice echoes in the darkness. "Mooomm!"

Leah quickly looked around the forest, only the shivering winds of the night greeted her.

"Leah! Are you going to join us or what?"

"Come on, Mom!"

Shivering winds that carried voices that made her sullen, so cold that it made her breaths ripple and relapse rapidly to the point she covered her mouth.

"Sebastian..! Claud..!" Her lips moved on their own as her fingers folded tightly around her mouth.

That was why. She missed her family. She missed her husband, she missed her son. Was it really that long ago when they were together? It's been twenty-four years, twenty-four long years. God knows if they're even still out there, if they're even alive anymore. But she has to, she must.

And thus, the mother braved the darkness again. She doesn't know where they are, she doesn't even know where to start, but she'll find them one day. Even if the world itself crumbles apart in her wake.

"Please… wait for me."