Carnage

The journey turned to be a rather pleasant walk. The girl had fallen asleep a few minutes after he resumed his way to the village. Now, her slow, steady breathing was music to his ears in comparison to the infinite rain of awkward questions

He wasn't sure which one he hated the most: do the talking, or those talking to him. Either way, he was definitely not a social person.

This new surge of silence gave him enough time to think about today's events. His commission has been so far succesful, but the fact he didn't eliminate the beast that took care bothered him.

The man paid him only to get his daughter, not to kill the thing. 

Still, he felt his job was still not complete. 

His bright green eyes landed on the peacefully asleep face in his shoulder, her chubby cheeks puffing air out. Why would a beast so dreadful to leave that carnage inside the barn, just take this girl so far away to not even taste her.

To be honest, after watching the scene at the barn, he considered finding the girl alive was most unlikely. Finding her was, actually, shocking.

A beast so vicious wouldn't just take her for nothing... And then come back for more.

Something was definitely out of place. And the more he approached the village, the more the feeling intensified.

It was not until he was a few miles away from the village, and the wind flowing against him, that he could pick up the smell. The blood in his veins froze, his stomach turning by how bad it was.

Not the fact that the putrid smell was also there, but also a very strong smell of blood. 

If he could smell it from there, that could only mean it was in great quantity.

And that was certainly not a good sign.

He looked at the girl in his arms, hurrying his steps just enough not to wake her up. He couldn't handle her right now, as his worries had just changed focus.

If the beast was there, it would probably be one hell of a fight. Mainly because it's an unknown creature he has never fought before. Also, because he had a kid to take care of until he delivered her to her father.

The houses turned from a blurry part of the landscape to being now close enough to see the opening streets and the working people walking around them.

Only that, this time, there was no one on sight.

He could practically taste the iron in the air, the putrid scent only making the already hard-to-breath air almost too unbearable to do so.

His feet turned to the left, leading him to the entrance of the village, where a couple of unrecognizable masses laying on the floor greeted him.

Twisted and tangled between rags of fabric where the remains of what once were humans. The villagers he saw walking vigorously early that morning. It was impossible for him to try to put faces to those mounts of flesh and torn fabric, so he limited to walk further into the newly found carnage.

He had never seen such a massacre before. Yes, he has seen tiny communities in faraway places completely slaughtered, but never such a big community. It was not the biggest village to ever exist, but it was definitely far for being small.

The more his feet stepped into the bloodied, dusty streets, the more the number of victims increased. The silence, deafening enough, was prove that no one survived.

His eyes picked through the doors and windows halfway open, only to find the same story repeat in every house, tent, or any other place with a rooftop on it.

Men, women, elders, and children. No one was spared.

One of his eyebrows twisted, getting a little too obscenely angry by the scene. He could understand a creature that kills for survival. Like most of them do. He could let go the fact that a goblin kidnaps and rapes women just to procreate. 

But this... Whatever this "thing" was, was just killing for sport. Not to eat, not to fulfill any evolutionary aspect, not even to fight for its territory.

Nothing.

The so-called Green-eyed Demon was a souless bastard, a cold fucker that only cared about being paid for the jobs nobody else wanted to do, a being driven by his own ambitions. He hardened himself through the years. Enough for not being troubled by the bloodiest, cruelest of jobs. 

But this was a little beyond him.

He felt the little body on his arm twist and trembling a little, letting him know the girl was waking up.

She moaned, lifting her head for his shoulder. "Why are you so stinky?" She said, wrinkling her nose as she tried opening her eyes.

With a fast move, he covered her eyes and lowered her head to rest it on his shoulder again. His hand was so big, though, that it practically covered all her face.

"We're not there yet." He said, looking around, trying to find a place where there were no corpses around. 

He was surrounded by them.

Again, she moaned against his hand. "But I'm not sleepy anymore." She struggled to take his hand way, but to no avail. "Let go!"

She fought back, only winning a heavy sigh from him.

"I hope you're ready for it, then."

He said, uncovering the harsh truth she was about to face.