Chapter 2: Butler Eve

I realized how dire my situation was early on, but I am not strong enough after all, mentally and physically, to take action. If that woman is still here, I would've have an accomplice and escape here together, too bad she betrayed me. Haha.

The stress, the tension, the lack of trust to each person here, the lack of proper food, the lack of rest. This somehow reminded me that I have to eat that man's disgusting f*ces and pee.... It's really a miracle that I can hold on till now as I please this bastard to get some proper food for me and loosen his grip to me a bit by being obedient and entertaining, enough to go less than 1 meter away from the house.

I swung the alcohol bottle when he was making the gap between us become closer with my two hands.

The bottle somehow surprisingly broke into pieces... probably because of adrenaline.

"Ugh... you b!tch! You think you can handle me now??" He lashed out with blood trickling on his temple. But due to being drunk and receiving a hit from Zoren, he walked even more wobbly. His beer belly disgustingly jiggled in every movement he made.

I managed to avoid his attack and picked the lamp from the side. Ignoring the pain I felt from the shards of glass from earlier, I threw the lamp as the fire inside the lamp started to spread, feeling the adrenaline rushing in my veins.

The man stumbled down as he groaned in pain.

I picked up the knife from the drawer and frantically stabbed him.

My hands were trembling in fear and excitement as my body felt numb from all the pain.

"Ahh!!! You b!tch!!!" He shouted hysterically.

But I didn't stopped, I just kept putting holes on his body. Some were shallow, some were deep enough to call for an ambulance.

While stabbing him and looking out for the fire at the corner of my eyes, I mumbled, "I should have done this earlier, you two didn't love me after all." I continued mumbling like a chant as I smiled crazily with tear stained face.

Sadness, hope, anger... different emotions kept popping inside her.

The bas**rd felt fear from the creature who is smiling crazily as she stabs him.

"Stop!! I can't die like this!" He shouted hysterically while doing some useless weak struggles.

"You useless b!tch!"

"W-we love you, can't you see? You ungrateful b!tch! GAHH! I love you, I love you."

"P-please let me go...."

He was disabled by Zoren as she continued stabbing him.

She seems to find his shouting annoying now and slashed his mouth with a knife.

And... died.

A pool of blood spread at the floor of the wooden house.

"Bas**rd, what really is love? Is this what it is? Then I truly love you. I really love you that I want to kill you and poke holes to your body."

She stared at the unrecognizable corpse, still stabbing despite the lost of breathe below her.

"You ruined my mind like this, ruined my dignity like this, ruined my love for you like this, ruined my body like this, ruined our relationship like this. I hate you to the bone just like I loved you when our life isn't as twisted as this, ba***rd. I WISH YOU DIDN'T BECAME MY FATHER!!!"

The fire didn't spread that quickly, giving enough time to escape.

Zoren laughed loudly with a clear mocking tone, "Is this really love you talking about?! You f***ing adults! I will always hate you all, you adults who destroyed my dream, my life, and my childhood."

She ran her hand in his pocket, grabbed a pair of keys and went in his room, using one of the keys to unlock it. She then went to the drawer and punched in a series of code. She then used the other key to an another bolt placed inside. Zoren grabbed the key inside it and unlocked the collar around her neck. Throwing it to the fire.

This is the reason why can only be around less than 1 meter rather quite freely.. as it will electrocute her if she dared.

She's thankful she is strong and patient enough. Also, she thinks it is quite a blessing that the b**tard got really sluggish during the past few months, making a contribution to her escape.

She ran out of the door and laughed mockingly at the house that gave her multiple nightmares and sleepless nights. Burning so brightly.

"Good thing I was smart enough to prepare this..." she picked up a bag buried in soil under the tree expressionlessly.

She then turned her back to the house, burning her good and bad memories with it.

Zoren saw the waterfalls which they usually went to take a bath. The cheery voices of the three people still seems to be fresh in her mind.

She put her bag on top of the dry rock and soaked herself, not minding the clothes on her getting wet. Her body was full of old and new wounds and scars, with black and blue bruises below her neck. Looking like a young slave survivor who escaped war.

It is clear that the man treasured her face because other than her newly acquired scratches on her dirty face, it looks somehow perfectly fine compared to her other parts. It received a few hard slaps, but its condition is definitely better than the others.

Hick... sob... sob.

"I am free now."

Her hands are still trembling under the water.

"I won't suffer from their hands anymore... I am free."

The night Zoren decided to take action, she took her clothes and put it all inside the bag discreetly. It was also the night the b**stard came home very drunk and still high from the drugs, making him really sluggish, to the point he got knocked out the moment he opened the only door Zoren can escape to.

She thought of escaping that day if not for the collar.

Truthfully, she can just kill herself when she can't think of a way to kill this twisted family. But chose not to. She needs to kill the roots of her nightmares and suffering once and for all. Suicide is out of the question.

Hoping that all she would see in her dreams would be the good memories they had together or the corpse she killed to stop all the traumatic experiences she experienced refresh in her mind.

Hoping that her state when she died will be in a beautiful state of mind and buried in a pretty place.

And... she succeed. After pondering and overcoming her fears, she succeed.

'Ah...'

Zoren felt her consciousness is drifting away as her breath became shallower.

'My celebration for this freedom didn't even lasted for 10 minutes, and yet God already wanted me to die. Ahahaha... how ironic life can be.'

The 14 years old Zoren smiled bitterly but joy still filled her eyes. At least she obtained her goal despite the fact it didn't even lasted for 10 minutes.

Then...

[Target founded.]

[Analyzing soul data...]

[Target fulfilled the required requirements.]

[Initiating the system transfer...]

The mechanical voice changed into more human.

[System transfer complete.]

[Hello, Miss Zoren. I am Butler Eve and I am here to issue you your tasks to complete from now on. Happy cooperation!]

A gender neutral voice said with formality and gentleness. Making the listener feel welcomed and relaxed.

{Who?} a cute and fragile floating dimly lit like ball that has obvious cracks on it, said.

[I am Butler Eve, and you are my co-worker, Miss Zoren. You got hired by the organization that wants to save other pitiful and weak souls! Oh... sorry, do pardon my behavior. I should've let you rest for a while and let you recover in the Garden Haven. Let me send you there.]

[Initiating teleportation. Target: Garden Haven. Deduction: Free]

{??} the floating ball, or rather, Zoren, looks confused.

Suddenly, she felt like she traversed several universes in a very short moment and felt even weaker.

[I'm sorry... I've tried my best to lessen the pain, but it seems that it still hurt you despite that.] The voice sounds sincere.

{Who... are you?} Although Zoren felt no threat or hostility towards the ball of glowing light where the voice came from, she still felt insecure for the fact she didn't know where she was or who is the one talking.

[It seems that you haven't heard my introduction properly due to you weak state. Don't fret, I don't mind. I am Butler Eve of the Hope Soul Organization. Our objectives in saving poor souls like you is to give you an another life where life will be much more fulfilling and fun, in exchange of helping us guide the people who can affect the world away from their demise.] The gender neutral voice of Butler Eve has a hint of smile and patience.

[I am nothing but just an AI right now, however, I was also a soul that worked for the organization as a host, and I can assure you that we can help you have an another chance.]

Butler Eve is ever gentle as the ball of glowing light, Butler Eve, put the cracked pale blue ball with a size of a ping pong ball, occasionally glinting with different colors and appearing like a gradient marble, under a tree placed at the center of Garden Haven.

Besides Zoren, there are also several glowing marble like ping pong balls with different colors under the trees near the center the tree. One can also see some glowing balls at branches at some trees.

[I'll let you rest here first. Don't panic or be too tense, we don't mean any harm.]

{T...Thank...you, But...ler... Eve.} The gradient marble then pulsated glowing light the moment Zoren shut up.

[No problem, Miss Zoren.]

The ball of glowing light, Butler Eve, continued to silently float near Amber.

...

2 days have passed, a soft humming voice was heard from Zoren.

The color of the ball became deeper during these past two days, the cracks has also became shallow. Showing that Zoren truly recovered a bit during these past two days.

[It's good to see you looking quite fine now.] A voice above Zoren said.

Zoren 'raised' her head to look at Butler Eve.

{Mmh... nice meeting you, Butler Eve. Can you tell me my situation and what should I do for the organization?}

[No problem! Right now, your soul situation has somewhat stabilized. Your soul is too wounded... haah, I don't know why our organization just found you and it's a great wonder how you managed to end your life in a wonderful way. Well! Although your soul hasn't gathered enough soul force from the Soul Tree yet, you are stable enough to go to normal level worlds.] Butler Eve paused for a few seconds for Zoren.

The tone of Butler Eve lost a bit of formality and became friendly with hints of patience, making Zoren feel at ease.

[Our Hope Soul Organization wants to help poor souls like you. Poor souls are souls with a broken soul because of their past traumatic experiences or those who got harmed by soul weapons. And just like I have mentioned earlier, in exchange of giving these souls a chance of living a life full of happiness, the systems, us, will work with you in each worlds until you reached the right amount of soul tax to go and live a happy life.]

The blue ball hummed a bit as Amber thought a bit.

{Seeing that I haven't lost my intelligence means that your organization is quite sincere to souls like us. However, if I'm not wrong, can't poor souls like us can live a happy life if we gathered enough karma in our past life, right? Also, what if we don't want to work with you? You just went to me and hired me without consent...} Butler Eve can somehow see the 'aren't your organization quite forceful in the name of justice?' face on the blue ball called Zoren.

[Starting with the first question. Poor souls have been tainted and broken that even Heaven or Hell won't accept them.

Karma? Good or bad karma, for people like you, your karma along with that weak soul is just enough to last you for a year or two after having awareness and then experience an experience more traumatic than the other, or just die, this is already considered as a 'mercy' to those who are kind enough.

And, that's also why we provide and gather soul force, not only to help people, but also to make the organization stand tall as always.

Karma is the thing that can decide your fate, it can be gathered as we proceed along with the Soul Force.

Second question. If you don't want to work with us, you can choose not to and I'll leave after extracting the Soul Force the Soul Tree gave you.]

Zoren felt a bit dizzy to listen such a long talk packed with new information, but she still got the key points.

{So, it's a win-win situation then. But why won't Heaven and Hell--}

Butler Eve cut her off. [I can't give you anymore explanation if you are not planning to join us.]

Zoren: ....Oh...