First Blood (1)

Kedra sheepishly opened the door, looking around the decrepit halls. Despite their state, it seemed like they had been cleaned semi-frequently, and occasional decorations and healthy potted plants could be spotted laying on top of sturdy cabinets. The floorboards did not creak at her passage, and the ceiling was not riddled with holes.

'Looks like my room's the only one that's been exempt from cleaning, huh? These bastards...'

As she stepped through the corridor, she found her legs aching from fatigue. She suddenly remembered that the previous owner of her body had run into the woods after breaking through her window. The many cuts covering her body were suddenly a lot more understandable than they were before.

Putting aside the question of how she managed to make it back safely to her room, she hurried down the hall, reaching a small common room. Directly in front of her, she saw the front door wide open, with traces of hurried footfall on the mud outside.

'It seems like they went after me... and since the door is wide open and unlocked, they're not back yet.' Kedra felt a certain sense of relief at the thought of the sudden opportunities opening up before her. 'I'll have a bit of time to prepare; I better hurry up.' 

As she closed the front door and hurriedly made her way down the hall, she began thinking about how to properly deal with the situation at hand. After a few minutes of intense reflection, she made up her mind and steeled her nerves, entering the room in front of her.

On the outskirts of a dense pine forest, the sounds of chirping birds and buzzing insects were slowly quieting down as light rainfall slowly started intensifying itself, each droplet denser than the last. The five maids gathered around the entrance to the woods, staring intently at a set of small human footprints. As they debated over their next course of action, the youngest servant spoke up.

"She'll never survive out there; let's give up on searching and just tell the family that she ran away and died." 

"Are you stupid? The patriarch will never forgive us if we reveal that she died without presenting a corpse; the patriarch could kill us in his unrest! You know how paranoid that man is." The head maid had spoken up; her experience working for the Deslandes family before being made to serve Kedra had brought along a certain intimate knowledge of her master's character. If he was uncertain of Kedra's death, he would assume that she managed to live, no matter what.

"Well, then what should we do?"

"Let's just continue living as we were; it's not like he comes to check if she's still alive or not; we'll keep reporting to the occasional soldier that comes around that she's just stuck in her room all day and go on with our lives."

The maids all agreed, letting out chuckles among sighs of relief.

Only one of the five remained silent, a blonde-haired woman named Maria. She was quietly cursing herself in her mind, blaming herself for not reaching out to the child sooner. The mere fear of reprimand from her peers was enough to keep her away from Kedra, though now she could only regret not acting sooner.

'Damn it, damn it all! It wasn't my fault! There's no telling what the head maid would've done if they saw me caring for the child; I had no choice but to ignore her!' Her flawed thinking was beginning to twist her mind as guilt set in, but she was quickly snapped back to reality by the head maid's shouting.

"The rain is picking up; let's head back!" Following her orders, the servants quickly hurried back to the residence, only to find the front door closed.

"Didn't we leave the door open? What could've closed it?"

"It has to be the child!" The youngest shouted in frustration, "She played us for fools!"

"If it really is her, I'm going to beat some sense into that frail head of hers!" The head maid shouted as she quickly flung the door open, only to find an eerily quiet hall, the silence broken only by the occasional pitter-patter of raindrops on the windows.

"Everyone spread out and look for the girl; when you find her, bring her to me."

"Yes, ma'am!" The servants spread out and began searching the residence. As the head maid made her way down the corridor, she found the kitchen door slightly ajar. 

'There you are, you rat.' Quickly making her way in, her eyes were enveloped by darkness, and as night began to fall, the kitchen's only window did not let in enough moonlight to properly search the room.

As she stumbled around looking for a lamp, she felt a sharp pain across both of her ankles as she suddenly felt the strength leave her legs; she could only yelp as she fell to the floor, bringing the items on top of the counter she was searching along with her in a cacophony of loud noises.

The four maids hurriedly made their way to the kitchen to investigate the sudden noise, one of them lighting a lantern on the way. Reaching the room, as the lantern's light shone through the darkness, a rush of negative emotions hit them almost instantly as they stared at the slaughtered corpse of the head maid; both of her tendons had been cut and her throat had been messily slit, blood still pumping out of her arteries in a twisted crimson fountain. 

Before them stood the child, covered in the blood of the freshly slain maid, holding a kitchen knife in her grisly hands. Kedra knew that a child's glare would not scare an adult, no matter the circumstance, so she tried to remain as apathetic as possible to make the act seem perfectly premeditated instead of impulsive.

"All of you get on your knees, or you'll quickly meet the same fate." Despite Kedra's immature voice, the maid's knees buckled as they fell onto all fours. They had never witnessed a death before; their fight or flight reaction was too slow to arrive, so they simply froze, looking up at the child's eyes for the first time since she was placed in their care.

Kedra's mind was also racing; adrenaline was the only thing keeping her from properly stopping to think about the life she had just taken, but she had come too far to stop now; she would perfectly execute her plan and get her rest after.

"From now on, you will all listen to my demands; if you don't, I'll kill you here and now." She kept her distance, wary of sudden movements, keeping the still-bloody kitchen knife pointed towards the four servants.

"Yes, my lady, anything you say!" Maria was the first to speak up; in her twisted mind, a chance of redemption had finally presented itself along with the death of the person she had feared over the ten long years of living in the manor.

Two of the maids quickly followed suit, led on by Maria's example; only the youngest of the servants slowly got up into a crouch.

"Screw this! You're just some brat; do you have any idea just what you've done, you bitch?!" Finishing her sentence, she finally gathered enough strength to lunge towards Kedra in a last-ditch effort to pin her to the floor.

'Alright, Kedra, it's now or never; don't fuck this up.' Kedra focused, recalling her experience. In her small size, the kitchen knife she held was of a similar size and weight to the daggers she had used in sportive duels back on earth.

Kedra summoned the last of her strength, fueled by the adrenaline pumping through her body, and sidestepped the maid's lunge, slashing at her throat with the knife. As the maid felt the blade slide across her windpipe, her mind raced; she felt as if time had slowed to a crawl. In this trance, she began to reflect on the situation; she thought that perhaps she would still be able to find a way to survive. The others in the room merely saw her motionless body land onto the head maid's corpse, animated only by occasional twitches.

"From now on, you will treat me as your one and only master; if you cross me in any way, I will not hesitate to do to you what I did to them."

Faced with such a display, paralyzed by fear, the three maids could do nothing but sheepishly nod their heads in agreement, fearing angering Kedra any further. Their minds were hazy, as if their brains were desperately trying to trick them into believing that the recent events had been just a dream, but the strong smell of iron, the loud pumping of their hearts, and the pain of the tile flooring against their hands were undoubtedly real.