ã€ŠTwisted Creation &#x2013; Wicked Worldã€‹


 Chapter 0 - Prologue

    Disclaimer: Only the prologue is written in the first person perspective. I encountered various problems and had to switch to 3rd person in the following chapters.

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    In the beginning there was pain; unending and unbelievable pain. One of my first memories also consists of wicked laughter - and pain. It hurts! I''m glad that I''m not alone with this unbearable pain. The wicked laughter of my best friend lightens the stress on my mind and I feel relieved, because I¡¯m not alone in this pain.

    He always wears dark black robes and a wicked mark with a demonic smile covers his whole face. Two fitting evil dark brown, nearly black, eyes glint at me through two small holes in the mask. I don¡¯t know much else about his appearance because he always, for all those long years, hides himself behind the wicked mask and long dark robes. But sometimes some of his black hair slips out between his hood and mask and I noticed that it¡¯s a bit curly at the end. My hair on the other hand is straight blond without any curls. I wonder why?

    What is pain? By now I know almost everything about pain. Pain comes in all kind of different forms, but it always hurts. How do I know pain? Mainly through my never-ending experience and by now I am pretty sure that I know pain from all its sides. For example if I get hit, prodded and stabbed it leaves red swelling marks on my body and it hurts, like right now. I can bear it, as long as he is happy and keeps on laughing.

    When I make him very happy, he sometimes even draws me pictures with beautiful red colour on the opposite walls. Where does this colour come from? Well, after stabbing and prodding me, my body seems to produce this colour on its own, I think it''s beautiful, he told me it''s beautiful. A small moan escapes my mouth because of this unbearable pain. But he doesn''t always draw me pictures, only when he is overjoyed with my performance like today. I keep singing for him to make him happy, each time he stabs me I start to sing again and again. I''m pretty sure he will start drawing a picture for me pretty soon; we both give it our best.

    How long did this go on for? I don''t know, longer than I can remember. Sometimes the never ending pain seems to lessen, the same way my consciousness sometimes slowly escapes my grip on my mind and drifts away into a well-known darkness. But one day he was very kind and told me why my pain sometimes seems to disappear and fixed it soon afterwards. It seems that there are many different nerves throughout my whole body and if you experience pain through the same nerve over an extended period of time the pain seems to lessen. By switching to another nerve in my body we were able to subdue my body to a whole new level of pain again, which made him very happy. I''m happy. It hurts!

    How do I know what a nerve is? When he told me about the different nerves and my nervous system, I didn''t seem to understand right away and he had to luckily spend much time with me that day and seemed to be pleased with me afterwards; he was very kind. He picked various large and sharp objects, turned me around, and hacked right into my back. There it was again, this unbearable pain! I started to sing with renewed vigour. Sometimes funny transparent liquid seems to roll down my face, if we both give it all, it even turns a slightly red colour. I don''t like it very much, because the red one from my body is more colourful; he likes it tough, so I don''t complain. He cut out a part of a very long bone right in the middle of my back area, cleaned it and taught me all about nerves.

    I was very excited, because he doesn''t often spend so much time with me and i had to suppress my happiness to keep my attention on the lecture. I like the lectures, because i can learn all about my body, he knows very much and keeps on teaching me. He also taught me much about the world, a world I have never seen before. He often makes various parts of my body disappear and cleans them, then the lectures start. Even though it hurts, I really like to learn new things about my body. Once he taught me all about these wiggly things called intestines from inside my belly, they looked pretty weird, but the pain was at least bearable.

    My song gets softer and softer by now, even though we both give it still our best. It hurts! The transparent liquid seems to flow again down from my right eye and today it has this slightly red colour again. We never managed to make it flow from both my eyes; even he doesn¡¯t know why my left eye won¡¯t make it flow. He told me these little mysteries are worth living and so we work really hard to discover why it is only produced from my right eye. He gives me a frown and seems to be disappointed with my stamina. I can¡¯t go on anymore. His frown deepens and he turns around and starts to connect multiple thick tubes, with weird looking liquid inside, with my body. I know now, that he won¡¯t paint a pretty picture for me today.

    This is the worst part, because I know he will leave me soon afterwards. I try to establish eye contact and beg him to stay. My voice doesn¡¯t seem to work; maybe it has something to do with the prodding in my throat area this morning, how curious. Funny sounds escape my mouth and my mood lightens. He finally looks at my face, frowns again and gags my mouth. The sounds stopped coming and my mood falls again. I know if he connects the last tubes to my body, the endless pain will start again and he will leave me alone in the dark. I don¡¯t want him to leave me, though I hope he will connect all the tubes this time. Sometimes he seems to forget to connect everything and then my belly starts to hurt. It feels like something is eating me from the inside, I don¡¯t like it because there is nothing to see and it still hurts. By now he managed to connect all the tubes to different parts of my body and then he looks me in the eyes, smirks, turns around and leaves the room.

    Now I¡¯m alone again in the dark with my unending pain. Long time ago, when we started to use these weird looking tubes, we managed to make me feel pain for an unlimited amount of time, even when he is not with me. He once told me that in some tubes is some kind of liquid which attacks different nerves by circulating with my blood flow throughout my entire body. This way we prevented the continuous attack on just one nerve and the pain never seems to stop, which made him unbelievable happy, so I resolved myself to endure the pain.

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    Sometimes he doesn¡¯t visit me for a long time and I slowly start to feel lonely. When I start to feel lonely over an extended period of time my body experiences funny emotions. If I¡¯m not gagged, small giggles and wicked laughter escape my mouth. I think it¡¯s because I¡¯m feeling too excited, when I think about that he will visit me soon again. At the same time this red tinged, transparent liquid starts to flow from my right eye again and my whole body starts to shake uncontrollably. Then even after a longer time of loneliness, my body seems to cool down and all I can do is to stare in the direction he left me. I just keep on staring and experience the pain with my full attention, because there is nothing else to keep me occupied. This loneliness is also some kind of pain, which I don¡¯t fully grasp yet. I know tough the longer I¡¯m alone, the more it seems to hurt. I once told him about it and he was so happy we spend a very long time together and I was singing for hours. In the end he even drew me a pretty picture of a so called girl with various sized stakes through her body, including one directly through her head. I liked it very much, such a pretty picture. He told me that the picture depicts me on the very day we first met.

    A long amount of time has passed after he left me alone in the dark with my unending pain. By now I have experienced all the different stages of loneliness. Even I feel like I¡¯ve never felt so alone my entire life. I wonder if he¡¯ll ever come back. Some of the tubes even dried up and my belly hurts again. This happened never before so I¡¯m also excited. Because I¡¯m too excited my body starts to shake, red tinged liquid flows down my face and funny noises escape my gag again.

    By now nearly every tube dried up and I don¡¯t even feel the pain in my belly anymore. At least I still feel the everlasting pain so he won¡¯t be too mad with me when he comes back. I can¡¯t bear it anymore. Why won¡¯t he come visit me again? Did I do something wrong? What about discovering all the small mysteries in life together? I start to sob uncontrollably. I can¡¯t imagine what I¡¯ve done wrong. I wipe away the tears in my eyes, when a loud creaking noise and an ear deafening shatter reaches my ears and I experience new pain again.

    After some time I don¡¯t feel anything anymore. This is the first time since I can remember I don¡¯t feel any pain. I¡¯m scarred witless, will he be mad if he comes back and sees this mess and knows I don¡¯t feel any pain anymore? I don¡¯t seem to be able to control my thoughts and body. I shiver all over and try to hide in a corner and start to produce wailing noises. After some time I notice that my room looks quite different. It¡¯s smaller overall and part of the wall and ceiling lies around on the floor. Everywhere is dust and it¡¯s hard to breath. By now I can only hope he won¡¯t be really mad when he comes visit me again. I notice that I can move my left arm, so I start to feel around in my surroundings. The chain connected to my right arm seems to be connected to the wall, but it seems to loose. I pull a bit on the chain and there is this deafening shatter again. My room got smaller again and more dirt lies on the floor. I also feel pain again, because some part on the ceiling landed on my shoulder. I¡¯m scared. I don¡¯t know what to do. I have to get out of here before he comes back and sees all the mess I made. But at the same time I hope that the noise was able to catch his attention so he will visit me again. I still feel lonely.

    After more time passed and I calmed down, I decided to go look for him. I can¡¯t bear this loneliness anymore, even though I tried really hard to endure it. I took the chain from my neck in both my hands and started to pull again. This time the chain was connected to the floor and it just produced some creaking noises without the deafening shatter. I take that as a good sign and my mood starts to lighten up again. Only the chains on my legs are remaining. I take them in both my hands and with a quick pull I¡¯m able to move my legs. This is the first time I don¡¯t feel any pain and I¡¯m able to move at the same time. I¡¯m so excited. I¡¯m afraid. What will happen when he comes back? I start sobbing again and a wicked laughter escapes my mouth in between the funny noises. Seems like the gag in my mouth got lost at some point in time. I really need to find him, because he needs to fix my room and make everything go back to normal again. I¡¯m so afraid right now and I can¡¯t seem to calm down.

    Light starts to shine in between the cracks in my ceiling and I¡¯m so captivated by this sight I can¡¯t seem to move. This is even more beautiful than the pretty pictures! Where does this light come from? Did he make the light? Is he back? I¡¯m so thrilled with the experience and I jump up and run in small circles with a big smile on my face. This reminds me that I really have to find him so everything can go back to normal and we can go back to discovering the small mysteries in life. It took quite some time to gather my will to just walk in the direction of the only door in my room. I took one last glance back into my room and all I can see is the dirt, part of the ceiling, and the tubes. The part of the floor where I used to lie has all kinds of red shades and it looks really beautiful. Then I see the light again through the cracks in the ceiling and I get motivated to go look for him. I turn back around to face the door, gather all my courage, put my hand on the handle and push. After a creaking noise I have the whole door on my hand and I don¡¯t really know what to do with it. I¡¯ve never opened a door before, so I decide to lay it down on the floor in my room. I finally turn back around and take the first step in my entire life out of my room, my small world.

 Chapter 1

    At the end of the world, in a small dark hallway, there is a small and very beautiful girl. At the first glance she seems like every other girl around the world, even though there are differences between her and everybody else. The most obvious difference is the small blood red tear stain down her right cheek. She is also in possession of extraordinary eyes. A pair of eyes, older than anyone could imagine. Eyes directly cut out of the worst nightmares. And finally there are her scars and body markings. Hideous markings cover her from head to toe and every inch of her body is covered by layer upon layer of wicked scars.

    This small slip of a girl stands in a dark hallway. Darkness surrounds her from every direction. It is so dark, that she can¡¯t even see her own hands right in front of her eyes. The beautiful girl slowly and carefully keeps on moving down the dark hallway. She advances fearlessly into the darkness even though uncertainty and excitement is written all over her face. In the darkness her pupils are wide open, trying to capture every scrap of light which might streak through the darkness, and her eyes are shining with curiosity of what might await her at the end of the hallway. Wondering if it even has an end, she keeps on toddling forward on her unstable small legs.

    Slow but steady her surroundings keep getting brighter and brighter and it takes her a while to notice the small changes in brightness. The light originates from a small room at the end of the hallway. An old, creaky wooden door hangs on its hinges right at the entrance. She notices curiously that the only light in the hallway spills through the cracks of the old door. She feels that the image of the light slipping through the cracks of the old wooden door and illuminating her dark world might be the most beautiful thing she has ever seen. Even more beautiful than the red pictures her one and only friend often used to draw for her.

    Suddenly her mind is plagued with worries. Her face twists into a mask of uncertainty and worry. She can¡¯t even imagine what might await her on the other side of the door. The only thing she hopes for is to find him, so he can return everything back to normal and bring back the pain. What if he lives in the room behind the door? Her whole body visibly relaxes at the thought of him waiting for her right behind the door.

    Then indecision plagues her mind. She asks herself why he would be waiting for her. He always made sure to visit her regularly. And why did her only friend leave her all of a sudden? Is he mad at her, even though she always gave it her best and sang to the best of her abilities? Is he tired of discovering the small mysteries of her body? Overpowering sadness floods the girl¡¯s mind and she crouches down into the corner right next to the door. Heartrending weeping sounds exit her small body at the thought of her friend leaving her forever behind. She can¡¯t process the thought of being alone in this dark world. Her small mind is totally overwhelmed with the thought of never seeing her best friend ever again.

    Suddenly the heartrending voice stops and her face lights up. A brilliant smile starts blooming on her beautiful face. What if more beautiful things are awaiting her behind the door? Mad laughter escapes her mouth unnoticed. What if the light slipping through the door is just the beginning? Her mind starts racing and drawing up fantastic meetings between her and her friend in a beautiful world of beauty, mystery and pain.

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    After a while the small girl managed to calm down enough to think again. Sudden clarity floods her mind and she knows that no matter how long she waits for him, he won¡¯t be visiting her again. She knows that she needs to open this door and start searching for her only friend, happiness and pain. Gathering her courage, she slowly lifts her body from the floor and approaches the old door on her tiny legs. Touching the doorknob, gathering her wits and clamming down on the excitement which threatens to overwhelm her, the girl slowly opens the door.

    After the usual loud cracking noise the beautiful girl has the old door in her hands. A world of wonder enters her big round eyes. The door crashes forgotten on the floor and she steps forward into the new space. It is a tiny room filled with weird things the girl has never seen before and also sharp wicked tools the girl knows very well. Her friend used these tools to create beautiful wicked markings and scars on her tiny body. Accompanied by more pain than she usually felt, her friend used these tools to teach her everything about her body and its function. Excitement starts flooding her face and a mad cackle escapes her mouth.

    Succeeding the short moment of curiously examining the room¡¯s interior, the girl stops in the middle of her tiny steps and holds her breath. A window entered her field of view. After a long moment, she slowly starts to breathe again. She has never seen so many beautiful bright colours in her entire life. Dark blue is mixing with brighter blue in the middle of the sky and even her favourite red colour is mixed together with yellow right into it.

    A sunrise, as beautiful as the song she used to sing to her friend, overwhelms the mind of the girl from another small world. In her world, the closest thing to the sun shined down upon her when her friend used to visit her. Her sun was a small light on the ceiling of her world and it was one of her biggest joys in her life. It cut not only through the darkness of her world, but also through the darkness of her mind. This sun however, placed in the middle of a vast blue sky, mixing its colours with more colours than she has ever seen before, puts her old sun to shame. Small fluffy clouds spot the sky, clouds she only heard about in stories. But most beautiful of all is the big smile, which blooms on the small girl¡¯s face, upon seeing the outside world for her first time.

    The mind of the girl is overwhelmed by the sights and a mad laughter escapes her lips. She rolls on the floor after losing control of her muscles and mind. She releases small sobs of joy in between her mad laughter. In this moment the girl experienced more new and strange emotions than she ever felt before.

    During these new emotions she is visited by her constant old companion. She feels a sudden strong physical pain on the back of her head. More joy fills her mind and she starts to laugh uncontrollably. Expecting to find her one and only friend behind her she starts to turn around and suddenly she feels a much stronger pain on the back of her head. Now she is near ecstatic and jumps up to face her friend.

    But what she finds is not what she expected. And what they found is not what they expected either. Suddenly the only thing the girl can see is a big metallic object racing to reach her face. It connects with a loud bang and everything went back to the old, well-known darkness for the small wicked girl.

 Chapter 2

    ¡°¡­ markings ¡­ scars ¡­ what ¡­ she ¡­ all alone ¡­ here?¡±

    An unfamiliar voice is talking right next to the wicked girl. The soft voice slowly awakens her drowsy mind. Feeling around she notices the hard, cold and uncomfortable floor she is lying on. This feeling of being slowly awakened with a soft pain at the back of her head is very familiar which allows her to wake up faster than any other human wandering the earth.

    Only one person ever made her feel such pain and a soft smile spreads over her lips before she opens her eyes A hazy beautiful sky enters her vision, as she suddenly pops them open. The sun moved on through the sky and is now directly above her. She seems to have passed out for a couple of hours. Remembering the unfamiliar voice which woke her up, she curiously lifts her body off the cold floor and gazes around.

    After seeing funny looking people wearing weird outfits, a laugh bubbles up through her mouth. Most of them look the same, wearing light brown clothes which the girl has never seen before. Some of them wear different, more colourful clothes though and some just cover their lower body parts, while the rest of their body is proudly presented to the nature and surrounding people. The people jump at the unfamiliar sound and look hurriedly around. The moment they spot the girl they stop in their steps and slowly approach her.

    ¡°Good morning sleeping beauty,¡± said a man approaching her from the left side of the group of people. Surrounding him are people she didn¡¯t notice before. Their upper body and some parts of their legs are covered in some kind of metal and they are holding long straight wooden sticks with sharp metallic tips on top.

    Wondering who these people are and where her only friend and caretaker is, the girl fails to greet the approaching man.

    ¡°Pete, you are scaring her. Give her some time to fully wake up first,¡± Said a woman right behind Pete, as she put a soft hand on his shoulder. This woman is neither covered in metal nor wears the brown clothes. She has dark brown hair and wears light green trousers, coupled with a dark green top. Her hairstyle is marvellous, something the girl has never seen before and she can¡¯t seem to look away from it. Somehow her hair is bound into a single long braid at the back of her head and it reaches her lower back, way past her shoulder area. Although some of her brown hair seems to have escaped its restrained and freely waves in the wind.

    ¡°Time to wake up?¡± The question left her mouth before she could stop herself. She could not understand how anyone can be more awake than she already is. The thought of waking up while already awake amuses the girl and a small smile spreads across her lips.

    ¡°She seems to like you Ally¡± the first person, Pete, spoke after seeing her smile at Ally.

    ¡°Yes, thank you. I can see as much myself.¡± Ally jabbed at Pete, before she looked back at the girl again. When she turns her head, the hair seems to reluctantly follow her movements, waving freely in the wind.

    ¡°Hello, as you noticed my friends here call me Ally. What¡¯s your name?¡± Ally inquired after the small blonde beauty sitting on the dirty ground.

    The girl couldn¡¯t comprehend right away what she is being asked about. ¡°My name?¡± she asked the weird woman.

    ¡°Yes, I¡¯d love to know your name dear.¡± Ally reassured the little girl.

    Uncertainly the girl tries to answer her question.

    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know. My friend used to call me his favourite plaything and student. Sometimes he even called me his most beautiful Nightingale, because he loved my singing voice.¡±

    ¡°Who are you talking about? Oh well, we know you are beautiful indeed and I¡¯d love to hear you sing one day. But ¡­¡± Ally couldn¡¯t finish her sentence because the girl started to smile and laugh wickedly, disturbing her right in the middle of her sentence.

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    ¡°You want to hear me sing? Do you want to sing together with me?¡± The wicked girl happily asked Ally.

    ¡°Of course I want to hear you sing my dear. And I¡¯d even love to sing together with you. But why don¡¯t you tell me your name first?¡± Ally tried to reassure the girl.

    ¡°My name? ¡­ I don¡¯t know ... Why do I need a name?¡± The girl asked in between her wicked laughter.

    The group surrounding the girl grew restless. ¡°What¡¯s so funny about her name that she can¡¯t stop laughing? Or is it the singing? Get a grip on yourself over there!¡± a fat bellied man in the middle of the group shouted the last sentence at the girl.

    Now that¡¯s weird. Why should she need to get a grip on herself? These people ask her one weird question after the other. If they want to know more about her, maybe they should start to sing together with her so they could to get to know each other.

    The girl suddenly stopped laughing. Picking up a metal rod from the cold ground right next to the girl, the girl starts to stand up and turns to the group of funny looking people with a wicked glint in her eyes.

    ¡°If you want to get to know me better, why don¡¯t you start singing first?¡± said the girl while she invited the group of people to step closer.

    ¡°Where did she¡­.¡± the fat bellied man from before looks surprised at her facing him with a metal rod.

    ¡°Ok, why don¡¯t you put that rod back down on the floor and calm down missy. And what did you just say? Sounded like a different language to me. Where do you come from?¡± Pete asked her.

    The girl didn¡¯t want to answer the question and bridged the gap between her and the group with a large leap of several meters.

    Chaos broke out in the group surrounding her.

    ¡°What the¡­¡±, ¡°Stop her!¡± and ¡°Grab the rod!¡± could be heard shouted throughout the group of people.

    The girl, not minding the chaos, advanced forward to Ally and stabbed the rod right into her belly. ¡°Sing for me Ally!¡± the girl said with her sweetest voice she could manage.

    As Ally was not used to pain she started to scream from the top of her lungs and crumpled on the floor. The group was shocked at the sudden violence displayed right in front of their eyes. Not to mention the violence done by the small frail girl.

    But the girl didn¡¯t let Ally crumple to the floor just yet . She grabbed Ally by her throat with her free left hand and threw her right into a tree fifteen meters away.

    Everybody stopped in their tracks and shocked silence filled the surroundings. Silence so complete not even the nature seemed to produce any noise.

    After several tense seconds, more chaos broke out. Chaos so complete not even one person would be able to recount the events afterwards. Most everyone will remember Pete¡¯s tense shout filled with panic of ¡°She is a survivor, go kill her!¡± echoing through the surroundings, right before the chaos erupted.

    After the shout the girl was filled with joy, as so many people never tried to play with her before. She tried to get as many people to sing for her as possible before her old friend, the darkness claimed her. As the darkness surrounded her mind, dragging down her heavy eyelids, she was right in the middle of skewering the fat bellied man. Her last conscious thought was that this fat man had the most twisted voice she ever heard anyone sing with. Then her mind began to drift through the well-known darkness.

 Chapter 3

    The wicked girl, as beautiful as a summer sunset in a warm spring evening, lies tied and unconscious in a rocking wagon. The wagon itself is made out of wood, but the girl is locked into a cage of metal bound by handcuffs and manacles out of the strongest metallic alloy known to mankind.

    Four assigned guards always surround the cage with their weapons drawn. Together with eight more guards, on rotation duty, they guard the girl all hours of the day and night. The wooden wagon follows a horse drawn caravan of fifteen more wagons down a bumpy road through a dense jungle. The caravan itself is guarded by more than about forty guards, to protect it against robbers, thieves and also the dangerous mysterious beasts of the jungle. The road itself is the only way to move through the dense jungle, if someone were to try to cross it off-road, chances are their complete party would be wiped out within days or more likely within hours.

    But the unconscious girl is not alone in her cage. There are five more people within the cage, huddled together in the furthest corner of the cage, afraid to awaken or draw her attention. Moreover, there is one guardian of mankind within the cage right next to the bound girl.

    This guardian wears a pure white robe, a white as pure as the innocence of a new born babe born into a world of bloodshed and murder. Peeking out of the slits of the robe are blood-red underclothes completely covering the body. The guardian wears a monocle over his right eye and has the most excited expression of all the people in the caravan. His task is to gather information on the girl and keep her sedated and unconscious by any means. Keeping the girl sedated proofed to be more difficult than anticipated and they can¡¯t gather more ingredients in the jungle for a stronger sedative. This leads him to occasionally stab, prod and pound her head, without mercy, whenever he thinks she showed the smallest of movements.

    But unknown to the guardian, the wicked girl was born in pain. The one and only thing she is most intimate with, is unending and unbearable pain. And this lack of knowledge provides the girl with the opportunity to unconsciously revel in this pain, to get soothed by it and to let it gradually strengthen her mind.

    Slow and steady, her mind returns to the world of the rattling wagon bumping along a jungle road. The girl awakens, while she notices the unusual cuffs around her wrists, feeling them bite into her flesh and bones, along with the comfortable pain at the back of her head accompanied by strong headaches.

    But she does not awaken like any other man is known to slowly and drowsily awaken after an afternoon nap. This wicked girl awakens with loud mad laughter leaving her mouth accompanied with a glint in her eyes, so fear inducing that her cell-mates press themselves further into the corner, praying to escape and get saved from the wicked girl. Interestingly they do not pray to a god or goddess, but for anybody else on this forsaken planet to release them from their suffering.

    The moment the first sound of laughter leaves her mouth, the girl tries to excitedly sit up but is restricted by the creaking handcuffs and manacles around her feet.

    The only thing she can think of this very moment is that her friend and caretaker found her again and made everything go back to normal. Because of these thoughts she does not notice the tense atmosphere surrounding the whole caravan and the wild panic within her cage. But the guardian is used by now to her suddenly waking up in a mad fit of laughter and quickly gets to work knocking the girl unconscious again and afterwards stabbing different parts of her body to check if she responds to the extreme external stimulus.

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    Satisfied that the wicked, blood soaked girl won¡¯t respond to the pain the guardian relaxes and leans back into the metal bars of the cage. This process repeated itself several times during the day and the atmosphere of the caravan is visibly tense, so tense that you wonder when and how something or someone is going to erupt in a glorious explosion of unrestrained emotion.

    Reaching the next town as fast as possible is the only option for Pete, the caravan leader. On the one hand, he wants to get rid of the twisted girl as fast as possible and continue his trading business. On the other hand, he is not sure if it is a good idea to bring a survivor into a town full of people, though he has to admit that he never heard of a survivor child before, especially after all this time. Everyone got to witness her unrestrained violence and lack of sense and moral. She reminds him of an unrestrained beast ravaging through a small mountain village, murdering and torturing the peaceful village people.

    The only bright things that happened to him since the girl popped up out of nowhere are that Ally seems to be able to survive the attack with no permanent injuries and that he finally got rid of Mark, that fat disgusting pig, who somehow always got the last word regarding their less successful trading strategies. He is sure that without Mark he would have never done that ridiculous slave-trading deal and thus he would have never met the survivor girl. Deciding that he can¡¯t change the plan now anyway, he tries to calm down his fellow traders and even some visibly spooked guards accompanying the caravan. After everyone more or less calmed back down again they continue their journey to Goa, the next town along the bumpy jungle road.

    Unknown to the guardian and everyone else in the caravan the girl knows by now that she is not accompanied by her friend and saviour. She woke up so often by now that she managed to get a rough idea of her surroundings and is fairly confident in escaping her predicament if not for these weird cuffs and manacles binding her body.

    While her mind is slowly drifting through the black void of unconsciousness she somehow managed to sort out her mind and plan her escape. She has to admit that she is also pretty excited where they are going to bring her. She even imagined her friend waiting at the end of her travel with this group of people, but she pretty fast got to the conclusion that it is unlikely that they know of her best friend but not of his plaything and personal toy he spent so much time with, so she figured that she must search for him on her own again.

    A day later, the atmosphere surrounding the caravan suddenly calmed down and everyone visibly relaxed after reaching the top of a small hill along the bumpy road riddled with small holes.

    After reaching the top of the hill, they can finally lay their eyes upon their destination, the small studious town of Goa. Unknown to the guardian, guards and traders, they are not the only ones noticing a distinct change in the tense atmosphere and excitement fills the mind of the girl, who is as twisted as your worst nightmares.

 Chapter 4

    Halfway down the slope of the hill, cold water splashes over the face of the small girl.

    ¡°Good morning sleeping beauty.¡± A by now familiar voice enters her ears. She has to admit that Pete¡¯s voice somehow sounds very tense.

    ¡°Come on, open your eyes. We all know you are awake now.¡± Pete says in a hurry.

    As she suddenly snaps open her eyes, the first thing she sees is the most beautiful animal she has ever seen, sitting between her cage bars, spreading its wings to take off to flight. The wings are covered in a multitude of colours and patterns, ranging from a dark purple over her favourite red to a beautiful yellow, covering the wings in beautiful circular shapes.

    ¡°Ahh, she¡¯s finally awake.¡± Pete snaps his fingers as he continues. ¡°If you¡¯d please look over here and not stare at the butterfly like it¡¯s your missing mother.¡±

    But the girl¡¯s eyes are captivated by the sight of the butterfly spreading its wings, taking to the air and flying off towards the setting sun. A sunset, even more beautiful than the sunrise this morning. Watching it fly through the air fills the girl with a strong longing for freedom and she starts to trash around in her chains.

    ¡°Woah! Calm down! Calm down! Or we have to knock you out again missy.¡± Pete tries to get the situation under control again.

    The girl stops trashing, snaps her head around and intensely stares into Pete¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°Yes. Thank you, that¡¯s much better.¡± Pete says.

    ¡°How do you know that my mother is missing?¡± She surprises Pete with an unexpected question. ¡°Do you know anything else about me? Or do you even know my best friend?¡± A sudden flash of hope crosses her face.

    ¡°Okay, okay. Slow down.¡± Pete tries to stop the trickle of question flooding out of the girl¡¯s mouth. ¡°I don¡¯t know anything about you, your mother and your friend. And I have to admit, I never even dreamed about meeting a survivor after all this time, especially not a girl. Never even heard about a child survivor before¡­¡± He mumbles the last part of the sentence.

    At the sight of a new blood-red tear slowly flowing down the girl¡¯s right cheek, he suddenly comes back to himself and gathers his thoughts. ¡°Anyway, that¡¯s not important right now. I want you to know what¡¯s going to happen from now on and I want you to not cause me and my friends here any more trouble, okay? As you can see, the sun is about to set, so we are getting ready to camp here, right next to this shitty bumpy road. Tomorrow, we will start to move out again at first light even without breakfast. I want to eat real fresh food as fast as possible, once we reached the town. I guess that it will take us about 2 hours to reach the Goa, the next town. This will be the moment when we will part ways and I honestly hope to never see you again, my lady. Mark, the guardian right here, will take care of you and then you will meet more of his guardian friends in Goa. Do you have any Questions?¡±

    The girl just stares into Pete¡¯s eyes without saying another word.

    As Pete starts to turn around, he looks back over his shoulder and says ¡°Sleep well, my beauty.¡± And then a sudden familiar pain at the back of her head drags her down into the darkness of unconsciousness.

    ----------------

    In the middle of the night, the girl awakens to Mark, her guardian, staring right into her eyes. As the girl starts to trash in her chain and a surprised scream leaves her body, he clamps his hand over her mouth and tries to calm her down with shooing noises.

    ¡°Good morning. It¡¯s so nice to finally meet you on your own. We got so much to discuss and I don¡¯t want the others listening in on our conversation.¡± He whispers in her ear. ¡°First of all, don¡¯t you wonder why I am here? I personally think that our meeting was fated to be. Who knows what kind of havoc you would have created and how many innocents you¡¯d have slaughtered otherwise. But with these chains, I don¡¯t see you going anywhere anytime soon.¡± A mad grin spreads over his face. ¡°You belong to me now, my darling.¡±

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    ¡°I don¡¯t want to belong to anybody. And why are you here? Were you searching for me? Do you know my friend?¡± The questions seem to tickle out of her small mouth without stopping.

    ¡°Shhh! Don¡¯t wake the others. No, I was not searching for you. As I mentioned before, I believe our meeting was fated to be. Have you met your fellow cell-mates yet? They are criminals, they tried to disturb the peace of this country and threatened to kill innocent people - as well as our beloved people in important positions of power. I was on a mission to gather them up and transport them to the capital, where they will be punished for their crimes against humanity. But on my way back home, I find myself on a small crossroad in a dense jungle right next to a big caravan. And at the end of this caravan, surrounded by about twenty guards is a small slip of a girl getting continuously beaten into unconsciousness. Do you believe in fate, my darling?¡±

    ¡°No?¡± The girl answers uncertainly.

    ¡°If not for fate, how do you explain how I met you, especially with the right equipment loaded up in the back of my prison cage?¡± Pete inquires with a raised eyebrow.

    As the girl stays silent he continues with his story. ¡°You see. I don¡¯t even know how lucky they were to be able to beat you and keep you unconscious, but without keeping you chained, I can¡¯t imagine them surviving you for more than a day, even in these conditions, am I right?¡±

    As the girl tries to answer the question, Pete cuts her short. He certainly likes to hear himself talking. ¡°No need to answer that one, it was a rhetorical question. Anyway, did you ask yourself yet, why you can¡¯t break out of these chains? Well, that¡¯s because they are special chains, designed for my most troubling prisoners traveling with me. They are reinforced by magic, my darling, old magic strong enough to even chain down a survivor it seems. As I said before, you belong to me now!¡± A burst of laughter escapes his lips before he can stop himself.

    ¡°Magic?¡± The girl questions him curiously. Somehow talking about magic made her feel an anger she hasn¡¯t ever felt before.

    ¡°I¡¯m sure you know about magic, darling. Especially you out of all people here. Don¡¯t you dare to try to fool me, darling.¡± He threatened her angrily.

    As the small girl keeps staring into his eyes, without even the slightest change in her expression, Pete calms down again and continues his story. ¡°Anyway, once we are in the city and managed to find my friends, we got all the time in the world to make you answer all my questions without getting disturbed. Isn¡¯t that great?¡± This time he can¡¯t stop his laughter and he gets silenced and dragged away by a nearby guard. ¡°Isn¡¯t that great?!¡± Was the last thing he shouted over his shoulder in her direction as he was dragged away.

    After some time in complete darkness of the night, the girl slips into the world of dreams, to gather her strength for the days to come. She knows that she will need all the strength she can muster, to either escape or in the worst case to survive the ordeal which lies in front of her.

 Chapter 5

    Nothing unusual happened the next morning and the small girl slowly awoke to the familiar rattling of the wagon. As her consciousness drowsily returned to the world she noticed the atmosphere of the caravan was brighter and there was no more pain tormenting her body, as she slowly opened her eyes. The first thing she noticed was the slow movement of the wagon and unfamiliar sounds and noises.

    After getting a good look at her surroundings, past her cell-mates still pressing themselves into the furthest corner of the cage, she noticed that they arrived at the gate of Goa. The first wagons of the caravan already passed the gate and are slowly moving further into the town. After getting a good look at architectural highlight of her life, the big wall made out of a combination of stone and some sort of metal spikes on top, the girl notices Pete being in an intense argument with a guard, right next to the gate.

    As her wagon, the last of the caravan, passes through the gate, she overhears the last snippets of the conversation.

    ¡°Did you see the remains of the battlefield about one day travel from here? They say you can still feel the souls clinging to their remains, refusing to accept their defeat to the wicked dark power.¡± The guard excitedly asks Pete.

    ¡°Now, why would I want to see that? In case you haven¡¯t noticed we were traveling through a fucking jungle, not sightseeing around the capital.¡± Pete seems to be at the end of his nerves and nearly shouts at the guard and his stupid ideas of happily walking around a dangerous jungle.

    ¡°Ok, Pete. I know you had a tough time traveling through this damn jungle. You just have to answer one more question and you are free to go. I personally don¡¯t really care, but I¡¯m required to ask this. Did you meet with any trouble along the way, like thieves or maybe even fallen trees blocking the main road? Did anything unusual happen along the way? I noticed that I never saw you travelling with such few guards before.¡± The guard seems to be bored again, leaning on the pole of his spear and relaxing his muscles.

    After a quick glance at the beautiful girl in the last wagon of the caravan, Pete denies having any troubles along the way and mentions that the road is still as bumpy as it was the last years.

    The chained girl wonders for a brief moment why he wouldn¡¯t report her to the guards, but her thoughts are quickly chased away by seeing the inside of Goa for the first time. She noticed right away, that the atmosphere of the town, in contrast to her imagination, is kind of gloomy. A bone deep sadness seems to be floating around the streets, infecting the mind of every citizen of the town, morphing their faces into visages of bitterness and pain.

    On the other hand, she is amazed at the sheer number of people walking along the streets, minding their own business. She wasn¡¯t aware that so many people even existed on this planet, and these are just the people at the entrance of a small town at the edge of a jungle. Most people wear the same shabby cheap-looking brown clothes, but some are wearing completely different kind of clothes, competing to look weirder than the next person right next to them. Though she has to admit, that at first glance, everyone within the masses looks somehow similar, with a deep sadness painted over their faces, even though humans seem to come in all funny shapes and colours. Most impressive are the fat people with big bellies stalking around as if they would own the world. Maybe they do; she wouldn¡¯t know.

    She also wonders uncertainly how she is supposed to find her friend in between all these people, not to mention all these building surrounding the squirming masses. Buildings much larger than her old room, her small world back where she used to live with her friend. Thinking of her caretaker, the girl happily remembers the times when they tried to discover all the mysterious secrets of her body and mind, times filled with pain, singing and beautiful red pictures. Sadness fills the girl at the memory of her lost friend and thinking about never solving her mysteries together.

    Lost in her thoughts of misery, she didn¡¯t notice the caravan arriving at their goal, the traders¡¯ district of Goa. Chained down to the floor, gazing through the cage bars, the girl sees a father with his son happily walking down the street. As the son suddenly stops in his tracks and points to the largest building along the road, the chained girl can¡¯t help but overhear their happy conversation with a deep longing for her friend.

    ¡°Woah. Daddy, look! Look! That¡¯s the biggest building I¡¯ve ever seen!¡± The son happily exclaims.

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    ¡°Yeah it¡¯s great, isn¡¯t it? It must be about six stories high. I think it belongs to a wealthy merchant around here. If you work hard, my son, you might even build a bigger house later in life. To be honest, I¡¯ve heard of even larger buildings from a time long past. Do you want to hear about it?¡±

    ¡°Yes, yes! I want to hear all about it!¡± As the son jumps excitedly around his dad, gazing at the building in pure amazement, the dad picks him up and sits with him on a nearby bench.

    ¡°Let¡¯s see. It is said, that in the Age of Greed, thousands of years ago, even before magic and the War of Existence, humans lived their life in pursuit of power, wealth and knowledge. Their greed knew no reason and boundaries and unleashed wicked evil on the world. But this greed also opened pathways to knowledge and technology, so wondrous you can¡¯t even imagine the basics of it.¡± By this point in time, both, the girl and the son, were absolutely absorbed in the story of the father, letting their imaginations run wild, and didn¡¯t pay any attention to their surroundings.

    ¡°At the apex of their greed, it is said that their buildings reached the sky and some even say that some huge buildings even scratched it. But in their pursuit of power they awoke powers not to be trifl ¡­¡± ¨C ¡°¡­ all right?¡± A sudden question brings the girl back to reality and she notices Pete looking at her expectantly. Not knowing what to say, the girl stays silent.

    ¡°Anyway, the town is full of talk about the glorious Captain Thramoun of the Guardians of Mankind visiting this town, just in time for the celebrations of successfully slaying the mad warlock last month. He is said to arrive during the next few days, so I guess we won¡¯t have to worry about your life for a longer period of time¡­¡± The girl couldn¡¯t comprehend the next few sentences due to Pete¡¯s continuous mumbling.

    Then with a worried glance in her direction Pete leaves her in the care of Mark, who is standing nearby with creepy smirk on his face, and moves on with the rest of the caravan further into the trader¡¯s district.

    ¡°Are you as excited as me, my darling?¡± As Mark questions her, he gazes deeper into the cage and notices the criminals sitting in the furthest coroner of the wagon. ¡°Well, let¡¯s get rid of the trash first before we enjoy ourselves¡± he roughly sneers at her.

    -----------------

    After parting with her relieved looking cell-mates at the local prison, Mark guides her wagon deeper into the town, further into a wealthier looking district. As the girl gazes at her surroundings she notices less people milling along the street and that the houses, which are surrounding her on all sides like a jungle of its own kind, are more spacious and look sturdier than the previous buildings.

    As she wonders about the people and houses surrounding her, the wagon suddenly stops in front of a big spacious house with a large courtyard surrounded by a small wall. Two guards are posted at the entrance to the courtyard and on the courtyard itself are about ten people who seem to be fighting for their lives, even though no one looks worried or alarmed.

    As a guard loses his sword, trips and falls face first onto the floor; his enemy lowers his sword and helps him back up with a wide grin on his face. At this moment, even the small girl noticed that they seem to be fighting in a friendly competition and she feels a sudden urge to join them and teach them to happily sing together. Maybe she can even show them more about their bodies and their tiny various body parts.

    As she gazes around the courtyard, Mark taps her on her shoulders and whispers in her ears. ¡°Welcome home. I hope you enjoy the view of our beautiful training field and the flowers blooming on the sides at the wall, because I can guarantee you that this is going to be the last time you will see them.¡±

    A mad grin sprouts on his face and he yells at his fellow guardians, ¡°Guys, wrap it up and help me transport our newest guest into the special lodging quarters I asked you to prepare in the letter I send you. But don¡¯t touch and interact with her under any circumstances until Captain Thramoun is here, I want him to enjoy his present.¡±

    At the mention of Captain Thramoun the group of guardians start to laugh at the top of their lungs with a wicked glint in their eyes. That was the last thing the girl remembered before she felt the familiar pain on the back of her head and drifted into unconsciousness.

 Chapter 6

    As the mind of the girl drifts through the vast darkness of unconsciousness, a sudden burst of incredible pain races through her nerve system, torturing her body and mind. Due to being accustomed to such pain, it was not strong enough to drag her awareness back into the world.

    This process repeated itself several times, until a new nerve suddenly fired more pain signals into the brain of the small girl. A small moan escaped the confinements of her body, after more and more pain receptors reacted to the incredible torture.

    Motivated by the reaction of his chained patient, Thramoun impales another stake into the body of his little patient. By now she has one stake in each leg and two more stakes pricking her belly. The newest stake went right through her left shoulder, further restricting the movement of the subject.

    But contrary to the decreased freedom of movement, the subject starts to slowly tremble and the moans are getting louder and sound more painful. The moment when the last stake impales the right shoulder of the beautiful girl, an extreme flash of pain travels through her body and the darkness of her unconsciousness, resulting in her impaled body violently trashing around on the cold stone floor, bringing the magically enforced chains to their limits.

    Even the smallest movement of the patient increase the damage done by the stakes, because they are struck directly through her body into the hard floor underneath the subject. Thus, more and more pain travels through the overwhelmed nerve system of the patient, jolting her awake in a fit of mad laughter and wicked sobs.

    As Captain Thramoun gazes amazed at his patient, trashing around, gurgling blood and emitting a wicked laughter while being impaled by six wooden stakes, the small girl suddenly lifts her head, swipes her surroundings and finally gazes at her impaled body.

    Time seems to freeze as the girl stares amazed at her tiny tortured belly, cut open without remorse, with her shredded insides hanging out. She remembers similar scenes from times long past, scenes about discovering together with her friend the different functions and solving the mysteries of her body parts.

    As a tiny red tear starts to roll down the right cheek of the twisted girl, she gives the foreign person, who is wielding another wooden stake right next to her, a wicked smile and astonishes him with the joy visible in her old eyes.

    ¡°I can see parts of my destroyed intestines hanging out of my belly, lying around on the table. Do you want a closer look? Do you want to know more about them? I should be able to teach you all about each part of my body if you are curious and want to spend more time with me.¡± The girl manages to say in between her fits of laughter and drowning in her own blood, wheezing with all her might the last bits of air through her tortured lungs.

    Captain Thramoun does not seem to be disturbed by the image of his patient, confidently talking to him, while every other person on this planet should have been dead by now. The only thing he can think about is that Mark¡¯s report was correct and that she does indeed seem to harbour powers worthy of a survivor, as mentioned by the ancient guardians. The question is if it¡¯s her power or if she somehow got her hands on it.

    ¡°Did my friend send you to teach me more about my body? Do you know him? When will he come back?¡± As the girl bombards him with more stupid questions than he cares to answer right now, the captain impales the last stake right through her brain, sending her back into the world of dreams.

    -------------------

    The next time the girl managed to drag her awareness back into the actual world, the pain was gone and she found herself chained to a wall of cold metal.

    Sitting in front of her, on a wooden chair, was the serious looking guy who seemed to be interested in her body when they met the last time. It is difficult to judge while he is sitting, but he seems to be as tall as anyone else she saw around town. He also sports black short hair, in contrast to her white and shoulder-long beautiful hair. As for his current outfit, it is the same one Mark was wearing on their travels, except for some kind of weird triangular markings on his shoulder.

    ¡°Good morning. I believe I haven¡¯t introduced myself yet. I am the Captain of the Guardians of Mankind; you may call me Captain Thramoun like everyone else.¡± So far this Captain left a kind impression on the girl. ¡°May I ask your name and where you are from?¡± The Captain started to slowly question his prisoner.

    The girl starts to uncertainly fidget under the heavy gaze of the Captain. ¡°Umm, I don¡¯t think I have a name. You may also call me your plaything or your student if it makes you happy. I was living down a dark hallway before I was found.¡±

    This was an answer the Captain wasn¡¯t expecting to hear. He was hoping to get at least some answers out of her, before he started to torture all his answers out of her. He had enough time to think about all the implications of a living survivor in their current age and time and had to make sure that no more survivors will pop up out of nowhere in the future.

    ¡°Who else called you his student and plaything? Mark also reported you repeatedly asking for your best friend.¡± At the mention of her friend a happy smile blooms on the face of the girl.

    ¡°Yes! Yes! My friend! Do you know him? Do you know where he is and why he left me?¡± She would have jumped around because of her excitement, if she was not tightly chained to the cold metallic wall.

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    ¡°I know many people. Maybe I can help you out, but you need tell me a bit about your friend first?¡± he decides to go with the flow of the conversation and find out what she is willing to tell him.

    The girl smiles at the interest the Captain shows in her friend and tells him excitedly all about their previous lessons, the singing and the beautiful pictures he used to draw for her. In her eyes, the Captain is already as close to being a new friend as he can get in such a short time. He already spent some time with her and made her sing, even before they really knew each other. And now he even shows interest in her friend and past life.

    ¡°Well, your friend certainly sounds like a nice person, but why don¡¯t you tell me something more personal about him? Like his name, or where he used to live and what he looks like.¡± The Captain doesn¡¯t let himself be so easily distracted with weird stories about happily singing and drawing weird pictures.

    ¡°Well, I think that he was living down the dark hallway and he was always wearing a black robe with a wicked mask covering his face. But he was a really nice guy and spent much time with me.¡± The girl answers the questions honestly.

    ¡°What about his name though?¡± He is still determined to get some useful information out of the survivor.

    ¡°We both have no name. There was no need for a name, because he knew me as well as I knew him. He was an important part of my small world back then. I really want to meet him again, are you sure you don¡¯t know him?¡± She asked the Captain without missing a beat, with fresh tears flowing down her right cheek.

    ¡°Okay, okay. Let¡¯s try something else. Our knowledge about survivors is pretty limited ¡­ anyway we are quite sure that you must have had at least one living parent when you were born. Can you tell me something about your parents and where they might be hiding right now? I¡¯m not going to hurt them. I just want to inform them that we found their beautiful daughter.¡± He tried to convince the girl with a wink and a small smile at the end of the last sentence.

    ¡°I don¡¯t have any parents. It was just me and my friend, for as long as I can remember.¡± Even though he doesn¡¯t completely believe her, his mind relaxes at the thought of just dealing with a single wicked survivor and not with her whole family. He has to be careful of her friend, even though he has a suspicion of whom she might be talking about.

    ¡°Well, what is the first thing you remember?¡± He keeps on digging for any useful information.

    ¡°The first thing I remember is probably the enormous unbearable pain cursing through my body before I woke up, just to see my best friend laughing happily at my misery.¡± By now more and more tears drop down her cheek and she starts to sob at her first memory, while memories of the pain also release a twisted laugh out of her small mouth.

    ¡°We are getting nowhere like this and time is short for me today, I have to oversee the last preparations for the upcoming festival. Well, I got one last question before I leave for now. Do you remember Pete, the leader of the caravan you were travelling with?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I know Pete and Ally. Ally used to sing for me with a beautiful voice at the top of her lungs.¡± The girl smiles at the astonished Guardian in front of her.

    ¡°Oh, trust me, I heard all about how you attacked Ally. Luckily she survived the encounter with your hideous power. Anyway, can you tell me what you were doing before you met with Pete for the first time?¡± The Captain was slowly growing agitated at the useless information he keeps on receiving.

    ¡°Well, I was just looking around the room of my friend when Pete found me. Please don¡¯t tell him?¡± The girl begs him with tears in her eye.

    ¡°So your friend was living inside the small wooden hut where Pete found you. That¡¯s great.¡± Lost in his own thoughts, Captain Thramoun tries to figure out the secrets behind her existence. ¡°That means, if your friend was living in the hut and you were living down a supposedly existing hallway, you two were living in the jungle all your life, in direct proximity to the main road and no one has ever even seen the mysterious hut before? If I had to guess, I¡¯d say you are around eight years old?¡± He directs the last question to the girl again.

    The girl blushes at him mentioning her age but doesn¡¯t answer the question. She had no way to know how old she really was, all her past memories were merged together into a tight bundle of unbelieveable pain, mad laughter and twisted nightmares. She suspected though that she was far older than eight small years.

    Captain Thramoun doesn¡¯t seem to mind the behaviour of the girl and starts to leave the room, lost in his own thoughts. He mumbled, all the way to the sturdy thick metal door, about his theories on her and her friend¡¯s origin and existence.

    The last thing the girl heard him mumble about before he reached the door, was that supposedly only a very strong magician with incredible power could hide a hut for such a long period of time, without anyone noticing anything weird for all those years.

    After the door closed, the girl was once again locked into another small dark room with only her own thoughts as her companion. Thoughts about her best friend looking for his small toy, in a world much larger than she could have imagined.

 Chapter 7

    Time passed without anything happening at all. The small girl suspected that she was either forgotten, locked away in a small dark room, destined to rot there for eternity, or that Captain Thramoun started to experiment with her loneliness and deprivation of senses.

    Nothing changes. Everything is dark and quiet. The only times anything happens at all, is when the guards in front of the door are changing their shifts and she can listen to the sound of hollow metal boots slowly clanking down the hallway.

    Afraid to be forgotten, the girl tries to free herself from the magical chains, but no matter how hard she tries, she keeps being tightly bound to the metallic wall.

    Once, when she trashed around with all her might, hope filled her tiny body, as a guard knocked on the door and told her to quit it. At that moment she knew that at least somebody still remembered her.

    As she was wondering when she will be allowed to talk to the Captain again, the door was suddenly thrown open, revealing Mark standing behind it with a grin plastered on his face.

    ¡°Hello beauty. Still enjoying your miserable life? Are you interested in some news? Yes? Well, guess who was sent to investigate your old home?¡±

    ¡°You?¡± the girl asks uncertainly.

    ¡°That¡¯s right. Good ol¡¯ me paid a visit to your home. And look what I found.¡± As Mark keeps talking, he proudly presents her a thick worn leather book, as if it was the greatest treasure on earth.

    The girl on the other hand, gave to book a dubious look filled with confusion. After some seconds ticked by, she lifted her gaze and gave Mark a blank stare stating that she has never seen the bock before.

    ¡°That¡¯s what I thought. I didn¡¯t tell the Captain about it yet, because I just started to skim through it. Don¡¯t want to disappoint him if it turns out to be a hoax. Anyway, I found some pretty interesting stuff already and now I¡¯m here to confirm it.¡± He gave her a wicked smile, as he turned back into the hallway and grabbed for a device leaning next to the door.

    As he turned back around the girl got her first look at the device and her heart skipped a beat whilst her face drained of all colours.

    ¡°Did he give that to you? Did you get his permission? Did you meet him?¡± the girl demands of him.

    ¡°Ah. I can see you recognize it. That¡¯s good, that¡¯s good. Well, I sadly didn¡¯t see your friend, but I want to try my hands at his research anyway.¡± While he keeps talking to the girl, he pulls more and more of the device into the room, revealing multiple tubes, topped with sharp metallic tips, connected to multiple small containers. A device the girl knows all too well.

    ¡°Anyway, enough with the chatter and let¡¯s get to work.¡±

    Those were the last words uttered before the pain slowly set in and Mark left the room. By now, the girl was already back in her old world of unending pain and for some reason wicked laughter, even though she thought she was alone in the room.

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    --------------

    Suddenly, the girl awoke to Captain Thramoun opening the door and curiously gazing at her face.

    ¡°Well hello there. If I could sleep as much as you, I¡¯d die of boredom.¡± Were his first words to the girl after days of absence.

    As Thramoun greets the girl, she notices that all the tubes and the rest of the wicked device are gone without leaving any trace. She must have passed out and missed the ending of her session. She hoped Mark was not mad at her for her blunder.

    ¡°No greetings for me? Seems like someone got up with the wrong foot.¡±

    Feeling neglected, the girl rebukes him for his thoughtless remarks. ¡°How am I supposed to get up, if I am bound to the wall? I couldn¡¯t even lie down in the first place. You don¡¯t make any sense at all!¡±

    ¡°Well, seems like I was right and someone did indeed get up on the wrong foot. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I figured out who your dear friend was. Your friend went by the name of Edgar, also known as the wicked warlock. Your connection might explain his reign of terror and his staggering amount of twisted powerful spells.¡±

    The name didn¡¯t ring any bells for the girl and she just continued to listen without any change in her expression.

    As Thramoun continues his story, a complicated expression crosses his face. ¡°I don¡¯t know if you heard some rumours or exaggerated stories on your small journey, but I figured you¡¯d want to know anyway. About a month ago, your friend was slain in the great battle about a day¡¯s travel from here. We won¡¯t be seeing that mad bastard ever again!¡± At the end of the sentence, the Captain couldn¡¯t contain his victorious laughter anymore and just let it out without paying attention the heartbroken expression of the small girl.

    As he started to leave the room, he grinned back over his shoulder and left some parting words behind for the broken girl. ¡°You, my dear, just arrived in time to celebrate our victory over Edgar and his reign of terror. I hope you will enjoy it as much as the rest of us.¡±

    Left alone in the dark room, filled with mad laughter and heartrending weeping sounds, the girl was startled as she suddenly heard a muffled countdown. As the countdown reached zero, she felt small tremors vibrating through the walls, followed by muffled cheers from the town.

    Whilst Goa erupted in drunken cheers and drowned in alcohol, the dark room beneath the mansion of the Guardians was cast in silence so complete, that you could even hear the heartbeat of the chained girl, beating in a spiteful rhythm of vengeance.

 Chapter 8

    Memories of red beautiful pictures and intense discussion run rampant in the mind of the girl. But also memories of the pain and all the secrets left to discover. She couldn¡¯t belief that Edgar left her in a world completely unknown to her without saying goodbye.

    Maybe he educated her in all those lessons and discussions about the world and the mysteries of her own body, in hopes that she could survive one day on her own. But this day came earlier than she ever could have imagined.

    As she tries to convince herself that he didn¡¯t actually leave her behind like a forgotten tool in a barn during winter, the door suddenly lifts off its hinges and flies straight through the room, crashing into the wall right next to the girl. After the dust settled and covered everything her small room, she noticed small metallic splinters spread out throughout her small world.

    Suddenly Mark appears in the hole, which was just occupied by a sturdy door. After a moment of silence mad wicked laughter, laughter the girl remembers all too well, echoes through the room and with a flick of his writs a bloody guard flies through the air and crashes right into the door, which was stuck in the wall.

    ¡°All this power! Unlimited power!¡± Mark shouts into the silence of the room and lifts both his arms. ¡°Why did you hide it from me? Did you want to trick me? Did you think about only giving it to Thramoun, leaving me small and useless?¡± He continues his mad rant without stopping to breathe some air.

    The moment he throws down both of his arms, the possibly dead guard and the rest of the door suddenly fly back out the room, into the dark hallway beyond. ¡°See? Unlimited power!¡± With mad laughter and another flick of his wrist nothing happened.

    At this exact moment, both the mad Guardian and the small Girl looked equally stunned. The beautiful girl was stunned not just because of his wicked behaviour, but also because she just witnessed magic for the first time in her life and it was incredible. Incredible and powerful. The Guardian on the other hand looked stunned, because nothing happened at the moment when he wanted to flick the girl through the whole room, letting her personally experience all his might.

    After a moment of stunned silence, he madly whirled his arms around, creating a small whirlwind in the room, which picked up every loose object in her small world, including the extreme sharp metallic splinters left by the door, and whirled it through the air. The moment he sees his power at work once again, his mad laughter started all over again.

    After a frightening moment of watching sharp splinters whirling through the air, Mark excitedly points both his arms in her direction right before her world was filled with wicked pain once again.

    As she once again managed to concentrate on her surroundings, after the first rush of pain subsided in her body, she noticed a huge amount of splinters puncturing her whole body, leaving no centimetre unmarked. Some of the bigger splinters even penetrated about 5cm deep into her flesh.

    ¡°Can you feel it? All this power!¡± Mark madly shouts at the chained girl. ¡°Now I¡¯m going to let you experience the full extent of my powers!¡± After his declaration he once again flicked both his wrists, staring intently at her, as once again nothing seemed to happen.

    ¡°You little shit! Still trying to play tricks on me? Let¡¯s see how you like that!¡± Mark seems to be out of control by now. He picked up a huge wickedly bend splinter, cutting his own hands in the process and approached the helpless girl.

    The girl starts to trash around and even tries to summon some of the incredible magic she has just witnessed, but both efforts ended up being fruitless as Mark ends up standing right above her with the most twisted grin on his face, a grin which reminds her of an old friend and caretaker.

    ¡°Not even trying to cry for forgiveness? Let¡¯s make you sing for me, like you made Ally sing for you.¡± Those were his last words before cutting of her right hand and making her sing with all her might. As he watched her right hand glide to the floor a sudden pain at the back of his head dragged him into unconsciousness and he collapsed on the floor.

    Behind the collapsed Mark is a regiment of ten Guardians followed by their glorious Captain Thramoun. ¡°What did you do to him? Are you out of your mind?¡± Instead of shouting at his fellow Guardians, he shouts at the girl covering in the corner of the room, holding the rest of her arm close to her chest. ¡°Not going to answer me, huh? Anyway let¡¯s clean up here first and get a witness report from Mark himself. Guards, get him out of here into a room above and then get him to tell you what the fuck happened here.¡±

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    The guards grabbed Mark and left the room, leaving the captain, his captive and two more guards behind to question the girl. As Captain Thramoun was about to ask his first question to his furiously bleeding prisoner, a commotion broke out somewhere in the mansion and cries of pain echoed down the hallway.

    ¡°Captain! Captain Thramoun! We need backup! Mark has gone mad! And he has magic! Powerful magic!¡± A Guardian ran screaming down the hallway, whilst he was calling for more backup.

    ¡°That¡¯s impossible. Calm down and tell me what¡¯s going on!¡±

    ¡°Sir! Mark has magic and went mad! We need backup; we can¡¯t suppress him any longer!¡± As the Guardian finished his report, a loud bang resonated in the room.

    ¡°You heard him guys! Grab your weapons and let¡¯s find out what is going on here!¡± Thramoun shouted at his subordinates as they sprinted out of the room.

    The bleeding girl was left alone cowering in the corner of the wall. What no one noticed was that the bleeding arm, which was missing a hand, slipped out of the handcuffs during the commotion.

    The girl, who was determined to flee her prison, scanned her surroundings for anything of use to free herself. As her eyes land on the wickedly long and sharp metallic splitter lying right next to her missing hand, she got a wicked idea finally free herself.

    She carefully picks it up and mentally prepared herself for the incoming pain. Determined to free herself for any price, she figured that she has to cut herself free as Mark showed her with her missing hand, allowing her to slip out of the handcuffs and manacles.

    The metal only shallowly cut into the skin of her palm and the pain was nothing compared for what was about to come. She knew that she has to flee without screaming out in pain under any circumstances to avoid any chances of being discovered.

    Steeling her mind, the girl started to hack into her left foot and pain instantly surged through her whole body. Gritting her teeth, she switched over to sawing through the rest of her left foot. The pain was nothing new to the girl and with all her determination she managed to completely cut it off without further problems. As she started to work on the right foot, she couldn¡¯t suppress her soft wicked laughter.

    As a novice Guardian, who hadn¡¯t finished his training yet and was useless in the mad fight above, was sent down to check upon the girl, he saw a bloody girl, who was totally covered in wicked metallic splinters, laughing wickedly whilst cutting off her last remaining foot. As the sight proofed to be too much for the new Guardian, he directly started to vomit and fell unconscious without managing to call out for his friends first.

    After her foot was cut she noticed an unconscious Guardian lying in the doorway. Paying no more attention to the Guardian, the girl steeled her mind once again and grabbed the metal with teeth and started to work on her last remaining hand. At this point, she was able to get both of her legs out of the manacles and she only had to get rid of her last hand to finally escape this room. Each small movement with the metal along her left wrist did not only cut deeper into her wrist, but also cut deep into her mouth and she started to drown in her own blood.

    After what seemed like hours of painfully cutting off her last remaining hand, the girl lay in a puddle of blood, punctured by wicked metallic splinters, while she was vomiting weird looking red liquid and bloody tears kept on streaming down her right cheek.

    As she crawled to the doorway, she once again noticed the barely breathing Guardian and she was once again reminded of her dead best friend. In a sudden burst of wicked fury the girl wished the Guardian to disappear with all her might. After some tense seconds, the unconscious Guardian suddenly exploded, spreading his innards all through the bloody room.

    With a wicked glint in her eyes and a mad smile on her face, the girl gathered all her courage and might and left the room through the empty doorway into the mansion beyond.

 Chapter 9

    Painful screams and sounds of battle echo down the hallway. The orderly rhythmic clinking of metal boots has long subsided and only sounds of chaos reverberate throughout the mansion. The house rumbles and the earth shakes due to heavy explosions. Parts of the ceiling are frozen, while other parts are completely destroyed. In some places, stalagmites of molten stone seem to defy gravity and grow right out of the solid floor of the mansion.

    And two floors beneath the centre of utter destruction crawls a bleeding girl, who misses both her hands and feet, slowly down the hallway. Every time the earth rumbles more parts of the ceiling comes crashing down upon the small slip of a girl.

    She slowly crawls in between the stalagmites of molten rock and ignores the small pain of her limbs getting punctured by glass shards and stone splinters, which cover every centimetre of the ravaged floor. Sometimes parts of the hallway are split open, creating deep dark holes with no ending in sight.

    The girl keeps ignoring the pain and steadily crawls along the hallway, getting closer to her goal, a stairway which is illuminated by rays of bright light. No Guardians are anywhere in sight and the sound of dying people are also slowly getting less and less.

    With sheer determination the girl ignores the darkness pulling on her eyelids, begging her to close her eyes and to let go of every concern plaguing her mind. She knows that she can¡¯t keep going forever with this huge amount of blood lost in her chamber, not to mention the amount she is still losing every second.

    She also knows that she has to be long gone the moment a winner emerges from the mad fight above. No matter who wins, the winner will keep on using her for his own benefits with no regards to her will or safety.

    Pulling herself up the stairs, into the light of day, a destroyed courtyard in front of a half destroyed and half flying building enters her sight. It takes a moment for the girl to process the thought of parts of the building seemingly flying in mid-air, frozen in time. Ignoring the sheer wonder flooding her mind, she gathers all her remaining strength and keeps on crawling out of the sight of the building.

    Pausing the slow crawl, the girl curiously looks at her surroundings. Besides the occasional scream of dying men behind her, no other people seem to be anywhere close to the mansion, creating an illusion of a peaceful and quite town. Shaking her head and gathering her thoughts, she chides herself for getting distracted at such a crucial moment and pulls herself with her last remaining strength into a dark side-alley, which is still relatively close to the mansion.

    Upon reaching the seemingly save haven the girl drops down unconscious, into a pool of her blood, behind mounds of dirt mixed together with human waste.

    --------

    The next day she awoke on a small pile of glass shards with the occasional stone splinter, which got pressed out of her now healed body wounds. The first thing she notices though is the missing pain, accompanied by seeing her completely healed hands and feet attached, back to where they belong.

    After overcoming the reflex to vomit and retch due to the extreme smell of human waste in the alley, the girl confirms her surroundings. Besides the occasional small traces of her blood splatters, no fresh human traces can be found in the alley. The majority of her blood seemed to be washed away by a small rain shower, but by now most everything seems to be dried up again.

    Laying her eyes on a dirty discarded small black dress on her way out of the alley, she decides to grab it and see if it will fit. She needs to change her muddy, bloody, dirty and thin brown cloth in order to blend into the population, based on what she has seen on her way to the mansion through the bars of her wagon.

    Leaving the alley with a light happy spring to her steps, the girl sneaks through the shadows to find some source of water to clean herself. She spots occasionally some people sneaking down the streets at the edge of her eyes, but they are already gone before she can turn her head to get a closer look.

    The further she leaves the mansion behind the more people start appearing on the streets. Trying to clean and change first, before being discovered by anyone, the girl decides to leave the streets behind and sneaks through small dark alleys in hope to remain unnoticed.

    After several blocks and the occasional sleeping drunkard, she enters a small green area, completely surrounded by middle class buildings. And right in the middle of it is a beautiful clear pond basking in the shadow of some kind of small green palm tree, creating the most beautiful and serene scenery the small girl has seen so far.

    After catching her breath she slowly advances to the pond with her eyes wide open, trying to catch every small moment of the tree slowly swinging in the soft wind blowing down the alley. She heard about fishes living in water and curiously gazes into the pond, trying to confirm her teachings, but what she finds is not what she sought after.

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    Gazing back at her, reflected on the still surface of the pond is a beautiful girl, completely covered in mud and dirt, with soot-stained blonde hair and old deep blue eyes, mimicking her every move. She has a cute small nose and rosy red lips accompanied by a curious gaze of very old eyes, staring right into her soul.

    For hours happy laughter echoes through the courtyard and a small girl plays near a pond right in the middle of a buzzling town. She pulls faces and tries out various poses while curiously staring at her reflection. Sometimes a splashing noise, followed by cute laughter, resounds in the area because the girl fell right into the water while playing around.

    Discovering the beauty of her Caucasian skin after various accidental dives, she decides to thoroughly wash her body to fully enjoy her newly discovered beauty. After washing up and cleaning her newly acquired long sleeved black dress, the most beautiful girl stares back at her through the reflecting water. Her bright scars are near invisible, at first glance, on her Caucasian skin and her black body markings are covered by her new dress.

    Out of nowhere a word echoes down the alley, reverberating deep within the body and soul, a word long forgotten, followed by three kids entering the courtyard.

    ¡°Come on, pass me the ball Tristan. It¡¯s my turn.  Help me out Joe! Please!¡±

    ¡°Come get it, if you can!¡± Tristan laughs right back at the girl.

    As Joe, Tristan and a girl step out of the alley, they discover a small beautiful girl around their age standing next to their favourite pond in town.

    ¡°Hey! That¡¯s our pond! Get away from there!¡± Tristan shouts at the strange girl.

    ¡°Come on Tris. Why are you always such a jerk? You don¡¯t even know her. What do you think, Anri?¡± As Joe turns around to face the only girl of their group, the time seems to stop for the girl by the pond. There it was again, the word which reverberated deep within her soul.

    ¡°I think he¡¯s a jerk ¡®cuz he didn¡¯t see his ol¡¯ dad for weeks. Anyway, what do you think is her name?¡± As she whispers the last sentence into Joe¡¯s ear she shyly hides behind his body.

    ¡°Hey, what¡¯s your name?¡± Joe asks the girl as their group gets closer.

    For the girl, time slowly starts up again as she is approached by the group of kids, freeing her trapped mind of the reverberating word.

    ¡°A¡­¡± The kids couldn¡¯t understand her, due to her soft whispering.

    ¡°Sorry, I didn¡¯t hear you. Speak up! We don¡¯t bite. Right, Joe?¡± Tristan tries to encourage the strange girl. ¡°Look, these two are Anri and Joe. And this beauty right here is me, Tristan.¡±

    After a moment the girl starts to fidget around with her hands and slowly spoke up.

    ¡°I think ¡­ I think ¡­. I am Anri?¡± The girl answers uncertainly.

    Suddenly the head of the shy Anri pops out of behind Joes shoulder with sparkling eyes. ¡°Woah, I¡¯m also Anri! This is great! Nice to meet you! Are your parents also into ancient mythology? Why is your hair so beautiful? Were you playing on your own? Do you want to play with us? I need some help against Tristan and nothing can stop two Anris once we get started!¡±

    As the strange girl near the pond didn¡¯t answer any of her questions, Anri keeps on talking.

    ¡°Anyway, my mom always said that I¡¯m named after Anri because she was brave, beautiful and never gave up, no matter her circumstances. So, if you don¡¯t wanna help me I¡¯m gonna beat Tristan on my own!¡± She proudly declares while sticking out her chest.

    ¡°Umm, I don¡¯t really know how to play your game and I don¡¯t want to play anymore anyway.¡±

    ¡°Come on, it¡¯s not that hard. For starters we just grab the ball and never give it back to Tristan and Joe, because they are stupid boys! And Tristan is a jerk!¡±

    ¡°Umm, no thank you!¡± As Anri declines the offer, she starts running back through the alley, leaving the pond with a startled trio behind.

    ¡°Hey! Where are you going? I already told you that we don¡¯t bite!¡± Tristan shouts after her.

    ¡°Come on guys. Let¡¯s see what she is up to.¡± The three kids start to trail after the strange beautiful girl who vanished down the alley, without noticing the bloody garments lying underneath the tree near the pond.

    <hr />

    I proudly present: Anri, the main character. (After just 9 chapters)

    <hr />

    I wanted to ask you guys, what do you think about my grammar? English is not my native language and tbh I am mostly too lazy to proofread my chapters. I just skim them real quick in general. Is it ok? Do I need to check it more throughly? Do you llike cookies?