She didn’t own anything else.
No jewellery, no housing decorations, no pretty paintings.
Reia owned nothing but this tiny home that had been built for her just on the outskirts of the town between it and the walls of wooden spikes that surrounded it for safety.
I’m sure once I’m gone, they’ll burn this house down.
It was cold since it was crudely made. Over the years, she’d worked into stuffing holes she found in the round timber slats with the leftover material of her clothing creations in order to keep the wind out.
“It’s not my fault I’m the only one that survived,” Reia grumbled to herself quietly as she was forced to place her dainty feet into a pair of white slippers.
She had not made this outfit.
It had been brought by the Priests and Priestesses who arrived earlier in the month. They came knowing the Duskwalker would eventually be approaching one of the three villages it visited once every decade. The dress had been cleansed, just as Reia had been when she’d been wiped down in some perfumed liquid that smelled heavily of herbs and oils. She’d hated every moment of the Priestess washing her body for her, but the Priestess claimed the spell she was using required her administrating it herself.
“That may be true,” the Priestess said as she shoved a leafy, white, floral crown around her head. Reia’s straight, blonde hair had been yanked of all its knots and looked shiny beneath the crown, a touch of green peeking out from the stems and leaves they’d used to weave it together. “But you are still the only one that did. You should have perished with the rest of your cursed family.”
Reia gritted her teeth as her hands clenched into such tight fists that the back of her knuckles, which had been pink from the cold, turned white and pale like the rest of her skin.
“I don’t know why the Demons didn’t eat me like the rest of my family. Just because I survived, does not mean that I am cursed or a bad omen.”
I don’t want to do this! Her life had been dictated to her by this village, every waking moment of it out of her control, simply because her family had died. Then she had been blamed for it! Blamed for something that had been going on for centuries. And now, she was being forced to sacrifice herself, wear this stupid little dress, because they were making Reia do it or she face the consequences. It’s not fucking fair!
Reia had only been seven when it happened.
She remembered very little about the night that two strong Demons, massive and large in her memories, had managed to break through the protective wards in place around her home, destroying everyone inside it.
Her mother, her father, her baby brother... even their dog, which hadn’t stopped barking, had eventually been eaten.
She knew she hadn’t screamed, hadn’t tried to run, hadn’t done anything but wait as her family was eaten. It had been dark which made it hard to see. The only thing she could truly remember were the sounds of crunching bones, tearing skin, the slurping of mouths, and her family’s dying screams.
She’d covered her ears to hide from the disturbing noises and sat in the corner of the living room, occasionally feeling splashed with a spray of blood. That was only the beginning of the massacre she would find in the morning when the sun finally illuminated the inside of the house.
She only remembered feeling sadness and loss, knowing her family was gone. She’d walked from her home as she cried, making her way to the village to tell them what had happened.
A group of three men had taken her back to her home and told her to explain what had happened. Really, they were trying to figure out how she was still alive.
They were already wary of her, and on the way back, they were attacked by small and medium Demons while walking through the forest in the late afternoon. Only one of the men
survived. She knew now that he had run from her just as he’d run from the Demons.
But despite their fear of Reia, the villagers didn’t want the monsters to grow stronger by devouring even one more human. They refused to abandon her inside the forest to survive by herself in case a Demon fed upon her and grew more powerful.
As much as they thought she was a bad omen, they feared she would somehow grant them even more power if she was eaten – like she may be some kind of chosen human.
There is no such thing as a chosen human. Not even the Priests or Priestesses believed this. Other than being labelled as some harbinger of death, or darkness, or bad omens, Reia was an ordinary human.
Other than that one fateful night and day, there had been no more cluttered destruction from Demons around her.
Unfortunately, it had never been safe to walk the village at night. Those stupid enough to do so were sometimes caught, leaving nothing behind but a trail of blood. Even though it was uncommon because it was generally a flying Demon, and it had been happening since before she was born, she would somehow be blamed for it.
They would claim the person had spoken to her that day –
although no one in the village spoke to her at all. Or that she’d made eye contact with the person and it solidified their coming death – even if she hadn’t left her home.
“You survived regardless,” the Priestess coldly rebuffed.
“The Demons left you alone, that in itself is a bad omen. You are cursed, and you are probably the reason your family is dead.”
The flames of anger burned in Reia’s chest as a white cloak was tied so tightly around her throat that it rendered a gentle choke from her.
“Then why hasn’t the village just killed me?” Reia asked, already knowing the answer.
She just wanted someone to say it out loud, hoping it would convince the Priestess to help her stop this.
“Because it is considered bad luck to kill a human who has been given the title of harbinger of bad omens.”
“Then is sacrificing me to the Duskwalker any safer?”
Behind her mask, the Priestess clicked her tongue as she applied golden eyeshadow to Reia’s eyelids. Then she dusted her cheeks with pink and rubbed a reddish paste against her lips that would dry smooth to tint them.
“We do not know,” she answered truthfully, after a short while of thought. “But they believe they are returning your tainted soul back to the Veil where all human sin belongs.”
Reia stamped her foot lightly in frustration while blowing a curl of her hair out of face, realising her plan wasn’t working. I’ll have to be more direct.
“Can’t you convince them otherwise? I lived for a reason.
Perhaps I am actually a bringer of life and protection.”
