Guilt weighed on her, though. She was running away, fleeing, and she was sure that was going to hurt him. Why should I care if he’s lonely? He can find someone else to be with, someone that actually wants to live in the Veil.
No one wanted to live in the Veil.
Who cares if I’m the first one who made trinkets with him?
She continued to sprint. Who cares if I’m the first one who had wanted to sit in his garden? She had to stop her feet from slowing when she thought, who cares if I’m the first one that had wanted him to touch them?
And she knew that was the truth, simply because he hadn’t understood about why she’d bled. She was the first human he’d taken the virginity of; Reia knew that deep down to her soul.
Am I really the first one who wanted him to touch them?
Her eyes bowed in sadness for him. But he’s not so bad.
He’s gentle, and sweet, and he just wanted to make me happy. She was sure he’d tried to do the same for all of them.
She knew he’d been taking humans for over a hundred years at least, maybe even two. Had no one else seen this in him?
His touch in the bath was filled with care, wanting to make sure they were protected within his home. The amulet, the salt circle, the dill trinkets. He wasn’t a beast trying to lure humans into feeding him.
Am... Am I running away because I like him? Was that why Reia had done this, something even she considered very, very stupid?
She sprinted harder, shaking her head to clear her thoughts. I don’t want to like him. I don’t want to be excited by his touch, his voice. I... don’t want this.
Trapped in the Veil, surrounded by a gloomy forest that was quite beautiful in its own way. It was filled with monsters that would eat her.
It didn’t matter that his home was warm and cosy. That it had a nice garden that actually had sunlight. That it had him in it.
Reia grunted when she tripped over something, feeling her amulet dislodging and pulling from her hair. It bounced away and she went to go to her hands and knees so she could get up.
She tripped again, losing her dagger this time, then she felt her foot tangled in something. She turned to dislodge her foot and ended up wrapping it further in whatever had her trapped.
Her brows drew together into a tight crease when she could see something wispy and white surrounding her foot.
She yanked her foot and it yanked her back.
Leaning forward to pull it off, the substance stuck to her fingertips and her hand caught also. Stuck to whatever it was, she wrapped her other hand around her wrist to try to yank it away. It remained firm, keeping her to it by both her hand and foot.
What the hell is it? She relaxed her tugging and inspected the wispy, sticky substance. Her eyes widened as dread so cold crept through her it chilled her all the way down to her bones.
No. Nonono. She attempted to get to one foot, her body arched and bent as she used all her strength to pull away.
It’s a spider’s web, anything but a spider!
Not much made Reia afraid, but there was always something creepy about a spider. She didn’t care if they had cute little eyes and furry little paws. The fact they were small, could get into anything, and were usually venomous had always freaked her out.
She fell over and started clawing at the ground, her eyes searching around for a way to leverage herself, only to find more webbing was around her. She looked back, realising she’d only been running through this area covered in webbing for a few metres, but she’d been so distracted by her thoughts that she hadn’t noticed.
I’m stuck! And now her body was bent awkwardly because even placing her hand against it had ensnared her. She hopelessly reached for the dagger and the amulet, but both were totally out of her reach.
Just as she was searching for a stick to wack them closer, the snapping of a branch, not a twig, caught her attention.
Such an ominous sound was followed by the loud crunching of leaves getting closer and closer.
She desperately tugged to free herself while looking around her surroundings until her eyes fell on a black figure crawling closer in the white mist. Multiple spindly legs moved, and Reia’s heart leapt to her throat.
Spider. That’s a big spider.
And she wanted the fuck away from it.
Fear slithered under her skin when it emerged into the space she was in and was as gigantic and tall as Orpheus.
It’s void, black-like skin told her it was a Demon. Its shape was so similar to that of spider, yet so completely different that it was off-putting.
It had eight arching legs, black and hairy, attached to a fat behind like that of a tarantula. Its upper segment was human-shaped, except backwards, arching its back so it
could see. Human elbows almost touched its forward facing back, the shoulders twisted so it could use them in front of itself. The head was arched back and upside down, and the breasts were pointing towards the sky due to its upturned body.
Three sets of human-shaped red eyes with no whites in them spanned its forehead, while its mouth didn’t have lips and the exposed gums highlighted its many fangs.
“Well, what do I have here?” it hissed at her with a feminine pitch, snapping its jaw open and shut to make a chomping sound. “It looks human, but it doesn’t smell human.”
“Stay the hell away from me!” Reia yelled.
It crawled closer, each of its eight legs working at different times. It grinned, but it looked like a frown with its face upside down, and it was more grotesque the closer it came.
“Yes, definitely human.” Its thin body made the skin around its rib bones hollow further as it took in quick breaths when it laughed. “A human has wandered into the Veil and is caught in my territory?” It came so close that the black hair dangling from on top of its head tickled her neck while it peered deeply at her. “I smell your fear, tasty morsel.”
She attempted to punch it in the face, but it ducked away just in time. It snickered, the sound similar to a wheeze, and the hoarse sound of it eliciting a terrible wave of disgusted shivers.
