“Honey, wake up”

“Hmm?” 

Gale’s body shook as something rustled him. What a shame, he had a good dream too. A big deer had shown up with magnificent antlers. How much money would those fetch for? 

“Gale get up.”

“What is it…” Five more minutes… Victoria, think about how much those antlers would get. That’s at least six or seven gold– Smack! His face got slapped into oblivion waking him up.

“Galen Nikodemus!”

“Wh-what is it?” A red handprint pulsed on his face as he took in the situation. It was dark, his sword was within arms reach. Who was stupid enough to intrude into his home?

“I can’t find Esther!” Victoria seemed about to cry.

“What do you mean, isn’t she in bed?” His daughter wasn’t the type to move much, even less so after she lost her memories. 

“She isn't!" His wife told him that even checking all the other rooms, Esther hadn’t been anywhere. Leaping out of bed, Gale ran towards his daughter’s room. His stomach dropped as it confirmed what his wife had said.

“Esther!” Victoria ran out of the house yelling her daughter’s name in the wind. “Where are you!” Having the moonlight reflect on her face, Gale could see her haggard expression. 

“Victoria”, he called out to her.

“Esther! Please come out!” She searched the nearby bushes, flinging them side to side like finding a needle in a haystack. 

“Victoria!” He shook her by the shoulders. “She’s not here.”

“What do you mean?” With dirty hands and nightgown, she stared at her husband with a blank expression. 

“I can’t sense her with my mana”

Victoria went quiet. Her shoulders fell.

“Can you find her?”

“Don’t worry”, Gale wrapped a coat around her. “I will find her no matter what.”

After ensuring that the surroundings didn’t have any intruders, they went to their neighbors. A drowsy couple opened the door. Gale explained the situation and asked if they could look after Victoria in the meanwhile. With no resistance, they accepted. 

Closing his eyes, Gale began focusing on the air surrounding his body. This was a vital step in collecting the fragments of mana found everywhere in nature. Practicing this technique whenever he could, this had been routine for someone like Gale. However, it was abnormally hard to control his senses today.

Calm yourself, Gale repeated in his mind. Something warm entered his body as they traveled through his veins up to his eyes. He had successfully absorbed mana in the air. Opening his eyes, the world lit up in numerous colors. Reds, blues and yellows. Five glowing trails of mana could be seen in the area. Four of them seeping into the lonely house in the middle of the night, and a fifth heading towards the town. It was gray. 

The different colors indicated a person's innate affinity for mana, whether they could use it or not. Gray was not a color Gale had seen before, he surmised that it had something to do with her inability to accept divine magic. 

What was his daughter doing walking to the town at this time? He began sprinting, following the gray trail as the moon shone onto his back. 

***

“AHH!” My little finger was crushed.

“Stop!” The hammer slammed into the base of the finger.

“Why should I? You tried killing my son!” My blood dripped on the white petals. It dripped from the finger that had its outer flesh torn. My heart pulsed through my body as the fat layer peeked at me. Light yellow. Squirming. It was disgusting.

“Ahhh!” The hammer crushed another one of my fingers. Tears began welling up.

“No one touches my son without my permission!”

Why, why why. Why was this happening?

“Shh, don’t you cry little girl.” My hair was yanked after with his hand. “The Goddess will welcome us all with open arms!” 

The Goddess?

“I was a lost little lamb just like you when my wife suddenly died. But you know what? It was remarkably easy to find the right road again!” My blood flew everywhere as he swung the hammer this way and that way. “All I had to do was donate some money!”

“Ugh!” A third finger was mangled. 

“Money! All everyone cares about is money! I thought they would be different, but no, even those priests preaching about the greed of mankind grabbed my dirty coins. It was everything I had.” He suddenly stopped moving, staring into the air. “It was everything.”

“That wench had used it all!” I could hear my own shriek echoing in the room after he broke my fourth finger. The crushed nerve endings sent signals to my brain to do something. But what was there to do? Tell me.

A thumb was what separated us humans from animals, someone said to me once. I took solace in that thought as he dropped the hammer, letting it thud to the floor. Would I be able to leave now?

“She used me! Me! Do you understand?!” I don’t understand. I don’t understand any of it. Why was I reincarnated? Did the Goddess send me here? Was this my punishment? I don’t get it.

“Not a single thing was left for my son. How could she.” Tears rolled down his face. “You, why would she do that? Shouldn’t a parent protect their own children?”

“I d-don’t know…”

“Right.” He smacked his forehead. “What was I thinking? Stupid, stupid stupid stupid.” Four loud smacks, the same number of broken digits I had. Then he began laughing. Keeling over grabbing his own stomach he laughed loud enough to make my ears ring. Oh, he was insane. I was going to die here.

“Enough!” Following him with my eyes, he went to the wall. 

“Please…” He picked up a knife. I was starting to be familiar with this life. Eating tasty food when I was hungry. Waking up in a warm bed after sleeping. Getting hugged by that woman, Victoria. I wanted to live here for a bit longer. The knife glinted in the light as he came closer.

“Mom…” I don’t want to die again.

“Don’t you worry,” he raised his knife. “You will be able to meet her soon.”

I’m sorry mom. I can’t stop crying. I know I promised to not cry anymore, but I can’t control myself. Just don’t leave me again.

The knife cut into my neck, severing my veins and letting the musty air invade through a new slit in my throat. Bleeding to death twice was my fate. That is what should have happened. Opening my eyes I saw a glow below my eyes.

“Hah.” I had to laugh.

“What the hell is this?” Another glow filled my eyes as he tried to stab me again.

“Ah ha ha!”

“What’s so damn funny you witch!”

“You can’t kill me! The Goddess–” 

He raised his arm and the next second my face met the dirty floor. He punched me. It hurt. That didn’t matter, as long as I wouldn’t die. I was about to spit out the bitter thing filling my mouth when something wrapped around my neck. He was choking me. Two rough hands were robbing me of air. Ah, I didn’t think of that. 

Like a worm, twisting and turning my body did little to stop my suffocation. I think it made it worse. Dark spots were beginning to cover my eyes.

Dying should only be experienced once per life. But here I was, about to lose my second life. It must have been a curse. Would I simply die again in my next life? And in the life after that? Living was suffering. That sentence flooded my mind as I grasped for air, holding on to the single strand of life still left in me. 

Then my lungs expanded. I could breathe again.

He flew across the room, hitting the wall and letting all the tools fall over him. The thudding coming from them reverberated to my eyes as it traveled through the floor. Grabbing the closest thing, he pointed it at the person standing in front of me. 

“Who the hell are you!”

“Shut up you bastard!” His voice was similar. “You dare touch my daughter!” Oh, it was Gale, my father. Something plopped onto the ground with a soft thud. It was a hand. Spurting out blood from its cut end, it still held onto the knife. With a swift strike, my father had sliced it off with his sword.

“My hand!” He let out a roar like an animal.

“Shut your damn mouth!” A few teeth clattered to the ground when his face smashed into my father’s boot.

“S-shtop!” Shielding his face did little to stop the sword. Another hand met the floor, this time a little bit of arm was connected to it. He had cut cleanly through his skin, muscles and bone.

“Ahhh w-wait!”

He swung his sword again. It was the left leg this time. Right under the kneecap, where the two bones met each other, my father severed it with pinpoint precision. A pool of blood had gathered under the triple-amputated man.

“W-wait!”

Another slash, another leg.

“You! Do you know who I-”

“You goddamn demon!”

The blade sliced cleanly through his esophagus, his vertebrae and the rest of his neck. His head was sent flying through the air before rolling on the dirty floor, picking up all the bits of dirt and grime. His eyes were still open as they stared at me.

“Esther!” He turned toward me, covered in blood and sweat. “Oh my Goddess, let me get you out of here.” he began untying my hands and feet.

“Dad…”

“Yes, your dad is here, I’m here.”

“It hurts…”

“You’re fine, don’t you worry”. He picked me up into his arms.

“I thought I was going to die…”

“You’re not going to die, I’m here. Shh.”

“I don’t want to die…” I clung to my father.

***

Victoria was pacing around and around the living room of her neighbors. Her eyebrows were scrunched up at the thought of her disappeared daughter. There had been some violent crimes recently, it couldn't be right? Why would they take–

Someone grasped her arm, making her stop pacing. “Victoria, how about we calm down a little first?” It was her friend. “I’m sure nothing happened to her.”

Victoria sighed as she got dragged to the couch. She would always reassure her in these kinds of situations. But not this time.

“How can you be so sure of that? She disappeared in the middle of the night. Are you saying Karrie also disappears sometimes?” Her voice contained a twinge of something rare. Irritation.

“Hah, you don’t even know the times when we had to lock the door to her room, lest she would run off somewhere.” The husband answered.

“Really?” They told her girls of that age would do that sometimes. In fact, she had been lucky Esther had been such a docile girl. 

“We’re lucky enough that our daughter decided to sleep soundly in her room tonight.”

 He went to open a cupboard, taking out a bottle of wine and three glasses. Letting out glugs, the bottle filled the empty cups with a blood red color. 

“And you’re not worried?” Victoria rubbed her knuckles. “I don’t think Esther has any reason to go out…” 

“Worried about what? We live too far away from the town for anything dangerous to happen–” The front door slammed open. A harsh breeze invaded their living room, cooling it down immediately. Victoria felt her heart sink, spotting the pair in the doorframe. 

“Victoria!” It was her husband holding their vanished daughter. She should have been elated seeing her daughter, but couldn't. It was red. As red as the toppled over glass of wine spreading across the wooden table. The grains were seeped with the red liquid in the same manner as the once white cloth wrapped over her daughter’s hand. 

“I need more bandages now!” Hearing his roar, Victoria forced her frozen body to move. She had been in this house often, often enough to know where the medicinal supplies were located. All she had to do was move her legs.

“Clear the table!” The wide-eyed pair jerked into motion as they plucked the things off as ordered. First the glasses, then the bowls of nuts, and at last the vase of wildflowers. 

Victoria clutched the rough bandages in her hands as she watched Gale put down their daughter. Even with all the noises and movements, her daughter didn’t open her eyes. 

“Esther!” Her sweet daughter’s face was dirty. Her clothes were dirty too, covered in two different shades of red.

“Ah…” It didn’t look like a hand. She had removed the red bandages and instead of what she had expected, mangled flesh greeted her instead. Like a puzzle that didn’t have a guide, she began piecing the slices of meat together, trying her best to cover the bits of white that wanted to show itself. 

“Ah!” It was slippery. It was mushy. Even when her tears blocked her view, she kept on wrapping the fingers. Why were all these things happening to her?

The stairs leading up to the second floor creaked as a groggy Karrie peeked from the steps. She had woken up from all the commotion happening downstairs and wanted to investigate. Rubbing her eyes, she held onto the guard rail. “Mom… What’s happening?”

There were four people in their living room, no make that five. Someone was lying on the table too. 

“Karrie! Go back to your room!” Her mother moved in front of Karrie, intending to block her view.

“Huh?” Alas, it was too late. She saw that her friend Esther was lying on the dinner table. Dozens of red bandages littering the room.