I wish I did, then you'd have a common villain to worry about," Carla spoke, her voice solemn, "You should ask your husband here, he was the one who raped and killed your daughter, with the assistance of his friends of course-"
"You're lying! Shut up!!!" the woman screamed immediately, her voice breaking through the pitter-patter of the rain.
But Carla only looked towards the man in her grasp, and the look in his eyes spoke more than any words could.
"It can't be true," the woman, upon noting this, staggered back, her head spinning. "Tell me it isn't true, Joshua!" She screamed once more, but her shouts were met with Joshua's tears (tears that were washed away by the rain).
At that moment, Carla's tail let go of the man's neck, dropping him into the mud with a plopping thud; her eyes narrowed in disgust.
Immediately after, he stumbled forward a step, his hands coming up in a pathetic, placating gesture, "Margaret, please... you have to understand-" he began, his voice breaking, lacking any sort of masculine quality.
The sound of his voice seemed to irritate Margaret, her face scrunching into a heavy frown as she stepped forward, her grip trembling on her stick.
"You monster," A guttural cry, tore from her throat as she lunged, her movements sudden.
"Bam!"
The stick whistled through the rain-soaked air, catching Joshua hard across his shoulder, a grunt of pain and surprise escaping him as he staggered back.
"It was you?" she shrieked, the words fracturing in her throat. "All this time we spent searching! My tears! My prayers! It was YOU!"
"Bam!" "Bam!" The stick rose and fell as Margaret hit him (a dull, wet thwack sounding on Joshua's back as he tried to turn away). "We didn't mean to! It was an accident!" he cried out, raising his arms to shield himself.
"An accident?" Margaret laughed, her voice strained, fluctuating between broken and mad.
"Swoosh!" She swung the stick again, the wood connecting with his ribs with a violent thud. "You raped our child! You killed her! You watched me weep! You put together search parties together! You prayed in church with me! There is no accident in that! You're the devil! The fucking devil!" She
screamed, each word punctuated by a heavy blow.
She shuddered when she remembered every birthday she wouldn't see, every smile, every cry; it was harrowing.
"Whoosh!"
"Whoosh!"
"Whoosh!" Was the only sound audible in this forest, even overtaking the weeping rain for the briefest moment.
Mr. Valen watched as Carla watched Margaret, his hands behind his back while he observed, his form drenched like everyone else's.
The shadowy humanoid hung upside down from a nearby tree, like some kind of monkey, unaffected by the rain which phased through its form; it observed the scene objectively.
Margaret was still beating Joshua, she beat him until her arms ached and her breath came in ragged, sobbing gasps, until he was curled on the ground, his whimpers lost in the mud and the relentless, judging rain.
And it was at that instant that "whoosh!" Carla's tail moved and pierced his heart from his back, instantly killing the man.
The blood flowed out from the other side (his chest), painting the ground in a shade of washing red.
"It was getting sad," Carla spoke as she began absorbing him, (the man that is), his form withering rapidly, his eyes wide in shock and terror.
"Ahhh!" Margaret screamed and dropped the stick, her gaze locked on the smiling figure in front of her.
She then turned and caught sight of a man. 'Him. He was fucking her before. He'll make her listen,' she thought, and stumbled towards Mr. Valen, her steps swift and desperate.
"Please," she wept as she grabbed onto his hoodie, her brow furrowed, her face contorted in an expression of fear and sorrow
Mr. Valen simply watched as she cried, her tears washed away by the subsiding rain, but he did not speak, nor did his expression change, he simply stared.
"Ha! You chose to run to a man?" Carla's voice sounded from behind her, her breath blowing on Margaret's ear. "He is worse than your husband."
"You'd fare better with a bear," she then added, grasping Margaret's jaw from behind her, caressing the frightened woman gently.
Looking to Mr. Valen, she then asked, her fingers undoing a button on Margaret's raincoat, "You ever fucked a religious bitch before?"
Mr. Valen did not respond, nor did he react. He simply stood, observing.
First, he looked to the woman, her form frozen at Carla's touch, her breath measured, her gaze locked on his, giving him a pleading look.
He then looked to Carla who looked flushed, (unwell) and thought, 'What is her reasoning, why this? Why now?' he was genuinely curious.
Suddenly, he looked and noticed Carla's tail (the tip of it) moving oddly and tracing lines in the air, which rippled with every wave.
At first, he could not see anything else, but then his pupils dilated, and suddenly, he could see energy on a different spectrum.
The surrounding world became slightly darker and he noticed Carla's tail painting an increasingly familiar sigil mid-air, 'So this is how she creates her compulsion marks, then that would mean that the woman was a distraction, how chillingly intelligent,' Mr. Valen thought, a chill running down his spine as he looked back to Carla, but his expression was unchanging.
The surrounding world became slightly darker, and it was then that he saw Carla's tail painting an increasingly familiar sigil mid-air.
'So this is how she creates her compulsion marks. Then that would mean this woman was merely a distraction. How chillingly intelligent,' Mr. Valen thought, a chill running down his spine. Yet his expression remained unchanging.
"You cannot place your marks on me!" Mr. Valen then commanded, his words causing Carla's face to contort in surprise, a purple glow flashing in her chest.
'Shit!' She cursed in her head and then reached into the lady's chest from within her raincoat, "You will forget everything that happened today. You will go forth and be the best you have ever been, never relying on a man again. Now, leave this place!" Carla proclaimed.
She then pulled back from the woman and redrew her tail watching as she dumbly walked away.
She then pulled back from the woman and retracted her tail, watching as she walked away dumbly.
After that, she looked back to Mr. Valen who stared on at her, quietly in the rain, as she stared at him.
'Does he intend to punish me for something?' she thought as she observed his blank face.
"Why are you staring at me? Didn't you intend to command my obedience? Ensure your safety?" She suddenly asked, her voice grim.