Lorelei was the first awake tonight. Right beside her, she saw the man sleeping. He looked serene, as though he had nothing to worry about.
For the first time since she had met him, she took a long, close look at him. He had long white hair and looked very young — no more than twenty — yet he knew so many things that she didn't. She wanted to hold his hand, but as soon as she tried, memories of those lifeless bodies surfaced before her, reaching for her hand. She pulled away instantly.
She made sure to cover herself with a blanket before snuggling next to him, embracing him. To her, this man was the first person who had ever truly taken care of her. He was like a father, but she hadn't yet learned the concept of a father, so she called it by a word he had taught her while reading stories at night: love.
That same night, the storm roared through the forest's natural stillness. Outside, it was pitch black. Nothing could be seen — only the shadows of the colossal trees could be made out from the windows. In the distance, Lorelei saw three figures walking closer and closer to the house.
They were armed with swords and completely covered in heavy armor. She woke the man by repeatedly tapping on the blanket.
"HuMaN... Door."
The man slowly got up and softly patted her head with a big smile.
"Thank you."
Lo smiled and repeated after him.
"ThAnK yOu."
When the man reached the door, he heard the voices and instantly froze. He told Lorelei — who had followed him from the room — to go back inside and stay quiet. Lorelei obeyed without arguing and returned to the room, where she wrapped herself in the blanket, clutching her stuffed animal tightly.
From there, she could hear the loud screams of the men at the door.
"Come out now! How long are you going to run away?!"
The men's shouts grew louder until Lorelei heard a loud bang at the door. They had barged in — that, Lo knew. They wrecked everything, even entering the room she was in. She was scared, very scared. As the men entered the room, she could hear her caretaker's voice screaming.
"Leave her! She has nothing to do with this! do you hear me?! Leave h—"
They stabbed him. He fell to the floor, unconscious.
They threw Lorelei from the blanket onto the floor, ripped her stuffed animal, and struck her right on the neck. Soon, she too followed the man into darkness.
When she woke, she saw the guards pinning the man down as he tried to reason with them. She couldn't understand what they were saying. One of the armored men noticed her and said:
"Oh, look who finally opened their eyes."
As soon as the guard spoke, the man turned his gaze to Lorelei and softened his tone.
"Lo, listen. Everything will be fine. I'll take care of this. Trust me."
She shook her head slowly, vertically. She could see the terror in his eyes — not for himself, but for her.
The guard stomped on the man, who screamed in agony.
"How long are you going to lie with your empty promises? Who would believe someone like you? You ran. You gave up your responsibility, your position — to take care of this? ARE YOU SERIOUS?"
The guard looked furious — absolutely furious.
"We can't just kill you like that. No, no, no — that's too easy an escape for a sinner like you."
He turned to Lo and stared at her.
"You can kill, right? You have the eyes of someone who's killed plenty. One more won't hurt, right?"
The man screamed.
"Leave her out of th—"
They stabbed him again. He was already bathing in his own blood from the first wound. The blood kept spreading, staining the grass around her in a bright scarlet red. Lo couldn't hold back her tears. The man — the one who had taught her how to live, who had given meaning to her meaningless life — was being killed right in front of her, and she was powerless to stop it.
"Shut it! You won't die by our hands. No. How could we sully our hands with dirty blood like yours? She will kill you with her own hands, whether you like it or not. We already know about her — the whole continent is looking for the new angel. And so were you, weren't you? You wouldn't take care of a helpless little girl for no reason, would you? I know who you are. I've known you for far too long, foolish sinner."
The knight towered above the man and looked down at him with disgust. He didn't seem to have even an ounce of pity — for him or for her.
The man let out an agonized screech. The guard then violently pulled the girl. He gripped her arm tightly — the only arm she had left — so hard that when he let go, the imprints of his gauntlet were dyed into her skin. He then looked back at the man on the grass.
"You know what to do if you don't want to see her die in front of you."
"L—"
He was in pain — terrible pain. Lo saw it. She knew how he felt. Yet he still went on.
"Lo, please... Hold my hand," he said, coughing up an astonishing amount of blood.
Lorelei knew what he meant. What he truly meant was: kill me.
"You dIfFeReNt nO? wHy yOu dO tHiS tO mE, yOu hUmAn tOo." She was weeping so much she could barely open her mouth. Her face was covered in bruises and dirt.
"I dOn'T wAnT tHiS. yOu JuSt LiKe vIlLaGe — oNlY wAnT dEaTh."
The only word she pronounced well in the whole sentence.
The man understood. He had deceived her too, just like they all had. He was no different from them.
"Please... Lorelei, do this last thing for me... please."
The knight screamed impatiently.
"Clovis! Do it now!"
Clovis. That was his name. Lorelei heard it at last. Clovis.
He crawled closer to her across the grass. One of the guards looked at him with revulsion and said:
"How low have you fallen? You were once respected and recognized. Now look at what you've become — crawling on the ground like the vermin you are."
With a slow movement, he grabbed her hand with both of his and held her tightly — very tightly. He didn't want to let her go, and neither did she. He stared at her. Lorelei could see the light in his eyes slowly fading. He barely opened his mouth to slowly form the words.
"Thank y—"
His hands slipped away from hers and fell onto the scarlet red grass. He was dead — that's what he was now. The storm seemed endless. Lorelei looked at the man's lifeless body on the ground. She clung to him, crying out every tear within her, holding him with all the strength left in her thin little arm. All those years she had spent with him — they were being stolen by those knights right before her eyes. And once again, she couldn't do anything. Not to protect herself, nor the only one who had ever truly cared for a being like her.
The guard kicked Lorelei away and took the man's lifeless body. She saw another guard holding a torch. He threw it at the house, and it caught fire. The middle knight raised his sword high in the air before striking down on the man's body.
"No!" she screamed.
They cut him to pieces. They slashed him open, cut off his legs, his arms, his head. This gruesome sight was something Lorelei had never seen before. Every time the knight raised his sword, blood splashed onto Lorelei's clothes — clothes that the man had given her. It was as though her body were a blank canvas being slowly painted red. Lorelei looked at the man's blood covering her clothes. Her face, too, was not spared. Her silvery, silky hair was stained a fiery red.
She got up and ran, pushing the guard down as she dropped on top of him, hurling punches.
"I hAtE yOu! I hAtE yOu! I hAtE yOu! I hAtE yOu! I hAtE yOu!"
Her tears wouldn't stop flooding her face, choking her words. All she wanted was to kill every one of them right there — but she couldn't. She didn't have the strength or the courage.
She kept hitting the guard while crying, until her arm gave out. Another guard was about to stab her from behind when the one who seemed to be the leader said:
"No! I keep my promises. I don't kill children. Let her be. We'll find her soon enough anyway."
Lorelei grabbed the man's head and ran. Feelings spiraled through her mind — she couldn't understand them or grasp what they were.
She ran toward the mountain's edge. Around her, she could hear the screams of those who had died by her touch.
"It's all your fault... It's all your fault!"
She knew it was her fault. She knew.
The storm now screeched even louder than before. The trees seemed scarier, their leaves resembling the faces of those she had killed. Every single one of them, haunting and obscuring her path.
She thought: If they hadn't been born as humans, would life be easier? If she were born again, she wished she were not human at all.
She ran without looking. She reached the mountain's edge, slipped — still clinging to the man's head — and fell into the endless abyss.