I was awoken from my meditation by screams. Cera's screams. Bolting from the table I grabbed my axe and rushed out.

The sun was barely cresting the horizon, signalling the early hours of the day. I rushed towards the where her screams were coming from.

I found her outside the cabin, but she wasn't alone. Two men were there as well, one holding her down while the other was in the process of unbuckling his trousers, his intent clear to any who saw. The two men conversed while they were carrying out their evil act.

"Well Cera, did you miss us? We missed you, ain't that right Jorgie? Boss said to wait till you were older to do this, but we've been without a woman for so long, what with those undead fucks running everyone off except those of us who got no wheres to go."

"Right Mark, we's itching for a woman, even if they aren't a woman yet." The one holding her down chuckled, the sound like a washboard being rubbed with a wire brush.

By this point my vision had turned red, a familar feeling rushing over me. The urge to kill, urge to feast on flesh and satisfy a primal desire. I bursted towards the man trying to remove his pants. My speed unmatched by what it was previous, I reached them before either could react to my arrival. My axe swung with far more force than when I chopped at the tree, whistling through the air to slice the man in half at the waist. A look of shock plastered on his dirty face.

His friend, Mark, shared the same look, and even loosened his grip on Cera to the point she could kick him in the face and scramble away.

After her kick was registered by the man, I had already begun to swing, and separated his head from his shoulders, sending it in a smooth arc away.

Instinct took over, and I began to devour him, while his head landed perfectly to see it happen while it still held some life in it, a look of fear forever etched in his face when his brain finally died.

By the time I came to, I had already desecrated both corpses by taking them as my meals. Cera was off to the side, staring. On her face was not disgust however, he eyes staring at the corpses with what looked to be pleasure trying to be hidden under a mask of indifference.

Wiping my face from the blood and gore, I retrieved my axe and went off towards the cabin. Judging by the fact these men knew Cera's name, I felt like I knew what I'd find inside.

Cera who saw this, made a move to stop me but after once more glancing at the corpses of her assailants, merely followed behind.

I reached the door, the feeling of death that I had felt since I arrived here stronger than ever. Upon opening the door, I saw the cause.

Two corpses laid inside, decayed to the point that flesh and bone were in equal view. Upon their bodies were similar clothes as the ones worn by Cera, although one of them was missing their pants.

There was no doubt. These were Cera's parents. The girl herself walked in as well, silently standing beside me as her face now hid in it undeniable sorrow.

Without any prompting on my side, she began explaining.

"They came weeks ago. A week before I met you....they killed Papa and...and raped Mama..." Cera's eyes began to wetten, tears sliding down her face, but she continued on.

"They let me live, with a promise...that I'd be their whore when I was older. The only reason they left me here was because they didn't need another mouth to feed. But before they left they had...their fun with me." She grabbed her arms, but it turned out she was actually pulling down her clothes to show them off. On them were scabbed cuts, innumerable. "The ones who enjoyed it the most were those two...they were also the ones who...raped Mama...and they took just as much pleasure in my screams." Her eyes swiveled to stare at me, the pain still clear in her eyes but now they were joined by another....gratitude.

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"Thank you...Grey. Thank you for killing them...." She wipes her eyes, ineffective at stopping the persistent tide.

"I wasn't just their looking for a knife...when I found you. I was looking to die...I didn't want to have what happened to Mama done to me....but I was too much a coward to kill myself. I thought that if I let a monster do it for me though...that I could let it happen. But when I was confronted by you, I knew that I was fooling myself. I knew...I knew I wanted to live."

Finally I spoke up, to ask a question that I've been wondering since I first arrived.

"Why did you let me come here?"

I could not fathom why she would agree to shelter me here. I had chalked it up to her being kind hearted, but I could feel there was more to it...and considering her story so far, it further confirmed for me that this was the case.

"Losing my parents..being all alone..when I met you I was scared. I was as scared as when the bandits were here. But then you spoke to me, and you tried to coax me to relax. I knew it wasn't smart to trust a stranger, after all that happened, and all the things Mama and Papa told me about monsters. But I was so tensed...that I found it absurd. That, of all things, a monster was what was trying to befriend me, even if it had hidden intentions." A sad smile appeared on her damp face. "Along with the loneliness, and the fear, meeting you was the breaking point. And I just stopped caring, preferring to listen to you instead of rejecting any change you'd bring my fate."

Her smile strenghtened, as she stared once again intently at me.

"Thank you Grey. Thank you for being here, for a worthless kid like me..."

To comfort her, to tell her she wasn't worthless, I wanted to do that. I wanted to ease her burden. But standing before her, before her dead parents, I could not muster the courage to say such words, knowing they'd only sound hollow, a pure recitation without feeling.

There was one thing I could do, though. Something I was good at, so far. Something I knew would ease her burden much more than mere words.

"Where's their camp?"

My question was met with a look of surprise by Cera, her face drier now that she'd managed to contain her emotion behind her usual mask. "You can't, Grey! There's too many of them!" The look of fear once more clouded her face, to my surprise, it was fear for the safety of another.

I gave her a confident smile, as I faced my own inner emotional turmoil, the promise of violence surging my thoughts against these people that'd do this to a little girl and her family. It was all I could do to just remain still after her story, and once I got their location it would take all my will to not just rush in. I might actually do just that, to revel in the slaughter, and once more feel the power I showed earlier in slicing through men like they were mere grains of wheat.

"Don't worry Cera. You saw me a moment ago right? I'm strong." I puffed out my chest and relaxed my axe across my shoulder, trying to show off.

"Besides, I won't die, I'm already dead." I chuckle but it's clear that it isn't funny to Cera. My face turns serious as I give my final piece.

"I can't allow them to live, Cera, and there's more to it than just that as well. They have something I need-" the energy of death they hold, as well as what's accumulated on their persons from their sinister acts, but I don't tell Cera this "-that I must get for what I have to do. So please, tell me where they are."

At my words her mask breaks into a turmoil of emotions, as she digests my words. After a time, she finally relents, and tells me their location.

They're located a ways away, around a day for a regular person. For someone who doesn't tire and need breaks, I should reach it in half that time.

I wash clean my axe from the recent blood, grab the bow of Cera's father, and stock up on arrows. An afterthought, I ask Cera if her father had any spare clothes, to which brought me a set of leathers similar to her own but lacking the furs. Wondering this, she answers that it's because of how expensive the furs are, since the lack of animals with good furs in the area makes them need to buy from the town. This doesn't hinder me, though, since I don't feel the cold anyway.

Equipped with leathers, my axe, bow and arrows, I'm fully set to slaughter the bandits and grow stronger, and to avenge Cera's parents and the things they did to Cera herself. Blood will spill and flesh shall be eaten, for this the undead crave.