Puke have yet dried from the stained corner of my lips, when another wave of vomit comes over me. I had no choice but to let them witness my weakness as I retch all over the grass. A possible chip in my plan, but still a weakness I was glad to still possess.

'Monster. Monster. Monster.'

What have I done? It was the only road to revenge. But I couldn't have done it. To dismember the helpless corpse of my beloved. With my own sinful hands.

'Dirty. Dirty. Dirty.'

I wipe my hands on the patch of grass on the eastern side that's not covered in whatever was in my lunch. Again and again, with such severity until the blades of grass cut my hand.

'You monster child.'

Now there is no way to return. I have become worse than what I detest. A disgusting vile creature. No longer worthy of being called human.

"Are you done lass? Why do it if you're just going to collapse under the stress? Waste of time."

The man with piercing blue eyes, like the edge of a truly chilled iceberg, scoffed. Everything I had trampled over for a chance of surviving a joke in his eyes.

The soldiers under his control were however not so rude as demonstrated by the reprimand given by a relatively younger man with soft chestnut hair.

"Captain- I think you're being too harsh on her."

But the rotten fruit definitely outweighs the good ones in this group. In spite of all the grime on and around me, the perverted men from earlier still sent me a wink.

"Heartless lass, visit me and I'll make you forget about all this."

I do not think I can ever truly forget.

This hatred. This vengeance. This resentment.

To them. To their empire. And above all to myself.

But if I stop here, if I bare my true feelings, my revenge would fail before it begins.

"I simply ate- blergh the wrong lunch. This w- be gone in n- time."

'No- there was nothing wrong with the homemade pie I had this morning. And everything to do with the sin I committed. The sensation of flesh being cut. The trickle of blood. The way her head looked like hanging on my hand. Oh the horrors- what have I done.'

Stolen story; please report.

"Then hurry up and stand, we have to go."

Captain Edgar commanded, prickling stares on my body like a flurry of daggers. I clutched the grass as though that would make me shrink. But, held the fear in. Turning it into anger.

The sight of my mother decapitated body and the head loosely attached to her by air fills my eyes. I am left with a want of giving her a proper burial. Only to be flooded by the same voice.

'Don't be that doe, my dear.'

'But I can't simply leave you mother.'

Against my better judgement, the first thing I yelled as I stood up from a pool of a vomit was the crying of a helpless young girl held in the hands of a more powerful figure. A baby animal at the mercy of it's hunters.

"Wait- at least let me bury my mother."

Forgetting, they evoke no pity in those who wield the weapon of slaughter.

"There is simply no time to let you do so."

No. I have desecrated her body in the worst way possible. There is no way I'm letting her corpse be food for insects and dogs or whatever creature is wondering in the wild. She deserves better than that.

I stuck myself out for them to bid in disdain.

For them to throw away in anger.

Anything is better than wild animals feasting on her.

"My mind will not be at rest as long as her body is still scattered in the wilderness." I bite down the choke that was coming, 'hold it down, hold it, be the monster she wanted you to be,'

"Do you really want the dog in your midst to turn into a wolf? A man who has less honor than a lass like me. Who would have guessed?"

My goading taunt was met with utter indifference. Not even the slightest of anger or humiliation. All I have become is a jester that jumps at a script that reaches no one.

"Then burn her. That is the most we can do for you."

I held back my reconccuring tears, that started to flow out of my eyes at the thought of the last reminder of her gone in the flames. If I could I would've frozen her in ice. Keep her with me at all times.

But now I have to destroy her corpse in the wilderness with no way to bring her along.

'Is flames any better than animals?'

I surrendered in ridicule for a moment, before snapping on to reality. At least her corpse will not be a mangled mess at the teeth of vicious beings. Let her be gone in beauty. The way she would've wanted to.

Humans like their dogs submissive. But I can't muster any of it right now. So I stay silent. Just a nod to indicate that I was going to do it.

"…."

The first thing I did was gather leaves from nearby trees to cover up her body. Then lighting it up with the match inside my pocket- an invention that was popularized forwards a dozens of years ago.

"Come now. We don't have time to wait. Young lady should've almost arrived by now."

The rabbit hole just gets worse. This spiral to mad sadness never ends. Every inch of me screaming, 'But mother has yet to be fully cremated-'. Then I looked into those ruthless eyes and realized they'd leave me if I dawdled and my revenge would end here.

'Farewell mother.'

I said, unknowing the ghost of guilt will never truly live and by so she would never truly die.

With the ingrained image of vermilion devouring her corpse, I vowed deep in my heart, I will rob of you everything you hold dear, as you did to me.

Accursed Driston empire.