"I say once; I suggest you leave." the young teenage girl's voice was pleasant. Her martial art stance however promised violence to the intruders.

She was undaunted by the looming monsters covered in spikes that stood on the edge of the graveyard.

"What are you?" the largest of.the monstrosities growled as he leaned forward to peer at her. His breath caused her patchwork dress to ripple. It sewn together so many times by strips.

"I am the pleas of the village. The one that you have been feeding on for the last week. I was formed from their hopes. I am their hero. I say twice, I suggest you leave."

The monsters shuffled and chuckled and snorted and growled a smaller beast with stripes of blue and yellow took a brazen step into the graveyard "You are but a wisp of dreams then, i will gnaw on your boney left arm then eat the flesh from your right!"

The girl flexed her skeletal arm with the sharp long nails "And now I say it thrice; I suggest you leave."

"Back to your grave!" the striped beast howled as he lunged at her, mouth agape. She shoved her hand into his mouth, grabbed his tongue and yanked hard to tear it out at the root. The creature crashed into a gravestone, blood pooling from his mouth.

The girl slashed the beast's throat open "This is for eating Constance's father last night.' she turned towards the rest of the beasts 'and this is to be sure Constance sleeps safe tonight."

Her ghostly blue fabric sank into the ground and a blue ivy rose to root the beasts in place, the leader snarled in fear "We will leave and never return, there are other villages, we will leave this one be."

The young girl shook her head "I suggested thrice you leave and you didn't heed. Now i will see to it that you never intrude again."

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

-

Constance woke the next morning bright and early to put flowers on her father's fresh gravestone. She gently swept away branches that fallen the night before. Her small five year old fingers pressed against the words in his name, carved into the cold stone "I can tell they carved this beautifully papa,' her fingers danced cleverly across the floral carvings 'I think those are persimmons they made there, you and mama's favorite. Don't worry, I'll be fine."

She sat at his gravestone singing softly when a teenage girl's voice spoke "Hello."

The girl turned towards the voice, her own voice warm and cheery "Hello, I haven't heard your voice before. I'm Constance, who are you?"

There was a long pause as the girl with long skeletal arm looked at the rising sun "I don't know. What do you think my name should be?"

Constance thought about it "I always liked Persephone."

"Then you can call me Persephone."

-

Constance grew and became a young woman, the village prospering and growing around her. No one questioned her when she made sure the graveyard encircled the town.

No one questioned the ghostly teen that walked among the gravestones.

They only knew that they were safe.

When the war came the now bustling city hid within their houses.

The soldiers and generals approached the odd boundary of elegant tombstones.

A woman sat on one of the tombstones "My name is Constance, who are you?"

"We are the north eastern army, you can either surrender to us or be razed. And you have no wall to hide behind. Nor do you have any discernable magic to stop us."

The woman leaned back and said to the air "I don't think they are going to listen Persephone."

Blue ivy formed from the mist as a teenage girl with a long skeletal arm walked into view. Her voice was pleasant as she said "I say once; I suggest you leave."