[https://i.imgur.com/VGCFMQy.png]

"so we're in agreement then?" Matrill asked. Looking around at the nodding heads.

Refenial's mind churned faster and faster as his heart hammered out a distressed tattoo in his chest. It was like the wolf in the forest all over again. Except these people had no Old Mother Hecate, no one to save them.

Visions of Maxit lying dead against the tree, the wolf's hot wet breath against his skin as it spoke to him, its words just as loud in his ears as the day he'd heard them.

"I know you all came from the village near here, little one. Heh, after I devour you, I'm going to pay it a visit. Do your friends live there? Or do your parents? I'm going to eat them all. Oh, with that many people in one place, it could take me days to eat them. Oh my, oh my, from the feet up, you'd be surprised how many days it could be before the first one even needs to die."

That's what the wolf had said that day, the day Maxit had died.

And today, today Matrill, Nox, and the other men here were going to take the role of Old Mother Hecate, killing the monster and murdering its victims.

Today, if he did nothing, he would be a murderer, just like Old Mother Hecate.

He shook his head vigorously, trying to chase away the ghosts of atrocities past.

"Refenial..." He heard Nox quietly say as if he was trying to soothe him.

"No! if there are people who are alive in there, even if they're suffering, what right do we have to murder them." Refenial said, looking at the group, and in that moment, he saw their fear, their desire to take the easy path, the safe path.

They were all like Old Mother Hecate, self-serving. At least the old crone had been honest in her selfishness.

"Refenial, this is our only chance to stop whatever monster is in there. If the monster isn't in there, then we might be able to rescue people, but if the monster gets out, then others will probably die." Nox said, a sad look in his eyes.

Maybe, he was right. Maybe Nox's reasoning was the safe, logical choice. He wondered if maybe every decision Old Mother Hecate had made in her life had been the safe, logical choice, one after another, until murdering children and slaughtering villages had become the safe, logical choice.

Was that how monsters were born? Perhaps, at least, the sort of monster that wore a human face and lived a human life. How many people were like that, would sit and talk, smile and curse, laugh and cry, live a humdrum mundane life till the day a decision came, and they decided it was safer and more logical to discard their humanity than it was to be a good person.

Matrill spoke, but Refenial paid it no heed, his mind already set.

"Nia, I need to do something, and I need your help." He spoke quickly, the words tumbling out of his mouth faster than his conscious mind could process.

Nia looked sceptically at him "Wha-"

He interrupted her "There's no time to explain, please, for once, I need someone I can trust. I'm going to do something that seems crazy, but I need to. I have to. Please!"

"What do you need?" She asked.

"I've got to get into that house, don't let anyone stop me."

Nia's eyes went wide with fearful realization. "Wha- but th-." Her gaze hardened, and she looked down at him with a grim calm. "Fine, but you better not die, Reffy."

Refenial turned, and he began to sprint towards the crooked house as he saw Nia turn to face the group, wand raised out of the corner of his eye.

The horrific house loomed in front of him, a twisted parody of homeliness. Doors and windows stuck onto the house at odd angles of its twisted frame. The house was a warped amalgamation of the wood and stone used to build the other houses. Wrents, gaps and odd jutting-out pieces of lumber gave the feeling that you could almost see into the house's dark interior if you were to only peek in a bit closer.

[https://i.imgur.com/oMrGBK6.png]

He slowed as he reached the house, keeping his steps as light as possible on the snowy ground. He crept quickly and quietly to a large window that looked like it had been ripped out of whatever wall had once held it. It sat about a foot and a half off the ground. Its frame was warped by cruel treatment. The shutters were closed, but he could see they were only fastened with string on the inside.

His dagger still in hand from entering the village, he slid it between the large gap in the shutters, easily slicing the string. The poorly set shutters gently surrendered to gravity as they fell open.

Refenial looked back at the group. Nia stood there defiantly, her wand raised to ward back the group. He hoped he was making the right decision, doing the right thing. Nia was annoying at times. She snored. She called him 'Reffy' because she knew he hated it and she owed him a lot of money, but he had chosen to not take the easy path, and if he failed now, he knew she might pay the price.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

He would do what it took to protect her from his decisions.

Nox caught his eye, and he felt the young man's eyes upon him. He could see the sadness on his face. Nox looked like a man who was watching a friend die. Refenial could understand that feeling, but he hoped that Nox's fears were misplaced.

He looked away and stepped through the window into the dark interior of the house.

The inside was dark, with looming silhouettes of furniture making uneasy shapes across his vision. While his sight was underwhelmed, by contrast, his sense of smell was overwhelmed. The building reeked like the smell of rotting meat was part of its very foundations.

He heard the occasional fly buzzing around the room. Even in the cold weather, they seemed drawn to feast on whatever was rotting in this house.

He half closed his eyes and sunk back into himself. He could feel a slight flutter from the thing in his soul as it moved slightly. It was always watching and waiting for that moment of weakness.

He opened his soul's eyes, and the world lit up in unearthly colours as motes of mana danced colourfully in the deformed house.

The room he was in had two crooked doorways leading out. Out of one, he could see distant stairs leading up into the unknown.

The room itself was of indeterminate purpose. Several chairs and a stool were strewn broken across the floor as if thrown violently into the room. A wooden slab of a table sat in one corner, leaning precariously on one side where it was missing a leg.

The floor was covered with dead grass, the monster not even bothering to weed the dirt floor before building the twisted house on this spot.

The colours of his vision were too different for him to identify what they were with certainty, but dark stains were splashed across the walls, ceiling, floor and furniture.

He crept forwards towards the doorway that didn't lead to the stairs. It would be safer to clear the downstairs before worrying about the upstairs.

His heart beating, and the sharp sound of his breathing felt uncomfortably loud in the silence of the house.

Even though the door was open, it was only by a narrow crack. He pressed his head to the doorframe, the feeling of rough wood on his cheek as he looked through.

On the other side, he saw it. A large figure sat open-legged on the ground with its back to him. It was bulky and fat but looked almost human from this angle. A woman's straw sunhat, much, much too small for its prodigious frame, sat balanced precariously on its head.

The figure moved slightly, and Refenial tensed, afraid he'd been discovered. Thankfully the monster seemed to just be fidgeting to get more comfortable as it picked something off the ground and began eating.

From this position, he could make the figure out more clearly. It was a pig monster. Its body was no less of an abomination than the house, a nightmarish hybrid between a human female and a sow.

As Refenial watched, he noticed movement from deeper in the room, from behind the monster. An old man was sat on the floor, next to him were...

Refenial recoiled slightly at the remains of the monster's meals next to the man trying not to take in their details. The man moved feebly and strangely. Refenial realized the man's arms and legs were bound. The monster also seemed to notice the old man's movements and looked at him.

"Something wrong, sweetie?" The monster asked. Its voice was soft and kindly. If Refenial had closed his eyes and listened to it, he would have found it no different than the voice of a normal young woman.

The monster looked down at what she was eating and then back up to the old man. "Awww, do you miss your wife, or are you hungry?" The monster gave a giggle of girlish glee. "Well, don't worry, sweetie, you'll be going where she went soon enough." The monster patted its stomach and giggled again.

He had to do something, but what? His systematic magic might make him faster and stronger than a normal 11-year-old, but he wasn't any tougher. He was sure that giggling horror could rip him apart in a few seconds if he gave it a chance.

He could use his dagger, but the monster was so rotund he wasn't confident he could hit any of its vital spots.

He looked around the room he was in for inspiration before settling on a plan. Putting his dagger away, he carefully looked through the wrecked chairs picking up a large and jagged broken chair leg.

Next, he pulled his whistle out of his pouch.

He moved back to the door frame peering through the gap again. The monster was sat there still eating.

He tried to ready himself for the coming fight. This wasn't like with the wolf or the muggers who'd cornered him. He could still run, sneak out of the house, let the adults burn it down. That option felt so tempting, so easy. Safety was only a few steps away. Why fight a life-or-death battle when you can just walk away?

He shook his head to get rid of those thoughts. No, he'd made his decision. It was do or die, and in the next few moments, either he, the monster or maybe both would be dying.

He thought about how he'd felt in those moments when he'd fought for his life, cycling the feeling over and over again in his mind until he was ready to act.

He put the whistle to his lips as he readied to infuse it with mana and blow.

His breath caught in his throat for one last moment before he blew a loud, clear mana infused note on the whistle.

The painful sound filled the air, the old man went limp, and the monster fell backwards, lying spread-eagled on the ground, momentarily stunned by the noise.

Refenial burst into the room, sending the door smashing open with a loud crack. He couldn't keep his soul eyes open while moving so fast, but his normal eyes had adjusted to the dingy light of the house.

The monster lay on the ground, its head the nearest part to Refenial. He launched himself forwards until he stood over the beast, looking down.

The monster's almost human eyes looked up at him, fearful and pleading for mercy, as the grotesque being lay there dazed. To the side, he saw its arm twitch, and he knew he had no time to pause, no time to empathize with a man-eating monster.

He slammed the spike of wood down onto the monster's neck, once, twice, thrice. The air was heavy with the smell of blood, and he could taste something salty on his lips.

He looked down, and the monster's dead eyes looked up.

[Rank up!]

[Rank up!]

Refenial paid the messages no heed.

He dropped the bloody wood and stepped wearily towards the old man, who was looking at him with almost as much fear as he had shown the monster.

Refenial knelt by the man, trying not to look at the bodies next to him and pulled his dagger out, cutting the rope that bound his legs and arms.

The man still seemed terrified. "You're safe now," Refenial said in a tired voice as the adrenaline began leaving his body.

The man pulled the rope that was gagging him free from his mouth with panicked shaky movements. "What..." The man gave a dry cough. "What about the other two monsters?" He asked fearfully.

Refenial felt like his veins had turned to ice at the man's words.

The stairs.

He hadn't checked upstairs because he thought there was only one monster.

He heard a bestial roar from the floor above, followed by another much deeper roar. The roars were wild, angry and promised blood.

[https://i.imgur.com/3vZaHAB.png]