"If I buy you a dessert from town, will you leave?"

"No."

"Two desserts and a toy?"

"No."

"...A full meal from whichever place you want, and a toy?

"No."

"...Please?"

"You really sounded like you were struggling to say that."

Ooohhh, I really wanted to strangle this kid now.

"Then what can I do to get you to leave?!"

"I already told you miss, and I'm not going to leave until I get what I came here to do, done. And you're the only one who can help me do that."

I growled under my breathe, "And I already told you that I wasn't going to help you with anything. Now leave!"

When the brat's only response was a shrug, I stomped away, muttering some rather unpleasant things. I'm not ashamed to admit that that kid frustrated me more than anyone I've ever met just by making eye contact with me. With those eyes that look like they've seen more than their fair share of pain. Decades worth of it.

That last thought made me let out a bitter laugh. Like I'm one to talk about something like that. It wouldn't even be an argument to say that I had the same eyes. Still, it was a tad bit unsettling to see it on someone else, especially that young. I've got to give the brat some credit though. Persistence burned clear as day in otherwise dead eyes.

Sighing, I threw one last glance over my shoulder towards the path I left the kid on. Seeing that there was no sign of the brat leaving any time soon, I shook my head and trudged into my old cabin.

~♤~♤~♤~♤~♤~♤~♤~♤~♤~♤~♤~♤~♤~♤

Great, now I can't sleep. My mind won't stop drifting back to the brat.

It couldn't be easy to find anything edible out here. This place was pretty desolate, besides all of the trees.

Scarce rivers and no lakes means no clean water

No berries that aren't poisonous.

The animals are far to skittish for anyone who isn't in top condition to successfully catch. I know the kid was far from that status. If anything, malnourished would be a better description.

... No, bad Gloria. Stop thinking about it.

Go. To. Sleep.

Finally, I forced my eyes closed and flopped back onto my hard bed. I laid there for about for ten minutes, hoping that sleep would come and numb me to the rest of the world.

Please...

Please...

"... Damn you, conscience," I opened my eyes. May as well get up and do something to shut at least one of the voices in my head up.

Heaving myself off the bed, my body started moving on autopilot towards the 'kitchen'. I use that term loosely as it really is just a room in the back sheltering a fire pit, a cabinet with medicine and two or three sets of dinnerware, and an insulated chest filled with kooler krystals and food.

Heading over to the chest, I unlocked it and raised the lid. Wow, don't really have a lot of food left, do I? All I have is some dried boar strips, phever roots, squirrel, and five canisters of water.

'Looks like I'm going to have to go hunting again soon.' I thought before taking half the boar strips and a canister of water out. Shutting the lid, I got to my feet and headed for the door.

I never have liked using the trails at night. Not that I ever liked using them in the day either. It's just that at night, some rather large hunters came out and I would just rather avoid the hassle of running into them. For that reason I tend to travel by through the trees. That and honestly, I just found it rather calming. There was just something about the scent of birch tree and a breeze on my face that settled most of my feelings down to a simmer. The atmosphere on the ground though, that got unsettling as I could clearly see on the brat's face even from a distance. I'm surprised that the kid was still awake. It was past midnight, and I had left a screecher orb near the kid to drive the things that go bump in the night away. Not that I actually said anything about that...

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Yeah, I need to work on my communication skills.

That thought almost made me reconsider my plan of dropping off the food when the brat fell asleep so that I didn't have to deal with any human contact. Especially with the twerp. Keyword being 'almost'. I'm not going to step away from my comfort zone so easily.

Soon the brat nodded off into a fidgety sleep. Can't say that I blame the twerp for that. It can't be very comfortable sleeping against a tree.

As soon as I was sure that kid wasn't going to wake up, I left the camouflage of the trees. An old gliding charm was used to silence my landing as a precaution though.

The boar strips and water were placed in front of the tired kid.

I had told myself that that would be it. Bring the twerp food and get the hell out of there. You're conscience will be appeased and then you can sleep.

Well, thanks me. You lied

I tried to walk away after that, I really did, but there was an old habit nagging at me. Watching people sleep for a bit calmed me for reasons that I will never know. Right now, it was the last thing that I should be doing, resting was the best idea for me. Especially if I have to deal with the brat again tomorrow. But urges have a tendency to override logic in most people, and sadly, I'm not an exception.

Deciding that staying for a minute or two wouldn't hurt anything as long as I was quiet, I kneeled down to look at the brat. Not touching. Just looked.

Actually, now that I think about it, I had never really gotten a good look at the kid. I was always too frustrated to think about something like appearances. And now that I had gotten the chance to process what the twerp's condition really was, I know then and there that my conscience was never going to shut up ever again.

Malnourished had been accurate.

Very accurate.

But that wasn't all though.

There were burns and reds splotches scattered across so much skin that I could barely tell that it was originally a porcelain pale. Dirty blonde hair was singed past the ears. Breaths were coming in raspy, ragged, bursts from chapped lips. And a body that looked like it would snap in half if I so much as nudged it.

Oh Hazes, I had to leave before I did something that I would regret later.

Immediately taking down the path to my cabin, I slammed the door and slid down it. I sat there not really thinking about any one thing in particular but with a thousand images flashing in my mind. Images that I wanted to stay in the past.

Hazes knows how long I sat there, but it felt like years. Eventually hyperventilation gave way to shuddered gasps and then long, tired, puffs of breath. Eyelids started to droop, and I didn't even bother to fight sleep off, not even to get to my bed. In fact, I welcomed it. Anything to get the memories to stop. So, I let exhaustion take over and descended into a numbing darkness.

~♤~♤~♤~♤~♤~♤~♤~♤~♤~♤~♤~♤~♤~♤

Drip...

I braced myself against the sink.

Drip...

Shaky puffs wheezed past my chapped lips.

Drip...

Don't look in the mirror. Don't do it.

Drip...

... I hate you reverse psychology.

Drip...

I did it. I looked. But I didn't see me.

Drip...

There are two different eyes staring back at me. Both very different but terrifyingly similar at the same time.

Drip...

One looked and felt like it stared into your mind, picking you apart and leaving nothing but scraps.

Drip...

The other looks so tired. On the brink of collapse from everything it's seen.

Drip...

They have one similarity though. Determination to see something through, even at the cost of their lives.

Drip...

I tore myself out of the trance. My head shook so fast that I nearly gave myself whiplash, but it worked. The mirror didn't reflect back anything that it wasn't supposed to.

Grey eyes.

Dirt brown hair.

Slightly tanned skin.

Me.

I sighed in relief, only to have a frown appear on my lips. That brat has affected me far too much. It looks like I've been too nice.

I sighed once more, but out of frustration, not relief.

One more chance. That's all that I'm going to give the kid to leave peacefully. After that, I'll use force to take the brat to town.

Steeling my resolve, I stomped out of the rickety cabin. I chose to take the actual path this time. May as well give the kid enough warning that there are no heart attacks involved in this confrontation.

As I neared the tree that the brat was always leaning against, I found the already empty water container and no trace of the boar strips.

Good, at least they didn't go to waste.

Nearing the base of the tree, I steeled myself for what could possibly be a fruitless argument. But I wasn't going to go easy. Not this time.

Three more meters and I would be able to see the kid.

Two more meters.

One more meter.

I would have stated what I wanted as soon as I had closed the distance, but there was one rather large problem.

The brat was gone.