The pungent smell of death wasn't something foreign to my day-to-day life, but I have to admit I never woke up next to a dead corpse.

I cried out when, after clearing my mind from the morning fogginess, saw the disgusting and rotting corpse not so far from where I had collapsed the day prior.

I could feel the panic trying to take me over, and it would have been so laughably easy to just give in there and then. I could scream, cry and seek forgiveness from some higher entity for what I had done.

However, that was not what I did. The hate still festering inside my mind forbid me from doing such a thing. That now unliving piece of walking shit deserved every ounce of pain.

However, that did not stop me from silently sobbing to myself for a good while. However, I knew I needed to move on. I couldn't stay stuck in the present forever.

I stripped the monster of whatever scraps of clothing he had left and put them on. They were baggy, uncomfortable and smelled like blood and guts, but at least I could preserve whatever scraps of dignity I still held onto. Then, I searched the room for a bit, and in the mess that my room had become was my plushie. I picked it up and held it close to me.

I peeked outside the rotting door, checking the street for any dangers. After making sure there were none, I ran out, trying my best to blend with the background so that any planes or drones passing above wouldn't see me.

This wasn't the first city I had resided in, but it was amongst one of the worst. It was like a ghost town, with barely anyone in it.

Although it shames me to admit it, this was one of my favorite places I had lived in. I much preferred the silence of a ghost town to the screams and explosions of what people called the 'Devil Cities'.

As I walked around, I mused about what I could do now. The fairy hadn't lied about what she said. My body was brimming with energy, and the familiar feeling of desperate hunger that tortured me for the entirety of my life was nowhere to be found.

Previously, there was little need to care about the future. After all, why would I bother about that when I didn't even know if I could survive the next hour?

I had to forcefully stop myself from shaking as, amongst my musings, memories of what transpired yesterday wormed their way in my mind. I could still feel the phantom pain of my body being ripped by the monster.

I sat down on a rock where the sun didn't shine on. Taking deep but hitched breaths, I forced myself to calm down as I hugged my plushie. Thankfully, although it was torn in many places and it was dirty to the point of being disgusting, the plushie was still soft, and it did wonders in soothing me.

I let my mind wander once more as I slowly caressed the soft back of the dolphin plushie. I found it hard to remember much from when I was younger, but a couple of memories still struck me.

My mom had always said that we were heading to a 'better place' when I was young. She used it to justify the long marches we had to go through, desperately avoiding both the foreigners and monsters. In hindsight, it was a wonder we didn't get caught for as long as we did. After all, two completely defenseless women made good prey to the depraved minds that lived in this hell.

We never reached the 'better place', obviously. However, I remember her once saying to me that we were heading to a place called the Salvation Haven.

At the time, I didn't understand it, and perhaps I still don't. However, I once heard some fellow desperate survivors speaking about it, and from what they said, it was an organization backed by foreigners who wanted to help us. Good foreigners, basically.

I was and still am skeptical about such a claim. In my whole life, every foreigner I came across would at best ignore me, and at worst try to kill me. However, even that was leagues above what the monsters wanted to do to me.

I have been following the setting sun ever since my mother's death, as she said that's the direction that the Haven was. However, even after ten years, I still found nothing of the sorts. Granted, I didn't actually travel all that much, considering 99% of my time was spent desperately searching for a way to get something in my stomach.

With a goal in mind, I steeled my heart and looked up. The once overwhelming light of the sun that threatened to blind me if I looked at it now felt more like a gentle caress to my eyelids.

I took a deep breath and then took a step.

The world shifted around me as I suddenly felt myself moving forward at unimaginable speed. However, to me, it felt... normal? It was a strange feeling. My eyes easily took stock of the surroundings even as it seemed to zoom past me, and at the same time, stay frozen.

I played around with my newfound power for a long time. I scaled buildings with my bare hands, lifted giant stones like they were pebbles and just enjoyed this strange feeling.

It was exhilarating. My arms felt as though they could hold the world, as though if I wished it, I could tear apart the world. I slammed a sharp stone into my leg, but it failed to even pierce it, and I didn't feel any pain.

Remembering my last wish, I tried to use it, but it was difficult. I imagined myself changing into a dolphin, but it didn't work.

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I spent the whole day practicing my gifts and exploring the strange powers I now held. By the end of it, I had the biggest, dumbest look on my face I ever had.

I didn't notice yesterday, but it was no wonder that the monster couldn't fight back. I could literally punch a building and it would just disintegrate. My powers were strange, impossible, even. It was as though they could break the laws of physics, although it's not like I actually knew what they were.

If I wanted to punch something so hard it exploded, I could. If I wanted to be gentle with something, I could. Furthermore, my senses always adapted to whatever speed and strength I used, making it so my senses never lagged behind. It was awkward at first, but after a while, it became really, really fun.

Even better were my shapeshifting powers. Although I was a bit disappointed I couldn't turn into animals, I found that I could modify my body in whatever way I wanted. I could grow wings, make my body bigger or smaller, and even change my face. However, adding modifications to my body felt really uncomfortable, so I always ended up in my starting body.

I grabbed at my dolphin plushie and hugged it to my chest with a crushing hug as I giggled in pure glee. Currently, I had already left the city, and I was following a dirt road. Normally, following roads spelled trouble, but I didn't care. I felt invincible. Honestly, I could get drunk on this feeling.

Each step I took easily traversed hundreds of meters, and that was without me even trying. The wind caressed my body, but it didn't feel like the usual freezing gale that threatened to turn me into me an icicle at night, and nor was it the volcanic wind that felt more like an oven than wind. Instead, it just felt nice.

I traveled the entire night. I wasn't sleepy at all, and in fact, I was still brimming with energy.

That was when I saw them. Foreigners.

They traveled in those giant, roaring trucks of theirs. I had seen what those things could do, armed to the brim with guns and explosives. The thought of being in front of one had once terrified me.

No longer. I refused to be afraid.

I stood my ground in the middle of the road as the roaring giant came rushing down. I heard screeching as the thing slowed down, but it was obvious it would still hit me.

I held my arms forward and glared at the incoming giant. Two bright lights shined out of its sides, illuminating me and the road behind. I could barely make out the form of a man behind the glass, and I could almost smell his panic.

Hold on, why was he panicking?

The thought came too late as the giant thing crashed into me, and by all means, I should have just turned into roadkill. However, that is not what happened.

The truck suddenly stopped. I hadn't moved an inch, but somehow, the truck had still stopped. I looked in wonder at the me-shaped hole in the front of the truck as I pulled myself out of it.

I instinctively froze as I heard voices and shouting. The foreigner's language was, well, foreign, so I couldn't understand them. Suddenly, what I did feel like a really, really bad idea.

I was tempted to flee when the man behind the window got out and rushed to me. My instincts got the better of me as I curled up to protect myself.

Why did I do this? That was stupid. I am stupid. I'm going to get killed.

Despair once again ran through my mind as my body tensed up for the expected beating and/or murder. Foreigners usually didn't kill non-monsters, but it did happen.

My earlier bravery and hot-headedness suddenly vanished in a puff of smoke as I laid on the ground, whimpering pathetically.

Shouts came from all around me, but I didn't dare open my eyes as I hid my head behind my arms, an instinctive posture that usually worked to at least defend my face.

A warm cloth surrounded me as I felt two pairs of arms grabbing me and holstering me up. I felt coldness wash over me as my overly imaginative mind went into overdrive.

Thoughts of being kidnapped to then be cannibalized or sacrificed to the foreigner's gods ran through my mind. Although deep down I knew that wasn't likely to be the case, all the gossip I had heard during my life gave my mind enough reason to twist itself apart.

More shouting came from around me as I was being carried away. Then, the voices stopped as a loud sound of doors shutting came.

I felt a pair of hands gently remove the cloth they had put around me, and then try to take away my clothing. That was when I snapped and the instinct of defense vanished and the instinct to fight ignited.

I desperately kicked out as I threw myself to the other side of wherever I was. A pained grunt came from the foreigner I hit, but I didn't bother looking as I found myself confined within a room. Adding two and two together, I guessed I was inside the foreigner's truck.

I looked back in horror as my body tensed, ready to bolt at the first sign of retaliation. Now that I actually looked around, I found that the inside of this place was... weird.

Soft-looking couches were all around, while a couch had been pulled in the middle. Next to it was a white sheet, likely the cloth they had put over me.

Next to the couch was a foreigner, likely a woman, dressed in white. She was clutching her stomach while she cringed painfully.

Looking at her, my body tensed even more. I had never before seen a foreigner woman, it was always men, and this scared me. The unknown was always scary.

The woman looked back at me with a pained smile as she raised her hands in front of her, letting go of her stomach. She spoke, but I couldn't understand her. She must have noticed that, considering the fact that she was obviously cursing now, judging by her expression.

She slowly approached me, holding her hands in front of her. My breath stopped in my throat as she approached, and dark memories flashed by.

I backed away until I was up against a wall. She was still a good 6 meters away from me, and at that moment, I decided that if she came any closer I would tear apart this place and escape.

Thinking that, I began musing about all those thoughts of power I held before. It all seemed so fickle, so fake. I could pulverize buildings and lift boulders, and yet I was afraid of a simple foreigner. Granted, I had no idea if she was a mutant or something, and I had very bad experiences with mutants. Foreigners were very scary, not as scary as the monsters, but still scary, and foreigner mutants were at the top of the 'To Avoid' list.

The woman looked at me for a while with what I thought was a sad face. After a couple minutes, she slowly backed out, leaving the truck room.

I could hear the foreigners talking outside. As they did, I warily looked around the place, debating what to do.

I could escape, and it was very unlikely they could stop me. Honestly, that was what my instincts were screaming at me to do, years and years of surviving amongst people who would love to have you for dinner tends to make you very escape-y.

However, my mind told me a different story. I wasn't a genius, but I knew an opportunity when I saw one. I wanted to leave this hellhole, but I didn't know how. I didn't really know anything, really.

For once, my mind won. The reassurance that I now had the power to at least try and defend myself, along with the sweet promise of a better life, forced my instincts to stand down.

But that didn't mean I trusted the foreigners. I didn't know what they planned, but they didn't seem hostile, yet.

I grabbed the white sheet I had thrown in my panic and curled it around me as I hid in a corner, warily watching the door.

Unfortunately, it was right around that moment that I realized I couldn't find my plushie. What happened next is... embarassing.