"I knew it, your face says it all...and I hate it," she said with a rumbling voice as she stood up "I hate how I can tell by just looking at you, goblin, that there is remorse in your eyes" the clothes in her hands fell to the ground showing a dagger in her hand "But you aren't supposed to feel that, you aren't supposed to feel anything except desire..."
I simply stood there in silence, there was danger in her voice, similar to the very first time we meet, I knew she had the intent to kill me, and the capability to do so, but I simply couldn't move.
I couldn't run away from facing the consequences of what I did, conscious or not, her daughter's blood is on my hands.
"You should have tried to take me, so many times when I shamed myself to make you do something, any other goblin would have, even if I wasn't young, they would have jumped head first at the chance of defiling any woman, they wouldn't resist" step by step she approached, as I step back "Not only that, you cook, you clean, you..you...what are you?"
The last words like a painful whisper, make her fall to the ground, sitting in front of me, an arm's distance away from me, her sobbing now clear to my ears.
"I told her, I told her to stay away from the woods you know? I told her that, goblins are like rats, like cockroaches, no matter what you do, they are never completely wiped out. Always, one gets away, and your kind is special that way, they learn better after surviving"
Suddenly, she pounces forward and drags me to the ground, I instinctively try to defend myself as she raises her right hand and hits me in the face, it is the same hand holding the knife but she doesn't stick it into my flesh.
"IT'S THAT WHAT HAS HAPPENED?! ARE YOU SMART NOW?! THINK YOURSELF, HUMAN?!" the hitting continues as I shield my face as best as I can "You took away EVERYTHING from me! I gave up it all for her! For my angel! Only for her to die like that, devoured by one of your kind"
The hitting stopped and the sobbing continued, her moans of anguish loud and sorrowful.
My instincts told me to lash out, fight, and ensure my survival at any cost. And while I had been fighting to survive ever since I wandered the woods, this time I wasn't gonna do that.
These many weeks, while simple, were truly a blessing.
After awakening in this world, everything felt like a dream, as if nothing was real and after I killed that woman, it turned into a living nightmare. But this time with Ismenia, doing small and boring tasks for her and myself brought me peace.
I don't remember much of my past life, but that sensation of not being in danger, of sleeping with a full belly, of bathing, of commodity...I know it's what I always had back there. It was thanks to her that I got to experience all of it again, and I couldn't be more grateful.
If she meant to dig that knife deep into my heart, for the life I had taken from her, I couldn't stop her.
"I'm...sorry," I told her, lowering my arms and resting them on each side.
She stared at me in disbelief for a moment before straightening her back, she was still sitting on top of me and after a moment passed, she stopped crying, looking at me without blinking.
"Fight back" she demanded and awaited for a bit for me to react "FIGHT BACK!"
The hitting resumed this time with both hands. It hurt, and quickly I was bleeding, feeling my bones crack and my nails dig into the wooden floor, but I never raised my arms.
"I don't care if you are sorry, I don't care if you are a unique never seen type of goblin, I DON'T CARE IF YOU HAVE A SOUL, GIVE ME A REASON TO KILL YOU!!" and the hitting stopped as she yelled in front of my bloodied face.
Breathing heavily, she kneeled and fell back, resting her body against the opposing wall from me, next to the room that belonged to her daughter. I took a moment to gather my strength and clean my nose since the blood difficulted to breathe, before sitting as well.
We now sat in front of each other, and I couldn't help but stare at her confused, a reason to kill me?
"But I...I did it, I did that to your daughter" I let out a sigh, to say those words to the mother of the woman I butchered, I immediately felt shame.
"Did you mean to? Did you want to kill her?" She asked, her head still resting on the wall, but her eyes looking at me intensely.
"No...I just-I didn't know what I had done, everything went black and when I returned to me, the deed was done" I raise my right hand in front of my face, remembering the rock I had used.
Everything fell silent for some time, I rested my hand and we stared at each other before she moved the dagger into a belt she had in her leg, beneath her dress.
"I was a witch once, fully. I made a pact with a demon who asked for the life of someone from my blood, but I was homeless. So I offered my firstborn child and got laid to the first man who hit on me...for nine months I held, so much power, and I tortured innocents for money. When the day came and I gave birth, I held my baby girl in my arms and I" she says raising her arms as if someone unseen could hand her the baby she lost "I just couldn't do it. I undid my pact and vanished the demon from this realm"
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Why was she telling me this? I didn't wish to stop her, however, so I remained silent as she lowered her arms.
"What a beautiful thing she was, bright as the sun, and more gorgeous than I have ever been...but she was naive, and fell in love with the son of the elder, a womanizer who only wanted to pluck the ripe fruit. I had seen him, but she didn't believe me. Always resented that I tried to teach her how to make medicine, and she pursued her dream of marrying him, living a life of comfort, and caring for their children, so they kept meeting in secret"
With a hand on her face, she moved away the hair, revealing that her eyes were now black like mine, only that the dark completely swallowed her eyes, like an empty abyss.
"I could still hear the voices of the dammed, their whispers and screams demanding blood were deafening, ...so I turned to Trala, the Kind maiden, and vowed to never kill other men or monsters unless in self-defense. And she listened, in her great unending mercy, she keeps the whispers away to this day" with a blink, her eyes return to normal.
"...I'm sorry" It was everything I could say "What I did, I wish I could make it undone, I would give anything"
"No Rokan, I believe you. I believe that it was the goblin in you who did it, and I don't know what type of goblin you are but...you are unlike anything I've heard or seen ever before. I know you tried your best to fight the urges of your kind, everytime I tempted you I saw the struggle within you and...I know they were the truth" squeezing the bridge of her nose between her fingers she lets out a tired sigh "My daughter's fate was sealed by my hand, and the demon told me himself, that no matter if I broke the pact, her soul is cursed, and death will reap with I have sown... you were just a tool in my punishment"
The silence returned for a while until she stood up from the ground and walked away, into the kitchen.
I could hear the drawers open, and the cooking utensils being thrown on the table, she meant to cook? I was left stunt, by the story she had told me, the fact she even found me worthy of sharing a piece of her life with me, murderer of her kin, I was speechless.
So when I finally joined her in the kitchen, I was looking at her as if she had grown wings and three heads. I was the source of her suffering, her pain, and yet, she was there cooking for us as if what just happened was an act, a joke but-I knew better than that.
"This is a lot of food, I hope you didn't make us poor in a single night," she says cutting up the vegetables "well, help me around, I pay you for a reason, don't I? Well, I don't, but you sleep here and eat too so come on," she says slapping a chunk of meat on the table.
I silently approached the table, standing up on a chair as always to cut the meat, and in that quiet moment of peace, in that blissful moment of tranquility.
"Thank you," I told her, looking at her directly, and she turned around to look at me with new eyes, they weren't distrustful, or angry, instead, they looked at me...normally, with no intention inside them. As if I was another human, next to her.
She didn't respond, instead, she gave me the smallest, most tiny smile before turning around and continuing her chopping. It was the first time since I met her that I saw her smile.
Then, knocking.
The calm disturbed, we both turned to the door and then to each other.
"Hat," she said and I turned to the chair next to the door "Stay here" she whispered before rushing towards it "One moment!" she yelled as her hand aimed for the hat.
But then the door was kicked open, sending her to the ground and me rushing to her.
"Witch! We demand-" the guard said before laying eyes on me, and when our eyes met, his face contorted into pure rage.
GOBLIN!!
He screamed and with the spear in hand he thrusts forward, I barely dodge it by skipping backward.
"I knew it! The witch brought the goblins to our forest!" Another guard shouts as he enters the home and reaches for Ismeina, whose mouth he covers as he drags her outside.
"She must have sacrificed her daughter for this, she is no witch, she's a warlock!" a third guard adds as he throws a short spear at me, this time it cuts above my shoulder, almost impaling me but missing it by not much.
Reacting fast I reach for the spear and managed to take it out off the floor, it is heavier than a stick and it was harder to move it with the weight of its point. But I have no choice.
The two guards move forward, and I once again barely manage to dodge the thrust of the one holding the spear, but now with the distance shortened, I aimed with practiced precision and pierce his neck, the crimson liquid dirting my fur and hands as he falls to the ground, gurgling and moving.
"What the-?!" shocked that I knew how to use a spear, the other guard grabs his handaxe and stares at me without blinking.
If I reach for the spear the other guard dropped I turn my back on him, and he attacks, if he moves in closer I reach for the spear and repeat what I did before. None of us move and the seconds feel like hours.
Until the guard loses his patience.
"Just a cursed goblin, I WILL KILL YOU!" He moves and I reach for the spear but he throws his handaxe to where the spear is, forcing me to jump back and into his arms.
He begins to choke me and I kick and scratch but his strength is much greater, I hear a horn being blown and this seems to weaken his grip, he looks up and then back.
Then Ismeina stabs him in the leg with her dagger, he screams and punches her, making her slam against the wooden table, dropping the food and the knife I was meant to use to cut the meat.
"You will BURN warl-" the knife cuts his neck and he stands up, gurgling as the now dead guard did before, except the cut must have not been so deep, for he holds his neck and rushes out of the house as the horn sounds once again.
"Rokan, you must leave!" Ismeina shouts, blood dripping from her lip as she rushes to my side and helps me to my feet "The horn will call the rest of them, hurry!" She pushes me out of the house.
I look around and see the guard that held her laying on the ground, a wound on his leg as he blows his horn and from the village, more guards holding torches hurry on foot.
"Run East, remember East? Over there!" she says pointing to the right " I will go in the opposite direction, I'm bigger, they will see me and follow me, now go!" I grab her hand before she leaves and we look at each other.
"No, no, we go together!" I tell her. But she slaps my hand away.
"Leave, Rokan, and do not return, I will be fine" With that the distant voices of the guards distract me, making her run faster than I could ever hope to accomplish with my smaller stature "DO NOT RETURN!"
It's the last thing I hear as I grit my teeth and do as told, running away, back into the wild, back into the dark woods.