Deep in the forest, a lone girl sat upon a tree branch gazing upon the full moon above her.

Despite the commonality of her clothes, the girl herself would have turned heads no matter where she went. With such lovely long hair as red as a flickering flame and pale skin like a marble sculpture, she looked almost like a doll. Her clothes had at one point been a simple, long-hemmed peasant’s dress and corset over a hooded robe, but now showed signs of so many repairs, yet it only added to the girl’s charm.

Her eyes, golden like the sun, hid beneath the shadow of her bangs, peeking out like curious children. She sat upon the branch, her legs swinging back and forth one-by-one as if she were walking. There was an air of impatience about her. She had been waiting a very, very long time.

He was coming. That was what she had been told. Her knight in shining armor. All she had to do was wait. That was what SHE had told her. The demon. No, that wasn’t right. She was a demon, but she’d said multiple times she wasn’t a bad demon, and the girl believed it. After all, demons couldn’t lie. It was just the way they were. So, when the demon whispered promises in the girl’s ear, she was more than happy to believe them.

It wasn’t like she had anything to lose after all.

She was an exile cast from her home for a crime that she had committed with her own two hands. In a moment of weakness, she’d made a choice. But then again, all of life was full of consequences as the girl had learned when the cruel men and women of her home had exiled her, left her to die, thrust into the merciless world beyond her village.

And the demon had come to her, freed by her own hand, now shackled to her by a contract made of the girl’s own free will.

It was how it worked. The girl had struck a bargain with the demon, and both parties knew what they would receive at the end of their business. To the girl, it didn’t matter so much. After she had heard what the demon had had to say and to offer, she didn’t need much persuading. The demon had said it herself: “‘those with nothing to lose have everything to gain’”.

The girl was wary at first, as too many times she’d believed in others only to be disappointed in the end. But the demon had been the first in a long time to keep a promise, and when she made a second the girl was happy to take her up on it. And thus, here the two were in a forest in the Monarchy of Algrustos waiting for the girl’s one true love.

It had been agonizing to wait for so long. The girl had lost track of exactly how long it had been.

Normally, the girl wouldn’t have patiently waited for something so important to fall into her lap, but considering how long it had been she was beginning to wonder if she was going to go insane at this rate. Then she giggled, cupping her face in her hands. Of course I’m crazy, she mused to herself. Love makes people that way. Then the red-haired girl sighed. It was a deep and weary one. Years had gone by, but the time wasn’t right, the demon had said. How many times had she said it? The girl didn’t remember. It was almost like breathing, she’d heard it before, and she’d hear it again. But now, the demon said the time had come. At long last, it was time to reveal herself to her prince.

Her soulmate.

The girl sighed again as she thought back to the days of her youth, how the people of her village had held such contempt for her. They’d assigned her to a thankless duty and whispered catty little things behind her back. Children had thrown rocks at her and called her useless; the adults were no better with their mocking side glances and rumor-mongering. The girl’s teeth began to gnash as she thought of the smug faces and pointing fingers.

The girl thought of her cruel, spiteful father and her pompous, sniveling older sister. The two had conspired to make the girl’s life miserable and forced her to sacrifice her dreams and desires to fulfill an obligation that no one wanted. They had made a laughing stock of her when she finally had the chance to make something of herself.

But those people were far away and out of mind now. None of them mattered. The girl cared little if they thought she was long dead. The only reason the girl still remembered them was because of her burning desire to prove them wrong, and she would, once her soulmate finally arrived. And what better way to get on his good side than to offer him a gift? He’ll love it, she thought, just as he’ll come to love me too.

The girl looked down at her lap, where her materials lay. She had decided on a pair of matching bracelets. One already adorned her wrist, and the other was still in the process of being completed. They were made of strong, interwoven strands of red twine, so thick so that they wouldn’t break, enchanted by the tailor she’d purchased them from so that they would not wear out over time. It’s a more meaningful gift if I made them myself, she thought to herself. It had taken many tries but at long last, she’d made the bracelets to her liking. It wasn’t like I didn’t have time, she reflected bitterly. It had taken her a little over a month to make them acceptable.

And when that was done, there were the charms. Made of bone from a tarketan, she’d acquired them from a merchant traveling along the roads. She’d pestered him until he sold her a bone that she could carve that wouldn’t get scratched or break. Now, she was in the process of hooking the untouched bone charm onto the unfinished bracelet. The charm would soon bear the same sigil she’d etched into the one on her own wrist. The sigil stood for, “predestined.”

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In her homeland, a belief prevailed that no matter how far away two soulmates were born destiny tied them together with an unbreakable red thread. They would meet someday, fall in love, and live together for as long as fate allowed. Nothing could break this thread, not even time or death, as the thread even bound their souls together as they waited to be reincarnated. As a child, she’d believed in this wholeheartedly and wondered who her soulmate would be.

Suddenly, a presence weighed down upon the girl, like some creature climbing onto her back.The demon had returned. Like an incorporeal fog, the entity settled around the girl, almost threatening to imbalance her from her branch. The discomfort was only temporary; the pressure relented as the girl waited for the demon to settle beside her.

The girl had seen the demon’s true form in her dreams. That form was inaccessible to the demon at present, as circumstances prevented her from manifesting a physical form. The girl thought the demon beautiful, regal even, befitting her claims as a being of immense power and wisdom. If all went to plan, the girl would meet the demon in person soon enough. If things went according to plan, that is.

It was a few minutes before either of them spoke. The demon’s sultry voice whispered into the girl’s ear. “Do you think you’ll be ready? This is what you’ve spent years preparing for,” the voice cooed. The girl smiled the kind of lop-sided smile a young girl would make when she was about to concoct some mischief.

“Of course I am,” she reassured the demon. “Everything will go exactly as it should. You’re sure he’s coming?”

The demon sounded offended. “My child, have I ever lied to you? Need I remind you that I gain nothing by not fulfilling your wishes? The ethereal voice seemed to roll off the demon’s nonexistent tongue like melted caramel. “You want what you want, and I want to help you achieve it. Because in the end-” the demon prompted.

“ -getting what I want helps you get what you want.” The girl finished.

“Can I see him one more time?” She implored. The demon sighed in exasperation.

“You are so very needy, child. You can wait another month, can’t you?” The girl chewed her lip. She knew the answer to that, but didn’t feel like saying it out loud.

“Oh, very well.” The girl went back to carving the charm in her lap. She jabbed the bone with her knife. She was allowing the demon to dictate quite a few things, including her appearance, on little more than the demon’s confidence that she was right. The girl even agreed to wear a new set of clothes the way the demon had insisted upon because it would appeal to her soulmate. She’d acquired them in the nearby city just today and she was none too pleased with them.

Her new dress included a skirt that was a little too short for the girl’s liking, lace stockings; a corset that ended just below the girl’s chest, and the neck of her robe plunged too far for the girl’s taste. She’d sewn lines of thread into the bottom of the split-open neckline to make it less likely for her chest to spill out, which was the only time she’d defied the demon’s insistence that “‘men were quite susceptible to such displays’”. The demon protested but ultimately allowed the modifications.

The girl’s focus was entirely on the bracelet. As hours flew by, she remained dedicated to her task. Eventually she even forgot about the demon still watching as she worked. Only once did her clumsy fingers slip; she narrowly avoided slicing her finger with the knife. The girl clucked her tongue and then went back to work more carefully this time. I got a little carried away there, she thought. I need to slow down a little. She took a deep breath in, let it out in one giant sigh, and then began to work again, taking care not to repeat her actions. You can’t let your excitement get the better of you, she said to herself with some irritation.

She kept on carving with a slow and uneducated hand. Hopefully, her soul mate would look past the little imperfections and see only the amount of hard and earnest work she was putting into the bracelet. She smiled, a heat in her cheeks making them flush. Of course he would.And because he was the one, he’d look past her disheveled exterior and see something of worth in her.

At last, the last notch was made. She held up the charm, an almost perfect copy of the one around her wrist. Smiling wide, she looped the charm into the newly made bracelet, tying off the end tightly. “Soon,” she said to the empty night, speaking to the demon who was there and yet not there. “Soon this will adorn the wrist of my one true love.”

The sound of the demon’s voice echoed in the girl’s ear again. “Yes, yes it will. But first we must wait. And you should save your strength. When he comes, we’ll have to put on a show. Test him to see if he is indeed worthy.” The girl shook her head.

“No, he is already worthy. He was worthy the very first moment I laid eyes on him. I just need to make him aware of that. And I think I know just how.”

“How, dear child?” The girl could almost envision the lopsided smirk spreading across the nonexistent face of the demon as the question was asked.

The girl dangled the bracelet before her eyes. It was ugly yet beautiful. It would make the perfect gift. That moment when they stood face to face, the moment when she would profess her undying love… it was coming. The girl picked up her new dress and slipped off the tree branch, landing on the ground with a soft crinkling of leaves. She walked towards a nearby cave, a stone opening stretching down into inscrutable darkness. She held the bracelet tight.

“By making him feel like the hero he is.”

With that, the girl disappeared into the cave with her demon. She walked deep into the dark recesses and followed a path she could see even in total blackness. Finally, on the cold stone ground she curled into a ball. One more month and all of her pain, patience, and sacrifices would be validated.

As the girl closed her eyes, a tear rolled from one of them. It was not one of sadness, or of great relief. It was of joy that she would finally be given what she deserved. As the girl nodded off into the solace of dreams, the demon did not. Instead, she chuckled to herself. Everything was going according to plan. For she too was waiting for the girl’s “soulmate” for her own reasons.

“One more month, my child,” she whispered. With a hand that was not truly there, she ran her fingers across the girl’s cheek, lightly. “One more month and we both get exactly what we want.”

Then there was silence, except for the low cackling of a satisfied monster echoing from the depths of the cave.