FENNEC

Prologue

    She sat across the table from a dark-haired man, specifically his corpse. A clean slit throat, the dimly lit lantern flickered, threatening to allow a blanket of shade to envelop the rest of the room, the dark corners resting. In her mind, they pointed fingers, shaming her and bickering with a cold, harsh laughter. A stream of blood sprayed out which splattered the table, reaching before the rustic lantern in the middle of the dark, wooden table. With a glare, she watched over the putrid body, no remorse embedded in her soul. Only the Gods know if she even had a soul to begin with.

    Thoughts raced in her mind, fearing she'd be caught and worse. Where could she even run? This space was rigged to explode, he acknowledged it was a trap and even in his death, he made her miserable. She could feel his smug attitude rubbing off, nearly hearing the "I told you so". He gave her a choice and never showed a portion of emotion she had. Quietly, the dark brown haired girl picks up the lantern, creaking once the handle rubbed against the top lid. Crevices of the wall uncovered themselves as she paced to the door, a dirty knob twisted and she ducked, as the door was half her height. It wasn't that she was tall, the door was tiny, meant for someone else. After all, they lived down here, until it was abandoned due to the resources being deprived from the mine.

    Her steps echoed through the massive, empty halls. A few more lanterns similar to the one she held were dropped down, hung up on wooden poles shoved deep within the cave walls. A distant drip could be heard, the chilly whispers of the air filling the grim, deserted mines. Her long coat carried behind her, she searched for a place she hadn't seen before, checking corners desperately, hoping for an escape. The two pathways, both directly to the left and right of the room, led to the outside straight ahead, however those two places were destined to be destroyed, collapsing the entirety of the damp interior onto the unfortunate victim, which would be her. She wanders hopelessly in the area next to the room that resided the man's decaying corpse in.

    Defeated, she leans against a hard stone wall, which poked into her back uncomfortably. Even the floor and rocks mocked her. She made a wrong decision somewhere, if she could go back in time, she would choose a different location to subtly murder him. Perhaps her parents' cottage in the woods, where the spring prospered and the barren months were short, where the frost came for two months and even then, her mother's soup was warm. Where the birds sang tunes, cheerfully wishing life and carrying a gospel only known to the men who were buried beneath the trees. Where grass tickled her bare feet, where the pollen would dirty her hands once she freshly picked flowers for her mother. Where she'd sit at the kitchen table as her mother taught her recipes, shared stories of sparkling creatures, of intimidating monsters, of the rumours that were the very roots of the strange forest.

She found herself softly humming the song of centuries, decades of her ancestry had passed it down and she would somehow find a way to disappointedly not sing it to her child, but when she was the laughingstock of an old mine. All she knew was that she deserved the spot that was gracefully handed to this ungrateful man. Her thoughts coincided, her mind was as blurry as the light in her vision. Surely so, it ticked her time, her surroundings darkening as was the flicker fastening.

    In the midst of it all, she wished to be a child again, to know where she went wrong. She couldn't even remember how this happened in the first place, why she'd done such shady work despite usually being in the light of the forest, the golden sun pouring through the cracks of the leaves above. Memories continue flowing along in her mind, thoughtful of when she'd wear her knee-long dress and her chocolate-brown eyes gleaming as she closed her eyes and fell onto the flower bed, which enfolded her in a strange comfort.

    "What a fool you are." She spoke quietly, to no one in particular. Her eyes glued on the bare glow which shortly puffed itself out, a bright red mark left on the interior of the bulb before cooling off quickly. Her eyes shut and she despised the fate that she was led to, a thud sounding through the mine and a cold breath in the remaining still atmosphere.