When Winter Loved Fire

❄️Chapter 1🔥 The Girl in the Snow

The memories of that fateful night exist only as fragments, whispering from the darkest corners of my mind.

No matter how hard I try to remember, one thing always pierces the fog.

Rainbow-colored eyes.

Those impossible eyes have haunted my dreams every night since.

Everything else has been swallowed by time, yet his voice remains as clear as the moment he spoke.

"I will enjoy watching you grow into a fine demon."

At the time, I didn't understand what those words meant.

I only knew that when I awoke, something inside me had changed.

A hunger stirred deep within me.

A hunger I couldn't understand.

My eyes drifted across the clearing until they settled on a man and a woman lying motionless beside me.

Their faces were forever frozen in silent screams.

I didn't know who they were.

I didn't know why my chest ached when I looked at them.

All I knew was that the grief was so heavy it felt as though chains had been wrapped around my limbs.

I slowly lowered myself to the ground between them.

It was strange...

Lying there beside them filled me with a twisted sense of peace.

The days passed.

My hunger grew worse with every sunset.

Still...

I couldn't leave them.

Something inside me refused to walk away.

By the fourth night, I had convinced myself to remain there forever.

Maybe if I stayed long enough...

Maybe something would return.

Maybe my memories would come back.

Then a voice drifted through the trees.

Flat.

Cold.

Yet strangely melodic.

"What's this?"

A brief pause.

"A demon... not eating humans?"

Before I could think, my head snapped toward the sound.

In the distance stood a short elderly woman dressed in a white-and-blue kimono.

A lantern swayed gently in one hand.

A short sword rested quietly at her side.

The moment I saw her...

Every instinct inside me screamed.

Attack.

Kill.

Feed.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

"No..."

The word escaped as little more than a whisper.

Hurting people is wrong...

...isn't it?

I tried to fight the urge.

I really did.

But my body no longer listened to me.

One step.