Maid in the Mist

The End

Rotten teeth grinned, sharp and stinking with the scent of gangrene flesh. Scratching sensitive cheeks with black claws passing as nails as they merely caressed the skin. Making Solaria's pained stomach turn and writhe. But to move more would increase the slow rising pain that was bolting through her bloodstream. A slow burn that would, with time become unbearable.

The creature hummed a soft raspy laugh, "You can't run away...we've just gotten started."

"Wh...Why? Why am I not a..."

"An infant?" the creature finished, "Simple...I changed you back...you already had half of the ingredients that I needed..."

Solaria spat up scarlet droplets as she growled, "I was helpless...you could have killed me then...Merlot, is it?"

The woman named Merlot withdrew her hand, the mist danced around her as she must have felt delight.

"Ah, but you are helpless now and you are well beyond the toddling age..." Merlot frowned and swirled the mist with one of her bony fingers with an absent mind, "Killing things that are helpless doesn't give me pleasure nor the power to act...maybe I did when I was young and powerless myself...but now that I am grown, I tend to enjoy the mist of pain in my victim's eyes as they scream and beg for mercy. It gives me more of a rush."

"So what?" Solaria spat as her misted eyes glared, "We are opioids to you?"

Merlot smirked, "Perhaps you are to me...you humans and witches give me quite a thrill, even in death..."

Solaria let out a rather wicked laugh, "I want to hear your story...what? Did father beat you black and blue? Where you bullied as a child? Assaulted even? Did the world shake and scar you to the point where you despise humanity? What is it, devil spirit? Come on, my death can wait, can it not?"

The smile on Merlot's face made Solaria shiver.

***

"I had a normal childhood. I was the pride of my village, a born spell caster and the daughter of the town mayor. I was beloved and respected. No one dared to lay a finger on me, for they would face the wrath of the mayor, a protective parent indeed. Unfortunately, this left me without any friends."

"Oh no, I wasn't lonely. I didn't like playing with people or going outside, not like the other children, much to my mother's disappointment. I liked only two things. Studying, and watching the farmers tend to the sheep through my window. No, rather, I was bored. But I did enjoy the sheep"

"I loved those sheep, how they ate, how they were sheered, all of it. But one question remained, where did they go? They all disappeared in a great brick house that brimmed with smoke from the chimney. I decided to find out where the sheep went, and I found them all to be slaughtered and skinned for meat."

"Now, any other child would have been horrified to see such things. Seeing a helpless creature bleed and waste away, having their bodies dismembered and eaten. Not me. I found the screams of the sheep to be music to my ears and the scent of blood mouth watering."

"I was concerned at most, I was told by my mother that such things were horrifying and anyone who found pleasure in such things were monsters. The spirits would take away my powers. And that was scary to me, because my powers were and are everything that I have."

"But the sights and sounds would never leave my head. In my head, I tried to tell myself such things were wrong to protect my powers. But in my heart, no...in my soul, I knew full well I enjoyed the smell of blood, even the few droplets that dropped onto my tongue tantalized me."