Short Stories

Doomed

Dear readers, may I have your attention. I've changed the description of this book already, but too be perfectly clear: This book will also contain stories that are not for the contest from here on. I have many more ideas for short stories in my head and instead of making a whole new book or wait until the contest is finished, I decided to publish regular stories too. Enjoy :)

My name is Lilith and I've always known that I was doomed. From the moment I was born strange things happened around me. In my teens I got my, as people would say, true appearance. I was evil they said, that's how they justified the way they treated me. I was evil they said, I didn't belong, I was better off dead. So I believed them.

About my true appearance, my hair had always been jet black. But as I grew older my skin became paler, my brown eyes turned crimson red and I lost control over my powers when I would get angry. It only confirmed their opinions about me. It started small, with a girl I accidentally threw in the water with an invisible force when she was bullying me.

Nobody treated me right, that is until a tailor and his family came to town. Three children he had, a son named Percival and two daughters named Selene and Gaia. I never had any parents and grew up under care of a blind woman. She died when I was young, too young to take care for myself, but nobody would take me into their house, so I had to survive on my own.

I still don't understand why Percival and his sisters were nice to me. Even his parents treated me as a normal person instead of the devil's child. He always sent the girls home when they were calling me names and protected me if the guys were throwing stones.

When there was another sickness tormenting the town and the people wanted to blame me he and his parents protected me by pretending I was sick.

I must say the last three years of my life in that town weren't too horrible. However, my powers grew stronger every day and I lost control more often. To protect me Percival offered to take me away to live in the forest where nobody would be able to bother me.

Even though I turned the offer down, he almost dragged me with him towards the woods. On our first night there he confessed his love for me. And of course I loved him back. He changed my life for the better and made me feel like I was a person, a human instead of an insignificant creature that came from Hell itself.

We had no contact with the village, only with his parents and sisters, who came to visit once a week. We cultivated our own food on a little plot of land and Percy would go for a hunt every three days. I even gained control over my powers because of the peaceful environment.

But we could only enjoy our life full of love and peace for one blissful year. Percy asked me to marry him, because he would love to expand our little family, how could I deny him? However the day we were supposed to be married was the day the villagers decided that it was my fault there was an outbreak of the plague. Every day the deadly disease claimed more victims than the day before and the villagers were desperate to stop it.

Somehow they thought sacrificing me was going to solve their problems. They found our little cabin and stormed in. We were still entangled in the sheets and our embrace when they dragged us out of the house.

The tailor and his wife were already tied up, just as their daughters. Both of the girls were crying and all of them looked battered and hurt. I felt my anger flare, but I quickly took control and calmed the raging fire within me.

They took us through the town that smelled of death to the ruins of an old castle. Once it belonged to a lord, but after a fire destroyed everything it became a prison because the dungeons were one of the few things that remained of the castle.