Harm and Harmony

-Chapter 50-

Day: 26

Days Left: 5454

Lives Saved: 0

Corinna recognised the woman from the food drop-off, the one with circular glasses. Her hair was short and curly, barely making it past her ears.

The woman opened the front door and went inside.

Grabbing her spear, Corinna rushed after her, finding the woman rifling through the cupboards and taking out all of the food packets.

"Put those back!" Corinna hissed, pointing the blade of her spear at the woman's throat.

But the woman merely gave a sidewards glance then continued with her task; stealing their food.

"I'm willing to trade, just please don't steal it." Corinna bit down on her lip as she accidentally let out her involuntary politeness. No one would see her as a threat now.

Again, the spectacled woman did not even flinch. She kept on spilling the packets out of the cupboard and onto the counter, then shovelling them into a messenger bag.

"I said stop!" The spear's blade was now at pricking the woman's skin, a small bead of red trickled out. "This is your final warning."

The woman's eyes moved and locked onto Corinna. "Oh, go then." She sighed.

Corinna froze, her hands quivering as they clutched onto the spear.

"Why are you hesitating?" The woman smirked, stepping forward. If Corinna hadn't instinctively retreated back, the blade would have pierced through her throat.

Why was she hesitating? She had fought before, against several imps, Harmony, and the clay golem. Yet something was keeping from plunging the blade into the woman's neck. What was different from before?

The woman adjusted her glasses, then grabbed the spear, pulling it downwards and Corinna with it.

Corinna tugged at the spear, attempting to reclaim it back from the intruder, but then her mud-covered feet slipped, and her head slammed down onto the floor. For a second, her sight blackened, then returned with throbbing pain. It was like her brain was being squeezed, condensing and about to burst. She heard the spear being thrown and it clattered a few metres away.

The weight and force of the intruder pinned her down, with her arms held back, almost to the point where they could break or dislocate. She was heaved onto her front, her face shoved onto the wooden floor. Then, a cold blade of a knife lifted up her hair, brushing it off her neck.

"Only treason?" said the woman, her clammy breath right next to Corinna's ear. "Don't you know?" she hushed. "This is where monsters are sent."

Monsters...

That was why...

Corinna had been able to fight before because she was facing monsters. Even after she learned that they were all human, her mind tricked herself into still thinking that they were not. Corinna showed no hesitation in hurting the clay golem because it looked nothing like a person. Even now, being pinned down and a knife at her throat, she couldn't harm another human.

"If you steal our food, the chimaera will come after you," Corinna spat, her voice muffled as her face was squashed against the floor. "You'll regret it."

"I have heard all about the chimaera. But I have yet to see it even live up to its reputation," the woman snarled. "How can it be so feared when it has taken in such a pushover like you in?" Though the woman denied it, Corinna could hear the panic in her voice. At even the mention of the chimaera, her body betrayed her, the woman's hands loosened their grip on Corinna's arms.

With a cry, Corinna rolled over and kicked the woman in the stomach, causing her to stumble and collapse. Corinna dashed over to her spear, about to pick it up when a cold piece of metal rested against her neck.

"I'm giving you one chance," said the woman, guiding the blade down to Corinna's gullet, allowing her to turn around. She motioned to the messenger bag that contained half of Corinna and Harmony's food packets. "Let me leave with the food. I won't take any more. The chimaera's keeping you prisoner, right? Probably making you do all the chores, keeping the house this immaculate, fixing the wall. I've had my own share of abusive boyfriends." She shrugged as if she was pretending to herself that it was nothing. "The chimaera won't be pleased when he finds out about the food, but you have plenty of time before he returns. Take the rest of the food and run away." The woman stared at Corinna, her eyes softened, expecting an answer.

But Corinna remained silent. She didn't know what to say, what to do. Her eyes only gazed at the messenger bag with the food.

The woman took Corinna's silence as her letting her leave. "Thank you," she mumbled. Then she headed towards the front door, so trusting that she didn't even continue to threaten with her knife.

Corinna looked down at her spear on the floor then back to the woman, seeing the brand on her neck.

It read 'murder'.

After giving Corinna one glance back, the woman closed the door behind her, exiting the house.

Picking up her spear, Corinna's eyes darted towards the food packets on the counter. They had half left, enough to last one of them until the next food drop-off or both of them for half that time. The image of Harmony lay ever-present in the young woman's mind. She was already wasting away, her rib-cage showing. Her chimaera form required more food than humans. Corinna could not imagine what Harmony would look like with only half the amount of the usual food. She would be weak, thin, easy to break. She wouldn't be strong enough to escape.

Then, Corinna's mind turned to her family. She was surviving for them. Thirty lives were dependant on her well-being. She needed food too, she needed strength. And yet she hesitated in stopping the woman from leaving with the packets, their food packets.

Why?

She was a murderer.

Why did you let her getaway?

Why?

Gripping tightly to her spear, Corinna opened the front door and spotted the murderer walking away, barely two meters from her, the messenger bag slung around her shoulder. Corinna placed her right foot back, then swung her arm forward. The spear hurtled through the air and pierced through the woman's thigh.

The spectacled woman screamed, collapsing to the ground. Her hands heaved at the spear lodged into her leg, failing to pull it out as her fingers fumbled and shook from the pain. Looking back, her eyes met Corinna's, then darted to the shovel in the young woman's hands.

With only a moment's hesitation, Corinna swung the shovel. The woman's head smacked down onto the ground, a pool of blood oozing out, staining the grass red.