The Girls of Virtue

[01] Dead and Dying, Fog and Breathing

She adjusts to the horns faster than she'd expect, soon correcting her gait to match the weight of them tugging at her skull. Within minutes, it feels as natural as can be to have the twin weights on her head, and that thought is almost more strange than that she feels they shouldn't have been there in the first place. Still breathing in fog, she shivers once more.

Before too long, the ground underneath the girl changes, going from grassy to hard and pebbled with sharp rocks. The beginnings of small trees peek out from the dark earth, their wood blackened and damp. She finds a path soon enough, solid ground packed down in a simple trail.

It's around that point that a figure emerges from the fog.

It's a person, small and hunched over like they're afraid. She takes a step closer, and the figure comes into a view; a girl, shaking like she's going to fall apart, with two sets of eyes and wearing tattered clothes. Her face is thin and wide-eyed, every one of them blinking in unison when she catches sight of the other girl within the fog. Abruptly, she turns and runs, slippered feet pounding on the path below her. The horned girl freezes, confused by the sudden reaction, but just as quickly forces herself to follow.

The girl with many eyes is fast, though, and she soon vanishes into the fog, body fading from view within seconds. The grey girl soon slows her own gait, quickly giving up on keeping up with someone so nimble.

However, a loud voice soon follows, and the grey girl freezes in place, hoping that whoever it is will come closer.

This time, the person to emerge from the fog is tall, towering over the grey girl herself. She too has horns, but hers stretch upwards proudly above her head. Her skin is pale and sickly, and off-white hair hangs straight around her head. The look on her face is proud and almost angry, and the black clothes knotted around her body hide very little. What stands out most to the grey girl, though, are the vicious-looking claws at her sides, nails long and sharp, held like she's ready to tear something apart.

"Found her!" the clawed girl yells, voice powerful and echoing into the fog. She looks at the grey girl like she's some kind of pest, and takes another step forward, claws twitching a bit in an intimidating gesture.

"Selfishness, knock it off," another voice follows, and another figure emerges from the fog a step behind. "You're only going to ruin it like you always do." This time it's another smaller girl. This one has skin like ash, dark hair falling into her face like ink. Her eyes are a brilliant red that shines in the fog, and there's a trail of thorns hanging from her mouth, winding around her throat like a noose. She's thin, unhealthily so, and wearing a tattered, black dress that falls to her ankles in rips and rags.

Behind her is the small one, the one with many eyes, clinging to her back and digging in with sharp claws. Every eye she has is wide, and she appears to be chewing through her own lip from nervousness.

"Shut up!" The clawed one, Selfishness snaps. The grey girl takes a step back. Something about these girls, even beyond their monstrous appearance is giving her a bad feeling, something dark and cold in her gut. Selfishness lunges forward, though, digging her claws into the grey girl's shoulder and yanking her towards the other two.

It hurts, pain shooting through her arm like fire as the girl's claws sink in deep. The grey girl barely stifles a yelp, stumbling where she's shoved. The red-eyed girl snorts a mean little laugh, and the one with many eyes flinches, ducking behind the other one in a terrified gesture.

"Selfishness, stop!" she whines. "We don't know if she's dangerous. What if she's planning to... to rip our guts out?" The many-eyed one shivers, watching with visible anxiousness. The grey girl forces a smile.