Last warning for the triggers listed in the A/N, there will be mentions of death and physical abuse.
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Your tears stung in your eyes as you were thrown onto the ground of the forest by your abuser, someone from your life who had repeatedly taken advantage of you until today. You finally stood up to them, but it was no use as you remained on the ground, beaten and battered, bleeding from your sides and mouth. Screaming in the middle of the night in the forest seemed useless, yet you did it anyways, hoping that someone, anyone could help you.
"You fucking bitch," you abuser spat, "you really thought that after everything I've done for you that you could just leave? Disrespect me?" They kicked you once more, you yelped as the impact moved you to your side. "You're such a waste of space, I can't believe I spent so much time on you, we could have had something nice, but now you're going to die."
"Please.." you wheezed, trying to pick yourself up, only met with a kick to your face and you abuser leaning over you.
"It's too late for apologies, bitch. I've helped you from the day you met me, you gave me nothing, so why should I give you another chance, huh?" They spat on you, and turned, "you're too deep in the forest for anyone to help you anyways. Goodbye, {Name}," they laughed evilly, leaving you to die.
Your vision was going black now, hard to see and hard to breath, your chest rising and falling irregularly as your abuser walked away. You fought for consciousness, crawling yourself up to a tree trunk and propping yourself up against it to check on your wounds. The pain was too much, and you quickly passed out after seeing your body so battered.
As you slipped out of consciousness, you heard a low voice, "this way! I heard screaming!" Hurried footsteps rushed to your side, and you forced your eyes open to see your savior, but you couldn't hold it for long, going limp as someone's arms wrapped around you.
You regained consciousness later on, but your eyes felt too heavy and puffy to open. You focused on the sensations around you, it was quiet except for some pacing footsteps. You could feel the soft sheets around you, someone had placed you in a bed, you couldn't smell anything as you felt a bandage around your nose, you could hear a monitor beeping, probably for your pulse, which was weak.
The footsteps grew quiet as the door opened, "are they awake?" A masculine and somewhat nasally voice spoke.
"No." A feminine one said.
You were awake though, your body ached too much to move, and your chest felt too heavy to breathe, did you abuser break some ribs too? You felt like you were trapped, and your heart rate increased as you began to panic.
Heels clacked against the floor and a soft hand held yours, "it's okay, shhh." Her voice was soothing, but you knew it wasn't okay. Despite the woman encouraging you to hold on, you slipped away.
You fell back into your mind again, hearing the sounds of rushing feet to your bedside as the beeping faded from your ears.
"Oh satan!" A feminine voice screamed, and more footsteps rumbled as you fell deeper into an eternal dream.
You were cold, oh so cold. In your mind you could see yourself in a mirror, what a strange dream. You were disgusting, muddy and beaten to a pulp, bruises all over and gashes from where sticks had ripped your skin open, a broken nose. You cried, was this the end? You couldn't feel the warmth of life anymore inside you, you couldn't feel anything at all, and your reflection changed to show that, you were healed, back to your normal self, but there was no light in your eyes. Your reflection now unfamiliar to you. A dark tall figure stood behind you in the mirror and you turned around to see nothing there. You tried to back into the mirror behind you for stability but it disappeared, you stumbled onto your ass with a shout. You looked up to see this figure again, scrambling to your feet and running away.
Your run eventually turned into a walk as the figure was no longer there. You walked around, the ground becoming your new mirror, a glass-like water pooling around your feet. The water kept rising as you walked, and you started to panic once more, but you couldn't feel panic the same as you were alive. You were truly trapped within yourself. The water rose above your head and you took one last breath before being submerged. The water surrounded you, it felt like it should be wet, but it wasn't. You did your best to swim to the surface, yet it wasn't there. You swam until you grew tired, something you didn't know could happen when you were dead. Something pulled you down, you screamed in the water, the liquid filing your non-existent body as you sank into darkness. The water disappeared, and you fell to the glassy floor, looking at your reflection again, but it looked different than you expected. Your skin changed hue, but before you could get a better look you were consumed by flames, the heat burned away any remaining water that rested on your skin, enveloping you in a strange feeling.
The heat was unbearable as the flames danced, coming closer and touching your skin, burning it. The flames soon became comforting, but as quickly as they came, they fizzled out. The glassy floor was gone, replaced with ash and charcoal. A figure stood at where the flames had blocked your view, unmoving and somewhat demonic looking. You tried to reach out to it, calling to it, but you had no voice. It turned to show a humanoid figure of a man with long hair and horns, one of his eyes blue and the other a fiery orange, the blue one glowing. The light of his eye grew blinding as it became brighter, like it was coming to you. You woke up with a start after taking a deep breath of the smoky air around you, coughing aggressively.
"Fuck, did it work?" Spoke that same feminine voice from across the room.
"I don't know." Spoke a quiet masculine voice, who was cradling your neck.
Your eyes flicked open, and you sat up with a groan and a quick gasp, clutching your side where you were once hurt, removing it to see there was no blood, "what?" Your voice was hoarse.
"Take it easy," said that nasally voice from before, you looked at his face, strangely painted like a skull, "I am Papa Emeritus the fourth, but please, call me Copia, sweet one." He was knelt in front of you, his hands outstretched to help you to your feet.
You took the hands with some hesitancy, the male figure who cradled you helped you to your feet as well before taking a step away.
Your eyes finally adjusted to the room, some sort of ritual area, some intricate circle drawn beneath you and the seats around were filled with people similar to the one you saw in your dream. You looked around frantically for the person from your dream, and your eyes met. His blue and orange eyes stared at you cautiously and you could feel a hint of anxiety radiating from him.
"Please, walk with me if you can," Papa spoke, his hands clinging to your arm as if you were a small child learning to walk for the first time.
It certainly felt like it as your knees wobbled beneath you, you almost fell if it weren't for Papa catching you. Gasps emerged from the figures around you, the one with the multicolored eyes almost hopping out of his seat to help you, the calm one next to him placing a hand on his lap to keep him seated.
"Take it easy, your new body is something to get used to." Papa explained.
"New body?" You furrowed your brows, but it was true. Your skin felt new, and your bones vibrated with an energy you had never felt before.
Papa sucked in a breath, "yes, I'm sorry." He sighed and took your hand, palm facing up, "your body may look the same, but it has been reborn under our Clergy."
"Clergy? Reborn?" You said, everything felt so alarming, "how did I even get here?"
"A few of our ghouls followed the sounds of your screaming and found you in the forest near death." Papa said solemnly, "we tried to help you with conventional tactics, but the wounds were too severe, so we had to resort to a summoning."
"Ghouls?" You looked around at the figures as Papa nodded, is that who these people are, ghouls? "What do you mean summoning?" You asked, even though judging by the room around you, you had an inkling.
"You had life within you, and we caught you while you still had a soul to tether to this world, so we couldn't do a traditional summoning." He started, "one of our ghouls has shared their essence with you to keep you alive." Papa gestured to the man with the bi-colored eyes, "you, my child, are now half ghoul."
Your brows furrowed as you tried to wrap your head around this, you shared a life with someone now? Was your life still your own? Could you even go back to your home?
Papa gestured for everyone to leave, including the ghoul who shared his life with you. "I need you to understand, dear one, that you need to stay here," you opened your mouth to protest but he shushed you, "at least until you can adjust to your new body."
He brought up a valid point, after all you could barely walk without needing support.
Papa smiled at you with care, "will you stay with us?"
You nodded, feeling a strange sort of acceptance from the strange man, maybe you would like it here. Your old life was not kind to you, and the people from it only enabled your abuser.
Your abuser. You suddenly flashed back to the moment before you were rescued by the Clergy, your breath quickened.
"What's wrong?" Papa asked, and ushered you to sit down.
"The... person who beat me-" you started, your hands balling up into fists onto your knees, "they won't find me here, will they?"
Papa's face suddenly scrunched into a scowl, his own hand curling "so it's true, you were beaten." You saw his hand and flinched when it turned into a fist, he quickly let it fall back into its regular state, "oh my dear child, I will not hurt you."
Tears welled in your eyes, and Papa brushed them away as you sobbed, heaving your chest forward to touch your knees.
"What's their name, they shall face punishment." Papa asked softly, a hint of anger in his voice.
You whispered their name, the words metaphorically stabbing your heart, "it's not their fault! I was mean to them."
Papa shook his head, "no matter how horrible you may have been to them, you should never have had to face death as a result."
You cried, Papa cradled your face and continuously wiped away tears until you were able to calm down.
"Let me show you to your room, you can get settled there, I'm sure you're tired already." Papa stood up, and helped you along the halls to a room.
You went inside and looked around, it was cozy. A grand bed in the center, a wardrobe and dresser in one corner and a desk in the other with a couch under the singular window, there was an attached bathroom as well.
"Naturally you should be able to decorate as time goes on, but please rest up, I'm sure your day will be full tomorrow." Papa closed the door behind you after helping you to your bed.
It was then you realized you were in some sort of medical clothing still but you were too tired to change, sinking into the bed and letting sleep wash over you.