"Wh-why am I doing this?"

Elizabeth's mind was screaming nothing but the word no at her as she slowly made her way deeper and deeper into the alley.

"Why am I doing this?"

She didn't want to follow that arrow.

But she felt a strong compulsive urge to do so.

A large dark shape became visible, gradually growing closer.

"Elizabeth..."

She finally managed to bring herself to a halt.

She could see those unnaturally bright blue eyes shining out of the darkness once more.

And this time, she could also make out the deep, dark eye sockets that they were shining out of.

The overlarge smile full of needle-thin teeth that stretched across a gaunt, sunken, stark white face.

A large, deep split that bisected the face into two unequal halves.

"Lizzy Jones... You really don't need to look so afraid. I like you, remember? I don't hurt people that I like..."

It was already hard for Elizabeth to understand why her friends liked her, let alone why some sort of demonic entity would.

And she wasn't quite sure if she actually wanted to or not.

But she asked the question anyway.

"Wh-why do y-you like me exactly?"

"You are interesting... up there..."

One of its arms reached out of the darkness.

It looked like strips of grayish flesh loosely wrapped around discolored bones.

One of those spider-like fingers pointed at her head, and she recoiled back far enough that it didn't actually touch her.

"I'm r-really not, I can assure y-you."

"Oh, but you are. You are far more than you claim to be."

Elizabeth didn't really know what that was supposed to mean.

"I'm n-not." She repeated. "How w-would you even know? Y-you don't know anything about me."

There was a short chuckle.

The sound was truly grating, like a knife scraping against a glass bottle.

"Ohh, but I do. I don't know everything, but I do know quite a bit about you, Lizzy Jones."

That huge grin somehow got even bigger.

"Little Lizzy Jones was born on October seventh, nineteen seventy-two in a small town. Not many people liked her. They bullied her because of her stutter and strange mannerisms, because she couldn't keep up with the other kids in class no matter how hard she tried, because she was socially awkward and shy..."

The creature rose to full height.

It was very tall, taller than her.

"She'd usually go home in tears, and her parents would tell her to be quiet and suck it up because it was her fault for not being a normal child..."

It got a little bit closer, and she backed away a bit more.

"They'd start arguing downstairs... usually about her. She'd cry even more, digging her nails into her arms until they bled..."

How did it know all of that about her?

"Sometimes, when they weren't home, she would take kitchen knives and throw them at the trees in her backyard. She was angry at everything and everybody and it was the only way she knew how to let off steam... sometimes, she'd hope that one of the knives would bounce back and hit her... none of them ever did, though..."

That was definitely not something she said when anyone was around.

"Eventually, poor little Lizzy ran away from home because she just couldn't take it anymore... she joined a circus when she was only fourteen years old..."

She backed away even further.

"And now, she's not angry anymore. She's grown almost numb to the ridicule she receives... which isn't much. Not anymore, anyway. Still... I don't think she should receive any at all... So I'll make sure that anybody who hurts her gets hurt back..."

"No, no... d-don't... that's w-w-wrong."

It laughed again.

"Y-you can't..."

She backed straight into somebody.

The face disappeared back into the darkness.