Malon pushed herself up from the ground, and quickly brushed off the piece of dust that had gotten on her dress. She took no notice of the mud-stains which would probably never come out. Before she might have but today, today was different.
As her head lifted she noticed the crows sudden and vigorous movements fluctuating in front of her. With a hand gesture she waved it away, focusing her attention toward the lake.
Cautiously she was straddling toward the lake, feeling as she walked, a weakness possessing her.
Her clothes sat like a second skin on her frozen body and from deep within her chest came a hoarse whisper that traveled out of her mouth and into the chilly night atmosphere.
As she eventually reached the lake, her knees buckled and Malon fell down on her fours, seeing two eyes akin to purple gemstones staring back at her from the rippling surface.
At first, her body tensed then as a reflex she tossed herself onto her back, shoving herself away with her legs. Carefully she lifted her head, still on her back but to her astonishment the lake did not attack, it didn't even move. Malon's breathing calmed down rapidly, and she crawled back.
Malon pressed a hand hard to her chest, feeling the brisk thumping of her heart, before warily looking back down, she saw herself down in the lake. The skin on her face and neck was shaded in a darkened gray, she made a grimace and discovered that the glossy surface mimicked her actions. She hoisted her lips seeing her fang in the corner of her mouth as she formed a grin like expression. She closed her mouth and traced up to her hair. It had gone into an even richer red, matching her two eyebrows, which now formed a finer, fuller arch of red.
She was and felt different but somehow it didn't seem to frighten her nor bother her, it was as if she saw the world on whole new level. She was shocked of the waters power though and lifted her hand to touch. The action she made had sent the water to ripple away in the shiny lake, turning into bigger and bigger circles, until disappearing into nothing.
"Come back." Her voice sounded much raspy, as she called after the circles. "We won't hurt you."
Malon fixed her eyes on the spot where she'd seen the rings of water vanish and patiently waited for them to come back, but the surface remained tranquil. The only sounds that could be heard were the winds, as they flew slowly past her, fearlessly tugging her hair.
The circles didn't come and though she should have been raged she simply moved back giving the water some space while continuing to discover herself.
She gazed at her hands, looking at her long black nails and lifting a finger, slowly caressing one of them then balancing the tip of her nail on the edge of her middle finger. Her head moved closer to her newfound revelation. With her neck stretched back she watched and felt, out of pure curiosity, seeing from all the different angles.
She loved the softness of her skin, so vulnerable and timid. Her hand set out tracing the gray skin of her arm, following the blue vein that mapped out on the inside of her arm. It slowly came up towards the edge of her white shirt. The fabric felt different, from her skin. Her hands began feeling her body. Stroking the rough material, but aching for more skin. She felt her breasts, stomach and hips stroking against her fabrics, scratching against her as her hands moved from her sides and down.
Her sharp nails started to scratch and wrench on the shell of her clothes, and unexpectedly she heard a loud tearing noise, making her eyes widen in alarm. She looked around herself, she was standing in the middle of a thick, blue forest shaded in the dark night sky. She rose up to her knees, hearing suddenly a noise crying through the forest. Her head turned in an attempt to locate the noise but couldn't see through the many trees.
However Malon couldn't care less for the noise and gave up quite quickly, directing her attention back to the soothing feeling of the darkness covering her body.
Her hands detected warmth and a thumping repeating in her chest.
Malon stretched out both her arms in front of her and watched the ripped piece of clothing that now sat on her upper body. It looked like a vest only slanting to the side. She gazed down on her bare arms. Her left hand made it over to her right arm, and again she began tracing the blue veins. The higher she got the harder she pressed against her skin and soon she felt how blood began zippering out from the cut she'd made on the upper part of her arm.
The blood leisurely ran down on the side of her arm, and dripped down to the muddy ground. She counted the drops. She felt the streams of a dark sticky substance. With it came a fire that burned as the blood rhythmically pumped out of her arm. But she couldn't help but to love the harsh pleasuring feeling of pain.
Just the mere word 'pain' sent chills down her spine.
Just as she was about to make another cut something in the lake caught her attention.
The circles had come back but they were not alone, a cough intertwined the calmness and was now causing the ripples in the water. The cough was loud, echoing around them, making the circles move faster. Malon leisurely stood up. "Wait here for us," she said and turned her back against the lake.
Malon's eyes swept over her surroundings. Darkness mixed lovely with the heavy fog in the thick forest of empty trees. A horrid stench forced itself down her throat and pierced her nostrils, a stench of moldering.
Something was moving flanked by the trees making fog scatter somewhat. Malon squinted out into the blue darkness trying to see what it was, but only caught sight of a black shape. It moved quickly. Malon, curious of what it was, attempted to walk over to it. Her shoeless foot regularly sunk down in the mud as she walked.
A child's soft humming filled the forest, it sounded close as if stroking past her ear the nearer she got.
"He stole my dolly," it whispered, before breaking out in a fit of laughter that bounced off the trees.
Malon's raspy breathe grew louder as her pace increased and with each second getting closer. The laughter continued. The tone sounded much like a little girls.
"He shouldn't have done that."
Malon walked through a glade of yellowish light, and stopped as she saw a hollow-eyed girl stare at her from the depths of the darkness. The girl's lips were lilac and her unyielding powder white skin showed every bone in her body. She didn't move, like Malon had seen her shadow do before and Malon noticed that somehow the girl's body had gotten wet. The water dripped down her thin frame and her black hair clung onto her face. Her feet were full of dark mud, like she'd been running on the lake bottom.
The forest suddenly turned quiet, and Malon was able to hear the heavy breathing of the girl. It sounded like growls.
She opened her mouth, showing her uneven teeth and at the same time letting gulps of air escape her lips.
Malon took a step closer to the girl, feeling somewhat intrigued by the girls appearance. The moon's light amplified and almost touched the girl, but immediately stopped right before her mudded feet.
"He stole my dolly," The girl repeated, without having any emotions in her eyes. "So I stole his eye." She brought up her ghost like fist into the yellowish light before her and slowly undid it. Her palm had many cuts that were yet to heal, but the thing that interested Malon more was something the girl had in her hand. It was a green eye lying in her open palm, still, with its nerve attached to it, lingering bloody down her wrist.
A lullaby erupted throughout the forest, the little girl seemed to be causing it, but Malon didn't mind. She somehow felt fixated by the eye. She saw it lying in the girls open hand. Malon walked over to the girl, only breaking the complex contact they had to look at the eye.
"Touch it," the girl whispered, showing her uneven teeth once more.
Malon didn't hesitate. She felt her fingertips itch out of excitement. She reached out to stroke its cold, shiny white with her fingertips.
XxXxXx
Malon could suddenly feel the raw scent of the ocean air. The water's waves were splashing against her dead frame. And with a heavy groan she opened one violet eye.
Her body was lying on a hard beach that she'd never seen before, and with a grave motion Malon hauled herself up on her feet.
The sky was clouded, and Malon reckoned that a storm was near. Gulls laughingly flew over the gray sky, paying no heed to the strong winds which blew underneath Malon's wet skirt, pulling it alongside her flapping apron.
Voices could be heard, as they outdid the howling winds and the raving water. It sounded like a young girl and a man.
Malon began walking towards the direction of the voices, but stopped as she noticed that her feet gave no footprints in the sand. She bent down to touch it, but detected that she was unable to leave any scratch marks with her nails.
The voices became higher, as the winds got stronger, towing in Malon's clothes.
Malon could see a green lighthouse which stood tall on a sloped cliff before the beach. There was a bright clinging sound of metal fervently banging against each other. They hung in strings and filled the heavens near the lighthouse. Embedded in all surrounding sounds Malon could make out a voice, it belonged to a man, he was shouting.
"Daemon," he yells. "You're a daemon sent from hell to lure me. You're nothing but a little whore!"
A girl answered, but her voice was swallowed by the raging water.
"Just hand it over!" He roars.
Malon walked over a small hill, as the sight of a pier opened up in front of her. She could clearly make out two persons standing on it, arguing.
One of them held a little doll.
Malon slowly walked down the narrow hill, feeling how rain fell down her face soaking her clothes even more.
"No!" The hold of the doll tightens in her embrace. "You can't have him!"
As Malon's feet leaded her out on the pier the sky darkened into nearly black and the rain had become heavier. She moved over to the man, quiet like a shadow, even though Malon had suspected that they couldn't see her as they paid her no attention.
She watched the man's piercing green eyes. They were red and spat was spewing from his plumped lips.
With the help of her fingertips, Malon brushed the man's cheek, following his harsh jawbone. His wet black bangs nearly hung over his eyes, but with a swift motion of his neck, the man managed to draw it away.
"Hand it over." His voice came through clenched teeth but his lips moved with every syllable.
Malon looked over at the girl, and down to the doll in her arms. It was formed as a normal doll with brown hair loosely pulled into a ponytail. Whatever importance the doll had, Malon could not decipher. Perhaps the man intended to hurt her by taking it away.
The girls black hair hung like a curtain down her pale face, but she did not bother to pull it away, Malon was just able to make out her eyes in-between the stripes of hair. They were green just like the mans. It was strange but just as Malon's eyes made contact with hers Malon got the feeling that the girl could see her.
"What are you looking at?!" The man demanded. Malon took a couple of steps back trying to follow their argument from a distance, without disturbing the picture. "Answer me!" The man sought to outdo the abrupt wave that splashed against the pier. But when the girl did not take her eyes away from Malon, nor answer, the man had had enough. He got a hold of the dolls head, trying to rip it away from her and successfully got it out the screaming girl's arms.
"Give it back!" she yelled through the rain. She ran at the man and jumped at his back, clawing at his face. "Don't you dare touching him with your filthy hands!"
Malon backed up another set of steps, only stopping as her bare foot nearly slipped the edge of the wooden pier. The callous rain felt like freezing knifes against Malon's face, and it made her sight blurry.
Malon tried to blink away the oncoming showers, losing her focus on the fighting duo. Her short hair clung to her face.
She tried to wipe the water out of her eyes and she could vaguely make the two out. The man struggled to get the girl off his back, as he shouted in agony. The girl still scratched the man's face but there was something else. One hand seemed to be coursing down his eye. Another shriek of pain came from his lips. The girl's bloody fingers dug themselves deeper and deeper in, gripping his eye and in one stroke, tearing it out of its chamber. The eye was dripping in her hand with its nerve still attached to it. It was swaying in the air as she held it up. The blood mixed with the rain, it followed the girls wrist and arm.
A small snicker swelled on Malon's lilac painted lips, showing her sharp fang.
Malon took a step forward noticing something under her foot. It was the doll, the man must have lost it. She bent down to pick it up, seeing that it had the head of a real human, someone she knew.
Talon's head.
Its brown eyes stared at her, giving her a horrid look as his lips parted, releasing a heavy pant, before mumbling, "Nosce te!"
The man's torturing yells brought Malon took look away from the doll for a split second and face the now one eyed man. There was a deep black hole where the left eye once been, and blood gushed down like tears.
"The doll!" He yelled as he reached for the girl and pushed fiercely over to where Malon was standing, casing them both to fall down the frozen ocean. The last Malon heard was the girls aching scream as they fell.
XxXxXx
Malon gasped, as her eyes snapped open, meeting the face of the hollow-eyed girl inches away from her.
"Don't touch us!" Malon's raspy voice demanded. The girl merely laughed.
"I stole his eye, I stole his eye. He took my dolly so I stole his eye!"
The fog began thickening nearly covering the young girl, as she'd begun humming the words, her lullaby. The moon's glow faded away when a cloud covered its path, and the girl began ebbing away into nothingness. "The doll," she said. "Did you like it?"
Malon looked at her.
"I made it myself." Another fit of laughter emitted through the forest, as she ripped off her pinky nail. "I took his head." Her voice sounded much weak, and soon all Malon could hear was the whispering of her lullaby: "I stole his eye, I stole his eye. He took my dolly so I stole his eye."
After that she was gone.