“Why won’t you look at me, Sweetpea?”
Sweetpea. Only her parents called her that. It’s not her. It can’t be her. But how was this Demon able to conjure this? How did it know to use that very name?
“Can you not bear to look at me because of what you did?” Reia tried to squirm but gained no room in her trappings. “You killed us, Reia.”
My name? She opened her eyes to find her mother’s face, and it was filled with anguish and pain.
“You let them eat us. You brought them to our home by the will of your soul. You attract Demons like a bad omen.” It’s… it’s not my fault. It couldn’t be her fault. Being a harbinger wasn’t real, it wasn’t true. It was only a label the scared gave her. “You killed us!”
A cry was wretched from her throat and sounded through her nose as tears began filling her eyes.
“You killed your baby brother!”
The face changed, a little boy, no older than three, came into view. With brown hair, green eyes, and a face covered in freckles, his face scrunched up as he wailed with little tears falling from his eyes.
“It hurwts, Wreia,” he blubbered. “Why didwn’t yew protwect me?”
I didn’t mean to! She didn’t mean to let them die, didn’t mean to do nothing. She’d heard their screams, heard their cries, heard them fighting until the sound of tearing, blood-splatters, and the suckling of blood and organs was heard.
“Pappa said for yew to always protwect me. But… But yew wlet dem eat me.”
Reia wanted to cover ears, like she had when she’d been a child, at his voice. Pain filled her chest and guilt clutched her throat. A sob came from her as tears began to track from her eyes and down her temples to roll into her hair.
“You were supposed to protect him!” her father roared, his face reddened with rage and anger as his face filtered in. His short, light brown beard tickled her nose as he spoke over her. “Instead, you brought us death! Your mother, your brother, me. We died because of you.”
I’m sorry! I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry!
“Help us!” her mother screamed as her face broke through.
“Wreia!” Caleb cried.
“I wish you were never born!” her father yelled.
“It hurwts!”
Their faces and voices flittered in, over and over, reaching into the depths of her anguish and memories of that night. A night when she had not been afraid, but she’d felt the loss of them ever since.
“Why didn’t you love us?” her mother asked with a voice filled with tears.
But I did! Her thrashing increased. I loved them so much. It’s all my fault. They’re dead because of me. I killed them.
And Reia had paid the price of that for the rest of her life. As an outcast. A shame. A thing to be terrified of. Alone. So alone.
She shut her eyes as she cried, fear giving away to the overwhelming grief and loss and pain. I miss them all so much.
She’d never gotten to play with her cute baby brother again outside in the spring where flowers would grow in their yard or watch him grow from a cute young boy into a handsome man. Their home had been secluded in the dangerous forest, but her family had lived there for generations safe and unharmed.
Until Reia came along.
I killed them!
She felt the sharpness of fangs scraping across her skin as a jaw spread over her face, filling her senses with foul breath, but she couldn’t open her eyes or stop crying.
I want my family. I want to hold my brother again.
She missed her mother’s cooking and cuddles, her father’s bedtime stories filled with fantasy and hope. The laughter her family shared around the fireplace. She missed everything.
Why did this have to happen to me?!
The stench was suddenly gone before a cracking thud of multiple branches being broken filled her ears. The sound forced her eyes open, and through teary eyes she saw a black figure with a white face and horns attacking the giant spider.
But Reia couldn’t stop crying at her loss and doubt to feel relief, or even worry that Orpheus found her.
Orpheus gave a bellowing roar when he saw the arachnid Demon with her jaws widening around Reia’s head. He lunged, his vision a crimson red.
Shoving his entire body with the use of his shoulder into her meaty behind segment, both of them went tumbling to the other side of her nest. Screeching, her body hit against the thick trunk of a tree while Orpheus found himself on the other side of Reia.
The silk hammock wasn’t sticky and allowed Orpheus to freely crawl around it on his hands and back paws. It was also strong enough to hold both their heavy weights as it bounced them.