"Actually, now that I think about it, I may not be a city guard…"
Realising my mistake I corrected himself.
"So, who are you?" Returning back her question, I intently watched the girl.
She seemed to be dazed by the turn of events as reality kicked in. She was, after all, just a village girl before this whole nightmare, to see her village in ashes with acrid blood filling her nostrils, was simply too much for her to bear.
Her tear ducts started to loosen as tears came streaming out. She sniffled as she looked around her, before long she was sobbing pretty hard.
Ah shite! What did I do this time!?
Looking at the girl who was bawling her eyes out in front of me whilst sitting in a pool of blood was just a tad bit concerning. But then again, she was a demon, and demons were weird. Very weird.
Instead of thinking that she cried as a result of his own actions, it would be better to think that she cried as some kind of demon custom.
…
"That is the case, right?" Interrupting the little girl's sombre grievance, she looked up to him, this time with a sense of fear in her eyes, as she was intimidated by the black cloaked figure.
Her bravado moments ago, was nothing more than her demonic bloodline kicking in, and causing her to go on a rampage. Despite her bloodline, she is, after all, just a normal girl from the sticks, bloodshed and killing was all foreign to her.
But there was a fact that made her heart jump, despite all this killing and the death of her acquaintances in the village, she innately felt it a natural course of order. Was all of this really natural? It can't be! No way!
To make things worse, whilst she was wallowing in these thoughts, some guy just comes up to her and starts saying weird stuff. What did he want to do with her? They called him a cultist, so does he want to sacrifice her to an evil god?
As soon as this thought took root, she couldn't dispose of it. An impending sense of danger started to cloud her thoughts, as her thoughts ran about.
Does he want me because I'm a monster? He asked if that was the case didn't he?!
Panic overwhelmed the girl, as she started to tremble as the cultist loomed over her. His presence was menacing like it was subtly telling her to just die. Like school children egging a classmate to just go 𝘥𝘪𝘦.
A cruel joke, done with little thought. That's what this man's presence was. Oppressive with little heed.
Oh damn… I think I made it worse.
The little girl trembled as he casually approached her. Perhaps that was the wrong action to take.
"I-I don't ca-re," she started to speak in broken words, intermingled with sobs, "j-just kill m-me,"
That took a dark turn.
"Why would I kill you?" Crouching down to her eye level, Jeffrey held her chin up, as she looked into her eyes. They were red and puffy from her crying, however, her own red eyes masked this, making her just look cute, not too different from a pouting child. But then again, she was a pouting child.
"Wh-Wha whaawwawa-?" The girl reddened as her sight was locked onto Jeffrey's cold eyes. No matter how hard she tried to avert her eyes from the sight, she always found herself staring back at them.
Those dark inhuman eyes.
"Why, would, I, kill, you?" He asked again, in a slow measured tone.
"B-b-b-because, because…" Because what? The girl was hung up on this question of which she was sure of the solution. It was because of his aura, it just whispered to her the criminality of her existence, yet at the same time, it was so innocent in these statements. Like a young child regurgitating profanities it didn't know.
Did he really want her to die? Or was she going mad again?
"I wouldn't kill you,"
Snapping her back to the matter at hand, she noticed that there wasn't a face in front of her now. Looking up, she saw him looking down at her, as he patted her head, like a father to their daughter.
…
*Bam!*
"Tsk, I don't know alright?"
"Heh, keep that up and we might need to resort to harsher methods," Sporting a sadistic grin, he glanced toward an assorted rack of rather unique instruments.
"Go ahead, you bastard!"
Outside the interrogation room, two men chatted.
"D'you really think we'll get anything',"
"No, not at all,"
"Huh? Then why even go through the trouble…" He mumbled.
"Because," The second man explained, "If we don't follow proper procedure, then it'd be us in that room,"
There was a real chance of being prosecuted for treason if they didn't fulfil the rigid criteria set.
"Tsk, I swear, for the love of the gods, mate! I really hate nobles," he hissed. It was his job to observe and report on suspicious individuals, often bringing them to the torture chambers, but how about a weak innocent woman? It was obviously outside his comfort zone, but his job had to be done.
Dozens of minutes worth of shrieks passed, and bound to the steel seat, she bled from all over. Kelli wheezed, trying to suck in any air she could in this short respite.
"Ready to talk?" The torturer asked, whilst inspecting a new implement.
"Huff, I told ya," she spoke in a voice hoarse from screaming, "I d-don't know jack,"
"Hmm," Showing a meaningful expression, the torturer left the room as he reported to the footmen stationed outside.
"Seems like she doesn't know anything,"
"Well nah, mate," one of them growled.
"Hoh? Are you perhaps dissatisfied with my service?" He answered in mock confusion, "Perhaps, you should give it a try?"
"Tsk, you sped. It was obvious she didn't know jack shite from the beginning!"
"I'm just following orders, or are you perhaps insinuating that I shan't complete my job? Oh, what the lord dare say in spite of such behaviour!"
"Tsk,"
Having enough of the torturer's aggravating lip service, the footman stormed off. Just being in the sadist's presence might drive him insane, but there was nothing he could do for the lady, lest he exacerbates her situation, as well as compromise himself in the process.