Chereads / The Wandering Demon / Chapter 3 - Amelia

Chapter 3 - Amelia

POV Amelia:

My name is Amelia. I am 29 years old and I used to live in a village far out into the countryside.

A few days ago I had gone out to pick some herbs for my healing clinic in the forest close to our village. This was a routine chore for me as the villagers always seemed to have no shortage of injuries. 

Whether it was just a child who had fallen from a tree or a construction accident the villagers knew they could always come to me.

Anyways I had spent the better part of the day deep in the forest trying to find some herbs. I was not too worried about the prospect of monsters since they usually did not come around here and I knew basic self defense. After 5 hours of searching I started to return to the village.

As I neared the edge of the town I saw smoke and heard what sounded like screams. My heart started to beat faster as I feared the worst. Our village was relatively peaceful and out of the way so we usually were not on guard but that was a mistake today.

As I finally broke through the tree line I dropped my satchel of herbs and looked in horror at the scene. Almost every building on fire, bodies of villagers young and old strewn across the street as more were being slaughtered. 

'What monster would do such a thing' I asked myself but no monster appeared only humans were present in the village. Then the realization hit her. It was bandits.

All this pain and destruction just for their own perverse pleasure and greed. How despicable and terrible. Now was not the time to think about that though. She needed to find her fiancé. He was the love of her life and her childhood crush. He was everything she could have ever dreamed of in a man and she dreamed of starting a family with him soon.

Amelia ran through the streets dodging the bodies of dead people on the ground and the occasional bandit that gave her any attention. She made her way to the blacksmith and ran into the building but no one was there. 'Where was he' she thought. 

The only other places could be were his house or the main square. Since the main square was on the way she decided to take a detour and check there first.

As she rounded the corner, completely out of breathe due to sprinting, she gasped in horror. 

Strung up from the tallest building in the village was the village elder, several important leaders, and her husband. He had been brutally beaten before he was strung up and his body was a mess. Bruising and gashes all over his body as well as broken bones and stab wounds dotting his lifeless body.

Amelia's world collapsed as she looked at the scene. Her dream of happiness crushed and her faith in humanity destroyed. She dropped to the ground and cried. Sobbing and hysterical for what seemed like hours but was only a few minutes.

She hated the people who did this, she hated the world for tearing her apart from her lover, and most of all she hated herself for not being there in her fiancé's final moments. How scared and sad must he have been? How much pain did he have to go through?

All of these questions just enraged Amelia as she finally regained some sense of control and stopped crying. Her world was broken and nothing could give her it back. She wanted more than anything to become a mother of a happy family and would have done anything to achieve that dream, but now it was all over.

As she sat there covered in tears and seething in rage a group of bandits came up to her. She barely even registered their presence and just sat there lost in her thoughts. The next thing she knew she woke up in a cage after being knocked out.

Slavery was illegal around the world but in the kingdom it was often overlooked due to the recent fighting of the otherworldly monsters. She already knew what was going to happen to her. She had not lost her purity yet so she was going to be sold to some perverted rich man or to a brothel. She was relatively attractive so she was sure she would catch a good price.

This thought disgusted her. The thought of any human touching her disgusted her right now. She debated killing herself to save to shame of it happening but she did not want to let them have her body in any shape or form. She also had a more sinister thought. Amelia could not die before she wiped all these bandits off the face of the world.

She wanted, no, needed to see them suffer in pain. She wanted to see the light in there eyes die out just like they killed her light and hope. She wanted to see this but was too weak. She needed to escape but had no idea how. 

It was then she heard her cage being unlocked. "Boss we can't do this she needs to be a virgin in order to get a high price from Count Locke"

"I could not care less. It has been months since I last got some. The count won't notice. We can just tell him her hymen ripped during work." said the apparent leader

"I don't think that will work" said the subordinate. The boss ignored him and growled "Shut up and leave us. Don't worry about any screams" 

The boss grinned as the subordinate left and he approached Amelia. "Come here you bitch" he yelled as he tried to grab her by the arms.

At that moment the boss felt something wrong. The woman was not cowering in fear, but was smiling for some reason. It was then he saw the glint of a small knife hurtling towards his neck. They had forgotten to search her body as she was just a weak woman with barely any magic. They also were in a hurry to party so the bandits did not care to check her body.

Amelia felt the satisfying sensation of the knife piercing his flesh and throat. She lamented at not being able to torture him for a long time, but she would make due with the time she had. 

She began to hack and chop at his body as the boss could only gurgle the blood stuck in his throat. There were no screams just the sounds of a human body being mutilated and the heavy breathing of Amelia as she worked.

Eventually the boss died so the torture was pointless. Amelia looked at the body in disgust but felt satisfied that a part of her revenge had been completed. It was not over by a long shot. Everyone would pay. Nobody would be spared.

This thought comforted her as she sneaked out of the camp of drunken raiders. There was no guards as everyone was partying or drunk.

Amelia began running into the woods. She had no plan, no food, no water, just rage and determination to bring these people down. Especially Count Locke, she would do anything she could to see that man's downfall.