NoraNali

WARNING!!!
This chapter contains extremely cruel torture and violence involving children, if you are not able to handle such things skip this chapter, there is no shame in doing so.

The council of men was debating furiously, it was not often that the council actually had to debate something other then the weather, or how annoying ones wife had been the past week, but this was something of utmost importance and a posed a great danger for all that lived in the village, according to Orwell Hanna was somehow alive and was planing to get her revenge.

If what he said was true, it would probably mean every single living person in Querum was at risk of being killed soon. They didn’t know the whole story of what truly transpired in the forest, all they knew was that the small girl that used to live here was actually a monster in hiding and an entire Knights Order was sent to catch them.

Now obviously they didn’t actually had to use every single knight in the Order to manage to catch and kill her, but the simple fact they thought it necessary to include the entire order in the pursuit was proof enough of how dangerous Hanna truly could be. If an entire order was seen as necessary, what is this small village at the outskirts of the kingdom supposed to do against such a threat? That was the question on everyone’s mind.

Some argued to evacuate as soon as possible and warn the rest of the kingdom, while other suggest to only send a small group of men towards the capital and ask for help, what everyone agrees on however, was the simple fact that under no circumstances anyone would be allowed to leave the village to go into the forest. The debate lasted for hours before any conclusion could be drawn and in the end they agreed to send a group of 10 men towards the capital tomorrow morning and asking any men capable of wielding a weapon, even just a shovel, to act as a guard for the night.

The decision calmed many of the villages inhabitants, even if it was only for a moment. Orwell, however, was not on good terms with the decision, in his eyes they had to send people now, every second they would wait was more time for the monster to strike.

But his cries were not considered, it was getting late and who is to say that they wouldn’t be ambushed during the night, travelling during the day was simply more save.

In private, some people even voiced ideas of sending Orwell alone into the forest, he was the one who was singled out by Hanna after all, so maybe if they would sacrifice him, she would leave them alone. But those voices were few and fewer who spoke of them truly believed their own words, but they made Orwell, who heard them, think. Should he maybe do it? Could he maybe sacrifice himself to save the others?

"Orwell are you out of your goddamn mind? Even if you sacrifice yourself she still would kill everyone in this village regardless! She is not a human being with things likes morales, she only wants to cause havoc and destruction, she probably singled you out because you exposed her to the village.“ Klara had talked to Orwell for well over an hour at this point, he had told her about his thoughts and she strongly disapproved of them, according to her this was nothing but a game to Hanna and she takes pleasure from the suffering she causes.

Orwell bit his lip at that, he knew that and yet for some reason he felt responsible, like if he wasn’t around Hanna might’ve ignored this village. Although he didn’t know why he thought so. Perhaps it were his nerves getting to him, the suspense clouding his judgment and capabilities to make decisions.

He sighed in frustration.

"I just feel like this is all my fault Klara and that I need to do something, that I am the one responsible to fix this." Klara crossed her arms.

"But you aren’t the one responsible, you don’t have to do this alone Orwell, we are all here and ready to defend our lives from this monster. Being together is our strength in this." She held her hand in front of him and he stared at it for a moment before looking her in the eyes and seeing a fire of determination and a shine of hope in them.

"We can do this, together."

He grabbed the hand and stood up from the bed he was sitting on, a new fire in his eyes.

"Yes, together." And they walked out of the house and towards the eastern gate, to stand duty at protecting from an inevitable monster attack, together.

On the western side of the village meanwhile, a group of 4 young adults stood guard, each equipped with an rake for self defence. They only recently became legal adults and they all were in high spirits, except for one of them, who looked extremely pale and was shacking none stop, the shadow he casted from the nearby torch continually bopping up and down.

"Come on Markus what are you so scared of, nothing is going to happen." One of his friends tried to calm his nerves, but it was to no avail.

"W-why are we the only guards at this gate? D-do they think we actually fight the monster off if it attacked here?" He said, his voice barley more then a whisper, his friends only rolled their eyes at him.

"Look, the thing is in the forest and the forest is on the eastern side, we are on the western side, there is no way it would attack from here."

Markus seemed unconvinced.

"B-but they said it was intelligent so maybe it wo-…"

"Wolves are also considered smart by monster standards so calm down and just trust us, nothing is going to happen."

"Well sadly, you are wrong, very wrong even." Before any of them could truly comprehend what was happening, they all got their mouths stuffed with a strange black substance and a moment later they all got their throats slit by daggers made of pure darkness, as their bodies fell to the floor, Luisa grinned a satisfied smile on her lips, being able to merge with shadows truly was an unfair advantage in such situations, but it’s not like she was here for a fair fight in the first place, she was here for revenge, mass murder and a little bit of arson. Nothing more and nothing less.

While she was busy hiding the bodies, her partner in crime entered the village through the gate, a giant smirk on her face.

"Considering we gave them a warning, I had expected it to be harder to get into the village. Although it’s not like anything else they might have done would’ve stopped me in the first place." Hanna was satisfied with how smoothly it went, she hated being seen as this mindless beast, as it was a real hit on her pride, but it did come with some real handy benefits in situations like these.

They expected her to be smart like a wolf or similar creatures, which was really stupid if you think about it, she lived here for months and nobody suspected a thing, except for Orwell, they know she has human like intelligence, so why on earth are they prepared so poorly for this? She knows it had only been a few hours but still, this was simply to easy.

"So, what now?" Luisa asked, once she firmly dumped the bodies inside some hay lying near one of the houses, her expression was one of anticipation and excitement.

"We are going to find us some children." Hanna answered, a smile equally excited and cruel on her lips. And they made their way through the mostly quite village, every now and then a single guardsman might come across the duo, but the blade of solid darkness was faster then their screams every single time.

Now finding children in this village would be quite difficult under normal circumstances, the village was large compared to others and searching every single house would take far to long and would most definitely result in them being found eventually, but there was one place Hanna was sure to find what she was looking for.

Diseases, while not that common, could still plague this village and with it being so remote and unassuming there was no truly good magician in the village, in fact there were barley any and with knowledge about most diseases on a similar level as that of medieval europe, diseases was the most common cause of death in this village and this included parents.

Lady Therssa was the person these suddenly orphaned children often came to, she was basically running a orphanage all on her own and her house was Hanna‘s goal.

The house was located near the villages center and was easy to identify, as it was the largest house in the village and it was the only one still having light coming from it’s windows. Hanna and Luisa approached the house in complete silence, pressing against the walls of the house, near one of the windows as they suddenly heard some voices from inside.

"Miss Therssa, why are all the adults so scared suddenly?" It was the voice of an young boy, his voice was full of confusion, he didn’t seem to understand the gravity of the situation, or maybe the old woman just didn’t tell him. Regardless, Hanna thought the whole situation quite amusing, especially after the old Lady told the kid that there was a dangerous monster around, since the kid answered with:

“If this evil monster where to show up, I wouldn’t be scared and I would do anything to protect you." Hanna had to stifle a laugh at that, oh how truly amusing the naivety of children could be. She then go an idea, a deliciously evil idea.

She stood up and climbed through the window, it shards flying into the well lit living room of the large house, there was a lit fire place and a large table in the middle of it and at the other end of the room there was a luxurious looking chair, where an old lady was sitting in, in front of her was sitting a young boy wearing nothing but a simple black shirt and pants, obviously both the boy and the older lady seemed rather confused at the sudden breaking of the window and the young looking girl with cat like ears, no clothes and a gigantic smirk on her face, which was standing admits the shards, at least until Therssa‘s eyes widened as she finally recognised the figure before her.

"Hello Miss Therssa, it’s been quite a while. I‘m terribly sorry for popping in unannounced , but I just had to go and see if the kids were still save, there is such a scary monster around now after all."

Therssa wanted to scream, but found her self incapable of doing so, she tried to move but she was unable to do so, she started to panic, her mind racing at high speeds, the monster was in her home, talking to her, like Hanna used to. She, like many others in the village, had believed that Hanna was not going to be an actual problem, a threat to their lives without a doubt, but they lived near a monster filled forest, so for most this was nothing new, but now actually coming face to face with the threat was something different entirely.

The child looked at Hanna with disdain, tho there was no fear or recognition in his eyes, he clearly didn’t know who she was, Hanna looked him in the eyes and tilted her head slightly to the left with a smile on her face, Therssa redoubled her efforts of trying to scream or move, do anything to alert other nearby and help this young boy, but the restraints wouldn’t budge, before a hand suddenly clapped onto her shoulder.

"Hey now, stop trying to resist and just enjoy the show ok? It’s going to be quite fun so don’t worry and trust me." The voice was laced with honey and poison at the same time and Luisa giggled when she saw how the old lady increased her attempts at coming free, to no avail of course, unless she herself willed it of course.

"Say, I haven’t seen you before, could you tell me your name?" Hanna went leaned forward a bit so she looked the boy directly in the eyes, her smile never leaving her face. Her tone was soft and laced with honey, but the shine in her eyes was dangerous and filled with ill intent, the boy however, didn’t see it.

"My name is Justin and I‘m the oldest one here, that’s why I‘m still up as well." Justin proudly declared, sticking his chest out, Hanna stifled an incoming giggle.

"Ok, Justin I just happen to over hear your previous statement about the monster, are you sure? I heard the monster is super dangerous." Justin chest puffed a bit more, before replying.

"Ha, the monster can’t scare me, I would definitely defend everyone here if it would ever show up!" Hanna‘s grin grew wider at the statement, she was ready to break this child. She walked towards the bound Therssa a low laugh accompanying her steps, with a sign of her hands Luisa formed another binding of shadows around the boy, stopping him from moving. Justin was understandably both confused and scared at the sudden incapability to move and as he was forcibly turned around he saw just what happened to Lady Therssa.

Hanna caressed the old lady‘s face before letting her claws run against one side of the old women’s face, muffled cries rang into the night as blood flowed along her cheek and tears formed in her eyes.

"Come on Justin, didn’t you say you would protect her if the monster showed up, well here I am! Come on do something!" Justin did nothing, couldn’t do anything all he could do was lie to himself. This was nightmare and he would soon wake up, that’s all there was to it, but it wasn’t a mere dream, this was reality and it wouldn’t just disappear.

Hanna continued to torture the old lady, her muffled cries ringing into the night, Hanna cut her face and slowly and methodically ripped the skin from her face, she rammed the claws fingers into the old lady‘s eyeball and ripped out, broke each finger on both hands one at a time and much more.

Justin was crying, Luisa forced him to watch by keeping his eyelids open with her shadows, while Hanna continuously taunted the young boy.

"Why aren’t you helping? I thought you would protect her. Aren’t you just a useless little blob, can’t even protect what you love." This continued for minutes on end, Thressa was long unconscious, knocking at deaths door, but Hanna continued today with the body and forcing the boy to watch her mutilate it. Justin wanted to scream but just couldn’t, his body was completely unresponsive all he could do was sit and cry in silence as he watched how his second parent was brutally murdered by a deranged psychopath.

After 10 or so minutes, Hanna finally decided to stop, she was drenched in crimson red blood, she relished the sensation for a few moments before she approached the boy, his mind screamed at him to try and escape as he saw death personified approach him, but his restraints were to powerful, Luisa wouldn’t let him go.

Hanna grabbed the boy by the head and easily pulled him up into the air, his crying intensified as he started to realise that he was to be the next, Hanna let out a gut wrenching laugh as he looked the boy in the eye.

"Your truly delicious boy, you give everything at once, fear, pain, grief and anger. I love it but you don’t have to worry, I won’t kill you quite yet, but soon." She flung the kid over her head and into the floorboards of the house, sounds of breaking bones and boards filled the house, but Hanna didn’t care, she picked the boy right back up, who now had multiple open wounds and torn cloths from the impact.

"Your coming with us first." Hanna whispered into the boys ear, before she began moving with him held firmly in her hand, the claws tearing through his skin and blood streaming down his face. They left through the front door, with an giggling Luisa in tow and made their way towards the next house nearby.

"It‘s time for a bit of arson don’t you think so my dear pet?" Hanna asked Luisa, who simply nodded in response and Hanna took a large lung full of air before releasing a stream of flames around her, setting the wooden houses quickly a blaze. Having finished her handy work, she left for the flames to do the rest of the work and she continued towards the eastern part of the village.

Behind her screams started to echo about a fire that suddenly started, but Hanna ignored them all as she continued towards her goal, when she suddenly saw a huge amount of people coming her way, she scanned the crowd and grinned from ear to ear, as she recognised two faces admits the crowd.

The crowd came to a stop before her and Hanna saw recognition flash across their eyes and faces and they all drew their weapons, Hanna, as was par for the course at this point for her, simply smirked.

"Hello there Orwell, did you miss me? I sure as hell missed you! What where doing these past few days, I for one had to deal with an stab wound inside my chest."

There was no answer, but Hanna tasted the fear and anger among the crowd, so she knew it was effective, Klara was seemingly backing orders at the crowd, ordering it to surround her and all other kinds of things, but Hanna didn’t care, she was here for Orwell and no one else, Klara was for Luisa to deal with.

"Release the child, now." Orwell suddenly barked, his eyes full of hate and worry, but Hanna tasted his fear, oh how she loved of that, sh needed more of it.

"Oh, but of course. No problem." Hanna turned around and set the boy on the ground, before promptly kicking him with all the strength she could, sending him flying into a nearby stack of boxes. Cries of worry and hate rang into the night and some of the village people broke formation and sprinted at Hanna, but Hanna simply ripped through them with her claws before returning to look back at Orwell.

Orwell gulped in fear as he suddenly realised he was staring death right in the eyes and her eyes started to glow a bright crimson light.

"It’s time for round two you son of a bitch and this time there won’t be anyone to save you." She snapped her fingers and suddenly all the villagers around them screamed in pain as a rain of black spears impaled almost all of them as Luisa slowly revealed herself from within Hanna‘s shadow.

She turned towards Klara and sickening laugh escaped her lips.

"Time for you to die little Mage girl, Hahahahahahahaha!" She released a barrage of spears towards Klara, who barley avoided them and ran to Orwell‘s side.

Orwell was panicking, he knew there would be no chance in hell they could ever win, but Klara placed a hand onto his shoulder.

“Together, Orwell, we will do this together." She whispered, Hanna burst out into laughter.

"Correct you‘ll die together!" Before dashing towards the two in a blink of an eye and she slashed, tearing through Orwell‘s clothes and skin and he fell to the ground in a puddle of blood as Hanna cut of his head with the other claw.

NoraNali

Ok, this took a while to write, but I‘m happy to announce that the other book I teased has now been released, check it out if you want to: https://www.scribblehub.com/series/374051/an-explosive-maniac-against-the-magical-girls/

Please remember that it will be drastically different from this one, as it will be a modern Magical Girls series, with an higher focus on humour, but remember it’s still intended for at least 16 year old audience, so lots of dark humour, as well as violence and some sexual themes. But not to worry one similarity to this story is that the MC is still very much both evil and completely insane. So if you don’t mind The difference in setting, I‘m sure you would enjoy it as well.

Stay save out there people and have a nice day

Signed

NoraNali