7/14/2012

10/11/2024 7:25 PM

1030

4

28 wins / 29 losses

Marauder Exemplar

Here's a few online tools I've found recently that I like to reference while writing or just found useful/informative in general.
Cure for Writer's Block
Tips for Dialogue
3 Secrets to Great Storytelling
How to make your novel a page turner
How to Write Compelling Characters

Ciara's Game

Contest Winner for Endmaster's 2018 Fanfic Contest


Ciara's life has never been anything worth cherishing, until she participates in a game that changes everything.

Special thanks to Corgi for beta testing, you're the best!

Update 12/26/18:Changed good ending perameters so that the requirements make more sense.

Update 6/25/19:Fixed a script error where the judge did not properly acknowledge a player's choice.

P.S. There is more than one ending. If you haven't found more than one, then you have not tried "literally" everything.

Project Origin: Atrophy

Bringing back this little slice of fan-fiction by Mizal's request. It's old and was written before I really understood how to do a CYOA, but enjoy it anyway lol.

Project Origin: The Unraveling (part 1)

Bringing back this little slice of fan-fiction by Mizal's request. It's old and was written before I really understood how to do a CYOA and it's stupidly linear lol, but enjoy it anyway.

The Secret of Daphne

When a young family moves into the sleepy little town of Daphne, they find themselves in a virtual utopia. The small cottage they move into is lovely, but not so old that it has problems. The people are all friendly, a close knit town with a population of only 300. Both of the family's daughters begin to make friends in their new school and the husband and wife find themselves entranced with the romantic scenery.
But, if something is too good to be true, it probably is.

Disclaimer:

Graphic Violence

Drug Reference

Sexual Reference

Special Thanks:

BerkaZerka & Aman

For their invaluable feedback and help in the making of this game.

 

Update 1:

Fixed minor script issues

Update 2:

Fixed minor spelling/grammar errors

 

 

People think your story sucks? This article is for you!

Ok, so most of my info is of course from Helene and not Milton.

As a prologue, being without power, internet, and cell service for a week after it hit us meant I had the extra special experience of getting to hear all of this through the grapevine on the front end before I got exposed to it online.

So day 1-3: Boomers and the Gen X/Millennial boomer wannabes were claiming FEMA was confiscating supplies and donations and taking them away from drop off locations. But they were also screaming that FEMA wasn't there and neither was the National Guard... as chinooks were flying over my home around the clock. They were also enraged that FEMA, who again wasn't there but also is?, were turning away volunteers for search and rescue. The volunteers being unqualified rednecks with their wives and kids in toe on side by sides...

Day 3: They start accepting and mobilizing volunteers who are qualified, IE no kids allowed. Which honestly made me damn proud of my area, a lot of them make me want to pull my hair out whenever they open their mouths, but they aren't bad people. But... again, FEMA somehow isn't there and neither is the National Guard, even though both are the main ones organizing the volunteers? They're still accusing FEMA of stealing supplies and refusing to leave the donation supplies anywhere but local churches... who distribute the supplies through FEMA. The mental gymnastics of that week were honestly awe inspiring.

Day 4-6: People are no longer claiming FEMA isn't there, instead they are now making FEMA the local boogeymen of the Biden admin. Supply theft, $750 is the only money being offered but somehow nobody is getting it(again this was the grapevine still without internet or cell service to fact check this shit), they're just leaving people on the mountain(a lot refused to leave thanks to people spreading rumors about lithium mine conspiracies and FEMA loan sharks). Claims that Asheville is getting bulldozed and eminent domain is kicking in so Asheville will just be a lithium mine by next year.

I forget what number day it was, but I finally got internet without having to go into the city for it and got to really dig into all this shit. Social media was a fucking gold mine of conspiracy posts and tragedy porn.

Lithium Mine Conspiracy:

NC has the worlds biggest deposit of Quarts which is what is used in making Lithium. So the filthy Dems used cloud seeding to generate hurricane Helene to destroy NC so they could use eminent domain to steal the land to make a quartz mine so they could make their lithium batteries for their vile EV cars and force everyone to stop using gas powered vehicles. As more information came out about cloud seeding they then started claiming it was space lasers that made the hurricane. Everyone is of course ignoring that the mining company already owns the land they want to mine along with required buffer zone since I think 2021 and had just applied for mining rights or whatever this year. But of course they ignore everything but that they applied for mining rights, so they must be in bed with the Dems to steal the land... even though they already bought the land...

Voter Assassination Conspiracy

Supervillain Kamala Harris used space lasers to make the hurricane and directed it to hit only Red States to try and kill as many republican citizens as possible while also making it impossible for survivors to vote in the election without an absentee ballot(which of course they believe will be changed from Trump to Kamala when mailed in).

Trump Was Boots on the Ground, Kamala wasn't

AI images of Trump wading through water at almost 80 years old and climbing power poles to restore power are making their way around Facebook. People believe they are real images and that the reason they're being flagged as fake news is... Honestly I don't even fucking know. The ones believing these images can barely type a coherent FB post and it hurts my brain to try and decipher their all caps screeching. But they mostly have in common that they believe the video of Kamala handing out food to hurricane victims is actually AI. lol.

FEMA Funding Conspiracy

They think Kamala is secretly funneling illegals into the country by the millions, giving them $3500 debit cards each, free houses, and free food while only giving Helene victims $750. All I could find on this was that New York decided it would save them money to give migrants $3000 debit cards that could only be used at approved stores for approved items and they had had to have kids or whatever. But it was a one time thing and not to be reloaded monthly. I didn't dig too deep on it honestly because it was just flabbergasting at this point.

Filthy Dems Stealing Land Part 2

Separate from the Lithium mine, people believe that FEMA money is a loan which puts your personal assets down as collateral so when you don't pay it back they just steal your assets/land to then give to migrants. They also believe that if you leave your property when FEMA comes to save you then they will automatically take over the property to later gift to migrants after Kamala takes over. There are people trapped in NC, unable to get supplies or get down the mountains without helicopter extraction and they are refusing to go because they believe this conspiracy theory.

Those are the best and most complete ones I've come across. I've also seen some people applying for the $750 while living in their undamaged apartments they don't even own then screaming about illegals when they get denied and claiming they were going to use the money to help people in NC. Most people gave them pats on the back, but I saw one lone commenter reading them for filth.

I'm also seeing a metric fuck ton of tragedy porn on facebook. "Don't you fucking dare complain about anything because these people have it worse" type shit. Meanwhile our area on its own got its ass kicked, so I'm not sure why we're not allowed to complain amongst ourselves? A kid died while his family was trying to walk through tree filled roads to get to grandparents to check on them. He was 8 years old and without cell service no one could call for help. They couldn't get the tree off him. It was fucking sad. My own property got hit with a flash flood that had an almost 10FT water surge and nearly drowned some of our animals. We saved them by getting out in the fucking storm and wading into the water that had one hell of current to the point where it washed the bridge on our road away. We also saved our fence that was getting dragged down by debris by cutting chains on all our gates before they could buckle and tear out bracing posts from the ground. If I want to say that shit was fucking scary I'll fucking say it and fuck the tragedy porn bitches who live in their safe little city homes who only lost power for 2 days. End Rant.

Anyway, I have banned myself from Facebook in recent days and it has helped immensely. But I'll probably cave sooner or later just to go see what other juicy new conspiracy theories have been cooked up since I last looked.

The fat man. Because one death is better than five, but also let's face it... Fatty's quality of life is not going to be as good as the skinny peeps. If he did live, he'd just waste his second chance stuffing his face and being gross, possibly even reproducing with another fatty and thus causing the next generation to also be fat and gross.

1.H. When your job involves going into literal biohazards when one could simply bulldoze that SOB you might have the worst job. I was going to pick the child porn one, but at least those people get the satisfaction of sometimes saving kids. Hoarder home cleaners don't get that since most of the time the home goes right back to its hoarder state within a year. 2. C. At least when they see it I can proudly claim to have never missed even with the shits. 3.C. Seems like an interesting job and doesn't require constant laying in wait. 4.Top Right speaks to me, I'd wear the shit out of that tie.

I really want to see this kid snipe a bigot. Or attempt to at least.

I'm starting to wonder what he's going to do when he finally gets booted out of the White House. Either he'll fade into obscurity, kicking and screaming the whole way. Or, he's going to go buy some private island somewhere and have a private army made up of all his worshippers. Which will inevitably turn into a human sacrifice cult. I feel like it'll be the former, but the latter is so much more entertaining. Most of my neighbors have taken down all of their pro-trump lawn ornaments and signage. Even the Jesus 2020 - Our only hope, sign got taken down. Most shockingly of all, the fabled Trump Shitter is now just a plain ol' outhouse in a field of cows. When only the paranoid meth heads and neckbeards support you, you know you're going down hill fast lol.

Well, that just goes without saying. I mean why even have one if you're not going to get drunk, strip naked, and pass out in a field?

I'm late to the party, but thought I'd bring you all the wisdom of the hillbillies on this whole fiasco. The entire thing was orchestrated by Antifa, ya'll. No one there was truly a republican. It's all just the libs trying to frame Trump and his supporters as the bad guys. And next, this mob will be coming for our guns, but they'll be without their disguises at that time since Bimala will be in charge at that point. So best bury them in cases under your gardens this year so they can't be found when the lib hoards are upon us! Also, Trump is about to declare martial law according to some prophetic preacher dude who totes got permission from God himself to spill the beans to Trump's faithful. So we're all about to be locked in our homes while the libs are dragged from their homes for election fraud and shot in the streets. Italy's also apparently in on it so Trump is gonna nuke them once he stops the steal ya'll. Once Trump is back on the throne we can all dig up our gardens and get back to shooting random varmints off our properties and hoarding bullets for... reasons... Oh and of course mething it the fuck up. Yee Yee!

The main issue you're going to run into is that the trope of the "doom upon you" tarot reading is mired in misunderstanding of how tarot works in the first place. Even the card titled Death doesn't necesarily mean death, it represents rebirth 99.9% of the time. Because death is part of the cycle of rebirth. So it just means that something is coming to an end and making way for something new. In some decks the Devil card seems ominous, but it typically represents the material world and how one can become trapped by their attachments to materialistic pleasures (a rich social lite being depressed due to a lack of spiritual fullfillment would be a prime example). My advise would be to take full advantage of people's general lack of understanding and superstition about Tarot and just go with the trope no matter how unlikely it is to get those kinds of combos. To get that specific you would either need to do extremely intricate card spread like a modified celtic cross or hope and pray that simple doesn't backfire and do a 3 card past, present, future spread. At it's core Tarot is more about introspection than actual foretune telling. It's a great tool for personal meditation. When used in a fortune teller gypsy trope setting it only works well if the person on the other side of things has little to no understanding of how tarot really works.

@BerkaZerka @BradinDvorak Sorry, but I'm infecting ya'll with the 'rona :P

Valravn

Hanna stared down into the bowl of stew. Usually, meals were graced with conversation and laughter in their family, but tonight was different. Her father was gone searching in the darkened woods and her mother sat sullenly staring at the hearth fire. It was not unusual for Hanna or one of her siblings to venture out into the woods during the day, but they always returned before dark. The sun had fallen behind the mountains some time ago now and her younger brother had not yet been found.

No one broke the silence, though Elva saw fit to distract herself by brushing her long golden hair and plaiting it carefully. Hanna's elder sister had always been vain, but to be so unbothered by the situation at hand... Hanna clenched her fist and set her bowl of food aside uneaten. It was quite late now, usually, all would be asleep at this hour of the night. Rest seemed wrong though and Hanna found herself peeking out of the door. The moon cast her cold light down around the small abode, the shadows of the trees seemed longer than normal and the wind wailed as it passed through the barren branches. The chill in the air suggested snow, a bad sign for children lost in the woods at night.

Her mother started to her feet when Hanna's father opened the door, but slumped back into her seat when she realized he was alone. Even Elva seemed disturbed by the news. None of them had dared to think Mikkel wouldn't be found after all.

Sleep did not come easily and Hanna found herself staring up at the roof long after her mother's sobs had ceased. Elva rose from her bed in the darkness, her feet barely making a sound on the dirt floor. She stole across the house to the door, slipping outside quietly. It wasn't all that strange for someone to go out in the night to relieve themselves, but Elva did not return until the morning. Her elder sister had no more snuck back into her bed than Hanna's parents began to wake.

Her father went to search again and her mother started the fire in the hearth. Hanna chose to go about her usual chores, gathering eggs, and feeding animals. It felt meaningless, but it passed the time. Next, she ventured into the woods to gather kindling, careful not to wander too far. The air was cold, but the snow had not yet dusted the ground thankfully. There were plenty of dry twigs and sticks for her to gather. As she gathered them into a bundle beneath one arm, Hanna caught a glimpse of movement in the trees.

Elva moved through the trees with a soft smile on her pretty face, sometimes glancing over her shoulder. Hanna frowned and trailed after her, staying behind the trees until Elva came to a small clearing sheltered by an ancient tree. She watched from behind a fallen log as her sister preened herself, tucking wisps of fallen hair behind her ears and pinching her cheeks to make them rosy pink. Rolling her eyes, Hanna realized her sister was probably meeting the neighbor boy again. How she could do so at a time like this was beyond Hanna's realm of thinking, but her sister had always been selfish.

She was about to sneak away when a man came around the old tree's trunk, this was not the neighbor boy. He was taller than their father, but his face was fairly youthful. His hair was long and black as the night with dark brown eyes set deeply into his skull. He was handsome, but Hanna's skin prickled at the sight of him. This felt wrong.

Elva wrapped herself about him like a vine and though his hands stroked her hair, his expression was that of boredom. He was not any neighbor of theirs, Hanna knew the other family's in the area. He must be from the town or perhaps just a wanderer. She froze when he looked at her, those piercing brown eyes of his suddenly flashing with amusement as a twisted smile tugged at the corner of his lip. Elva was too enthralled with him to realize his attention had turned elsewhere, but Hanna wished her sister would notice. She felt fear building in her chest as he held her gaze, licked his lips, and continued to run his fingers down the small of Elva's back.

It felt as if she was being held in place, gaze locked with that of the stranger. Her heartbeat frantically in her chest as she struggled to move. Finally, she broke free and ran for home. Elva's startled gasp caused her to look over her shoulder, seeing her sister's angry expression as the stranger watched with the same vile smirk on his face. Turning away, she kept running until she reached the edge of the woods and the house came into view.

Hanna stopped short as she was about to go inside, looking across at the small barn when movement caught her eye. A large bird sat perched upon the thatch roof, a creature she had never seen before. It looked very much like a raven but was far too large. It was as big as an eagle, looking down at her with an intent stare. It opened up its great wings, beating them hard as it took to the air, clutching what looked like a dead animal in its large talons. The mangled corpse was hard to identify as the bird took flight over the house and went out of sight. Hanna was about to dismiss it as an ugly type of eagle until she heard the loud thud from behind the house.

Running around the side of the house, Hanna hurried toward the source of the noise. She found her mother standing there amongst the remains of their summer garden. Her stance was rigid as she stared down at something laying at her feet. Slowly, Hanna approached her mother and peered around her skirts to see what the bird had dropped.

It wasn't an animal.

Mikkel's face was nearly torn away from his skull, exposing the muscles that still clung to the bones. His lower half was completely missing, one arm had been gnawed down to tendon and bone, while his abdomen had burst open when the bird dropped him from the sky. Claw and tooth marks covered what was left of his skin. No bird did this, but what beast would? The bears were all asleep for the winter and wolves would not have left so many scraps. He did not smell of rot and his remaining limbs were not stiff. Tears stung her eyes as the shock of what she was seeing began to wear off.

"Go inside, Hanna." Her mother's voice was hoarse, but she obeyed.

Elva sat upon her bed when Hanna entered through the door. She ran a brush through her long golden hair, humming pleasantly to herself. It made Hanna's stomach turn sour, how could she have been so calm with Mikkel missing? And now he is dead out in the garden while Elva brushes her hair and hums like a lovestruck fool. The thought of the man her sister had been with made Hanna's skin break out in chills.

"Mikkel is dead," Hanna said from across the room.

Elva paused, glancing sideways at her younger sister. "Is he?"

"Do you even care?"

Elva said nothing and continued to brush her hair, but she no longer hummed the happy tune from before. Anger replaced the sick feeling the pit of Hanna's stomach. How could Elva care so little? Was it really just because she was dumbstruck by a man?

"Who was that man?" Hanna asked quietly, clenching her fists as her sister continued to brush her hair and ignored her.

The night didn't come soon enough. Hanna's father returned home to the news. He buried Mikkel in the waning sunlight and her mother refused to leave her bed from grief. Elva barely seemed to care, but Hanna didn't want to think about her sister anymore. They all went to bed for lack of knowing what else to do that night.

Hanna awoke to a heavy weight on her chest. Blinking in the darkness, she struggled to move. Words died in her throat as she tried to cry out. Movement in the darkness caught her attention as she struggled, Elva sneaking back out again. Hanna felt the weight lift from her chest shortly after the door closed, gasping for air as she managed to call out for her parents at last.

Her father came, eyes bleary from fitful sleep and sorrow. Lighting a candle he cast the light around Hanna's bed before doing the same for Elva, only to notice her missing.

"She's been sneaking out," Hanna admitted as her father turned back around before continuing. "There's a strange man I saw her with in the woods today."

He stood quietly for a moment before turning and headed for the door without a word. Elva would be angry, but the fool should know better with such a beast about that could tear a boy apart like it had their brother. If it had even been a beast in the first place. He left the candle burning on the hearth, taking the lantern instead. The light was a relief from the darkness before as Hanna tried to calm her racing heart.

A sound on the roof made her jump to her feet. A heavy thump that caused dust to fall from the ceiling. Her thoughts turned to the large bird from before, but a bird seen during the day rarely came out at night. Hanna's mother came out finally, her eyes red and swollen from her weeping. The sound came again from another place on the roof, stopping her in her tracks.

"Father's outside," Hanna said softly, hurrying to her mother's side.

Her mother said nothing as she took her into her arms. They both looked up at the roof, waiting for the sound to come again. The door burst open instead, causing them both to recoil. Elva was dragged in by the arm, their father's face was twisted in anger as he threw her to the floor. Hanna watched as her sister slowly got to her knees, looking up at them from the dirt. One of her eyes was starting to swell.

"Your brother's corpse is still warm and you're sneaking out to meet with strange men," their father spat the words out as he paced the floor.

Elva smiled to herself, wrapping her arms around her knees and rocking back and forth slowly. Her eyes roamed the room, but never focused on anything or anyone. Hanna felt her mother's fingers dug into her shoulders, nails biting into her skin. Elva was a lot of things, selfish and vain. But, she had not been herself lately. This delirious, smiling creature before them seemed more like someone else wearing Elva's skin. A person couldn't change that quickly, could they?

"Who have you gone to see?" their mother spoke finally, her voice hoard and cracking.

"Pretty bird," Elva muttered with a soft giggle, her head lolling back as she gazed up at the roof.

The strange bird from before crossed Hanna's mind. Large enough to carry the body of a young boy in flight, but nothing she could identify. A thump on the roof sounded again as if something large was hopping across it toward the door. Elva burst into a fit of laughter, still hugging her knees as she rocked herself. Her sister had surely gone mad.

A knock at the door gave them all a start, though Elva hardly noticed as she continued to mutter under her breath. Hanna watched as her father strode toward it, flinging the door open. The light from their home spilled out into the darkness of the night, an empty space where a stranger had been expected was all that they found. Her father stood there for a moment, staring out into the cold night before he closed the door.

Elva went quiet, cradling her hands in her lap, as their father walked back across the room to stand behind her. Hanna couldn't read his expression. The anger was gone from it, but that rage had been replaced by something else entirely. He crouched down on one knee next to Elva, placing a hand on her shoulder much more gently than he had handled her before. She looked at him for a moment, appearing clear of mind before she wrapped her arms around his neck and sobbed softly.

Hanna frowned as she watched the scene unfold. Elva had been in the midst of a seeming hysteria before, now reality must have finally come back to her mind. Her father's face was bewildered, but relieved. Until Elva clutched at him tighter and a wholly different expression took over his features as his face went pale. A gasp escaped his throat, wet and rasping as blood-spattered from his mouth. Elva's hand drew back, a dagger carved of bone clutched in her fingers before she drove it into his neck.

Hanna's mother screamed as she threw her aside, lunging for Elva all too late. Elva escaped out the door before she could be stopped, leaving Hanna to stare in shock as her father choked on his own lifeblood in her mother's arms. She didn't know what to do as she lay on the floor, watching him die. Her limbs would not listen to her as she thought to crawl towards her parents, leaving her frozen in place.

The door hung open, a cold wind causing it to creak slightly and the candle to falter. The flame went out with a particularly strong gust, leaving Hanna in darkness. The sounds of her father's breath gurgling and choking grew fainter and fainter. Soon all she could hear was her mother's weeping. Like a wounded animal, all of her sorrow coming out in great sobs and wailing.

Hanna almost missed the sound of wings on the wind for it.

A dark shadow flew across the room, up into the darkness of the roof beams. Its eyes reflected in the darkness, large and interested as it gazed down on her parents from above. Elva's laughter drifted in on the breeze from outside as Hanna tried to make her eyes adjust to the darkness. She could just make out the shapes of her parents in the room and of the large bird as it darted down from the beam down to a particularly dark corner of the room.

Hanna watched as the darkness seemed to spread out from the corner like a dense fog, taking form slowly as a man rather than a bird. Even in what little moonlight coming through the door illuminated, Hanna recognized the man from before. His eyes reflected the moonlight like a beast's would as he loomed in the corner, watching. It felt ages passed by as Hanna lay on the floor, watching the man, if he even was a man, watching them on the floor.

Finally, her mother took notice of the stranger, scrambling away from her husband's body and fumbling about for the flint and steel. She must have found the candle as well, the sound of stone striking steel sounded in the room and sparks lit up her mother's panicked face intermittently. The man didn't seem disturbed by the light, he didn't react at all except for his eyes to slowly move from the corpse of Hanna's father to her mother trying to light the candle.

A spark caught on the wick, slowly building itself into a flame that weakly lit the room in a flickering light. The man stood in the corner, still somewhat in the shadows. An amused smile graced his face as Hanna's mother held the candle out with a shaking hand. Elva was still laughing outside, the sound coming sometimes from the door and other times through the walls from various sides of the house. The man's head cocked slightly to the side, waiting.

"Does the mother love her children?" Its voice was not that of a man's at all. It sounded strained and rough as if he had not had water in days and came out as a low hiss.

Hanna's heart began to race as she watched her mother, the candle wobbling dangerously in her shaking hands. Tears streamed down her face and there was terror in her wide, unblinking eyes.

"Does the mother have a favorite?" A wide smile spread across its face, too wide. "Does she want the dead one back?"

"The dead cannot be brought back," her mother said weakly.

The man's smile grew, showing his teeth. A mouth filled with sharpened teeth, yellowed and glistening with spit. "Can't they?"

Her mother paused at that, her eyes betraying that she dared to consider it. The man moved closer, gliding across the dirt more so than walking. He stopped before her father's corpse, looking down at it with disinterest before turning his gaze to Hanna.

"No, the dead should be allowed to rest," her mother spoke up from across the room, her hand holding the candle more steadily now.

The man, or thing, glanced at her then, still smiling that vile toothy grin. "Does the mother love her daughters?"

"Yes."

He stared at Hanna for a moment then, eyes piercing into her just as before freezing her in place. She couldn't even cry under its gaze, her lip barely quivered in response to the fear she felt as he moved toward her. A hand with fingers far longer than they should have been reached out toward her. The nails were long, yellow, and cracked as they scratched against her cheek, followed by the strangely warm touch of his skin.

"Pretty bird," Elva giggled from the doorway, catching Hanna's attention long enough to break the creature's spell over her.

She gazed on in shock at her sister's state. Elva had removed her clothing and torn out much of her own hair. Bite wounds covered her body in various states of healing, though some were festering and infected. Her lips were gone, revealing bare gums and clacking bloodied teeth. Their mother sobbed at the sight of her, the candle shaking in her hand once more.

"Which does the mother love more?"

Hanna recoiled at the question, looking back at the creature wearing the skin of a man. He was still looking at her, breath stinking of rot. Elva stumbled toward them, the knife still clutched in her hand. She mumbled and giggled to herself as she moved, the man letting go of Hanna and moving away to give Elva room.

Elva lurched forward, falling to the floor beside Hanna and struggling to slash the knife through the air. All Hanna could do was kick with her legs to propel herself backward and away from her sister. She screamed for her mother, anyone to help her. But, her sister kept coming, stabbing the knife at her feet and sinking the blade into one of her legs—

"Hanna!" Her mother sobbed out. "I love Hanna more."

Elva paused at that, but she didn't turn to look at their mother or show hurt. Instead, she turned to the creature as it loomed over her, still smiling. It reached out to cradle her face, almost lovingly. Caressing her cheek and drawing her close, she went like a lamb to the slaughter into its embrace. Even when it sank her teeth into her neck, she didn't struggle. She caressed the back of his black hair and smiled until she went limp.

Elva fell dead to the floor, the front of her throat torn away.

The creature turned back to look at Hanna. "Does the mother love herself?"

"No," her mother answered coldly and the creature smiled.