A Poor Turn of Events

After so long, I finally caught a glimmer of hope. Before me were four people, and by the looks of it, were probably adventurers! I was saved, I thought, hoping they would be able to help. I stepped forward, ready to explain my situation, but before I could get a word in, the man at the front of the group spoke first.

"Hold it right there! Who are you? And what are you doing here?" he asked, looking at me suspiciously, but also with a bit of concern. Meanwhile the girl who had run from me before was behind them, holding onto a bow in one hand with an arrow in the other, both of which were pointed down, for now.

"Um... I'm Abel. Abel Holloway, four years old. I got separated from my family and now I need help finding my way back home. Can you guys... please help me?" Hearing my explanation, they lowered their guard. All except the woman who saw me moments ago, the bow and arrow now raised, directed right at me.

"Don't believe him, Mark! I saw it with my own eyes! He's not human!" Her party looked at her and then back to me, unsure who to believe.

"But, Mayra, he's just a boy! Look at him!" The other guy who was by her side exclaimed, his hands ushering to lower her weapon. But instead she just drew back her arrow, aiming right at me.

"No! I know what I saw! Look at his mouth! There's still blood on it!" They turned their attention back to me again, looking closely at my lips. My hands quickly went to check as well, and sure enough, she was right. I looked at them, my fingers now stained with fresh blood that I didn't have time to wipe away earlier. I raised my head back up only to see they looked wary of me once more.

"Wait, I can explain--"

"Shut up, you monster!" she cut me off as she launched her arrow. It's speed was too fast for me to avoid as it pierced into my shoulder.

"AAH!" I screamed out in pain, the sheer amount of it causing me to fall to my knees.

"Mayra, are you insane!? He's just a child!" the man named Mark said, scolding her for what she just did. For a brief second, even Mayra looked like she made a mistake. That was until she got a good look at me, my cries starting to sound like beastly wails.

No, not now! I need to explain to them! I need to... But it was too late, the pain from her arrow and the frustration from being ignored was too much for me to bear. Despite my efforts, I couldn't hold it back anymore, my body starting to turn before their eyes.

"Look! See? I told you! He's a monster! A monster!" They all looked in horror as they saw me, writhing in pain as my hands, head, and other bits of me slowly transformed into the black, shadowy beast that plagued me.

"I can't believe it," uttered the other girl, who until now had not said a word. Meanwhile, the two men got ready to fight, positioning themselves in front of the girls to defend them. As bad as this was, I didn't want to lose hope just yet, trying my best to prevent a full transformation.

"No, please! Just let me explain! I'm begging you!" I tried pleading one more time, but my words were muffled by my partially transformed mouth. Not understanding a word I was trying to say, the second guy came forward a bit, holding a large, fancy-looking stick, pointing it at me.

"Come any closer if you dare!" he said, waiting for my next move. I wasn't even sure what he meant, but I wasn't going to give up having come this far. I pulled the arrow from my shoulder, trying my hardest to suppress the pain, hoping if I did I'd turn back to normal, or at least enough so we could talk it out. That was a mistake I would pay dearly for.

"I warned you!" he shouted, the stick now glowing a faint blue with weird circles surrounding the end of it. "Ice Majia: Frost Shard!" Out of thin air, shards of ice, like those that would hang from our house's roof in the winter, were launched right at me. By reflex, I tried to dodge, but it wasn't enough, the shards hitting my elbow, severing off my forearm.

The pain was nothing I'd ever felt before, my world suddenly turning dark as I let out a guttural roar of agony. No longer in control, I saw their glowing, stringy silhouettes just long enough to know where to run away from, fleeing best I could with a missing arm.

It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! was all that ran through my head as I blindly ran for as long as I could. That's when I noticed that, somewhere along the way, I was running on all fours again. But even this revelation didn't stop me. And I was really hoping nothing would. 

Though I ran a fair distance, even my disgusting other half has its limits. Completely exhausted, and the pain now dull, I felt myself transform back, only to collapse immediately onto the forest floor.

"Why...why didn't they listen..." I cried out to myself in a broken voice, tears flowing down my cheeks like a river. "Why is it... always like this... I'm not a monster... I'm not a monster... I'm not..." Through teary eyes, I brought the arm I thought I lost close to my face. As hard as it was to see through my blurred vision, I still managed to see it. It had a pinkish color to it now and even a mark where it had torn off.

"I... am a monster," I choked out one last time before I cried myself to sleep.

***

Back at the clearing, the adventurers could only look as they saw the terrifying beast flee back into the forest.

"Sorry for not trusting you sooner, Mayra. It was just hard to believe a young boy like that was, well, whatever that was," Mark apologized, sheathing his partially drawn sword.

"It's alright, Mark, it's gone now and that's all that matters," Mayra replied, putting away her bow as well.

"You say that, but as far as I know, there shouldn't be any monsters around here that can shapeshift like that," the other fellow, Rusty, pointed out as he made his way to where the beast was at before it fled.

"If that's the case, then it must have been a demon child that wandered too far from the Central Region. No wonder it looked so lost," Mark rationalized as he stared off into the far distance where the demon's territory lay.

"A demon, huh? That's a pretty rare sight to see nowadays. Right, Lisa?" Mayra asked, only to see a sullen look on her face as she looked lost in thought. "Hey, you alright there, Lisa?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry, it's just... even if it was a demon, it still looked like a child in desperate need. I can't help but feel bad for what we did to it," Lisa stated, looking guilt-ridden.

"Don't let it get to you, Mayra," Mark butted in as he was getting his stuff organized for them to leave soon. "Demons don't have the same complex emotions we do. More than likely it was just using that facade to lure in its unsuspecting prey. But that's enough chit chat, if we hurry back now, we can get back to the city before nightfall and report this matter to the guild before they close for the day."

As the others got ready to go, Rusty was busy doing his own little investigation.

A demon, huh? he thought to himself as he prodded the beast's lifeless arm that he severed off earlier with ice magic. That's strange. If it truly was a demon, then why hasn't this arm disintegrated yet? How odd...

"Rusty, you coming?" Mark shouted, all of them now packed and ready to go.

"Yeah, just one sec!" He shouted back, standing back up to join them. But not before using his ice magic to freeze the now human-looking arm, stowing the frozen limb inside his satchel. "Alright, I'm coming!"