Chapter - 3

I felt the heat kissing my cheeks.
I felt the grass underneath my sweaty body.
I opened my eyes and gazed upon the burning bridge, stone melting away like a candle.

It was the arching bridge from before, yet the length of it was contradictory to what I saw before.

I didn't see any crows, I couldn't feel any pain, but I remembered my eyes being plucked by the crows, blood in their beaks, skin torn to pieces, crows reaching my bones.

Yet my body was fine, my eyes weren't plucked, my skin wasn't torn, my blood didn't paint the white road.

I stood up. My stomach felt empty and my body weak. I looked around the endless forest. It enclosed the narrow path. The rain drizzled.

There was no warning, the shift in the sky, blue to grey happened in a matter of seconds.

I turned back and saw a house at a reachable distance. It was a cobblestone house with a thatched roof.

I ran for the cover, took me a minute or two to reach. The wooden doors and windows were opened inviting the storm. I got inside and closed the door and windows, a slit at the wall allowed a tiny bit of light to sneak through.

That house was ancient, everything in it were the objects of the old. It was a house with one room.

There was a bed to sleep in and a hearth to warm the bones.

Few utensils were stacked on a wooden shelf. There was a candle among them, but I couldn't find matches to light it. I looked for the food and found a bread that tasted foul. I found a bottle of alcohol that tasted like piss, nothing edible.

I went to the bed, slept on it, covering myself with sheets that smelt like rotten meat.

The night came eventually, but the rain didn't stop. The more time I spent the more I felt familiar with the place.

Soon the gloom took over me, strangled my heart, shattered my soul. It felt like this happened before in another time, in another world.

I cried for something that I didn't know, I wept not understanding the reason behind the terrible sadness that consumed me.

The answer lies in there surrounded by walls of my own making, I could simply break them apart - but why can't I do that? This question had been eating me for a long time. I tried not to think about it. This damn darkness was making me feel this melancholy.

I looked around the house to find the matches again, looked under the bed and atop the shelf, I found a book.

My touch illuminated it, the intricate design of bell-shaped pink flowers at the edges of the black cover glowed.

The red eyes of a featureless humanoid creature glowed. It had a round face that didn't have a nose or a mouth, long thin arms with sharp claws, body with no reproductive organs.

The book was called 'faceless who became human' written in bold letters with the colour of glowing gold.

I opened the book and saw a picture story unfolding. There were images with text below. The letters and the images glowed in blue.

'Long ago there was a faceless creature that didn't know what to do with its life. It had no identity, no family, it wasn't even a human.

When it tried to interact with humans they feared it and were hostile towards it. That was when the creatures felt the emotions called fear and wrath.

So the creature watched from afar.

In one of those watchful days, he saw the 'human greed' for the first time in the form of an exchange between two men.

One was wearing a green tunic richly embroidered with matching boots and trousers. The other was donning a plate Armor with a blue cloak bearing the symbol of a white owl.

The man in the green handed his pouch filled with gold coins. The soldier took it with a greedy smile and counted the coins, one by one.

"You are charging more than before, captain," The man in green remarked. The captain smirked, sliding the coins into the pouch.

"Murder and blackmail those are serious crimes, sir. It's very expensive to overlook,"

"I paid you enough, now will you stop bothering my men,"

"Oh, surely sir! They are after all trying to feed their families, just like me. I can sympathize with that,"

A branch the creature perched on broke. The men gazed at this tall humanoid being, fear creeping over their faces.

"Oh god," The captain gasped, unsheathing his sword.

The creature in impulse defended itself, plunging its claws into the man's face, the captain was dead, before taking a swing.

The man in the green unsheathed the dagger and plunged it into the back of 7 feet creature.

The creature showed wrath for the first time plunging the chest of the man with its sharp claws. The man collapsed, blood flowing like a stream painting the hyacinth flowers.

That was the moment the creature felt the 'hunger' a hole opened on the round face.

The creature sucked in the man's body and everything went black.

When it opened its eyes, it was naked and human. The coins were scattered, and the creature scrambled to its feet, greedily reaching for the coins.

It was the day it felt greed. it was the day it became human

I turned the page, but it was blank and there were several blank pages. It felt discontinued - I feel like I know this story from somewhere.

By the time I was done, the grey turned blue, the rain had stopped. I stepped outside and saw smoke rising at a distance at the top of a hill. It wasn't there yesterday, I felt very hungry so I decided to go there