Meeting.

The days pass. Life moves unchanging.

How many days, weeks, or months have it been since Lena read the letter? Yet, the emptiness she felt afterward still strikes her heart.

As she read them every so often, the letter had joined the leagues of her other two dozen sheets. It had drilled itself into her memory. Having read it so much, she would ever so frequently dream of it, to attempt visualizing the scenery portrayed in its words, but yet, she fails. Her limited experience, her small world of 4 corners, her non-existent past.

To her the words were empty. Other than the meaning the collections of letters gave, there was no image, no emotion, no greater truth. 

Lena kept at it, agonizing over her lack.

Lena woke up, the smell of rusted iron raiding her nostrils. As her nostrils get used to the stench, Lena finds herself jumping out of her bed as her ears are raided with the screams of many.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" an inhuman screech.

From all directions, all she could hear were screams of terror calling for any sign of hope.

"Help! Somebody! Please help!"

Lena picked out one of the holes within her walls. Staring at the outside, Hell stared right back at her.

"Please! My child! Someone!"

Blood painted the village a crimson red new to Lena.

"Spare us! I beg you!" A meaningless call to a nonsentient creature.

Women and children run like headless chickens while elders fall to their ground begging for mercy out of the mindless, cold, ruthless monsters.

Abandoned children cried as they stood in place, easy targets for the rampaging monsters.

Lena shook as she stared through the miniature opening that barely passed light through, People that she had seen on a daily basis deliver her food were losing their lives one by one.

"A...Aaaaa...Aaaaaaaaaa..." Lena's knees gave up on her

With a thump, a loud sound suddenly came from the other side of the rundown building she called home.

Lena, fallen to her knees, had given up.

a single thought came to her.

'I'm going to die.'

Looking Lena right in the eye, the monster smiled.

The monster screeched, joy showcased on its person.

Lena shook, unable to find the sense to push on. A melancholy covered the air around her. She studied her weak self, puny and minuscule to the growling monster. 

Yet,

She stood. She didn't understand why, as she wasn't able to justify why, nor she was even able to answer to her sudden demand.

'Not yet...'

Her body answered finding new life. Her heart beating, she could hear it resonance in her ear. Her newfound strength surfaced, allowing her to push on.

'Find a way out!'

Lena suddenly found a new sense of life, not of her own.

Despite her self giving up, her mind and body moved.

She lived in this house, staring at its walls, for who knows how long. She knew every nook and cranny like the back of her hand.

The monster rushed at Lena with its arm, holding a massive blunt weapon, extended behind its back. Its arm shot down at the bed Lena was sleeping on, obliterating what was left of the worn-out bed.

It screeched in victory. Yet, its victory is cut short as it hears the pitter-pattering of its supposed victim.

Lena had escaped it and ran for an opening within her walls on the other end of the house.

'I-I won't die!' Lena said to herself as she leaped through the hole barely fitting her tiny, frail body.

Then, calling for all the strength she had, she pushed herself up and started running, joining the villagers in their call for mercy.

Lena raced through land she had only seen from behind the safety of her 4 wall chamber. She barely made much distance from the home before she heard the wall of what once was her house get wrecked as the monster chased after her. Its roar fueled her frantic escape. Calls she had seen meaningless beforehand suddenly held meaning, as she joined their ranks. Driven simply by her instinct to survive, every step, stumble, and trip, was a showcase of desperateness she had never imagined herself holding. She was begging to live.

But, her desperation was weak. Outplayed by the screeching of the creature, the heaviness of its stomps, and the blinding scene of its grotesque profile. Its revolting existence chased after the malnourished child, seeing it as nothing more than prey.

Lena's head was empty, she had no plans. All she could do was simply run in such a hopeless situation, but even that, she understood, was not enough.

Her brittle body could barely walk, to begin with. The fact she had even made it this far was nothing short of a miracle.

But, the creature wasn't going to play mouse forever. Using what little intelligence it had, the monster jolted the massive blunt weapon it held as if it were a javelin. Passing Lena by a hair strand, it landed a few steps ahead of her. The shock of a near-death situation had forced Lena into falling to her knees.

She fell, slowly turning to face her executioner. A green towering being, casting a shadow over her meager self.

Its eyes, a completely bloodshot sclerae. Its nose, pointier than the tip of its weapon. Its mouth, lips parted grinning from ear to ear.

Lena gazed at the being, its backdrop a scenic hell. Blood and guts. People and corpses. Monsters and humans.

Suddenly, her eyes widened. An image came to her mind, an image she had longed for. In the sudden despair she found herself in, she was able to visualize it. 

The letter had made sense.

With a final step, shaking the ground around them, the monster closed all distance between them.

Extending its arm to finish its prey in a single strike, the monster growls one last time.

Lena, in a sudden sense of contentment, finds no reason to run. For the first time, she felt accomplished.

'So this is it. This is what it meant.' Lena understood, 'This is Death.'

There were no memories to flash in her end, no loved ones to remember, nor a place to feel nostalgic for.

It was a true empty darkness.

...

..

.

Lena finds herself coated in some liquidy, slimy, substance.

"Huh?" She questions reality as she slides her right eyelid open.

The monster was standing, brown liquid gushing out of what used to be its head.

"What...?"

As she focused, she realized.

There were no longer any calls for help, no longer any running chickens.

Instead, they were all gathered around the monster staring at it in awe... No, not at it.

As the monster fell forward, but a foot away from Lena, it exposed the man behind it.

A tall figure, with black disheveled hair, dressed in a simple brown shirt and dark trousers, his profile was garbed in a white long coat. Blue cobalt eyes staring indifferently at the monster's corpse, and a plain sword to his waist.

The man sighs as he kneels to the corpse's level, he then pulls out a smaller knife from the other side of his waist.

"Well this is annoying..." The man spoke in a neutral indifferent tone as he skinned the corpse.

The man looked... neutral. Emotionless, yet not dead. As if a child watching, learning, as he witnesses an event before him. As if staring at an ant struggle, he was entirely apathetic.

Lena still in disbelief gazed intently at the man's handiwork, which was disrupted by the villagers' cheers.

Hugging, weeping both in joy and mourning, the villagers rejoiced the mysterious man. The village was completely painted with the blood of what used to be their neighbors, friends, comrades, and people. Yet they couldn't help but celebrate that moment.

"Thank you! You saved us!" "Hero! Mama, it's a hero!" "How could we ever repay you!"

One of the elderly approached the man, "Please, allow us to treat you to whatever we can."

The man, without losing focus on whatever he was doing, nodded wordlessly.

...

Lena stared at the man.

A man who had saved her village from what seemed like complete despair. A single man with no help at all.

The man, cladded in a white coat covering his entire back, got up once he had been satisfied with the monster's corpse, and moved.

The villagers made way for their savior as he moved on to the next corpse. Some had already left to prepare for what little they could provide for the man, while others continued to cheer and thank him.

Yet he remained wordless all throughout, with his gaze only ever leaving a corpse to focus on the next.

Lena, still in shock, stared at the air in awe.

For the first time in her life, she could tell what it truly meant to be alive.

"Ahhh..." Lena fell face first.

.......................

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......

....

..

.

Slowly Lena had regained her consciousness.

She first slightly opened her eyes to a blurry view of a black-haired man looking down at her, his mouth moved as if he was speaking, but Lena was unable to make anything out of it.

Taking her time to regain proper vision, Lena finds that the man has already left her behind

her body was covered in a white blanket, as she looked at her surroundings she could see the man walk away from the village.

No villager is to be seen,

Lena slowly picked herself up and gazed intently at the man's back.

A sword to his left, and a knife to his right, carrying an excessive amount of luggage, the man walked away.

An image forced its way into her head.

The thousands of corpses, the blood that painted the scene. A black backdrop replaced the dusk she had not known. And, in its midst, the indifferent man stood.

She understood. She understood that if she were to stay here nothing would change, that her life would be stuck in the same constant loop of repetition until one day her body gave up as she starved to death. And, that she would never visualize the rest of the letter.

As the man got further and further away Lena looked at her surroundings, The villagers were all busy with their own thing. Some mourned their lost, others began renovating their homes, and others were renouncing the glory of seeing the sun a second longer.

None had the time to pay attention to the man as he left.

Lena simply... walked.

No one paid her attention, hell some might have ignored her even. If anything, this was exactly what was needed, the freeloader was finally out. Lena chased the man's back, steadily closing the distance between them.

Once a good amount of distance was made between them and the village, the man had come to a sudden stop.

Scratching the back of his head, he turned around.

"Kid, go back home," he said annoyed.

Lena, a couple of steps away, stood in place gazing at the man's face.

"Your paren---.... oh..." The man remembered the village he was in just a bit ago, "...Right... So that's what's happened...".

The man grew a difficult expression.

"I don't have any," Lena replied.

the man sighed in relief "Oh thank... Or shit, isn't that worse...?", he clearly wasn't used to the act of communicating.

Lena gazed at the man inexpressively. Her gaze wasn't of excitement, not of admiration, but of a person living. As if merely existing, she gazed at the man.

The man clicked his tongue in annoyance, "Look okay, I'm not looking for an orphan. Just go back, live as you've been." He said and turned around walking.

Lena followed keeping the same distance.

After a few steps, the man once again turned around annoyed "I'm telling you to fuck off kid. I won't tolerate your behavior." The man said as he sped up his pace.

Lena barely maintained the distance.

After covering quite the distance the man stopped and threw his luggage to the ground.

He spun around and faced the little child a few steps away, "Here, if you carry this I will bring you around." The man placed an impossible challenge.

He knew looking at the little girl she would face no chance against such luggage, it was almost as tall as her after all.

Lena hustled awkwardly towards it without a hint of hesitation, she kneeled in front of it and slid her arms into its straps. She then attempted to stand up, but her efforts were to no avail, she tried again and again. But, unsurprisingly, she failed.

The man looked at her, his eyes inexpressive, as if staring at an ant in boredom to amuse oneself, he paid her efforts no attention. The man didn't rush the process, as he had to let the girl give up or she won't be convinced. He wouldn't want her to follow him regardless of the outcome.

Lena tried and tried, but she was only met with failure.

But eventually, the first to give in was him.

How long had the same process been repeated... The frail girl would muster all her strength to stand, only to lift it barely a finger's length off the ground before falling to her bottom.

The sun had already started to set, which had made it impossible to send the girl back alone, especially after what had happened to the village that morning.

He sighed, "When did I become such a pushover...", the man said as he lifted the luggage himself.

Lena steadily raised her head towards the man walking away and then followed him.

Without turning around, the man spoke, "How old are you, kid?"

Lena had remembered the letter mentioning that she should've been 13... and that was quite a bit ago, so she made a not-so-educated guess.

"14."

"...14?" The man sounded confused.

Without turning he said, "It's true that your body's too frail to tell it's age, but..." Lena could see that he had pulled his right hand to his chin, "Sure... Whatever you say."

The man heaved a sigh and spoke, "Don't blame me if you end up dead, kid," the man said in a neutral tone.

Lena, walking behind him by a few steps, nodded in silence.