"Ahhh!"
The agonized scream split the silence of the secret village in the dead of night. It came from deep inside the large compound at the heart of the settlement, but no one dared to go near.
The rest of the village lay in silence, every door bolted with the curtains drawn tight. Lamps had been snuffed out hours ago, leaving the streets in suffocating darkness and turning the village into something that might be mistaken for a ghost town.
The air was thick with the kind of fear that seeps into your bones, the kind that tells you to stay quiet, stay still, and pretend you heard nothing at all.
"No please, stop, it hurts!"
The man's voice was hoarse from hours of screaming. But the girl in front of him who couldn't have been more than fifteen, didn't so much as blink at his pleas. Instead, she clipped away the last of the finger nail, slow enough for the agony to linger.
