"Honey, I'm home."
A slightly disheveled middle-age man in farming garbs walked in through the front door of their humble abode. It was just a small two room house surrounded by acres of farmland–the usual.
Waiting for him at the small round wooden dining table was a woman, evidently his wife, who had short auburn hair and was a bit younger than he was, looking approximately in her mid thirties.
She squinted her brown eyes and gave him a loving smile before walking up and leaving a peck on his cheek.
"Welcome home."
Also at the table was a small girl who looked like her mother, eagerly awaiting the return of his father (likely because he was hungry and food was ready).
He sat down with them at the table and ate: corn, bread, and vegetable stew, the usual farmers meal.
"How was the work today?" His wife asked.
"The usual… there's more pests than usual this season but there's plenty of rain so nothing to worry about right."
"That's good."
"So…" Before she could ask another question, there was a knock on the door.
Tap
Tap
Tap
He opened the door and saw a child of about 100 centimeters in height with soothing lilac colored eyes. Behind him stood a similarly striking woman with golden blond hair who looked slightly uneasy but put on a smile anyways.
"How may I help you?" questioned the man who was curious as to why two strangers were at their house.
But instead of a response, the young child simply looked him in the eye and said to the blond lady behind him "you're going to watch, and you're going to help me next. This is you punishment."
"?" The farmer had no idea what was happening.
"Excuse m…" but before he got to say another word, a piercing pain shot into his chest as he was pushed back into his house.
Looking down he saw that the young boy's hand had penetrated into his chest cavity.
"Honey? Is everything all right?" questioned his wife who was unaware of what had just occurred because his husband's back was to her.
He tried to speak back to her but only turned his head for the last moment before blood gushed out of his orifices and life extinguished from his eyes.
Rain, now in a semi-transformed form, with another motion ripped out the farmer's heart, raising it above his head, squeezing the detached cardiac muscle in his hands like a lemon and drank the blood and bits that fell down into his mouth and arm.
No no!
Syme had watched it all with complete terror. She wanted to rush forever and stop him but she couldn't move a muscle. Then, she tried to close her eyes, but was also unable to, remembering his words: you're going to watch.
"Honey!" The wife screamed out, instinctively putting her hands to her mouth, gasping, before then sliding one of her hands over the eyes of her daughter.
Slowly, they retreated to a corner of the house, fearing this demon's next move.
What had they done to deserve this? She silently prayed while tightly embracing her daughter.
"It's your turn now," Rain said to Syme with his usual smile, "this is your punishment for disobedience."
Syme stared, horrified, at the lifeless corpse on the ground then turned her eyes to the mother.
"Please. Don't make me do this! Please, I beg of you…" she pleaded.
"Hmm…" Rain contemplated as he licked one of the ribs of the man clean.
He seemed to pay no attention to Syme and went back to dissecting the farmer's body, looking for his favorite parts.
Syme for a moment thought he would let her off the hook but then her soul began to tremble violently.
Sever her limbs, she heard as she began to unsheath her estoc against her own will.
Meanwhile, Rain was enjoying his meal like nothing was the matter.
"PLEASE! STO" but before she could say more words Rain's voice came again.
"Do you know the difference between a servant and a slave? The difference is that a servant carries out the wishes of their master faithfully with their own will while a slave is repressed of their will, acting as an extension of the master."
"You know, from the start, I could have done whatever I wanted to you. Those memories of hate for me, I could have replaced them all with unending love. I could have simply stopped you from having any thought of your own. I could have tortured you forever as I removed your soul from your body; I like a bit of fear and screaming after all…"
"So… Syme, make your choice, or I can get rid of your self right now" he said with that same hateful, threatening smile.
"No… no please, I'll do it" Syme responded in a stutter.
"Good. Don't make me wait long."
Slowly, dreadfully she approached the mother.
She stared into her teary eyes that met her own, holding back some tears too.
The mother had now hid the child behind her, only now for an easier cut.
Syme closed her eyes for a bit, opened them again, and in one motion slashed the mother's left arm.
"AHHH!" she screamed in pain, "PLEASE, WHAT HAVE I DO…" but before she could finish her pleas, another slash came down on her right.
Her arms now fell to the wooden floor beside her, blood gushing out from the stumps left as she continued to scream in indescribable pain.
Another swing. This one was aimed at her left leg, but after just cutting off an innocent woman's arms, she gagged in disgust of the gore and her own actions, making her hold back in her swing.
It didn't cut through all the way, leaving the leg hanging by just a bit of bone and meat.
Syme gagged from her own vile actions again and quickly swung a few more times, cutting off both of her legs.
"AHHHMM, AHHGH!" The mother continued to scream as the child behind her, feeling the warm blood pooling up around her, began to cry.
Before she completely bled out, Rain came up to her amputated body in his devil form and placed a hand over her head. He began to extract her soul.
A soul could only be extracted when someone is in a mentally broken state of mind; and the process would bring tremendous pain beyond any measure.
If she still could scream, she would have let out a ghastly screech but alas her vocal cords had already dried from her previous torture.
And as the body of the mother finally joined her arms and legs, a grey, ethereal ball of light hovered in Rain's hands.
He put it in his mouth, savoring it like a box of fine chocolate and licked his lips afterwards.
Meanwhile, Syme, kneeling on the cold wooden floorboards, only stared at her own sword and hands in fear, turmoil and great insanity in her eyes.
What have I done?
What have I done?
She repeated those words in her mind in a manic state.
From her peripheral vision, she could see Rain walking back towards her and lifting her chin up to meet his eyes and blood-smeared face.
In his hand was the barely-beating heart of the mother.
"Open" and unquestioningly she opened her mouth. She had done it on her own free will this time.
The fear of punishment in accordance with the actions she had just committed had imprinted deeply upon her soul and conscience. She had gone insane for short, and she stared into those lilac eyes seeking a salvation that wasn't there, but instead only glee.
The blood flowed down his arm and into her mouth as she drank with stammering enthusiasm. Her eyes; you could see the fear and madness in them.
The blood was warm. It tasted like iron, and it made throat itch and repulsed, but still, she drank and even smiled a bit in her lunacy.
"Good girl," Rain commented, and she smiled even more, seemingly loving the praise like a puppy.
A line of blood streaked down her lips, and Rain, bending down, licked it up, to which she began to quietly giggle like a cuckoo.
The daughter, still dazed in the blood of her own mother, stared on in a fear beyond primitive instincts.
Rain walked back.
"What's your name?"
Wide eyed, she did not answer.
"Well, remember, my name is Rain. You can look for me when you grow up."
He patted her on the head and left, dragging Syme's giggling self out the door with him.