I open my eyes, and all I can see is trees. I try sitting up straight from the slouched position I’ve slept in, and my body makes it’s displeasure known. Pain shoots all over, no part of me is untouched.

  “Ugh, fuck me,” I mutter to myself, grimacing. Once the pain falls to a much more manageable level, I get to my feet unsteadily. Looking around, once again all I can see is trees. My best guess is that I’m in the woods we camped next to last night, but that doesn’t really help me that much.

  I can feel myself starting to panic as I rack my brain, trying to remember anything that might explain what seems to be some weird sleepwalking. I’m still trying to not let me panic overwhelm me when I hear a shout over in the direction of my left. Guessing that that’s the direction back towards camp, I quickly head in that direction. The closer I get, the more I start to hear what sounds like a scuffle, and I pick up my pace worried that something’s gone wrong with my new friends.

  I burst through the tree line back into our campground to find it in complete disarray. There’s people all over the place, their various weapons glinting in the twinsun’s light. I try to make sense of the campground that is clearly now a battlefield; I spot Cora in the centre of the campground—next to the dismantled remains of the fire—somehow fighting three different people, armed with swords of some kind, with just her fists. I notice a weird almost glow from underneath her clothes, when I see her fist collide with one of the assailants stomach and they go sailing through the air. How strong she?

  I manage to pull my eyes from the display of strength and look at the chaos, there has to be something I can do, somewhere I can go to help. I move to my right side, moving around the edge of the battle; still trying to find a route through the chaos, when a woman holding a curved sword of some kind looms next to me. I yelp and jump backward as the woman raises her sword to strike at me, when suddenly there’s a wet thudding sound and I feel something wet on my face. The woman falls backwards, an arrow protruding from one of her eyes. I look up, eyes wide, and see Sara in the back of the caravan, already pulling a new arrow from her quiver.

  “Paige!” Gregor roars as I see him stood a little forward from the caravan, and we lock eyes. “Get over here!” He shouts as he takes a step forward and cleaves his great sword right-to-left, slicing into the three people in front of him. I watch the battle as the enemies—who I guess are bandits from the lack of military uniforms—start to grow thin on the ground. I see my chance and take it darting around the side of the campground, and I think I’ve almost made it, when one last bandit suddenly looms in front of me. Before I can react his fist collides with my jaw, and I collapse to the floor, white hot pain blurring my vision.

  When I manage to look up again, the bandit is standing over me—brandishing a dagger—a malicious grin on his face. I feel a cold pit of terror in my gut, the others are still busy wrapping up the rest of the battle. Is this it for me? It’s probably all I can expect.

  As the bandit hefts his dagger, readying to plunge it down, I feel something else though. The cold in my gut warms—slow at first—but it keeps getting warmer and warmer until it feels like my stomach is on fire on the inside. My hand by my side touches against the letter opener I’ve kept on me this whole time, and despite knowing it will never work as a weapon, I feel an unrelenting urge to use it as one. I hear a voice in the back of my mind—a voice I don’t recognise—telling me,

  The feeling just keeps growing growing until a scream rips out of me, and I jump up, wrapping my legs around the bandits waist. I wrench the letter opener from my belt and with another scream—one that echoes as if it’s not just me screaming—plunge it into the bandits chest. It goes through his leather armour and the clothes underneath and sinks up to the hilt like it was a hot knife sinking into butter.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  The bandit collapses to the ground with a cry and I land on top of him. Unable to control my actions I keep lifting and plunging over and over again, until the bandit’s chest is no more than a ruined crater.

  Suddenly there are arms around me and I struggle, a grunt of effort coming from my assailant.

  “Hey, Paige! It’s me Cora! You’re safe!” Cora shouts, trying to get through to me.

  I slowly stop struggling, and I feel the energy leech from me, the aching pain from earlier returning. “Safe?” Is all I can manage to ask.

  “Yes, you’re safe Paige. The bandits are all dealt with now.” She says softly, running a hand through my hair. “Gods, you’re stronger than you look, girl.”

  “Safe…” I repeat as I feel all my energy leave me and I go limp as consciousness leaves me.

  I open my eyes, once again feeling incredibly disorientated. This time however, it’s joined by feeling bone tired. I slowly sit up, realising I’ve been led down in the caravan. I look to my side and see Sara sat there. “Hi.” I manage, weakly.

  She sits upright, “Oh, Paige! You’re awake!” she exclaims and reaches out to put a hand on my shoulder. I wince as her touch reminds me my whole body aches _so much_. “You okay?” she asks, frowning.

  “Yeah, I think I’m okay. I just ache all over. What happened? Last thing I remember is being cornered by that bandit and just feeling so angry.” I ask her, trying to sort through my memories.

  “Well, there’s not much to tell, really. You got cornered by that last bandit as we were finishing the rest off, and by the time we’d finished you were already, uh, going to town on him.”

  I can’t help but grimace at the hazy memory of what I did to that bandit. “I can’t believe I…” I start, not knowing how to finish.

  “First time?” Sara asks me, giving me a sympathetic look.

  “Y-yeah,” I manage to say, although my mind returns to waking up surrounded by blood and body parts. I shudder at the thought, my mind recoiling a little. I know it couldn’t have been me… but the way I killed that bandit. It’s almost enough to make my doubt myself.

  “Come on, Paige. Lets get you up and we can go let everyone know you’re okay.” Sara says, holding out a hand, which I grab and she hauls me upright. “Cora especially was a little distraught when you passed out.”

  We walk down the couple steps to the outside and I see Cora and Gregor talking to each other in a way that makes me think they’re arguing about something, I can’t hear what they’re saying though. As we step off of the caravan steps, Cora looks up, and as she sees me a grin hits her face.

  “Paige!” She shouts, and rushes over, wrapping me up in a hug. I hug her back, just taking in the sensation of being hugged. Eventually, she relinquishes and pulls back. “You feeling okay?” she asks me, concern clear on her face.

  “Yeah, I’m feeling okay. Just achy.” I smile. “Everyone else is okay?” I ask.

  “Yeah, we’re all good. David took a nick to the arm, s’why he’s on the caravan, resting.” Cora says. “Gonna take more than a few bandits to take us down.” She grins.

  I grin back, caught up in her positivity.

  Gregor clears his throat to get everyone’s attention. “Well, if everyone’s awake and okay, I’d really like to get a move on, so we can leave this mess far behind us.”

  I nod and Cora and Sara do the same.

  “Yeah, we probably shouldn’t still be anywhere near here when other people discover a whole bunch of dead bandits, eh?” Sara says.

  With that, we all bundle back into the caravan and we set off back on the road, my head filled with a confusing mixture of feeling cared for, for the first time in forever; and a mix of guilt over my first killing. I try my very hardest to ignore the tiny part in the back of my mind that feels satisfaction over my actions, and would happily do it again.