CONTENT WARNING: Cannibalism, blood, vomiting, and gore.

  I'm a monster and everyone knows it.

  —

  The girl woke up to a bowl of cold water reflecting the face of a terrified girl with blood smeared across her mouth. She held legs tight to her as the chains felt like they were tightening against her skin. She did her best to wipe away the smear of blood on her face but deep down she knew that she's a monster. That's why she has four chains instead of one, to protect everyone around her so she doesn't hurt them. Michael isn't a monster but she is, so she's not Michael, she's the girl, a monster.

  She struggled to look at the other cages as she saw the terror in their eyes. All of them saw her last night as she tore into that raw meat. They all watched a beast devour her meal. Even the ice scarfed man looked at her with an uneasy expression, though he did his best to hide it in front of his men. Every now and then he wouldn't glance to the dried blood from where the meat had been with disgust. He should have known what would happen, he gave her that meat after all. Just thinking about the meat made her water, but she quickly shook off the urges, she wouldn't let it take over again. Never again.

  As the day passed on all the men avoided her cage to the best of their abilities, the fear in their eyes wouldn't allow it. The men in the tents near her would keep their eyes on her, watching her with trepidation at the possibility that she could possibly escape. There wasn't a single way she could think of escaping except them opening the cage for her and she doubts any of the men are stupid enough to let a monster roam free. Even if they did, where would she go? The Silver Bell would fear her just as much as the kidnappers, maybe she could run to the capital Seluka. But even then she'd just be a monster roaming the streets.

  She imagined what would have happened if she'd be reborn as a normal girl, a body that didn't have these urges to eat disgusting raw flesh. No matter what whenever she's presented with the opportunity she takes it, and worse she likes it, no she loves it. She can't stop herself once it starts so maybe if she never hurts anybody again the urges won't come back. If she avoids meat and becomes a vegetarian then maybe, just maybe she could live a normal life hiding away as a normal person. The thought brought an insignificantly small smile to her face.

  Dreaming of being a normal girl made her reminisce of her childhood. That show she used to watch, the dragon princess, the show she stole her body from. In it the protagonist never had her urges and she was searching for her long lost family after being displaced and raised by a foster one. At the end of the show it was revealed that her entire family had died in a coup against the capital and even though she never knew them she cried for them. Eventually she realized that the friends she made along the way and her foster parents were her true family. If only the girl could have such a nice ending.

  Mikayla is the name of the protagonist, in a special behind the scenes episode the creator said that she named the character after thinking of regal and royal names. It's such a nice name too, Mikayla the hero, Mikayla the princess, and Mikayla the daughter. She wished she could have been named Mikayla if she was born a girl, but that's impossible. She's not really a girl, she's just pretending because she doesn't know what else to do.

  Her mind keeps returning to her favorite childhood show over and over again. Memories of the dragon princess kept flooding back to her, that show and its protagonist Mikayla. Mikayla could probably escape this cage by just shapeshifting into a dragon and breaking free. Maybe her friends would save her instead or she could even convince them to let her go free. She would always get out of any bad situation even if it meant she got hurt. The girl wished she could be like Mikayla and be strong, but Mikayla's not a monster.

  Mikayla is meant to be nice and kind to everybody she meets, all the girl ever does is hurt people instead. But even then she couldn't shake away the thoughts of Mikayla from her mind, she wanted to be like her so badly. Those impossible thoughts plagued her as she fell asleep once more.

  —

  The girl woke up to the ground shaking and the creaking of wheels, they were moving again. There was a pattern to it, they'd travel for a day or two and then stop to resupply. On the days that they were traveling they'd have tarps over them, probably to hide the fact that they were kidnapping people. Nobody wanted to scream for help either, they were in the middle of the woods without civilization for miles

  Opening her eyes she saw that there was a large blue tarp over her again although this time it was covering another cage as well as her own. The two cages were on a single cart each, as if it was some kind of train made out of carriages. Peering at the other cage she saw that it was the one with that red skinned girl and her mother. They stayed at the corner of their cell, the mother looking at the girl with trepidation while her daughter had curiosity and perhaps a hint of pity in her eyes. What reason did anybody have to pity the girl? Slowly the red girl approached the other cage with hesitant steps.

  “Are you alright?” The red girl asked with her hands just outside of grabbing range.

  In response the beast just shook her head while holding her legs tightly against herself. She wanted to go further away from the other girl but she physically couldn't with all the chains binding her. There is a fear in her that if the other girl got any closer she would accidentally harm her even though she knew rationally that the urges only came around dead things. The rat and the spider were both dead when the urges came to her, and so was the raw meat she'd eaten. Thinking back she even felt the urges for a moment around that dead rabbit that Damian cooked.

  “Do you know why we’re here? I saw that blue scarfed man talking to you on the first day.” The red girl asked with certainty in her voice.

  “I don't- all he wanted to do was hurt me.” The chained girl meekly responded to the other girl.

  “What do you think is going to happen to us?” The red girl kept asking questions that the girl had no idea how to answer.

  “I'm not sure…” The girl had no clue what was going to happen to them when they arrived at where the kidnappers were taking them.

  The mere thought of becoming a slave made her shudder, but that's what people in these times did wasn't it? Kidnap people so they could sell them.

  “Well my name's Poinsettia, even if you don't know anything that doesn't mean we can't be friends. What's your name?” She reached her hand through the cages towards the girl in the form of a handshake.

  The chained girl hesitated to grasp the hand but reached towards it after all. As she tried to take hold of the other girl's hand she realized she couldn't reach it with the chains binding her, instead she was only able to graze the fingers of the red skinned girl.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  “Sorry…”

  “It's alright, I should have known. By the way, you still haven't told me your name.”

  “I'm not sure… Um, isn't your mom worried about you?” The chained girl tried to dodge the question and diverted to the other woman in the cage.

  “Oh she's not my mother, she's been dead for over a decade now. We just happened to wake up in the same cage and she comforted me when I was crying.” Looking towards the woman in the cage the chained girl saw weary and cautious eyes glaring at her.

  “Over a decade?” Just by looking at the red girl the chained girl realized that her mother must have died when she was very young. “I'm so sorry.” The chained girl quickly apologized.

  “Don't be, I actually knew her for twice that long. I'm older than I look.” As the red girl finished her sentence the chained girl quickly realized that she was just like her, another person whose body is much younger than their original one.

  “Do you get any… urges?” The chained girl said hesitatantly, it wasn't as if she could hide her true form.

  “Urges? Is that why you ate that raw meat?” The red girl asked with curiosity and the chained girl could only nod in shame. “Then no, I haven't had any of those ‘urges’.”

  The chained girl was both disappointed and glad that nobody else had those horrible urges. More credence to the theory that it's related to her being a Steilae. As she breathed a sigh of relief she heard the men outside talking and barking orders to each other.

  “It seems that our chat is over, I hope I'll be able to talk to you soon.” The red girl said before the tarp over them was taken off and the carriage her cart to the chained girls cart was detached.

  The girl could see that they were in an open field with a forest not too far in the distance. Far on the horizon she could see the setting sun at the peak of twilight as she was pulled away from the group. Her carriage was the sole one to be led away from the others as another tarp was pulled over her cage. The voices of the kidnappers grew further and further away until eventually she couldn't hear anything but the wheels creaking. From the bottom of the tarp she saw that same blue scarfed man emerge with a grim expression on his face.

  “What are you?” He asked with a serious tone.

  “A Steilae.” The girl answered with the only response she knew hoping it was enough, even if she didn't know what a Steilae really was.

  “Then you don't understand what you really are, worm.” He called her a worm just like that gunsmith did, although with malice instead of that strange reverence.

  Slowly from his belt he grabbed a single key and lifted it to the lock on the door. He inserted it and hesitated for a moment, then the next his resolve had taken over and he twisted the key.

  “Consequences be damned, if I knew what you were I wouldn't have taken you in the first place, monster. I'll just tell the bosses you tried to escape.” He wasn't talking to the girl, no he was talking to himself through her.

  She could tell he was conflicted and that he was doing his best to rationalize whatever he was trying to do. There wasn't much she could do but watch him. If he tried to free her she would stay, wherever she was going would be safer for the people around her than Rosurnan. She shuddered at the thought of hurting Scarlet again, or even Kael. No, she wouldn't hurt them ever again, they would take her away somewhere that nobody would ever get hurt by her again.

  But then as she expected him to unlock her chains he instead pulled out a dark green emerald, probably one of those magic rocks. Slowly he pulled out a green string, the texture of it looked rough and coarse, like sifting your hands through sand. He tightened the string between his hands as if checking that it wouldn't break before he approached the girl with a single step. The distance between the two of them instantly closed and the girl flinched before looking back at the man. She felt the rocky string wrap around her neck, she expected him to wrap it around her chains before she realized what he was about to do. He's going to kill her.

  If the green threads were anything like the red ones then he could cut her head off in an instant and for what felt like the first time she felt fear. She knew she should just let the man finish his job, it would only be better for everybody else. But deep down she felt those animalistic instincts inside of her that yelled at her to survive, to kick and scream until it was over. It was all she could do not to yelp as the man continued to wrap the stoney wires around her.

  Then they began to tighten against her throat, slowly she felt it getting harder and harder to breathe until eventually she started to feel blood dripping down her neck. On impulse her hands latched onto the thread and yanked at it, clawing away at them which only made the blue scarfed man tighten them further. But his string couldn't hold up against her claws.

  Looking down at herself she saw ten elongated dark green scaled fingers, claws meant to kill. She looked upon her attacker with bloodlust, how dare he try to murder her in such a fashion. In a swift movement she clawed at the man's throat, he tried to sidestep her but the cage was far too small for such an action. Her scales met skin and easily tore through his chunky human flesh, blood sputtered out of his throat before he lay dead. An earned smile came to her lips at a hunt well done before the relishing scent of fresh meat floated to her. She reached for the man before the chains that bound her halted her arm, with a single swipe the chain was shattered and her arm freed. To think that such a thing could hold her was absurd.

  Cutting off the nearest arm she brought it to her lips before stopping as a droplet of water fell onto her hand. Gazing up she saw no rain or water, but then a second droplet fell, this time staining the fresh meat. It was by the third droplet that she realized it was coming from herself, she felt no drool at the scent of the meat and reached higher where she felt the source of the liquid. Her eyes were beginning to water for some reason… no it was because she was about to eat somebody. That was wrong wasn't it?

  It shouldn't be wrong, she rightfully won her prize and she should be allowed to consume it to her desires, that is her right. To prove it she bit deep into the severed and swallowed a large chunk of meat. Before she puked it out immediately after in its entirety.

  “No!” She yelled to herself, she wasn't sure if it was because she couldn't fully consume the flesh or if it was that she could.

  Her hands trembled and dropped the arm. The juicy skin fell onto the ground as the disgusting blood from the corpse began to pool around her. What was she supposed to do? Her instincts told her to eat the fresh meat in front of her yet some undesirable piece of her wanted it to waste away unconsumed. There was something deeply wrong with her. She wasn't sure what to do, she needed to ask someone else, find someone to tell her that eating meat wasn't wrong. Her claws made easy work of the cage surrounding her as she flung the top of it into the neighboring forest making a loud thud as it hit the ground.

  As she scanned her surroundings she saw a strange sight, dozens of people were fighting each other in the now moonlit field. Some of the men were in armor and had the crest of a silver flower who were fighting the men in the navy outfits the kidnappers. In the brief moments that she had been carted away the camp had turned to anarchy as men and women slaughtered each other. Women? She instantly noticed that among the warriors there were some women as well, all wearing the armor bearing the flower insignia.

  Soon the battle came to a close with those wearing the armor being the obvious victors. It was then that the scents of all the dead bodies surrounding her began to overwhelm the girl. So much blood and meat that should've been a sea of euphoria felt like the most disgusting thing she'd ever smelled. She nearly puked a second time and fell down to her knees as she came to a realization. People aren't meant to be eaten, it feels so obvious now.

  The girl realized how strong the urges really were now as she felt them tugging away at her mind, telling her to eat the arm in front of her. Thankfully the carnage made her realize how much of a monster she truly is again. She tried to move her legs, to run away into the forest so that she couldn't hurt anymore people, but she couldn't. Her legs simply wouldn't move and she felt like rising up in her mouth for the third time. She covered her mouth with her now human claws before it came spilling out of her.

  Again she tried to move as she began to hear the clanging of metal as people were making their way to her. If any of them got close she might kill them, once again her legs didn't have the strength to move themselves. Soon she came to see a lightly armored woman with brown hair looked down upon her with a strange look as she entered the destroyed cage. She scanned the carnage around her as she held a blade covered in the blood of the kidnappers. The girl hoped that she would be struck down by the woman, instead she was asked a question.

  “Did you do this?” It was a single yes or no question but the girl couldn't hold it in anymore and spoke as if for the first time in centuries.

  “I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.” She kept saying the words over and over as if it was a mantra.

  The girl's crimes were laid bare and knew that she should be punished and killed for being a monster. She pulled her legs together as if to comfort herself despite all her wrongdoings, she didn't deserve comfort but she couldn't help but yearn for it. As she begged for forgiveness to the woman all she could do was repeat for three words again until suddenly the woman pulled her into a warm embrace.

  “You poor thing.” The woman sounded somber and she hugged the girl. In response the girl's tears began to quicken and her begging turned into screams of anguish.

  “What is your name little one?” Once again the woman asked a question which the girl answered with the first name that came to mind.

  “Mikayla.” It was the first name the girl could think of at the moment and in her panicked state blurted it out.

  “Well Mikayla, my name is Diantha. I'm sorry that I couldn't get here sooner. If only you hadn't been turned into a worm…” Diantha said the last sentence in a muttered breath likely not meant for the girl's ears.

  “I'm a monster.” The girl plainly pointed out, hoping that Diantha would do something about her, she didn't deserve to live anymore.

  “No sweetie you're not a monster you're just unlucky. Everything's going to be alright.” Diantha said the words with this tone meant for a child, as if she could comfort the creature in front of her.

  But the girl wanted so desperately to believe them, that everything would be alright. She fell deeper into Diantha's embrace hoping that somehow this entire ordeal had been a horrible nightmare.