Wither

The world never works the way one wants it to.

The good, always punished, beaten, looked down upon and laughed at as they suffer.

The bad, always rewarded, untouched, looked up at and laughed as they caused others to suffer.

So the good becomes bad. As they see the luxury they live in- and who can blame them when the world we live in-

is hell.

Lutea slowly crouched down reaching out and with hesitation she touched where her mother last laid. Suddenly faded memories rushed through her, small images and flashes of her father beating her, the screams of her father as he abused her mother and then the sudden silence as the place he once stood was empty.

She screamed, she screamed so loud that it caused her to go deaf. She quickly snapped back to reality, hyperventilating as she bawled her eyes out.

"WHY MOTHER," she repeated over and over again, "WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME HERE ALONE," she yelled as she punched her fists into the ground where her mother once was, eventually breaking both her hands. She quickly dropped down, with no energy and strength she laid down and curled in a ball, helpless and alone.

"Come back, please." She whispered as she slowly lost consciousness, but right before faded completely she heard whispers that scared her enough to give her strength back. She quickly sat up, with a terrified look on her face, and looked around frantically trying to find the source of the whispering.

"Useeeeeeee mee."

"Its finally time for you to useeee me."

"Show the world who we really areeeee."

The whispers overlapped, but she could make out what they were saying. Her pupils shrunk instantly, and in panic she ran out the whole and back outside, where the whole village was waiting.

"THERE SHE IS." A villager, in rage, yelled as she exited the cave in panic.

"YOU USED THAT CURSED MAGIC AGAIN DIDN'T YOU, YOU MONSTER." Another villager came up to the front of the crowd and yelled.

"WHERE IS THE CHIEF, WHAT DID YOU DO WITH HER." A woman in the front, with tears running down her face, cried out.

"She's dead," Lutea whispered as she looked slightly down, causing her hair to cover her eyes. The whispered followed her, they danced around in her head as they repeated the same three things again and again.

"HUH, WHAT DID YOU SAY," a big and muscular Dryad pushed through the crowd and approached her. "I COULDN'T HEAR YOU, MONSTER." He yelled in her face as he crouched down to see her expression, Lutea jerked her head to the side to avoid eye contact. He grabbed her head and jerked it back, "LOOK ME IN THE EYES WHEN I AM SPEAKING," he spit in her face as he yelled, quickly turning into a laugh as the helpless Lutea stood without fighting back.

"Useeeeeeee mee."

"Its finally time for you to useeee me."

"Show the world who we really areeeee."

"You already know what I'm called. If you so desire, call out my name and I shall serve you."

She heard the whispers get louder and louder, she didn't know what, or who was whispering to her, but she did know one thing.

Wither.

The word suddenly popped into her mind, coming out of nowhere and invading her mind like a parasite. Her head filled with dark thoughts, poisoning every good memory she had, breaking her from the inside, slowly causing Lutea to be no more.

"She's dead," she whispered again.

"HUHH, I COULDN'T HEAR YOU," The Dryad yelled once again, crouching further down, he turned his head and foolishly turned his ear towards her face.

Suddenly Lutea grabbed the man's face and pulled it closer to her mouth.

"HEY, HEY WHAT ARE YOU DOING, FREAK! LET GO OF ME." He cried out as he tried to get her hands off her, but she wouldn't budge.

"She's dead, I killed her." She whispered in the man's ear, copying the same seductive voice her mother used to use, but anger could be felt all around them as shivers crawled up their spine, causing the villagers to lose strength and fall to the ground. They wanted to run away, they each looked at each other and to their surroundings to see if they could find a way to escape, but as they frantically looked for a way out, they felt the lingering presence of something, watching them, ready to kill them if they tried to run away. They didn't dare move, they wouldn't take the chance of even standing up or holding a loved one's hand.

Suddenly the ground below her and the Dryad cracked open, vines came out of the ground with incredible speed and pierced the Dryad's in the heart.She lets go of his head and he falls to the ground facing up. He starts to gargle and choke on his blood and gets a look at her face from below. Her once lively and ruby eyes turned pitch black, with no sign of life in them, and her hair slowly started turning a dark and almost swamp looking green. She looked down at him and smiled, she slowly licked the inner edges of her lips and crouched down to whisper something in his ear.

"Wither."

Suddenly one of her vines went into his mouth and down through his body. His body shook violently and he grabbed the vine and tried to pull it out, but seconds later his hands fell to the ground and the shaking stopped. His body quickly disintegrated like a flower withering away, completely lifeless as his ashes got blown away by the wind. The vine that was once in the dryad's body appeared, at the tip of the vine there was a crimson red ball. Though the ball was red, it was still clear enough to see inside, inside the ball were what looked like hundreds of double helix's orbiting another black ball in the middle of it.

The vine brought the ball to her, she quickly snatched it off the vine and with no hesitation she put the ball in between her teeth and effortlessly crunched the ball shattering in her mouth like glass causing an echo that bounced around the village due to the deadly silence. The villagers stared so terrified they couldn't move and wouldn't dare to make even the smallest sound.

All of a sudden she began to glow crimson red, more and more magic poured out of her as she got brighter, causing so much pressure that it cracked the ground open, creating an endless hole beneath her. But before she could fall, the vines grabbed her by the hips and lifted her out of the hole and back onto the ground close to the villagers.

The glowing abruptly stopped, she groaned and sighed as if she had been holding her breath the entire time she was glowing, she then smiled and let out a small yet hysterical laugh as she slowly made her way towards the villagers. She walked up to the front, and looked down at the child that was next to his mother in the crowd, she slowly smiled and licked her lips once again, her pitch black eyes had a faint glow and the black flowers around her body had that same glow.

"Isn't it ironic, you've been wanting to be dead ever since he died." She paced back and forth. Her voice had deepened and her aura had completely changed, her once sweet and kind demeanour, changed to one of sorrow and hate.

"Instead, you are all going to die, and become my food." She said, looking back at the same child, she crouched down and patted his head. His mother, terrified, tried to move away leaving her child behind, but was caught before she could. She then crouched down and went to whisper something in the mothers ear.

"Don't worry, I will keep him alive, but soon you would soon wish I killed him, since the hell you are about to go to, will leave you feeling so lonely, it will create the desire of your own son's death."

She stood back up, holding the child in her arms, her eyes glowed brighter as well as her flowers, she took one last look at the crowd, her smile widened unnaturally as she spoke one last word.

"Wither."