Out of time

"I did good, right?" The creepy voice asked me as the many spears holding the bodies together began to move away, slowly ripping their bodies apart.

"These heathens! They killed her! They invaded us, not a shred of regret in their eyes! Not when they played poker while violating her corpse—they're animals!" The voice became louder and louder over time, the movement of the spears more erratic as chains fell down from the ceiling to wrap themselves around the necks of the corpses.

At first I was too busy trying to locate the demon to listen to its words, but after it began making the heads of its victims dangle around me without even a sign of hostility, I felt a pit forming inside my heart.

"W-What did you just say?" I asked.

My voice was trembling, and my hands were sweating profusely, about to let go of the handgun.

No! It's a demon; she's tricking you! Don't trust it! This is his trickery, all to get more power… She's just trying to make you feel—

That's when I saw her, her pale face as her body was being wrapped in a golden blanket. Her fingernails were missing, and so was her left eye. She had bald spots on her head that were covered in injuries.

No, no, no, no, you did this! It can't be.

Then the demon began to take form as the golden liquid flew towards one specific spot, concentrating and molding itself to take human form. Although it had golden hair, I could immediately recognize the face of my daughter.

Her eyes had turned bright red, her skin was pale to the point of looking cadaveric, her lips had turned purple, and golden scars covered her body. Her neck, her wrists, her throat, and her legs.

This demon… It has to be mimicking her appearance.

I immediately raised the handgun and aimed at her, and seeing her scared reaction made my heart ache all the more. I couldn't pull the trigger; I didn't have the strength to do it. I was confused; I wanted a lot of answers, but asking a demon was pointless.

"Who are you?" I asked her.

"Dad, can't you see! It's me, it's–"

"SHUT UP! DON'T YOU DARE UTTER HER NAME WITH YOUR FILTHY—" As I interrupted her, I saw her getting on the verge of tears and further wounded my heart.

My wife is dead already… My daughter is most likely dead; what's the point of living anymore?

"Why did you abandon us?" She said, using her normal voice, her eyes were filled with anger, her words filled with spite.

Those words cut deep, and all of a sudden the handgun became too heavy for me to handle; the trigger was immovable, and it quickly fell out of my hands. I initially was about to panic, thinking that was one of the demon's powers, but I quickly realized it wasn't.

"Why couldn't you return sooner?" She asked as tears ran down her soft cheeks.

I–

I wanted to answer, she felt so real that for a moment I thought she could've been my real daughter, but as I opened my mouth, I couldn't find an answer to give her.

"Why did we have to suffer so much?" She asked, her tone slowly shifting as more and more tears streamed down her face.

As her anger was starting to build up, I saw her hand raise up; a spear emerged from under the floor and floated next to her hand.

The color of her sclera changed, turning red as she unleashed her powers, releasing golden fluid out of her injuries, using it to craft spears.

"I tried my best. I came back as soon as I could, believe me." Before I knew it, the spear had perforated my left hand and left a massive hole.

"Liar! You abandoned us; you fled because you knew this would happen!" She said as she loaded up the next three spears.

I wasn't fast enough to dodge any of them. I realized after the first strike I couldn't run away, nor could I fight back. My life was over, so I closed my eyes and waited for her to finish me off. Instead, all three attacks missed me.

Mmh? I thought she wanted me dead? Has something changed?

The demon then tackled me to the ground and slowly began raining punches at my face as it was crying desperately, uttering incomprehensible words as she was crying her heart out. All the while I was fighting back every thought I had that that may have been my daughter that was somehow turned into a demon.

Nobody could ever believe such a thing; there was almost no other precedent except for the Laughing Widow, but that was a demon who was light-sighted in the seventh layer of the fracture.

"Why couldn't you come back sooner? Why did you have to leave us for your job?" Was all I could understand of her messy speech.

And with each subsequent punch, the realization started to set in: everything that had transpired in this house, to my late wife, and to my daughter.

I too wanted some sort of revenge; my mind slowly began to imagine what those people could've done to them, their lustful eyes as they stripped down my wife, the vile nature of theirs. I repented ever feeling sorry for their deaths; what they suffered was nowhere near enough, and so was my suffering.

I couldn't even try to put up a defense; I couldn't even dare to imagine what she had to go through to turn out like that. What saddened me the most was that she had barely aged in the many years I've been absent from her life.

It made my blood boil in anger. It crushed my heart into a thousand fragments as I slowly began to tear up as well.

"I'm sorry; if I just wasn't such a shitty father, maybe you could've lived a better life." I apologized to her the moment I had time to breathe only to get hit again, her fervor increased by my apology.

She used her golden fluid leaking out of her hair to create a golden lance, which she stabbed right next to my face.

"I don't want to hear your apology!" She responded coldly to me.

"I want answers, why! Why did you abandon us?" She repeated, holding me by the collar of my shirt.

Unfortunately, I couldn't answer the question; something else had caught my daughter's attention.

"I tried, I tried to return as quickly as possible, but—"

"More intruders? Are these your friends? No, they wouldn't sneak inside the house if they were…" She muttered to herself as she was carefully listening to the sound the intruders made.

With a flick of her hands, her spears disappeared; the energy stored within each of them was transported into the floor beneath us.

They're here already? Since when had they been following? Fuck, how could I not notice it? Quick, I need to find a way to—

As I tried to get up, I realized most of my strength had left my body; my daughter, on the other hand, was floating midair.

She was using her powers to take control over the structure of the house, making it larger and larger over time, shuffling the rooms into different positions all the while her weapons were piercing through the walls, aiming to impale them in a swift motion.

It was a terrifying power to witness firsthand, especially as most of the assassins had no real way to counter this seemingly overpowered ability.