A woman in a man's world

Nicole~

It was cold and dark. The walls felt like they were caving in with each passing moment and I wanted nothing more than to be out of there. It was a hellish moment, one I wish I had not gotten myself into. I covered my nose with my hands as I felt nauseated to my stomach but the situation I found myself was not one where I had the luxury to make unnecessary noise.

The lifeless bodies that surrounded me reminded me of how dire my situation was, my breaths were uneven and shaky, my hands trembling, my vision blurry.

Women have the most important roles in our village, they said. You should be proud to have been born a woman, they said. That was the mantra that had been repeated since I was a toddler, that was our teaching, that was what we were taught but this day, I had been hit with the unfiltered truth. This was the horrifying truth, women were none of those things they mentioned, it we were, I would certainly not have found myself in my current situation. Those words were nothing more than the desperate and unnecessary lies men tell.

The stench from the bodies made me want to hurl but the creature was still at large. A few other girls were in the enclosed, narrow hiding space with me, all trembling and shivering. This was not what we were told, this wasn't what was supposed to happen. All of us knew better than to talk to each other, we couldn't, even if we wanted to. Our breaths, though labored, were quiet, as if we were cautious of being heard. That was because we were. We were trapped in the cave, with a mysterious creature who had mercilessly chomped on our fellow 'chosen' female villagers, tearing them apart limb to limb. It all happened so fast, our females were dropping like flies and before we knew it, out of the twenty girls who were led into the cave, just five of us managed to find thishiding spot from the monster.

The worst part? The creature was completely uninterested in the males that accompanied us into the cave. In fact, all the men did was stand there and very occasionally help the monster catch some of us who attempted to flee from the cave. It was a massacre and I knew they were not going to let us leave the cave alive.

I glanced at my fellow temporary female survivors and lost hope of a fighting chance, not that there was one to begin with. We were all injured, some minor and others major. Some had fall wounds, some had bite wounds from the monster, and me, I was missing an arm,the limbs from my elbow down to my fingers had been the monster's chew toy. It swiftly detached my arm with a single chomp of it's big teeth but luckily, I was still able to get away, though barely. I wasn't the only one with a detached limb though, a lot of the dead bodies had incomplete body parts too. A survivor also lost her leg, I doubted there was a chance for her because there was no way she would be able to run with those limbs.

None of us understood anything, we didn't know why this was happening. We were all from the same peaceful village, a village that cared for all. A village where everyone was equal and everyone had a voice, or so I thought. This current situation didn't seem so equal to me.

It seemed like the men were aware of the monster since before we went into the cave because they were not surprised or panicked when the monster attacked us, instead, they were calm and composed and even held down some girls in place to make things it easier for the monster to catch and eat them.

We were trapped like rats. There was nothing we could do but continue hiding, fighting them since head on was not an option. Even though we used people's deaths to survive for a little bit longer, I didn't want to die. I hadn't expected that I would face death on this day. It was supposed to be an auspicious day, it was a day of the chosen, it was one of the most revered and celebrated day in my village. It was a day of hope, and fulfilment, a day that signified our ancestor's settlement into the land but this, this new development...

"What the hell?" The girl beside me mumbled, her voice shaky and her eyes full of fear, "What the heck is that thing?" She was talking to herself, lost in her own head. Like most of us, she looked like she'd given up already. After all, there was no way any of us could get out of this alive.

Then all of a sudden, there was silence and low growling. The five of us had managed to enter a narrow hole and hide inside that hole while the monster and the men were busy killing the others. The girl crouched across me was the first to enter the hole and shortly after, the rest of us followed. The men knew we were in the hole though, they had stopped some girls from seeking refuge in it. The five of us were just lucky to have made it inside. Now, I just hoped that the wall was thick enough to keep the monster out. Since the hole was small and narrow, it was perfect for our small statures so we were sure the men could not follow us in. We just hoped the wall was sturdy enough.

The sudden silence had meant the feasting that was happen at the other side of the wall was over. We couldn't particularly escape anywhere else because the space we were in was a small, enclosed space, it was a dead end which meant if they managed to break through, it was over for all of us. The monster was insanely fast so there was no way any of us were outrunning it, also there were three men present in the cave, each of them could catch each of us. But there was a glimmer of hope for one person, though I doubted that it would be possible for any one of us to escape.

I heard footsteps and instinctively stepped away from the wall connecting us to the other side. One of the men peeped through the hole and like I suspected, they were too big to fit in.

"What are you all doing all the way over there? Come join the party." He said.

"Dad," the girl with the missing leg sobbed, tears frantically falling out of her eyes, "Dad, please." She begged, her voice desperate. "Please, what is going on? Please spare me, dad. Dad, please, please, I don't want to die."

The man's face showed no emotion, he just stared blankly or perhaps it was too dark to make out his facial expression.

"Please," she sobbed harder, more desperate.

All of us stared at her, some even joined in the begging, pleading for their lives but all I was wondering was why I didn't hear any growling and why the creature wasn't attacking the men. The eerie silence at the other side made me hope harder than the monster really couldn't knock down the wall, I desperately hoped we were safe in here. The men weren't particularly a threat as long as the wall stayed up.

The begging continued as I took further steps back, the man was still unresponsive to the begging and the other two men were out of view. I was prepared to run, just in case but one of the girls came over to my side.

"What are you doing?" She whispered, she was the first girl to get into this enclosed space, she was also the only one apart from me who was not begging for their lives. I didn't think not begging made me better than the rest of anything, I just didn't think it would make much of a difference. After all, these people watched and helped murder our comrades mercilessly.

"Nothing." I told the girl.

"Don't lie to me," she said, "You look like you're planning to run." She was definitely smarter than she looked.

"Do you think we can outrun them? There are five of us and three of them. Also, there's the freakishly fast monster." I told her, still in whispers.

"Which means there's hope for one person to escape. A small glimmer of hope." I could see her smirk despite the darkness that surrounded us.

"And you're hoping to get that small chance?" I asked.

Her smirk grew wider as she looked at me, "You are too."

It all happened in a flash, the moment she said those words, her head detached from the rest of her body, her blood splashing on me. The wall wasn't sturdy enough, in fact, it seemed like it was broken through with ease, like it was cotton candy. The impact of the monster against the wall caused rocks to fly off in our direction. I wasn't spared, small rocks went through my chest and abdomen, injuring me severely. Two of the girls who were on their knees were not as injured as I was, since they were on their knees, and closer to the wall, some rock rubbles flew over their head but a rock the size of a fist hit the tip of the third girl's head, she was unlucky, the rock went through her skull, through her brain, killing her instantly.

We all stumbled to the floor, I was writhing in pain as I looked at the wall that was once our saving grace, it had been so easily destroyed. None of us had running strength anymore, two were dead, three were barely living, I blinked.

Tap, tap. The sound of their footsteps against the ground made a chill run down my spine, they were getting closer, slowly.

I looked at them, the monster chewed on one of the girls, she screamed and pleaded for her life but no one tried to help her, we all watched as she tried resisting the monster whilst begging for her life, not one of us moved until she finally lost all fighting force and gave up, both in body and in soul. It was a slow and painful murder. Then the monster ignored the legless girl and made its way to me, I swallowed as I accepted my faith, as I accepted my death. The monster eventually got to my side and I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping it would lessen the pain despite knowing it would not.

The monster chomped on my other arm and I let out a loud cry of pain. It was feasting on my arm, it hurt. It hurt a lot.

"Please," I called out to the men, "please help me." They didn't respond, didn't look away, didn't look like they were concerned, probably because they weren't. I tried moving away from the monster, tried pushing it away with my legs but it did not budge, it did not feel threatened by my continuous hitting, it just kept eating my arm.

I had already accepted that I was going to die there but it hurt too much to just let it go. I kept hitting it, each kick less stronger than the last, I was losing consciousness, losing strength and losing blood. I faced the ceiling and watched as my vision got blurrier and blurrier, the chomping sound was getting farther, I was succumbing to sleep, eternal sleep. In one last desperate attempt, I hit the monster again, it was futile once again and I closed my eyes, everything went dark.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

The sound of my heart beat hard against my chest, as if telling me that I was not allowed to die. Warmth enveloped me and the once present exhaustion disappeared. My eyes shot open and I looked at the creature who was once eating my arm, that creature was not trapped in a block of ice, it was frozen in place. My body glowed in blue, eerie and unearthly light, I rose to my feet, flew to my feet, and saw the men's faces full of fear.

I felt powerful as each of them cowered in fear, their looks were the exact same look we had as we were being murdered one by one. I looked down at my hand and they grew back. The men looked horrified as my arms grew back, one of them collapsed on the floor, "m-m-monster," he yelled out.

I walked closer to them and they tried running out but with a flick of my hand, the hole made by the monster was covered in ice, trapping them in with me.

"Please spare us." One of them begged and the remaining two got on their knees. They were all begging for mercy and that particular scene reminded me of what had happened moments before. For people who helped brutally murdered people a few minutes ago, they were quick to beg for their lives. I wanted answers, I needed answers but I was not going to ask them for it, I did not want to listen to anything they had to say.

"Go to hell, you bastards." I said dryly as I stretched my hands towards them and encased the three of them in ice. The idea was for ice to form around them, trapping them in an airless prison, suffocating them instead of killing them with the cold alone.

One of them gasped in horror, they had little air left in the bubble of ice and three of them were sharing oxygen, it was obvious what was going to happen. In an instant, one of them drew a knife and stabbed the man closer to him, the third man stumbled over and tried running away but was trapped by the ice. The first man stabbed the second man over and over but while the second man tried fighting back, he had already been stabbed multiple times and after a while, he lost his strength and died.

A pitiless death.

Then the first man, who was the man the girls had been begging to help them, looked over at the third man who was hunched over at the edge of the ice bubble, without hesitation, he lunged over at the third man and killed him too, in a bid to preserve the remaining air for himself. Once the third man was dead, I made the ice bubble smaller, to the point where it was dragging the dead bodies against his own body.

"I'll do anything you want," he yelled, "just let me live. I'll do anything." He tried using their bodies to push against the ice, in an attempt to break out but it was a futile endeavor. I wanted him to have a slow, painful death, I wanted him to run out of air and suffocate while also freezing to death. His eyes darted wildly towards me, fogging the shrinking pocket of air left within his glacial tomb.

I changed my mind, I made the ice prison grow smaller and smaller, the crushing force was merciless. His bones snapped beneath the pressure as his body twisted unnaturally and his cries turned into raw, desperate sobs. I heard everything, the crunching of his ribs as it collapsed, the wheezing gasp as his lungs struggled against the unrelenting grip. He cried out in hottoe and i instinctively let out a small smile of satisfaction.

His pleading eyes landed on mine, but I only tilted my head, watching the way his breath fogged against the ice that now hugged him tightly. His fingers twitched, uselessly clawing at the frozen walls of his prison. Another snap. His thigh this time. He howled, but the sound was growing weaker, his body trembling violently as the cold gnawed at his skin.

'You should have helped your daughter?' I murmured, tapping a finger against the ice, watching the way his pupils shrank in terror.

The prison grew tighter. His ribs caved in. His mouth fell open, but no sound came, only a silent scream frozen in time as the ice got covered in blood.

I went over to the girl who had her leg eaten off, holding her hand as I crouched at her side. She smiled weakly at me.

"Thank you," she mumbled and I looked over at her leg, she had lost a lot of blood so I knew she was having her last moment. I hugged her tightly as she sobbed quietly, both of us in silence until finally, I felt her body get cold. I slowly laid her on the floor and put the other three girls with her, what was left of them.

With tears in my eyes, a mind full of questions and a heavy heart, I let down the ice wall and made my way out of the cave, heading for my village.