Belle wondered why she felt the pain when she was supposed to be dead, or was it not how it worked? She moved closer to the fire to be dragged behind by the creature who gave her a look of shock, "What you doing?" asked the creature to her.

"What am I doing? What are you doing?! Untie me this instant, or I will gouge your eyes!" threatened Belle. Both her hands and legs were tied in ropes which stopped her from moving.

"Me eats you," came the thoughtful answer from the creature, "Pot is almost ready, and I put vegetables," the creature brought a knife and carrot, cutting the vegetable into the pot.

"You must be joking with me," Belle gave out a frustrated sigh to hear the creature start singing a song under its breath. This creature...she had met twice or thrice in the past, and every time they had met, it had come at her by calling her 'food' and she had run every time, "I have better options of food if you let me free now," she tried to persuade the creature.

"Ah ah ahaa," the creature continued to sing without listening to Belle.

She was worried as she didn't want to turn herself to the creature's food. The last time the scavenger had eaten part of her soul, another evil sister had come out who was the reason why she was here right now. Belle had to get back to the land of the living as this was not where she belonged. This was not right as it was an imbalance. She doubted if any of the living mortals had been killed in the dead to be part of the dead.

It didn't make sense to Belle.

She didn't know how much time had passed since from the time she had been unconscious after being killed. This creature was surely a nut loose in the head, and she had to get away from it. While the creature was cutting the vegetables to create a delicious meal to itself, Belle wondered from where it even got the vegetables that looked fresh. With its back against her, Belle started to roll away on the ground, going farther and farther away from the pot, which was warm and she could now feel the cold temperature on her skin.

When she was far away, she suddenly fell down on the ground with a small thud making her wince in pain. It looked like the dead felt pain as much as a mortal would, thought Belle to herself. She continued to roll until she felt it was safe to stop, but the trees around and the bushes made it difficult for her as she had crawled like a worm.

The creature was busy cooking and making its broth ready so that it could put the soul inside it and then eat it up as it had been waiting to consume it for a long time. Dipping its boney fingers, it tasted the broth and then turned to say, "Time to put you in the pot-AHH! My food!" it looked in shock seeing the empty cave with the girl who appeared to be nowhere.

"Where me foooooood?!" screamed the creature to no one in particular as it started to search for the girl.

Belle heard the distant cry that made her wince. It appeared that her captor had found out about her disappearance and would soon try to find her. Stopping at one point, Belle tried to get rid of the ropes that were tied around her hands so that she could untie her legs then. Whatever she was doing, she had to do quickly before someone else would come and take her as food. She hadn't forgotten about her parents on how they had turned out to be after they had fused themselves with the spirits.

Using her teeth, she tried to free her hands, and when she had successfully got her hands free, she sat up to untie her legs. Not far away, the creature appeared in the distance. Running towards her and she would have laughed because of its appearance with the ragged robe being held at the front as if it would trip on its feet if it didn't do it. But this wasn't the time to laugh, not when the person was someone who had placed her on the food menu.

Belle's hands slightly shook thinking about the lack of time and place she was in which was ironic because the land of the dead had infinite time. Finally standing up, she picked a stick that was down on the ground and she threw it right across the creature's face, smacking it that had the creature stagger back.

She didn't waste her breath in talking to it and she started to run away from it. She was in a light coloured dress that stood out in the background of the land of the dead. Once she was far away from the creature that had its eyes on her, Belle finally ended up on the other side of the forest which had lesser creatures. She took in a deep breath. Doing what she had done in her dream, Belle climbed the tree and got to sit on the branch so that she could take some time out before deciding on what to do now.

Minutes passed and Belle finally felt like she was able to breathe again. Huffing for air, she wondered what was going on in the land of the living. Portia had taken her place and she didn't know if Lucas had found out about it, or if her reflection had successfully been able to lie her way out.

It was then that she noticed a mighoul walk towards where she was, as if it were passing by and Belle could only hope that no creature would smell her right now. She had picked to sit in a tree that was scented because of the fruits it carried, camouflaging her scent.

At the same time, she saw another creature that came to the mighoul, both of them fighting until one was defeated for the victorious one to take its soul through its mouth.

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