Heroes came in many forms and shapes, or at least that was what Rose tried to tell herself. She looked at the scrawny kid in front of her, the one who had the tall woman who had killed the bastard who had abused her.

The kid had ordered every person on his team to execute at least one of the rapists. It had been a surreal experience for her. On the one hand, she was happy they had died; on the other, she wasn’t sure how to feel about the deliberate murders that they had carried out under the sun.

Who was she to judge? Shouldn’t rapists be killed or even maimed? Tortured, maybe?

But the part of her that had grown up in a civilized world struggled to accept such a notion.

The kid, that Jacob had been able not only to make her greatly uncomfortable with the killing order but now he was bringing everything up another notch. A day had passed, and every woman who had suffered at the hands of their captors was now gathered in a clearing in the forest.

Jacob was answering questions and explaining what they would be doing if they accepted.

At some point, a woman had asked the question that everyone had wanted to put forward.

“So, are we here only because we are victims of rape?”

“Yes and no,” Jacob had bluntly answered, “yes because we need people who understand the kind of terrible world that we have on our hands right now. What you have witnessed is just the beginning. As soon as people gather more power, horrors like you can’t even imagine will start popping out just like that. And no, because it’s not about the ‘rape’ experience. It’s about suffering. Rape is one of the worst possible things humans could experience in our world, therefore you are the best armed so far to understand what we are dealing with.”

That had made many of them uncomfortable. However, the simple way he pronounced the disgusting crime they had suffered meant that he either didn’t understand its gravity or that he had simply seen much worse.

And that made the smartest among them even more uncomfortable.

What’s worse than rape and murder?

Rose didn’t want to find out.

But Jacob had read her mind. In fact, after a couple of refusals to join, he made a brief statement on their situation.

“Some of you might feel like I’m exploiting the fact that you have been raped,” he highlighted the word, intentionally disregarding their pain and distress. “And that’s true. We are exploiting every advantage we can get. If we need to bang your heads or say aloud all the terrible things that people will do to you if you stay weak, we will. Some of you refused straight up because you are in denial of what happened and, most importantly, of what’s going to happen. Some of you might think that I’m a kid who knows nothing, but I have seen some special ability that allowed me to see bits of our terrible future.”

Jacob looked around at them, and Rose felt her stomach churn. She was angry, scared, and now she started shivering on the spot.

Something in Jacob’s tone was making all of them breath harder, as if he was projecting some sort of vision of the future directly to their minds.

“If you run away, chances are high that you will be killed, raped again, or much, much worse. People will manipulate your soul and make you aware puppets; you will see everything they do to you and feel what they will do to you. And you will not be able to do anything, just stand.”

“But if you want to fight and sign the Soul Contract to make sure that you will never betray the humankind nor use your powers to kill another person unless as it will be specified in the clauses of our contracts, you will become some of the most powerful humans on this Earth of ours. You will be able to split mountains, and I will have you fight by my side. We will search for the people doing what has been done to you to other women, men and children. We will gut them, spilling their insides from the collarbone to the hip.”

Now, the aura Jacob was projecting changed. It wasn’t about doom anymore, no. Now, they could all feel the heroic deeds they would be partaking in if they joined him.

“You will be heroes to humanity. You and I will be the sacrifice necessary for humans to live normally again, to have the life that you just got denied. And if we manage to survive, together we will carve out a future for ourselves.”

The tall, strong woman and the shorter girl stepped by his side, almost choreographed, releasing both their terrifying auras.

“You will be joining the strongest people on Earth, and you will never be left behind. You will have a place to share your plights with, but you will give up a choice to commit evil against your kins. Once you sign the Soul Contract, you will be forced to be heroes, whether you like it or not. The contract will not state that you have to sacrifice yourself; serving humans will be mostly left to your discretion. But be careful because what you will not be able to do will be very clear, extremely so.”

“So, choose if you want to be the victim of rape for the rest of your life or if you want to be the next heroes of humankind. And choose fast. The world moves fast, and even though you are now seeing everything through the lens of the one tragedy that has hit you, thousands of such tragedies are still taking place all over the world, and I need to go stop them.”

Jacob turned and scuttered off.

He left Juliet and Epagogia to handle the rest.