I hear something shift, and open my eyes. I yawn, and look at the bed. Cleric is laying down, the blanket pulled up around her. She looks at me. Her face red with shame.

“So uh last night…”

She says.

“Next time tell me, we saw a dragon for christ sake he could’ve tried something.”

She just pulls the covers up further.

“Is everything else alright?”

I ask.

“Y- Yeah.”

She says choking a sob.

“Do you want to talk about anything. I had to go through years of therapy, I've picked up a few exercises to go through.”

I walk over to the bed, and sit down. I just start talking.

“My dad…. My dad was a T.V. survivalist. You see on my plane we have conquered the wild, and most people live in giant sprawling cities where they have food and water. So how do you not go crazy? Well we have T.V. it transmits a picture from one location, to another or multiple locations.”

I pause to think for a moment.

“So my dad his job was to go into the middle of the woods or places no one would go because it was to far from civilization, and live there for a while.

Well my dad had two friends that went with him, my real parents they were the ones that recorded him. I was born and they left me with some overnight daycare, for a big finale so they could settle down, and take care of me. Something went wrong, they got lost, or some landslide happened and they got cut off from there location. They were trapped in the wilderness.

The story my adoptive father told was that they died my mother from an infected wound, and my father from something he shouldn’t have eaten. The bodies were never recovered.

I never knew them so it wasn’t a big deal. Their will said that I would be watched over by their best friend my adoptive dad. Well he bought a huge piece of land in the middle of nowhere. He raised, taught me everything I know, and a war broke out. It was only a year or two long, the US ended quickly a well placed nuclear device in europe. People weren’t happy but the preemptive strike ended what could have been world war three.

Millions of people were displaced. So my dad took pity and fostered kids who had no parents. Until he could ‘get them to new safe homes.’ Most of them were older than me. I was six at the time, but I remember my 13-16 year old brothers and sisters being so cool. There was one little girl, her name was Esmeralda, everyone called her Izzie though. She was my age and my best friend.

Well year past and kids came and went in the wake of the disaster. The world was focused on the europe situation, and what America was doing to clean it up. So no one was looking at my father.

My father was… Evil in the purest sense of the word. He’d get these kids barely old enough to understand what was going on, heartbroken about their families. He’d feed them, clothe them, and then he’d bring them out to go to new families. What that actually meant was dropping them in the middle of the forest, as he hunted them. Then bring their bodies to a field outpost where he skinned, and dressed their corpses.

327 kids between 13 and 16 years old. Thats how many he killed. 327 kids, he butchered them and then fed the meat to us at the house we lived in. And we loved every bite.”

I pause to calm myself down.

“You- you see Izzie she was my sister. I lo-loved her. I was 14, I never questioned him, she never questioned him. I- we thought the kids that left were going to families, people who would take care of them. It was a week before my 15th birthday my dad said Izzie was going to a family. He,”

I wipe the tears from my eyes, and clear my throat.

“He uh, brought me into the basement on my birthday. It was a big walk in cooler. I had gone hunting with him before, for deer or moose. And we would bring them down here to bleed them and dress them. Well he brought me down, he had booked a nice spa day for the others because he wanted some bindung time with me. He met me at the stairs. And put a hand on my shoulder. ‘Son I tried hard I tried really hard to make her understand.’ I was confused about what he was talking about. ‘She didn’t understand what I am, what you are.’ he led me to the back where uh izz where her body was.

She was so cold. I just grabbed her hand, and held on. I tried to shake her to wake her up. I was crying sobbing, and he just stood there watching me. ‘I’m disappointed in you son.’ That’s all he said while I held her cold body in my arms.”

Anise wraps her arms around me.

“I-I lov-loved her. She promised to see me for my birthday. And when I was old enough I was going to buy a house for us. I wanted to marry her. She was my best friend my sister. We talked into the night for hours. And I held her body in in in my hands. I uh got out and got the police in he just watched while I made the call. They found all the bodies, and it was uh it was awful. I was on suicide watch for 4 years, he was smart about the money though. Never touched the funds from my parents or the show, just let it sit, and interest took over. So I would never go hungry. I had all this money, and nothing to spend it on, the person I loved was dead. She was dead.”

Anise holds me in her arms as I sob.

“If you told me I would help.”

I choke out.

“I would, I would.”

She hugs me a golden light radiating out of her body and into mine. Some spell probably. But I don’t care. I had failed Izzy, I wouldn’t let myself fail Anise now either. I grab her body tight feeling the scars in my hand, and her skin that is too cold. My eyes blaze with fury

“Now tell me all about your god.”