She hissed as she leapt off the ground towards him. Chief Chu leapt backwards to avoid her. She leapt back up and after him. The scream had already awoke the whole village started to head towards the two of them.

“Father-in-law!” Ju Hua yelled as she approached them. She had been on guard around the village. Chief Chu eyes widen. He held his hand up.

“No Ju Hua!” he yelled back, but it was too late. The girl had already heard Ju Hua. She snapped her head towards Ju Hua’s direction. She smiled as blood dripped down from her teeth. She changed her target. Ju Hua froze in shock as she saw the girl.

“Yu Lin?!” she breathed out. She didn’t have enough time to react as the girl leapt towards her. She was going to be attacked. She tried to move back as her hand went to the handle of her sword. It was too late, she was too close. Just as the girl’s claws were going to grasp her shoulder, a force pushed the girl to the side. The girl let out a deafening cry. She landed on the ground and held her stomach. She glanced up and glared at Chief Chu.

“Arrggh!” she hissed and screamed at the same time.

“Get out of here Ju Hua! Get everyone out of here! Yu Lin’s not herself!” Chief Chu ordered. Ju Hua hand trembled as she saw the half eaten corpse lying not very far from them. “Ju Hua!” Chief Chu yelled. She quickly nodded her head.

“Yes!” she blurted out before running away. The girl snarled her teeth like an animal as she got up. She growled at Chief Chu. Her wild eyes burned with fire. She rushed towards him. Chief Chu held his arm out in a defensive position. The girl’s fingers wrapped around his wrists. Chief Chu swung his arm to one side, slamming the girl onto the ground. The girl let out a yelp and her grip loosened. Chief Chu took this chance and put himself on top of the girl, pinning her down. The girl cried out as she scratched and kicked at Chief Chu. Chief Chu took on the scratches.

“Yu Lin! Stop this! Wake up Yu Lin!” Chief Chu yelled, yet the girl underneath him only continued to fight back.

“Yu Lin! Chief Chu!” a voice yelled from the side. Chief Chu turned to see Yo Mei running towards the two.

“It’s dangerous Mrs. Du. Yu Lin is not herself, please stay back!”

“What? What’s wrong with Yu Lin?” Yo Mei continued to reached them. She bent down to see the girl. She grasp Yu Lin’s face. “What’s wrong my daughter?” she said. The girl snarled her teeth at Yo Mei as she reached her hand out to scratch Yo Mei.

“Mrs. Du!” Chief Chu yelled. Yo Mei grabbed the girl’s wrist and moved it back as she moved closer to the girl’s face. She looked into the girl’s eyes. Her eyes widened.

“No way... “ her hands trembled as she bit her lips. She brought her other hand up and placed two fingers on the girl’s forehead. A light emitted from her fingers. The girl’s screaming got louder as she tried to pull herself up.

Her free hand went straight to Yo Mei’s throat, but Chief Chu stopped it. The girl fought and fought as she turned her head from side to side. Yo Mei’s fingers were firmly pressed against her. As the light grew brighter and brighter the girl screamed louder and louder. The whites of her eyes seemed to grow as her red irises and pupils slowly disappeared. Her body began to twitch as the screaming was replaced by gargling sounds.

The white light then stopped growing as something began to enter it. It looked like a black parasitic worm was crawling out, no being forced out by the white light. It was long as it coiled around inside the white ball of light. When all of it had finally left the girl, Yo Mei moved the ball of light away. The girl now laid still on the ground. She placed it onto the palm of her other hand and crushed the whole thing. A small noise of guts being squeezed ranged out. Yo Mei opened her hand to reveal a small puddle of black liquid. The next moment, a fire appeared on her hand, burning all the black liquid until it evaporated into air.

“Ms. Du… what did you just do?” Chief Chu breathed out. Yo Mei ignored Chief Chu as she looked back at Yu Lin.

“Get off of her Chief Chu.” Yo Mei said as a fireball hover over her finger. Chief Chu did as he was told. Yo Mei brought the fireball close to Yu Lin’s eyeballs. She watched as her pupil started to reappear, and then the red of her irises.

-

Yu Lin looked to see a figure on top of her, a ball of fire hovering over her forehead. Her lips were dry, and her head banged with pain.

“Yu Lin?” she heard a familiar voice call out.

“Mo…ther?” she croaked out. Her throat hurt, as if she had been screaming for a long time. She tried to get up, but winced as she felt a pain from her side. Her stomach felt unbelievably heavy, as if she had just ate three meals. Her head spun and spun.

“Yu Lin, that’s right. It’s mother.” she heard. She didn’t pay much attention to the noise as she smelt suddenly felt something on her fingers. Her hands felt sticky. She moved her chin, and that felt sticky too. She frowned confused and turned her head to one side. As she did, she caught something from the corner of her eyes.

She felt her stomach turning upside down. She felt its content lunge up to her throat. She pulled herself up and turned to one side. Pieces of what seemed like meat poured out of her mouth onto the grass beneath her. She continued to hurl and hurl. She heard voices around her, but she was not paying attention anymore. She started to pant heavily as the world spun around her. Just for a short moment, she focused. Her eyes on the contents that she just threw up.

When she saw it she couldn’t breathe. She froze. The sour smell of blood and stomach acid reached her nose. She looked at the intestines, the heart, the liver, and the meat of a human lying in front of her. She turned her head to see the body that laid not so far from her. ‘I… did this? I… no… but…’ BANG! BANG! BANG! Yu Lin let out a yelp as she held onto her head. It felt as if her skull was going to break anytime soon. She threw herself backwards and felt her head slam against the ground. Her hands fell to her side. She heard muffled voices all around her, but she had no idea what they were saying. Darkness dragged into its pits and she didn’t even try to resist.

------

Yu Lin eyes fluttered open. She could not feel the ground beneath her, it was as if she was floating in mid air. From above her, she could see a dim light. She tried to move her hand but she felt something rough graze her wrist. She looked up to see a chain wrapped around it. She frowned. She tried to open her mouth to say something. When she did, she realized they had been open the whole time.

She moved her tongue to feel fabric scrape across her tastebuds. ‘What… is this?’ she thought. She heard footsteps and looked down to see her mother. Her mother had no expression as she walked up and grabbed Yu Lin’s hand.

“Nngg…” Yu Lin made a noise. She saw Yo Mei look up into her eyes. Yo Mei’s lips trembled before she bit them.

“I’m sorry my daughter. It’s only going to hurt for a little bit. Please… bear it. Mom… mom is sorry.” she heard her mother said. Yu Lin raised an eyebrow not understanding.

“Nng- nngghhhh!” she bit down on the fabric as she felt her finger being torn off. Tears swelled into her eyes and began to drip down the side of her face. She turned to see her torn off finger just hanging off of her by some layers of skin. She could see her bones, and yet she saw no blood drip down. She looked up to see a what looked to be a golden carving knife in her mother’s hand. She saw her mother bringing the knife close to her bone. She shook her head. She screamed into the fabric, but her mother continued.

Her eyes bulged. Her whole body tensed up as her veins lifted from beneath the skin on her neck. She felt the first scrape of the sharp object on her bone. She continued to scream into the piece of cloth. Her chest heaved up and down. When she thought she was done as her mother reattached the finger back to her body, she felt her other finger being pulled. The process continued. Her fingers being pulled out, the scraping on the bones, her screaming, and the finger being put back.

When her mother was done with one hand she moved to the other. Yu Lin held on. She thought it was almost over. She was wrong. After her fingers, her mom sliced her arm open with the carving knife. Tears continued to drip down the side of her face as she felt her skin being teared apart. Yet again, no blood. She couldn’t bear to watch as she turned her head the other way. She felt her mother wriggled her muscles away before reaching her bone. Then the process continued, but unlike the fingers where it was only on the ball of a bone touching a tendon, her mother would carve onto her whole bone arm. Her mother continued and continued.

Yu Lin didn’t know how much time had passed as her mother would continued. She would pass out from the pain sometimes, wake up from the pain sometimes, and just feel completely numb. Her mother continued the process with each and everyone of her bones. She wished at times that she would’ve just died. She wished at times for her mother’s death. The pain was too real. She didn’t even know if she was alive anymore, she thought the place was hell. The dim candle that hung above her seemed to laugh at her pain as it flickered freely. Yu Lin wondered if this was a punishment for eating that person. She was starting to wonder if the events she remembered even happened. Everything felt to unreal. She didn’t even know if she was Yu Lin anymore. She didn’t know if she was Hu Die either. She knew nothing. She just wanted the pain to end.

-----

The girl opened her eyes. She found herself lying on the cold hard floor. She sprung up and felt her whole body. She started to pant heavily and her body started to tremble. She brought her knees to her chest and hugged herself. She tried to calm herself down. She rocked back and forth.

“It’s okay… it’s okay… calm down… calm yourself down Li Hu Die…” she mumbled to herself.

“Yu Lin.” a voice called out. Her body went still. She peeked up from behind her knees. She saw a female dark elf looking at her with sad eyes behind some wooden bars. Behind her was an older man carefully observing the situation. “Yu Lin.” the voice called out again. She jumped back, her back hitting the wall.

“Don’t come closer you monster! Don’t come! You evil creature! Get away from me!” she yelled. Hot tears trailed down her face as she hid behind her hands. She cried. “Don’t come… don’t come near me…” she begged.

“Yu Lin. Mother is sorry. Please listen to me. Yu Li-”

“Don’t call me by that name! That name is not my name! I don’t know that person! I don’t want to hear it! Get away from me! Ahhh!” she screamed as she covered her ears. She kept crying and screaming. She could only hear her own voice. She felt a hand on her shoulder and she jumped back, pushing the hand away. She turned away to face the corner of the cell.

“Yu Lin! Yu Lin!” a low voice yelled out to her, but she screamed even louder.

“Ahh! Leave me alone!” her arms were sticky with her tears.

“Li Hu Die!” the voice then yelled. She paused. She turned her head and looked up. She saw an old man looking down at her.

“Chu Hong Hu,” she breathed out, “please get me out of here. I don’t want to be here. That creature is going to kill me. She’s going to kill me like that man.” she pleaded.

“Get a hold of yourself!” the man yelled as he grabbed her shoulders and shook her. “We don’t have time. That man could be here any second now. We need you to get yourself back together!” the man said through gritted teeth.

“What? No… this has nothing to do with me. I want to go home. Take me home to my husband and kids. I don’t wan-”

“You are no longer Li Hu Die.” the man tightened his grasp, causing her to grimace. “You are, Du Yu Lin. You are a dark elto. You are the daughter of Du Chou and Du Yo Mei. Whatever your mother did to you, it was to protect you. Think about how she feels, having to hurt her own child like that.” the man’s eyes started to get watery, the wrinkles on his forehead increased by two folds. The girl calmed down, her lost eyes now found. Her breathing was back to normal. She glanced behind the man to see the dark elf sitting there with her hands covering her ears. She took in a deep breath.

“I am… Du Yu Lin.” she mumbled weakly. The old man nodded his head.

“That’s right, now please get a hold of yourself. Something very bad has happened. We need to ru…” before he could finish his sentence a loud sound of something breaking erupted around them. Yu Lin blocked her eyes as light flooded into the room. When she looked back up she saw a short bulky figure standing at the whole of the entrance. She squinted her eyes.

“Fa… ther?” she questioned. She felt a pull on her wrist.

“We need to run now!” Chief Chu yelled. They ran out of the cell as Chief Chu threw her over his shoulder and grabbed Yo Mei’s wrist. They ran towards the opposite direction where a huge wall stood in there way. Chief Chu kicked at it, forming a crack in the wall. Yu Lin’s eyes widened as her father started to charge towards them with an axe in his hand.

“Hurry!” Yo Mei yelled. Chief Chu kicked again and the crack got deeper. Her father got closer and closer. Chief Chu kicked again. Her father was only a couple steps away from her as he swung his axe forward. Yu Lin closed her eyes shut before feeling herself being carried away. She opened them to see her father’s axe stuck inside the wall of the cave they were in. Yu Lin looked down at the scenery beneath her. The village she had grown up in, it was now barely standing. Houses were destroyed, and bodies laid all about.

“What… what happened?” she muttered as her chin quivered. At the corner of her eye she saw what appeared like two shadows. She looked up. Two figures seemed to be chasing her. She squinted her eyes to see better. They both had silver hair, blue eyes, dark grey skin. One of them she had met in this lifetime, the other she had met in another lifetime. She clenched her teeth as she glared into the distance at one of them. “Lan… Hei… Kong…” she hissed through clenched teeth. As if he heard her one side of his mouth curled upwards, his playful eyes threatening to end her in a moment.