Day: 1831

Days Left: 3649

Lives Saved: 9

"What's he doing?" asked Lili, her hand reaching for her electric taser.

"He's stopped now; I think he sees me," said Alfreda, her fire demon body ignited in the darkness.

Corinna motioned something to Lili, and the Captain of the Guard nodded.

"Let's try and solve this peacefully if we can," Lili agreed. "He hasn't made any hostile movements yet."

The three of them hesitantly left the post, and headed out into the open field, meeting Kipling, standing at a distance, close enough to talk but far enough to be safe. They stood quiet for a moment, waiting. Lili's eyes glanced around, wondering if it was just him, when she noticed the slight indent in the grass, resembling the shape of a pair of shoes.

Tall Rachel, the invisible woman. Lili feigned knowledge of her presence but kept a wary eye to track her movements if she dared to sneak past.

Alfreda kept her chin up in an attempt to steel herself, but she could not bring herself to look at the man directly. He looked so haggard, his scruffy clothes torn in places, caked in dirt and grass stains, and then there was his constant shivering, either from cold or perhaps nerves.

Corinna retrieved the whiteboard around her neck and wrote a message, asking Kipling what he was doing here.

He was quiet for a moment, then replied, "please, I want to go back."

Lili straightened herself. "I'm afraid we can't. The vote-"

"I can't survive out here! I don't know how! Please!" Kipling got on his hands and knees and begged. "Please take me back!"

Corinna wrote down a message, and Lili read it out for her as Kipling's head was bowed.

"It has been a long enough time since everyone has been exiled," read Lili. "We can hold another vote to see if you can be accepted back-"

"No! No! They won't want me back! They'll vote no! Just let me stay!" Kipling crawled forward on his hands and knees, attempting to grab Corinna's dress as an even more pitiful act of begging, but Lili stopped him, barring the way.

"We will hold a vote," Lili repeated sternly. "But if the verdict is no, then you must respect it."

"No! Just let me back in! I don't remember doing any of my crimes! I don't remember murdering any of those people!" His hand reached to the back of his neck, and Lili saw the bloodied skin from excessive scratching to the brand. "Please!" Kipling screamed, looking between Lili and Corinna, and then his eyes fell on Alfreda. "You! You get to stay! After what you did to me! To the others!" He pointed at the fire demon accusingly, then looked to Corinna and Lili. "You exiled us because you thought we were threats! Because of crimes we can't remember! But what about her!"

Alfreda froze up; the fire in her veins scattered around her demon body dimmed and almost grew colder.

"It was out of self-defence," said Lili, raising her voice.

"So it's fine in self-defence, huh?" Kipling scoffed, though he almost choked as tears welled up in his eyes. "How do you know if I did too? We don't! We don't know if any of the murders we committed were justified! Or if we truly committed them! We could have been set up! Or falsely imprisoned-"

"We have already said that we will hold another vote," said Lili. "In the meantime-"

"You're only safe because you're their friend!" Kipling spat at Alfreda. "If you had been part of our group, you would have been exiled just like the rest of us, thrown out like you should have been, you fucking monster-"

"That's enough!" shouted Lili. "Continue to insult and argue, and that will not help your case in coming back-"

"You took my memories from me..." Kipling panted, catching his breath from his anger-filled screams, and then he reached for his mask.

"Stand down!" ordered Lili, drawing her sword. "If you-"

Kipling rushed at Alfreda mid-transformation and pinned her down. His form grew larger, and she struggled to push him off.

Lili's attention snapped to the sound of running, and she saw the footprints in the grass heading towards the village. "Rachel..." She chased after the invisible woman, donning her mask, catching up to the invisible figure with ease in her tiger form, and with a singular strike of her claws, knocked Tall Rachel down. Tall Rachel screamed and collapsed, still invisible, but drops of blood outlined her lower torso from where she was slashed.

With Corinna's help, Alfreda managed to shove Kipling off, the desperate man now some form of on-land, four-legged sea creature, large like a shark but silver scaled like a salmon with a large set of sharp canines.

Still foolishly set on diplomacy, Corinna wrote another message of peace to show to Kipling, but the four-legged fish monster just snapped its teeth, either ignoring her or unable to comprehend the gesture; Kipling's mind lost to the mask and letting the monster take control.

Alfreda braced herself as the monster charged again, its teeth biting into her arm. She didn't know why she let it; perhaps Alfreda felt like she deserved it for what she did, taking this man's memories away, dealing the only death in the Eternal Abyss. She felt as if she deserved to be at least hit once as punishment; however, the creature's teeth barely punctured through her tough rock skin. In fact, even being passive, she was still hurting him more than he was her, as her fire demon body scorched the fish monster's mouth, steam rising out.

After realising how futile it was, that it could never hurt the fire demon, Kipling then looked to Corinna.

"Miss Warren!" Alfreda ran in between and grappled the fish-monster, its scales burning and singed, coming into contact with her hot rock skin.

Even when restrained, Kipling continued to struggle and snap his teeth at Corinna, but every time he moved, the more he got hurt from the fire demon's hold, most of his scales peeling away or burnt off, revealing the white flesh underneath.

"Get Calixte!" Alfreda ordered to Corinna.

The woman nodded, and hesitated, before donning her mask, and bursting into light, zooming back to the village

Kipling wriggled free, seeing that Corinna was no longer a viable target, but Lili the tiger was close.

Something snapped inside of Alfreda; seeing it charge after Lili, her thoughts of trying to solve this peacefully, without shedding too much blood, vanished in an instant. The fire demon opened up her jaw and spewed out a jet of fire, enveloping the fish monster. There were a series of shrill inhuman shrieks before the creature collapsed, charred and burnt, and Alfreda was greeted with a waft of the smell of cooked fish.

She stared down at the unmoving charred corpse, and her mind brought back the image of Oscar, how unrecognisable his body was in the fire. And then she thought about Calixte, her mind replacing the Kipling before her with the amphibian, and she could no longer tell what was real.

"Your Highness?" Lili asked softly, slowly approaching as she glanced down at the charred remains.

The fire demon collapsed onto her knees, hands grasping her throat as she felt the rising sickness and vomiting out chunks of rock and drools of lava.

Corinna had heard the screams and saw that there was no need to get Calixte anymore, so she stopped just a few metres away from the village gates. Kipling had been nullified, and Rachel had been... Corinna squinted, seeing an indent in the grass and traces of blood, but... but then she saw new footprints emerging in the grass, slow and hobbling as she panted and groaned from her injury.

She was heading towards another gate.

The celestial being shrunk into a ball of light and rushed forward, darting to the invisible interloper, marked by the bloodied back.

Rachel screamed, tripping over.

Corinna tried to stop in time, but it was too late.

The beam of light hit Rachel and

And then it passed through her.

There was a sound of something bursting and cracking open.

Corinna felt herself strike something solid, and then easily slip through it, and she found herself standing around the scattered remains of...

They were all invisible pieces, only outlined and marked by splashes of blood. She could not see them, but Corinna could feel them, things warm covering herself, her celestial body burning them and smoke rising and the smell-

And then she turned and saw Bam standing there, having left his guard post to see what all the commotion was.

"Was that..." Bam swallowed. "Was that Tall Rachel?"

Corinna looked around at the ground, at the blood, and then looked back up at Bam, trembling.

"You..." Bam backed a step. "What did you do..." He then saw in the distance the charred remains of Kipling in his monster form. "What did you all do?"

Corinna reached instinctively for her whiteboard around her neck, but it wasn't there, not in her celestial form. She tried tracing letters in the grass but recoiled as she felt a piece of Rachel.

"The fuck..." Bam's voice wavered. "Did you have to go that far? Could not just have... I dunno, restrained her? Knock her out? Fuck..."

It was an accident! An accident! Corinna wanted to say, but no words could come out of her mouth. Silent as always.

"You first just move into our camp without asking, and then change everything, and then you start to exile people and make yourself leader!" Bam shook his head, his hand reaching for his mask in fear as he looked at the celestial. "And you starve people if they don't obey you, and now you're fucking obliterating anyone who tries to come back! What was she going to do!" he screamed, tears streaming down his pale face. "All she can do is turn invisible! What harm was she going to do if she got in?"

Corinna looked around, fearing that Bam's shouting would draw more people. She gestured with her arm to shush him, but he backed away.

"You were supposed to be better than Annika," he said. "She was right about one thing at least, that you would take us over."

The celestial stepped forward, trying to hush him and calm him down, but her approach merely gave him more cause for panic.

"Are you going to kill me too?" Bam fumbled for his mask, dropping it in his shaking fingers. "Cus I'm going to tell everyone! Once everyone knows what you've done, you'll be done for!"

Corinna Warren stood still for a moment, recalling back to the incident with Bryce and how people reacted. She had defended herself, yes, but had she gone too far with how she stopped him? She already had him beat as the golden knight, but she decided to take off his mask forcibly before he could safely detransform. And then she covered it all up with the help of Dex, but when it was eventually discovered, it divided the village and caused the group to split up.

Rachel was not like Bryce. She made no threat to Corinna's life. This wasn't acting in self-defense like Bryce or like Alfreda with Kipling just now. It was an accident. It was an accident. I didn't mean to kill her. I didn't react fast enough and stop in time.

The celestial gazed at the village that she had built with everyone, and how happy the people were. And then she imagined it destroyed, the peace gone, just like with Bryce.

Could she blame it all on it being the day after a blood moon? Would they still abhor and fear her even if it was an accident? Would someone else be elected as mayor?

No.

No one else could lead this place.

It had to be her.

She had been leading this place even before being elected, helping it grow into the community it was now. Without her, this place would be nothing.

Who gave everyone shelter?

Who improved the irrigation system so they all could have plenty of food?

Who worked out wells and aqueducts, and hot baths?

Without her, there would be no order; they would be at each other's throats for every minor problem. She solved everything and kept everyone happy.

And she would continue to do so.

During her contemplation, as the celestial stood still, the grass beneath her feet caught a flame.

What did Bamwant? Could she bribe him? More food portions? Less work?

But before she could negotiate, Bam broke out into a sprint, heading to the village gates, about to scream out. In a flash of light, the celestial burst forward, and wrapped one arm around Bam's neck, the other around his mouth, silencing him as the heat burned his lips.

His screams muffled, the celestial dragged Bam back and away from the village, but he foolishly tried to struggle and break free, his body becoming more burnt, the celestial's arm burning through the skin at his throat, and he pushed against it.

When Corinna was certain he could no longer shout and scream, she let go, revealing the blackened and cracked skin.

Bam trembled, his hands hesitantly touching his scarred mouth and then to his throat, struggling to breathe through the pain.

Using her foot, Corinna singed the word 'negotiate' in the grass.

But Bam just shook his head, and he reached for his mask on the ground. The celestial batted it away, knocking it out of his hands just before he could put it on, and her arm scraped across his eyes. He writhed on the floor, clutching at his scorched eyes.

No...

No!

This wasn't how it was supposed to go!

She just wanted him to listen and stop him from tearing the community apart.

He just wanted to sabotage her because she made him work his share. He was selfish and willing to sabotage her by wrecking everyone else's lives in the process. She had to stop him from telling anyone. That's right. She did the right thing. Yes, it could have gone differently, but he gave her no choice. She wasn't going to kill him too, but after all this now...

The celestial towered over the cowering man, unable to scream and cry for help.

The most merciful thing she could do was at least erase the pain, erase the memories. That would keep everyone safe.

Stepping forward, the celestial raised her arm, channelling all of its light into it and then punched through the man's head.

Bam went still and collapsed, unmoving, unblinking, no longer breathing.

Corinna destransformed and took off her mask, and sat in front of the corpse.

It's okay. He'll heal and get to start over again.

She turned when she heard the approaching rushing footsteps of Lili and Princess Alfreda.

Alfreda looked at Bam in silence, and then caught a glimpse of the vague silhouette of Rachel's invisible remains.

"What happened?" asked Lili softly.

Corinna swallowed, relieved that neither of them were angry or scared, at least not just yet. She wrote 'accident' on her whiteboard, motioning roughly to where Rachel was scattered, and then looked to Bam, tears in her eyes, and then wrote 'he saw. Would not let me talk'.

Alfreda glanced back at Kipling's smoking remains. "Sometimes... you can't fully control the situation," she said in a strained whisper.

Lili offered a hand to Corinna, helping her up to her feet. "Let's clear all of this up."

Corinna nodded, her face stiff and her jaw set and stern.

Alfreda did not know how those two could be so calm and look so normal in this situation. Lili did used to be a soldier, a disciplined and professional royal guard, but Corinna, even after what had just happened, her face was so vacant of emotion, like she was a living doll. Maybe later, that mask would break once reality had set in. Alfreda herself continued to hope that none of this was real as the three of them cleaned up the bodies and got rid of any evidence of what happened that night.