Hello, there, internet. It's me, Inferno. If you didn't know, I've been in possession of Addie and this account for the day. And through trial and error (you humans have atrociously complicated technology these days), I've decided to share a story of mine.

No, not like Addie writes. She doesn't write from true experience. I do.

So let's share, shall we?
-
It was a day not unlike today when I decided to take action. How long I'd been absent from the world, how long that monster had been roaming free after my demise, I had no idea. But I couldn't just… leave him to rot in his glory. How could I? Those humans are fleas on this planet, parasites. They wiped us out.

That's not a crime punishable by empty thought.
This day was the day I had found that girl. A little girl, brown hair like her mother and bright blue eyes like her father. Those blue eyes that brought back the taste of human flesh in my mouth, the hollow agony in my empty stomach, the feeling of despair and wrath and hatred and...

I lashed my tail once and gritted my teeth to keep silent. Because if this were unplanned, and I were alive, that little girl would be torn to zaitorn shreds.

The girl looked down, curiosity glittering in those disgusting blue eyes of hers as she bent down and picked up something from the rocks. We were by a river, a small stream, more like, its shores littered with sediment. It was expected to me that he'd be such an awful parent as to let his only child wander the rocky riverbed alone. At least now he'll learn, the dirty yhenj.

She looked at the glittering crystal in her hand, and we both could see the small trickle of blood falling from the edge of her palm. She'd picked up the crystal with a harsh grip, I could tell, and a sharp point had cut skin. She was unaffected by the small wound, however, and just admired the white crystal with small black flecks all over it.

My chance had arrived. Without hesitation I floated over to the girl and found myself within her mind, hiding in a dark corner until I could reveal myself.

-

"W-who are you...?

The girl's voice quivered as she stared at the reflective glass that was a mirror in her room. She stared at that reflection, that reflection that was not her in the slightest. Her usually white scleras were black as the night outside her bedroom window, one pupil white like a young star and the other red like an ancient one. She seemed to be crying black tears, although she was a bit frightened by the appearance in the mirror, she knew those tears were not hers.

"Shhhh... it's okay, little one. I'm not here to hurt you."

The words came from her mouth, while she didn't speak a word. Was it only her reflection? Was her reflection talking to her? That was probably it. That made sense. Did other peoples' reflections talk to them? Why was hers so quiet until now?

"Okay... what's your name?" The girl asked her reflection hesitantly.

Reflection seemed to think about that a moment before talking with her mouth again. "I don't have a name. You call me whatever you like."

Reflection was definitely talking with her mouth. Maybe Reflection couldn't talk, and had to talk using her?

"Alright... can I call you... Reflection?"

"Fine by me."

The little girl smiled at Reflection. "Cool!"

Reflection smiled back using her mouth. "Wonderful. We're gonna have so much fun together, my friend."

"Friend?"

"Yes. Friend. I am now your friend, little one."

"I love making new friends!"

"I thought you would."

-

It was all a blur after that.

We got to know each other - or at least, I got to know her. She did a lot of the talking, not even questioning my lack of information, the ignorant girl. She said she had a mom and a dad, whom she loved as all kids do. She was seven years old, liked to wander the stream and collect rocks to show her parents. Her dad had been off dealing with the war for a while, but he visits more frequently with the war over and would be able to stay home soon, which I kept in mind.

Eventually, though, she did ask if I had a mom and a dad.

"I did," I replied to her, taking over control of her words as she walked along the riverbank.

"What were they like?"

"Nice."

"Did something happen to them?"

"That's... not important."

She accepted that pretty easily, and went back to focusing on the rocks. For that minute or two, I sort of thought about that. Did I know what happened to them? No, I didn't. I assumed the tearglass had killed them. But I'd run before I saw them actually die.

Could they be alive?

I almost hoped they were dead. So that they didn't have to suffer like I did.

And if they were dead... maybe I'd be getting some justice for their death as well.

Another time she was talking about her dad to me. It was the day before he would come home, and she was bursting with enthusiasm about it. She kept talking about how he said he'd probably bring her a present if he could get one, and that she hoped it was a new hair clip or something along those lines. She wanted to introduce me to him, but I quickly declined. The last thing I needed was this child to ruin my chance by getting me "exorcised," I think they call it. Would that even work with me? Debatable, but I won't take my chances.

"You know, your father may not be as great as you think him to be," I told her as she wandered.

"What?" She was perplexed by the statement. "Why?"

"You know what the war was about, right?"

"Yeah," the girl said, "My dad is helping protect us against bad guys."

"Bad guys?" I almost laughed. Is this really what he was telling his kid?

"Yeah! Bad guys!" She said, "He said they are dangerous and that we might die if we don't do something about them."

"Really? Hm," I exhaled a little.

"Well... what if I told you that... they're not the bad guys?"

-

"They weren't bad!"

"Who in God's name put that idea in your head?!"

He stared down at the girl, confusion and concern in his eyes as she angrily argued with him. He didn't know where this had come from - she'd never been an angry or rebelling kid. She was always kind and loving. But this… this wasn't her. He could see it in her eyes - something was wrong, terribly wrong.

"She said they weren't bad! You got rid of them for nothing!" She was distraught, tears beginning to fall from her eyes. Her tears were... black.

W-what the hell...?

"Eliza, who is she?!" He demanded. She'd brought up this "she" multiple times in the argument, and now he needed to know who his daughter had been speaking with about this subject.

"Reflection! She told me you did something bad!" Eliza argued, now starting to cry.

"Who is Reflection? Eliza, do you hear yourself?"

"Reflection is my friend, she wouldn't lie to me!"

"Evidently, she would."

"I would never."

The change in tone startled him, changing from Eliza's pained distress to icy contempt. He took a step back, a bit surprised by this sudden switch. He watched as her bright blue eyes thinned into red slits on a black sclera, her chest splitting into a gaping mouth with sharp white teeth. Four black tentacles sprouted from her back, menacingly pointed towards him. But now she was not distressed. She was icily calm. Too calm.

"...Eliza...?"

"Sorry. Eliza can't talk to you right now," "Eliza" said. "She knows me as Reflection. But you don't know me like that. That's not me."

Somehow he recognized that voice. It was Eliza's voice, but the way she spoke… was not Eliza in the slightest. It was familiar to him.

I'll be back, you can be sure of that...

His breath was knocked from his lungs as he realized who he was looking at, his concern and fear turned to hatred.

"You."

She smiled, a smile too twisted to be true on a child's face. "Really? Won't even have the decency to say my name?" She laughed bitterly. "I wouldn't expect any more from you, Jerold."

Jerold just stared, somewhere between burning hatred and a heart attack.

"You... you're..."

"Say it. Say my name, and maybe I'll let her live."

The heart attack feeling decided to take over. His child, his daughter, was on the line here.

Goddammit, what was that mutt's name?

"Say it." Noticeable now were two soft, dark red ears, the color of dark blood, sticking from the top of Eliza's hair. They were pinned, a new tail of the same color lashing angrily. "SAY IT!"

Jerold stuttered.

"SAY MY ZAITORN NAME!"

"Fine! Fine!" Jerold snapped. "I-it was Cinder, right? Cinder? That's you?"

She tilted her head, seemingly amused that he seemed so unsure.

"Final answer?" She said, swaying her tail and approaching him. She was nearly three feet shorter than him, yet still seemed menacing.

He nodded.

"Please. Just let my daughter go."

Her mouth twitched. She stared up at him, head slightly tilted.

And then she laughed. And grabbed him by the throat with one tentacle before shoving him to the ground.

"Nice zaitorn try. Cinder is gone. You killed her, after all."

Manic hilarity wracked her small body, her limbs shaking uncontrollably as she stared at him in a bloodthirsty frenzy. Where his daughter was in that menacing gaze, Jerold hadn't a clue.

"That Cinder was a small little... cinder, if you will." She chuckled. "That cinder found a place to nestle into the ground. And catch the nearest thing ablaze. The fire grew, and grew and grew and grew until there was nothing left but a blazing... inferno."

She laughed again.

"Yes, yes. I'm not Cinder anymore, you hear me? My name is Inferno Inktone, and you won't live while under my watch! My name is Inferno Inktone and I won't let you live for the pain you've caused me and everyone that I love!"

Inferno was just about to send a tentacle through his neck before she halted, realizing what she was doing. She laughed again. "Hah. Sorry. That's right. I don't want to kill you."

She grinned. "I want to show you how I feel."

Just then, the door to the house opened in the other room. A female voice drifted from the living room.

"Honey? I'm home!"

Inferno cast a glance at Jerold.

"Perfect timing, eh?"

Jerold's heart fully stopped.

"You… no, no, not her! Not my wife! You monster, you can't do this to me! Kill me if you want blood!"

"It's not your blood I want, it's your PAIN," Inferno snapped. Immediately she wrapped a tentacle around Jerold's mouth and called in her most innocent, Eliza voice:

"Mommy? I need you for a second!"

"Okay, honey, I'll be in there in a second!" Eliza's mother, who Inferno knew was named Emily, called back. Jerold tried to yell through the tentacle around his mouth, but was greeted with a mouthful of sludge.

Emily walked into the room, at first not noticing Jerold. She smiled at Inferno, barely processing for the first few seconds that her daughter took the form of some unholy demon. But before she could react, she was caught in a tentacle's grip as well, dragged along the floor until she was at Inferno's feet.

Emily looked up at Inferno, confused and horrified and terrified at the same time. Inferno just looked down at her.

"Hi, mom."

And then she stabbed her, right through the stomach. A tentacle dug into her flesh, piercing through her abdomen and sticking like a giant parasitic worm from her gut. Emily let out a gut-wrenching scream, gargled by a flow of blood rising in her throat with nowhere else to go. Jerold cried out, with the same results as earlier, trying to reach for his injured wife. But he was thrusted back to the ground, forced to watch as Inferno dug her claws into Emily's back and dragged them parallel to her spine like a cat sliding down a curtain. Emily didn't stop screaming - she was obviously in an awful amount of pain, but Jerold could do nothing but watch. Inferno stabbed her again. And again. And again. She was already dead, and she stabbed her again. Once more for good measure. She looked like bloody swiss cheese by the time Inferno pulled the tentacle from inside of her one last time. Emily had collapsed, her limp, bloody form barely recognizable on the blood soaked ground in a lake of red.

Jerold didn't realize he was crying. He wasn't someone who cried too easily, and even though if anyone knew, they'd give him the hardest time about it - he was known as quite a tough guy by everyone - he didn't care. This was probably something worth crying over.

"Had enough?"

Inferno was talking to him. He directed his gaze to the possessed child, vision blurry with tears.

Inferno laughed. "What, you crying? Cry, cry all you want! It's not gonna change anything!"

She raised a tentacle to be pointed towards herself.

"Besides… we haven't even gotten to the best part yet."

Jerold's heart stopped again.

"You know what... here. I'll give you a three second head start. If you can stop me, I'll let you go." She smirked. "But let's make it fair."

Agony shot out like an explosion from his thigh. Jerold yelled in pain and shock, staring down at the bloody wound now made in his right leg. Inferno twisted the tentacle, just for safe measures, before tearing it back out.

"Doesn't feel too good to be stabbed in the leg, huh?" Inferno asked. "I could relate."

Jerold wished he could rip that smirk off her face. But then he wanted to cry more, because that face was Eliza's, and he could never hate his daughter as he hated the monster controlling her.

"Three... two... one... one and a half..." she counted down agonizingly slowly.

"...go."

She retracted the tentacle from his mouth. Immediately Jerold attempted to lunge at her, but ended up falling on the ground with a shriek of pain. There wasn't much he could do about it. He barely comprehended when Inferno suddenly laughed,

"Time's up!"

He stared in horror as the tentacle struck its mark, the point diving into Eliza's chest. Inferno gasped sharply, but never ceased her smile. She stared shakily at Jerold, glee in her eyes before… it was suddenly gone. The ears, tail, tentacles, mouth, all gone, replaced by the agonized, fading expression of a little, innocent girl, waking up from a sleep she would soon return to and never awake from.

"Eliza!"

Jerold pulled his daughter close to him, staring at her fleeting blue eyes. She blinked, starting to cry as she processed the pain she was in.

"...d-daddy?"

"Hey, hey, stay with me, Eliza, stay with me!" Jerold begged her, holding firmly to her shoulder and keeping her head supported. He laid her down and tried to press on the wound, the blood soaking through his fingers despite his attempts to keep pressure on the wound.

"I... what happened... why do I... I..."

It wasn't long before she went silent. She was limp in his arms.

There was nothing left of Eliza Lightren. Of the people Jerold loved most.

She'd done what she returned to do.

But it wouldn't be enough.