The Ghoul's Little PlayThing

SILENCE

Not the kind brought about by no sound but by too much.

Despite the deafening sounds every which way, Keiran's ears muffled them all out as only he and Lucy walked into the school.

All on Lucy's command.

They walked into the burning, partially destroyed building, stepping over giant rubble, the vision hazy because of the smoke and dust that engulfed the surroundings.

The sickening, unbearable stench was like the fragrance of the day—smoke, burnt flesh, and sulfur.

Finally making it into the school, the center hall was riddled with blood and mutilated corpses, like decorations across the wall.

Lucy was completely unfazed, like this was second nature to her—her steps heavy, sending vibrations through the rubble. She wasn't even fazed by the horrifying stench or the flattened head of a child under a boulder. All that remained was the child's limp body and body-arch sprays that riddled the floors.

Lucy's gaze was dead fixed ahead. Keiran didn't slow down behind her, clinging onto her like she was his savior. They finally made it to the second floor.

The walls were bloodstained, with a little child's handprint trailing across them. But the longer they went on, the more disheveled the trail appeared—from child hands to something more like beast's claw scratches that dug into the wall.

Screams still echoed from down the corridor. A high-pitched wails—then a sickening crack. Keiran's eyes snapped to the sound.

KRRR

The crunching sound as his boots stepped on broken shards of glass was the only thing that jerked him back to reality.

"Keiran!"

"Keiran!"

"Keiran fucking Maddox!!"

Lucy screamed Keiran's name. He was in another world as she grabbed his top collar and shook him hard enough to rattle teeth.

"This isn't the time to take a mental day off. You're either all here or you're all dead," Lucy hissed.

"Focus. Steady yourself!" she barked at him. "Rank-B can smell fear like pheromones."

"Easy for you to say, you don't have a silent ghoul within you," Keiran thought to himself.

THUMB

The sound of something rolling through the hallway—the first sign of life they'd seen this far.

Turning to it.

It's a head.

A teacher's head.

It's eyes widened and basically drawn to the back of the skull, skin un-livingly pale, face stretched unnaturally thin, mouth agape and bleeding from every orifice.

Lucy turned to it for a second before she steadied her stance, narrowed her gaze, and said, "Oh fuck... stand behind me."

Keiran didn't argue. He stood right behind her.

SILENCE.

The entire building's sound came to a halt.

The sirens outside went dead silent.

The screams disappeared.

The helicopter and plane sounds—nonexistent.

A pin drop could've been heard.

Everything just shut up.

Lucy gritted her teeth. "It's a Transition Demon."

Hehehe

A giggle. A child's laughter echoed through the halls.

Lucy's right hand tensed as she slowly reached for her sword, but not yet—just close enough to pull it fast if she had to.

Footsteps echoed through the halls.

Out stepped a little girl in a pristine white dress.

White hair combed straight with not a strand out of place—

Yet the hair was dirty, soaked in blood and the dusty remains of smoke.

She walked forward, dragging something behind her.

An arm.

She dragged it along, leaving a crimson trail in her wake.

A beaming smile that bordered on unnatural.

Blood, flesh, and dirt stuck under her nails.

Her eyes—so red to the point of a glow.

She slowly turned her gaze to Keiran, who stood behind Lucy.

Lucy remained unruffled, not faltering in her composure.

The child spoke. "You're new."

She lazily pointed a finger at Keiran. Her voice was double-laced.

The primary voice—tiny and high-pitched—came from the little girl.

But the other…

A low, growly undertone that vibrated like surround sound from the walls.

"Who are you harbouring?" the child's tone was cold.

"Don't talk to it. It's baiting you," Lucy finally said, almost grazing her sword's handle.

BOOM

The child lunged forward with inhuman speed, spitting through the air in a second and completely closing the distance between them, claws extended.

Lucy's sword unsheathed in half the time—one fatal arch colliding with the child as she came. Dust and smoke debris filled the air.

Keiran fell on his ass, just from the sheer vibration and the wind from the slash, mouth completely agape.

The girl was on the roof now, crawling like a spider as she moved unnaturally, the sound of her cracking bones echoing. She crept to the pillar before slowly crawling down.

Lucy reached for her pocket as the girl came closer. She threw something into the air—obsidian shavings. Useless.

She slashed in one fatal arc, but the child walked through the shavings like they were nothing—because to her, they were.

"Shit... I might actually have to get serious with this shit," Lucy hissed.

"Hehehe... You really think you have any standing here?" the child sneered.

Faking a hit, she drew in closer for a punch but instead kicked up debris into Lucy's eyes, temporarily blinding her. As she shielded her vision, the child threw a boulder-like punch—Lucy went flying off into the distance.

Keiran, still on his ass, stared up at the child standing above him with a beaming smile and a dead look in her eyes.

"Do you wanna play? I'm gonna enjoy killing you."

Keiran swallowed hard, his eyes wide. He knew this was it. This was how he ended.

*"So... you finally beg."

"I could tear her in two. All you need to do... is let go."*

A voice echoed in Keiran's head—strange, yet familiar—rippling goosebumps through his skin.

The little girl heard it too. She took a step back, her red eyes flickering for a moment, as if she were scared.

Keiran slowly stood up. He felt it—his heart beating at double pace, his gaze widened like he could see everything, and a wave of confidence washed over him, making him feel like he owned the world.

No—like he made the world.

"What exactly were your plans for me?" Keiran said, wiping the dirt off his body.

She took another step back—who thought demons could sweat—as the beads formed against her brows, heavy and tight.

Keiran lunged forward, splitting through the air, grabbing her head and smashing it against the pillar so hard he could feel her skull crack under the pressure.

She fell to the floor with a bleeding forehead. As she tried to grab onto Keiran's feet, he brought up his leg and swiftly brought it down—hard enough to crack bone, and it did. All the bones in her right hand cracked as she screamed at the top of her lungs.

Keiran walked over her, grabbing a stone from the rubble and hunching over her.

"Tell me when to stop, okay?"

CRACK

He drove the stone into her forehead, pulling it out as grey matter and spinal fluid stuck to the rock.

CRACK

He drove it in again.

CRACK

Again.

CRACK

Again.

Until her face was unrecognizable.

He finally stood above her, bringing her to her knees with his fingers bloody, as he was about to behead her with a swoosh of his arm.

"Snk... snff... hhic—"

She whimpered, a tiny broken sound caught between breaths. Her eyes welled up, her now bashed-in face trying its best to give out whatever tears it could, as they cascaded along the mutilated flesh.

Keiran stopped, waited for a second.

"What the hell am I doing? She's a child."

"Please... don't kill me... I'm just scared..." the child's voice was barely audible as she sobbed.

"I can't do this..." Keiran dropped his hands.

SWING

Lucy blasted through the rubble she was buried under in one fatal arch—swing wide—beheading the child, or was it demon to her, where she stood.

Exactly like Marcus said.

No hesitation. No remorse.

Time held its breath.

Until the girl's head rolled across the floor with a frozen expression still plastered on her face, and a trail of blood that followed the head.

Lucy hissed, chest heaving in and out.

"You—you are not ever allowed to hesitate. I told you,I made this perfectly clear, I say kill, and you say what? If you ever hesitate again, you're next."

Her gaze steady glaring at him.

The child's body finally slumped to the floor.