The paddy green fields were freckled with turnips teeming out seamlessly from soil eager to walk with feet they don't possess. The glass shards skewed across the long expanse of prairies lay bare , awaiting some poor fellow to squirm its way and enrich the infertile land with the blood itself if needed. As clouds turned their head away from this small town and the lands dearth of nutrients , it left with poor inhabitants of land with no chance but to resort to deplorable methods for reaching the desired destination.

Seven weeks had passed since the initiation of blood enrichment process. So far, the methods had been effective, too effective to even make them question their own sanity for not using it from the very start . Once the traveller used the small pass through the fields, the glass shards stick to his feet cutting it wide open leaving the pores open for blood to drain out .

Affrighted and confused by sudden bleeding , the traveler has no choice but to look down receding to the inevitable cycle of his head being chopped off in one clean cut expelling much needed nutrients into the land . Afterwards in night , local vultures with their long talons scrape for smoldering meat and tear at it piece by piece all night leaving anything but bones which is burnt by large charcoal fire and filed is sprinkled with ashes and water once rejuvenating it as simple filed once again with fake turnips imprinted into the filed just enough for one passing through to not realize an obvious deception.

.....

Her fingers intertwined firmly against the spear handed over to her, whose weight was much larger than her tiny feeble hands which could only tremble in anticipation , already conceding to divine haven of God , reiterating her sole wish to him again and again : please don't let anyone come.

As her breath got more stifled , a deep haunting dread etched her heart as the realization hit her harder , a realization she wanted to avoid facing : if God was truly so kind, would he have really let a situation be contrived where they would be doing something as sick as this .

Amidst her internal struggle , there was a rustle in bushes as she saw a stark outline heading towards her with a fast pace. Any moment now , he would wince in pain -that is when she had to do it right !

She tightened her grip on handle keeping it close to her hind leg , with her eyes deadest on skewering the target at core of his inevitable mishap. Her fingers which trembled a moment ago ceded to her momentarily as her ears waited for the cue.

"Ow!"

Without wasting a moment's breath , she ran with ferocious alacrity jumping midway to plunge it deep into the poor fellow so that he may avoid any misery before departing but her aim hinged elsewhere . Despite her best efforts to mollify her own heart , all she managed to do was lay panting on spear's blunt broad end sticking it nearby the surprised fellow .

"Oh ! I see. That is indeed quite interesting ." He swept back his black hair . His face which should have been panicking showed no emotion as he pulled out the last shard from his shoe and feet wiping off the last of blood with his handkerchief.

She couldn't understand it ! It was his perfect chance to run away or attack her as she was defenseless. He would also have a valid reason to do so why was he simply staring at with blankest expression etched on his face ? Just what was this situation ?

"Tell me something , girl . " He spoke softly but she gulped inside apprehensive anxiously of outcome awaiting her.

"Why do humans value life so much? Why do humans value their existence so much that they feel obligated and compelled enough to reap others away ? Why do they feel so arrogant that they feel that they have ever possessed the power to do anything beyond carrying on with their measly existence?" He fondled her hair as she felt his cold breath down her neck permeating chill throught her body .

"I don't know." She lowered her head. It was all just tiring at this point . It had only been going for seven week and yet she found that despair of her hell had clutched her heart since the very moment she was born . Every night , they incinerated those bloody remains that blotched their daily delight of transient existence ,s all she felt was utter disbelief. Utter disbelief on finding that she could retain the images of each and every night since so deeply engraved in her conscience, that she felt longing more and more to be that victim themselves.

Their death is nothing less than a brutal slaughter every night as is their end but at least it ends . But every night , as those images flashed in her eyes when she couldn't help but lay awake peering out of windowsill , she found herself advancing further into dreary arms of death only to be pulled away at last second into her mere existence.

Was it her own cowardice that fettered her suicide or was it perhaps a subtle fantasy of her own to find out whether by leading this depraved existence of her, someone would overturn her paths one day .

She pondered it all as his greyish brown eyes simply glanced at her as if prompting her to find those answers herself .

"Oh ! So it seems you are not just a dumb mutt after all." He sighed as she raised her eyebrows. Normally ,she would have been instigated but reduced to shell of a person ,all she could do was form a sheepish smile.

"Who are you?"

"It is rude of you to ask when you yourself haven't introduced your name , don't you think ?" He smiled . What was she doing ? Why was she letting this bizarre situation continue? Her duty should be now to call out the other villagers and apprehend him . Was she really ready to break past the barriers of her existence yet ? No , she was too much of a coward to do so .

So if living was her only remaining choice, then shouldn't she simply act best in accordance with most optimal consequence? The rationality seeping in her thoughts tried to push her heart aside yet it kept etched on the same path. No ! She had to know just why was he so nonchalant ? Just what was the secret behind the happiness that this person had managed to find even in most threatening of situation ?Just why was he able to remain so calm as if occurrence or non-occurrence of anything was simply a happening meant to be a treated like a rock stuck to sandal on bump road.

Her heart , soul which had already reached its zenith of despair and malice every night through those tattered carcasses puckered by hungry vulture was ready to accept that there existed no worse fate than one she had already experienced .

Once this belief was affirmed by her conscience, she found herself latching on to log taking her to safe destination even though he had laid bare in ocean of despair for so long .

"How are you so calm ? Do you not desire revenge.." She began but he pressed his finger on her lips quickly.

"Have you taken a look around this world ? Everywhere , conflict and war runs rampant as anarchy consumes land one by one . Drought , development , strategic conquest , humans finding gazillion reasons to justify maiming and killing each other even after passing of millennia. Yet , at their core, all they feel is a dark stench of despair tugging at their heart that doesn't even possess the will to prevent it anymore.

People talk about truce endlessly after killing thousands, after deliberate onslaught that they themselves willingly engaged in and yet at their heart , simply hypes other in their grand delusion of peace and stability, two things that have never found anything but an ephemeral existence in long expanse of humanity ." He facepalmed himself.

"Humans pride themselves on being so civilized , better than primal ancestors and yet without a moment's hesitation, revert back to their ways at any opportune moment , even exceeding the depravity that their ancestors couldn't even think of doing to one another.

Yet a girl with lifeless soul simply asking for death asks me as to why I don't desire revenge ? I don't desire revenge because this world is just so depraved that I don't feel sadness when mother silts their wombs to prevent their honor being maimed by insects in human flesh . when millions of innocent are whisked away into ashes simply as collateral damage in selfishness of two people satisfying their egos, when humans seeking the satisfaction of their ambition tramples on other' e existence as if they weren't in same position just a moment ago . I don't feel anger when I see unjustified genocide for I realize just how cliché this cycle has really become and will remain for rest of eternity .

There is nothing this world can offer to me that can render my heart any longer . All I feel is a simple stimulation, a simple curiosity as I see things play out. You are simply an infant that is truly beginning to understand dystopian reality but I don't feel any moral obligation or urge to heed to your desire to end your suffering . Whether you will continue to survive or will take step to actualize the outcome you so seek is simply interesting to me now.

Once you see past depravity, atrocities , morals , you realize just how interesting it all really is ."

She couldn't help but let out a chuckle. Indeed! How could she become arrogant enough to think that her despair was greater than all ? How could she become so out of touch with reality to not even realize the implications of her own belief? What is death , if not a change in state where an organism doesn't do anything more being charred to dust. If that can be attributed as relief itself , then the guilty conscience she held so close to her heart would be simply cleansed away .

That would be nothing more than ideal state that she no longer deserves to get after the kinds of abhorable deeds she had partake in for her own existence. It was if something within his answer had sparked off in her own heart that made her demean her own despair .

She realized that it didn't mean her pain had been lessened or mitigated but at least his despair had definitely helped her to feel a strange sense of contentment in her own struggles, in her willingness to keep deluding herself into living her empty and dysfunctional existence just while longer.

As she scrutinized him up and done once again , she could faintly trace back the marks of a person that had been long forgotten as anything other than mere legend.

"Thank you , Kane."

He rolled his eyes at her "Oh ! So you realized after all. "

"Indeed ! Your words were just too allusion of something so sacred."

"Nonsense ! Sacred and curse - all are simply two opposing existences meant to fuel each other whenever necessary . Virtue and Vice after all began with me only in this world so I would know . "

"Maybe you will ." She nodded with content smirk that hadn't bedecked her face in forever . A small ephemeral satisfaction as she saw the figure of the first killer on earth accursed with his own burden of immortality fading away in distant , doomed to a secluded existence only meant for eternally watching the cycle she had simply seen in its tiniest form for just few weeks.

He would never find contentment and will never find relief in death itself , inaccessible to him -all that man simply seeks is to stride along all the lands to find more and more stimulation unlike her who would still be appeased soon enough knowing at least her end was inevitable . That kind of contentment would always remain with her no matter what happens from now on. She knew that now lucidly than ever before.