• ───── ⋅ ✶ ⋅ ───── •

• ───── ⋅ ✶ ⋅ ───── •

14 YEARS IN THE PAST

• ───── ⋅ ✶ ⋅ ───── •

❝  All Jyn wanted, was not to be alone anymore. ❞

WRAPPED IN A CLOAK too big for her, which the voice had forced her to recover in one of the houses of the village, Jyn felt the sleep approaching. She was in a small clearing in the middle of the snowy valley. The moon was high in the sky, but its luminous halo was not strong enough to prevent the girl from sleeping.

Hunger, on the other hand, was hard to ignore.

That's why when a smell of cooked meat reached her nostrils, Jyn woke up quickly. She got up, shook the cloak to get rid of the snow, and turned on herself to look for where the smell came from.

To the east.

Jyn, accustomed to obeying the orders of the voice for the past two days, did not hesitate. She pulled up the hood of the coat on her head and headed east of the clearing.

"If there are people, they can help me!" she whispered in the night.

The voice remained silent.

However, Jyn let hope swell her lungs. Nearby, there were people. She felt it. Finally, she would no longer be alone with her thoughts... and with the voice. Blinded by her determination, she advanced faster through the scattered trees. The light of a fire appeared behind the trees.

Travelers had set up camp here, and they were going to help her, the little girl told herself. She would no longer be alone.

All she wanted was not to be alone anymore.

Slow down. Let's see how many of them there are.

Jyn was tempted to disobey and rush to the campfire, but a primitive instinct restrained her, and she obeyed the voice. She slipped behind a tree trunk. One dark figure was sitting by the fire ─ another was busy around a tent. Although the girl remained there for a moment, she noticed no other presence.

Don't move yet.

But Jyn had decided otherwise. She took a step in the direction of the small camp ─ a branch cracked under her feet. The man readying the fire raised his head towards her. Slowly, she approached, until the light of the fire illuminated her face, and she lowered her hood.

"Good morning," she said timidly.

The man stood up and stared at her. The other, attracted by the noises, quickly joined him.

"Hi, you," he replied, smiling.

Jyn crossed her arms under her chest, suddenly unsure of what to do. She simply replied with a smile. The smell of the meat was stronger than before ─ one of the men noticed her eye lingering on the rabbit's thigh cooking above the fire.

"Do you want some? Come here, girl."

Jyn quickly obeyed. But as she sat down next to the fire, the man slid towards her at lightning speed. Before she could react, the girl found herself with a knife under her throat. The man grabbed her arms. Jyn uttered a cry of surprise,  struggled to break free, but the man strengthened his grip and turned her around to face him. She looked up at his face ─ his smile made the hairs on her skin raise in fear.

The voice was still silent.

"Leave me alone!" she cried.

The man pushed her down, his companion silently watching, and the girl's back suddenly it the ground. All of her muscles suddenly seemed paralyzed.

"Jon, this is strange. We left no survivors."

But the man ignored the remark and neeled beside Jyn on the ground. As the girl turned her head to look at him, she noticed his armor. The horror made her open her eyes wider and she struggled harder, but the grip of the soldier was firm.

Jyn.

"Leave me alone!" she cried.

Jyn. Let me take care of it.

The little girl had no more tears to cry. She was nothing but rage, anger, her innocent trust betrayed. She had been stupid: stupid to hope. The man laughed.

Jyn suddenly stopped struggling. In spite of the darkness, the man with the carnivorous smile noticed that the irises of the girl were coloured a scarlet red. His smile faded and he recoiled. She was inhumanly still.

"What..."

Before he had time to finish his sentence, Jyn freed one of her hands from his grip and grabbed the knife hidden in his coat pocket. Her movements were fluid, precise  ─ inhuman. Her actions were hers, but at the same time, they were not. Jyn only had part of the control over her own body.

She drove the blade in the soldier's throat. The soldier tweeted a dull tweet, eyes wide open, a hand on his throat. But it wasn't enough to stop the blood from escaping the gaping wound.

Jyn pushed the dying man to the side and stood up. Her face covered in blood and eyes red carmine, she stood straight in front of the second soldier. They stared at each other a few seconds before the man rushed to grab his sword.

However, the girl was faster. She threw herself at him like a rabid animal, planted her nails in his clothes, managing to make him waver. Her fist closed around the knife, Jyn stuck it in his abdomen. He shouted  ─ but then she stabbed him again. And again, until he fell completly silent.

She let go of the weapon, plunged into the man's guts, and retreated a few steps, her heart beating loudly. Jyn could no longer hear the voice of the demon in her mind: she was one with him.

Her eyes slowly recovered their usual color. In front of her, the scene of horror made her escape her stupor: the snow was stained with red. The two bodies, with their eyes wide open, seemed frozen in a state of pure terror. Behind the trees, a shadow trembled.

As soon as the red disappeared from the little girl's irises, she fell to the ground like a rag doll, her forces deserting her.

Jyn was alone again.