Dear readers, may I have your attention. I've changed the description of this book already, but too be perfectly clear: This book will also contain stories that are not for the contest from here on. I have many more ideas for short stories in my head and instead of making a whole new book or wait until the contest is finished, I decided to publish regular stories too. Enjoy :)

My name is Lilith and I've always known that I was doomed. From the moment I was born strange things happened around me. In my teens I got my, as people would say, true appearance. I was evil they said, that's how they justified the way they treated me. I was evil they said, I didn't belong, I was better off dead. So I believed them.

About my true appearance, my hair had always been jet black. But as I grew older my skin became paler, my brown eyes turned crimson red and I lost control over my powers when I would get angry. It only confirmed their opinions about me. It started small, with a girl I accidentally threw in the water with an invisible force when she was bullying me.

Nobody treated me right, that is until a tailor and his family came to town. Three children he had, a son named Percival and two daughters named Selene and Gaia. I never had any parents and grew up under care of a blind woman. She died when I was young, too young to take care for myself, but nobody would take me into their house, so I had to survive on my own.

I still don't understand why Percival and his sisters were nice to me. Even his parents treated me as a normal person instead of the devil's child. He always sent the girls home when they were calling me names and protected me if the guys were throwing stones.

When there was another sickness tormenting the town and the people wanted to blame me he and his parents protected me by pretending I was sick.

I must say the last three years of my life in that town weren't too horrible. However, my powers grew stronger every day and I lost control more often. To protect me Percival offered to take me away to live in the forest where nobody would be able to bother me.

Even though I turned the offer down, he almost dragged me with him towards the woods. On our first night there he confessed his love for me. And of course I loved him back. He changed my life for the better and made me feel like I was a person, a human instead of an insignificant creature that came from Hell itself.

We had no contact with the village, only with his parents and sisters, who came to visit once a week. We cultivated our own food on a little plot of land and Percy would go for a hunt every three days. I even gained control over my powers because of the peaceful environment.

But we could only enjoy our life full of love and peace for one blissful year. Percy asked me to marry him, because he would love to expand our little family, how could I deny him? However the day we were supposed to be married was the day the villagers decided that it was my fault there was an outbreak of the plague. Every day the deadly disease claimed more victims than the day before and the villagers were desperate to stop it.

Somehow they thought sacrificing me was going to solve their problems. They found our little cabin and stormed in. We were still entangled in the sheets and our embrace when they dragged us out of the house.

The tailor and his wife were already tied up, just as their daughters. Both of the girls were crying and all of them looked battered and hurt. I felt my anger flare, but I quickly took control and calmed the raging fire within me.

They took us through the town that smelled of death to the ruins of an old castle. Once it belonged to a lord, but after a fire destroyed everything it became a prison because the dungeons were one of the few things that remained of the castle.

They separated me from Percival and his family and threw me in a cell. The walls were made out heavy stones with a small window with iron bars looking out at the courtyard. The door was made of heavy wood and closed behind me with a bang.

That was three days ago. I woke up from a restless sleep on the cold stones from the noise. People were shouting and as I walked towards the window I saw torches nearing the courtyard. It was almost dawn and the light from the early sun burned red on the horizon.

A few men pulled Percival's family towards the tree that stood in the center of the courtyard. Four ropes were thrown over the thickest branches.

"No, no! They did nothing wrong!" I screamed. My voice was hoarse due to my dry throat. But I kept screaming, the fear eating me alive.

"Stop! Stop! Please, you have me! What else do you want?!" But my words fell on deaf ears. I wanted to help them, to free them and punish the ones who had dared to lay a finger on my family.

I tried to focus my power, but nothing happened other than a few sparks from my fingertips. I was too weak, no food, no water, I barely slept, I was just too weak. I could let go, let go of my control, but I would burn and kill everything, also the ones I so desperately wanted to save.

I watched in horror as they dragged the tailor and his wife to the ropes first. They held their head up high, although they were in nothing but their undergarments as they put the ropes around their necks and tightened them. In that moment they looked at me while I was still screaming. I wanted to tell them I was sorry, that I wished I could have saved them, that I could help them, but nothing passed my chapped lips.

They nodded, as if they told me it was okay. That they would go in peace. They kept looking at me when the men started counting and then pulled at the ropes so that the tailor and his wife rose from the ground and choked in the air.

Until this moment Selene and Gaia had been quiet, but now they started sobbing and screaming hysterically as they were dragged towards the hanging bodies of their parents.

As they stood there, shaking on their legs, the bodies were dropped and dragged away so that there was space to hang the two sisters. As soon as the ropes were hung around their necks they stopped sobbing. They grabbed each other's hand and waited.

One man whispered something to the others and then stepped in front of the girls.

"If you regret your collusion with the witch, with the devil's child, with the doom of our people, we will let you go to be cleansed by a priest, to marry honorable men and live a life free of sins. Do you regret it?"

The girls looked at one another then quickly at me and shook their head in unison.

"We do not regret helping a mistreated girl with a gift." Serene said.

"And we do not regret dying when there is nothing to live for in this village." Gaia added and they spit in the man's face before he gave a sign to pull the ropes.

I screamed as my sisters' bodies were dangling in the air. They kept holding hands until their bodies became limp and were dropped. I sank on my knees inside my cell, mourning my family as the sky turned brighter.

There was no sign of Percy anywhere and I worried for his life. The day went by and the sun starting sinking. It was then that my door was opened. But before I knew what was happening they threw the lifeless body of Percival into my cell and closed the door.

I gasped and crawled closer towards his mangled body. His upper body was bare and covered in blood just as his face and hair.

"Percy, Percy please be alive." I whispered and pulled him in my arms. His eyes were closed but fluttered at the sound of my voice.

"Lilly, is that you? Lilly... Lilly." I stroked his hair as tears fell from my face. He was near dying and without my powers there was nothing I could do.

"I'm so sorry, Percy, for everything I have put you through. I love you." I told him and he slowly opened his green eyes to look up at me.

"No need, Lilly, I loved you from the moment I saw you." He tried to smile but because of the pain it turned into a grimace. I caressed his cheek and kissed his forehead.

"It will all be over soon, my love. I will punish them, punish them all for what they have done. Forgive me." I whispered and he brought a shaky hand towards my face.

"Make them pay." He said and the same fire that burned within me reflected in his eyes for a moment before it died out forever. His hand fell to the ground and I bowed over his body.

There was a pain in my chest I could not describe. It was as if my heart had been torn out, but many times worse. I felt hollow, and the emptiness inside me was filled with rage. They took everything away from me and now they would pay.

I carefully laid Percy on the cold stones that were stained with his blood. As I was standing up the fire within me roared and I let go of the control. Nothing held my power back as I let it flow through my veins causing the whole cell to be lit up from the flames that came from within me.

My eyes were even more crimson as they had been before, my skin even paler. With one flick of my hand the door flew out of it hinges against the opposite wall and I stepped into the corridor.

The men who were supposed to guard me cowered away against the wall. I must have looked terrifying with my dress on fire and the heated power that surrounded me must have took their breaths away.

But I felt no remorse as I calmly walked by and the flames following me consumed their bodies. Their screams were lost in the roaring flames as I continued my path of destruction. Not a single man was spared from the flames. But the hole that was once my heart had not been filled and I left a fiery trail as I made my way towards the village.

The villagers had seen the fire from the ruins and now saw me coming. Of course they tried to run, but they were too late already. Everyone in the village would burn tonight and they who dared to run would be struck with all the diseases they had ever accused me of by dawn.

I continued my walk through town and let my fire rage through every building on my path. The agonizing screams reminded me of my own. The screams I let out whenever they would try to break me, when they would torture me, when they killed the people I loved.

The screams and the fire made a beautiful symphony as the flames lit up the dark night. This place of doom, of charted bones and ashes, this pitiful place would forever remain my home.

They said I was a witch, the devil's child, born in the hot fires of hell, and at one point I believed them. They were wrong.

I was good.

I am evil.