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“Huh?! What are you saying, Crasnic?” The one by the fire, with Joker’s makeup over his pig mask, starts to laugh.
“The time has come for you to receive your punishment from the one who marked you.” The one with short, boar-like teeth tilts his head in confusion, sparks dancing chaotically around his sharp ears, and flattened snout. It’s the first time I’ve seen them wearing these masks, and I had never imagined they could be so unsettling.
My breathing quickens, and instinctively, I take two steps back, trying to free myself from the hands that relentlessly reach for my body. Terror overtakes logic, and my shoes get stuck in the mud beside the trail.
My back collides with something hard and I fall onto an ancient stone crypt, knee-high, looking like an altar surrounded by flickering candles. I lift my bare feet and crawl backward, attempting to escape the slippery grasp of the crouching Crasnic at the base of the crypt.
“I don’t want to play anymore!” I gasp desperately, my heart pounding as I see only darkness no matter where I turn.
“This isn’t a game, Crasnic!” the one next to the crypt raises his mud-covered palms and presses them against my legs.
“No, please!” I scream and start to cry.
“You have nowhere to run, little piglet.” the Crasnic by the bonfire keeps his hands firmly tucked into his uniform pants, his shirt damp and untucked.
“Samael!” I call out his name, and I feel my back collide with something solid.
I raise my chin and gaze above me, through the tangles of disheveled hair that cling to my face. A Crasnic with broad shoulders, dressed in a black hoodie, hood pulled up, sharp teeth, and piercings in his nose and ear looks down at me.
“Run, Rebecca!” his unmistakable voice shatters my chest into pieces.
CHAPTER 1
Present
Rebecca
A5th coffee, please!”
I take the money out of my hoodie and leave it on the small counter in front of the convenience store. Alec Benjamin’s song “Devil Doesn’t Bargain” plays in my headphones. I smirk, it’s pleasant, but I have no idea how it ended up in my Spotify playlist. A few cold drops hit my face as I stop near the intersection. I hide under the oversized hood of my hoodie and shield my eyes from the cold gust sweeping through the center of London. It looks like it’s about to rain, and nothing out of the ordinary is going to happen today. Just another day where I’ll get lost in the sea of people while shopping for my mom, whom I need to pick up from the clinic where she’s been hospitalized for over a month. “You’re coming to get me today, right?”
“Yes, Mom. Don’t worry.”
“Where are you now?”
“I just left the gym.”
“Fights aren’t meant for girls, Becca.”
“Neither are cigs.”
“I don’t smoke anymore.”
“I don’t box anymore either.”
“This way, you won’t find yourself a boyfriend.”
“I don’t even want one.”
“But I want grandchildren.”
“And I want Ben Affleck, but I guess we’ll never hook up, and you won’t end up with grandchildren.”
“Affleck is too old for you.”
“See you at five,” I rush to end the conversation and run towards the intersection.
“Alright, but get me some grape juice.”
