A Deal with the Devil

Chapter 1

The night had already fallen in the dense forest. Mara could even see the moonlight through the wrecked nave of the old church in which she decided to take up residence a long time ago. Looking around, she suddenly realised what she'd done to this place: pilasters were in ruin, the floor was scattered with pieces of glass. Time had affected the area too: cobwebs and moss covered the stones. The darkness and the silence of the harsh night made it gloomier, bordering on creepy. But nothing could frighten Mara at that time, maybe except herself. With a weary gesture, she grabbed a fragment of a broken mirror and looked. Could it be worse that it was at that moment? Two horns were taking centre stage between her dishevelled and dark hair, her eyes, so bright in the past, were as dark as her dress: the pupil couldn't even be distinguished. The skin of her neck's base, just as the skin of her hands, was cracked and drab. Despite her efforts, she couldn't remember how old she was: she had been wandering in this world for too many times anyway. But what happened to the little girl full of life she was? How did she become the monster she could see in her reflect? As she wondered, a thick black smoke wrapped her entirely, making all over her silhouette disappear. And here, in this vast mist, the horror of her life took shape...