Circa 1872

Prologue

Baby

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With her hands full of dried leaves, all she can do is stare at what she discovered underneath those. She, herself, couldn't explain what she felt and only one thing is for sure: her mind is just a void. Empty... and scared? Yes, fear, fear of what she is seeing, of what's infront of her. She should run, no, she IS supposed to run and report this to the authority to find out more about the body– the decomposed body of a person. Sadly, all she could do is stare.

The body, it was naked, left undiscovered in the middle of the woods not until it was her who found it.

A child, unconsciously lying on the dried leaves, its eyes open, looking at her as if its asking for help. No... the eyes, its missing, it was pure darkness on the place where the eyeballs are supposed to be. It was just a hole...

The lips... Good Lord, the lips! where are the lips? All she could see is the teeth that is covered in dried blood, it was like the child ate something alive but no, it was killed. And some parts of it was removed. The eyes and the lips.

Fear consumed her at that very moment but her body refused to move, it was frozen. Frozen by the fact that she just saw a corpse of a child no older than 5. Frozen by the fact that the child suffered a lot. And frozen by the fact that a human did this to the victim.

Her eyes unconsciously trace where the horrendous amount of blood is coming from until it reach to the child's stomach, it was deeply carved, with small letters, she read it out loud to know that it wasn't a dream, that everything infront of her is real. Everything is real at this very moment and she is not stuck in a very horrific nightmare.

"Innocence is a disease..." Her heart starting to beat faster than a tired man's heart. Her hands shaking, the situation already dawned on her.

She was about to run but then another details has caught her eyes. Why can't you just run, Victoria?! The head was almost cut in half! As if the culprit used an axe, she could imagine how everything inside's the child's head is cut. Something is coming out but it is pure red. No, she dont wanna know anymore, all she want is to escape.

How can anyone do this? The child did no mistake and yet it suffered under the hands of a mysterious person. A person stole a child's opportunity to see the world!

With a tear-stained eyes and a shaky breath, she decided to run, she know she will no longer have the courage to stay there for much longer and stare at it as if it's a good sight to see. Run, run, run. Everything is blurry. She is filled with fear and grief.

With all the strength that she have left, she screamed, "HELP! Somebody help me! Help!" Her voice desperate to be heard, funny enough, the sun mockingly shine brighter than ever as if the situation needed a warm celebration.

"Help!"

No one answered, of course, who would? This is supposed to be an innocent journey in the woods, all she wanted to do was to find a beautiful place for her to build a beautiful chamber, not until it turned into a fright.

The picture of an innocent child played in her mind. That moment, she knew her life will never be the same as it was. Her innocence all gone...

And she was only 9.