𝐁𝐞𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡 ✓

chapter 17 :: bonds

WARNING: this chapter will contain

mentions of blood, arachnophobia, violence

Silence.

She wasn't sure why she had asked such a question, or what even compelled her to think of it in the first place. To her, she was just as confused as the spider demon was, both staring in bafflement at each other.

She blamed it on her foggy mind. It was the only reasonable explanation.

But as her world began to grow dark, she began to wonder whether there truly was a hidden meaning behind her question, one only she should try to recall or in the very least, understand.

What...does...a mother...mean?

"Ah, you're awake."

Something trickled into her lips, a strange yet odd taste flooding her senses. Her eyes snapped wide open, the pain of her broken limbs bringing her back to her reality, and as much as she disliked the pain, she was grateful it had sobered her consciousness enough to get a grip on her situation.

The mother demon was gone. In her place was the small demon from earlier on, Rui. By the looks of it, they were also in a completely different part of the mountain altogether. The boulder where the mother demon had once sat was nowhere to be seen.

Nothing but gloomy, dismal trees that surrounded the area.

She was still tied up, which was suddenly becoming normal at this point. Her limp right leg was bent and attached by the ankle to the thigh of her left, while her left arm hung limply in the air, completely untethered. Her right arm was attached to another string, but her sword was gone. It had fallen off in her moment of consciousness to the forest floor, and from the height where she lay there was no chance of her retrieving it anytime soon. Her head stung so she could only assume she had suffered an injury at some point when she'd fallen unconscious and she desperately tried to move her body in an attempt to free herself from the strings.

Except, they weren't strings. They were the same webs that the spider mother had used on her before, but these were more razor-sharp and they dug into her skin without her even trying. Moving would only cause friction against her skin and the sharp webs, which would in turn would make a clean cut through her body. They were also a rather reddish-color, while the mother demon's were paler in comparison.

"The only job she'd done right," Rui commented. She couldn't help but notice that he'd been quiet since she had woken up, only eying her down with curiosity and malicious intent, as if he'd rather have cut her into a million tiny pieces than have her standing before him very much alive. "I suppose I should be grateful," he continued. "But it's not like you would've struggled much in the first place. You're weak." Had the timing been different, she would've taken offense to the insult, but she couldn't help but bitterly agree with the demon as her blood stained her body, forming pools against her clothing and dripping down the demon's webs.

Seeing as she said nothing―or rather had nothing to say― the demon turned away, his hands fidgeting with what appeared to be another web. Nothing but silence was casted in the dismal night air. No longer could she hear the faint shrieks from her comrades like before.

Complete silence.

In the first place, what could she say? She had received what little knowledge she could from the mother demon, who for all she knows could've been killed or perhaps taken away by their supposed 'Father' demon. To add icing to that rather nasty cake, she doubted the demon would've indulged her in anything that could be of use to her. Unlike the other demon she'd encountered, he had no remorse and probably would kill her right then and there without a single moment of hesitation or thought.