His Challenge

Why

The voice of a man, low and rumbling. It causes Sofia's heart to sink to the pit of her stomach, a serious sense of danger making every hair on her body stand in attention.

Sofia cannot see the man, nor can she locate the direction of his voice. She feels as if it comes from every direction, almost as if she hears it in her head and not aloud. And her name, his knowledge of it, sends shivers down her spine.

"Who are you?" She asks for the second time today. Her voice comes out far shakier than she had hoped, but she convinces herself that the man will not hear the terror in it, will not realize her current weakness.

"Just a man."

Suddenly, two white eyes are inches away from her face, staring directly into her brown ones, and Sofia jumps back with a shout. She tries to grab something on one of the shelves to throw at the thing, but the moment her hand makes contact with the bottles, an electric shock courses through her body. Not as strong as the feeling of her skin on Kyro's, but certainly with a strength of its own.

Sofia pulls her hand away quickly, losing sight of the eyes that were just in front of her but still hearing the man's laughter, the crackle of an evil being. She backs herself into a corner, bending over and putting both hands to her ear to block out the noise. She searches for the entrance she used, but all see can see in every direction is the fabric of the tent, closed, forbidding any attempt of an escape.

Sofia sees those eyes again, completely and unsettlingly white, lacking both an iris and a pupil. In addition, she clearly sees a smile, sharp, white teeth forming into an ominous grin. But no face, no structure, just features popping up in the dark room.

"Sit down, Sofia," the man instructs, his features disappearing and one of the wooden chairs pulling out on its own. Sofia just continues to stand in the corner, impotent and unable to move any of her muscles.

Everything up to this point had felt like a fairytale: time freezing, worlds transforming. And now, she is in the horrifying part of the story, where Sleeping Beauty pricks her finger, where Cinderella's stepsisters cut off the flesh of their feet to make the shoe fit. Currently, Sofia is stuck in the evil, bloody side that she should have expected when she saw the flowery, beautiful start to her day.

"Sit down." An even stronger order, one that suggested the danger of disobeying it. Sofia pushes herself off the wall of the tent, which is surprisingly extremely steady, and rests her body against the small chair. Across from her, those terrifying eyes and smile appear, ones that look as if they belong to a lost visage and body. Sofia wants to look away badly, close her eyes to make herself believe that the horrendous sight in front of her is not reality, but she fears that doing so will raise the anger of the thing.

"Now, let's start."

The thing starts humming a chilling tune, and cards appear on the table in between his face and Sofia's. They flip over on their own, and the thing stops his humming, now examining the numerous pictures and words on them.

"Interesting," he comments, and more and more cards flip. "You're searching for your mother, what a good daughter you are."

At the mention of her mother, Sofia leans forward in her chair. Did this thing know anything about her mother? Is this the reason Kyro brought her to his world? Would finding out what happened to her mother be as simple as talking with the face in front of her?

Before Sofia has the chance to respond, the thing continues, "Well I'll tell you what, you will not find her. But to not dishearten you too badly, I'll also tell you that you will find him. Her murderer."

Murderer.

So her mother is truly gone, just as Kyro had told her earlier in the day.

Sofia's eyes tear up, turning red as she fights back every ounce of desire to break down right then and there, to scream and cry and smash everything in sight. Her throat closes up, a lump forming, and she finds it increasingly harder to take in sufficient breaths; she continues to fight back tears, but eventually, they fall, as all things do.