The double doors in the back of the house were the only ones I could fit through. I shuffled down the hallway behind the lady of the house, careful not to knock anything over. They led me into the dining room, where I sat at the far end. My knees were up by my chin when I sat down, and any sudden movements might have sent one of my antlers through the wall.
It was the best meal I'd had in days.
Even as the family huddled together at the other end of the table and eyed me nervously while they ate; I still couldn't get over how good it felt to eat with people under a roof again. I managed to ignore how awful the food tasted to me.
I asked them questions about how long they'd been living in the village, and what life was like there. While they answered I nodded politely, but then stopped once I noticed how nervous the movement was making them.
The lady of the house was named Isabel. She foraged for seeds out in the woods and collected old books about farming. She hoped to help feed people once the population started to bounce back. Her daughter Millie wanted to be a cook. They lived with their uncle, Isabel's husband's brother. He hoped to open something called a distillery, but hadn't been able to because of Annalisa.
"Her story was passed by word of mouth for generations. She was born in that manor house, the only daughter of the richest man in town. Her mother died in childbirth, deeply angering her father, but Annalisa was born blind and lame. Her father figured that was punishment enough and came to love his daughter. She was forbidden from leaving the manor house. She spent her days being carried from room to room by servants and having stories read to her.
"When the demons first arrived to wipe out humanity her family was called up to assist. All her fathers and brothers went out to hunt, and they brought back the corpse of an enormous bat. At first they were proud of their accomplishment, but time after time it kept coming back to life. They killed it over and over in as many ways as they could think of, but nothing worked.
"One night Annalisa snuck out of her room and managed to drag herself into the back yard where the demon's body was kept. In the morning the demon was gone and Annalisa had changed."
Isabel paused and looked over at me. "I don't suppose I need to tell you what happened?"
"No, thank you, I understand."
"At first her recovery was considered a miracle. Word spread of how she had destroyed the demon, and humanity began to route them. Some rumors say she was on the front lines, showing the way for the people brave enough to make the transformation.
"Something happened near the last days of the fight, before the uneasy peace we find ourselves in now. She returned to the village, but she was cold and often cruel. Annalisa made us watch when she caught a demon and ate it. Sometimes she would take a newborn and fly it high into the sky."
"It's amazing that her mind has survived this long," I mused.
Isabel and her family looked at me. "What do you mean?"
It made sense that if there was only one demon-person in town that no one there would know that demons could lose their minds. I explained what had happened with the beetle and why we needed to keep eating.
The family stopped eating and slumped back in their chairs. All of them had worried looks on their faces.
"All this time she might have just started eating us," Isabel mused. "It might not be long now, there's so few demons left after all."
"I won't let that happen," I swore.
All of them looked up at me. I meant what I said. They were the first people to take me in since I'd changed. That was worth protecting.
