Twisted Tales for Twisted Minds

Thumbelina

The girl took the slap across her face stoically.

"You are worthless; you can't even clean a hovel right!"

This was her fourth master this past year alone, and he had been comparatively kind until she shattered his prized teacup on the stone floor. This one she had served for months, in gratitude for the evils he rescued her from.

She could take the censure. She would, for the safety of even a mediocre home.

"Get out of my house!"

But not that. There was nowhere to take her back, but places no child should be.

This hero had saved more than her, for a time. It stopped her from offering herself to the Wisp of the Woods.

And now it was time to make the sacrifice.

Into the woods, a stolen kitchen knife in hand, a short walk to the heart's tree. She slammed the knife's tip through the back of her hand, pinning her to the forest as she repeatedly called the name of her justice.

"Haures! I shelter myself at your feet, a servant!"

From the depths of the woods stepped a young man with eyes that smoldered in passion, a sneer firmly in place. "What do you want with me, daughter of man?"

"I've come to offer myself as a bride... for a price."

The man leaned towards the young woman, leering hungrily at all that she offered while being nailed to a tree. "And what is it you wish to ask of me?"

"Three masters in the village east abuse their maids, and a fourth has no care of what he rescued. The rest allowed the abuse."

"My dear," the man smiled kindly at the woman before giving his answer, "you are food."

The man bit into the side of her face, gouging out a cheek and part of the tongue, drinking his fill of her blood as she screamed in agony.

Each bite was the same, rending flesh from bone and nuzzling the fountain of agony that poured forth. Haures savored every scream as the finest wine.

But there is only so long a monster can toy with his meal, especially as starved as the demon usually is. His favorite point, where she would be just on the edge of consciousness, came all too soon.

"I will not destroy your village because they make such beautiful meals for me to devour at my leisure." Tradition then forced Truth's confession. "Your sacrifice was in vain, my dear."

Then came the realization of her failure, which she should have known from the first bite, but agony dims the mind.

Only then did he consume the whole of her.

Haures wiped her blood off his face and on the back of his hand, then licked it clean before pulling the now lonely blade from the tree.

There are never happy endings. Especially fate bound in the hands of demons.

But the world is never without hope, no matter how small. A single drop of blood remained, the first of three attempts to change this monster into a savior. It dripped off his chin.

Potent is human blood that travels across a demon's skin.

Alone, the drop flitted in the air like a seed, traveling for miles until it landed in the queen's garden. A flower sprang forth in the lonely hours of the night, and on its bed lay a young child—almost a swaddling newborn, save for being so tiny.

~~~

Like in many stories, the Queen was without a child, and the King began to look for her replacement. She begged the stars as piteously as did the servant on the very same night.