Midnight Archer

She gazed at the bow, pleased at the fine craftsmanship that went into it. It's beautiful black stained ebony wood, the pure silver string, she was enchanted.

"How much?" She asked, excited.

"Oh, so quick to buy, hmmm? Don't you want to see the arrows first before you buy?" The old women questioned.

This women, she was an odd one on the young girl's opinion. But she was easily swayed by her promises. The women, she was, in the girls opinion, very startling in appearance. Her white hair was cut in a choppy short style. She wore drappy clothing that made it difficult to tell if she was fat or frail. His skin was sickly green, and weeped over her cheek bones. Her eyes, oh her eyes, were frightenly blue. The color was unnaturally beautiful.

The girl thought it over for a second.

"Can I see the arrows?"

"Only if you buy the bow!" The old women cackled manically.

The young girl frowned, but pulled out her sack of coins, and asked, yet again, "How much?"

"Two of your precious gold coins will do it, my sweet," the old women gestured to the girls sack while talking.

The girl slowly, but excitedly pulled her payment out of her horse feed sack. She was so shocked how low the price was. She came here expecting to sell away her soul just to get the bow.

As the girl handed the women her payment, the women reached behind her and pulled out a quiver fill with about ten maybe fifteen arrows. Slowly, and most likely painfully the women pulled out a single arrow, and handed it to the girl. Her ragged and bent fingers shook a little in the process.

"Pure ebony wood," the women said matter- affectedly. "Lovely, is it not?"

"Oh, more than that, it's beautiful!"

Brushing her curly blond hair from her face, she looked more closely at the women. Her dark eyes were surrounded by darkness.

The girl still stared at the bow and arrows in awe.

"Have you ever heard of the legend of The Midnight Archer?" The women asked off handedly. The girl just nodded, not really listening.

"Oh good. So I guess you know it is really a curse?" And again the girl just nodded, she was entranced by the bow and arrows.

"The curse is trapped in a bow. It is said that the owner is then the cursed one. It the bow acts only as a way to transfer the curse from one human being to another. No one knows for sure what the curse is, only that it slowly feeds off of the host. The person becomes a shell, no part of who they were exists anymore. They are sentences to centuries of doing the curse's bidding." The women stopped talking and looked at the girl.

Slowly the women reached for the bow behind her, and the bow, and the quiver. The girl reached out, waiting for them to be handed to her.

As the women handed her everything, the girl smiled so big her face hurt.

"Thank you so-" her big brown doe eyes opened wide, and her mouth made an O. She tried to scream, but nothing came out.

In front of her the old women was decaying. Turning to dust and blowing away, as if some phantom wind had entered the room. It started at her head, and moved down.

"Don't thank me, I was happy to give it up." She smiled manically and laughed as she turned to dust. Soon, there was nothing left of her.

The girl was knocked off her feet. Shivering by the cold blast that went in her body. Now, she could finally screamed as her body felt like she was being cut into pieces.

Laying in the ground convulsing, her body was still. She didn't move, now she was changing, physically and mentally. Her once long blond hair was now crow black. Glinting slightly by the candle light.

She propped herself on her elbow. Suddenly she whipped her head around, looking at the window with her black pupil less eyes.

She hissed. She saw a boy. Small for his age. When he saw her, he took off in the other direction, running for the hills.

In a blink of an eye she was off the ground. Bow in hand, arrows in quiver, and quiver over her shoulder. A tool she soon found out was unnecessary, she could easily over power anyone with just the sheer will, but after all, all the midnight archers enjoyed the chase.

The boy never saw her coming. One second he was in the woods, hands on his knees panting, to being pressed against a tree.

She sighed. She started sucking the air around her. Soul sucking. The visible thread between them shook a little.

If only the boy had filled her, but no, she was still hungry.

She ran to her village, and fed on everyone else, the elderly and infants alike. She hardly batted an eye when she killed her mother, or the boy she loved. She was a changed person from then on out.