It was Forbidden to go to Velmorth because it was a kingdom known to be ruled by the night creatures.
Every human knew that, and always warned their children of the dangers of defying or trespassing. Anyone who trespassed, never lived to tell the story. And those who managed to escape the grip of those creatures, were always seriously injured.
Because of this, humans lived in fright of those creatures.
In the farthest corner of the eastern plains lived a young girl whose name was never spoken with kindness.
Elyria Glen.
From the moment she was born, she was neglected. Her birth mother abandoned her at the orphanage, and when she was adopted, her foster family treated her like a plague, something unwanted, and eventually, she learned to endure.
She slept on the coldest corner of a collapsing hut, rose before everyone else, and worked until her hands burned and bled. When food was scarce, she was the first forgotten. When tempers flared, she was the easiest target. No one listened when she cried, so eventually… she stopped trying. No one had ever loved her, and soon she lived with the fact that no one would.
"Elyria!" Her stepmother, Belinda, yelled out her name from her bedroom.
Elyria sighed because of exhaustion where she was bent down scrubbing the floor. She had been working on an empty stomach since morning and now, it was past evening. Still, her stepmother and stepsisters wouldn't let her have a breath.
"Elyria!"
"Coming," she whispered back as she quickly dropped the scrubbing rag on the floor, and rushed upstairs.
She barely entered her stepmother's bedroom when she was smacked across the face so hard her face turned sideways. Tears quickly formed in her eyes and gradually slipped down her cheeks.
"Do I have to call you severally?" Belinda barked at her, and her two stepsisters, Anna and Elise, laughed.
Elyria bit on her lips to stop herself from bursting into tears. She should be used to this by now, but still, it hurt every time her stepmother hit her.
"You just lazy around all day. I should make you work more so that you don't become lazy."
"Mother, I need her to wash my clothes right now," Elise cried out. "That way she wouldn't lazy around."
"No mother, I need her to clean my bedroom," Anna argued, stamping her feet on the floor impatiently. "She can wash Elise's clothes later."
"I asked her to wash my clothes first!" Elise countered with a killer gaze at her sister.
"I am eldest!"
"Both of you, keep quiet," Belinda yelled at both her children, and they obeyed immediately still glaring at each other. "Now back to you," she said, her voice calm as she turned to Elyria.
Belinda moved around her slowly, unhurried, as though Elyria were an object rather than a person. Her gaze swept over the girl with open disgust. "If you have enough time to make me call your name twice, then you clearly have enough time to take on more work."
Elyria's hands tightened around the hem of her skirt. She kept her head lowered, her silence unquestioning.
"You will wash Elise's clothes," Belinda went on smoothly. "Every single stain must be gone. After that, you'll clean Anna's room. I want the floors scrubbed until they shine, the windows spotless, the bed remade properly. Miss one thing, and you will repeat everything."
Anna's lips curved in quiet triumph. Elise's eyes gleamed.
"And when you're done," Belinda added, her tone turning colder, "you'll cook dinner."
Hunger clenched painfully in Elyria's stomach, but she showed nothing.
Belinda paused, then sighed as if remembering a minor inconvenience. "Ah. Before you begin, you'll go to the market."
She lifted a small coin purse and let it drop against Elyria's chest. It slid to the floor between them.
"Buy flour," Belinda said. "I will know if even a single coin is missing. And if it is… you'll make up for it."
"Yes, Mother," Elyria murmured as she bent to retrieve the purse.
Belinda hissed, and then walked past her with both her daughters, leaving just her in the bedroom.
After retrieving the coins and the purse, Elyria slipped out of the house.
The evening air greeted her with a chill that sank straight into her bones. The sun was already sinking beyond the plains, staining the sky in muted shades of amber and ash. Villagers hurried past her, no one lingered when night began to stretch its fingers across the land.
Elyria kept to the narrow path leading toward the market, her grip tight around the small purse in her palm. Hunger gnawed at her stomach, but she ignored it as she always did.
It was halfway down the dirt road that she felt it.
She looked behind her, but there was no one. But still, she could feel it.
She could feel a presence.
Her steps slowed without her realizing it. The air grew unnaturally still, the wind dying as though it had been swallowed whole. Even the insects fell silent. Elyria's heart began to pound, a quiet, frantic rhythm she could not calm.
She lifted her head slowly.
To her right, beyond the cracked fence and the stretch of dead grass, stood the woods bordering Velmorth. The trees there were taller, darker, their twisted branches interlocking like claws against the sky. She had passed this road countless times, always averting her gaze, always hurrying by.
But this time, she could not look away.
The presence felt close. Really close. Like it was watching.
Elyria stopped.
Her breath caught in her throat as something shifted between the shadows of the trees. At first, she thought it was nothing more than the fading light playing tricks on her eyes. But when she looked closely, it was a pair of eye.
Both unblinking and blazing red and staring at her like a prey.