There were nothing but shadows around her, shadows that reached and grabbed for her no matter where she went. She ran, desperately looking over her shoulder, shrieking as the shadows tore her clothes, pulled her hair, scratched her skin. All the while, there was that omniscient sickly laughter and a voice whispering, “Run, little girl…run. Wherever you are, I will always find you…”

Amaya’s eyes flew open with a gasp, then squeezed shut again as the sunlight streaming through the window struck her harshly in the face.

“Morning,” said a bright voice and she turned her head to the side to find Donghae’s face inches from hers.

“Yah!” she yelped, flinching backwards.

Laughing cheerfully, he sat up and stretched his arms above his head. “Hm…such a nice day, isn’t it?”

“Donghae, Donghae, we found it!” The boys came running into the room with short pieces of scrap wood in their hands.

“Great job!” Donghae grinned. He pulled a pocketknife out of his belt and began showing them how to whittle the wood into small daggers.

Amaya slowly sat up, taking in the scene in disbelief. Her mother was comfortably resting on the bed, one of the twins in her arms, and her sister was seated on her stool, holding the other sleeping twin. The scene was disturbingly peaceful- almost as peaceful as things got when her father came home for a visit. “What’s going on?” she mumbled in confusion.

“Oh, you’re awake, sweetheart,” Noriko beamed, smiling at her. “You looked so tired, I didn’t want to wake you up. And then Donghae offered to help take care of things and let you rest a little longer.” She smiled at the young man, who bowed to her.

“The pleasure is all mine, Madame,” he replied.

“Donghae?” Amaya frowned at him.

“Don’t you remember?” Noriko said. “You brought him home last night, saying that he was injured and that he needed a place to hide until he got better.”

“Well, yes, but…” Amaya’s voice trailed off. She did remember bringing Donghae home, but she hadn’t expected him to integrate himself into her family or run the household better than she did. Why wasn’t her mother more wary of having a complete stranger in the house, especially one that she had explained was a dangerous criminal? Why were the boys being so friendly towards him?

Isn’t this what you want, Amaya? a voice in her head whispered. Someone to take care of everything for you?

She ignored the voice and rolled off the mat, climbing to her feet. “Is there anything…you need me to do, Mother?”

Noriko smiled and shook her head. “No, dear, not at all.”

She wandered over to her sister, stepping over her wide-eyed brothers as they watched the young man carve the sticks. “Good morning,” she greeted. “I can take Haru for you.” She held out her arms, but the younger girl shook her heads.

“Donghae taught me how to hold him and feed him,” she said. “He’s really nice!”

“Yeah, and he made a really good breakfast!” chimed in the one of her brothers. “He’s the best!”

And what am I, then? Amaya grumbled.

“Isn’t he handsome, Amaya?” A light blush crossed the younger girl’s cheeks as she stared at the young man.

Amaya groaned and glared at Donghae, who had apparently heard the last part and was shooting a smirk in her direction. She scowled back at him.

This was a new and odd feeling for her. For the first time since her father was drafted, her family didn’t need her. Donghae had taken care of everything. She supposed she should be grateful.

But she didn’t trust him.

As she paced the floor uneasily, Amaya watched as Donghae showed the boys a couple of easy dagger-fighting techniques. A flash of annoyance flew through her and she found herself marching towards him. “Kindly refrain from teaching my brothers anything that will cause them to hurt themselves…or each other,” she snapped.

He just laughed. “Whatever you say, Miss Amaya. Sorry, boys, you heard your sister.” This was answered with a pair of complaining whines and several glares shot in Amaya’s direction. “Isn’t it almost time for lunch?”

“Yeah! Lunch!” Her brothers jumped up, dancing around him as they beamed brightly.

“Miss Amaya, would you care to help me?” He smirked at her as he nodded his head towards the kitchen.

“What have you done to my family?” she hissed.

“I made them breakfast,” Donghae replied.

“No! That’s not what I’m talking about!” Amaya snapped as she angrily stabbed a tomato in half. “Did you cast a spell on them or something? Why are they treating you like…” She almost said, “one of us,” but the words just couldn’t come out.

“Is it hard to believe that this is my natural charm?” he asked.

Amaya just rolled her eyes. “How is your stomach?”

He smiled. “So you do care about me.”

“No,” Amaya growled. “If you’re better, I want you out of this house tonight. You’re putting my family in danger.”

Donghae’s smile slipped slightly when she said that. “Believe me, Miss Amaya. The last thing I want to do is bring harm to your family. I will be gone as soon as the sun sets. In the meantime, however…” He looked around the house. “I wish to do all I can to help your family while I’m here. They’ve been very kind to me. That doesn’t happen often.” He approached her younger sister, taking the baby from her and smiling. “Would you mind getting everything ready for lunch?” The girl blushed and nodded and scampered off.

Unbelievable.

Suddenly, Amaya realized why her family had welcomed Donghae with open arms. It was hard not to notice the loss of a father when they were surrounded by complete families. Her mother certainly felt the loss, and it seemed that her siblings did as well. With the absence of her father, they felt the need for an older male figure to protect and support them. Amaya had tried to fulfill the position herself, but a teenage girl could not play the part of a man. She glanced back at Donghae with a faint smile. If her siblings felt safe with him, who was she to begrudge them that comfort?

There was the clopping of a horse’s hooves and Donghae quickly drew into a corner. A rider on a sleek brown horse rode past the window and her younger sister got up, hurrying outside to greet him. Amaya found herself tensing, straining her ears to hear every word. This was the town messenger and he might be able to shed some light on just how much trouble her family was in now.

Unfortunately, the man spoke in such a soft voice that she couldn’t hear his words, although she did manage to hear her sister’s confused replies. Presently, the messenger rode away and her sister came back into the house, bearing a small package. “Amaya, it’s for you.”

“What is it?” Amaya asked, drying her hands on her apron as she reached for the package.

“Maybe it’s a present from a boy,” suggested her sister.

Donghae laughed. “Probably.”

“Amaya has a boyfriend! Amaya has a boyfriend!” chanted her brothers as her sister dissolved into giggles.

“Idiots,” Amaya muttered without any real malice as she examined the wrapping. Her name was scrawled across the top in elegant script. Who could have sent it to her? Carefully, she untied the string and pulled the paper off, revealing an intricately carved wooden box. After a few moments of examining the box, her curiosity got the better of her and she opened it.

The lid clattered to the ground.

“Miss Amaya?” Donghae asked worriedly. Even her siblings grew quiet as they noticed the way the color was fading from her cheeks as she stared at the contents of the box.

No, no, no…

Noriko frowned. “Amaya, child, what is the matter?”

In response, Amaya reached into the box and drew out a beautiful shiny red apple.

"Is that…?” someone whispered it; she didn’t know who. It might have been her. She didn’t know. The entire world felt washed out; the only salient object was that delicious-looking apple.

Trembling from head to toe, Noriko shook her head, not willing to believe what she was seeing. “There has to be some mistake. Not my daughter, too…”

The pain in her mother’s voice seemed to snap Amaya out of her trance. Without warning, she flung the box and its contents to the ground and dashed out of the house, slamming the door behind her.

There was no trace of humor in Donghae’s face as he pushed the crying baby into the little girl’s arms and scooped out the box and the apple, racing after the tavern girl.

He chased her all the way into the woods, where she finally collapsed against a tree to catch her breath. “Miss Amaya,” he panted, clutching at the wound in his stomach. He grimaced slightly. That had not been a smart idea.

“What are you doing?” she hissed, whirling around furiously. “If anyone saw you, you’d be dead. My mother, my siblings…all of them would be dead, too!” She swiped fiercely at the moisture on her face.

“No one saw me,” he replied calmly. Holding out the box to her, he added, “You shouldn’t leave this lying around. You don’t want the twins to come in contact with it.”

At the sight of the box, her face twisted with fury and she shoved him roughly, temporarily forgetting about his injury. He stumbled back into a tree with a grunt. “This is all your fault!” she screamed. “If you hadn’t attacked that man, none of this would have happened!”

“I never asked you to help me or let me stay at your house!” he retorted. “You decided to do that. That was your choice!”

“You’re saying that I’m the one who condemned myself?” she snapped. “I did it to help you! I didn’t have to…I shouldn’t have…”

“Then why did you?” he asked. “Surely it wasn’t just what your friend said…”

Amaya sighed and looked away. “I didn’t want to help you…but what she said was right. I owed you my life and I…I still do. What you did for me is a debt I can never repay. But this…this isn’t the price I bargained for.” She snatched the box from him and threw it on the ground harshly. The apple rolled out of it, gleaming in the sunlight. Taunting her.

Donghae leaned down and picked it up again, carefully brushing off the bits of dirt that had stuck to it. “You know what this means, right?”

Amaya nodded. “It’s the sign of the condemned, here in our region.”

“Wrong,” he replied. “The governess is allowing you to choose your fate. You can eat this-” he tossed the apple to her and she caught it with a cringe “-and die instantaneously. It will be painful, but the suffering only lasts a few seconds. Or you can ignore it, and-”

“I know what happens if you ignore it. I’ve heard the stories,” Amaya said dully. “Your friends and family are struck down, one by one, taken away, never to be seen again. You never know who the next one will be, but in the end, you are alone, left with the burden that everything was all…your fault.”

Donghae nodded. “Weeks, months, years…it doesn’t matter. She takes her time to break you. And when you are the only one left…”

Amaya shivered. “She comes for you. Beats you, tortures you, tears your body to pieces, like she destroys your mind until in the end…death is welcome.”

“Her cruelty is inhuman,” Donghae added quietly.

Both of them stared at the innocent red apple with a mixture of repulsion and awe. Finally, Amaya sighed. “So in light of that, my choice is obvious…” Even as she said the words, she felt a tear make its way down her cheek. “But I don’t want to die, Donghae!” She looked up at him and swallowed hard. “I know it’s the only way to save my family, but I don’t want to die! Is it selfish to want to live?”

“No,” he replied softly. “It’s human.” He reached out a hand and brushed away her tear. “There is a third choice, Miss Amaya…”

Amaya closed the tavern early that night. There weren’t as many customers anyways, not after what had happened the day before. Taking care to lock the door, she arrived home just as her mother was putting her siblings to bed.

Noriko frowned up at her the moment she walked in. “Shouldn’t you be at the tavern?” she asked.

Amaya gave her a small smile in reply as she knelt on the mat, surrounded by her brothers and sisters. “Would you like to hear a story?”

“What story?” asked her brother.

“The first story I remember Mother telling me,” Amaya replied. Noriko smiled and moved aside to make room for her oldest daughter. She sat down between the bed and the mat, addressing the many pairs of bright blue eyes staring at her. “A long time ago, there was a handsome prince…”

The moon was high when she finished, and all of her siblings were fast asleep. She took a moment to tuck the blanket more snugly around the twins and brushed a strand of hair from her sister’s face before standing up and addressing her mother. “I-”

Noriko held up her hand. “I know you’ve decided to accept Her present. You didn’t want to tell them because you didn’t want to deal with their tears.” She smiled sadly. “You’ve always been protecting us, even when you were just thirteen.”

Amaya nodded, unable to meet her mother’s eyes as tightened. “I-I’m sorry,” was all she could manage. Taking a deep breath, she finally raised her head. “Don’t come after me. I don’t want anyone to see me.”

Her mother stepped forward and drew her into a tight hug. She felt something wet on her shoulder and realized Noriko was crying. “You’re a brave girl,” her mother said softly.

“Good-bye, Mother,” Amaya replied. Taking the wooden box with her, she gave her mother one last look before walking out of the house. Her eyes watered at the thought that she would never return, but she blinked them back. This wasn’t the time to cry.

You’re a brave girl, her mother had said.

No, Amaya thought. I’m just a coward.

The woods, made ominous by the moonlight, set a shiver down her spine as she cautiously took a step inside. “Donghae?” she called, her voice barely a whisper.

“Right here.” She shrieked and whirled around, to find him struggling to suppress a smirk before growing serious again.

“Do you have the-” She held up the box, cutting him off. “Great.” He opened the box and took the apple, heading deeper into the woods while she struggled to follow his feather-light footsteps. It was too dark to see him, but his feet made no sound in the bed of leaves as she crashed along behind him like a horse.

“What exactly is your plan, anyways?” she called after him.

He held up a hand, signaling for her to stop walking and pointed at the ground. “See that?” he asked. “Tracks from the animal we’re looking for. They’re fresh.”

Amaya squinted, but try as she might, she could barely see her hand in front of her face. “What animal?”

Donghae didn’t answer. He placed the apple on the ground and turned to her, asking, “Have you ever climbed a tree before?”

In response, she bent down, tying her skirt to get it out of her way. “Which one?” she snapped. Donghae grinned and pointed to a large nearby oak. Refusing his offer of a boost, she easily swung herself up into the lowest branches and shimmied up the trunk until she was out of sight. He joined her a few moments later, the branches barely shaking as he moved.

“Mind telling me what we’re doing?” she asked.

“Waiting,” he replied.

“For what?”

“Shh.” He pointed at the apple, glistening in the faint moonlight. She leaned down, peering a little closer. She could just make out the outline of a dark shape shuffling towards the apple, snuffling at it as it moved.

"A wild pig,” she murmured. There were plenty of them running throughout the forest. Bad-tempered and vicious, they were generally avoided by the villagers. A rather large one too, if the snorting noises it was making was any indication. Her eyes widened in comprehension. “Donghae, the pig-”

A crunch confirmed it for her. Loud chomping sounds reached her ears as the glistening object disappeared bit by bit. After it had finished eating, the pig its lips and turned to leave. It stopped. The forest seemed to freeze.

An unearthly howl burst from its lips as its body buckled, then collapsed to the ground. Donghae swiftly clamped a hand over Amaya’s mouth to muffle her scream as she watched the pig writhe on the ground, shrieking in pain. Red froth formed at its lips and with one last horrible shudder, it grew still.

The forest resumed its usual activities.

Donghae released Amaya, giving her a concerned look as she stared wide-eyed at the dead creature. “Are you okay?”

“What did you just do?” Amaya whispered. “And how is that-” she pointed at the pig “-supposed to fool the governess into thinking I ate it?”

“Keep watching,” Donghae said grimly.

Reluctantly, Amaya turned back to the dark, unmoving form on the ground, only to realize, with horror, that it was shrinking. The acrid smell of burning flesh met her nose as the poison worked its way from the inside of the pig to the surface, dissolving straight through the corpse as it went, leaving behind nothing but its lungs and liver.

A pair of vultures swooped down from the treetops and both rogue and tavern girl instinctively held their breaths. Luckily, the creatures didn’t even seem to notice them as they scooped up the organs and flew off into the night.

The moment they were gone, Amaya retched, tears coming to her eyes as she coughed, although her dinner stayed in her stomach. Donghae patted her back as she took a deep breath, her forehead pressed against the trunk of the tree. “Congratulations, Miss Amaya,” he said softly. “You are now officially dead.”

She grimaced, wiping with the back of her hand, and replied, “Don’t call me ‘Miss’ anymore. It make me sound like I’m better than you, and I’m not. We’re equals now.”

He nodded, smiling slightly. “I’ll go cover our tracks. You stay here and settle your stomach.”

“Got it,” she rasped weakly, aching. Placing her hands behind her to maintain her balance, she stretched out her legs and sighed. She could never return home again after this. The honorable thing to do would have been to eat the apple herself and accept her death. Coward that she was, she’d let another creature suffer in her place.

But this way, you and your family all get to live, one part of her argued, but the thought didn’t make her feel any better. Something crawled across her foot and she reached out to brush it away.

She frowned. She couldn’t move her arms.

“What?” she murmured, attempting to turn around to look, only to find that her torso was bound in place as well. “What is this…”

The object on her foot s around her ankle, binding it tightly, the roughness chafing her skin- it was a branch. The tree was moving. She pulled against the constraints, but the more she struggled, the tighter the oak bound her, the bark cutting into her wrists and ankles. Short twigs twined themselves into her hair, painfully keeping her head in place.

A groan, like the creaking of an old door, made her glance up. A pair of large amber eyes met hers.

“Donghae!” she screamed, before a particularly thick limb smothered her.