Amber quietly closed the side gate and walked down the frequently used dirt path that went around the outskirts of the nearly empty village. She walked past the houses along the outside and saw a girl sitting on the porch of a hut. The girl was in dirty ripped rags and you could clearly see the shape of her bones through her skin. The girl glanced up every now and then while playing with a corn husk doll.
It was impossible to see what color the girl's hair was or what her skin tone was, because she was covered in dirt. However, her large deep blue eyes were full of sadness as if she'd already given up on life; they were beautiful.
A sly grin formed on Amber's face as she stopped in front of the little girl. "Girl, are you enjoying your life as it is? Is this fulfilling for you?"
The little girl looked up at Amber and her eyes widened. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out.
"You can't speak?," Amber said.
The girl looked down at her doll and a blush slowly crept up her face. She fiddled with the sides of it.
"That works well for me, since you seem to understand speech well enough. My suggestion is that you come with me."
The little girl looked up again and into Amber's eyes, before looking back behind herself at the little hut.
"Are your parents inside?"
The little girl paused for a while before answering, but then finally shook her head yes.
"Are you aware that you don't have much longer to live? You'll die from starvation within a couple of months. You'll be dead in the ground before the snow hits. Which will be convenient for your parents to bury you, since the ground won't be hard yet."
Amber glanced at the finger shaped bruises on both sides of the girl's neck. "If you're lucky, you'll die faster. Perhaps you'll be choked to death?" She said this in a conversational tone, as if she was contemplating the weather.
"I've heard that starving to death is incredibly painful because your body is eating itself to death. The pain of hunger can be felt deep into your bones and it's nearly impossible to sleep at night, as all of your bodily functions start to shut down, in a futile effort to conserve energy. I'm sure you're intimately familiar with this type of pain."
The girl's face paled and she bit her quivering bottom lip as tears threatened to spill over her eyelashes.
"A parent's job is to love, protect, and take care of their child." Amber looked over the caked on grime on the girl and her bones sticking out. She was bruised all over her legs, her arms, and had fingerprint bruises on both sides of her neck.
"Clearly your parents should be fired."
The girl's lower lip wobbled some more, but then her jaw clenched and she looked straight into Amber's eyes and shook her head yes again.
"Just so we're clear, I am not offering you love. I have never received it and I do not know how to give it. There was a time that I wanted it, but no more. It is a useless complication to me and a point of weakness that I will not allow. I am not asking for your love. I will not be your parent. I will not be easy on you."
"Those who do not work, will not eat. I do not need useless mouths to feed. I will give you shelter, food, and I will make you stronger than you could have ever imagined. I will never beat you as long as you obey me and I will give you rewards for your obedience. You will be my person and I will not allow you to be unjustly treated without consequences. Follow me and be my subordinate, or you can stay here and die from starvation before the year's end; it's your choice."
YOU ARE READING
Cannon Fodder To Villainess
FantasyAmber chose to become a VILLAIN Amber had worked all her life to become a surgeon and had died on her way home from her graduation ceremony. She'd done all of that work for nothing. She hadn't even had her first kiss yet! She was full of regret up u...
