Ambriel has managed to avoid the 'curse' that has turned most of humanity into monsters. After being separated from her mother as a child, Ambriel keeps her head down by earning her keep as a scavenger. That is until one morning, she ventures too fa...
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"El mundo no terminó con una explosión."
It'd been fourteen years since Ambriel last saw her mother, but she could still hear those words, clear as a bell, in her mother's voice. Whenever she closed her eyes, she still felt traces of warmth, the safety of her mother's arms around her, and the weight of the blessed tome in her lap as they read together.
"The world did not end with a bang. Nor did it end in a whisper. Rather, it was one scream at a time. The curse spread like la onda — a ripple. Dios estaba enojado con nosotros."
God was angry with us. And so, an evil was released and given free reign over man. The few records that survived from the old world claim that when most of humanity shed their human flesh, governments fell, infrastructures crumbled, and cities were bombed. One day, life was normal. Then it wasn't. Whoever remained after the fall was at the curse's mercy, an evil that once it had you in its clutches, seeped slowly into you until it claimed you whole, and made you a monster.
"I don't wanna become a monster."
Ambriel stared into the foggy water her hands were submerged in and frowned. As soon as she returned to Hallowborne, she fetched a bucket, filled it with salt water, and plunged the binoculars that Grackle had tainted into it. When she pulled the binoculars back out to inspect them, she sucked her teeth.
"If only the curse was something we could sense before it's visible. By then, it'd be too late unless..."
Ambriel sighed.
"Come on, Bri. When you became a scavenger you knew this. The curse was always a risk. That's why no one else likes this stupid job, but nooo. You just had to look for that damned grimoire, and now here you are," she grumbled. "Making deals with bird demons."
You've got until tomorrow morning, shortie. Same time. If you break our deal, I know where your settlement is. I'll find ya.
Ambriel could still feel Grackle's hot breath on her neck. Recalling it gave her goosebumps.
"If I would've known he was so mean, I would've never-"
Bells tinkled behind Ambriel, beyond her bedroom — the sound of her domicile door opening.
"Shit!"
As if they had a mind of their own, the wet binoculars leaped out of her hands.
No!
Ambriel launched forward and caught them just before they could crack on her work table — at the price of cracking her ribs against it instead.
Oww. Definitely gonna bruise later.
As Ambriel nursed the pain shooting through her side with one hand, she dropped the binoculars back into the bucket with the other.
