The Angel of Demons

Chapter 2

    When Adrianna awoke, it was already night and the room was dark. She struggled to get up from the headache she now had, but she knew she had to check on her family. She felt around for a light of some kind. Most technology that the world had was reserved for nobles, but light was relatively cheap to make and eve commoners had access to it. She groped around and finally found a lantern and flicked the switch on. She looked around the room and it was a mess. Much of the furniture had been broken, there were blankets and clothing all over the place and torn, and the door was no longer a door anymore. 

    She turned around to check to see if her mom was still there and she was, or rather her body was. The mercenaries had killed her mom in her bed and left the dagger in her stomach. Sobbing, she dropped the lantern, making it crash to the floor. Then, from the dining room, she heard a thud and feared someone was still there. She quietly whispered a sorry to her mother's body before taking the dagger out and shakily holding it while picking up the lantern and investigating the noise. She walked into the dining room where she felt a wave of relief as she noticed an all to familiar form of the mayor's dog sitting there, wagging its tail like it always did.

    "Oh, it's just you Admiral. Where's the mayor?" she asked.

    The dog got up and casually walked outside and stood there as if waiting. She quickly followed along and left the house, looking once more towards the room where her mother's body lay. She would have to bury it soon. After a moment the dog led her to the well where villagers were gathering around and seeing who was still alive, which wasn't many by the looks of it. Admiral kept going to a group of people and sat where the hand of a little old lady had rested on his head.

    "Good work Admiral. I'll take it from here." the lady said before excusing herself from the group and walking towards Adrianna.

    Adrianna had gently put the dagger she was holding into the belt of her dress, afraid to entirely let go of its promise of safety from attackers. The lady made it over to her.

    "Mayor Rose. What happened today? Have you seen Elaine? I haven't seen her since-" she stopped, remembering the man knocking her out.

    "She's gone, my child. They took away all the children from the village. You are the youngest one we have now. What about your mother? Is she still ok?" Mayor Rose asked.

    Adrianna shook her head. "They... they killed her. They killed her and I couldn't stop them." Tears started stinging her eyes, but she tried to keep from crying. Not until she was alone.

    "You wouldn't have been able to stop them. They killed most of the men we have in this place, especially the strong ones. There's only the doctor's apprentice left. He's trying to help the injured. Including you, we only have 17 people left."

    Adrianna stood in shock. This village wasn't exactly the biggest but they had close to a hundred people here. They were all hard workers and many of the men were strong and had fended off bandits in the past plenty of times. To think that these people were now all dead was terrifying. She started to shake with fear and anger.

    The mayor continued, "I don't know what they wanted with the children, but for now we have to work on getting ourselves in order. Please, stay at my house tonight and I'll have someone recover Theresa's body."

    Adrianna had just nodded her head, lost in her own thoughts. She was scared, but now more than ever she wanted to get Elaine back and take revenge for her mother. The only problem is, is that she was only one person. How could she possibly plan something like that by herself? For now, her body just felt heavy and she knew she needed to rest. 

    She followed Mayor Rose back to her house where she got cleaned up and changed into some clothes that the mayor had left for her. Mayor Rose tried to get her to eat, but she really couldn't stomach the thought of food right now. Once in her bedroom, she took out a small contact case she had hidden in her dress, which lay on a chair. She didn't have any problems seeing but her mother wanted her to use colored contacts to hide her true eye color and she has always done just that. 

    All she knew was that nobles, or people who had power in this world always had the eyes of gems. Her father was a noble of a lower rank, his amethyst eyes giving him the rank of Lord. While her younger sister had been born a normal person, Adrianna had been born with the eyes of the noble. Normally it wouldn't be a problem, but since her dad was disgraced before he died, it was too risky for people to know about hers. They already tried to kill her family just to take her away.

    Shaking off the thoughts of the past, she shoved the case back in the pocket and went to sleep. Most of that night was dreamless, but occasionally her mind wandered back into the events that took place during the day. She tossed and turned all night only to be greeted in the morning by knocking at the door.