It had been a month since I'd seen another living soul, Shadow not included. I hadn't been back to the village since the woman tried to get me to look after her daughter. I didn't need anything, so there was no reason for me to leave my house.
The silence didn't bother me. I liked it. Peace was easier to manage when there weren't people around to ruin it. But I had finally used up all my salt, using it to cure some of the game Shadow brought back. And since salt didn't appear on its own, I was going to have to go back into the village for more.
Never once did I think that I would have a shortage of salt, but apparently, it was worth its weight in gold and highly coveted.
The moment I stepped out of the treeline, I knew something was wrong.
The village was too quiet. Too still. Even the wind had the good sense to hold its breath.
But when I took in a deep breath, I could smell a metallic scent in the air that I knew well.
I walked slowly, every step deliberate as I swung my basket back and forth. The main road was empty, the fields were empty, and even the village square was empty, something that I had never seen before.
Doors and gates hung open as they banged around on the slight breeze. I looked into one courtyard and saw that some of the baskets were tipped over, the rice lying haphazardly on the dirty ground.
Even worse, not a single chicken was in sight.
Humming softly under my breath, I skipped down the street, ignoring the puddles of blood with drag marks cutting through the earth before disappearing into an alley.
The blood was dark, clearly oxidized, but it was still wet.
Well, that was new.
Ignoring every last warning bell going on in my head, I skipped through the square until I saw the old meeting hall beside Zhou Cunzhang's house.
Voices echoed from inside, deep, male, rough with laughter that didn't belong here. There seemed to be a lot of them, and I could hear the whimpering of the women and children as they tried their best to be quiet.
Bandits.
Was that actually a thing?
Apparently, they weren't just seen on TV anymore. How charming.
I didn't go in. Not yet. I climbed the side of the apothecary and crouched on the roof, peeking down through a crack in the roof.
I would need to remind Zhou Cunzhang to fix that when all this was over and done with.
Inside the massive one-room building, the surviving villagers had been corralled like cattle—twenty, maybe thirty of them, bound and shoved together in the center. Away from them, Zhou Cunzhang sat bleeding in the corner.
Seven men stood around, armed, dirty, and more than a little loud. Their outfits seemed to be made of red and yellow cloths, trimmed with fur from some poor animal. Each man had a long, scraggy beard and small, narrowed eyes and yellowed teeth that almost made me want to introduce them to a toothbrush.
One of them was drinking straight from a wine jug while another had a hand on a young girl's hair.
Disgusting, I sneered to myself, my nose wrinkling. I could smell them from here. Being stuck in the same room as them must be causing the villagers' eyes to water from the stench.
I dropped silently from the roof into one of the dark corners and walked out into the open.
One of the bandits holding up a wall by leaning against it, spotted me first. He squinted as if he wasn't quite sure what he was seeing. But when I waved happily at him, he grinned.
"Oi! Look what wandered in! You lost, sweetheart?" he asked, standing straight before sauntering over to me.
I blinked up at him, my eyes wide, before I turned to Zhou Cunzhang, my lip trembling. "Daddy?" I whispered, scrunching up my face like I was about to cry. "What's going on?"
The bandit froze mid-step, but Zhou Cunzhang's head snapped up at the sound of my voice as he looked at me with horror.
"Xiuying," he croaked as he started to fight against his restraints. "Run! Run away now! I'll find you later!"
"Daddy, I don't understand," I whimper, looking around the room. "Why is everyone tied up? What's going on? Is this some sort of game?"
The more I spoke, the more Zhou Cunzhang paled. "Xiuying," he started. "You need to listen to me. Go home."
"But Daddy…" I pouted, blinking at him. "I don't want to leave you alone."
"Daddy?" purred one of the men, a massive hammer sitting on his shoulder as he walked toward me. "I didn't know you had a child."
Zhou Cunzhang's head snapped toward the man. "Leave her alone, Wan Qiang," he snapped. "Your issue is with me. She is nothing more than a child. You might have become a bandit, but did you really become such a monster?"
The man tsked as he crouched down in front of Zhou Cunzhang. "When you and the rest of my friends left me for dead, did you ever see this coming?"
I couldn't hold back the giggle that slipped past my lips, causing everyone to turn to look at me. "What?" I shrugged, blinking widely. "If he left you for dead, of course, he couldn't see this coming. But don't worry. I know for a fact that Daddy doesn't make the same mistake twice."
"We didn't want to leave you!" Zhou Cunzhang roared. "We couldn't find you."
"Well, now I'm here in front of you… And I want to play." The moment he said the word play, he looked over his shoulder directly at me. "And I know exactly who I want to play with."
"Ooh," I said, nodding my head frantically. "I really want to play. Can I play, Daddy? Please, please, please? I'll be such a good little girl."
"What's wrong with her?" whispered one of the other bandits loudly. "Is she slow? Does she really not understand what is going to happen to her?"
"Don't touch her," Zhou Cunzhang hissed, struggling to come to his feet. However, Wan Qiang quickly kicked him back down to the floor. "Leave her alone, I'll—" gasped Zhou Cunzhang.
"You really want to protect her, don't you?" the man asked, walking toward me.
I tilted my head. "But," I started. "I thought you wanted to play."
Wan Qiang grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the community hall, despite Zhou Cunzhang roaring in protest. The bandit didn't so much as slow down as he towed me toward the nearest abandoned house.
I didn't resist.
The door slammed shut behind us, and I was tossed to the floor. I let out a tiny gasp and landed with a thud.
"Now," Wan Qiang said, licking his lips as he unfastened his belt, "I can't wait to play with you. The only thing I ask is that when you scream, scream loud. I want your daddy to know exactly what I am doing to you."
I sat up slowly, brushing dust from my skirt.
"I can't wait to play with you," I purred, coming to my feet. "And want to know a secret?"
The leader of the bandits paused, his hands gripping his pants. "What's your secret?" he asked, his eyes glazing over as I put just a touch of lust into my voice. While wrath came easily to me, lust wasn't far behind.
"Your version of playing and mine aren't all that different," I continued, trailing my finger down my neck.
He snorted, even as his pants dropped to a puddle around his ankles. "I hate to break it to you, little girl. But ours are very, very different. Yours involve dolls that can't move or talk, I'd bet. I like my dolls to scream."
"I don't know," I shrugged, smiling as I watched his eyes following my finger. "I almost want to give you the same advice. When you scream, scream loud, so Daddy knows exactly what I am doing to you."
Wan Qiang blinked, trying to process my words. But before he could, I stopped pretending.