The Real You

Vita looked up through her eyelashes at the man in front of her. She appeared even more vulnerable to him than she had a moment before. A quick smile crossed her lips and she melted away any resistance inside him daring to hold her back. She pulled her white, blond hair tight against the elastic at the nape of her neck. 

"Can you show me how to do it one more time?" She questioned Royce, the large man who loomed in front of her. 

He was only a few years older than her. Her size was insignificant compared to his which made him feel much older than her sixteen years of age. His lips spread over his face in a grimace. Royce wanted to tell her no, yet Vita always had a way of melting his resolve. He was handsome if someone was to overlook the scar embedded sideways over his nose.

"It’s been over a year, Vita. If you haven't improved by now, then you aren't going to."

Her eyes were quick to fill with frustration and tears. It was a tactic that had worked on Royce for longer than he cared to admit. He lunged at her again. His hand connected with her ribcage. He followed it with a quick drop to the ground where he knocked her off her feet with a swipe of his leg. She landed in the dirt with a soft thud and he questioned himself with why he had let this girl talk him into this. 

Vita beamed at him with white teeth. She wiped at her cheek with a small dirty hand marring its paleness with a streak of dust. Her deep blue eyes peered at him with gratitude. It twisted his gut with emotions he knew had no place inside him. He worked to shove them back down along with the sudden urge to take his thumb and dust the dirt from her face. His only security was in one single state of being, emptiness. 

"I can move faster this time, let's do it again."

They continued for over an hour. He would strike at her, but she was a small girl, weak and unable to move quick enough to dodge his advances. Vita was sweating and shaking covered in dirt with red marks on her skin he was sure would turn to bruises. Behind her small frame the sun casted lingering rays on her hair in golden kisses. Before long, it would threaten to disappear behind the trees all together. 

"Vita, go home. I'm sure your father gets worried when you are out like this. Stop coming here." 

Her eyes flashed with an emotion he couldn't read before she threw that smile at him again. The one he tried not to soak in for too long. It was a bit late for him, however. Her pink lips haunted the back of his eye lids. 

Vita bowed her head to him in a polite manner to hide her wicked grin, "I'll see you again in a few days."

"I mean it this time. It isn't safe here. The man I work for isn't a kind man," Royce's lips twisted into a dangerous smile. His voice lowered with a clear warning, "Don't be here when he gets home from his travels." 

"Why do you stay here? You have disgust written all over your face, Roy." She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, yet her eyes pierced right through him with their steady gaze. "Why work for someone you detest. I can't understand it."

Her words took Royce to a place in his mind he wished he didn't visit as often as he did. A place where he was a young boy holding a gaping wound over his nose. Blood poured into his hands and wicked dark eyes gleamed back at him. 

"I'll set them all free if you promise to never leave my side."

The memory resurfaced his unhealed wounds, "You don't have the capacity to understand. You are only a child."

A flicker of what could have been anger danced over Vita's face. It was there for only a second before she replaced it with her usual carefree smile, "I am only a child. That's right. How could I forget?"

He watched with a throat full of guilt as she dashed down the road towards the rural part of the city. Her feet were bare, and her clothes were filthy. Her hair in its most natural state was almost white but he could tell it looked like she hadn't washed it in some time. It was obvious she came from the Skids, the poorest part of Roho City. He kept indulging her because he too, was once a poor kid from the lower city.

Still, he needed to put a stop to this. His master was a dangerous man. It wouldn't be wise to let him catch wind of her. A small blond thing disappearing and reappearing from his estate. He was the type who took beautiful things and twisted them into vile creatures for his own amusement. 

Shame burned at the center of Royce's gut when he dwelled on his lack of self-control. All traces of it vanished when she drifted into his world despite his attempts to hold on to it. All though Master Yurim hadn't been home for two years, he knew he shouldn't have let Vita come there to play. Shady establishments were no place for the innocent. 

***

Vita landed in her small one-bedroom hut with a groan. She felt every single hit Royce landed on her. It was a dark room she called home. The autumn air wafted in through a hole in the wall she used as a window. The breeze from it hit her cheeks and cooled the sweat coating her forehead. It was empty inside. Yet, she didn't mind it anymore. Her only security was in one state of being, emptiness. 

"Father, I'm home," she called in a soft voice. 

She laughed and it filled her ears with a bitter sound. She knew her father would never be home to greet her again. It used to fill her with sorrow but now it only filled her with a quiet and steady rage. 

She considered the hollowness in her chest and found herself in wonder. What did other girls have inside of theirs? If her heart still beat against her ribcage, she would surely be a child then, wouldn't she? The one Royce thought her to be. Full of innocence, a girl who played outside until dark and laughed at silly boys. 

Yet, Vita knew better. Behind her beautiful smile and long eyelashes, a vile creature existed. What childhood she might have had was buried in the ground along with her father. The only thing left of her was the monster she had become. 

She took the knives next to her bed and threw them at a makeshift bullseye painted on the wall opposite from her. One after another they sang through the air with reticent whispers and hit the center circle with a crack. She let another sing and winced at the pain from the beating she took earlier in the day. 

She was grateful to the wounds Royce left on her body. They were reminders she could feel something, anything. Even if it was only from the outside. Inside she felt nothing at all. She reminded herself how Yirum would be home soon. She longed for it as she closed her eyes to images she couldn't wash away. 

"If you are going to borrow money, shouldn't you have a way to pay me back old man."

A man with dark eyes and even darker hair peered at her father. They were the eyes of a demon named Yirum. 

"That one should do," he lifted a finger to Vita's older sister Tera. 

"No," screamed Vita. "Please, daddy. Don't let him take her!"

Her father lay in a bleeding mess on the dirt floor. A horrible laugh crawled from Yirum's chest and echoed in the halls of Vita's mind where it would never leave. Tera struggled against Yirum until he connected his fist with her abdomen. Her angelic face twisted for a moment with pain before she crumpled to the floor. 

"Perhaps one daughter isn't enough? Should I take both?" He kicked at Vita's father until he rolled onto his back. A wound bled heavily from his head, and he let out an awful moan. 

Silent tears ran down Tera's cheeks. "I'll go with you," she whispered. "Please let my sister stay."

Yirum crossed the floor until he stood in front of an eight-year-old Vita. He dropped to a squat in front of her and grabbed a fist full of hair until she faced him at eye level. 

"Well, I guess you can't always have two diamonds in the rough can you old man? What an ugly girl you are," he spat at Vita's face. 

Vita felt the chill of his voice enter inside her. Her limbs grew numb with the coldness escaping from his words. He let out another laugh and it hollowed out her chest leaving her empty inside. 

"I'll be taking your sister to a new home now. Don’t worry, she will be very... looked after." 

His smile spread slowly from one side of his face to the other. Vita couldn't believe such a beautiful man was capable of such wicked things. 

"Be a good girl and look after your father for me."

In moments, Vita found herself alone in a dark room. The one she called home. The sounds of her sister’s quiet cries no longer disturbed the silence of it. Her head fell on the chest of her father. She noticed with a slow blooming horror in her gut his chest no longer rose nor fell. 

"Daddy,” Vita sobbed. “Daddy don't leave me behind too."

*** 

Days passed and Vita reappeared like she always did. She scaled the gate to the mansion and landed in front of Royce where he met her with a look of annoyance. 

"I'm sure I told you not to come back."

An unfamiliar emotion clawed at Royce's chest at the sight of Vita. She was tidier than usual. A pair of light brown boots laced over her feet and climbed up her calves and her pants clung to her small frame. Her white blouse glared at him unbuttoned in a way he couldn't ignore she was a woman. Panic settled inside him. If Master Yirum laid eyes on her, he wouldn't let her go. 

"Vita, go home," his said in a quiet voice. "Now."

She smiled at him but her soft smile didn't appear so innocent anymore. She tossed her head to the side sizing him up and waves of white hair washed down her back. Her blue eyes always so steady stared at him until the air around him grew cold. 

"Roy, you are always looking out for me. Tell me... who is it that watches out for you?" She spoke with any icy tone he had never heard from her before.

Faster than he ever could have anticipated, she lunged at him. Her fist connected with his side with a white-hot pain and strength he didn't know existed inside her. She dropped to the ground and in one swift kick she knocked him from his feet. He hit the dirt below them with a heavy thud and before he could recover Vita was on top of him with a knife at his throat. 

"This is nothing personal, I like you well enough." A grin played at her lips, but her eyes were those of a killer. "Let’s talk about your master. He's here now, isn't he?"

Vita had spent so much time cultivating a character for Royce so he would let down his guard for her. It was a pity to shatter it but what choice did she have?

"Who are you," Royce questioned before he threw her to the ground. 

She was on her feet before he was, "I gave you a chance because we're friends, but you didn't give me the answer I wanted. How disappointing, Roy."

Vita's knife disappeared into Royce's stomach in a quick clean movement. He coughed and the taste of rust filled his mouth. He let out a wet laugh and stared in shock at the girl before him. His blood stained her white shirt and for a moment he was sure he saw the pain he felt reflected in her eyes. 

"Vita, you vixen. You've been holding out on me all this time."

He knew it then, how it didn't matter at all the way he tried to keep his feelings in check. He loved her. When did the sweet girl who always snuck onto the estate to train with him turn into someone capable of this? Royce decided then, she was always capable. He was just too stupid to see her for who she was. He let her innocent facade blind him. 

Vita left Royce holding his bleeding stomach against the black iron bars to the mansion. The one he swore to his master he would protect. She hushed the guilt as it fussed against her insides. He would have killed her first if he knew what she was there to do. Beautiful men do wicked things and Vita never trusted a pretty face. Not even one with a scar. 

She made her way to the front doors where she met more men working under Yirum. She made quick work of their necks with a knife she pulled from her boot. She allowed herself satisfaction at their looks of confusion. How could something so small do so much damage? Vita believed in using her own weaknesses to her advantage. 

It didn't take long for her to work her way through the bottom half of the mansion. She found herself walking up what felt like an endless spiral of stairs. She thought this moment would bring something other than hollowness inside. It didn't. 

The man responsible for all Vita's nightmares stood on the other side of a pair of heavy wooden doors. She pushed them open and watched as he turned to face her. There was no recognition in his eyes as he drank in Vita's face. Only a sick and slow curiosity which bled from him like sap bleeding from a tree. 

"Did we have a prior engagement?"

His voice made her skin want to crawl from her body, but she steadied herself. 

"Where is my sister?"

Yirum studied her face, "White hair and the face of an angel. You must be the little sister of Tera." 

He saw the minuscule flinch on Vita's face and his lips broke out into a delighted smile. "I made a terrible mistake not taking you before. What a sight you are. Even underneath all the blood you are an unmistakable beauty. The timing couldn't be better, you see. Your sister, she's already dead."

The words didn't hurt Vita as much as she thought they would. Part of her knew better than to expect anything different. It also gave her a reason not to hold back. Even so, she noticed in horror no matter how hard she wanted to move, she couldn't. She was eight years old again looking into the eyes of a black hearted demon.

"Be a good girl and look after your father for me."

Vita's legs trembled while she gripped the knife tight in her fingers. Move, she told herself. Yet her body had divorced her mind and left her abandoned in front of the man she wished to kill. 

He closed the distance between them and brought gentle fingers against her cheek. He leaned his face against hers and whispered in her ear, "Look at how your legs are shaking. Did you come all this way to take my life?"

He slid his fingers down Vita's back like he had all the time in the world. She meant to scream or threaten him or make any sound at all, but her throat betrayed her with silence. 

The sound of a loud crash drew their attention to the door where Royce stood. His eyes which always held softness for Vita stared at them with a menacing glint. She wasn't surprised, she did stab him after all. The large man loomed in the doorway and despite the wound to his abdomen, he was dangerous. Vita had known he was all along. His eyes raked over Yirum’s fingers as they touch Vita's back. 

"Royce, don't tell me this girl managed to land a scratch on you, "Yirum let out a hearty laugh. 

The sight of Royce woke something inside Vita. She wasn't a small, frightened girl anymore. She had spent the last eight years training for this moment. She lifted the knife to Yirum's chest and lodged it there. She watched as he sank to his knees. The last thing he saw was an angel's face in an ocean of blue eyes where no mercy existed. 

Royce stared at Vita like he had never seen her before. She searched his face expecting anger or malice. She only found an unmistakable sense of relief. Several moments passed before he spoke against the silence. 

"What a fool you made out of me Vita Tiratoga," he laughed and scratched at the back of his head with a shy glance at her. "I don't know the real you at all, do I?"

She met his laugh with one of her own breaking the tension in the room, "You don't."

His face sobered for a moment, "Don't stab me again for saying this but if it's alright with you... I'd like to."