Malice Maze

Chapter 25
Nanaia’s Memories

“Nanaia!” A little brunette girl had not even registered the sound of the outraged voice until a hand fell upon her shirt and pulled her away from the man she had her mouth around. She may have been young but she knew what she wanted. She looked to the man one last time and the appearance he had been holding a moment before faded and returned to the frightened face of their farming neighbor, a man with a wife and several boys Nanaia’s age. The leathery blackness of his face had disappeared replaced by a farmer’s tan and a look of utter shock as Nanaia’s father brought her to look in his face while the neighbor zipped up his pants.

“What do you think you are doing?” he screamed at her, rushing her from the barn, despite the neighbor’s protests. They rushed passed her brothers, who for some reason looked smug, and into the house where Nanaia’s mother turned in shock at the anger and disapproval on the man’s face.

“Do you know what your daughter was doing?” he screamed, dropping Nanaia at his wife’s feet.

Her mother went to her, to take her in her arms and protect her from the outrage on her father’s face, but the father pulled his wife’s hand back and held her away from the spawn before them. “She was sucking on our neighbor’s dick,” he nearly screamed. “She, a seven year old girl, was sucking on his dick like a pro, which means it could not have been the first time.”

“Of course it was not,” Nanaia protested. “Are you not the one who taught me how, Daddy?”

His palm against her cheek stung her and she cried out in pain and curled up. The mother looked confused, she did not know what to do, where to go, who to believe. Her daughter was writhing in pain as her husband smacked her again and somehow Nanaia’s mother believed both of them. Since Nanaia was born she had been nothing but trouble and many people had called her the devil’s spawn. Had she really been born of the two loving figures before her, created for love and raised in this God fearing town? No, something was wrong with Nanaia, but something was more wrong with an old man who would allow a girl to go down on him.

Nanaia’s memory of the next hours were few, she only knew that the more she spoke the more she was slapped. Memories of other leathery creatures above her came to her constantly and they always took on the bodies of someone she knew. She could not resist these devils anymore than she could resist breathing. When her brothers, her father, her neighbors, came to her and that hint of blackness was shown she did whatever they asked of her, her lips moving over them, her legs opening, though none fucked her. She was too young for that, they respected that. They needed her at a different age, but until then they would give her the need, plant it in her brain. When she explained this it only gained more slaps and her brothers were then severely punished for having given into temptation and let their little baby sister do such things to them. Nanaia’s mother was beside herself until they confronted their confused neighbors who were apologizing, and screaming, and doing anything they could to deny involvement in such a horrible farce.

Then He appeared, a man in a black cloak dressed in silver buttons down the side, a man too perfect to be real, a man who made all of the women wet and all of the men want to stand down to him. Beside him walked a girl identical to Nanaia in almost every way except this little girl had hair the color of crimson and eyes the shade of violet so perfect that it was almost inhumanly possible. Nanaia had known right away that this girl had been the chosen one, the one chosen by god to be his favorite. Why was she here?

“I offer you a deal,” Dralnu was saying to the family. Nanaia had blanked out the conversation from earlier. “I will pay you greatly for your daughter to take the place of this priestess. I will give little Nanaia scarlet hair and violet eyes, and little Ilona here will gain the auburn hair and sapphire eyes of your daughter. Nanaia will go to the temple and be the priestess and Ilona will disappear into the world of gypsies. You will only gain from this.”

How could her parents refuse? As they watched Nanaia’s hair gained the bright redness of color and her eyes changed from blue to violet. She stood before her parents, the same girl, only looking like God’s Chosen, and her parents stood a little richer because of it. They dragged her to the temple without any hesitation, giving her up to the priestesses to be raised correctly, while Ilona disappeared into the world of the gypsies.

It had all been done so that Ilona would not become a true believe in God. It had been done because God was not the one who had been waiting all of this time for a scarlet haired violet eyed beauty. No, Dralnu had created it all in search of his true love, and finding Ilona, too young, he had switched them until Ilona was ready to be his bride. Ilona had lived with the gypsies, and a man she only remembered as her brother, a man who only existed fro her and never truly existed at all. She was given happiness and doubt of a higher power and Nanaia was given doubt of why she was truly born.

Nanaia was born as the mistress of the devils.

Ilona was born as the queen of Dralnu.

Now it was time for them to take their rightful places.

Nanaia saw the light at the end of the tunnel and stepped towards it.