LoliDagger

She did not expect that, and so looked curiously at the splintered end of her now shorter weapon. "Hmm." She looked at Chesin's stomach and then stabbed at it with the broken board.

Chesin cried out in pain as the splinters pierced his skin. The still solid portion of the board did not penetrate, but the large pointed parts wounded him. She quickly looked around the mess on the floor in search of the dagger Punc had retrieved for her. Spotting it, she narrowly dodged another swing of Chesin's mighty arm as she rolled to pick up the weapon.

Gripping the handle, blade down, she moved toward her opponent, feinted right, tricking him into swinging at her again. He missed and was momentarily left off balance and open. She ran at him, jumped up, and then plunged the blade into Chesin's eye. Chesin cried out in great pain and angrily swung the other arm at her. She held onto the blade, and used the force of his swing to catapult her around his shoulder and onto his back.

She pulled the blade out, climbed up to sit on his shoulders. The pain in his eye overshadowed his already natural inability to feel much physical sensation outside of his body, so he did not yet know where she had disappeared to. He quickly looked around the basement with his one remaining useful eye, but could not find her. He spun around, as quickly as he could, to check behind him, but she was nowhere to be seen.

"Where are you," he shouted.

"Behind you," she obliged.

He spun around again, saw nothing, but then felt a sharp pain in his skull. He made an attempt to swat her off, but his arms did not move very much. He tried to speak, but only slight grunts came out. His legs began to fail him, and he dropped to his knees.

She pulled the knife out, climbed up to lay over the top of his bleeding head and looked into his good eye.

"Hello," she said playfully, waving her fingers to greet him, and then she stabbed the knife into that socket as well.

Chesin stopped moving entirely.

The girl held the handle of the knife with both hands and slid sideways off of his head. The knife twisted as she swung downward to eventually land on her feet. She pulled out the knife and just looked at him. A satisfied smile spread on her face as she breathed heavily from the exercise.

Chesin began to fall towards her, catching her by surprise. "Oop," she let out as she skipped back and sideways to avoid being fallen on.

She stepped over the beefy right arm of the slain demon, and then set her attention on Tonok, still mostly alive, sitting on the floor. She looked at the state of him as she casually walked closer, and then looked at the fear in his eyes. Still holding the knife, she bent over, propping herself up with her hands on her knees, and her head level with his, with mere inches between their noses.

"Do you understand now? There's only so much a human can do in a world of humans. Even if I lived a thousands of years and could kill unhindered, I would eventually just run out of people. But, you see, If I leave the humans alone..." She tilted her head and lowered her voice to almost a whisper. "I'll never run out of demons." She paused, untilting her head. "Demons are more of a challenge, anyway." She looked down his body, and then back to his eyes. "Some of you are, at least."

She quickly forced the point of the knife upward through Tonok's skull from below, never breaking her gaze. She watched his eyes go white, roll back, and then his lids fluttered closed. His hand fell from his neck, and then she pulled the knife back out of his skull, letting the rest of his body fall to the floor.

She stood upright, looked around the destroyed basement, and happened upon the crumpled ball that was the nursery rhyme about her. She picked it up, spread it out, and skimmed the words.

"Well, they weren't wrong." She folded it in half and looked around again. "Punc, dear?" The creature reappeared at her feet. She held the paper out to her companion. "Would you mind?" He quickly took the page into his mouth and proceeded to eat it.

As he chewed, she looked at her dress, blood stained and torn. "I shall need some new clothes." She ascended the staircase and Punc followed.

Epilogue

It's the one night of the year when many demons can walk freely among the humans without screams of terror filling the air. It's the night when demons were forbidden to harm humans, before the ruler of all of Hell was slain. While it's technically no longer a rule, it was actually appreciated by most demons, and so it remains in practice.

In a New York City alley, two demons have encountered each other. One is tallish and fat. He can easily pass as a bit of a slob wearing a rather unpleasant looking mask, provided the lighting is not very bright. The other is, by all accounts, a 13 year old girl with long black hair and an educated English accent, who, incidentally, looks quite lovely in any light.

She was in striking contrast to the filthy alleyway, among numerous garbage bags in various states of insecurity. He, on the other hand, looked right at home, so much so, that one could easily be convinced that the closed dumpster, in front of which he was standing, might actually be his home, although, in actuality, it was not.

It is unfortunate, however, that the portly demon's manner is just as unpleasant as his appearance, as can be witnessed in the fact that he has captured the girl's small companion, and is quite adamant in his refusal to release the creature.

One might suspect that such a predicament would have a young girl in tears, or at least dismayed, but this particular young girl is one of almost constant good cheer and always optimistic that events will invariably turn out in her favor. She stood in very good posture and with her fingers entwined behind her back.

With her unfailing smile, she addressed the brute.

"Would you mind, terribly, releasing my little friend? He'd rather not be handled in such a way."

The creature struggled to escape the fellow's grasp, but to no avail, and the insensitive antagonist began to roughly stroke, if you could call it that, the hide of the creature.

"He's MY friend, now. You can have one of those rats," he suggested, briefly gesturing towards one of the piles of garbage serving as a meal to a small collection of rodents.

"I'm afraid that won't do. You see, I'm quite fond of Punc, here, and I would never consider abandoning him. Please be a good chap and release him."

The oaf leaned over her a bit and said, with very deliberate words, "I ain't doin' it."

"Oh, dear," she responded as, unbeknownst to the monster, she began withdrawing a dagger, which she kept sheathed against the small of her back, concealed from view.

The dagger was only partially removed, when a thick, meaty, crack of a sound was heard.

Punc's captor suddenly released his grip. Punc launched himself away and onto the ground, seeking refuge behind the girl.

The girl's eyes were trained on the suddenly expressionless face of the tall demon as he began to lean to one side, and turn as he ultimately landed face down onto the pavement.

"Well, that was unexpected," she remarked and then noticed that a sledgehammer was embedded in his skull.

Confused, she looked up to find a pale, young girl standing on top of the closed lid of the dumpster, immediately behind where the demon had been standing.

This pale girl wore pajamas and short, black pigtails, and there was a very disapproving look on her face as she gazed down upon her defeated foe.

The girl with the dagger slid it back fully into its sheath and released the handle.

"Hello, there," she offered, pleasantly.

It took a few seconds for the pale girl to notice the greeting, but when she did, she looked at the long-haired girl and then quickly relaxed her expression. She merely stared, saying nothing.

The long-haired girl, looked to the body and then stepped nearer, grasping the handle the the sledgehammer. With a bit of levering, she freed the heavy mass of metal from the brute's gaping skull. She moved her grip closer the weighted end and then held the weapon up to the pale girl.

"I believe this is yours."

The pale girl accepted the sledgehammer, but still offered no change of expression. She climbed down from the dumpster and stood not two feet in front of the long-haired girl. The pale girl, while still short, was taller than the other girl, by about a head, at least. She wore fuzzy slippers matted with dried blood, and there were spatterings of blood on her pajamas as well. In fact, even the handle of her sledgehammer seemed to be painted in a coat of dried blood.

The two stared at each other for a moment, saying nothing, but then the pale girl looked down to the creature who was now sitting at the side of the long-haired girl's feet.

The long-haired girl looked as well. "Oh, yes. This is Punc. He is a very dear friend of mine." As her gaze traveled back upward, she noticed that the pale girl held a string attached as a leash to a small, floppy stuffed animal.

"I see you have a friend of your own. What's his name?"

The pale girl looked at her stuffed animal, and then brought it into her arms as she looked again into the eyes of the long-haired girl, but still said nothing.

She curiously looked the pale girl over for a moment. "You're a little ghostie, aren't you," she asked, rather pleased with her findings. "I've always wanted to meet a ghostie."

The pale girl looked a bit confused, but still made to reply.

"You don't talk very much, do you," she guessed. "Well, that's not a problem at all. If it's alright with you, Punc, here, can tell me what your thinking. By the way, my name is LoliDagger." She raised an index finger to her lips in a silencing gesture, then added, "But don't tell anyone," punctuating it with a wink.

Excitement spread across the long-haired girl's face. "You're name is Princess Jack?" She clapped and bounced. "Oh, I absolutely love it!"

The long-haired girl stepped back, holding out a hand that welcomed the pale girl to accompany her away from the alley. "I simply must know more."

The pale girl hesitated briefly, but soon enough the two were walking side by side down the dimly lit sidewalk with Punc trailing close behind.

"What a coincidence. I killed my parents, as well."

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BONUS related story, for greater context.

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Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Rachel, who loved ice cream.

She loved it so much that it made her sad that she didn't get to eat ice cream all the time.

However, on one special day, every year, she was able to eat as much delicious ice cream as she wanted, and that special day was her birthday.

In anticipation of this most glorious day, she always playfully joked that she was going to eat so much ice cream, that she would go into an ice cream coma, and all of her friends and family smiled at her joy.

Every year, when her birthday finally arrived, she would go about the town, eating ice cream from every shop and parlor, and not even the sun setting could stop her.

Well, into the night, when she was finally satisfied, she would go home and lay down to a blissful sleep with an extra wide smile on her face.

She always woke up the next day, still happy with the memory of the day before.

But one year, the little girl did not wake up the next day.

Worried, they all took turns trying to wake her, but none succeeded. Here friends and family were perplexed. "Why won't she wake up," they asked.

They brought her to the hospital and begged the doctor to help her, but it was no use.

"I'm sorry," the doctor said, "but it seems your little girl has gone into an ice cream coma."

Everyone gasped in shock. "An ice cream coma?!" they all said in amazement. "How could this be?"

The little girl had always said that it was going to happen, but neither she, nor her friends and family ever believed it was actually possible.

There was nothing to be done at the hospital, so the little girl was brought back home to be in her own bed, among familiar surroundings, especially her beloved little stuffed poodle.

Sadness had replaced joy, as her loved ones took turns sitting with her, day and night, hoping that she would soon awaken.

Someone was always there to watch over her... for a while, but as days turned into weeks, the little girl's loved ones had to get back to their own lives.

She still had visitors, from time to time, but most of her time was spent alone.

As the months passed, the little girl's skin grew very pale, she grew dark around the eyes, and she was so cold to the touch that if someone did not know any better, then they might think that she was already dead.

Outside of her house, the air turned chill, the leaves turned brown, and while the silent little girl lay in bed, the children outside played and laughed in anticipation of another very special day: Halloween.

The little girl loved Halloween, but it was beginning to look as if she was going to miss it this year, and this made some of her friends especially sad.

On the day before Halloween, those friends gathered around her and said, not sure if she could even hear them, "We're all coming back tomorrow night to spend Halloween with you."

With tears in their eyes, they looked upon their little friend a moment longer before leaving her to her rest.

Late that night, when the clock struck three, something strange happened.

The window in her room slowly began to lift, as if on it's own, and an especially cold breeze gently blew in.

Suddenly, a man with a Jack o' Lantern head appeared beside her.

It was the Spirit of Halloween. The King of all the little ghosts and goblins. The Master of tricks and treats.

He leaned over the little girl and gently stroked her hair as he softly whispered, "It's time, my child. It's time to wake up."

"You've finally eaten enough ice cream to sustain your metamorphosis, and now you must awaken to fulfill your destiny, sweet daughter. Wake up, my Princess."

The man held out his hands, and a sledgehammer materialized before him.

He smiled and placed the object, on the bed, beside the little girl.

"You must go to The Land of Red Eyes. There, you will find three creatures: A ghoul named Leaves, an imp named Shoes, and a little goblin named Gut. They need your help, my dear."

"But before you go, there is something that you must do. If you simply leave, then your parents will be so very sad."

He took the little girl's hand in his and placed it gently on the handle of the sledgehammer.

"Take this, and tell your parents goodbye..., so they won't be sad."

He leaned down and placed a loving kiss on the forehead of the little girl, and then faded away, as spirits do.

Then the house was especially quiet.

The only sound to be heard, if you listened very carefully, was a breeze through the open window.

And then the poor little girl in the ice cream coma opened her eyes.