The Wrong Person Was Transported to the Horrific Lost Village

I wiped the sweat and spittle from my brow. "Whew, cleaning you up is hard work when I'm so held back." I put on a deranged grin. "But it's okay, Bev. We'll get there."

"G-gah, no…"

Beverly was quivering in her seat.

"Huu, buuh, gah," she said, panting and shaking. 

Her toes were broken, and toothpicks were sticking out from beneath each fingernail now.

I ran my hands through my hair and sighed. "Oh, Bev… I'm usually much better at getting rid of filth. But this place… It's stopping me from helping you… Can you believe it? They asked me to not purify anyone... Alas… You just need to hold out for a week. And then you'll be perfect."

Was that good? Did I give myself a good ideal? Did I sound like a zealot? Maybe talking about purity was making me seem like a fanatic... If I were mysterious overseers, I would be thrilled by someone like that.

"Guh…" she said, probably delirious from the pain.

The pitiful sound she made drew me back to her... Truth be told, I wasn't a fan of drawing things out even if it was only a fraction of what she had done to the children. Were it up to me, I would have just gouged her heart out. But alas, there was an order to things. 

On the plus side, all this effort had given me—I would say—60% of the available Vengeance. I had a whole lot of power I could use now. Even if Beverly were to die ahead of schedule, I would be able to handle whatever came—or at least, that was how I estimated the situation. With all the evil Beverly had committed, she had given me enough Vengeance to be able to fight a ten-day war in high-performance mode.

I couldn't get too distracted now. The last time I got cocky, the goddess caught me. No, I had to stay focused on the task at hand.

I cleared my throat. "Hmm, well, I guess I'll go home now. Need to get some beauty sleep too—"

"Shhh."

I turned on my heels, restraining my smile.

"What the–" I said, pretending to flip back to serious-mode. "What is that?!"

"Shhh," the strange thing said, letting me experience its famous "shh-ing" motion.

It was that naked, large man with the bulbous eyes—the one that Beverly had seen on her first night here. Every time she hurt those kids, this thing would appear. What exactly its purpose was—I didn't know, but it only ever shushed people. It never got in Beverly's way. 

I did have a theory, though. Beverly kept kids in here, but she was never caught. In one of the memories, she was even in the search party, and they even went near this cellar. I had a feeling that this thing kept sounds from escaping this room. How else could they not hear a whimpering child? Regardless, its arrival was welcome.

"Bev, what is this thing?" I said, looking ready for a fight.

She just mumbled on, still delirious. The creature, meanwhile, sank back into the shadows of the corner where it sat, fully disappearing.

"Huh…" I said, relaxing. "Was it just there to scare me?" I asked out loud. "Is it just a ghost?" I looked over to Beverly and smiled. "It'll probably be fine, right?"

I gagged Beverly so that she wouldn't be able to bite her tongue, patted her head, and walked off. "See you tomorrow night, Bev," I said.

The next thing I would do…

"I still have a few more hours that can be devoted to something worthwhile."

Before leaving, I produced a single butterfly and had it hide in the shadows to monitor Beverly. If it looked like Beverly was about to die, it would eat a hole through her heart. If Beverly was going to die on her own accord, then I would deny her that and claim that last of the Vengeance.

Beverly's death was mine to decide. She didn't have the luxury to decide her end.

 

***

 

Beverly's Basement—One Hour Later—

"There you are…"

I was standing next to a small hole I had made in the basement. Two tiny skulls were half uncovered, just sitting there in this revolting shallow grave.

I closed my eyes. I wanted to give them some kind of vocal last words—some kind of vocalized apology, but if someone was watching me…

I put on a surprised look and cocked my head. "Oh my… Beverly... How I wanted you to lie," I lamented. "But alas; you're so filthy… I can't believe this… Will I really be able to clean you? These poor things… If you weren't so filthy, they would still be here… Tsk, tsk, Beverly. We can never be friends. I can't stand you being anything less than perfect. You need me to be your loyal servant."

Was that deranged enough? I sure thought it was. I just hoped I sounded consistent. Finding the skulls threw me off more than I thought it would.

With a forced hum, I put away the shovel and ensured I had cleaned up any marks on the floorboards that would indicate that there was a secret passage. Interestingly, Beverly kept some wood-staining liquid down here. She must have used it often, along with some other tools, in trying to hide the evidence of a passage.

Anyway, I stood in front of the hole I made. 

My hope was that the giant, messy hole in the floor would capture the attention of anyone that came looking for Beverly… I hoped that the presence of the bodies would also throw off their judgment and cause them to waste time. 

The question was--how should I present this to any powers that be? Why would psycho-lover Mari want Beverly's misdeeds exposed?

"Beverly... I'm the only one that can fix you. The people will find out how filthy you are, and they'll give up on you... Only I will stay with you. No one else will clean you. No one else will stop me from cleaning you."

Was that good? I had met many people in the past who wanted a person's death for themselves. Surely, that was believable enough...

"Well, I have done all I can do for now." I looked up. "See? I didn't kill my love! So, please don't ruin this for me! I'm playing by your rules!"

I kind of wished I could hear them.

Anyway, I had done everything I needed to. It was someone else's move now—be it the forces that be or the villagers.

I walked up to Beverly's room as I thought back on all the memories that I had extracted. The thing that I was the most excited about was the Goal that gave Beverly that tunnel.

This place actually helped her with her compulsion. That single action told me a lot. This place didn't have allegiances. It won't admonish people. It would be neutral in the sense that it would give out Goals that were relevant to the person. Was it testing a person to get a feel for them? Did it want to give a person the tools they needed to do whatever they wanted to do? In this case, it was clear that they aided Beverly.

My only question now was whether this was only half of the story. I gave this place enough information. Would they use it to create more personalized Goals? I'd find out soon enough.

I'm excited. 

The moment they responded in any way, I would know their stance.

I got to Beverly's room and cracked open the window. Then, I transformed into a swarm of butterflies and fluttered back home.

No villager would ever know. Just like Bev, I had given myself a very strong alibi--I had gone to sleep long after night fell, and many people knew. 

Who would make the next move now? My excitement was reaching new levels.