Private Finished I don't need anyone's help

A figure moved around the woods in the darkness, shuffling around the bushes; muted sounds of heavy foot falls on the grassy growth. The figure was moving rather sluggish, attaching to itself to tree trunks before it wobbled off into another.

Strings felt her body was heavy but she would be damned if she said she didn't feel any sense of satisfaction today. She didn't go out unscathed yet the weigh of the small sack soaked with dark liquid at her grasp made it so much worth it. Still. There was no sign of that god forsaken devil. How hard was it to lure him out when she was already ruining his reputation?

She took one shaky step forward before her legs gave out under her, falling face forward to meet the ground. Yet it was as if her nerves were numbed from her little squabble to kill that scrawny kid, she didn't feel a lot of pain from the fall. Her manic cackle echoed in the forest she lied in, before it died out so slowly. By then Strings had rolled herself to her side, feeling the exhaustion sink into her system. God, she was tired.

Strings' consciousness was almost slipping and she was just about to give in to the exhaustion if it weren't for the fact that she was still in the middle of the forest, maybe still meters away from her little cave. But she was just so tired. With a quiet chuckle she decided she could probably close her eyes...

Strings heard nothing approach but her eyes flew open at the sound of another voice. Following the source of the disturbance, she glared at the... child? Oh, isn't this funny? "I should be the one saying that, pipsqueak." Kids she found had always been interesting victims but she didn't enough energy to spare even moving a muscle. "Run along and go home to your parents."

Disinterested, he turned her eyes away from the boy but as soon as she did, she realized the child was a little... off. She turned her body so she was lying flt on her back so she could get a good look of the "child". He looked pretty normal, but either it was the exhaustion talking or there was really something wrong with that face.

Deciding neither of them wasn't going anywhere, she decided to ask. "So, 'kid', what's your business here in the woods?"

Oh heavens, anorphan? Why, oh why did this one have to come here now? It was such an opportunity. A small child, in the middle of the forest, with no parents to come home to, no parents to look for him when he doesn't come home for nights on end. Strings could only chuckle, bitterly if anything. This opportunity could slip past her just right under her nose.

"Me? Oh, I have a lot to back to. Lots of it," she scoffed, eyes turning skyward so she could just lie there for a second. There was a number of things she could go back to. She could go back to being her old self, where honestly everything was okay as they were save for the blanks in memories, but she could also go back home - whereever that is - but what was home when all she felt was emptiness and discontent about her current self?

When the strange little kid spoke again she almost laughed. Playing in the woods? "Isn't it dangerous here?" she cooed, a little mockingly. Ah, children of Manta Carlos are strange little things, aren't they? But hey, she was looking for opportunities right now and this was just one oportunity to stall. "Maybe you could wait for sis to catch her breath and we could play?"

Strings' eyes followed the little boy as he hopped down the tree, slow enough for her to be able to regain awakeness. She was getting this nagging feeling at the back of her mind: there was something up about this kid, and not just the magical sort that was the norm of most kids in the island. But she decided to keep the thought to herself for a while, instead observing the child for a little more before she reached a definitive conclusion.

She quirked an eyebrow as he asked her a question though chose not to speak, just watching the child dust his knees. Children were so cute, they were always the ones who were so easy to talk to; kids loved it when she offered to play with them or offer them treats. She liked how they squirmed a lot more, the adorable way their eyes just widen and their smiles fell, and she loved they way they cried for their parents while they desperately tried to crawl away from her.

You could be paid? the little boy asked as he held out coins that were no interest of her, shaking her head as she struggled to sit up. The boy withdrew the coins a little sadly. Pay other ways then? he asked again. Strings curiously narrowed her eyes at the boy.

Strings had to supress the urge to grin wildly at the insinuation. This child, she swore to herself. What an interesting boy. Strings reached out to lift the little boy's chin with a hand, oddly clean of any evidence of her crime. "Are you lonely out here?" she cooed, a smirk playing at her lips. "Big sis can play with you so you don't have to be lonely."

As the boy leaned even closer, the smirk on Strings' face widened, giving away the malicious intent that was bubbling up from within. She moved her hand to caress the boy's cheek, her thumb gently brushing his soft skin before it rested idly at the corner of his mouth. A high-pitched giggle escaped past her lips, much to high too be a normal chuckle. Look at those cute little eyes, she thought to herself, her mind already offering visuals of her sinister plots.

"It won't be cold anymore," she whispered. The mad thoughts drive her to pay no more attention to the weight of her body, to the sheer exhaustion, completely intoxicated by the softness of the little child as she cupped his face with both hands. Her face hovered closely, watching the boy's features up close, so hypotized by his gaze and the prospect of another delicious kill. She wasn't one to resist it--not at all.

"You're so cute." Strings leaned close to the boy, burying her face at the crook of his neck, leaving a trail of little kisses, breathing is his sweet scent. As she slowly unbuttoned his polo, her fingers lightly traced the skin with her fingers, visualizing her knife as it cuts through, the blood just seeping out of the incision, muted screams echoing in the background. Strings smiled wickedly. "You like that, don't you?" she whispered at his ear.