„What are you?“, the little girl asks, while fidgeting on her pink dress. I don‘t move. Never have I ever seen such a creature before. It tingles my inner senses. I don‘t know what it is, it‘s damn annoying.

„Nobody good.“, I say with my scratchy voice. Why am I even talking to this girl? Usually I just do my job. They come, I take their souls out of their bodys and that’s it. No talking, it even hurts in my throat. What’s going on with me? I move one step to her. She stares at me through big brown eyes, her brown hair flows down on her shoulders like a waterfall- _why do I even care?!_

„Why?“, she asks genuinely interested. I think about an answer- _why? _

„Because I am going to hurt you.“, I say finally.

„And why?“, her voice is so quiet I can bearly make out what she says. Something inside me hurts. Oh my god, what is that? I reach out an arm and hold my sceletal hand above her face, ready to start my work. But just as I feel the energy rising up my body, a tear rolls out of her eye and falls down on the ground. I let my hand sink.

„What happened to you?“, I ask and for the first time in years, my throat doesn‘t hurt when speaking.

She sniffs, „They sent me to you.“

„You‘re a victim. They sent you to stand in my favor.“

Now she doesn‘t hold the tears back, it’s like waterfalls pull out of her gorgeous eyes. She sniffs again. I lean down to her, so much that my heart touches the ground.

I hesitate, then say: „Don‘t cry.“

My hand reaches out by herself and wipes a tear off of her cheek. She doesn‘t move, just lets me touch her. As if I am an normal human being.

„You don‘t deserve that.“, I lean back and rise to my full height. I don’t wonder why I feel this way anymore. I just don’t _want _to kill her, no clue why, it just doesn’t feel right.

„What are you gonna do?“, she stares up at me through watery eyes

„What do you want me to do?“

Since when do I ask other people what they want me to do? I don‘t care.

„Don‘t kill me.“, I can basically feel the fear in her voice, though I don‘t think that she‘s scared of _me_, just of what I‘m capable of.

„I didn‘t want to kill you.“

„Don‘t kill them.“

That surprises me.

„Why not?“

„Because if you‘d kill them, you wouldn’t be better than them, you‘d be worse.“

„But I _am _worse_ _than them, why should I care?“

„Because you are not. I know you are not. Your mistaken.“

I tilt my head, she sniffs and wishes the last tears away.

„What makes you so sure of that?“

„You didn‘t kill me.“

Now she gets confident, I can see it in her eyes.

„But I killed thousands of people before you. You don‘t even know how brutal I am.“

„Yeah, but everyone needs a second chance.“

I snort.

„That would be my 5974th chance.“

„No, basically it’s your second, because nobody ever really cared enough about you, to give you another possibility than killing all these people.“

She‘s so sure of herself that I grin, I can’t imagine that this kid cried only a few minutes ago.

„Well what should we do again?“

„We … sounds great.“, she smiles the brightest smile I‘ve ever seen and my non-existent heart melts. As I realize what I just said, I freeze for a second.

„I- I meant- not _we_- I meant-“

„Why not we? I would like _we._“

I don‘t know what to say. Never ever in my life somebody wanted to do something with me. Never. Why would they?

„You sure?“

„What if we just go?“

„What do you mean, go? I can’t just go.“

„Why not? I thought you hated it here?“

„Well yeah, but-“

„No but. C‘mon. We‘ll be our own community.“, she steps around me and proceeds to head through the fog.

„You’re the strangest human I‘ve ever met.“

„We‘ll be best friends.“, she doesn’t even listen to me. She just follows the little path through the fog. I need to go after her or I‘ll lose her.

„Where do we go first?“, she asks over her shoulder.

„Remember. You’re in the dead woods. This isn’t like the normal world. You can‘t just follow the signpost and hope to come out at some strange little village. The only thing you‘ll see here are creepy trees, fog everywhere and, if you’re lucky, a sceletal animal.“

„Sounds great, let’s go.“

„You’re strange.“

„No, you’re strange, c‘mon!“