You’ve just arrived in a swampy, dim town. As you look around, your gaze is met with shacks and cabins. It smells of rotted wood and wet moss. You duck and step into a tattered tent, illuminated by a series of candles suspended in the air. At the back of the tent, an old hag raises her head, “What brings you to this dingy town? she begins, then pauses to study your face—”Ah, it’s you. I’ve been expecting you. Sit,” she gestures at a cushion, “Tell me your story.”
((How do you respond?))
Without making eye contact I utter the words, "A story is a thing worth telling."
'But...if you wish to know, it would be rude to refuse."
"When I was a boy my village was a very desolate place, where the people would do nothing but work..." I look the woman in her eyes, "...But on the occasion of Hollows Eve, our people would be able to enjoy the festivities and participate in dressing up as a way to scare away the evil spirits from our home."
'That was until about 17 years ago." With my arms now uncrossed I say, "there was a girl who my friend and I would mess with...and on that night, my friend thought itd be amusing to push her near the bonfire in the center of the town."
"When the moment was right he pushed her...but it was too much and she ended up falling in."
"The people tried there best to put out the fire but by the time it was out it was too late..."
"...The girl had been severely burned everywhere on her body to the point where all that was left was a burnt husk."
'She was only able to live for moments after and only had time to say 'I love you' to her father who lost his wife a few years before."
"the father, filled with rage, asked everyone there who had done it."
"Within moments my friend had raised his hand and told him he knew."
"When I looked at him he looked at me and with one finger had pinned the blame on me." I close my eyes, "The town all agreed I had to pay...The punishment...was to receive the same pain inflicted onn the young girl."
"The only reason I live is my mother begged for my life, they agreed to only a part...my face."
"From that point on, I lived with the punishment of a murderer...I was trapped in a prison for 8 years before they decided to sell me off into slavery, for 7 years I endured the torture...until I was bought by a kind pumpkin farmer who took pity on me."
"He gave me the mask and allowed me to stay with him, he made me feel like a human again."
"Everything was well until his isolated home was raided bandits and they took his life."
"Now I took it upon myself to avenge the man who gave me a new life."
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