Reading by the candlelight

*This story is under my folder “Salem, Daisy, and many other lost souls in Cherry Brook”. Gacha Club character designs are under this forum: https://www.youngwriterssociety.com/topic/117842-my-character-designs-lt-33-3?start=240. Enjoy!*

With only a candlelight by her side, Daisy turned the pages of the monster book, ever so intrigued by the mystical world that awaited in the pages.

Each and every creature seemed to reach out back at her with its own rich, vibrant history, but there was one in particular that caught her eye.

In Asian mythology, there was a half-snake, half-human creature called a “Naga”, its tail ever-enchanting, its eyes ever tantalizing.

How a book about different monsters around the world ended up in a small, closely-knit American town remained a mystery to Daisy, but it was all the more charming to her!

Snakes were something that many people in her town feared and for good reason. They could kill anything in an instant and yet chose to bring immense suffering, dragged-out torture. They bound their prey tight and wouldn’t let them go.

But then, humans ate away at meat. Meat that was once living animals, that once had a heart and mind. Would it make all the difference to get killed by a snake? Wouldn’t it be honorary, even? To die as all other animals died, to be equal with all life?

Daisy kept one thought closely to herself. It was a more selfish thought, a more self-centered thought.

No boys ever laid eyes upon her in a romantic sense. Why would they? She was a “dying beauty” as most villagers said, for they believed that she would be more beautiful if her face wasn’t so gaunt, more desirable if she didn’t find monsters to be fascinating.

A boy who wasn’t quite human would understand her. He would love her just as she deserved to be loved, do things to her that no other human could.

Not only that, but with a snake tail that went around and around and around, he could kill her and make her his. They would be together forever, their spirits intertwined.

The front door creaked open, Daisy closed the book.