The flame was hot against her face, reflecting the same feeling as her tears of anguish, betrayal, and hatred. They had left her without warning, without goodbye, and worst of all, she felt they had merely left her on her own to die. Her mother had sent her here on good faith that things would be well, but this hardly fit the description of what Sura thought would be happening. Her stomach made a squelching sound of complaint at its apparent emptiness.

The fire at the end of the stick was hot. It was red and gleamed, just like the devil's eyes. With black tipped-ears and a white body, he seemed angry at her as she peered at the creature who stepped forwards from the fire. Seeing it through the flames, she'd assumed it had merely arrived out of the fire, as it did look like some devilish thing to her. Sura didn't care what any angels or devils would say, she would burn this house down. But she couldn't resist the opportunity to talk.

"I'm am burns it down! Burns it all! Dey left me to die in dat houwse! So I kills da houwse! ", she shook her head from side to side, causing a red blur of heat. Embers drifted into the air and quickly faded out just as fast. "No one abandondedededs Sura! No one weaves me to dies byes myselfs! Bad house ! Bad! I don'ts cares what you says Mr. Satans, I burns it downs! ", she growled at the stick as the flame crept closer to her nose.

She began to step forwards with the torch. "Stands back Mr. Satans, you no wants to get hurts. Ou, ah, is hots.", she paused and began to mutter to herself. "Why Mr. Satans only comes now but nots when I calls him at pway...."

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In one moment her eyelids were blinking, struggling to stay open wide enough for her to see and shield her vulnerable irises at the same time. In the next, she felt herself being manipulated like a rag doll. The torch wasn't in her mouth anymore but extinguished by Mr. Satan's capable agility. And her body wasn't free-standing anymore but held down with a thousand pounds of bricks and muscle. Sura felt her eyes well up with tears again in a warm hatred of everything and everyone. She found herself shouting, but she hardly knew what she was saying. Her words were based off of the emotions she felt this very second, and nothing deeper, incapable of expressing her innermost desires, thoughts, or any longstanding notion.

"But I donts knows bouts You or Saul or who dey is! I don'ts cares who they ares! No one cares abouts Suras! I just wants my mummy back! I just wants goes home! I don'ts cares if I goes backs to swavery no more or gets marrieds at ages six moths to ten years old mans. No one cares bouts Suras ! I hurts uncles house and makes it burns! I don'ts cares!"

He said he didn't know what had happened, and that he wouldn't let her get hurt, but she'd told him already. He wasn't listening now, she felt sure of it. She could hardly breathe with her nose pressed against him so she moved it and began sucking in oxygen instead of sweat and fur. "I don'ts cares! I wants to die!", she felt she was screaming, but her voice was barely at a normal level. Her heart pounded the blood through her veins, every drumbeat a moment of her wasted existence gone by.

There was a voice, a sort of song, a gentle melody. But Sura didn't care and she wanted to smash that house into bits. She wanted to be a dinosaur so she could trample it underfoot like it was no more than a piece of toiletpaper and not her entire life. It was all broken and messed up and she wanted nothing more than to watch the entire world burn and crumble. But the voice continued, the song lulling her heartrate down one by one. What if she got away from him? The stick was still right there, she could grab it and whack him on the head, light it on fire, and proceed as she was before. Or, she could light it on fire and then ward him away with the flames like a foul beast. The song continued, gentle words sweeping her off the ground.

Sura felt as if she were floating above her own body. The stick was there, but it was so far away, she'd have to stretch to reach it. And here was a nice and cozy and warm spot at someone's chest with a lullaby and love and care.

"Okay.....", her voice was dreamy and it seemed to span an entire eternity to fully come out of her mouth. She felt agreeable and light, as if she'd say yes to whatever the man asked.

Sura, , the Mr.Satan would ask. Would you like to jump off a cliff with me?, he would say, and Sura would nod yes. Yes, she wanted to very much. But I'm going to watch, you jump first.. Yes, yes she still wanted to and away she would go. There wouldn't be any down or up or gravity or even physics as long as this soft feeling would continue in her head. Perhaps she'd died and this was Mr. Satan here to usher her to heaven. She'd been a good girl, so surely she'd go. Even if she had been bad and went to the other place that wasn't heaven, what could be the worst that could happen to her? As long as this feeling continued, nothing in the world would feel bad or hurt ever again. Besides, all dogs went to heaven, and she was half dog, so she would at least go to half a heaven.

The light headed feeling dissipated as she sucked in oxygen and instead got a fly. She coughed it up and it flew off elsewhere to bother someone else. Sura looked up at the figure who held her down. "It's okays, Mr. Satan. You can let goes. I'm ready to goes to heavens nows.", she smiled up at him, showing her teeth.

But where had that fuzzy feel-good feeling gone? Sura began to wiggle until she found it, with her head pressed against the man's chest. Ah, here it was, the feeling returned slowly but gradually as she suffocated herself in the middle of the man's front, where the muscles met and provided a dip just the right size for her nose to sink into and not breathe anymore oxygen. Coping as best as it could, her brain slowed functions, her blood stream carrying less oxygen than it was before.

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Sura felt her body leave the ground but she didn't want to believe it was happening. Her nose began to pump in normal oxygen again and the fuzziness from asphyxiation had begun to dwindle, leaving only a feeling of comfort. She hadn't ever felt so helpless, so little, so futile. But as she felt her body manipulated like a puppet, she hardly cared. It felt warm and safe her and all the terrible things that lurked in her mind had been slowly swept away.

Why was she called a baby? She wasn't a baby, she was big! She was bigger than big! She was bad and terrible! One day she'd conquer the world! But, it was awfully comforting here. Her eyelids blinked by themselves and her mouth issued a yawn all on its own. Maybe she'd worry about such things later, this was nice. Her body felt lazy and she hardly wanted to move.

One eye blinked, and then the other, her irises unfocused as her ears swept in all there was to hear. She repeated back what she'd heard as a sort of confirmation to herself. Although she wanted to believe that these things were so sudden and unexpected they should come as a surprise to her, the emotion simply wouldn't come as laziness had enveloped her limbs and mind. She mumbled it all back aloud. "Ink Satan's familes. Not heavens. We does Trovatos . N' goes asplorins n' howses n' sisters n' bwodthers. Ink Satan, bwoder. ", her mind at half power parsed together most of what the man had said, taking his last name as his job, Sura's mistaken diety as his first name, his first name as his last name, and the rest for pretty much correct.

"Ink Satan's, my's browders. ", she repeated for emphasis and confirmation, as if trying to convince herself this was real. But like a person's who's driven nothing but junker vehicles all their life suddenly put behind the wheel of a brand new car, it didn't feel quite right.

"Can I has milks feed my dollies wocks go birds asplosion.... ", she began to say something but her voice drifted off as her brain powered down. Sura began to snore. The third one was so loud that she woke herself up, jolting awake and finding herself in the arms of a stranger. Her mouth opened to say something as she peered up at him. Her expression contorted to anger and held. And then to sadness and held. And then to confusion and held. When at last it seemed her chameleon expressions had completed, the efforts drained out of her face and she felt content. Her tail gave a thud at some fleeting thought.

"Mr. Satan Inks you my brwoder, let's go eats! N' den I wants shows you how make fwogs ASPWODES ! N' den, n' den, wills you tells me hows you gets be wuler of dwakness? Dids yew twicks sum'un ? Wif foods? I wewry hungwies, if I not eats for a weeks, wills my poops turns gweens? Dat be scawies, what if poop has gween poops in it wif foods? What poops made outs ofs anyways? Does poops got foods in it? If it has foods in it, den I musts bes wasting poops. Foods, I means. Bad bodies, bads, wastin's pwecous foods. I'm awfwy hungweis, are we at foods yets? ... I fowgowts what I was sayins. ...", she was suddenly awry with energy, her tongue expending the bulk of it. Given the occasional squelch of her stomach and the subject of her speech, it was easy to see what she was preoccupied with. Her eyes looked around here and there, now alert.

The makeshift torch stood as it was before, one end half in dirt, the other out, as if a memorial to the two who'd once left there. In Suras mind, the experience was now no more than a battle scar, a cool story to tell about that one time her guardians abandoned her to die and how she almost burned the village down. The scene caught her eye, but nothing seemed to register in her mind.

"Mr. Ink Satans? I gwads yous my bwoders.", she smiled shyly, her heart warm with a feeling as if she'd known this man all her life. In this world, there was no such thing as stranger danger, and with front doors kept wide open and unlocked, here in the arms of this well-meaning young man, Sura's heart felt warmed as if by the sun. Things would be alright, she knew it. Her mind drifted to the inner workings of feeces, frogs, explosions, and food once more.

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