CLAIMED BY DARK ALPHA

"Witch! Stay away from our village!"

The words hit me like stones as I walked on the sideway toward home.

"You should never exist!" someone else screamed from the left. Before I could even react, something slammed into my back. An egg. Cold, sticky yolk oozed down my clothes, dripping into my hair. Laughter followed, sharp and cruel, ringing in my ears.

"Witches shall die!" another voice howled. Soon the others joined in, their chants rising like fire around me.

I kept walking. One step, then another, as though my body was on strings. My head hung low, my hair falling over my face so no one would see the tears threatening to fall. My chest felt tight, like an invisible hand was squeezing my heart until I could barely breathe.

These weren’t strangers. These were my neighbors. My own community. People I grew up seeing every day, people who once smiled at me when I was younger—now they cursed my existence as if I was poison.

And the worst part? They didn’t just hate me... they hated my family.

I thought of Father. The pain in his eyes whenever he watched me and my brother return home dirty, bruised, broken. He tried to stay strong, but I knew he blamed himself. No father should have to watch his children suffer like this.

And Zonen… my little brother. Only two years younger than me, but already he was bullied as if he was some monster too. He hadn’t even lived half a childhood before this nightmare swallowed him.

It’s just us three. Father, Zonen, and me. Mother… she disappeared the day Zonen was born. I was only two years old. Father always said she left to protect us. That she went far away so we would be safe.

But how could leaving us behind protect us? How could vanishing into thin air with no goodbye, no warning, no love… be protection?

Sometimes I told myself maybe it was better this way. If she stayed, they would have hurt her too. She would have tasted this same misery. Maybe she was the lucky one. She never had to feel the way my heart burns every time someone spits the word “witch” at me.

"Get the fuck out of here!"

The shout came with a shove. My body crashed to the ground, dirt and gravel cutting my palms. My knees stung as they scraped against the stones.

I looked up—and my stomach sank. Amber.

Of course it was Amber.

She had always been my shadow, only not the kind that followed… the kind that hunted. The kind that clung, pulling me into the dark wherever I went. I never wronged her, never spoke to her, never touched her life. But still, she hated me. And she loved making me suffer.

"You don’t deserve this place!" she spat, standing over me like she was queen of the village. "You deserve hell! I don’t know why you’re still in this village. You should die!"

The others around her cheered her words, nodding, some even clapping as though her cruelty was something brave.

I bit my lip so hard I tasted blood. My eyes burned, but I forced the tears back. I couldn’t cry. Not in front of them. If I cried, they would win. They would see weakness, and they would dig into it like wolves tearing flesh.

I am not weak. No matter how many times they spit on me, no matter how many times they knock me down, I will not give them the pleasure of seeing me broken.

Father always told me—one day, this would end. One day, fate would change. One day, God’s plan would lift us out of this misery.

So I stood. My hands shook as I brushed the dirt from my clothes. I forced my legs to move, faster this time, desperate to reach home before anyone else found me.

But their words still echoed: *witch, evil, monster.*

Why us? Why always us?

Maybe it was because of the disasters. Last week, the animals began dying, drained of blood with strange bite marks. Crops destroyed overnight. A drought that came out of nowhere. And every time something went wrong, their eyes turned to us.

To the witch’s family.

But how? Father is a farmer, a carpenter. His hands build homes, not curses. Zonen is just a boy. I’m nothing but a girl trying to survive.

They say my mother was a witch. That’s why she disappeared. That’s why we’re cursed. That’s why everything bad in this village is our fault.

A lie. A cruel, ugly lie.

Maybe it was the howling at night that gave them fuel. The strange cries that echoed near our house, sometimes from the hills, sometimes from the Ghost Cave—the cursed place no one dared enter. They say once you step inside, you never come out.

"Hey! I was talking to you!"

A hand yanked my hair back so hard I nearly fell again. I cried out as my scalp burned.

Amber. Again. Her voice was low, full of venom. "Don’t you dare mess with me, freak."

Her grip tightened. I clawed at her wrist, but she only yanked harder, making tears spring to my eyes from the pain.

And then—I saw her.

Sheon.

My breath caught as I spotted her flying toward me. My little companion, my secret. The only creature in this world that truly belonged to me. But she wasn’t flying like she usually did. This time, she cut through the air with a speed I had never seen before.

She was furious.

I bowed my head just in time.

Sheon dove, claws flashing, wings beating like thunder. She crashed into Amber, slashing at her face, forcing her to stumble back with a scream.

Amber let go of me instantly, shrieking as Sheon clawed and snapped at her arms. The crowd gasped, some backing away in shock, others shouting in horror.

"You filthy witch!" Amber screamed, swinging wildly, but Sheon was too fast. She circled, dove again, making Amber shriek louder.

The villagers panicked, their fear suddenly turned to me. Their eyes burned with a new kind of hatred.

*She really is a witch. Look at the creature protecting her.*

Whispers rose. Murmurs turned to shouts.

“She controls it!”

My heart raced. I couldn’t wait another second.

I ran.

I ran as fast as I could, my lungs burning, my legs shaking. For once, no one chased me—because all eyes were on Amber, still flailing against Sheon’s small but fierce body.

But as I fled, I could still hear them. Not just Amber’s screams—but the villagers shouting after me.

"She’s cursed!"

The words chased me harder than footsteps ever could.

By the time I reached the edge of the village, my chest heaved, my throat raw, my face streaked with tears I could no longer hold back.

Sheon was no ordinary bird. She was different. Half-dragon, half-bird, shimmering faintly with scales under her feathers. Only four months old, barely a foot long, but already so powerful.

I found her near the volcano at the Eastern border, the one place in Hachigo without guards. The place I went when I needed to breathe, when I dreamed of escaping with my family. Her egg had been cold, abandoned. I couldn’t leave it. So I took her.

Father had been shocked, but when I explained, his face softened. He told me Sheon was a gift from above. A guardian. A creature meant to protect me.

Back then, I didn’t understand. But now… now I did.

Finally, home.

"Maive? Are you okay?"

Father’s voice pulled me back into the present. His face was etched with worry as he looked me over. I hadn’t even realized I was already at our doorstep.

I forced a smile. "Oh, Dad, I’m good. Don’t worry."

But he saw through me. He always did.

He turned me around, his eyes scanning the dirt, the egg stains, the raw patches on my scalp where Amber had yanked my hair. His lips trembled, and his eyes filled with tears.

"No, Maive. You’re not okay." His voice broke, weighed down by guilt. His shoulders shook as he whispered, "This is all my fault. I… I’m so sorry."

And in that moment, his tears cut me deeper than any word the villagers had ever thrown. Because if Father, my strength, my anchor, believed this was his fault, then maybe we were truly cursed after all.