After Maylin dispatched the last guard with her, she quickly ran down the hill towards me.
She was carrying her bag alongside a few pieces of the guards' gear.
She must have stolen some when I told her to distract them.
When she finally reached me, she was sweating a lot and seemed to be bruised quite a bit.
"Hey! We did it!" She leaned down and hugged me tightly.
I didn't resist since there was no point in stopping her.
After she had finished hugging me, she carefully placed me down, and with a hopeful look on her face, she spoke.
"Is my family... okay?" she said, hoping that they were.
I motioned for her to follow me, and within a few minutes, we reached the shed they were hiding in.
I pointed towards it and let her piece it together. She seemed to catch on quickly and slowly opened the door.
With a soft creak, the door opened and revealed the unconscious form of her mother and four others.
She looked at me with confusion as to why her mother and the others were unconscious.
I pointed at the general area where my mouth should be, and she quickly understood the reason... that, and it had happened to her before.
Maylin then reached out to her mother, touching her face softly and attempting to wake her up. This, however, didn't work, as they were passed out cold.
Maylin sighed, but she had a happy look to her all things considered.
"Hey, come help me here," she said, lifting her mother onto her back.
I walked towards them and, not wanting to waste time, began stacking the other five on top of each other.
I placed a large rag below them and began dragging them behind me.
Maylin heard what I was doing and looked behind her to check.
And what she saw nearly made her laugh uncontrollably—there behind me were five imps stacked like a pancake.
Thankfully, she composed herself, not wanting to drop her mother.
When we finally reached the farmhouse, Maylin moved towards the door and opened it.
And what she saw seemed to piss her off.
I stopped dragging the unconscious imps, climbed the steps, and entered through the doorway.
There I quickly saw the state of the home—bottles of liquor everywhere, dirt all over the walls, and worst of all, they seemed to have other imps inside the house. I walked towards them to check if they were still alive, but unfortunately, they were long gone.
I then looked towards Maylin, who was cleaning a couch and slowly placing her mother on it. She placed a pillow under her head and covered her in a thin blanket.
After she had done that, she looked behind her and saw me still inside the room full of dead bodies.
She looked disgusted at the sight. She walked towards a set of stairs and entered what looked like a storage room.
She opened a cabinet full of blankets and picked out a few. After she had picked up enough, Maylin went back downstairs and began wrapping the dead in them.
This took a while, but she was able to completely wrap them up tightly. She began moving them to the back of the barn, where I assumed she was going to bury them.
I followed her to see what she was doing, and sure enough, she was starting to dig four deep holes to bury the imps. As I looked around, I noticed another gravestone beside the others she was digging.
"If you're wondering whose gravestone that belongs to, well... it's ma pa," she said, still looking down and digging.
"Pa always said that one day this farm's gonna belong to me, and it's gonna be my responsibility."
"I always dreamed of being the boss around here, making the tough calls."
"Never expected it to be so soon," she said, looking a bit sad.
I walked behind her and gave her a pat on the back.
She seemed to smile at the gesture.
"Thanks, little guy."
I nodded and walked back inside the farmhouse.
Once inside, I began cleaning the bottles that were on the floor, making sure to dispose of them quickly.
Once I finished with the bottles, I began washing the walls to remove the dirt and gunk that stuck to them tightly.
This took me no more than an hour to finish doing the walls of the house, even cleaning where the bodies were previously located.
I finished cleaning up after three hours, and it didn't take too long all things considered.
I decided to go back outside to Maylin to see if she was done with the burial.
As I went outside, I immediately saw her putting the last pile of dirt on the grave, giving it a pat with the shovel, sealing it shut.
She wiped the sweat from her forehead, feeling a bit tired from all that had happened.
She turned around and immediately saw me standing there by the door, and she waved at me with a small smile on her face.
She walked back inside her house, with me trailing behind her.
She then noticed that the once-filthy home was now almost spotless—way cleaner than when we had first entered.
"Wow! You cleaned all this? Man, Ma will love you. She's always up our arses about making sure the house is clean. Thanks, little buddy," she said, grateful to me.
I nodded, but as we walked, we noticed Maylin's mother slowly waking up.
"Ma!" Maylin said, quickly running towards her mother.
"May?" Her mother looked still a bit out of it.
Maylin jumped at the opportunity and hugged her mother tightly.
"Yeah, Ma! It's me!" she said, with tears slowly falling from her eyes.
"Oh... my baby," her mother said, hugging her daughter back.
I stared at the mother and daughter sharing a moment together and felt a spark of happiness—not a lot, but just enough to remind myself that even though I feel almost nothing, moments like these are special.
I stared at them for a bit longer, not really wanting my presence to ruin their moment, but a thought suddenly hit me.
Am I forgetting something?