Isolated by choice from the rest of the world, Valissa had adapted to her surroundings through the full eighteen years of her life. From the stories she had heard, at childbirth, both of her parents had been slaughtered by Ghouls. What are those, you ask? They're devilish creatures that pray on human flesh to survive. Of course Valissa didn't grow to loathe their kind because of this fact. It was the way nature had built them just as lions prey after the gazelle. Sure that the acts of cannibalism are frowned upon, but she could only see this as being their only way of survival. These Ghouls were acting as they knew how, and perhaps those who had slaughtered her family in cold blood were as well.

After that incident, all she could remember in the early ages of life were chains around her ankles and iron cell bars locking her away. Or perhaps her captors were doing this to keep her safe. In an abandoned jailhouse full of Ghouls, she could believe this was a fact. Why they had been keeping her alive though all these years he never knew, and she didn't care to actually ask because in the end, she figured that she was probably some type of experiment.

Valissa knew from the get go as a child that what she had been doing wasn't exactly right. They had taken at the form of a newly born human child. They raised her as something of their own, but as a baby, she could do nothing to fight back about the nutrients they fed her. As she grew into an older child through to the preteen years, the plates of nourishment they shoved through the bars appeared to be less and less appetizing. It didn't take long for her young mind to process the facts that they weren't serving her any meats form animals as she figured from the early days. They weren't even giving her the remains of human beings.

In some sick and twisted experimentation, what they had been feeling Valissa for all these years were the organs, limbs, blood, muscles, tissue from fallen Ghouls.

After she had found this out, the young girl began to ignore their offerings. Those that fed her on a daily basis would come back to her cell and find every plate still full of the mutilated body parts. They'd shout at her to eat, but Valissa would tune them all out. Her body would be curled in the corner of her dim, windowless stone cell with her face hiding behind the long strands of jet black hair.

Days would pass in a blur, and all the while Valissa's stomach began to slowly eat on itself. The roaring her body sounded out would tell the whole world she had been starving, but they would serve her nothing but the same dishes over and over. Five days she had gone with nothing, and seeing as though her thin body already resembled mainly skin and bones, Valissa had no choice. Through these years she had always told herself that she'd break out of these walls and finally get the chance to see sunlight. She promised herself that single pleasure even if it ended up killing her in the end, so she couldn't let herself give up now. Not after all the years of fighting towards that simple goal.

With that in mind, Valissa gave in. Like a ravenous wolf, her teeth tore into those pieces of meat.

The guards watching over her would laugh with their victory.

A few more years happened to go by. Valissa knew that because she kept track, or at least she had tried to all this time. If she managed to keep up with her days, then tomorrow would be the date of her birth and marking her eighteenth year living under this roof. Screams flooded the halls much like music, and the only friend she had made in this time happened to be a silvery haired rat that would creep into her cell some nights and gobble down the leftover remains on her plate.

Laying with her back against the cold stone ground while her hair served much like a blanket, Valissa let her eyes stare up at the ceiling with a dream flooding her mind about what it may be like outside these walls. Never had she been given the liberty of seeing these rumored massive bodies of water called oceans nor near endless miles of woodlands. Simple pleasures that maybe some took for granted were the only dream she had ever had. And one more added to that list would be to finally catch a glimpse of her own reflection.

That was right. Through all these years, Valissa never knew what she actually looked like. She didn't even know what color her eyes were. All she could tell was that her hair was black and at the length of her hips now while her skin was as pale as she imagined the moonlight to be.

Another trait about her had been something so strange that she could never quite figure out, but her nails had always been tinted as dark as night. This had actually began when she was a younger child. They had been plain, but as time passed on, they began to fade deeper and deeper in shade until they eventually stayed the same color as the darkness. Since the effect had come on gradually though time, Valissa had never found herself too worried about it. She had figured that perhaps it was the lack of sunlight working on her skin. This really did have to be the only explanation. Well, the only one she could think of at any rate. Anytime she would ask the guards, they would snicker, call her vile names, and retreat back into the hall where Valissa had never been able to roam.

Not until today.

Later in the evening, or so she figured. It was always the same shade of light around her by one lit light right outside her cell door. She had been curled up laying against the hay bed in the corner of the room when the sudden locking mechanisms on the bars clicked to announce that someone was finally letting that door squeal open. Valissa knew that if she had been alert to what was happening, that she would have fought a bit harder to stay where she was, but as the room around her began spinning, an idea hit her.

Eating remains of Ghouls never sat right with her, but the last batch hadn't tasted exactly right.

With forceful hands, two hooded black figures took hold of her body and began to lead her out of the room. Valissa's feet stumbled along the path. Her mind had been trying so very hard to catch up with what her eyes were taking in. Actually, this was so bad for her that she wasn't even sure if her own feet were moving, or if they were just dragging her along. In any case, Valissa knew that whatever was going on right now couldn't be for her best intentions otherwise they wouldn't have drugged her up as they so obviously did.

Several more minutes of passed as these two men continued onwards with her in their grasps. The hallway that they had traveled down this whole time appeared to be the same. Long stone walls with dim lighting every few feet and the shrieks of other voices filling her ears. Valissa could not make out how many people there were, but all she could imagine had been the very worst until finally they had reached a set of double doors that when opened, showed only darkness. These men did not drag her into this pit, but instead just shoved her right on in where she had fallen straight onto her face. Valissa had been lucid enough to at least try and get back onto her feet, but by the time she had, the doors had closed with a loud slam and she was left in a silent room where she could not even see her own hand before her face.

No more than a second later, large lights from overhead flashed on to nearly scare her right out of her skin. With that came along a massive cheer of various tones of voices. Valissa didn't know what was going on, but with her vision slowly gaining it's stability, she could see that she had been thrown right into a circular shaped room with a sand filled floor and two story stone walls where many people sat overlooking the ring on cushioned seats.

Wh-what's going on?

Her vision was clear now, and as she looked about the brightly lit room, all Valissa could make out were the masked faces of men and women all around. Their voices all sounded into the air with cheerful chanting of whatever it was that would be happening here, and obviously she would be smack dab in the center of this trouble. When Valissa had imagined the chance to finally get herself out of that cage, it had been to finally let her skin feel the heated rays of the sun. Instead all she was getting here was something which felt like a death sentence, and she didn't like it.

In an attempt to question what was exactly happening to her right now, her voice had been spoken right over by some woman who sounded as if she were singing in an opera versus talking about this Ring, as they titled it. A ring for what? The answer to this unspoken question ended up being fulfilled as soon as Valissa thought it, which led her to her just wishing she didn't ever say or think anything. Her mind only seemed to get her into trouble, or perhaps that was just the stroke of her bad luck. In any case, across the lot of sand happened to be two more doors that opened up to the crowd of cheering viewers. Through the archway stepped a large man that Valissa assumed to be well over six feet and muscles on his arms bigger than her head.

Before she knew it, her knees were shaking with fear, because not only was this man massive in size, something had been emanating out of his arm almost like a type of tentacle.

She knew what he was.

A Ghoul.

And it was clear that this was a battle ring, and she was part of the main event.

The doors that this man had just entered from ended up closing in an eerie squeak of the hinges, and then his sudden chuckle nearly shaking her bones to the very core. "You're a delicious looking piece of meat," he had said with a muffled voice. This man too, like everyone else in the room but herself, wore a mask. All of them were different in their own way, but his appeared to her as some type of demonic yellow shaded face that flashed sharp fangs, but the eyes behind the mask were all his; tinted black with the red dot right in the center.

The eyes of a true Ghoul.

Three rings of a bell sounded off alerting Valissa to an upcoming doom. She didn't have any slight clue about what she was supposed to be doing, or how to. Nothing had ever been spoken to her about this arena, nor had she received even the most basic amount of training. All Valissa knew was hot to fill her stomach with remains of fallen Ghouls, which she assumed came from this place to whoever lost, but she wasn't one of them. She was going to lose.

Maybe in heaven, I'll finally see the sun.

Charging at her with full speed, this Ghoul took it upon himself to make the first move. Valissa didn't even have a second to spare. She didn't know how to even dodge an attack, but with his power, she didn't think she'd be able to anyways.

At first when his fist swung out in her direction, it felt like nothing. Just a few seconds of a numbing, cooling sensation as her thin body soared through the air across the arena. As her body made contact with the stone wall, that is when the pain really kicked in for her. Valissa didn't know any amount of agony other than starving hunger, but this could top that over a million times. Her form had fallen to the ground face first as the taste of blood began seeping into her mouth. Valissa coughed out in an attempt to catch her breath. Her body wouldn't move off the ground even as she tried her hardest to get up.

The sound of footsteps crossing the sand were getting closer and closer. Not even her eyelids would shut to accept a sudden death nor would her voice even spare a crack at begging for her life. Valissa was stuck lying motionless in a pool of her own blood while it felt as though her whole stomach had been ripped from the core of her body. As if this pain hadn't been enough, the ogre had taken further action to lift his foot, and crush it down with an immense amount of force.

Over and over he did this again. If her back had not broken already, she was sure it would within the next few seconds. His chuckling laugher mixed in with the crowd cheering for her demise were the only things she heard. Valissa couldn't fight back. She could do nothing but lay in wait for this man to just end her life here and now.

As she laid there accepting what was being done to her, the blow that she had been expecting to finish her off did not come. Another minute passed and still… nothing. Her ears were not catching anything but silence, but even so Valissa felt that this wasn't right. She knew that some noise had to be going on, and yet, none were entering her ears.

Valissa attempted to blink her eyes a few times in order to try and see what she could. As the focus in her sight became a bit clearer, what Valissa saw confused her a bit because people in the stands were running in all different directions while a cloud of smoke began to reach the surface of the room.

A fire?

If this was her fate, she'd accept that.

Her arms began to move ever so slightly in a motion to lift up the front of her body to see what she could. Shapes of all kinds were moving about, and Ghouls were lost in battle. All Valissa could hear was that same silence, but her eyes were taking in were flares of blood crisscrossing the room.

The background began to fade in her vision once again, but as this happened, a new figure jumped down as if out of nowhere and began stepping in her direction. This was not the same man as before. This person's legs were thinner yet still toned. Valissa moved only as much as her body would allow but she had still caught sight of this figures face. Not so tall, but a slender muscled body all covered in black clothing. The mask that this person wore showed a grinning face with one patch covering over a single eye while the other had flashed the sign of a Ghoul. What stood out the most had been their hair being as white as the rumored snow.

This figure drew in closer, just as her vision went black.