Year Taker

Chapter 1
Year Taker

Chapter Description: Just a little is all I need

Just a little
It's all I need
Just a little
To keep me from becoming helpless

Darkness wraps itself around the child as she looks out at the small groups of people walking from place to place on another Halloween night, they never see her as she looks out at them feeling a pang of yearning to belong but at the same time feeling the need to be invisible should anyone be curious as to why a child so young, barely six years old, is out all alone with no adult to supervise her.

Someone looks over to where she is and she sinks farther back into the darkness of the alleyway, she couldn't risk being seen. She had to blend in without anyone actually seeing her because there would only be questions that would be hard for her to answer as no one would believe her if she tried, she also didn't want to risk the outcome if people did believe her.

No, she had to blend in and keep herself hidden. It was the only way to get what she needed. Pulling a mask over her face and taking a breath, she waits for just the right moment as a group of people with children all dressed for Halloween pass by her location then steps into the group at the right time and blends in without anyone noticing.

Keeping her steps in perfect timing with the other children she goes with them to one house after another, she mimes their joyful cry of 'Trick Or Treat!' and she accepts the unwanted sweets, she'll give them to the children she is with without them noticing when she leaves their group once she sees someone who can give her what she needs.

The houses they arrive at reach the double digits, more sweets are handed out, more cries of the same three words, more happy children as their chaperones who range from older teens to grown adults hustle them along to the next house while not noticing an uninvited addition to their group.

After what feels like an hour or over an hour they arrive at a house that looks the most promising, the usual routine follows and she sees that the owner of the house has exactly what she needs.

Waiting until just the right time she dumps the bag of sweets she doesn't care for into a child's bag and leaves the group, backtracking to the house unseen as she sticks to the shadows and avoiding the street lights. Her pace is steady if slow going at her size, this does make it easier to stick to the shadows though.

Once she arrives at the house she waits in the darkness until the trick or treaters have all gone home before she looks for a way inside, she finds one quickly enough via a pet door at the back that was sealed off, likely a pet that has since passed some time ago and the owner sealed the door. It isn't hard for her to unseal it as she's had plenty of practice over the years and crawls inside quietly into a dark kitchen.

She can hear a TV on in another room, the owner may be there. She heads over to a secluded part of the kitchen and waits until she's sure it's safe, there doesn't seem to be anyone else living here, just the one person which will make this easy.

As quietly as she can she makes her way out of the kitchen into the living room where she spots the owner in a recliner watching TV, she moves for the few shadows while avoiding light sources and listens. She can hear light snoring which means the owner must be sleeping, the TV's volume isn't too loud.

Quietly and avoiding anything that could cause the owner to wake up, she moves to the one side of the recliner that is open to the rest of the room, the other having a small table with a half full cup of tea on it and some remaining sweets next to the cup. Sweets don't interest her, she has no interest in food in general.

Gently she reaches out to touch the person's hand, she can see that they're a woman of maybe seventy or close to eighty years in age so what she will take won't really be fully noticeable not that it will matter since as far as the owner and everyone else is concerned there would be any difference.

“Forgive me” She whispers. “I need just a little, it won't hurt” Gently placing her hand on the woman's nearest hand she settles it and feels the surge of contact flow through her followed by a feeling of energy flowing around her body, she closes her eyes and stays like this for a few minutes, the owner thankfully not waking up.
Then she retracts her hand and moves quickly back to the kitchen and out of the previously sealed pet door, sealing it behind her, as she feels her body tingling and changing. Keeping to the shadows she moves quickly away from the house for home as her body begins to grow and take on a more adult appearance, her body shaping itself into maturity quickly.

She manages to make it to the place she calls home, barely, and gets inside as the changes stop. Moving over to a mirror she can see that she's back to her former age, twenty five years old in physical age. A trim figure of a young woman who has fully matured stands before her in her reflection, her clothing small and tight but not damaged at least which is good since she'll need them again.

“I need to stop delaying with this” She whispers to herself. “That was too close again” For centuries she has had to do this after being cursed in her homeland many centuries ago, she had refused to follow the traditions of her long dead people and as punishment she was cursed to live forever but to never get any older than twenty five years while getting progressively younger every two weeks, she had been prideful back then which had been her hubris.
Soon her regression will begin anew and soon she will need to steal age from someone else in order to delay her eventual return to infancy, if she could delay that return to helplessness then all the better. She had been helpless once before and when people had learned of her condition they had accused her of being a witch when she wasn't, she was just cursed.

It was getting harder to ward it off though the longer she delayed the need to stall that return to helplessness. Those she stole from never noticed the reduction in their own age nor did anyone else but she was still careful for fear of being caught and mistreated again like before.

Some would say she is a vampire but she does not take blood nor hunger for it, she steals age, just enough to stall her regression a little longer. She doesn't know what she could be classed as were there a term for someone like herself.
Year Taker maybe.

Yes, Year Taker, that will suffice. Harmless but desperate.

All to forestall the helplessness for another year.

Just a little, it's all I need. I promise I won't harm you.