An old Irish Story adapted from Murphy of the Lonely Dove.
Long ago in a small Irish town, there lived a girl. She had vibrant fiery hair and shimmering emerald eyes. She had the chance for an amazing life. One where she would never had to worry for anything. That is the life she could have had, had she of simply listened to others. One day, when the sun had reached its peak in the sky, this girl heard a call from the woods. “Come to us, child. Come,” the woodland spirits called. Yet the girl chose to not listen. Instead of running off to the woods full of fae folk, she ran along the river banks. Past the murky and choppy waters while the spirits begged for her to come to them. All too quickly, the waters stopped and fell, and the each dropped off to nothing. The girl had reached the end of the world. “Don’t go,” cried the spirits. “It is dangerous to take the stairs.” Curiosity and stubbornness had gotten the better of the girl, and she chose to go down regardless. At every level, the girl found pain and anguish. Mentally, physically, and spiritually, she was punished. She found all of the horrors of the world. Torture, rape, murder, even the loss of those she loved. With each horror, she started to rot. Her hair darkened to that of inky coal and her eyes clouded over. Her rosy skin paled and decayed. Slowly she rotted and decayed until there was nothing left but the little pink bow she wore in her once flaming hair. When she finally reached the bottom, the girl who had everything was dead. From her decaying corpse, a devil grew. The dark spirit flew back up to the end of world, back to the mortal realm. There she would seek revenge on others like her. There she would torture and rot any other foolish girl who chose to not heed the calls of the woodland spirits.
-A. Leon Volkov