Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

With a jolt, a young girl rose awake from her bed, unlike her sisters that shared this room and even bed for some, she had always had a rather easily disturbed sleep, so the repeated slamming of what was assumed to be a window shutter or door easily stirred the girl awake, yawning and cracking her neck, dexterously moving over her sisters and stepping onto the floorboards, messy brown hair falling upon face and back, garbed in a nightgown several times too large for her.

Grabbing a small oil lamp, navigating the dark room expertly, she set out to find just what had been improperly closed and had dared to interrupt the most sacred act of slumber, when one was born into a farming home, boy or girl, they were expected to help on the farm, and even if the youngest played most of their time playing and running around, it was all exhausting, so disturbed her rest was sacrilegious, walking down the stairs carefully, hand steadily following the railing, the sound of the slamming continuing at an odd rhythm.

The closer the young girl got, the more curious she became, already expecting it by the time she saw it for herself, of all things that could have been forgotten, it was the front door that laid wide open, gusts of wind flinging it back and forth, causing this certainly despicable sound that seemed to only disturb her out of the whole family.

Grabbing the door handle, out of curiosity, she took a look outside, the night was not as a dark as she had expected, moonlight was shining through, and as light often did, it illuminated white particularly well, allowing her to see a horse draped in pale white standing idly just in front of a neighbouring farm, which still stood a fair distance away.

Garbed in the same colouration, what was most certainly its rider stepped out of the farm, stuffing something into an already heftily encumbered bag, pulling two strings together, he shut it, put it down, a purplish haze, slightly glowing in the night, manifested and with a flash, disappeared alongside the sack.

The rider in white definitely looked weird, but making out details was still difficult even as the man's choice of clothing made him into a beacon even under moonlight, shadow still fell over him, and the girl was still groggy.

'Hold on a second… Horse in white, man in white?' face contorting with realisation, immediately washing away all tiredness, acting as though he had heard something, the man moved his body around.

Now, it was rather obvious why he looked so odd, it wasn't that she could not distinguish his face, it was that he had none, and with this understanding, he turned directly toward the young girl, raised one hand, moving it from side to side.

He was… Greeting her, saluting her perhaps, following it with another hand movement, raising his index finger up above the reaches of his collar, a faint whistle spreading through the night, then shooing her away, as though saying that it should be a time to sleep.@@novelbin@@

The young girl would rather not interact, but felt compelled to acknowledge his existence, fearful that ignoring him might make the monster mad, so she reciprocated the wave and nodded, slowly closing the door and locking it properly, rapidly making sure nothing else had been left open before silently, and shakily slip back into bed, the whistling could still be heard, permeating the surroundings, the walls of this farm, inside her very ears, only when it went away, did she feel the grasp of fatigue lulling her away.

The next day, or perhaps at one point in the night, knights had noticed that something was off, their senses were well-honed after all, and the passage of the headless had left a certain trail of cold air, capable of sending shivers dancing upon one's spine.

The front door had been shut, but it had not been locked, marks showed that someone had fiddled with the door with something sharp, managing to shove it in between the space separating door from all, and undone the lock, patrols had gone by the very front of this house during the night, meaning that the one in white had perfectly timed it, having probably been hiding close the entire time.

Many parts of the house were left turned upside down, a fight had clearly taken place, however, no one had heard anything, no screams, no cries for help.

"Trainee, it's important that you behold this, but just as an advice, make sure your helm will come off easily, alright?" Ilte recommended the rookie.

"Indeed… I have seen a lot on the battlefield, but this sort of brutality enacted upon- This makes my blood boil" Tarq cut himself off, Isilt was momentarily paralysed in place as his eyes witnessed just a portion of the scene.

Running out of the farm to empty his bowels.

"I remember I couldn't eat anything without puking it out for days after I claimed by first kill on a person, it wasn't even particularly violent, this is much worse" the female knight shook her head, the very first body one would stumble upon when entering this desolate farm was that of the family's father, from the looks of it, the headless had intruded without alerting anyone, had walked up the stairs, and had simply went in the closest room.

Belliste was used to atrocities of war, but such deplorable actions only occurred in the Central Plains these days, none of the four great warlords could ever pierce far enough to even get close to the civilians of other regions, even in these lands overflowing with brutality, going after the non-soldiers was not viewed in a great light.

"Well… At least the littles ones did not wake at all, they didn't suffer"

The youngest of the family were slayed first, the headless acting with surgical precision, piercing the heart with such swiftness that one might mistake the bodies as sleeping if not for the fact that their heads were taken, also sliced with extreme carefulness.

The knights presumed that things had turned into a confrontation when he got to the second room, it seemed like one of the older children had woken up.

"The headless was probably already standing right over him, the others are all peacefully laying down, but here, there was a struggle, our culprit having to repeatedly stab the young man to finally get him to stop struggling, by then, the sound of this had awaken the parents…" Ilte moved around as she spoke.

"...He was probably moving toward the door already, and he was confronted in the hallway, the father probably managed to put up a fight, and both were made to fall down the stairs, judging by the state of the first floor, he used everything within reach to deal with the intruder, he has a bunch of cuts and wounds to the arms, the headless had some problems getting him, but eventually pinned the father down and stabbed him right through the back…"

The man's back was turned completely red, evidently, even with the headless on top of him, he kept on struggling and required excessive amounts of stabbing to kill.

"...And then the mother's turn came, and look at that, where she stands, the place is also a mess, this woman clearly didn't just stand there, evidently, she broke quite a few chair trying to defend herself, yet, she is not nearly as covered in injuries as her husband"

Tarq crossed his arms.

"Perhaps our murderer is softer on women? It can't just be about fighting back or not, when that son and the father fought back, he definitely did not hesitate to piece them apart with overwhelming force, if he handled the same problems in the same way, he probably would have swung at her a few times before killing her"

"Not to mention, the puncturation mark through her chest is clean, he definitely made certain to be precise and deliver a quick death even as she was breaking the furniture over him…"

The two knights remained silent, their trainee finally returning, still making sure not to stare too much at the bodies.

"Well… I remember being told stories that some knights followed some sort of chivalry code… You know, the noble knight, evil dragon and princess stories? Maybe the headless is one of such knights, and even in the… State that he is in, still follows it?" he said.

"I do remember those stories, assumed they were just bollocks, that chivalry thing always sounded idiotic, but it's true that those stories are probably grounded in some truth, the pyromancers are our friends now, we can ask them to check their library" Ilte led the way back outside.

"Heh, I guess we can do that now…" scoffed Tarq.

"And by the way, as I was puking outside, I noticed something, would you go out before us Sir Tarq?" Isilt asked.

Making sure to close the door, he shouted something loudly, and only then stepped outside alongside his senior, who was looking at him weird.

"Did you hear anything senior?"

"I heard some mutterings at most…"

"Oh, that is quite an interesting find you just made, kid!" Ilte understood immediately.

"That headless has quite the large bag of tricks…"

Tarq was left out of the loop. Find exclusive stories on My Virtual Library Empire