Bane's room was dimly lit, there was just barely enough light for him to see the straw doll in his hands. The doll had been made in the likeness of a young girl, her hair was a bright golden and she wore a regal green dress. An air of melancholy couldn't help but fill the room as the Butcher stared down at the doll, his usually intense red eyes now held an unusual softness.
"Elanor…" He thought out loud. "I miss you…"
Putting the doll away, he sighed and made for the small wooden desk in the corner of the room. On the desk was an open notebook and a fountain pen. He took the pen and wrote a title at the top of the open page:
"Forsaken Woods Kitil."
He drew a line to separate the paper and wrote two smaller titles: "Facts, Inferences."
He couldn't write much in the facts section besides the fact that the Kitil could be found in the Forsaken Woods and that it enjoyed stealing the village's children every other full moon.
The Forsaken Woods was a dense forest that isolated Eastern Meriany from the outside world. Excursions out of the village required alot of preparation and sometimes outside help depending on how intensely the forest wanted to keep the villagers inside.
This only applied to normal people, of course.
Turning his attention to the inference side, he wrote:
"Seeing as its appearances are linked to the full moon, we could be dealing with a werewolf. No, a werewolf would be much more ravenous. I doubt it would wait until every other full moon to attack."
He put down the pen and thought. With the little information he had, the Butcher wasn't left with many options.
A rare grin decorated his face as he closed the notebook in front of him.
Since when was I this big of a nerd? He thought, grabbing a large blade at his side. He placed it on his back and made sure that his hand-mounted cross bow worked properly.
"Let's hunt!" He said to himself as he stared at his slightly crazed reflection. He left the inn and immediately made way to the Forsaken Woods.
…
Mellie, in the meantime, had returned to her daily activities. Waking up early in the morning, she walked a few steps to the community bath and took a short shower before changing into her uniform. Seeing as she had nowhere to live, her employer withheld a portion of her salary for her lodging at the inn.
Even at this early hour the Golden Geri bar still had a few customers.
"Girl!" A man yelled from across the inn. "Bring me a f**k*ng Blood Feast! "
Flinching a little, Mellie rushed to the kitchen and prepared the blood red drink and the accompanying meat. The meat was just barely cooked, almost raw.
She was about to bring the tray of food to the customer when her eyes caught something. In the corner of the inn, her boss had simply thrown the corpse from yesterday instead of disposing of it.
The tray hit the ground as the traumatizing events came rushing back to her. She still hadn't fully recovered from the incident and seeing her aggressor's corpse again made it so much worse. Ignoring the indignant slurs thrown at her by the enraged customer, she ran out of the inn.
Mellie had no idea where she was going but she knew that she couldn't stay in the bar a second longer. It was too suffocating.
Thud. Her body came into collision with a hard object, causing her to stumble backward. Looking up she saw a bloodstained brown robe and a pair of piercing red eyes glaring down at her. It was Bane Marius, the man who had saved her the day prior. He parted his dry lips and with a raspy voice said:
"Are you okay, Girl?"
The way he said the word girl was slightly condescending, but Mellie didn't have the strength to complain. Her mouth had been sewn shut with fear.
The Butcher turned to her and spoke again. "That's an awful lot of fear I'm sensing off you. Too much of that and you might summon a wraith."
A cold sweat instantly ran down Mellie's back as she imagined the cold lifeless hands of such a creature. She could feel them gripping her neck, slowly stealing her life from her.
Swshhhh! A sharp throwing knife flew past her, bringing her back to reality.
"Do you need something from me?" She heard. The butcher was now standing over her, his gaze much too intense for the situation.
"I-uh…" she couldn't form words.
"Are you still scared because of that corpse from yesterday?" Bane interrupted.
How does he know? Mellie couldn't help but jerk back at the Butcher's words. He had understood her feelings perfectly.
She barely managed to nod at his question. Silence overtook both of them as Bane fell into thought.
His lips suddenly curled upwards into a grin.
"Do you want to know the fastest way to get over a fear?"
Mellie was confused but intrigued at the same time, she managed another nod.
At that moment she felt a wave of fear overtake her body as the Butcher bent down to pick her up.
…
The fastest way to get over a fear was to get a new one. That's what Melllie had learned over the course of her abduction. Once Bane had thrown her over his shoulder, any thought of the corpses that worried her had vanished and was replaced with a fear of the events to come. Seeing how Bane had reacted to the drunkard's aggression of her the day prior, she doubted that he had similar plans for her, but her heart rate still spiked greatly at the situation she found herself in.
Why did I come here? Why did I trust this man? Mellie, why must you be so stupid?! She thought as she let out a rain of punches on the Butcher's back. She screamed for him to let her down, but it was as if he had gone deaf. The deeper they went into the forest, the more fear gripped at Mellie's heart.
"Wraiths." Her captor muttered.
That's right, he mentioned them earlier too. Something about my fear summoning them.
Bdum. Before she could dwell on the thought, her heart sank. She heard the cry of children followed with an unimaginable wave of fear.
Her feet suddenly hit the ground, she hadn't even realised that the Butcher's grip on her had loosened.
A dangerous grin was plastered on his face and with a somewhat amused tone he said:
"I don't think anything will scare you after you witness this!"