Dracula: Patient zero

Chapter: 4

Curse in disguise

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Later after that when the girl finally woke up, she was laid on round polished rocks next to what sounded like a riverbed. Yes, 'sounded' since it was still night and the girl could see nothing in the pitch darkness on the forest.

«Young girl» YHIIIIPPPP!* She jumped backward after feeling a warm breath blowing between her legs.

After squinting her eyes to make out what it was, she saw a dark silhouette looking at her without moving or making a sound. It appear this person had been sniffing her private parts while she was unconscious... The feeling or terror was indescribable, she couldn't move or make a sound. After a short staring contest the dark silhouette spoke to her.

«Valdr» Hmm... Sorry for scaring you... Sometimes... I ... kinda lose control... A little...

«Young girl» ...............................

«Valdr» ........ What is your name?

«Young girl» ...............................

«Valdr» ..... Awww come on, a wife should answer her husband’s questions right?

«Young girl» WHATTTTTTTTTTTTTT????? W..w...w..Wife??????? She said quickly crawling away and hugging her knees close to her chest.

«Valdr» Sighhhh... humm... I saw father hit mother when she was disobedient maybe I should try it....

«Mæva» HIiiiii!!! Mæva!!!! My name is Mæva!!

«Valdr» Ho! Good good!... My name is Valdrislav! But most call me Valdr....... Would you.... Call me... hubby? He asked in the most awkward way possible.

«Mæva» Sob*sob*sob Aaa.A..Are you the monster who killed everyone in my village?... She asked with terror in her eyes.

«Valdr» Of course not !.... hum.. I..f..if I was... Would it hinder my chances at making you like me? She then looked at him with one of the most bizarre facial expression a human can do.

By his answer she knew... She knew deep down inside of her that he was the one responsible for the carnage... The one who killed her entire family... Angered she grabbed a big rock near her and threw it will all her strength at Valdr's head.

The shock cracked Valdr's skull open, making him loose consciousness. Immediately Mæva took off running! It was so dark she couldn't see where she went but the furthest away from this monster was everything she wanted at this point.

Back at the river, Valdr regained consciousness after his injury had quickly healed since he was still gorged with blood. One would have expected him to be angry but in fact he was exited. Valdr never expected getting a wife could be a challenge.

All his life Valdr only knew physical challenges and now he was confronted with a psychological one. Quickly following her trail, Valdr rapidly caught up to her appearing in front of her in a blur. At first after seeing him she screamed in surprise, not every day do you get to see a dead man coming back to life...

Then she simply resigned herself... She had no family, no tribe. She was doomed to die anyway... It was either being a monster's wife, or dying... Having a strong survival instinct, Mæva stopped fighting him from that moment onward. As horrifying as it was, he was all she had now.

«Valdr» ..... mmmm did a say something to anger you? Confused by his question she simply kept quiet.

«Valdr» I'm still not sure if I can be a good husband but I swear not to hurt you anymore... Happy now?

«Mæva» Go to hell! She then spat in his face while glaring at him.

«Valdr» What the hell...? Is she broken or are all women that way? He muttered to himself.

Seeing as the sun was about to rise he grabbed her, threw her over his shoulder once again and started running toward the village. Mæva was completely captivated... They were moving through these dense bushes and forest at a speed that made everything look blurry...

Just what was this man...? This man calling himself her husband... From the time she was born, she knew that she was likely to be exchanged or kidnapped by another tribe to become someone's wife in the future, but Valdr was way too much for her to handle at this point.

Certainly he looked human... But everything he did was... inhuman... Certainly he hadn't show aggression toward her but how long would this last? Was he bringing her home for his next meal? After a while they finally arrived to the biggest village she had ever seen.

She immediately knew where she was... She had never came here before but had heard about it. The biggest tribe in the region, everyone knew them. The entire tribe then gathered around Valdr and Mæva and started to shout celebratory songs.

Everything seemed to happen like her mother had told her... A woman pretending being Valdr's mother appeared and dragged her to her hut for a long talk where she would explain her everything she needed to know to integrate the tribe.

She included explanation about Valdr's condition and how he was blessed by the gods and everything... Valdr had left to his hut to sleep but instead listened to his mother and wife conversations thank to his superior hearing.

The fact was that Valdr was literally at a lost when it came to women... He was expecting her to be happy to get such a powerful husband, and not being pounded in the head with a rock... He needed her to accept him if he wanted to play 'baby making' with her...

If he forced himself on her he was sure to receive a huge scolding from his mother... Still completely confused by the situation he drifted asleep after taking the resolution of asking his mother for advice when he woke up at dusk.

Eventually thank to his mother, Mæva warmed up to him and ended up accepting him as her husband and seemed to quickly integrate herself to the tribe. It was a bit awkward since Valdr was living in an opposite schedule from the other tribe members but they ended up finding compromises.

She would join him in his hut when he came back from his nightly hunts and do her wife's duties, and spend some time talking with Valdr. She would then sleep a few hours with him before waking up around midday. It was as if she was working a late shift job.

Eventually routine installed itself and two years went by in a flash. Valdr's father Fálki and younger brother Frode ended up passing away during a hunting accident that killed 8 of their best hunters. Mammoth hunting was well known to be dangerous but it was the first time such a catastrophe had happened.

After the loss of her husband and youngest child, his mother Halldóra fell into depression. Refusing to feed herself, Halldóra weakened to the point where she ended up falling sick and died a few month later.

With the last member of his family dead, Valdr went through tough times. It had been two years since he had taken wife and she still wasn't pregnant... Thinking that she was most likely barren, Valdr started getting more and more wives.

At some point Valdr had ten wives but none of them was getting pregnant no matter how many times they did it. At this point Valdr understood that is was he, who could not have children. Most likely another price he had to pay for his powers.

Five more years passed, Valdr was falling into a deep pit of despair. He was becoming more and more savage and cruel. He ended up 'accidentally' killing many of his wives during sex and the other tribe members were slowly estranging themselves from him.

His two 'once' best friends Gjafvarðr and Vígbjǫrn were avoiding him. Valdr even overheard them calling him a monster once. Their mother quickly silenced them by saying that Valdr could hear them from anywhere which scared them to death.

He had no family anymore... No friends... His wives hated him, his tribe avoided him and there seemed to be no hope for him to ever create a family of his own in the future. What good is immortality if you have no reasons to live for...?

One day without a word, Valdr was gone. He had left the village at night as usual but never returned. There was no way for the tribe members to know what had happened to him but honestly, they were relieved. They didn't have an immortal monster living among them anymore.

[A hundred kilometers away]

Valdr was standing at the entry of a cave he had called home the days before. He had spent the last two days trying to end his life. Stabbing every part of his body, drowning, lit on fire, jumping from the highest cliffs, hanging himself...

Exposing himself to the sun was the same as starving himself... It dried him up but this couldn't be considered death. At the first drop of blood touching his corpse he would come back to life sending him back to point A once again...

«Valdr» Great Gods!! Up there in your godly domain. Why did you make me the way I am? What is the purpose of my life?

I can't have a family, can't feel the warm rays of sun on my skin without suffering... Enslaved by this thirst pushing me to kill those I once considered my kin.

Now you would even denies me death?

He felt anger invading his body, his eyes turning black and his skin bursting with black and red veins he looked at the setting sun.

«Valdr» You made me a monster... You want me to be a monster... I WILL FUCKING GIVE YOU WHAT YOU WANT!!!!!!! ARRGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!

Slaughter being the only thing left for him to enjoy in this world, he intended to play his role as humanity's plague with all his might. From then on, Valdr renounced his humanity and went on slaughtering for the next five centuries.

Like the black death of his time, Valdr made human populations dwindles as he swept through the land like a natural disaster. He became well known and feared by all as he slowly made his way south in search of more and more prey.

The further south he went, the more human there was... Denser populations and bigger villages. He terrorized the region for a few more decades, sleeping in caves during the day, killing during the night. He was now north of the region known today as Italy. It had totally different vegetation, totally different landscapes.

That day Valdr had built a simple shelter to protect himself against the sun as he couldn't manage to find a cave. One of the inconvenient of not knowing the land around you. He was sound asleep when something suddenly brought him back from his slumber.

He could feel and hear thousands of heartbeats coming from all around him...

«Valdr» Shit... I've been had!

He had fallen into a trap, they had found him and quickly laid an ambush taking advantage of daylight. The attackers then threw torches at his shelter forcing him out in the sunlight. Valdr's skin started emitting vapor, his strength slowly being eaten away.

«Valdr» I don't have much time but I’ll make sure to bring as many of you bastard with me before going down ARRRRRRR!!!!

In what looked like a movie playing in fast forward, Valdr went from one warrior to the other, dispatching them as efficiently as possible. The light brown sand they were on slowly getting dyed red by the corpses laid all over its surface.

An hour later, Valdr didn't look like a monster anymore... He looked more like a pin cushion... He had spears stuck through every part of his body. As his body was slowly losing the little blood he had left, Valdr fell to his knees...

He could feel it... Sweet death was finally coming to liberate him from his sufferings. He felt thankful toward his attackers for ambushing him. Not only was he going to die, but he was granted the honor of dying in combat like a true warrior.

As he fell to the ground, the remaining warriors rushed at him with axes and knives and started butchering him. Valdr bit and scratched at every ankles he could get his hand onto but his struggle was hopeless.

The warriors then ate and drank Valdr's flesh and blood hoping to obtain his power for themselves. Like a horde of zombies on a corpse, they ate Valdr's entire body leaving only bones behind. After their feast, the warriors still worried of seeing Valdr come back to life, crushed his bones into a fine powder and buried the remain on sacred ground.

Later, over the area where Valdr's remain were buried, they built a religious stone formation called a henge. Most of them were made of wood but the most important ones were made out of stones. The most well-known in the “modern days” is called Stone henge.

Fact is, back then they were everywhere and now, one was used as Valdr's tomb. For generations after that, legend would be told about this specific henge.

Blood shall never be spilled upon these sacred grounds for it would bring back to life the harbinger of death, the immortal man-eating demon, allowing him to once again bring apocalypse to this world.

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Many thanks to gcman01 for proofreading this chapter!

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