In the darkness hid a family of four, father, mother and two kids; the light of torches penetrated between the gaps in the wall, providing barely enough illumination to see each other.

They had been there, holding their breath for the past hours, since the merchant's guards had gone berzerker, without any reasons they suddenly pulled out their weapons and hacked to pieces everyone in the inn indiscriminately, after that, they started fighting against themselves. Wilfred and his wife hoped that by hiding for a little they would avoid the danger, "just a little bit more" they kept thinking while hiding.

In the silence of the room suddenly echoed a low growl, the father turned around and saw Giovanni, his best friend, standing up from the hay pile he had been sleeping in after getting drunk. His hair was dishevelled and a few strands of hay peeked out from his hair and clothes.

Giovanni kept growling like an enraged animal, to reassure his family the father cautiously approached him, "Giovanni? it's me, Wilfred, are you okay?" he said taking a few more steps in his direction, suddenly the flames of the torches outside flickered and just for a second dispersed the darkness hiding Giovanni's face.

Wilfred took a good look at his friend before darkness could hide him again, what he saw terrified him; pink-ish foam dripped down from his mouth to his clothes and his usually clear blue eyes were puffy and reddened. "Shit! They got him too, Run!" Wilfred backed away as fast as he could, however Giovanni as if awakened by his scream leapt forward catching his leg, they both tumbled down while the rest of the family ran out of the shed, one of the kid screamed "Dad!" but was pulled away by the mother.

On the ground, a fierce fight occurred between the two, Giovanni ferociously clawed with his nails and bit as fast as he could like a stray dog, on the other hand, Wilfred was stronger, he used his advantaged position to kick Giovanni's head, the heel cap of the boot leaving bloody marks on his skull.

"Let go of me! Gaaaah!" With a good-angled bite, Giovanni's teeth sank deep inside the leg, warm blood mixed with the foam hid the wound completely; urged by the pain Wilfred kicked again using all his force and more, the heel managed to break the skull and Giovanni went limp below his boot.

Hot tears menaced to pour out of his eyes, if for grief or pain even he didn't know. Giovanni's teeth had sunk very deep, it took him everything he had to withstand the pain and open his old friend's mouth enough to remove his leg.

Even after removing his leg, the bleeding didn't stop, if anything, it got even worse, thankfully for his mental state he didn't notice the yellow liquid bleeding out together with the blood. After getting free he limped out of the shed and saw his wife waving at him from the edge of the village, she was hiding with the children in some bushes on the opposite side of the inn, he turned his head towards the inn and realized where the light that allowed him to see Giovanni's face came from; the inn was burning, bright red flames rose from the first floor to the roof, casting shadows whenever a hut or a shed obstructed their light.

"May Dravos save their souls." He offered his prayers to the dead and reached his family, his head pulsing with pain felt like someone hammering steel inside his skull, at each strike he would trip and eat mud. When he reached his family they sat him down on a rock, his wife cleaning his wound with the helm of her dress.

"What happened in there? We heard you screaming, is Giovanni...?" For some reason that question acted like a spark igniting a deep anger deep down inside him, 'why does she care about him?' anger kept burning stronger and stronger.

"Go away woman!" he kicked her away with his healthy leg, she looked shocked, "But.. your wounds are not yet clean, I have to-" "SHUT UP!" she couldn't even complete her sentence that an angry yell reached her ears, "SHUT YOUR COCK TRAP, I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!!"

The kids backed away a little and started crying, the loud wailing of children elevating the pain in his head even further, "SHUT UP BOTH OF YOU!" he heaved and huffed like a tired animal, the wrath in his chest burning and moving synched with the hammers in his head.

Suddenly he caught his wife with the tail of the eye as she inched closer to the crying children, 'Is she trying to run away?' his reasoning had been eroded and only a blind rage remained, he leapt forward, just like his best friend had done earlier before, and tackled his wife to the ground.

"What are you- NO!" He grabbed a rock beside her and with a "WAAAH" smashed it down on her face, once, twice, thrice; he didn't stop even when his wife went limp or when her face got flattened to the ground, he kept smacking down the rock until his rage subsided.

In horror he stared at what remained of her wife's head, just a splatter of skull chips, hair and flesh; a few steps away, the children started crying "mommy, mommy!" and like magic, the anger came back...

----------------------------------------------------------------

The morning after.

A soldier dispatchment arrived at the village on a dozen horses, they had been alerted by a line of smoke coming from the village and rode all night from Marle to check on the situation.

"Captain," A short soldier came running from the burned inn and kneeled down in front of an older looking rider. "we just finished examining the village, please follow me." He led the soldiers to the burning inn, "I think a bandit warband came to this inn and started drinking," he pointed to some burned corpses with weapons and metal cups in their hands, "then seeing them under the effect of alcohol the peasants thought they could beat them and tried to fight back. Or maybe the drunk bandits just went into a frenzy for no reason, that's also possible." he pointed to some other corpses who held burned tools, probably pitchforks or maces.

"Then while fighting the peasants someone set fire to the inn, someone, probably bandits managed to get out in time and..." Again he led the soldiers to a shed where they found a man with a crushed skull, "found a family hiding in here, killed the father by beating him to death, and then probably rape-killed the wife and children in those bushes," he pointed to some bushes a little further down the road. " I suggest you don't go there, it's not a nice show."

"Did you find proof of rape on the children?" Asked the captain. "Well, we actually didn't; neither on the woman, nor on the children, but why else would they drag them there?" pondered the young soldier, he then remembered something, "Maybe they ran away while the father fought against the bandit?" the old soldier nodded and walked towards the bushes where he found three corpses beaten to paste.

Suddenly he noticed a trail of blood leading deeper into the woods, he followed it and found a tree with a big red bloodstain on its trunk and a dead man hugging that tree. Approaching the tree he immediately guessed what happened, the man had headbutted the tree to death.