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It was another starless winter night in the almost dead town of Mirfield. The cold of winter with the poisonous smog of burnt death willows had claimed the lives of several townspeople and made even more of them flee west to the mining town of Whiteridge. The town had no apothecary and the competent midwife that doubled as a physician had also disappeared. Walking on the dark and almost abandoned guild branch illuminated by candlelight, someone mused on those facts.

"Not disappeared, but fled." Remarked to herself Alisha, the guild receptionist.

Without anyone to treat the slow-acting poison of the death willows, the stocks of antitoxins and potions of the town disappeared and people were fleeing in troves, ready to try their luck in the monster-infested wilderness. The new Baron had declared martial law and closed the gates, forcing the remaining people to a slow death. Either the poison or the starvation would kill them. It was all the troll's fault, the woman reassured herself. The fires could mean only one thing, that Gilgamesh and his party had found the troll and a great battle happened. One that surely humanity had won. Then why was she so creeped out? Was it because she was alone in that deserted guild complex?

Or was it because of the weird sounds she had been hearing since a while ago?

Suddenly, a bass voice like those in movie trailers echoed from nowhere, in a rhythmically and almost sung way. "Good night, Alisha. The dead send their greetings!"

A yelp and a jump were the woman's answer. She was not one to talk to shadows and kept her silence. Cold sweat ran down her neck.

Silence and then the creaking sound of something walking on the floorboards. There was too much darkness, too many shadows, and too little candles to light the place. A gust of wind and the candle was out.

"Who is there?" Alisha shouted and walked back slowly until there was a wall against her back.

"Who?" The abyssal voice asked from nowhere. It had the same singing intonation as before. "Did this one raise so much in your concept to be regarded as a 'who' by you, Alisha?" The voice was rhythmically paused, raising up and down as a musical scale played only on the leftmost keys of the piano. It was almost as if the voice was smiling. It conveyed a creepy kind of happiness. Especially at the pauses it made after elongating the last sounds of the words before her name.

"What is there?" She shouted again, her voice breaking and betraying the deep fear she was feeling.

Silence once again. The only thing was the ragged breathing of the guild receptionist. Minutes passed.

"Did you get so much callous to be called an old friend as a thing, Alisha?" The voice asked from her left. "But then again, we were not friends, were we?" The voice asked from her right.

Tears were already flowing down her face. There was more than one. Her eyes should have adapted to the darkness by now, but there was not a scrap of light to use.

"Show yourself!" She shouted in a half-hearted challenge. Her rapid bouncing chest betrayed her emotional condition. Droplets of sweat and spit flew out from her face.

"As you wish, my dear." The bass voice answered, elongating the 'i' of 'wish' too much. It had a roughness and a cracking like the sound of a motorcycle's engine in a low rotation.

Suddenly, a single wisp of flame appeared and rose, living only for a brief moment right in front of the scared woman pressing her back against the wall to try and remain standing.

It was enough to illuminate whatever was in front of her. A pair of long, lipless, and jagged yellowed teeth clenched in front of her. The two rows of teeth went all around a large snout covered by short, coarse hairs. And then darkness once again.

Alisha screamed. Her legs gave in and she dropped her butt on the wooden floor. She closed her eyes, she blinked but that image was burned in the back of her eyes. Teeth. All she could see was teeth. Long and sharp teeth. A monstrous mouth of something she had no idea what was.

She tried to move, but found out her legs would not obey her. There was nothing wrong with them, but they would not move. Her fear had taken over control. She threw herself down on the ground and pushed her body with only her arms and her memory of the building's layout to avail her.

Something tugged the hem of her skirt. It did not lift the skirt, just tugged back. She reached back to see if it had snagged on something when she felt a hairy... hand? It felt like fingers, but they were hairy and thick.

The hand retracted out of her grasp. "You touched my hand, Alisha! You sly dog!" The voice said in a flirtatious and joking tone.

"What do you want?" She meekly asked.

"Nothing. And everything. These mixed feelings, they swirl around me. I wanted to thank you for the tasty morsels you sent my way, but I cannot."

She was no idiot. She had a hunch on who was there, but her mind would not let her believe it could be possible. Maybe if the world had ended and this was some sort of punishment in the afterlife, but they did not believe in the afterlife. Every single human (with just one or two honorable exceptions) in this world was Cursed by the Demon God in his death throes to lose the ability to have faith.

"Why can't you?" She asked, trying to make some small talk.

"Because these assholes MURDERED ALL MY FRIENDS RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME AND THEY LAUGHED ALL THE TIME!"

Rage. Anger. Despair. A murderous will and all these washed over the woman lying on her stomach like a water tower was topped over her.

"And now," it continued, "I am going to murder all YOUR friends laughing. Payback is a bitch baby. Might does not make right and we are all doomed to hell."

"You won't get away with it, monster!" She summoned all her defiance and stubbornness."

Flames lit up the building. There was a monster right in front of her with his fur on fire. The flames were slowly spreading on the wooden building, but now she could see.

There was an ape-like monster in front of her. It was covered in a dark fur from the neck down, with arms longer than the legs ending in sharp and long claws dripping some ichor. A head covered by short, coarse off-white fur, two round eyes popping from the sides and a snout like an anteater. From one side of the head to the other jagged lipless fangs ran the whole course. Fleshy tendrils hung from beneath the jaw like some badly tangled beard.

"It is you that is not getting away. And unless you have tons more of those S-rank guys to send my way, I don't see how you humans are going to stop me from doing whatever I want."

The monster picked Alisha by the hair and lifted her. She grabbed the furry arm but all she could do was to support some of her weight on the arm instead of her hair.

"Kill me! End this torment!"

"Alisha, dear Alisha. Why would I kill you, when having you alive is much more... delicious? Your fear, your hatred, your loathing, your disgust." The thing opened its jaw and a long thin tongue darted out and licked her entire face, wiping tears and snot and leaving a gunky and sticky saliva instead. "So good. No, Alisha, I won't kill you. I have something worse in stock for you."

She couldn't reason, she couldn't speak. She tried struggling, but the thing's arm was so strong it didn't even budge. She kicked but the thing only laughed.

"The Baron and his family had not a tenth of your willpower. They all fainted as soon as they saw me. Tell me, is this evolution of mine that ugly?"

He let go of her hair and once again her butt cushioned her crash on the floor. Alisha screamed and scuttled back, only to bump into something hairy behind her. Another of the same monster.

"We are everywhere, Alisha. There is no running away, Alisha."

Flames and more flames erupted around her. There were five of the same monster.

"Why do you loathe us so, Alisha? Why can't we be friends, Alisha? Do you taste good, Alisha? Did you love Guild Master, Alisha? Did you feel good when you slapped Helen's face, Alisha? Are monster brides cool, Alisha?" They asked one by one.

"KILL ME!!" She yelled, her sanity and dignity long gone.

"Oh, don't smear yourself in that filth. Now I have to clean you."

The troll picked the woman by the foot and dragged her to the guild courtyard. Her screams rose some of the neighbors from sleep, as some lantern lights could be seen by their glare in the streets around. He took her to a communal washroom and washed her thoroughly. He even used fire magic to warm up the water.

After she was clean, Grendel took her to the mess hall and laid a feast before her.

"Eat and drink, Alisha. Don't worry there is no poison in the food or the wine. Eat your fill and get strong. You will need it."

Suspicious, the receptionist took a bite of some bird meat and it was quite delicious. She gave in and ate her fill.

"Now sleep. Tomorrow will be a new day, and the nightmare of today's night will fade. Sleep..."

Her vision blacked out and she soon fell asleep, her filled belly lulling her into drowsiness.

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Morning. Alisha woke up in her bed at the guild complex, and after shaking her head, went outside.

"What a weird nightmare I had," She mumbled to herself. The sun and the wind had blown away some of the dark smoke clouds and it was a clear sky outside as she peeked out of the window.

The receptionist donned her uniform and went out to eat breakfast, but for some reason, she wasn't hungry. She remembered she ate in that nightmare, but it was a nightmare, wasn't it?

"Gyaaaa!" She screamed. Grendel leaped and held her.

"Party invite: Alisha" He whispered to her ear. "You better accept it if you want to live."

Alisha ([3] Guild Receptionist) has joined your party.

"Good girl," Grendel whispered on her ear.

And then he bit off and ate both of her hands and her feet, cauterizing the wounds with fire magic. Her HP quickly recovered, courtesy of his party-wide regeneration aura. Unfortunately, it would not help with regrowing lost limbs.

"Let's go. We have an appointment in the center square."

Grendel put the woman on his shoulder and leaped out into the streets. He ran and called all the people to the central square. Some guards came to attack him, but they quickly became corpses when stabbed by his spear.

"Come to the central square now, citizens of Mirfield. I have an important announcement for you."

People were wary, but they gathered soon after they realized nobody was dying.

"I give you the reason for your predicament. You surely heard the rumors of the monster bride. Here is your monster bride."

Grendel laid Alisha on the dirt floor and lifted her skirt. Holding her legs, he crouched over the woman covering her.

"I don't even have to do the deed. Just like her, you will be regarded as a monster bride without ever being touched down there by a monster, woman." He whispered in her ear. "But you are no virgin, are you? Good luck proving your innocence."

After a few minutes, Grendel released his hostage and took a few steps back. There were only a few people around, but that was enough.

"I give you the 'Monster Bride of Mirfield'." He shouted.

Turning around, Grendel ran and using his superhuman strength, he jumped above the houses and over the wall. His work there was done. His twisted vengeance, enacted. His hunger for negative emotions sated for months.

His hit list had two names crossed but was far from done. North he went.

"Party disband."

Your party has been disbanded.

Alisha would soon find out that none of the townsfolk would give her aid, solace or even food. Everyone was starving, and it was taboo to even touch a monster bride. Those that would reach out and ignore the superstition, the nice people that lived there were already dead.

Without hands or feet, she crawled on the alleys around the town center until she was found by a mob of villagers. They vented their anger at invading monsters and failing rulers and threw stones at her until she stopped moving.

Mirfield did not survive that winter.

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