It was another cold night in Roezfels, just like the one before it. I could not tell was it the stench of death or the smell of locals that filled the air, if one could call this toxin that we breathe here air, a mixture of smells that one could only describe as waking up in a barn next to a corpse of a dead whore that has been gutted two months ago. My bonds have compelled me back to Roezfels and it is clear that this place is just as I left it. How should I describe it in a way that you will understand? Imagine two brothers, sons of a local farmer, one hardworking and honest, the other one a deformed big farmer who often takes his job with him to his bed. Imagine a body so deformed and a mind so twisted, a mind where moral holds no value, where sleeping with pigs and trying to gut a sibling while he is sleeping is perfectly reasonable. Now imagine that the deformed brother had failed in his task and his body was thrown near the local riverbank. After some time, a smell of a fresh corpse is keen on attracting wild animals to feast upon it. Once they are done, all that remains are maggots chewing on those parts that even animals do not want to touch. Maggots slowly eating away a deformed rotten corpse, and eating one another in the process. This is my perfect description of Roezfels, a rotten corpse slowly being eaten away by maggots, a dying whore in a pig barn crying for someone to help her, but her cries fall on deft ears...but not mine.
For the sake of all that I hold holy, Maria, why out of all places in the world did you have to come here? I still remember that night when we fled from our home and our bastard father, a drunken loser who could not keep his cock in his pants nor keep his fists away from our mother, bless her soul. We where only twenty then, ten in human years, children, remember? We were only twenty when that bastard came home from a tavern brawl, drunk as usual, and beaten our mother to death while she screamed for help. You know, you are the only one that understands, Maria, that I would have given anything to help her that night, but I had to put you first and hide you away from that monster we once called father, as further away as possible, so that you would not suffer the same fate as our beloved mother. I came back that night, after getting you to safety. I never told you that, but I did come back and I made that bastard pay. Even when he cried like a little baby after I broke his knees and fingers with a hammer, I had shown no remorse, no regret...no mercy.
The local authorities figured out what happened pretty soon and we were forced to flee. In the end, we were two desperate kids who had turned to a life of crime to survive, stealing from local merchants and living in forests like outlaws. I never wished this kind of life for you, my sister, and to tell you the truth that is why I decided to turn things around and become a bounty hunter. No longer were we the guilty ones running away from law and hiding in fear. No, this time we were the hunters, you and I, the best bounty hunter team I had ever seen. We lived a dream...a dream that soon ended.
They set us up, those outlaw bastards, and soon you have been taken away from me, far away to prison. That was the fate that we both shared, and for years I have dreamt of a day when we will be untied again. That day was today. I have to give it to the local sheriff for paying my fine and letting me know of your location. I should have guessed that you would find a way to escape, you were always like that, sneaky little thing. So I came back to Roezfels, our home, to seek you out once again. I could not imagine how brief our meeting would be. When I saw you I felt alive again. My little sister was returned to me safe and I swore that I would never let anything happen to you again. I failed.
I can't help but blame myself for not acting quick enough. After all, how could I have imagined that this was all a set up, a scheme by that damn sheriff, now without a doubt an ally of the outlaws that we had once hunted. They came without warning, teeth biting and swords swinging. Vampires.
I could not protect you. I have tried, but their leader was just too strong, and soon I have found myself on my knees, screaming your name and helplessly watching that bastard suck you dry. I don't know was it pure rage on strength of will that brought me back to my feet. The bastard was shocked and he sent his minions at me. I fought them with all my might, one by one they fell, but their vampire leader had fled before I could catch him. I never learned his name, but I swear little sister, I will follow him to Chaos.
I had buried your body next to our mother's grave. I thought that you might like that, because I know that she would. I often thing of her from time to time. She was a kind woman, one that would never harm a fly, unlike her children. Sometimes I think that we had disappointed her when we became bounty hunters. I find more in common with our bastard father than with our mother, but unlike me, you two had far more in common. I had also visited the place where I buried our father. When we were kids we had feared him, he was a big brute, a giant in our eyes, a torturer that just won't go away. Now, staring at his grave, all I see is a dead drunken bully who had enjoyed beating up his wife and kids. I had tried to search my heart for forgiveness, to just let it all go, but I could not. If it weren't for him our mother would still be alive and we would have never fled. If it weren't for him, you would still be alive. But then again, if it weren't for him, that bloodsucker would feed on someone else's family. It was there and then when I realized the truth. Even if I kill that vampire that killed you, those fanged demons would not stop. Another one would just come along and kill someone else. A never ending circle, one that can only stop when all of them are exterminated. By my hand, or by someone else's, it does not matter. All that matters is that vampire, that one vampire, probably just a minion serving a vampire of a higher rank, and he will answer to my sword.
To those of you who read this tale, I have left for Ferlangen, following the only fresh lead I have, that bastard sheriff. I don't ask of you to follow me or to judge me, I wrote this in honor of my little sister, and hopefully it will make you understand the importance of family. If by any chance you, my dear reader, are in any way associated with the vampire who had murdered my sister, then you should be certain that I already know about you being here and that I am coming for you.
Best regards,
Sorin Markov
Post je objavljen 05.03.2012. u 21:59 sati.