1349 : The black plague was ravaging countless countries in Europe. Beginning in Mongol Empire, it grew in less than 2 years it affected all of the Europe, many countries attacked with the black rats desease. One of those was the Holy Roman Empire. The victims were counted in thousands, no one dared to go out scared to catch the incurable sickness. In South, nearby a city named Nurember which was highly affected lived a man.
Homeless, he stayed in the streets on his own. He looked oldish though wasn't older than 20. Most children were scared of his black teeth and dirty blond hair. He saw those rats but was never affected yet. He was hungry, starving and exhausting, terrified of this Pandemic which seemed to grow bigger each day. Wearing locks of fabric, old tissue he found in carbage the winter was going to be long and hard. Would he even survive one more cold day ? Most citizens didn't believe so. Most citizens avoided and ignored him at all prize anyway. Would anyone care if he left ? Probably not. Since his father's death who was a baker, the best in all south, no one paid any attention to him. He wished for a better life, a life like those kids who once ran around and laughed all day. He stayed sat in a dark alley, against his late father's old bakery which was now transformed into a pharmacy. He watched people pass, cough, gaze around warily. Whenever he saw a black rat he didn't move. He didn't have the mental force anymore.
He had with him at all time a dark blue dirty blanket with initials so dirty they were barely visible. Yet if you looked closely enough you could read « J.G ». He always smiled when he saw those initials. Citizens often seemed confused by his and his father's name. They always said they were named the same and looked the same but his father always explained he was named Jeorge while his son was George plus they didn't look the same as George had his mother's blue eyes. Everyone loved Jeorge, he was a sweet man, working night and day in his bakery without a break to make people smile with a bit of sugar and bread. George used to help out in the bakery but 3 years ago, his father grew sick, he couldn't pay rent anymore so when his last day passed George ended in the street, greeving to himself.
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Each day he was getting hungrier and hungrier, slowly starving yet unable to find any food around the city. The carbage cans seemed to get more empty, eaten by the heightening count of rats. One evening, after an exhausting dayof trash searching, the man fell a high placed almost getting hit by a carriage. Aching, he found himself bleeding, hurt so bad his leg was half open. Food was all he thought of. Without thinking then, the man, desperate for nourishment took a bite. He couldn't think much. He was meat right ? He could eat that. He found himself craving for more and more. Weeks passed, he could hardly walk, using a cane to traverse the city. His face was half eaten already.
One morning, as he broke in a house in endless search for food he found himself face to face with a victim. A girl, probably 15 years old or so. She was freshly gone, hes skin wasn't even cold yet. She had black nails and stains on her body. George checked the house. No one was here, poor girl left this world alone and in pain. he grabbed the chair next to him and broke a feet. He sharpened it with bleeding nails. He took the new weapon in his hand and cut the child open, eating as much as he could. The skin was hard, but he took everything he coud, skin, and inside, until he saw the bones.
The man did the same for dozens of people, each eaten rashly, leaving bites and scratches mark behind me, leaving the rests to the rats. After weeks of this morbrid ritual, the citizens began to notice the empty skins in the city. The victims were left entirely empty, with no organs and no blood just skin and bones. They firstly called out the rats for those bodies states but some of those bites looked human. Unable to figure out the source and refusing to touch the plague victims in any way they ended up deciding to call it « der Fresser ». Quite litterally « the feeder ». Rumors ran of victims eating themselves before leaving to the sky or of a creature eating people alive. No one knew what to think of it. Women kept their children with them at all time, terrified of this idea of getting eaten alive.
The man slowly started to feel something strange happening. His nails had grown sharper, harder to cut, making it easier to dwell in his victims. He could hear sounds from miles away. His face and neck started itching, growing red, purplish stains on his body. His pupils seemed to have shrank and it was getting harder to walk on his two legs. His craving kept worsening, wanting more and more. Finally after a month or so of this horrid habit he began to feel something just above his butt. Something slowly growing, soft yet sharp, something almost... animal.