Terry approached Jim. “So you have chosen this path?”

“Terry–” Jim hadn’t the chance to finish what he was about to say before he felt Terry’s claw cleave his face. He stumbled backwards and was caught by Hannah.

Hannah looked down as Jim looked up at her. She screamed and released him, stumbling away in terror.

Jim clambered to his feet. His nose hung loose, his right eye was closed and puffy. Blood cascaded down his face and reddened his shirt. “Terry…” he coughed and shook his head. Pain seared from his cheek where the brutal gash had reached the bone.

Hannah’s screams brought the attention of the villagers who folded out of their houses and looked around for the source.

Terry snarled. “Even with this curse you can’t defend yourself, Jim. You’re not worthy. Elizabeth was right, you were a mistake.”

Jim roared and leapt at Terrence like a tiger pouncing. His fangs bore and claws extended.

Terry fell backwards and was surprised by the savage rakes Jim unleashed on his face and chest. He grabbed Jim by the throat and shoved him off, hopping up quickly.

“Lads, enough!”

A villager tried to grab Terry from behind to restrain him but was shrugged off like a loose cape. Terry looked down with maddened eyes. They were red with hatred. Chunks of his mauled face dangled from his skull tentatively. The man who attempted to stop Terry gasped and crawled away.

Jim seized the opportunity and tackled Terrence with blinding speed, slamming him onto his back and cracking the back of his skull open on the rocky path. “You think I not worthy?” Jim drove his clawed fingers into Terry’s neck which sent a fountain of blood spurting into the air. He raised his free hand to deliver a finishing blow but was stopped.

“Enough.” The Captain’s eyes flared in dismay.

Jim gulped as he looked up at David who had his wrist. He was lifted off the brutalised Terrence like a scorned child and pulled off to one side.

“Back to the house, both of you.”

Terry nodded as he got up. He marched back to the manor with Jim. Both feel a tad silly at their antics. They had risked a lot and now feared the admonishment of Elizabeth and the Captain.

Captain Potter addressed the crowd. “Go back home, I will deal with this.”

“Jim and Terry fight like monsters! What possesses them?”

“The eye of a woman, I imagine. Youngblood burns hotly.” He looked at Hannah and smiled.

Hannah was shivering and sobbing. Another young lady was comforting her.

“My dear.” David approached Hannah and lowered his head closer to hers, his icy breath permeated around her skin and turned it prickly with goosebumps. “I am sorry that you have seen such, unbecoming behaviour. Tomorrow you will dine with us. At the manor.”

Elizabeth blinked. “Perhaps, captain, she would like to rest a few days before venturing into the hospitality of others.”

“Perhaps, but I insist. Noon, Hannah.”

Hannah was too much in shock to respond with words and simply nodded.

Elizabeth went to speak but David took her by the arm and followed Jim and Terry back into the house.

David closed the door behind gently and looked over the two bloodied men who sat at the table. They held cloths to their faces but it did little to stop the flow. The rends were particularly deep. He smiled at the two injured men and burst into laughter.

They looked at each other and then Elizabeth who was similarly confused.

“Well, that was certainly a show.”

Terry glared at him. “I wasn’t doing it for your entertainment, David.”

“Captain.”

“You’re no captain of mine.”

David nodded softly. “I invited Hannah for dinner tomorrow. Thought I’d make it up to her.”

Jim massaged his jaw and looked at Terry.

Terry leapt over the table at David but was caught in mid-air and slammed onto his back. David was considerably stronger and found it a simple task to put him down. “As for you. I think it’s time to put you out of commission.” He kept Terry down with his boot and looked at Elizabeth.

Elizabeth nodded. “We cannot kill him.”

“Fetch me the axe, Jim.”

Jimethy stood up and went to retrieve the tool.

“What are you planning to do with him?” Elizabeth watched Terry writhe under David’s boot. She breathed deeply, realising David was becoming stronger by the hour and would soon take his seat at the top of the food chain.

“I thought perhaps I’d send Alius a gift, like the one he sent me.” He winked at Elizabeth.

Jim returned with the axe and handed it to the Captain.

“Thank you, Jimethy.” David released Terrence who was in the fits of beastial rage.

“Bastard!” Terry hopped up but was soon back down in a heap on the floor. His head rolled away though his lips moved in an attempt to talk. Still, he had no vocal cords and no source of air pass through them. The only sound he could make was the chattering of his daggered teeth and the slap of his flailing tongue.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Bury his body with Alius.”

“Yes, Captain.”

David picked Terry’s head by a tuft of its hair and strolled through the garden and into the woods.

Elizabeth followed but stopped beside Jim who was filling the hole. “You are lucky, Jim.”

“Lucky?” He looked back at her. “How am I lucky?”

“Eternity as a chattering head is a punishment fit for no man.”

“Perhaps for, David.”

Elizabeth chuckled. “You will heal soon. Try to keep up appearances.”

Jimethy looked out to the woods where David’s shadow vanished into the thicket. “Hannah will be his first, tomorrow it begins.”

“Not if I can help it,” Elizabeth said.

“How will you stop him?”

“I need to stop, Hannah.”

“How?”

“Well, you do.”

Jimethy scratched his head. “How can I stop her?”

“Kill her.”

Jim’s eyes flared a bright white. He didn’t like the instruction, but it made sense. He tried to protest, “Won’t he just feast on someone else? I’d have to kill the entire village at this rate.”

Elizabeth nodded. “We must hold on for a few more days, until the right moment.”

“What right moment?”

Elizabeth sighed, “By the time I have explained it to you, you’d already have forgotten. Just know, in a few days all our hard work will revert to a moment in time within this village. We will do this again in one form or another.” She bit her lower lip, “Perhaps you live, perhaps you die next time. It matters not lest we turn this curse on itself.”

Jim thought Elizabeth was perhaps turning mad like her late husband and David. He shrugged and filled in the grave that Alius and Terrence now shared before heading to clean up.

Elizabeth sat on the tombstone and waited in the night for David’s return.

“Turn the curse on itself?”

Elizabeth looked across the garden to Alius. He was reading one of the tombstones.

“Indeed.”

“How do you plan on doing that?”

“Why would I tell, you?”

“Ah, so I can prevent it.”

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “Perhaps.”

Alius smiled. “David is out there placing Terry’s head for me. He says it’ll keep me company.”

“Do you not get lonely?”

“It is crippling, Elizabeth. You wouldn’t know about loneliness, except how to inflict it on others.”

Elizabeth shook her head, “I seek atonement.”

“You seek freedom from your punishment. It is to be expected.”

“What about the rest of the village, why should they be punished?”

Alius smiled, “They were all part of this charade. At least they enjoy the bliss of ignorance.”

“It doesn’t make it any less cruel.”

Alius strolled through the garden and laughed, “Cruel? Since when did you care for the victims of cruelty, Elizabeth?”

“I am not without feeling and care.”

“So you say. Yet you’ve only done what is in your best interest since this curse took you.”

“What else am I to do?” Elizabeth pulled her hair back and tied it in a ribbon to stop it blowing in her face. The wind had picked up quickly since Alius had arrived.

“You are to accept this fate. Why can’t you do that? Do you think you’re undeserving?”

“Yes, yes I am. Who are you to cast judgment in such a way?”

“Pray that my judgment is folly and be released then.”

Elizabeth narrowed her eyes, “I have, every night for a thousand years.”

“Then there is your answer. Accept it.”

“I am tired of your advice, Alius.”

“Do not think you can find a way out of this. This little experiment of yours is quite frankly laughable.”

Elizabeth huffed and turned away to enter the house. She slammed the door shut and glided to the couch.

“I wondered where Alius had gotten to.”

Elizabeth looked up but hid her shock as she saw David sitting across from her. “He haunts this village.”

David crossed his legs. “Tell me about this plan of yours.”

“I seek to free us, David.”

“Free us from what?”

“From this curse that strangles us every day.”

David laughed, “Curse? I have never felt more alive.”

“That’s a risk I had to take.”

“To allow me to live?”

“You’re…” Elizabeth shook her head, “We are monsters, David. Not because of the thirst that consumes us, but for what we did.”

“You’re starting to sound like your ex-husband. Perhaps you should fetch the bible and hold a sermon.”

Elizabeth stood and glided to the kitchen. “I’d implore you not to eat her tomorrow.” She placed her hands on the counter and closed her eyes, she knew it would be futile.

“I am hungry, Elizabeth, why aren’t you?”

“Because your hunger and ambition have always burned the brightest and most violently, David. I desired a life away from Alius and in your arms. You delivered that but it came at a cost I didn’t realise I was willing to pay.”

“We can’t take it back.”

“We can try.”

David hovered behind Elizabeth and took her by the shoulders. “I can hear their heartbeats. I can feel their blood running through their veins. It’s mine, Elizabeth, and I shall have it.”

“Then what?”

“Then we will conquer the world.”

“This is our world.”

“When we have gorged on the village we will have the power to free ourselves from this cursed place. It will not contain us.”

Elizabeth shrugged David’s hands off. “I’m sorry, David. You have left me no choice. I must keep you under control until it is time, or we are lost once again. I can’t let Alius win.”

David tilted his head, “Control me? You have no—ah!”

Simon bear-hugged David from behind and lifted him from the floor.

He kicked his feet and roared, “Off me you wretched beast!”

Simon was too strong and resistant to David’s strength.

“Take him into the pantry.”

“Yes.”

He carried the screeching David through the pantry dungeon to the end where the clearing lay. Elizabeth followed behind with a sack of grain in each hand. Carefully and without looking to the floor she poured out the grain to make a trail.

Simon slammed David down and kicked his head, dazing him.

Elizabeth dumped the second bag in a heap at his feet to create an island in the shallow water. “Something for you to count before you leave.”

David made the grave error of looking down at the pile of grain. A compulsion washed over him. He had to know how many grains lay before him. It was imperative to everything. Without hesitation, he began to pick the grain up and count. “One, two, three…”

Elizabeth left the dungeon and out back through the pantry. “You stay here Simon, do not move. If he tries to get out, stop him.”

Simon nodded. “Yes.”

Elizabeth closed the pantry door and locked it before dragging the dining room table in front of it. She dusted her hands and breathed deeply. “That should hold him for a few days.”

Alius was poking the fire, chuckling. “Locking someone in the dungeon, Elizabeth? Stealing my ideas.”

“Don’t you dare help him.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it. I am honestly enjoying this show, it’s so much different than the last.”

“I’m going to bed.”

“Sleep tight, Elizabeth. I hope that furious Captain of yours doesn’t escape, I can only imagine what he’ll do to you.”