Long ago, there lived a small village hidden deep in the snowing lands, surrounded by mountains so high that the tip couldn’t be seen by the human eye, and where the large rocks could not reach, thousand of trees stood in their place, creating a labyrinth of a forest where the curious-ones wandered off to be never seen again. But this is not a tale about the mysterious scenery surrounding the village, but about an unfortunate soul in the shape of a little boy. And so we begin the tale of the fall of innocence..And the rise of a rightful revenge.

All beginning..

In the village of Peccatum, only light shall prosper in the heart of it’s citizens under the protection of their beloved Goddess, Dria. Life is wonderful in the village, the villagers will tell you so, everyone is equal and respected..Well all are except « him ». Who is « he » you may wonder, well he is a curse to this village of course, he doesn’t have a name for his own parents grew to despise his existence over time and so he was dubbed « The Boy ». It all began at his birth, the sweet child was born during a blizzard were the mayor’s eldest daughter perished trying to reach the altar for the boy’s birth. Now, it was not uncommon for people to tragically die from natural disasters, but you see when the news of her death reach the room where all the village had gather of the newborn, the room fell silent from shock and dread..Then came a laugh, an innocent laugh that felt like it was filled with pure malice, it was from the boy. The mayor saw red with anger, he stepped back from the crowd, taking one disgusted look at the child and proclaimed : « This child is a CURSE to this village, we have angered the Goddess by allowing this thing to come to life..and my sweet daughter was taken for this sin, and so we shall kill it now to appease her- ».

Silent fell into the room, it was deafening to the point of been unrealistic. Until a voice was heard in the back : « Eradicate the curse », they said and soon enough the whole village began to repeat those same words. They were in perfect sync with one another, it felt like a chorus, a chorus of death. Even the father began to chant, while the mother cling onto her baby, horror painting her face as tears fell down her cheeks, she begged them to not hurt her baby, her innocent baby. At last, all those begs fell upon deaf ears as they tried to take the child by force. The mayor was the one to successfully grab the now crying infant, he laughed maniacally as if he had caught a prey. They cheered as they held down the mother from reclaiming her child. Suddenly, as the mayor was about to speak, thunder was heard and lighting miraculously struck him as the place was filled by blinding light. As the light faded, the wicked mayor was on the floor, unconscious..Besides him stood quite an unbelievable sight, the Goddess herself, holding the unharmed boy in her arms. While her expression always remained unbothered and at peace, the aura surrounding her said it all, she was enraged and soon enough her godly voice uttered words that sent all the sinners to their knees, Dria proclaimed :

« This child is a gift from the lands beyond the mortal realm, his existence to this world is absolute and none shall interfere with the legacy he shall bring. If you dare call yourselves worthy of my benediction, let the child live his days or shall the curse you believed in be released to cause utter destruction upon your village. »

..even if you wanted to make it last,..

This day marked the beginning of the end. Years passed and the promise was kept, the child could live but the village openly mistreated the Boy for causing the Goddess to be enraged at them, without forgetting he was blamed for the death of the mayor’s daughter. This daily abuse would vary from insults to beating him for the slightest things he would do. Such darkness in a village pretending to be only filled with light, only the Boy was full of light, what a kind boy he was, even when he was hit, he would apologize for being careless when he had done nothing wrong to begin with. And what a beautiful boy he was, from his light-blue eyes which looked like ice, to his pale skin covered by thousands of freckles and his curly greyish-brown hair. His face was, however, tarnished by a large scar going across it, a mother who was angered that The Boy was much prettier than her child, took a butcher knife and slashed his face in hope of disfiguring him. Unironically, a few days later, that mother’s child was mysteriously attacked by a wolf and had become far more disfigured than the Boy.

The villagers grew bitter of The Boy’s existence, so bitter it felt sickening to even think of him in the slightest, but of course they couldn’t kill the child for the Goddess forbided them to. And so they endured day by day..Until the mayor’s second daughter had enough, proclaiming that Dria was under the wicked freak’s influence, and so she found The Boy only to drag him by the hair to the center of the village and proceeded to beat the poor child. At first, the screams and cries were louder than expected, than slowly those screams died down until all that remained was deafening silence. They had done it, they murdered the plague of the village, loud cheering soon erupted as they celebrated this victory..or so they thought. A week passed, the village was still celebrating this glorious day. The second daughter was the center of praises, she began her speech, badmouthing The Boy and praising herself for « saving » the entire village. That is until blood flowed down her nose, everyone stares in disbelief, than carving marks started to appear across her horrified face. As she was about to scream, a familiar light came down blinding out everything. When the villagers were finally able to open their eyes again, there stood stiffly the daughter, her clothes ripped to shreds, her eyes now whitier than snow. She stared blankly in front of her as she repeated those latin words on and on without coming to a stop :

« Dimittat peccata tua, lux impia, quae vivit in anima tua, nam hic puer solum cinerem et mortem in ingratum vicum afferet. » (transl. : Forgive your sins, the impious light that lives in your soul, for this boy will bring only ashes and death into an ungrateful village.)

Then came a thud, her body suddenly dropped limply onto the rough pavement, blood flowing out of her mouth, nose and eyes. They all rushed to her rescue, a futile rescue as their savior was already gone, everything that ever held hope for this village was gone..now all that remained was despair, the Goddess finally had turned her back on them, and they all knew that too well and were resigned to it. All except the leader, lost in delusion that all would go back to normal eventually..That belief grew as months past on and on, fog had spread all across the village. The once lively villagers of Peccatum were now dreaded in isolation and silent. It was quite a poetic sight, especially for a certain pair of blue eyes, watching carefully from the forest, hidden between withering trees as a soft, almost familiar, giggle echoed between branches. Finally, the prophecy shall come to light and strike those who dared defy Dria’s will.

..as to come to an end.

It began at night, the moon was brighter than usual followed by an eerie atmosphere. A middle-aged drunk man was wandering around, he pathetically stumbled between houses until he notices a silhouette in the distance, a child silhouette, he approached them in the idea that it was a lost child. The man called out to them drunkly but then came to a stop when he saw their face, taking a few step back as the child came closer instead : « Y-you..this impossible,, you’re s’ppose to be dea- »

The next morning, a corpse was discovered in an alley, his face had be ripped off and multiple bite marks and scratches were seen all over his body. The village concluded that it might have been a wild animal, keeping hope that it was simply an accident where the man was at the wrong place, at the wrong time. However, the next few nights seemed to prove that it was probably not all a coincidence. It started off with one mutilated body, then two..then four, six, ten until only three people remained, a childless couple and the mayor. How terrified they must have been, how hopeless they must have looked when their final night came. What a sight it was, the mayor didn’t stand a chance, no matter how many prayers he would recite, they would fall on deaf ears as he was ripped to shreds.

The wife knew who the culprit was, she always knew but she could never bring herself to believe it fully. That guilt was tearing her apart, if only she had been a better parent, none of this would have occured..if only she had protected him..Now all that remained on her mind was the location of a noose and a chair..A pity truly, as the sole survivor stood in the darkened alleys of a dead village, he waited, an axe in his hands, for the final showdown..his happy ending as the savior of Peccatum, the survivor who vanquished the Beast..Then it appeared, The Boy was standing right in front of him, giggles echoing in the air. The man readied his weapon to strike them down for good, but he froze, his entire body refused to even move a muscle as instead, he felt his body being controlled as he threw the axe away from reach, forced to kneel down. The man was horrified as he looked into The Boy’s eyes and he softly pronounced those words :

« Father, you always were so harsh with me..but i never hated you, if only you had been nicer to me, we would not have to come to this..Now, let’s play a game of hide and seek, you hide…..I sEeK »

Then his mouth began to open, a wide, horrendous mouth that reached his ears, billions of teeth growing inside it’s mouth as it formed a wicked smile, they began to count and the father ran on and on, further into the woods, running like there was no tomorrow, running until his feet were sore. He hide behind the largest tree, he took a peak around at every noise, every creaking noise. He breathed a slight breath of relief until something touched his back.

« CaUgHt YoU ! »

THE END..or is it ?