Patient Zero

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The coat of the black cat still had a shimmering, glossy sheen when the sunlight hit it. What stood above the village, shoulders hunched, watching that unsuspecting cat, could be best described as a void.

No light escaped the grasp of that fur. Even with the sun setting, the creature should have been unbearably hot, cooked in its own skin by the trapped sunbeams. But perhaps it had no skin. Perhaps it had no organs or bones. Perhaps it was an absence of these things, a wolf-shaped hole punched into reality with naught but two eyes, four sets of claws, and teeth—all it needed to kill.

When the wolf-void leaped from its perch, a high cliff, and landed in the snow, immediately sinking up to its stomach. It made no noise. Out in the distance, the black cat ducked into a large dirt house, nestled among several dirt houses, all set in a circle around a now-buried village center. There were enough morsels to here to feed it for a while, but only that one black cat was its prey.

But why? Why this cat?

An old memory stirred. There was blood everywhere, a painful wound, a fading sight, then words. Those… words… She had been there, had whispered gently in its ear, Life is so cruel, little one. I understand this well. I will put you together again, and in return you will help me put this world together again. My first dark emissary, wake up.

Seek souls fit for the curse. Put them together again.

Yes, yes, the void licked its lips. Break them apart, then put them together. That was how it went, how the void-wolf had come to be. It had done this already, once or twice, but never stayed to offer guidance. The other voids would find their way. With Her guidance it was inevitable.

The wolf stalked forward. A sense of unease stretched across the wood. The world around the wolf seemed to thrum with anxiety. Each pawstep was quiet but sent birds fluttering in every direction. Anything that was, for some reason, outside that night turned and scurried away. The insects sensed a great wrongness in the wolf, but they were too small to draw its ire, and the matters of giants did not concern them. Even the trees defied reality to bend their wood away from this animal, as though they knew what lay in its lack-of-heart.

It stalked into the village, sticking close to shadowed corners. Darker than the blackest depths, even that did little to hide it.

And then, at last.

A soul fit for the curse.