Spawning of Dementia
Spawning of Dementia Ryan Spence The sickness struck with little warning. On the night of the harvest, the many men of the town where gathered in the local tavern to celebrate another successful year of crops for their town. Aside from the raised voices of tale spinners, there was very little action inside of the tavern. The harvest was typically an exhausting process, and most of the men simply wished to go home to their families. Yet, tradition was tradition, and ever since the tavern had been built, the successful farmers gathered. For them to not gather they said, was to risk breaking their streak of success. Yet this night�s celebrations were quelled as cloaked man fell through the entrance way, to lie in an unmoving heap inside of the tavern. The braver of the men immediately rushed to the newcomer hoping to lend aid. Yet when they approached they where nearly overcome by the smell coming forth from the motionless body. In coming near the newcomer, they smelt what could only be rationalized as corruption. One of the men nearest to the body slowly reached forth to pull the hood of the cloak back. The man saw it as his duty to help the stranger if he could and so, holding his breath, he pulled back the fabric. What was revealed caused him and the men around him to retch. The smell was magnified ten-fold. Yet it wasn�t the smell that so disturbed the hardy farmers. The uncovered face of corpse - as it was now surely that - was covered by oozing pustules that, like a rash, infested the flesh. No area on the dead mans face was spared, and as the men recovered enough to look again, they saw that the man's neck was covered as well. They knew, without revealing more of the body, that the stranger was covered by the pestilence. They knew that what ever this sickness was, it had killed the man. They knew that if what lay before them was what they feared, they would soon join the corpse in death. After much panicked talk and arguing, it was decided that the majority of the taverns patrons needn't worry about the sickness, as they hadn�t come in contact with the stranger. The one man who had touched the body, the town�s reverend, was to remain in the tavern till the morrow in quarantine. If he didn�t develop anything, he would be free to leave and go back to his house. A friend of the man also promised to invite the man's family over to his own house to keep them from worrying overmuch, but the reverend declined the offer. Fearless, the reverend accepted. He also moved the body of the stranger from the doorway so that the others could safely leave. From the back corner of the tavern, he saw the rest of the men leave. When at last the door hung motionless in place, the last of the frightened farmers gone, the reverend slipped up the sleeve of his thick full-armed sweater. Their, on the skin, was the rapidly spreading redness that he had seen alongside the seeping soars on the dead man. Seeing the redness spread, and knowing that he would not be able to say goodbye to his family, he began to pray. Only after the first sore developed did he let fall a single tear of despair. As it happened, all of the men from the tavern except for the doomed reverend returned to their families. As it happened, only the minister�s family was spared from the sickness. The sickness spread without mercy among the humble farmers homes, infecting everyone, even the young and old. It killed them quickly. The adults lived long enough to face the full brunt of the disease. Once the pustules erupted on their bodies, their bodies seemed to collapse into themselves and they simply bled to death. Sparing the reverends family, no one else lived past the night. * * * The reverends family was spared faced an equally deadly different fate. In the days following the appearance, and subsequent disappearance of the sickness, people from the neighboring villages began grow curious. Every year on the day following the harvest, the people of the area gathered to hold a celebration. Only, no one from the town appeared. The town was the furthest from the gathering, measuring in at a four days travel on horseback. This kept most of the gathered people from simply heading over and asking questions. Yet, people are renowned for their curiosity, and as it was, a group of determined men rode forth to the town. Before they entered the town, they were nearly overcome by a stench of defilement. What they discovered upon entering was worse than they could have imagined. Decaying, half eaten bodies lay strewn about the roads of the town; the bodies of the animals that had eaten the meat of the deceased lay next to them. Slowly, grimly, the men began to search for survivors. After nearly a day of searching houses, finding only the dead, they came across the reverends homestead. Inside, they found the reverends wife rocking back and forth on the floor in front of the doorway. Her clothing was soiled; her hair was spread wildly over her face. From her came a mix of sounds. Alternately, she laughed and sobbed without end. The men found the minister's only child huddled in the attic, starving and near death. After trying and failing to communicate with the women they reached a conclusion. This woman had made a pact with the devil and had failed to own up. She had brought on this mysterious death that had killed all of her innocent neighbors. This was the only explanation that allowed for the women to remain alive while everyone else had died. This also explained how she could so thoroughly neglect her child and ignore her motherly instincts. Lacking all emotion, the men did their duty and removed the children from the house. They were innocents and were not to suffer for the sins of their mother. When the children had been evacuated, they set the house aflame. The women didn�t even try to leave the inferno. From a safe distance away the men watched the fire spread. With the help of a mild wind, it leaped from house the house, eagerly devouring everything that lay before it. The houses had been built of wood, and, before an hour was past nearly all of the homes were ablaze. The men who had evacuated the boy from the attic of the doomed house had given him some of the jerky they had brought as rations. After eating all of the meat, the boy became a statue. He refused to move, or too speak with anyone. He simply sat on the back of one of the men's horses and stared blankly at the inferno that had been his home. The lack of emotion the boy showed at the death of his kinsmen had more than one of the men making signs to ward of evil. Instead of heading directly back to their homes, the men decided that it would be best for the boy to be allowed the closure offered by seeing the remains of the town in the morning. They also wished time to decide upon the fate of the boy when they returned. Some argued that, instead of sending him to a foster home, they should give him to the church. The boy had been undeniably marked by the evil that had possessed his mother, and it seemed that the only chance his soul had of being cleansed was for him to serve the church. The men were quick to decide that this was the best course of action, and as the red embers of the destroyed town faded in the night, they went to sleep. When dawn sun crested the distant hills, its light dispelled the cold that lingered about in the air. It brought light to where there was previously only darkness. This light illuminated the charred husk of the destroyed town. Ash from the previous night�s inferno littered the countryside, choking the vegetation beneath it. The land was silent, but for the sound of the wind as it blew uncaringly across the land. Echoing in the distance arose the cry of a lone owl. It had returned from its evenings hunt only to discover that its roost in the town�s old mill, and the nest full of young inside of it, had been burned to the ground. The air was thick with the smell of smoke, and many of the men found it hard to breath. They found the stillness in the air almost unnatural, and made haste to pack up their equipment. Once they had their horses saddled and loaded, they quickly mounted them and head out. The horses seemed to leave as much as the men did, as they sped away from the town without a complaint. None of the men looked back at the razed town. The boy however, stared back with unemotional eyes, viewing the remains of what had once been all that he had known. As he stared back, his eyes hardened, and for a brief moment in time, they reflected emotion. Unnoted by the men, his eyes took on a look of pure, unbridled hatred. It was gone as quickly as it came however, and with one last glance back, the boy leaned forward against the man in front of him and drifted off to sleep.
