Animus

Rebirth

Viktor Bretcher was a dying man, illness had taken his strength, his lungs burned and his eyes had grown dark. The doctor in his town claimed he had seen it before, that a simple antibiotic could save him.
But he lied.
The disease that had taken his strength was unknown to the doctor, unknown to the elder, unknown to Viktor.
At last the town doctor moved Viktor from his clinic to his home, so that he could die in his home, claiming that the infection has progressed too far for him to cure.
A nurse was sent to stay at his bedside and manage a morphine drip brought to ease the pain of a long, slow death
And after four weeks... Viktor's life came to an end.
He died alone...
The nurse had left him to go on a vacation and the doctor decided his family could take care of him.

Yet they did not come.

He layed in his bed wheezing and coughing, fearing not death, but to die alone... a fear that came true

A week later the nurse returned to check if Viktor had expired as she hoped he would.
Caring for a dying man was such a pain after all...
As she came to the door, a quiet scratching noise could be heard, something she dismissed as but a rat in the walls. Unlocking the door she walked in on a horrible scene.
The inside of the house had been destroyed by what appeared to be an animal. Blood covered some parts of the walls and Viktor was nowhere to be seen...
She found what was Viktor in his bathroom huddled in a corner.
His face had become a disfigured bloody mess of broken flesh and bone, similar to a dog's head, his fingers fused into long, thin talons barely resembling human hands, his legs had become double kneed, like the rear legs of a four legged animal.
It could barely walk and only could make the noises of an animal.
As it reached for the caretaker, she fled screaming of a demon in the home of her patient, leaving the door open.
Allowing what was Viktor to escape his home...
The people of the town soon began to search for him, each keeping silver crusifix close to their hearts, fearing evil.
Three weeks into the search for a demon, the people of the town found the creature in a barn neglected by its former owners, starved and desperate for survival it lashed out at its attackers, only to be beat back into the barn and subdued with ropes and wooden rods.
They kept it tied to a stake in the ground in the cellar of the strongest man in the town.
Every day the elder came to observe the creature.
For two weeks she studied the defeated creature, looking it in its dark eyes and feeding it scraps from the town attempting to determine if it be animal or demon.
She came before the town one day to tell what she had discovered.
The creature was a demon and to be buried in a casket bound with chains forged from silver. It fought and screamed as this was done, failing to escape from its prison as it was buried alive.
For three years children flocked to the grave of the town demon, daring eachother to yell a chant they had created

"Demon in the grave
Let your voice be raised
Give us your call
And show us how you fall"

They fled in laughter as the creature screamed in agony from its grave. Regarding it as but a simple joke and harmless being.

On the fourth year, children came to yell the chant as they had been told to do by older siblings.
What they got where pleas for mercy and forgiveness for unknown crimes. This only made the creature more of a joke to them, some daring others to offer themselves as food, only to be answered with silence.
After a month of pleading for mercy, the creature fell silent. For two years, not a noise was heard from the grave. The new elder of the town ordered the grave be dug up and casket be opened, just to appease his curiosity.
As the lid to the casket was lifted, the creature broke free from its prison and fled.
The entirety of the town left within the month in fear of a unknown evil...

Viktor had achieved freedom...