What Lives Among Us

Chapter 2: A Broken Truce

(Decided to post Chapter 2 Early :D Feels incoming)
"This way! Over here!" Ludwig gasped to Ivan as he ran, feeling his chest begin burn as he sucked the dread filled air in through his clenched teeth, his fast pace not wavering for a second. Despite his long legs, Ivan couldn't deny that he was having trouble keeping up with the frantic german as he raced towards the crowds in the hay field.
"It killed again." A villager hissed to no one in particular, just staring at the floor with wide eyes full of complete and utter horror. Ludwig looked at this shellshocked man for a few seconds as he ran past, pushing and shoving to get his way through to the heart of the commotion.
"But we've kept the peace." Ludwigs best friend, Feliciano whimpered, his eyes filled with tears as he trembled, his hands shaking slightly.
"Well, the wolf has broken it." Lovino, the boys elder brother, murmured, also shocked although he was putting more effort into not crying than Feliciano was. His eyes were downcast, and for once, he didn't spit any abusive slurs at Ludwig when he saw the german. Instead, he looked the other way and strangely, Feliciano did too.
"Who is it?" Ludwig demanded, looking from Feliciano, to Lovino, and then back to the younger boy again. When neither of the two opened their mouths to say anything, Ludwig gulped in worry, fearing the worst. "Tell me!"
"It's your brother." Feliciano finally said, bursting into more louder sobs whilst Lovino gulped and tried to comfort his younger sibling, looking away from everyone as a tear ran down his own cheek. Ludwig stood silent for a moment, his eyes growing wide as time seemed to go in slow motion, feeling the sickening feeling of his stomach sinking, the ball in his throat and then the tears streaming down his cheek. Turning around, Ludwig slammed his way through the last of the crowd and ran to his parents who were in a tight embrace, watching his mother sob whilst his father just trembled, staring at the body in front of a blood splattered hay bail.
"Mother, Father." Ludwig gasped, running up to the traumatised and grief filled couple. It seemed like his father was making a move to cover Ludwigs eyes but it was too late. Tears ran down his cheeks as he saw his brother, face down in some loose hay that had come loose from the bail, a circle of dark blood around him, staining his snow white hair. Hair like that of the rabbit when Ludwig was only eight.
"Gilbert!" Ludwig cried in response to this horrifying sight, his voice coming out as a choked sob as he ran forwards and skidded to his knees next to his brother, unable to stop his sobs as he rolled his brothers limp and unmoving body onto his back. There, he saw the soulless red eyes of his once young and life filled brother staring in Ludwig's direction, through the german as if he were only in a dazed daydream. "Nein, nein, nein" Ludwig cried, shaking Gilberts shoulders before then trying to stop the blood pouring from the gaping hole in the albinos neck by placing both hands over it and pressing down. It was hopeless. The head was only attached by the spine anyway. Everything in front of that, his windpipe and all, was gone. "Big brother come back! Wake up! Wake up!" Ludwig screamed, doing everything he could to bring his brother back. However, after a while he finally gave up and fell forward, his head resting on his brothers still chest as memories of playing tag with him, cooking with him.... His cheeky yet adorable smile filling the Germans head, only causing him to sob louder and harder. He grabbed the elder Germans cold hand and whimpered. "Wake up... Don't leave me big brother please... Bruder... GILBERT!"

"Thank you, Peter." Ludwig whispered quietly as he was handed the gift of a home made, wooden statue which was only the size of his hand. It was poorly made and would swiftly be thrown away. The gift though, was from a blond boy originally from England. He was bring cared for by Feliciano as he had been left at the village. Many villagers believed that he had been left there because of his rather obvious mental issues. Upon being thanked, the boy giggled lowly and wandered to the corner of his room, rubbing his bushy black eyebrows. Meanwhile, Ludwigs mother had looked up to see the grand and wealthy mother of her remaining sons betrothed at the door, dressed in a long black dress. The one she always wore when a death had occurred. Ludwig looked over, his nose wrinkling in slight desgust at her boldness to just come on in dressed like a million pounds before looking down at his brother who had been laid on a wooden table in the middle of their house, surrounded by small candles. Sure, it was distressing, but it was the villages tradition for the families of the deceased to prepare the person for burial. Winding some cornflowers into Gilberts hair, Ludwig made sure that all the blood had been cleaned away and the bandage around his neck hid all, if not most, signs of his injury.
"Madame Héderváry please come in." Ludwigs mother gasped, opening open the door and then stepping out of the way and trying her best to put on a brave face for this family in particular.
"Louise." The grand woman whimpered, bowing her head in respect and taking one of Ludwigs mother's hand, squeezing it gently. "I'm sorry for your loss."
"Thank you." Louise nodded although all in the room knew that a simple apology would never fix what had happened.
"Let me take that." Elizabetha suddenly offered, stepping out from behind her mother in a slightky lighter head, her long hair beautifully braided and filled with daisies. She gently took a pie, that had been a gift from the Vargas family, from Louise's hand and walked over to their tiny kitchen, seeming to look at it with an unimpressed expression before setting it down.
"Hello, Elizabetha" Louise smiled, her eyes shooting over to Ludwig who tried to escape the situation by clambering up the creaky ladder into his small bed, laying down onto the thin mattress.
"Hello" Elizabetha said with a sad, sympathetic smile, glancing up at Ludwig as if expecting him to say something. He didnt.
"Gilbert was a good boy..." Mr. Héderváry murmured, shaking Mr. Beilschmidts hand with an empathetic look in his eyes.
Whilst the Héderváry family helped make Ludwigs grieving family dinner, Louise climbed up onto the bed with Ludwig and wrapped an arm around his sagging shoulders.
"She's your fiancee now." The mother said to her son, looking down at him with a sigh whilst Ludwig just looked away with a scowl on his face, letting out a quiet scoff. "She's come to offer her condolences..."
"But I barely know her" Ludwig exclaimed quietly, wanting nothing but to be in Ivan's arms at that point. Everything seemed so numb... As if his body still hadn't come to terms with what had happened.
"You'll get to know her." Louise said surely, causing Ludwig to look up at her with anger in his narrowed and cold blue eyes. How could his mother possibly expect him to even try to get to know and love a person, especially a woman, when his brother had just died?! "Now go down there. Please." Ludwig looked down for a second, wondering if he could even be bothered to go against his mother at that point. Deciding that he couldn't, Ludwig was about to move when Elizabetha spoke up, seeming to have a hurt look on her face. She did love Ludwig after all.
"Come with us to the tavern, Mr. Beilschmidt." Elizabetha murmured softly, putting her hand on the fathers shoulder. "Let them grieve in their own way." She then added, leading the grieving father out of the room, looking up at ludwig one last time before walking out.
"I... I... I want to go." Ludwig mumbled. Although he didn't want to be within a ten mile radius of this girl, the thought of being able to drown his pain in liquor gave him some hope in the situation.
"No." Louise said quickly, nudging Ludwig in annoyance. Naturally, she didn't want her last son getting pissfaced when he was supposed to be grieving. She took Ludwig to his bed again and sighed as he scowled at her mother's words. She had her suspicions that he was gay and had a good idea for whom he was gay for too.
"I didn't love your father when we were first married." The woman murmured, cupping Ludwigs cheek and stroking it with her soft thumb.
"I was in love with another man... But I came to love your father." Ludwig met her eyes and whimpered softly. "And he gave me two beautiful sons. We should count our blessings."

"Come on, Father." A man called in the pub, looking at their religious speaker who ran the village church, holding up a glass of strong beer. The death of Gilbert had shocked the whole village into arguing. "It's been almost 20 years since the wolf has taken a human life! Twenty years."
"That's because we sacrifice
our best livestock every full moon." Another man then snarled as the religious leader looked around the people with wide eyes. His thoughts were that they should just stay at peace with the wolf and not fight... Live on common grounds with the beast. However, even he knew that this was no longer a possibility. "We kept our end of the bargain!"
"So now we kill it!" A man from the back yelled. That man was Ludwigs father, all ready having gone through six bottles of beer, thirty three shots of jägermeister and god knew what else.
"Yeah!" Everyone in the pub cheered happily, calling the wolf a stupid dog and so on. "Let's kill that thing!" One of the ringleaders of this argument was, unsurprisingly, Adam Héderváry, Elizabetha's father.
"No." The religious leader, Kiku, snapped immediately, raising his voice for the first time in a while, his brown eyes glaring over the people as they all went quiet, pushing a lock of black hair out of his face. "I've summoned Father Francis."
"Father Francis?" Some men laughed,  shaking their heads in a drunken amusement.
"He has destroyed werewolves and witches in cities throughout the kingdom." Kiku said, trying to reason with the men despite the fact that he knew that attempting to reason with those who wanted revenge was a waste of his breath and time. "He will rid us of this beast."
"Nein" Ludwigs father, Erwin, growled, shaking his head as his purple eyes flashed dangerously. It was strange, many of the villagers had purple eyes. It was just a weird yet beautiful quirk. He stepped into the bar with a bottle of jäger in his shaking hands. He was extremely drunk and even more angry. "He'll rob us of our vengeance."