Birth of a Nightmare Man

Chapter Twenty

A crisp, late autumn's morning and Helga Hufflepuff wondered what the people in the village were so jumpy about. They kept glancing at one of the shops, but all she saw was a woman standing outside.

"Salazar, did you hear anything about something being wrong here?"

"Hmm?" He looked up from the potions ingredients, stroke away some hair from his face and then shrugged. "Nothing. Why?"

"They're nervous."

"You're making me nervous."

"Well, then you should've dragged Godric with you instead."

"No, he's too noisy to bring to a place like this."

"What is he, a beast?"

"Nearly so."

Helga huffed and returned to watch the woman outside the shop. The few times the woman glanced up, her eyes flashed silver. She had no expression on her face, and a healing cut on her lip. Otherwise she looked fine. What made others so wary of her?

Finally she stopped someone and said:

"Who's the woman over there?"

The man looked at Helga, barely dared a glance at the woman and then said:

"It's the Nightmare Lord's servant, that one. He himself is inside the shop. You're not from this village, right? I suggest you get out of here, you never know if he decides to destroy us or not."

He then moved on. Salazar stood up as Helga turned towards him, and he said:

"Yes, I heard that, Helga. The Nightmare Lord?"

They had grown up hearing about it. A group that faked immortality by allowing a man to pretend he was hundreds of years old. The Nightmare Lord, a name for men who enjoyed killing people. Once upon a time, the men left children as witnesses after destroying a village. But for almost two hundred years, that had shifted and now it was a parent. The men pretending to be the same Nightmare Lord killed the children in front of their mother or father, and let them tell the tale about it later.

Of course Helga didn't believe the Nightmare Lord was immortal. Her mother firmly believed it was a group that just enjoyed hurting people, and that was something that had passed onto Helga. How the woman could be a willing servant Helga had no idea. Did she believe in hurting people too? Or was she being manipulated somehow?

The door to the shop opened, and people moved away. The woman however turned and bent her head. A man stepped out. Helga felt Salazar's hand on her arm.

They had never seen the Nightmare Lord before, or at least, the one that was now. But Helga herself had read about it. It was always the same description, which showed this group's dedication to not being found out. Long, black hair. Piercing green eyes, and there it was… the slight smile and insanity vibrating from every inch of him.

The woman placed a cloak on his shoulders, and the Nightmare Lord began to walk. People stayed clear of him as he came closer where Helga and Salazar were standing. He moved past them, the woman walking behind him in silence. As he rounded the corner, both of them saw his smile widen as people fled from his sight.