The hot sun blazed overhead, searing the skin, and the hot sand burned Rickard’s bare feet. Wrapped in black samurai clothing, he cut a lone figure in the flaming land. On closer look, one would have noticed that his clothing was ripped and blood stained. Feet red with blood, he walked on. Deeming his cloak to be useless – it was torn and provided no protection in the wild wind, flailing away – he threw it off, exposing a muscled and agile torso beneath.
Eyes burning with hate, he walked on, carving a new path along the shifting dunes. Moving towards his destination, he prodded forward on sheer force of will. No end in sight yet with an end in mind, he walked on. After a lengthy march, having walked a hundred leagues, he reached his destination. The cursed village of Dominica was in sight. Cursed because he was born there. Cursed because he had come back alive, leaving a trail of blood in his wake. He had tried to help them once, and he had been rejected. His helping hands had been taken for those of a demon and rejected by the council head of the village.
A hooded figure stood at the gates, approaching him, he whispered, “Good day, Maticus.”
Shocked out of his reverie, he looked at the newcomer and whispered, “Rickard! You return!” slurring his words in his drunken state.
“Yes my friend, I come back to take what is mine. I come to take my due.”
Leaving the gatekeeper behind in shock, he passed within the gates. “Time to rise sleepy heads”, he smiled.
He went straight to the council heads house, passing beneath the light of flickering lamps. Stealthily passing beneath the vision of his guards, Rickard entered the head’s bedroom.
There, the council head was sleeping with two of his concubines unbeknownst to his wife, lying still as a child with face between her breasts. She couldn’t have been more than 15 years of age, while the other one was closer to eighteen. Both were near his daughter’s ages, and his shamelessness enraged Rickard. This was the man who ruled the village, who had made all the villagers go against him, and had rejected his offer of help against the demons who ravaged the region ten years back. Calming himself, he tapped on the wall and said,
“Enjoying yourself Sire?”
Equal parts fear, anger and bewilderment filled the Council-Head’s face, as he searched for the source of the disturbance.
“No, you!” he shouted, “You were supposed to be dead. I sent my best men to do it!”
“Then it is my ghost come to haunt you, your greatness!” mocked Rickard, and he cut off the lord’s head in a swift strike of his sword.
The girls lay paralyzed with shock, at this act. “I do not have the time to castigate you, for you were here not by choice but by this wicked man’s use of force. Leave now, and I will spare you. However, if I see you again tonight, then may God help you.”
Hearing his words, the girls fled and Rickard walked through the house, carving a path of blood, killing all in his path. A blood bath. A blood dance. The red samurai was back to his home town.
The following day, the sun dawned on the village of Dominica in silence. Or rather on what remained of the village. The samurai had done his job, and he went towards the gate. Exiting the village, he roused Maticus from sleep, “Goodbye my friend, my work here is done.”
“Come back soon Rickard, you’ll be missed.”
“The dead do not feel Maticus,” he whispered, too low for his friend to hear, however his expression must have been awry as Maticus looked a bit alarmed. Perhaps he felt that Rickard had had too much of drink the last night.
“Goodbye then...” said Maticus, and left to go into the village for his usual round of drinks at the local inn.
As Rickard walked on, he began his incantation, and slowly the village began to glow blue in the distance. A light hue of blue, and suddenly a sharp sound pierced the desert quite.
“Noooo!!” wailed the sound, perhaps someone had seen the carnage he had left behind. Perhaps he had missed killing one of the girls later in the night.
“Noooo!!” came the wail again.
It was Maticus. His work was done. The dead do not speak, as out of the remains of all the dead villagers a new creature was born. One which would haunt the world for eons to come. A devil supreme.
“Goodbye Maticus,” he whispered to the winds, and a dying scream rent the world apart.