Death has taken over this town.
Although many of the townsfolk were still walking and breathing, death was already inside them. Death was in the water, in the ground, and in the air.
It was rotting people's organs and seeping out through boils on their skin while they gathered dead bodies off the streets and burned them on pyres.
In a small house in the town's artisans' quarter, a boy clung to his mother's chest and tried not to cry. Near the sickbed, a doctor in a leather mask shaped like a beak was watching the boy with concern.
The plague has taken the woman's eyes already, rendering her blind, but she still found her son's hand with her own.
"Aleric… You're already fourteen, that's almost a grown man. Be strong…"
"No, mom! I don't wanna be on my own! Dad is… is already gone," Aleric bit his lip until it bled to not cry.
"I… believe in you. Al…"
With each sound, the last remains of strength left the woman's body until it went entirely limp.
Despite his efforts, a tear fell down Aleric's cheek. With a sniff, he leaned down and clung to his mother's unmoving chest. He felt not like an adult at all, but like a little lost boy.
"Mom…"
The doctor shook his head and put his hands on the woman's neck. As he had expected, there was no pulse.
"Your mother is beyond help. Let her go, boy," the plague doctor said tiredly, moving back.
When Aleric didn't move, the man signed under his mask. He had seen many such cases, and they were always saddening. But he couldn't allow the boy to hug a corpse forever.
The doctor waited another minute, then reached out, about to pull the boy away by force if necessary. However, a movement made him stop.
A wisp of chilling green energy left Aleric's hand and seeped into his mother's body. Then, the doctor saw something unbelievable.
The dead woman's hands moved.
With slow movements, she sat up and hugged the boy back!
Aleric jerked up.
"Mom? Mom! You are feeling better!"
He laughed a little while the doctor gasped and clutched his chest in terror.
Although she was moving before his eyes, the woman's movements were unnatural and stiff, and she wasn't breathing!
Worse, strange things were happening with the boy, too. Only a few minutes before, Aleric looked just like an ordinary youth his age with brown hair and acne-covered skin. His only rare feature was the lack of the plague's symptoms.
But now Aleric's hair became utterly white, and his skin became gray like that of a corpse!
The doctor stumbled away from the bed.
"Monsters and evil witchcraft… Dark magic…" he whispered in disbelief. Then he turned away, picked up the long hem of his doctor's robe, and began running as fast as his old bones could carry him!
Aleric didn't even turn in the doctor's direction. All he could think of was that his mother got better.
"This is a miracle! This is a miracle, Mom!" He hugged his mother even tighter. "Just like the priests tell, the Light has come down on you and healed you!"
His mother didn't reply, but Aleric wasn't worried about it. Since the plague has fallen on their town, his mother has barely spent a day out of bed. She was so very weak… If she had said anything, Aleric would've told her to save her strength.
Although her hands felt very strong on his back already.
It took several minutes until the happiness abated enough that Aleric noticed that the doctor had left the house. Puzzled, he pulled back from his mother and looked around.
"Huh? Did he go tell others about the miracle?"
At this moment, Aleric heard loud footsteps outside the bedroom and stood up. As soon as he approached the door, it opened sharply, making him stagger back.
On the other side stood a pair of city guards and the doctor who was peeking cautiously from behind their backs.
"This is it! Look at these… unnatural creatures!" the doctor spat, pointing at Aleric and his mother. "This woman is dead, but moving! And the boy... It came from the boy, I saw it!"
"What?!" Aleric gasped, shocked. "What are you talking about? What's going on?!"
He looked at the guards' faces. One of them, Livs, was a friend of his aunt's husband, while the other, Rammon, often patrolled Aleric's street. But now both of them stared at Aleric like he suddenly turned into a giant spider.
"That's… a ghoul! A zombie!" Livs said. "And… whatever the hell Aleric turned into!"
Rammon pulled out his sword. "We will bring them in. By Light, we will!"
"Wait! Stop! Why—what are you doing?!" Aleric cried out again, but the guards ignored him.
Livs grabbed Aleric's shoulder and pulled him toward the exit. At the same time, Rammon walked around them and cautiously approached Aleric's mother. She didn't react except for turning her head toward the guard. If her eyes weren't covered in bandages, one could think she was watching him.
"Just come with us… Whatever you are!" Livs spat at Aleric when he pulled back.
"No! Don't touch my mom!" Aleric shouted. "Get away from me, dammit! Mom, don't sit there! The guards have gone insane, we must stop them!"
Ignoring Aleric's shouts, Rammon raised his sword, aiming to cut off the undead creature's head.
At this moment, the woman leaped up and lunged for his throat with unexpected speed.
"Rammon!" Livs shouted, letting go of Aleric.
The guard ran to help his partner, but the undead woman had already torn open Rammon's throat with her bony fingers. A fountain of blood poured out, smearing her and the room.
Aleric stood paralyzed by terror–but not from the sight of his mother attacking the guards.
He had caught sight of his own hands and saw eerie green energy under his skin. Instinctively, he could feel the same energy in his mother and how it echoed his desires.
Although Aleric didn't understand what exactly had happened, he knew that something terrible befell him and his mother, something that made the guards and the doctor call them monsters.
Only now had Aleric fully realized that his mother had really died.
Too terrified to think straight, Aleric turned and ran away. Behind him, he heard Livs's scream that ended abruptly. Then more shouts.
All of that made Aleric run even faster. He ran past the exit, past the doctor, past the people on the streets…
But no matter how long Aleric spent running, he could never escape death.
***
Six years later.
A gaunt figure in a dark cloak that blended with the night was sneaking through a village, twitching at the slightest noise. If any of his childhood friends saw him, they would never recognize Aleric in this gaunt corpse-like creature with snow-white hair.
Most people took him for a monster or a ghoul, so he had to survive by stealing and foraging in the wild. This made him thin and even more corpse-like, making it even harder to survive.
But he did.
Aleric survived and searched for answers, and he believed that he could finally find them here, near this village.
For the last eight months, Aleric has been chasing the rumors of an old crypt holding the treasures of an unknown necromancer. This crypt, which had to be located in a forest near the village of Broomwood, had to have some books that could explain Aleric's current state!
After all, where else would necromancers put their books if not in tombs? It was common knowledge that all mages were drawn toward their element of power. But only in a remote place like Broomwood, a necromancer's crypt could exist without being already purified by the paladins of the Church of Light.
Unless it already has been... But Aleric didn't want to think about that.
This search for answers was the main thing that kept Aleric sane for the last years. He had to have them.
Aleric continued to creep toward the village.
His goal wasn't there, but he was terribly hungry and out of supplies. He hadn't eaten for two days as he was avoiding people, and he needed strength for his search. Aleric didn't know how long it would take—the forest was large, and he could spend days looking for the right place.
So now Aleric approached a house at the edge of a village and pulled out a piece of wire from his pocket.
It was risky to break into people's houses, even if you knew how to quietly lift the deadbolt on the door. Usually, Aleric wouldn't have risked like that, even in a small village like Broomwood.
But today, he tiptoed into a farmer's house despite the danger of it.
His unnatural eyesight–one of the boons of his condition–let him see in the dark of night even without a lantern. His thin fingers lifted one item after another and put them into his worn travel bag: bread, cheese, a nice-looking knife…
Near a pair of boots that looked like they were his size, Aleric paused and compared them to his own threadbare shoes. Then he quickly changed into the farmer's boots and smiled.
They fit him perfectly.
Aleric felt like he was only a few steps away from his goal. Perhaps he won't find just answers, but even a cure…
"Who's there?!"