Author's Note: Father Bartholomew, for those who want to have a more kind of cinematic approach of the story, is Christopher Lee to my mind.
Chapter II
William turns around, torch alight, only to stare at the empty space of the cave.
"Where are you? Show yourself!" He shouts and after a moment he hears a devilish laugh that seems to come from the depths of the sanctum. He approaches quickly the end of the cave once again, following the familiar stench of blood and death, this time intent on making her appear. "I'm here, as you wanted. Now, show yourself!"
He feels the same odd sense of stillness, only now it is accompanied by the soft sound of rain. A thunder, all of a sudden, breaks the silence. He turns around and it's at that moment that he sees the dark figure who, however, is far from whoever William expected to see.
"Seven hells! Where the hell have you been, William? Haven't you heard the bells?"
He is facing the leader of the Brotherhood, Father Bartholomew, master demon-hunter and one of his most loyal and trustworthy friends, who seems more than concerned to see him here.
"I… I'm…" for a short moment, he reflects on all the incidents of the night and hesitates. "Never mind. Let's leave this place."
They leave the cave and head immediately for the village. But when they arrive, the sight is nothing like William expected, and it's something he will never forget for the rest of his days.
Dead bodies everywhere and badly-injured people, houses burnt down to the ground, death and pain hovering all over the air. He has seen more than often the damage the werewolves can do, he knows this curse more than anyone, but this… this is something he has never seen before. A werewolf alone can't have done all this. Not even a pack of werewolves.
"I know what you're thinking, William. And it's true, no werewolf could do this… assault."
"Then why on earth did you signal it so?", William says as he examines the ground, that is covered by strange markings. The same with the ones in the cave, those ancient runes.
"That's the interesting part. We didn't. No one from this town, as far as I know, gave a signal for tonight's attack. No one managed to."
"You mean to tell me then that the village was attacked by something far worse than werewolves and someone from the village randomly rang the bells this way?"
"Could have happened like this. Surely you couldn't blame someone if they don't remember the appropriate alarming sound when their own homes are being burnt down and their families tortured and killed." Bartholomew approaches William. "Still, I'd say we can't see the forest for the tree. What matters now is to determine whatever… monster did this."
The truth hits William like a knife on his chest. It was all so obvious, why couldn't he see it from the very beginning? The alarm, the warning, the runes, the assault…
"She warned me…" he says aloud, as if he's trying to believe what he just realized.
"Who warned you? What are you talking about?", Bartholomew asks.
William ignores him and tries to figure out the runes. In fact, he tries to memorize them. He has seen these markings again, and not just inside this cave. He has seen them during his journeys, carved on the walls of sanctums, written with blood on many victims' bodies… like a signature… of death.
"I think I know… who… did this."
"Thank you for paying some attention to me. Now, would you care to enlighten me as well?"
"I can't. I… it's something I have to figure out myself first. Then I can be sure…"
"William, what is wrong with you? You've never acted like that before. Besides, what if there's another attack before you take your time figuring out whatever is you're trying to figure out?"
"Because if I told you now that Mother Malkin is behind all this you wouldn't have believed me, would you?"
Unexpectedly, Bartholomew bursts into laughter. "I know that is not right of me to laugh in these times, but William… You really can't believe that… if I didn't know you better, I'd say you started losing your mind."
"See where I'm getting now? Just give me a few days' time and you will have my explanation about all this, justified with evidence you will believe." William gets on his horse and heads for his home, leaving Bartholomew behind shouting "Fine! If anything happens in the meantime, it's on your head!"
When he arrives at his home, more like a fortress to a stranger's eyes, he immediately starts his research about those ancient runes. He was right, his archives confirm that. On his hunts, he usually preferred to wound witches instead of killing them, because in most of the cases it was the greed of people of his own kind that triggered the witches' attack. It was at these times, when he chose not to kill them, that the day after they were wounded, the only thing left were those strange marks, and no sight of the witch.
He's now searching for "A Book of Legendary and Mythical Creatures, Volume III", one of a series of books that were given to him as a family heirloom, and one of the books that he, until this dreadful night, believed to be total gibberish. You see, for a myth to be proven real, that was a rare phenomenon.
"Ah, here it is. Mother Malkin is best known for being a Mythical Malevolent Witch. Mother Malkin preferred to employ the use of Blood Magic..." …markings… ancient runes… women in need… witches… attacks…
He searches for hours, always finding something that might point him in the right direction, only to be proven wrong by something else he reads later. All this tires him. He knows it's Malkin, but he needs to prove it before he goes any further. But how is it possible to relate facts to a possibly mythical creature? A figment of someone's imagination? At that moment, he starts drifting slowly to sleep.
The next moment, he is in the village. But it seems to be before the attack happened. Everything seems so safe and sound, but something inside him doesn't feel right. He notices it then. Full Moon. He's turned to a werewolf. He glances again at the village, everything is covered with blood, people are dying, houses are burnt. Bartholomew, on his horse, looks at William and points a finger at him. In the distance, there's this maiden again, wearing a familiar to him pendant.
"I told you it was the wrong choice, William."
"Nooo!" he wakes up screaming, only to realize all this was a nightmare. Everything seems to be in order, just as he found it the moment he arrived. Except for one thing; the medallion the woman in his dreams wore lies in front of him, on the page of the book that describes Mother Malkin.
"I'll find you, Malkin. That's a promise."
End of Chapter