#11 Tales of the Unexterminated
The twins ran to their bed, squealing with glee. "Can we have a story mummy?" asked Anya as she slumped down onto the sack of rotting straw that constituted their mattress.
"Yes!" cried Dieter, "Tell us about the Baby-Eating Bishop of the baths and wells!"
"It's 'Barfunweltz' my dearest, but don't you think it's a bit too scary for bedtime?"
"Noooo! Story! Story!"
"Alright, alright, calm down my loves." She pulled the tattered woollen blanket over the children, trying not to think about how malnourished they both looked. Though her husband was a Corporal of the Glymmsmen, his stipend was barely enough to feed the family. But he seemed confident a promotion was coming - Sergeant Alditz had put in a good word for him.
"Are you sitting comfortably?" Two pairs of shining eyes silently answered yes. "Then we'll begin..."
As she told her story, Mrs Liedl vaguely wondered whether this really was the best approach to parenting children in Glymmsforge, but it was the Shyishian way: frighten them young so they wouldn't be so terrified when they were older. At this age they loved being scared so they might as well enjoy it while they could. She shuddered to think what horrors her husband might be dealing with on patrol in Barfunweltz tonight.
She finished her story. "Alright. Sleeptime now my lovelies."
"Mummy...?" murmured Dieter.
"Yes dear?"
"What will happen to the Bishop when he dies?"
"He's already dead my dear," she smiled, "he's a type of vampire isn't he?" (by now she really was questioning the wisdom of the bedtime story) "Go to sleep."
"Mummy...?"
"Yes Anya my dear?"
"What happens to the Bishop's ghouls when they die? 'Cos they're not vampires are they? They're mordants."
Mrs Liedl hesitated, slightly taken aback by her child's level of understanding. "Um, I'm not sure my dear. Now sleep tight."
"They just carry on don't they, silly!" chuckled Dieter with glee in his eyes, "Daddy said they don't even know they've died, so they just carry on, but as ghoul-gheists!"
She tried to disguise her grimace. Trust her husband to be over-generous with the spine-chilling details. "That's enough about ghostly ghouls now children. Sleep-time!"
"Good night mummy," chorused the children.
"Good night my loves. Sweet dreams. Daddy will be home soon."
They slept. And they dreamt.
But their dreams weren’t sweet. And Daddy never came home.
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| Perseverants (Crypt Ghouls / Chainghasts) |
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