Shadows of the Past

Jäger, now Dieter, rises from his laying position and informs Ren, "I'll go prepare some food for us. I'll be right back."

"Food?" He hears Ren giggle behind him before adding, "You're here, are you not?"

Dieter looks back at Ren as a confused "What?" escapes his lips and Ren smiles back deviously.

"It's the least you could do. Afterall, you-" a childlike scribble blocks the rest of her words.

Reflexively, he responds, "Th-that's not true! I-" Dieter's head droops down in shame and his voice comes out as barely more than a whisper, "I saved you."

"Saved?" Ren mocks with an amused smirk, "Is that what you call this?" Her hands grasp at the dirndl' skirts. "Seems more like I'm to be a replacement," a painful jab is felt right in his chest, "for the other one you couldn't save."

When Dieter looks down, he sees a finger with its tip stabbed into his chest. Blood inks out from the wound, staining the surrounding fabric. The hand presses into him further and forces a groan of pain from his lips. Looking back up, he finds that his positioning has changed and that the hand belongs to Ren who now sits atop him. That mocking smile continued to adorn her expression while her piercing blue eyes bore into him, narrowing ever so slightly as if daring him to protest. Her icy gaze stabbing deeper than the finger embedded in his chest. 'What? Weren't we just-?'

"How long do you think you can keep up this farce, 'Bruder'?"1 Ren asks with condemnation, interrupting Dieter's thought.

"It's not," he responds reflexively. "I-I wanted to help."

"You? Help me?" An amused chuckle escapes Ren's lips. "Just wait for my memories to return," she says while caressing his cheek, letting her hand stroke down it, until reaching his chin where Ren holds it firmly within her grasp. "Then, well, I'm sure Mutti2 has told you of what I'm capable." Her head tilts to the side at an odd angle as she presses, her voice distorting, "Has she not?" Her grin grows so wide that Dieter expects her head to rend in two before devouring him whole with a mouthful of dagger sharp fangs. Instead, she begins laughing hysterically as if the funniest joke had just been told. During her fit, blood begins pouring profusely from her mouth in deep red streaks that stain her pallid skin. The smock she wears quickly grows saturated until the blood starts dying the blue material of the dirndl a deep purple.

"I-, Are-are you unwell?" Dieter inquires cautiously, thrown by the turn of events. "H-how can I help?"

The laughing abruptly ceases and Ren's expression falls to one of eerie solemnity. "It's all your fault, Jäger," Ren insists, her icy blue eyes holding a sharp finality within them. "You can't help anyone." In an instant, Ren's face is but a breath away and she adds coldly, "Not even yourself." A deep, chilling pain is felt in his chest as Ren swiftly rips out his heart.

'Or...is it?' Dieter finds himself wondering as he stares transfixed at what's in her hand.

"Ah? What's this?" she muses while inspecting the pulsating, discoloured mass of flesh. "Tsk, tsk, tsk," Ren cheeks in an exaggerated manner before continuing with an air of aggrievement, "How am I to eat something so tainted?" She then carelessly tosses it over her shoulder and says while dead staring into his eyes, "A disappointment, as always."

He wants to respond, to deny it, but he finds himself unable to speak. As if his lungs suffocate the more he attempts.

Unconcerned regarding his plight, Ren rises and enters the final room of the house. The door is left ajar and, despite not being able to move, he can clearly hear sounds of ravenous eating coming from within. Bone breaking, teeth tearing, flesh ripping, fluid slurping.

An unknown amount of time passes before the gruesome sounds cease their torment. Yet Dieter is allotted no reprieve as Ren promptly appears before him drenched in blood from the mouth down. The dirndl now dyed a vibrant purple and rich red instead of the faded blue and yellowed white it was before. "Now, what to do with the mongrel?" Ren asks with a rhetorical tone of disdain.

Her bloody claw leisurely reaches for him and Dieter closes his eyes, ready to accept his fate, only to awaken with his heart pounding fervently in his chest and gasping for breath. It takes him several moments to fully come to and realise it had all been a nightmare.

'Well, perhaps not all of it,' he thinks to himself with a heavy sigh when he sees the nearby mound of furs that is Ren sleeping. Dieter thinks back on the day and remembers how Ren had complained about her head aching. He'd also grown exhausted due to the accumulation of prior events. Thus, they laid down after eating and he must have accidentally fallen asleep whilst relaxing.

An intrusive memory pops into Dieter's head and causes him to swallow some saliva in his fluster. One of how Ren drank all the blood from the deer he caught when he went hunting earlier. It was nowhere near as messy as his dream but, a new thought comes to mind, 'Will I have to feed her several times a day?' Dieter glances towards the window and sees there's daylight shining through the overcast sky. 'There's time if I leave now,' he thinks to himself while starting to get up but a dizzy spell quickly befalls him and causes him to slump back down. Shaking off his discomfort, he tries again but suddenly becomes aware of an uncomfortable stiffness. Dieter's face heats up with embarrassment as he rhetorically thinks to himself, 'Really? What's wrong with me?' before quickly dismissing any thoughts that attempt to manifest.

After taking some time to calm himself down, he finally gets up and redresses in his bundhosen3 and Janker4. He then adds tinder and logs to the dying fire before grabbing his hunting gear from the final room and heading out the side door that lies within. Outside, Dieter deeply inhales the woody surroundings that greet him before heading off. Its scent refreshing his senses while the dry, chilly air helps him become more alert.

...

A while after Dieter leaves, Ren stirs beneath the fur mound. Languidly she stretches out her limbs before finally peeking her head out. Immediately she recoils and reshields her eyes from the light, draping the fur blanket around her like a hooded cloak as she reattempts to look around.

After a moment of taking in her surroundings, Ren then looks down at the cream smock she had dressed down to in order to rest. "What...was that?" Ren ponders aloud to herself as she reflects upon the dream she saw. 'Everything was so different, even the atmosphere. And those eyes. The blood. The fear. The pain. What did it all mean? Did it hold meaning? Certainly, I'd remember if such a thing truly happened. Right? Will I always see such things when I close my eyes to rest? Is this resting?' Ren's mind races with possibilities as it tries to make sense of the limited information she possesses.

When her mind finally exhausts itself, Ren eventually notices Dieter's absence. Giving the air a small sniff, his strangely repulsive musk assaults her nose along with smoke and a subtle mix given off from the numerous pelts making the area comfy.

Moments later, a sneeze escapes Ren who, once again, finds herself perplexed by his scent.