“The screams. Oh, the screams. They haunt me to this day, lurking in every corner of my mind. They watch and they listen, eagerly waiting for the day I join their harrowing cries, once and for all.
“We were foolish. Blind and arrogant souls which laughed in the face of death. We ridiculed, we taunted, we threw stones. Fortune favors the brave, and who is braver than the man who rejects death, casting him away with words and stones?
“How foolish we were.
“We were scared. Terrified in the face of that which we could not overcome. Who wouldn’t be? This alien existence on our doorstep, grotesque and so vaguely human it makes your skin crawl as if you were infested by worms. What else were we to do? Open our arms to this hideous amalgamation of man and monster, letting it into our homes and sanctuary? Share our food and bed with a horrid beast, with hands strong enough to snap us as twigs? Of course we cast it out!
“Alas, we paid our recompense in blood.
“It was a squalid day, but a boring one nonetheless. What better way to spend the time than throw stones and the monstrosity which lurked just outside our homes? We laughed, spit, and hollered until the creature was ushered away in a state of shame. Yet another day had claimed the dignity of the beast, and we celebrated our victory! When we heard the crash of a door, we simply thought someone had laughed so hard, they took their own door down!
“That was until we heard the screams.
“It's a gruesome thing, watching the victim of your crimes toss grown men as if they were nothing more than a bale of hay. Claws and teeth ripping through men and women as if they were a blade through cloth. The smell of iron filled the air as the ground turned red, soaked by the payment for our sins. I hid in a barrel, only a child, crying and praying I was never found. I don’t know how I survived, but I knew one thing for certain.
“We didn’t cast out the monster.
“We made the monster.
“And so, child, if you ever hear this name whispered upon the lips of the townsfolk, run as far and fast as you can.
“No man survives Grendel’s wrath.”
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