The mothers that still had children held them tightly as they watched the men head into the forest at the base of the mountain. Those that had lost theirs cheered the men on. “Burn it to the ground!” cried the long silent Gretchen, before the memory of young Anika’s broken body brought her to her knees again. They stood watching until the flaming torches had faded from all view through the dense wood, and the only light way the eerie glow from Castle Heidelberg.

They said that Count Wolfgang Reiniger carried out gruesome experiments up there. They said that he defied nature. Rumours had spread that he had created a fearsome beast. And that beast had slaughtered ten of the town’s children. Even in the days before the first deaths there were strange footprints seen by the lake, and a hunched figure spotted in silhouette as the sun set several nights in a row. But whenever anyone went to investigate there was nothing there. Just as people began to dismiss it at as some kind of seasonal trick of the light the first of the ten was found - Claudia Metzger, with a chunk missing from her neck. After that, night by night a child would die. The eerie glow from the castle almost seemed to work as a distraction - bright lights would shoot into the sky, and whilst mother's eyes were averted a child would go missing, only to be found later, bent, destroyed and partially eaten. Some spoke of leaving, taking their children to Mannheim, but it was Bernd that convinced them to stay. “We must fight back – if we leave Count Reiniger to his evil it will spread to Mannheim.” It was he that rallied the men, spoke of revenge to Gunther, Ernst and Max and the other grieving fathers, and sold protection to Hedwig, Viktor and Odo and all of the worried fathers in town. What more could they do to protect their children than destroy that threat?

All the way through the forest and the steep climb up the mountain Bernd drove them on. “Destroy the beast!” he would cry, holding his torch up high, and all of the men would roar, and carry on with renewed vigour. “Remember what he did to your Sylvia?” he said to urge on a deflated Frederick, “tore the very flesh from her bones with his teeth, didn’t he?” And whilst the fear was building in his heart, he never let it show. His recollection of the town’s goriest moments was wholly accurate and stirred up the passion. The castle didn’t stand a chance. The men burst straight through the heavy wooden door as if it were paper, they almost floated up the many steps that lead to the top of the tower, from where the glow originated. As they kicked down the door to the room at the very top, Count Wolfgang Reiniger cried out “Stay back!” But the men did not let all of the glowing metal coils or glass valves and bubbling liquids distract them from their goal, Victor launched his pitchfork through the air and the central prongs struck either side of the Count’s windpipe. They took torches to the equipment, and the fallen body of the Count. They took little notice of the liquids exploding around them, not until the heat from the spreading fire was almost too much to tolerate.

They fled the castle, flames rising high behind them, and made their way back down the mountain, singing songs of victory. Those that still had children longed to hold then again, those that had lost theirs felt the freedom only vengeance can bring.

Bernd held back from the celebrations and carefully watched the men, looking for a certain special trait. He had to warn that he had seen signs of lycanthropy in one of them, ready to cast the finger after he next needed to experience the taste of human flesh.