Dargos & Huldra: A frightening Norse tale of love

"How do you know my name?" He replied, turning his head to spot the silhouette by the door.  
       
"Dargos..." She repeated. "Don't be silly; I named you."  
     
Dargos winced as he faced the enigmatic woman who knew his birth name.  
      
She appeared to be a farm maiden, her beauty unmatched in the outlands. Her angelic face framed with a mane of white gold, her skin radiant, as if illuminated by candlelight in the gloom of his deathtrap.        
         
"Have you forgotten me?" She smiled.

The silence within the wooden cell was shattered by outbursts from the hunters outside.

A tail whipped out from under the girl's dress, excited by the sound of men advancing toward her home.

"Super! You've brought your friends this time, my little black calf." She endearingly said.

Hypnotised by her tail’s dance with its shadow on the old spruce door, Dargos unraveled the mystery of his captor.
   
He glanced at the grotty little faces perched on the bed, and the dolls glared back as he stumbled to the table against the wall. From his pockets, he pulled out a handful of wild blackcurrants and a lump of charcoal, offering them on the maiden's altar.
  
"Those men are not friends. I need your protection and a safe passage back home," he pleaded.

The forest creature gleamed and clicked her tongue with discontent. "That offering is not enough... you'll need to make another sacrifice."

"Haven't I sacrificed enough?" He raised his voice and pointed to the blood stained floor.

Another man shouted from the forest depths, and the hunters grew closer.        
         
"Dargos, I delivered you into this world... honour me with your love," she whispered.        
         
"Please, spare me!" He begged.        
         
The nymph's tail caressed his body, and she slid her thumb into the wound, causing him to gasp in agony.          
"Vow eternal love to me."        
         
Dargos, almost unconscious, dropped to the floor. "I love you. God damn it, I love you... marry me, Huldra."          
"Oh, I will, my love," she replied, dropping the bullet she had extracted from his thigh. Huldra gathered the pile of blackcurrants and charcoal, then shoved the offerings into her mouth.        
         
She turned her back to Dargos and revealed a charred hollow chasm where her spine should have been; this was the mark of the Huldra.        
         
A gunshot penetrated the wall. Dargos held his breath... a radiation grenade struck the roof and popped. The hunters were ready to ambush.        
         
Huldra spat the blackcurrant and charcoal paste onto her fingers and smeared Nordic war paint across her eyes; black juice dripped down her pale skin.        
         
"Huldra, we must escape." He pointed to the open hatch beside the bed.        
         
"No, my love, go and find safety in her womb."        
         
High on adrenaline, Dargos wormed his way into the cold, wet earth.        
         
The forest creature slipped outside the door into darkness. The Huldra's song seduced the maddened with a chorus of crossfire and screams from dying men.