Fairytale origin has some basis from The Dead Man’s Wedding, a Greek Folktale
Max up in a village on the outskirts of the Enchanted Forest, always looking beyond and wishing to learn more. He charmed his way and had many lovers as he grew, his family decided to move away to a wealthier area but he remained for her, Julia. For him ever since he laid eyes on her and they had become the best of friends, she was the one. It was during a village dance that their love story began, this love only blossomed and they would be wed under the stars a year later. However, this fairytale love story would not last forever. After fleeing his village in the Enchanted Forest, Max was found seemingly dead outside its borders. When he returned, he was different. His body bore the wounds of death, yet he still walked, still spoke. But his heart no longer beat, and an unfamiliar hunger gnawed at him from within. At first, he resisted. He avoided the village, hiding in the shadows of the forest, hoping the hunger would pass. It didn’t. It only grew stronger. Desperate, he gave in, taking his first victim, a lone traveller lost on the road. The hunger quieted, if only for a time. Soon he learned to enjoy the hunt and revelled in his new self. Control slipped away faster than he expected. He wasn’t just feeding; he was changing them. The first was an accident, a man who didn’t die as he should have, who rose again with the same hunger. Then another. And another. Max had created something beyond himself, something he couldn’t undo. But there was one line he swore never to cross. Julia, his wife.
She was the light that tethered him to the man he used to be. He kept his distance, watching her from the shadows, never revealing what he had become. But the village was growing suspicious. The disappearances. The bodies drained of blood. Julia, ever the healer, had begun tending to the victims. She was too close, too involved. The night he came for her wasn’t a choice. She was trying to save one of his victims, pressing her hands to the wound, whispering reassurances. Max knew it was too late for them, but not for her. He took her before the village could. Before they could realize what he was. Before they could burn her alongside the creatures he had made. He tried to keep her human, tried to earn her trust, to make her see that he was still the man she loved. But the hunger inside him didn’t care. Eventually, it won. Julia became like him, not by accident, but by necessity.
Then, the Dark Curse came. In an instant, their past was gone. In Storybrooke Max was human again, or so it seemed. He had wealth, success, and purpose. The Crimson Care Blood Center, part of the larger Crimson Partnership, was his life’s work, a foundation dedicated to medical advancements, scholarships, and supporting those in need. Julia, a nurse, stood beside him. They lived in a grand estate, their existence marked by philanthropy and prestige. Yet something was missing. No meal, no drink, no luxury ever truly satisfied him. And sometimes, in the dead of night, he would wake with the taste of something metallic on his tongue. Something familiar. Something wrong. The hunger was still there. Buried and forgotten.
Affiliated with @ordinarycass3