Chapter 1

The infinite darkness in the overwhelming space is shaped into completely different shapes, hiding the contours of the darkness with an illusion template. Since the beginning of the existence of reality, the impenetrable emptiness has not taken any shape, simply in the world, there was no pre-time source whose existence would bend the contours of matter. Until the moment when a truly black soul was born for the first time. Then the time and space collapsed, creating a corner away from the biting fire of the underworld and the burning light of the clouds. After all, no one lived in this strange place. Mainly due to the unique fissile nature of matter on the verge of existence.

The fresh breeze of the morning wind lifted rustling leaves that danced in the rays of the rising sun. The smell of spring flowers and nectars seeping from linden trees in the garden near the old brick house promised a wonderful day. This most ordinary building seemed to stand out as nothing very spectacular, just a red brick interspersed with wooden supports, on which stood a hard tarry roof made of similar material as the main beams. In front of the quiet house stretched a long path made of gravel, secured on both sides with a small white fence hurriedly made of birch.

Inside, there was a general peace, light streaks of dust sliding off of the furniture lit by the sunlight, signalled the historicity of the old foundation. There were two comfortable armchairs next to the fireplace, one of which was already occupied by Luna Lozano, who enjoyed fresh morning coffee and good autobiographical literature. Mori Sulobaid sat in an adjoining chair, holding a cup filled with green tea, while in his other hand he was holding a kettle with boiling water over a cloth glove. Mori put down his cup and began to pour the scented tea leaves with hot water, then put down the kettle and covered the cup with a ceramic lid so that the tea could brew.

'Amazing... that's not how I imagined my life after death.', said Luna setting the book aside, drinking her morning coffee.

'Hmm, well... the state you're in right now can't be called death from a human point of view. It is quite different in its nature.', answered Mori looking around for the rest of the group. Grisha and Zack swept through the living room like two roaring storms.

'Wait for me, Zack!', shouted Grisha holding a dead frog in his left hand.

'You must learn how to run if you don't want to be left behind all the time, Grisha!', Zack replied playfully, running away from his brother.

'Finally, they can make up for lost childhood. I can't believe the horrors they had to experience in Hilldawn.', Luna looked at the cheerful boys disappearing behind the porch. Their radiant smiles filled her with a joy she never knew.

'Luna, I realize you still have many questions about your current state...', Mori grabbed a cup and tasted fresh green tea.

'Don't say anything, Mori. I have to understand it in my own way, through one-sided experience. Misinterpretation of the situation often leads to complications, I know what I am talking about, I already have some experience with... supernatural forces.', Luna explained, putting the empty coffee cup down as she headed for the direction where the Larton brothers went.

'I'll see what Grisha is going to do with that dead frog.', Luna explained hastily, leaving Mori in sweet loneliness. The man sat in the armchair for a while, sinking in deep thoughts, fueled by the aroma of green tea. After a moment he got up from the seat and went towards the gazebo behind the house. There, hidden in the thicket of impenetrable rose flowers, Rosabeth and Isaac were chatting. They were telling each other stories about the worlds around them. Apparently so close and so similar and yet so distant and unfriendly.

'...just then his heart exploded and his dead body fell from the balcony onto one of the vassals! Ho-ho!', Rosabeth told in bloody details about one of her adventures in once-baroque Paris. Isaac laughed, even though most of his entrails were infinitely filled with an angry ocean. That's why his laugh was more like an old smoker's cough.

'Oh-oh Hehe! Rosabeth, I love your stories about the lousy manipulation of the Paris aristocracy.', Says Isaac, clutching his belly while laughing. He rubbed a watery empty white eye and calmed his breath, releasing the mass of accumulated air aggressively.

'I see that the conversation is getting stickier. I do not like to interrupt your wonderful dialogue, however, I come with a crucial matter. More precisely, I need urgent help from Rosabeth.', Mori emerged from behind the rose bushes, interrupting the two busy conversations.

'Well, since it's important.', Rosabeth replied, fascinated by the situation. 'In that case, we'll finish our conversation later, Isaac.', she declared, to which Isaac responded by nodding his head. They both went to the attic, where Mori's small bibliographic workshop was located. In the centre of the room was a medium-sized desk set up, perfect for the comfort of a single person, able to accommodate a cup of coffee and several towers of dusty books. On both sides of the room were two pairs of dormers with longitudinal pots next to them, in which wild hyacinths grew.

Mori sat in the down chair and pointed in the direction of the second chair opposite his desk, signalling Rosabeth to sit comfortably. He hastily poured a cup of tea and put in front of her. 'I understand you didn't want to see me in private just to have a cup of tea.', Rosabeth noticed, picking up her cup, slowly sipping her ruddy drink. 'Not at all...', Mori replied calmly, also pouring himself some tea. 'Rosabeth, I do believe that you have already taken notice that I am an unusual collector.', Mori began to explain, looking at the rays of the sun passing through the window. In his left hand holding a porcelain cup right at the very corner of the mouth, in his right hand a silver coin on which traces of time left deep scars. In places covered with rust, sharp angles were badly bulged and blurred. Mori looked at the coin, then turned it on the table - it spun in parallel - an unpleasant view. 'I collect stories and knowledge from them. I have already learned the stories of Luna, Zack and Grisha and Isaac. Only you remained, Rosabeth. Great unknown and mysterious. I noticed how easy it is for you to tell about events in which you did not participate, however, whenever there is a moment where you have to confront your past, you run away.', Mori explained, piercing Rosabeth with a killer look, looking for answers in her expression, but he immediately came across an impenetrable wall. Rosabeth did not react in any way to Mori's words. She sat in an armchair with an empty gaze, drinking tea.

'Do you really want to be bored to death?', Rosabeth answered after a moment. Their eyes met. They both radiated deadly seriousness as if they had embarked on an epic fight without actual fighting involved, that no one could honestly win. The silver coin finally fell with a loud bang, Mori grabbed it and instinctively put it in his coat. 'There have never been happy endings in my story, but unfortunately, this tradition would have remained until my death were it not for one person who changed everything.', Rosabeth began to tell uninterruptedly, finally, she could shed from the heart the powerful weight that followed the woman, even after her death. It is the burden of the true joy of another person who had no right to exist. The pain of the existence of another man, a perfect friend who slowly forgets you and no matter how strenuous your efforts are, ultimately the disease wins. 'It all began with my birth.', Rosabeth got up from the chair and headed for the window. She leaned against the doorframe and looked into the space surrounding her. Finally, after a moment, she turned to face Mori, took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. 'I was born at the beginning of the first bloody full moon...'

Chapter One of "Scarlet Moon's Hymn"