P R O L O G U E
It was a night spent with silence. They say that there are two kinds of stillness that you should know about. One is the quiet serenity that people usually long after hours and hours of trying to survive. And the other is the calm before the storm arrives.
That night could be said to be peculiar because these silences co-existed.
In a garden where the moonlight touches the ground, a shattering of glass reverberated throughout. A gibberish-rant like could be heard faintly; it could be that a drunkard from the nearby alley tried to break the soundlessness.
“Bullcrap! I tell you, boy, that place can be a beautiful nightmare. I’d go there again before the day I’d die because that thing is real and could be the reason for it.”
A man cloaked in the darkness could be hardly seen. It was only because of his pearl white complexion that gave him away. He shrugged at the drunkard and spoke in a casual tone. “We are in the garden you’re trying to scare me off. And so far, we’ve been alive.”
“Aish, I don’t know anymore, boy, but a man can't be so scared when facing death!" The man said, retreating. The hidden man clicked his tongue while watching the drunkard scurry about. ‘Does he not know where we are?’ He looked at the pillar he was leaning onto. Just like how the warlock told him, he plucked out a strand of his hair and rubbed his palms together. When he opened his hand, the hair showed a dark glow and turned into dust. While chanting the lyrics taught to him, he can’t help but gape at the thing he’s witnessing. The marble bled black ink, and certain unfamiliar characters were shown written on it.
His voice echoed throughout the place. Facing the truth of his new identity, the hairs on his body stood likened to a scared animal. He cursed after he finished chanting but immediately acted serene.
The thing is, however, his voice still reverberated even when he's long done. It turned softer and sounded almost girl-like. And it seems like it's talking to him. He cursed with bated breath.
‘That voice sounds close… and familiar.’ He thought to himself.
Then he started moving out of the darkness. His legs weren’t moving, but rather, he could be seen gradually lifted off the ground. This startled his organized thoughts, and he started panicking. However, his body seemed out of his control.
The voice kept getting louder and louder and sounded more like a siren’s song. And the man's body is enticed to it. The silence stayed even with the song's existence, and the stillness brought chills up to his spine. He unconsciously gulped his anxiety.
In this garden, the moonlight was said to be embracing the earth on its fullest phase. Tonight is that night. There are white flowers in the fluorescent color that seems to absorb the light of the moon, and the object of such beauty is too blinding to look at. He was too immersed in seeing the white flowers bloom when a warm touch lifted his chin.
A woman in a blinding white silk robe has her penetrating silver eyes on him. She sang her words in a melody that soothes the soul to accept a nightmare. Then her lips touched his, and he felt something crawling on his skin.
Black wisps are branding him with cooled pain that made him feel both coldness and burning sensations altogether. Due to this unfamiliar pain, he gnashed his teeth and scornfully opened his eyes to glare at the woman. She wore no other expression other than indifference.
“Has no one ever told you not to come and steal from my garden?”
His gums started to bleed and his vision turned murky. Something silvery and mist-like began to come from his body. He saw his reflection in the woman’s eyes and screamed.
The gaping after image of the moon woman is eating him with a vicious smile.
