01 - Thánatos
The Miera Mansion was dark. Only a few moans could be heard from one of the windows that surrounded the entire “T”-shaped courtyard. John paced back and forth, his hands wet and intense sweat running down his neck. For a few minutes, he stood by a large handcrafted door with an engraving in the left corner: a circle with a cross in the middle.
Suddenly, the moans turned into desperate cries, and after some time, a heavy silence followed by the crying of a baby. John, with a smile on his face, continued to stare at the door and, joyfully, wiped away a few tears that were beginning to flow from his nose. The door to the room opened, and an elderly woman with a long dress, reaching her feet, with a friendly smile and white hair tied with a purple ribbon with a flower-shaped buckle in the middle, emerged. The elderly lady approached John with a generous look that soon turned into a serious expression:
– Mr. Miera, they are girls, but unfortunately, only one survived the birth.
John quickly erased the joyful expression from his face and fell to his knees on the floor. The woman returned to the room, and after a few minutes, opened the door and left, heading towards a narrow corridor with several doors on the right side. John remained kneeling for a few more moments, crying after the lady’s departure. Another woman came out of the room holding a child who appeared to be asleep and covered in blood.
– Mr. Miera, I will take the child and wash her.
The woman followed the same path as the other lady and disappeared into the darkness of the corridor. John got up and went towards the large door that led to his room. There, his wife was lying on the bed, with a white cotton blanket stained with blood over her groin. A tear was frozen on the woman's cheek, and she seemed to be sleeping.
– Linie? My love? Wake up, please – John tried to wake his beloved, but it was in vain; the body showed no movement, as if life had left it.
Desperate, the man continued to shake his wife’s body, but nothing happened. He left the room with heavy, desperate steps, descended some stairs, and went to an old corridor with only one door at the end. He opened the door and descended another staircase. The basement was a large space with several black shelves filled with books, all covered in dust. There was a large rectangular table in the center of the room, with a dark chair placed beside it. John calmly walked to the table and opened a drawer that contained a black envelope with gray edges and a note attached to it written in Greek: “Thánatos Sti Zoí.” He then began to search quickly through an old dictionary.
After a long search in the massive artifact with a worn leather cover, he found what he was looking for: the words on the note meant “Death to Life.” John was relieved to find that it was not a curse or anything of the sort.
After a while of thinking, he decided to open the envelope. Inside was only a burnt, yellowed parchment with the same symbol as on the door of the room where his wife was. The envelope contained the following greetings:
“We are not responsible for any future problems arising from the misuse of this document.
The agreement for the transformation is that the transformed body must feed on human hearts for a year;
If the first rule is not followed, the body will be destroyed;
Note: Life is something that is only taken at the right time and will never be the same if restored.
Isral Clauren Cauvinder,
Tártrio Counselor”
After reading the document, John walked calmly to the chair and placed his elbows on the table, thinking for a while. Then, he went to one of the many dusty shelves and started searching for an old book. After a few hours, he pulled out a medium-sized book, whose cover seemed to have been stitched with bat wings, and had a very strange name written on it: “TÁRTRIO.”
“Should I really do this?” he wondered to himself. John placed the book under his arm and walked slowly with cold, uncertain steps. Climbing the stairs, he opened the door and left the basement. He walked through several corridors until he reached a large rustic hall with stone windows, wooden flooring, and moss-green wallpaper. There was only one table in the center of the hall, so he walked towards it and sat down.
Some crows were perched on the window ledge. The street was deserted, with only a few cats walking freely on the marble sidewalk surrounding the grand Miera mansion. At the end of the street was a girl dressed in black, with pale skin and black leather shoes with some crows drawn on them.
– Mr. Snoulghis, would it be too inconvenient for me to pay a visit here? – the girl asked one of her crows that was flying nearby and then landed on her shoulder.**
The crow nodded its head and then flew back to the Miera mansion’s ledge. The girl had dark eyes, black hair that reached her waist, a narrow nose, and a small, reddish mouth. Her facial expressions were bitter, and her name was Peny.
She walked calmly with slow steps and an upright posture, with her black umbrella close to her body, until she reached the front of the Miera mansion. It was a massive facade made of polished stone, with a vast green garden and some black plaster sculptures.
– Let’s see... I think he will love to hear the news – said Peny, giving a slight smile.**
She continued to the front of a large gray marble portal. The girl tapped the ground with her umbrella, and suddenly the portal’s locks opened. She then walked towards the mansion’s enormous veranda, where there was a colossal white door. Peny knocked on the door and waited coldly for someone to answer.
A plump woman with a graceful smile, rosy skin, and blue eyes answered the door.
– Hello, Miss. What do you want?
Peny looked at the woman and said in a cold voice:
– I would like to speak with Mr. Miera. Tell him I have something he needs.
The woman asked the girl to wait in the hall. Peny entered and stood in front of a vast room with various chairs scattered around and tables with glass bottles containing various colored liquids. There were five staircases leading directly to the hall.
John had just finished reading how to transform his wife when the graceful woman knocked on the door and, with his permission, entered and said:
– Sir? A young lady is waiting for you downstairs. She said she has something you need.
John told the woman to leave and then quickly put the book away and walked calmly towards the hall. “Who could this young lady be?” he wondered. John descended some stairs and finally reached the place where the girl stood with her black umbrella in front of her body and her feet together. Her hair covered both sides of her face, so John observed her for a few moments and asked:
– Hello, young lady. What do you want?
The girl raised her head with her dark eyes and looked at John with a small smile at the corner of her mouth:
– I see they haven’t told you about the order. You were the one who opened the envelope, weren’t you? My dear, whom do you intend to transform?
John looked at the girl with a shocked expression and asked in a trembling voice:
– How do you know?
The girl gave a muffled laugh and then became serious again, saying:
– Dear, do you think you could transform someone without anyone knowing? I am Peny Burya, I handle transformation cases. I work for the Global Tártrio Council. Are you aware that after the transformation, you will have to consume human hearts?
– Yes, but I am not the one who will be transformed, John paused for a long moment before continuing, I want to transform my wife; she passed away a few hours ago.
Peny looked at John with a look of disdain and spoke with an ironic voice:
– Let’s see, we have here a love-stricken fool, and by what I see, also very naive. You didn’t really read the rules, did you? Your wife will never be what she once was.
John looked at Peny, feeling a bit embarrassed, and said:
– I don’t care about these things. I just want my wife back.
– Then it’s fine. I authorize you to transform her. But this will come with a small price. I want the soul of an innocent person, preferably a child.
John looked at Peny with a narrow smile and a confident look, walked rigidly towards Peny, and then extended his hand, saying:
– Alright, you can take my daughter!
Peny looked at him with a slight smile on her lips and spoke enthusiastically:
– I see you really love your wife! Where is the child?
John asked Peny to stay there and walked towards one of the five staircases, calmly heading to a room decorated with teddy bears and some toy clowns. He took the child, who was sleeping wrapped in a purple cloth, and walked through several corridors until he reached the hall and handed the child to Peny.
– Very well, thank you. You cannot go back now; your fate is already sealed. Thank you very much for doing business with me – Peny took from her umbrella a small brown box with a tiny crow-shaped charm and handed it to John, saying:**
– Place this on your wife, and what you want will happen.
John seemed to feel no remorse at all for what he had just done. He had just handed over his daughter to a stranger who promised to bring his wife back. Peny tapped the ground twice with her umbrella, and gray smoke enveloped her entire body. In a few seconds, she was gone. Only John and the crow charm remained in his hands. He stood paralyzed for a few minutes, contemplating what he had just done, and then continued to the hall where he left the book “Tártrio.” After reviewing everything in the book, he walked to the room where his wife was.
John arrived at his wife’s room. It was calm; her body was clean, and the bed was made. The woman’s hair was combed. While John was with Peny, the maids had tidied up the room. The man knelt at the foot of Linie’s bed. He held her hand and began to cry. His wife’s body remained motionless and lifeless. He opened the book, placed the charm on Linie’s chest, extended his hands over her body, and began to recite a phrase written in Greek:
– Epikaloúmai to pnévma tou kai páli!
A few seconds passed, and then something dark hovered over Linie’s body. The room started to get dark, and the walls became cold. Everything around became icy and lifeless. Suddenly, Linie’s body began to levitate, and several gray threads of smoke enveloped her body. A black beam shot out from Linie’s abdomen and then returned inside her again. And then everything went dark. After some time, when the darkness lifted and normality returned, it was already night, and Linie stood beside the bed with the same dark look that Peny had.
John’s eyes filled with joy, and he rushed to his wife to embrace her, exclaiming:
– Dear! I love you!
Linie rejected John’s embrace, causing him to crash against the wall.
– Darling. Things are not as you imagine – Linie raised both arms and snapped her fingers, enveloping herself in dark smoke. The smoke then transformed into a black dress covering her from her ankles to her shoulders, her brown hair falling over her shoulders, and a beautiful crow-shaped charm was pinned on the right side of her hair with a black iron clasp. John looked at his wife in terror and spoke with a bit of fear.**
– Love? This isn’t you! Don’t you remember the day we met? You are the love of my life...
The woman merely looked at him out of the corner of her eye and walked away.
Felps Miera.
Thank You for read!
