Silence enveloped the ship like a shroud of fear.Everything was frozen…the waves, the air, even the eyes.Klein sat at the stern,staring at the corpses laid before him as if looking into a mirror showing him something he dared not believe.His hands were stained with blood,his heart trembled in his chest, and his eyes plunged into the depths of the sea, as if searching the black water for an escape from this inescapable predicament.
Behind him, Edgar sat silently, clutching the ship's mast with all his strength as if the sea might swallow him if he let go.
He didn't say a word,just looked at his father… at the man who had been his hero hours ago,now become a stranger,silent, broken under the weight of the deed.
Time passed slowly, the sky turning from a clear blue to a deep blue,
then to a darkness sprinkled with stars like tears on the face of the night.
At that moment,Klein suddenly raised his head,a look of panic crossing his features as if something had called to him from the depths.
He stood, grabbed one of the corpses violently, and threw it into the sea.
Then the second…then the third.His movements were frantic,like someone trying to bury his crime in the heart of the ocean.
"I must return... I must return..."
He repeated it in a hoarse voice, while Edgar watched him fearfully, not understanding if his father was fleeing from the sea… or from himself.
And when he finished throwing the bodies, he sped towards the port with a mad haste,the darkness preceding them,the wind whistling as if scolding them.
The ship collided roughly with the pier,its bow shattered,but Klein didn't look back,he grabbed Edgar's hand and pulled him through the departing crowds,both running with fear choking their chests.
And when they reached the edge of the street,Klein stopped abruptly.His hand began to tremble violently,and Edgar felt that tremor like a message written on his skin.
He looked up to see what had frozen his father in place,but he saw only the backs of the crowded people in front of him.
"What's happening?"
The child asked himself in a broken voice.
Then the father's hand slipped from his son's,and he charged his way through the crowd,while voices rose from everywhere:
"Don't go in there! The place is dangerous!"
Edgar wanted to discover what was happening, he tried to crawl between legs, pushing and shoving,until he finally emerged at the front of the crowd…
and what he saw there froze his breath.
The house.
His house.
The one that used to be filled with his mother's laughter and the warmth of conversation…was now a mass of flame.The walls upon which he had hung his dreams were collapsing,and the windows screamed with red sparks like blood.
Edgar fell to the ground,crying with a voice no one heard.Tears mixed with the port's dust,and the echo of his weeping was lost among the people's screams.
Then he saw something that stabbed his heart —Three men standing a few steps away,their faces dark under black robes,smiling with a devilish coldness,the same ones he had seen near the house in the morning.
He ran to them angrily, beating their legs with all his strength,but they laughed…and kicked him until he fell to the ground.
They retreated into the crowds,disappearing as they had appeared,
while he lay stretched on the ground,seeing the sky above him growing darker,and the stars looking down on him coldly,like witnesses without mercy.
And suddenly, a familiar scream pierced the scene.Edgar raised his head and saw his father running through the fire,carrying something in his arms— something burning.
It was his mother.
Her face was no longer her face…
Her body was burning,and the smell of flesh mixed with the smell of the sea.
Klein ran, his hand burning,but he didn't let her go.He jumped with her into the sea,as if wanting to quench the fire with the last love he had left.
People rushed to the edge of the port,screams,tears, chaos,and in the midst of it all…Edgar fell into the sea.
The fall was slow,as if the water was opening its arms to receive him with a devilish calm.
He sank into the depths,without resistance,watching above him the specter of his father floating beside his mother's body,like two statues of ash that had lost their life.
Edgar opened his eyes in the darkness of the sea,and saw the reflection of the stars breaking on the surface,as if the sky was crying in the water.
Everything sinks... even light, when it loses its meaning.