In the depths of the sea, where sound is suffocated and human breath fades, Edgar was suspended between life and death, his body floating in the cold gloom like a corpse searching for a reason to exist. His consciousness faded, and dream swallowed him as waves swallow the drowning.
He saw himself in a distant countryside, enveloped by the smell of mud and rain. A black crow circled in the grey sky above him, emitting intermittent caws as if calling him. Edgar smiled and ran after it, like a child following an unknown light in a dark tunnel. Together they climbed a green hill until they reached its summit, and there... was a stone well, majestic, silent, like an ancient secret no one had dared to reveal since the dawn of creation.
Edgar stood before the well, water glistening on the rocks like petrified eyes. The crow floated above it, screaming with an inexplicable violence. Edgar approached and looked into the depths... and saw a strange silence inhabiting the stagnant water. Suddenly, amidst the stillness, his grandfather "Lewis's" face materialized, waving a trembling hand at him, not beckoning him to come, but to flee, to escape.
Then the calm turned to chaos. Black hands, many, twisted, emerged from the bottom of the well, reaching for him like serpents. He retreated in terror, but their grips seized his legs, his shoulders, his face, pulling him towards the bottom, while the crow above screamed madly, and his fingers clung to the last edge of the well... before the darkness completely dragged him down.
Then, Edgar opened his eyes to reality — in the depths of the sea, no less profound than the dream. His father "Klein" was holding him by the arms, pulling him from the water with a trembling gasp. Edgar wasn't sure if he had woken up or transitioned to another nightmare. He understood nothing, only that he heard the voices of the crowds around him, whispering, screaming, murmuring with pity and astonishment.
Klein was dragging Edgar towards the edge, lifting him with his trembling hands to safety, while a man from above helped. Klein then returned to the sea to retrieve "Emily"... or what remained of her. Edgar was staring blankly then, lifting his head towards the many faces looking at him with eyes full of pity. He couldn't bear their gazes, so he fled from them, wet, shivering, searching for a corner to hide from everything.
He went far away, and his silence weighed heavily on the air around him. Then, without warning, tears began to fall quietly from his eyes, mixing with the sea salt clinging to his face. With every drop, the wall his childhood had built cracked, until it burst into sobs. It was the first collapse, noble and painful at once.
But a strange sound pierced through his crying. From a nearby dark alley, there was a whisper or a moan, he didn't know. He approached cautiously and found three corpses lying on the ground — the same faces he suspected had set his house on fire. Beside them stood a strange man, carrying no weapon, showing no trace of fear.
Edgar froze in place. The man turned towards him slowly, his face covered by a white mask, centered with a large star composed of interlocking keys. He approached with quiet steps, then patted Edgar on the head, and said in a deep, mysterious voice:
"Help your father,Edgar... This is the only thing with which you can prove yourself."
The child stood rooted to the spot, his trembling voice barely emerging:
"Who are you?"
The stranger smiled behind the mask and said:
"I do not know...I am still discovering who I truly am. But I will find the answer, and when I do, you, and no other, will know of it."
Then he vanished into the shadows of the alley,as if he had never been.
That night was the worst night of Edgar's life — the night he saw everything: pain, betrayal, death... and hope. A single hope remained for him, embodied in his father. Taking the mysterious man's words to heart, he went to his father, who was kneeling beside his mother's body, crying bitterly, his burnt hands shaking as if apologizing for being alive.
Edgar approached with slow steps and placed his small hand on his father's shoulder. He didn't dare look at his mother's corpse, so he averted his gaze. Klein raised his head, and when his eyes met his son's, the silence between them shattered. He hugged him tightly, and they moved away together from the burnt house. They sat there, on the ashes of memories, crying with a shared bitterness — the bitterness of survival.