Ethereal Paradigm: Arcadia of Darkness 3 Moonlight Sonata

1 John 2:15, Holy Bible

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A night of what was supposed to be an appointment for a joyous celebration. A time supposed to be full of smiles, laughter and mere thanksgiving, was a milestone that I wished had never happened. It engraved into my mind this single image that is redundantly being recalled... from time to time.

Awoken by the cold wind that passed through my room window, I stood up from my bed, marking my thirteen-year-old footprints on the floor, through the stairs, and on the long hallways and is stopped by a picturesque view that I felt compelled to see.

On one of the windows, I notice that the moon is so bright and is unusually big, so I took some time to look at it at the veranda and indeed was captivated by the Junoesque beauty the view boldly displayed. I look up and there, the gargantuan moon is which deems the lights of the minuscule stars in its background obfuscated, with its clear corona ravishing its gallant brilliance.

In a state of complete reverie by the boundless beauty, I murmured to myself, "I wish that the moon would be as big as this every night"...

Remembering that I actually have an errand that I can't afford to miss, I hurried to meet my family in the living room for my brother's birthday, hastily stepping out from the sight-seeing I was having. I am happy and rather excited, but what I witnessed the moment I got to the place is the complete opposite of what I thought would be...

My mother. My father. And my sweet little sister, lying on a pool of crimson blood, cold and lifeless in a moonlit room of an aristocratic mansion.

I'm stunned, I don't know what to do, and my strength also begins to depart from me. Then all of a sudden, the piano by the giant glass window started playing. I looked out in the same direction, with confusion coalesced with fear, and overwhelming sadness, but without a shred of a tear, and the person who is playing the grand instrument is my older brother, stretching his hand across the keys while sitting in the bench with a serene stature, as if he is performing amidst a crowd of revered nobles.

"BROTHER! MOM AND DAD AND JEAN THEY...THEY ARE!-..."

Not wanting to say the word, I paused and looked at him only to see him, now gazing back at me with a very demented guise. His eyes are expressing this hunger for something. They're becoming the gateway to such irrationality as such that I had never seen before coming from him.

"Shhh. Hush now Jaiden. I know, I know. They are in an eternal trance. You don't want to wake them up, don't you? Father will be mad if you do that. Let them rest in peace", he nonchalantly answered as he continued crossing his hands across the piano keys with the most prestigious stance as if those people that are lying dead in front of him are not family ...nor human.

"T-TRANCE? NO BROTHER! THERE'S BLOOD EVERYWHERE! W-WHO?... WHO WOULD DO SUCH A THING!... BROTHER DO SOMETHING!" Wondering why he's resorting to such, not doing anything while our parents and our sister are pulseless on a pool of blood, I clamored as if I was angry.

His hands then stop at a piano key, finishing a famed classical piece of which I palpably recognize as entitled "Moonlight Sonata, First Movement".

Turning away from the instrument, he then got up from the bench with a very calm look while attaining this heinous charisma. He then stood by the window and looked at the bright moon. Confused and afraid I'm unable to move or say anything else. All I did is stare at him curious about his next move while there was utter silence in the room down to literarily a decibel or even less.

"I wish that the moon would be this eminent every time I take glimpses upon it." He said.

"What?! B-Brother...."

"AAAAHHHHH, WHAT A SPLENDID NIGHT THIS IS FOR ME !" He said, with a very whimsical voice that sounds rather out of this world.

"Brother what are you saying?!" He then made a very heinous smile towards the moon then swiveled to look at me with pure blood lust, with teeth both gnashed as if in deep hatred and his eyes are now burning with the insatiable passion to kill.

"Jaiden, my sorry little brother... Tonight begins my threshold!" He exclaimed while extending his arms as wide as it can, taking a deep breath as if he was freed from something that imprisoned him from a long time ago up to this day.

"I want to be free from the incarcerations that this cannon fodders gave me! So I, as a retribution for the suffering that they gave-..."

"You, you...killed them? Brother are you out of your mind?!"

"YES! I KILLED THEM JAIDEN... AND YES! I AM, BY ALL MEANS OUT OF MY MIND TONIGHT! AND IT WILL BE TOO DISAPPOINTING TO LET GO OF SUCH MADNESS, PITIFUL BROTHER!"

The moment he exclaimed those vile words while expressing this demeanor that is far too malevolent to be defined through simple terms... this poignant and loathsome thought crossed my mind.

"I'm...

.. Gonna...

..Be...

...Killed"

Silence engulfs the room except for the sound of the footsteps which are coming towards me, sounds that seems to be from Death himself. And as the sound of the footsteps gets closer and closer, my heart's beating faster, and I am acquainted too well that I can't do anything. My body is stunned, no, paralyzed. I'm gonna be killed. Just like them...

For a moment, I ignored my despair and looked at my dead family. Memories came flashing towards me, memories that were of happiness without a taint of dystopia such as this.

I remembered, how mom would inspire me in times of hardships. I remembered dad. He would be there any minute of the day when I felt alone and weak... I remembered my little innocent sister's shenanigans that would make up our day. Lastly, I remembered how I wished to surpass my revered brother, who is now....coming to kill me.

From a state of utter despair, it was metamorphosed to sadness that cannot be likened to other existent touches of melancholy. I am sad and yet there was not a single tear flowing from my eyes. All I know is that I am feeling rather empty, and that, there is this gap in my heart that could never be filled the same way again...This overwhelming and sudden flare of negative emotions would eventually kill me before my brother will.

"Crack," I noticed the sound of a lethal weapon being loaded. I looked up and saw him pointing a gun at me a meter or two, away.

"If I may know... Brother, why did you do this?" I asked as if it was my last wish to know why it happened.

"Aaaahh you talk too much!" He answered.

"You are a Cendrillon, right? The last bloodline of the land's finest aristocrats. And as far as a father would tell me, that we ought to mind our own business. You are one bad descendant for not heeding your father's own words. And for that, I'm gonna have to kill you. Say hi to them for me! Bon, voyage! "

"Ha! He really had gone mad. " I thought... slowly closing my eyes hoping to be killed immediately to eradicate the dominant antagonism and emptiness that I'm feeling.

And the moment my eyes closed, I heard three gunshots all aimed at me from point-blank range that would likely rip me apart from my own existence.

"BANG!... BANG!... BANG!"

A single bullet could have been enough.

Chapter end