The deep silence that inhabited that forgotten suburb was suddenly interrupted by the constant sound of footsteps, which echoed and spread through the alleys, acquiring a cadence similar to that of an echo.

The growls of a black cat were coupled to the uniform rhythm produced by the stranger's footsteps, giving shape to a new melody, much more weirder and disturbing than the previous monotonous sequence of sounds. The cat that followed the man closely, for some reason decided to separate from him, and climbed through a house with stone walls blackened by soot. He did so until he continued his nimble ascent to the top of a high peaked roof. Then, emitting faint mewls, the feline vanished into the dense night, allowing the cawing of a raven born from the shadows to take center stage. The bird flew in circles until it descended precipitously on the stranger's shoulder, where it rested for a moment before resuming its flight and disappearing into the darkness.

The stranger had the appearance of a man of no more than twenty-five years of age. With an above-average height, he moved hurriedly through the shadows, hunched slightly on his back. He was only visible at times when the dim lights of the street lamps revealed his presence. He possessed a pale complexion, sharp features and was dressed in a long coat that covered him to below the knees. His eyes were hidden by dark glasses with round lenses that reflected the light of the streetlights in the form of sparkles. And in his right hand, he held what appeared to be an antique violin case, very tarnished in appearance due to the passage of time and lack of proper care. All these elements gave the young man a certain somber, mysterious and reserved air. But at the same time, as all those characteristics complemented each other, they ended up giving his presence a peculiar magnetism.

With each step the stranger took, his face reflected an evident grimace of pain. But in any case, despite the fact that he was suffering from some kind of injury, he continued to move quickly through the streets, not even bothering to dodge the puddles of foul-smelling water that had accumulated after several days of heavy rains. After continuing to walk for several minutes, he looked up at the sky and noticed that the rain was falling with greater intensity than before. So, without stopping, he stretched the collar of his coat and turned the corner in the direction of the cemetery.

Once he reached the place, he crossed the rusty gates that enclosed the entire plot and continued to walk deeper into the cemetery populated with hundreds of mausoleums and gothic structures. He walked until he came face to face with a steep path that branched off just before he reached the end of his journey. The young man paused for a moment, but immediately resumed his path to the right, along a path that stretched unevenly with inlaid cobblestones and portions of dirt.

Though its only light came from the faint reflection of the moon, which peeked carefully through the storm clouds. He could see in the darkness as one more of the nocturnal creatures that dwelled in the surroundings, hidden under the cloak of shadows. He continued along the path that wound through tombstones and worn-out mausoleums, guarded only by the presence of grotesque statues that lay crumbling from the inevitable passage of the years. At the end he stopped in front of a pit, and without hesitation he entered it. This entrance connected the outside with the catacombs, which extended in the form of subway tunnels until they ended on the other side of the cemetery. Once inside, he immediately felt the dense and rarefied air due to the smell of moldy earth, rotting flesh and bones. The stench was emanating from ancient tombs long ago desecrated by the blasphemous activities of tomb raiders. As he traversed the dark, narrow tunnels, he heard rasping sounds, similar to those produced by a person suffering from an intense coughing fit. Undeterred in the least, he continued walking, attributing such sounds to some of the addicts, who, because of their dependence on esker flower or opium, used to seclude themselves in solitary places to consume their drugs. He made his way down the aisle until he stopped in front of an ancient tomb that had a marble slab on its main face, covered with strange symbols engraved in metal all along the structure.

One of the main symbols located in the center of the plaque, was disarranged in different geometric figures that seemed to be able to change places. The stranger rested one of his long fingers on one of the pieces and began to move them from one side to the other, shaping another new figure very quickly, as if he already knew by heart the combination of movements necessary to achieve it. When he finished, the pieces together formed a seven-pointed star with small snakes engraved on the inside of each of the ends. With the completed figure in front of him, the young man took a small knife from inside his coat and used it to inflict a shallow cut on his index finger, from which blood began to flow abundantly. With the same wounded finger he began to overwrite the symbols on the plaque with blood, leaving the outlines of the seven-pointed star for the last. Once he finished, he closed his eyes as if he needed to concentrate and rested his palm on the engraving, keeping it this way for a few moments. Suddenly, metallic sounds were heard coming from inside the tomb, as if some kind of internal mechanism had been deactivated. Then, the marble slab slid inward, revealing a compartment that had been hidden.

The stranger reached into the hole and extracted from within a gleaming pendant, comprised of a silver chain attached to a medium-sized locket of the same material. Holding the amulet between his fingers, the young man marked with his blood one of the symbols engraved on the object, and then brought the container to his mouth. Turning a small knob on the outside of the locket, he drank a strange glowing substance, which he immediately swallowed. A moment after he took the substance and it reached his organism, he began to tremble violently for a few moments, clenching his jaw tightly, as if he were in intense pain. Once the minutes had passed, the effects suddenly ceased and his appearance seemed completely revitalized. All his wounds had healed, and this could also be seen in the gash he had inflicted on his finger. The cut had healed amazingly after ingesting the elixir. Only a faint pink mark remained as a trace of the wound on the skin. At that moment he observed the pendant that he still held between his fingers and placed it around his neck, hiding it under his clothes. Then, from one of the pockets of his coat he removed what looked like a bag with coins and some strange crystalline fragments, which he deposited at the same time in the hole of the compartment. At that instant he averted his gaze to the ground when something strange seemed to catch his attention, but he only noticed a couple of rats moving nimbly along the wall, until they stepped over his boots. Without further delay, he put all his concentration back into what he was doing, and returned the marble slab to its original position.

He wiped away the traces of blood that had been left on the engravings and then continued down the narrow corridors that led to the end of the catacombs.

When he was outside, left the cemetery to resume his walk through the lonely streets...

Although he was well aware of the kind of beings that inhabited the darkness, he preferred to walk through the city under the cover of night. Where he could move freely, without the inquisitive gaze of the common people. Although most of the city slept, there were marginalized sectors that continued to be active, roaming the streets in search of satisfying their vilest and darkest needs. The stranger; despite this, found dealing with the presence of these beasts of the night much more tolerable. As long as their business did not intrude upon his own, of course.

He continued to walk indifferently, disgusted with everything around him. Every corner he looked at seemed corrupt, dirty, lifeless, gray. He tried to give some relief to his head and for that he concentrated on making his mind blank, he did not want to think about anything else. However, despite his intentions, he did not succeed. In a few minutes the thoughts swirled in his mind again like a force impossible to evade. He then noticed that his clothes were soaked by the rain, as was the violin case he carried with him:

Should he go somewhere where could drink something strong and dry his clothes by the warm fire of some hearth? Or should he go back to his dark and lonely store? he thought. These questions went around and round in his head without an answer. He remembered then all that had happened. Those terrible hours that had passed since nightfall. That unfathomable evil he had been able to survive. The enormous cost of his mistakes, the consequences of which he would have to bear for the rest of his life. He finally concluded that he did not want to go back yet, even though it was only after midnight and he preferred to continue wandering aimlessly through the streets. He crossed under a bridge where two vagrants were abusing an old ********** in a drunken state. One of them, noticing his presence, stopped what he was doing and demanded some money. The young man continued walking without giving any answer, ignoring them completely. And before his indifference, the subjects got angry and insulted him repeatedly, looking for a confrontation. But he continued without turning around. With his mind absent, little by little he moved away from the place where they were. In the end, those men desisted, somewhat disconcerted by his indifference, and returned to their own business. Thus he walked with no apparent direction. Like a specter condemned to wander aimlessly through the city. He felt an inner emptiness that suffocated him and dragged him to the depths of a nightmare:

What if man's natural tendency is to exert his will always toward evil, and any attempt to reverse it is meaningless? he thought.

“It all seems like a lost cause!” he whispered. His thoughts tormented him and forced him to watch all his beliefs unravel.

Suddenly, someone stepped in his way and pulled him out of his reverie.

“Do you need company, handsome?” said a woman; who appeared unexpectedly from one of the side alleys, in a soft tone.

As he observed her carefully, he noticed that she was an attractive young woman with a slender body, dressed in modest but delicate clothes, with fair skin and reddish hair, damp from the rain, falling towards her shoulders and covering part of her breasts. Although she tried to hide it with a smile, a certain tiredness was reflected in her eyes, as if she had not been sleeping properly for some time.

What was that young woman doing in this part of town? he thought. And the question came to him suddenly. These backstreets of the suburbs were characterized by being little traveled or almost desolate" "To tell the truth, it would be one of the last places in the whole city that a ********** would choose to carry on her profession. After observing her carefully, he realized that something about that young woman aroused a certain distrust in him, although he could not say with certainty what it was. In any case, his intuition warned him that something was not right:

“What's your name?” he asked sharply.

“For you, tonight I'm Candy” She answered, opening and closing her eyes sensually. “And you, handsome, what's your name?” she asked him, returning a beautiful smile as she approached him with a feline look.

The stranger remained silent, just staring at her.

She wore a long light-colored dress, with a tight corset that slimmed her waist and gave shape to a cleavage impossible to ignore. The ********** stood in a provocative pose in front of the young man and approached him, brushing his crotch with one hand. Then she reached around his shoulders and very subtly touched his lips with her own.

“Now that I see you up close, I wouldn't mind warming your bed tonight for half the price,” she whispered those words in his ear.

The stranger shuddered as he felt her warm breasts against his body. And his senses went crazy, impregnated with the lilac scent of her moist skin. Undoubtedly, a part of him wanted her intensely. He longed to grab her tightly by the waist and possess her right there in one of those filthy alleys.

Candy watched him out of the corner of her eye, unable to hide her curiosity.

“What bad luck for me, it seems that the gentleman who came to rescue me tonight, had his tongue eaten by mice!” commented the young woman and her lips formed a sarcastic smile, while she continued clinging to him by the neck without taking her eyes off him.

“What do you say?” “Do you agree to spend the night with me? Or don't you find me attractive enough?” “It's frustrating to talk to someone without looking straight into their eyes!” she added with a certain whimsical air. And in a delicate way, with her two hands she took his glasses by the silver frames that surrounded the lenses-, “they are strange but I like the way they look on you.” The young woman smiled, while she slid the glasses carefully until she removed them completely.

The stranger continued in silence. He knew he should stop the young woman from removing his glasses, but still he didn't stop her. Delighted by her beauty, he wished that the warmth of her company would allow him to forget even for a few moments how miserable he felt.

Candy looked straight into the young man's eyes and gasped, inadvertently dropping the glasses to the floor. As she stepped back, all the terror she felt at that precise moment was reflected on her face. The stranger's irises; in the dim light of the streetlights, glowed with an intense violet hue, and this gave his presence a menacing aspect. As if they were the glowing eyes of a nocturnal predator stalking its prey from the darkness. The young woman, frightened and paralyzed by fear, reacted impulsively and tried to get away from there in a fit of desperation.

“Wait a moment, I don't want to hurt you!” he shouted, while trying to hold her with his arms and searching in his head for the right words to calm her down. But the young woman managed to free herself anyway and ran away from there, running down the same street where she had appeared.

He remained motionless, watching her walk away until the figure of the young woman disappeared in the fog. Hundreds of thoughts churned in his mind, making him reflect for a few moments on how things had happened in that brief encounter with that mysterious young woman. And in the end, he blamed himself for allowing it to go so far. He remembered the same story repeated over and over again, but with the faces of different women from his past. With a sense of bitterness tightening in his chest, he bent down to pick up his glasses that were on the floor and put them on. Then he pulled up the collar of his coat to protect himself from the rain, and at that precise moment he realized that something important was missing...

His suspicions were right. The encounter with that woman had nothing to do with fate, far from it. Nothing in his life had ever happened that way, and neither this time his approach with her was an exception to the rule. He thought of the beautiful young woman. In the sweet perfum of her skin. On her soft lips. But after a few minutes had passed his thoughts seemed to clear. He understood then that he had to get to the bottom of the matter if he really wanted to find out who was behind this. Now, everything that had happened was very hilarious to him. Unable to contain himself he gave a deep laugh that echoed through the silent streets, and then continued walking down the same alley where she had disappeared.

The young woman ran through a gloomy passage without stopping, until the heel of one of her shoes broke, causing her to lose her balance. Once she managed to recover, she sat down on the wet ground and took off her shoes. After doing so, the young woman remained on the ground with her bare feet resting on the wet cobblestone. Her body was trembling frantically and this was not only due to the cold night air, but also to the feeling of fear that the encounter with the man had given her. In addition to this, she could not help but reproach herself for having accepted such a dangerous assignment, which had left her exposed as if she were a true novice. Allowing her emotions to take control of her actions was an unacceptable mistake for someone who made theft her profession. And that was why it was so difficult for her to acknowledge the fact that she had made that very beginner's mistake.

"Who was that man?" "Couldn't he be human?" "Or shouldn't he be human at all?" she thought. These questions went off in her head. But try as she might to find a logical explanation for her encounter with this fellow, she could not come up with one.

She had grown up on the streets of Nordham as a child. And as she grew up, she learned the hard way about the existence of certain hidden strata in the city's underworld, too dangerous to deal with. With whom it was best to keep a certain distance if one wished to preserve one's life or sanity. The fear that invaded her was for this reason, a part of her believed that she had transgressed the boundary, had meddled with what she shouldn't have.

"You must be wary of even the simplest looking jobs"

"You must always foresee even the worst of possible situations, because those we consider improbable, usually come true"

"There are no sums of money, luxury items or precious jewels valuable enough to put life or liberty at risk," she thought, as she repeated such principles over and over to herself. Those were the only valuable pieces of advice she had ever received from her father, and keeping them always in mind had served her well in surviving the harsh life on the streets. Or that was until one damn day, driven by her growing ego and pride, she decided to set aside that advice and ended up taking jobs that actually challenged her skills.

"I would from now on accept the kind of dangerous contracts that even the most experienced thieves in town refuse to accept, even if they were offered hefty sums of money for it," she had thought naively. With this she would get the fame she deserved. She could be crowned one of the best thieves in all of Nordham, and she would gain the respect of everyone. Hopefully in the near future she would retire on top, thus being able to buy herself the life she deserved.

Suddenly, memories that were lodged in her unconscious came to light. Those recovered memories were directly related to that man dressed in black. She now remembered having seen that type of men before on only two occasions. One of those memories was from a long time ago, when she was just a child. She lived with her father in a tenement and one of these men had passed by her when she was playing in the street with another girl of the same age. Although she was very small, she remembered the feeling of terror that had invaded her, and also the fear that the mere presence of that man caused in all the people who were there.

The second time, on the other hand, had been only two years ago in an inn in the city. Two of them were located in the darkest and farthest corner from the other tables. They wore on their faces the typical black glasses with which they hide their eyes and did not seem to talk too much between them. They only exchanged a few words every now and then while drinking. All the people who were there seemed uneasy with the presence of both of them, but they disguised it by talking loudly, laughing and making meaningless jokes. Everything was going normally until a group of ruffians entered the bar. After a few minutes, they too became aware of their presence. Perhaps stimulated by alcohol or simple stupidity, the group of drunks began to harass them, seeking to start a fight repeatedly. This was until one of the men in black; tired of the aggression, hit three of them with the butt of his revolver, leaving them unconscious there in the blink of an eye. A fourth ruffian, seeing his comrades humiliated, rushed forward with a dagger in hand, but before he could try anything, he too was already unconscious on the ground with a broken jaw. The others who had been left standing watching everything that had happened, preferred to escape in a cowardly way rather than confront them. After this, the two men in black paid what they owed and left without further ado, before the uneasy gaze of the people who were there without daring to say anything to them.

Very few things were known about them, since all their activities were carried out in an atmosphere of great secrecy. But the common people said that they were demons who usurped other people's bodies. Others maintained that they were black alchemists, connoisseurs of forbidden knowledge. Or they simply referred to them as crows of bad omen, warlocks or hunters of death, since they were always observed lurking in cemeteries and were accused of using corpses for terrible and inexplicable purposes. They also seemed to be interested in performing those tasks of supernatural characteristics that most ordinary people could not perform or would not even dare to attempt. It was rumored that they were part of a secret Order of the king, and because of this, they had also been observed lending their services to the city guard in certain matters. The common people commented that they had certain privileges or liberties. Among them, they were attributed the possibility of killing if they thought it necessary for the effective fulfillment of their missions. Another rumor that I had heard in the streets was that you could hire their services if you had the kind of money necessary to do so. Although very few people understood what the rumors were referring to. The truth is that it was very rare to see them in the city and much rarer was to run into a death hunter in broad daylight. However; when this exceptionally happened, it could be observed that they were always armed, using their typical dark clothes. Moving most of the time in small groups, and only exchanged a few words with those strangers who were related in some way or another to their affairs. To tell the truth, their reputation was worse than that of the king's official executioners. Most people feared them and shunned them at all costs as if they were carriers of the plague, preferring always to keep at a safe distance from them. She, for her part, had always thought that all the stories told about death hunters were the result of people's imagination and stupidity. But, having seen right into the eyes of one of them, she was sure that they were not normal humans.

Although she considered herself a professional thief, she had not acted according to plan. Now she feared that the hunter of death was behind her steps. These thoughts only increased the fear she felt, for this reason she immediately stood up and searched inside one of the hidden pockets of her dress, where she hid the pendant she had successfully stolen from him. As her fingers came into contact with the cold metal, she felt a deep relief. In spite of everything that had happened, she had succeeded in accomplishing her goal. She brought the necklace closer to her face to see it in more detail and noticed that it was a very peculiar one, made entirely of silver. The locket in the shape of an inverted triangle had strange carved symbols, and it was also surrounded by seven snakes engraved in great detail. One of them was much larger than the others, and sealed the contents of the object by leaning with its mouth open to display its fangs. On one side of the amulet, there was a red blood stain on one of the symbols. She wanted to clean it with some of the fabric of her dress, but no matter how hard she tried, it was impossible to remove it.

Suddenly heard footsteps coming from the next street, and when she perceived that they were approaching her, she interrupted everything she was doing. Although she felt very frightened, she understood that she had at least a few minutes left and she had to act quickly. She searched for a suitable place to hide the pendant, and after a moment, decided on one of the holes in the wall facing the alley where she was. After doing so, she hid in the dark porch of an abandoned house and there she waited expectantly until the figure of a man appeared a few meters away, staggering from one side to the other as if he was struggling to stay on his feet. That man, quite drunk, threw a bottle towards the house for no reason, and the object hit one of the walls close to the place where she was hiding. Despite this, she remained motionless as the glass bounced off her, grazing her shoulder and part of her face. After a few minutes of waiting, the man continued to walk as best he could until he tripped over something that caused him to fall to the ground and lay there in a state of total unconsciousness.

The young woman waited cautiously for a few minutes until she got tired of waiting and left her hiding place. In the alley she retrieved the pendant she had hidden and once again with the necklace in her hands, she decided that the best thing to do was to take refuge in her rented room. There she would wait until daylight to deliver her assignment and claim her well-deserved reward. As she made her way to the hotel where she had rented a room for the night, she thought of demanding double the payment from that fanatical hierophant of the Golden Flame. Who, with clever trickery, had managed to seduce her into accepting such a risky job. She had accepted for a sum of money that she had considered very interesting. But now, having already fulfilled her objective, she was in a different position, in which she could take a greater advantage, that is what she would do without hesitation:

"What could be the real interest that hierophant had in the silver pendant?"

"What if its value was much greater than she thought?"

"Perhaps that unpleasant man was playing a trick on her?"

"Perhaps it had some kind of historical value that she didn't know about?" she thought. And faced with these questions, the young woman came to the conclusion that she should corroborate its value on the black market before making any hasty decisions.

When she arrived at the hotel, she quickly climbed the stairs without making any noise, managing to avoid being seen by the front desk attendant. Once she entered her room, she took off the wet dress she was wearing and in just her underwear lay down on the bed. She still felt upset, as if something inside her had been affected. When she closed her eyes she still saw the image of that man watching her with his fierce eyes. It was not the first time that she had seduced her victims to achieve her goals. In fact, many were those who had fallen under her deceptions and manipulations. She had always boasted of her coldness to act indifferently to men, but now, something was different. On the one hand she felt fear that this young man was actually a supernatural being who might seek a vile way to take revenge on her, making pay for her offense with her own life. But also a deep part of herself was sure that he was not entirely evil, although she was ashamed to admit it, she longed for a new encounter with him. The possibility of seeing him again dragged her into a whirlwind of images of them together as lovers, kissing passionately. This made her hate herself and she felt utterly stupid as well.

"What if he really was a demon, and this thing she felt was not something real, but the result of a spell or some kind of enchantment?" she thought. At first it seemed somewhat absurd, but after a moment's meditation she thought it might be a possibility since she had never felt anything like this for a man, let alone someone she had only had one encounter with. After turning over in her head a thousand possibilities, she fell asleep in a deep sleep.

                               Thank you very much for reading my story, dear "Sons of Nox"...

                 If you like the first three chapters so far, don't forget to leave a like, a comment or a follow,

                 it will motivate me to continue writing.

                                                                      See you then! Greetings!