Valley of Shadows and Roses | ONC 2024

Chapter 13

Now let's go back a few days for those wondering what happened to brave Adam. Surely everyone realized that there was no happy ending waiting for him.

Adam left to kill the Shadow Lord and free or at least avenge Princess Luna. He entered the Dark forest full of shadows, full of hope that Princess Luna herself had put into him. I can't let her down, he was telling himself. He repeated those words throughout his journey.

As he walked through the forest, he tried to be inconspicuous. He was just an ordinary pilgrim traveling from one city to another, looking around for clues that would lead him to the Shadow Lord.

Adam wandered through the Dark forest for several days. Finding the Shadow Lord was more difficult than he had expected. There was no sign of him, only trees, fog and shadows following him on every step. Gradually he began to lose his mind. He heard voices. They sounded in his head. They sounded everywhere. Adam changed his mind. He wanted to go back, but he was wandering in circles. He got lost. He could not see where he was in a thick fog. There was no turning back. The air there distorted his senses. He saw things that weren't there, or so he thought. That forest is playing with my senses, he kept repeating to himself. It's just playing with me. It was impossible to tell when it was day and when it was night. A canopy of branches hid both the sky and the sunlight.

"Adam... Adam... Adam..." the voices called his name. "Adam... Adam..." they called him.

Adam tried not to listen to that voice. He wanted to run away from it, but in which direction to run when it was coming from everywhere?

"Adam... Adam... Adam..."

And then he saw it, the most beautiful ghost that ever existed. Before him stood Princess Luna. She was beautiful, like an angel. She was illuminated by the heavenly glow. Her white dress fluttered in the breeze. Her long, golden hair flowed over her shoulders.

"Adam, you found me," said the princess's ghost. "Save me, Adam."

"But how?" he asked her.

Luna held out her hand to him. "Follow me," she said.

Adam knew he shouldn't, but he couldn't control himself anymore. He couldn't tell a dream from reality, so he took the hand she offered and followed her wherever she led him.

Water began to rise around his ankles. He stopped for a moment, but Luna immediately drew his gaze back to her. He couldn't tear his eyes away from her eyes. They hypnotized him. There was a kind of spark in them.

The water was already up to his knees, up to his waist, but Adam ignored it and concentrated only on the princess pulling him ever deeper. His head sank below the surface. His lungs were filling with water. He couldn't breathe. Luna cupped his face in her hands. It looked like she was about to kiss him when she started laughing. Despite the water that surrounded them, he heard her laugh. It sounded in his head.

And suddenly it wasn't her. The ghost showed its true form. Adam tried to float to the surface, but it held him fast. It dragged him deeper and deeper to the bottom.

Allegedly, in the moments before the end, your whole life will pass before your eyes. Adam could only see how all his friends were telling him that what he was about to do was crazy. They were right. The shadows are much more dangerous than he thought. Except it was too late to find out. You can only learn from your mistakes if you are lucky enough to survive them. Adam didn't have that luck.

A black, intangible ghost, pretending to be Princess Luna, pulled Adam down to the very bottom. He couldn't breathe. His body was writhing in a death convulsion. His vision blurred. And it was dark.