Several disappearances and unexplained events have been registered shorty after the commercialization of an ancient statue linked to some legends from a mysterious place called "Reich der Finsternis" in eastern Germany, there is no know route leadin...
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Ghosts of the past
The night was slowly drawing to a close, raindrops dampening everything around them and mingling with the icy breeze. After completing her task, Liz hoped that Bernard had escaped the fearsome clutches of Holzmann's executioner. With that thought in mind, she left Nick to look after Anika and set out to find her companion. She returned to the small, abandoned residential area, her face and straight hair soaked by the rain, but she didn't slow down. She passed the hut where they had sheltered earlier; the horses were still foraging nearby.
Knowing that shouting his name or calling him over the radio could be a death sentence, she decided to continue her search without using the flashlight, relying solely on the pale lunar glow piercing through the dense autumn clouds. She battled the desperate urge to find her friend safe and sound, but found no trace of life in the ominous atmosphere of the forest of doom, where the intense green of the trees melted into the deep darkness of its undergrowth.
Liz came to an abrupt halt when she spotted something scattered near a barrel of tar, its pungent and suffocating stench assaulting her senses. It didn't take long for her to recognize it as a motionless human body.
Her heart pounded so violently she thought her chest might burst; the worst scenario she could imagine loomed in her mind. As she approached the corpse, a crushing, invisible force seemed to pull her down. She fell to her knees, resting her hands on the damp ground as the mud clung to her palms.
"Bernard..." Liz moaned in despair, refusing to accept the truth.
She inspected the face of the deceased more closely; a wave of sorrow crashed over her. It was him. Her partner had fallen trying to protect them and the mission. Holding back the urge to scream in anguish, Liz broke into tears, clinging to her friend's lifeless body in the vain hope that he would suddenly wake up and smile at her.
Then, the last memory she had of Bernard's family flooded her mind. Bernard and his wife Vanessa had been celebrating their son Jayden's sixth birthday and had invited several of his friends from school. The little boy, who was very fond of Liz for all the times she had babysat and played with him, had asked her to join the party. She surprised him with a Spider-Man cake that her mother had baked. And it was Liz who, at the moment the boy blew out the candles to make a wish, took a photograph of the family, capturing the beautiful relationship between the three of them.
During the party, one of the children, in that innocent and sincere way that only a child can have, had told Liz that she was very pretty. The unexpected tenderness of the comment had made her smile, reminding her for a brief moment of the innocence that still existed in the world—an innocence that now seemed far away. All of that now felt like a part of another life, a family unity shattered by the schemes of the Holzmanns. What were they going to say when they heard the tragic news? she wondered tearfully.
Max's abandonment, Chris's betrayal, her own state of impurity, and the loss of several German officers had all affected her deeply, but as she contemplated the devastating scene before her, she felt that the worst had already happened. She gazed into the forest with blurry vision; the light seemed to bleed through the tears clouding her eyes. She found no reason to keep fighting, and she wasn't even sure she wanted to go on living. Her gaze dropped to her pistol, which now felt heavy in her hand, as if it were made of lead.
