Nefastus Formido {Ateez FF}

1

Imagination of the man living in a rich surgeons' family is truly blurred and simple. His perception on the unseen, unexplained things is not existing. Straight facts being forcefully injected into his mind by his parents and other relatives stole that ability irremediably.

Consciousness never being questioned by him becomes a basic tool, can be easily manipulated by the wandering around Dark Abyss. It is funny how simply you can control someone who have never been dreaming about reaching what is unbelievable, just because they are not aware of it. This is what was about to happen to Park Seonghwa, older son of the famous Korean surgeon — Park Jongyeol.
   ~•~
Young and eager son was in love with pianos. Mother planted it in his mind during the early childhood, she was a self-taught pianist herself. Being aware of her husband's huge aversion to art and classical music, she was secretly giving little Seonghwa lessons. Everything in order to let the artistic flow endure in the pragmatic household.

She also managed to make her younger son Hyun the artist. He turned out to be an insanely talented painter, his works were done with a sure hand.

However, Jongyeol had it in only for Seonghwa, ignoring the Hyun's promising hobby. Being under his constant pressure, Hwa decided to leave the wealthy household and figure out his life again in the capital of Korea. Despite his parents' denial, once he turned to an adult, he bought a huge apartment on Hannam the Hill and moved there, full of hope for a better life and ability of chasing dreams freely.

Since then, he only heard about his parents' divorce and Hyun's relocation to France. Alas, not so long after settling in the new dwelling Seonghwa got the news about his father's death.

He took it lightly, emotional bond with Jongyeol was weakened by his negative attitude, furthermore Seonghwa wasn't the sensitive type of person. However, he was taken by zinger getting a call from the notary about the family's mansion being written down for him.

Surprisingly, father still pinned faith on him despite leaving their home and being defected with the love for art. Not trying to overthink the grounds of this decision, Seonghwa left the apartment in order to check on the condition of the abandoned estate.
~•~
"Well, well... nothing feels like home they say." Seonghwa sighed ironically with an undertone, when a huge adorned, black gateway started revealing slowly from behind the low-rise prominence. Mansion was built on a hill, not so far away from Seoul. Yet still, it was well hidden from the bustling city — road guiding to it has been carved through the dense forest.

Parking in front of the dark, marble stairs leading to the mahogany double doors, Seonghwa took a deep breath. Spaciousness and silence of the huge house was always making him anxious. Now when he had to enter it alone, feeling was twice as strong. Turning off the engine he once more measured facade of the building with a doubtful sight.

"Take it easy you damn scaredy-cat." He scolded himself leaving the navy blue chrome Tesla and going up the stairs. Cold wind swiped pecks of black hair from his forehead as he reached the door handle.

"Feeling somehow unwelcome by that." He snorted trying to stay calm, then unlocked the door. Musty, mildew smell hit him from inside the sleazy hall.

"Holy shit, it looks like no one was there for years not just few weeks..." Seonghwa coughed few times, amount of miasmic dust was awful. Amidst the unpleasant first experience, he decided to check only the most crucial part of the house — the attic. He was told by the notary to seek for important documents connected to the mansion's ownership.

"Cleaning can wait, there's too much to work on in here." Seonghwa directed his steps through the wide corridor. Due to pervasive silence he could hear his own heartbeat. It was so fast like if he just ended a marathon. He looked around trying to distract himself from dismay.

Stunning imagery of fantastic creatures, angels and demons, was hanging on the tapestries decorating the walls. At least father allowed Hyun to hang them in the house, to not be in need of buying decorations.

Jongyeol was awfully tightfisted. He wanted to scrimp on everything at all costs. Probably that was the only reason of showing mercy for Hyun and his art.

Seonghwa sighed quietly, trying to not associate everything around him with the negative side of his father. He was dead, so showing some more respect towards him would be appropriate.

Unsettling feeling accompanied him more or less throughout the whole route around the house, going upstairs to the attic it raised rapidly. Seonghwa couldn't understand why he felt so uncomfortable — it was by far his own home where he spent his whole childhood.

Attic enshrouded in semidarkness was cluttered with a lot of easels and canvases left there by Hyun before he moved to France. He always wanted to life in the Capital of Art, sadly at the same time he totally cut off any contact with Hwa and other relatives. At first, he didn't even know that Hyun moved to Paris.

Now the image of all these abandoned tools was reminding him about the poor relations of their family. Everything in that damn mansion turned out to be just depressing and dark.

Behind the easels covered with dust sheets there was a bunch of cardboard boxes — one of them signed with the word "documents". Seonghwa turned on the flashlight not being able to clearly see the papers and started browsing through them.

"Bingo." He whispered seeing the stuff he was looking for. Taking the file out, a blinding flash hit his eyes. Being confused, he peeked into the box once more, furrowing his brows once he spotted an old looking book with weird metal ornaments adorning verges of its cover.

He threw the file onto the ground next to the box totally forgetting about it, and carefully took out the strange volume. He went closer to the entrance of the attic to catch some light and take a better look at the book.

It was very nicely done even though it was old. Covers were made of dark brown leather, already teared off in few spots. In the middle there was an oval-shaped black obsidian, probably the cause of a dazzling light that surprised Seonghwa a while ago. Shabby cover was the only flaw — taking a look inside, pages were in immaculate condition.

"Maybe I'll take it back to the apartment?..." he thought shutting the book close between his hands, curiosity was tempting him to read what's written in there. Finally, deciding to take it, he went down the steep stairs.

Carrying the book under the arm, Seonghwa couldn't see the black mineral started to resemble the dark depths more than just a beautiful obsidian.