It was just an ordinary day in the city of Kristein, people busy with their work, roads trembling by the sounds of tramp trains, shiny tall buildings reflecting the sunlight on the streets, and people begging for money on the expensive roads implicating their presence. Damark was also one of the these working busy people, who worked tirelessly for their companies, and now he was running..
Damark was late for his work today, he was afraid that if he arrived late, the important meeting will already be over by the time he reached. The sound of his thumping boots attracted the attention of many people who saw him running. Damark was not in the mood to worry about such things, he was constantly looking at his watch, believing that the time would pass slowly by his gaze. But that was not true.
He took a tram which where pretty common in Kristein. He believed that rather than getting stuck in the traffic, he would take tram over bus despite the cost being high.
The shrilling sound from the retarding tires of the tram announced the people that they have reached the location. Damark quickly passed over 60 Yos coin over to the conductor, and ran like a lion was about to eat him.
He entered his office and quickly reported to the attendance record. After passing through a lot of biometric test, he entered the meeting room, only to hear the line -
"-with this, our meeting is over". Damark was taken aback by hearing this, he quickly stepped back from the main door of the conference room. He was sweating not from running but from the consequences that he will face after this incident. His heart was beating and the blue patterned tie was vibrating with it, he had clenched his hand to maintain his composure.
'creak ' The door opened slowly and the guests came out of the door they were still pondering about the things that they had talked about in the meeting. They ignored Damark thinking him as a staff worker and left. While Damark hearing them walking out of the door made his mouth dry.
Just after a short while, a elder man with specs and round figure wearing a black suit trying to look young, came out from the room. This was Damark's Boss.
He saw Damark standing there and his eye under the transparent window of specs turned red with popping veins, he shouted
"Damark!!... Where were you!? The entire time I had to speak in the place of you just to maintain an image of our prestigious company!"
"Do you even have any idea what have you done??"
"This will be recorded as 'demerit' in your record book!"
Damark was even scared to utter a single word, he only had a scared look on his face. But hearing his boss's words about demerits Damark was even more terrified.
Demerits were a new system that the companies of Kristein had introduced where if an employee is found making mistake, that mistake will be recorded as a demerit and with a particular amount of demerit company can degrade the position as well as the salary of any employee.
Damark had accumulated 3 demerits points over the span of 4 years of his work, this meant that the company can lower his salary by half of the present salary.
The boss continued, "Answer to me what was the reason that you are so late!?"
Damark paused, slowly collecting himself back he said in a low voice "The gate of my home was blocked by government officials saying that they had encountered a special case...", he was talking tremblingly.
The boss said "Enough of your lies! Go back to work and collect your badge from the conference table", he said in a irritated voice and left.
Damark was not able to look straight, he was looking down out of shame although he had not committed any mistake deliberately but what can be done. He walked into the conference room. The room was lit up well with small green plants in the corner of this white coloured room. The ceiling was covered with a silvery material having white colour lights randomly blinking through the ceiling. Damark ignore all this and approached the table. He saw that a small round green coloured badge was lying down on the seat next to the President's seat. This badge was to highlight the person who will be presenting their future ideas. He picked it up and just when he was about to leave the room, he saw something shining out of place behind the plant vase in one of the corner of the room. He looked what was behind it and saw that it was just a shattered mirror, he thought to himself, 'what is a mirror doing here? I remember there was no use of such a mirror in the meeting '
He picked it up and inspected it, a line was written on the back of the broken mirror.
[ A Quarrel Moon]
Damark found it strange as he had never heard of anything such as this. He thought 'Maybe it's a part from Lady Rusty's pocket mirror, and threw it away when she found that if was broken.', he didn't worry about it much as he was already late and threw it back into the dust bin. He left the room and starting working as per his ordinary schedule.
Later that day...
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
Damark saw lady Rusty who was known for her beauty in the office, he approached her and inquired her about the mirror piece, but to his shock, she denied to all his assumptions and rather said that no one threw something like that before or after the meeting. Damark was quite taken aback by this, he bide farewell to her and quickly went back to look for the mirror in the conference room.
But.. there was no mirror in the dust bin.. Damark didn't want to believe this, so he looked back behind the vase but still there was nothing to be found. He had chills sound his spin, and wanted to ask the janitor about this but just then the departure bell rang. Damark thought that he would inquire the rest the next day. So, he went back to his home and lied down on his bed to harness the comfort of his life. Actually, he woke up pretty early today but he was interrupted by the loud noises of government officials outside his gate. When he checked what was happening, he found out that there was another case of 'Limbeat'. Limbeat was the new term that described a condition when suddenly a person fell down and he would be almost dead with only alive by his slow pumping heart, this meant that his heart pumping would slow to nearly 1 beat per hour. This may sound crazy at first but even with new technologies, scientists were unable to identify how they were alive. Thus the name was given "Limbeat", which is limited beat. Such people where kept under surveillance or in secret chambers to keep an eye upon their health. This has started only 2 months ago and till now more than 200 people around the world are affected. There is no sign of them changing even a slightly bit. Well, Damark had no idea about this so he was shocked by the sight of this in morning. Now he was searching and reading about it on the internet. Damark lived in a quarter house which was given to him by the company after earning merit points. It was a quarter of 4 rooms with a room for sleeping and working and 1 room for dinning and the other two for kitchen and bathrooms. Damark was somewhat lazy and somewhat discipline, he had arranged his room properly except his working table. It was a mess but it didn't matter much so he was lazy in that term.
The bright screen was luminating in room from the computer.
[A 70-year old man found on road - Limbeat]
[Is Limbeat a new disease?]
[14-year old found unconscious in play ground - Limbeat]
....
And what not more, there were hundreds of articles already written about it. He was scrolling through all of it, only when he found.
[Today, we are annoucing the launch of a new machine - Linker]
He hovered the pointer to it and clicked it. The company of Weries were releasing a new machine which allowed people to experience sudden relief from all their stressed, their mind would suddenly be free from any sought of thought and they will feel as if they are born just now. Damark was stressed out from today's day and after experiencing a incident which costed him a demerit point, he was frustrated. He wanted to buy the machine but it was way to costly, "maybe I will too be able to buy it someday... Or... Maybe not..." He was always ambitious from childhood but life has other plans for you, and he was here working for his SunRay company which built futuristic furniture for their customers. He looked at his wallet, it had 900 Yos left with him which he would use to eat and travel to work. The currency was divided into 6 sections from highest to lowest:
Tris-Dus-Perp-Rumb-Cron-Yos
400 Yos = 1 Cron
200 Cron = 1 Rumb
100 Rumb = 1 Prep
50 Prep = 1 Dus
20 Dus = 1 Tris
Damark's sky was only upto Prep, beyond that was not under his imagination. Only 3% of the total population had money above Prep. This was because most of the work could easily be handled upto Preps.
Damark was feeling bored so he decided that he will watch some TV shows or maybe some conspiracy theories. He liked mysteries. The not so very big Tv screen turned on and he lied down on his bed comfortably to watch any new conspiracy.
[The conspiracy of Black Note]
[The conspiracy of Quarrel Moon]
[The conspiracy of Limbeat]
Damark's eyes widened when he saw the name 'Quarrel Moon', this was the line written on the mirror which he encountered today. He played it.
A man was standing in a very dark room with a torch in his hand and was flashing the torch towards a mirror above him, which reflected the light to lighten him.
A very eerie vibe can be felt from him, started speaking:
"So, my dear viewers here you are watching this video with a suprised face. I know why are you surprised and I know why are you not surprised. You have encountered the 'Object' which was meant for you by fate.", he gave a creepy smile. "I know you all saw the same line on the 'Object' and here you are clicking this. You want to hear the story of Quarrel Moon?", he lifted one of his eyebrow saying this. "Then, let's start, once upon a time a lady lived in a cottage house which was located in the middle of nowhere, she lived with her only child who was only 5 year old. She was forced out of her town because she had touched something which she shouldn't have. She was very happy but also very sad because she could now live alone with her son without worrying about anything but was this true? The son was only 5 year old so, he didn't annoyed her much but with his age, his curiosity will lead him into the forest and from the forest to the town, where there are majestic beasts in the skin of gentlemen residing. She didn't want this to happen. So she always scared her son from going out and live in the house.
Winter passed by and summer came and again winter came, after 6 cycles of winter and summer her son was 11 years old. He was very energetic and would often want to run away into the wilds while his mother had gone for food. But, he had many stories engraved in his mind about the scary monsters in the wild that he threw away such ideas. One day, while his mother didn't come home after the night he was worried, so he went ahead into the wilds, only to find that a red boulder was shining in the full moon. He went close to it and saw the hands of someone on the boulder, he thought that a person was sleeping here.... But... There was only the hand. He was scared he started running away, but due to his unawareness of his surroundings he lost the way and kept running here and there. He saw a figure on a high ground ahead of him and he ran towards him thinking of asking the way. But little did he know the person was no other than the one who had killed his mother, the man attacked the boy with his only left broken piece of mirror from his pocket watch. The boy tried to run and hide but he was caught. Only to the little knowledge of the man that shouting at night would arouse the wolves... The pack of wolves attacked the man and blood spilled everywhere in the light of the full moon which made the white stainless light of moon to become stained 'Quarrel Moon'. The wolves ate the man and now where looking at the boy..."
The story teller stopped and looked at the camera, "Will the boy die? Or will he be able to run" he pointed his finger towards the camera. Damark already terrified halfway the story suddenly felted the man's finger poked his heart. Damark started shouting, he was scared and was screaming out of his lungs.
He fainted. And after unknown period of time... When he opened his eyes..