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Prologue
The Message
Snow fell slowly over the Kolsay Park region that night.
Silence reigned over those lands frozen by the long winter, as if the slightest sound was a provocation to nature. And yet, despite a cold capable of freezing the heart of the trees, a figure moved slowly but defiantly across the shores of the great lake.
He was a middle-aged man, not incredibly old despite a clear deterioration that made him look much older than he really was. Even so, due to the darkness, it was difficult to determine what his real age might be.
The darkness of the night had already devoured him when he finally reached his destination, and the man fell to his knees in the snow and mud on the shore of the lake. He raised a weary gaze to the sky, as if he was trying to see something beyond the dark clouds that hid the stars.
But strangely, he was smiling.
He didn't mind his pants getting wet from the icy water, and he no longer cared about the snowflakes swirling in his hair and on his clothes.
He was smiling as tears of joy streamed down his cheeks, his unkempt beard not having been shaven for days.
A frank and sincere laugh burst from his cold sore covered lips. It was a laugh of happiness, like that of a father laughing at a joke of his young son, or like the laughter of someone hugging a loved one he had not seen for a long time.
"I guess this is it," he said, smiling.
He slowly sat up and stopped laughing, but did not manage to wipe the smile from his lips. With his hands trembling on the verge of freezing, he began to take off the warm red coat he was wearing. Not only his coat, but also his vest and warm wool sweater. One by one, he shed all his clothes, like a snake shedding its old skin, until he was naked. Some of his clothes were left on the shore, while some it floated away in the current of the lake. But he didn't care.
He wouldn't need them anymore. He would not come back.
He stared into the darkness for a few seconds and took a long breath. When he exhaled, he felt the cold leave his body. A new warmth filled every pore of his skin. He got down on his knees again and, in the darkness, tried to see his reflection in the water. It was so dark he couldn't see anything. It didn't matter. He knew the expression on his face in that moment.
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"Record message," he said.
He took a deep breath and kneeling before the icy water soaking his naked body began a strange message, that sounded more like a prayer.
"I wasn't planning on leaving a message, but it would be a bit stupid and selfish of me if I didn't. You are my best friend and I don't expect you to understand this decision but, please don't look for me. I don't want you or anyone else, to waste resources looking for me. I choose this of my own free will.
"My life was not bad, and I am happy that I had the opportunity to enjoy so many things... To have met you and that we shared so many adventures... I think I'm going to miss your wife's cooking." He laughed sincerely a moment, then continued.
"But… I no longer want to wake up every morning and see the world as we have turned it. There are many beautiful things still in this world, but we choose to close our eyes to that beauty, because the sight of our own mistakes is too painful to accept. B-because it is easier to live in a bubble of fantasy, full of vulgarities, than to accept ourselves. We are nothing but dust in the wind.
"I-I decided that I would not close my eyes to that beauty, because when we do, we are as alive as we are dead… and there is nothing here for me anymore, my friend. Nothing."
"We are not what we perceive… we live believing that what we… W-we close the mirror of our soul by filling it with virtual things and empty to justify the value of our own existence and as a way of evading our own insignificance in the universe. Our own fatalism is our own consensual ignorance… T-there is nothing here."
As if glowing scarlet veins snaked across his skin, his whole body began to emit a faint glow.
He swallowed to regain his composure.
"They will say I was a madman, but what greater madness than that of a species that seeks its own destruction. A species that loves that which it hates, that hates that which it should love, that awakens each day only to fall into the lethargy of its own decay.
"We simply live to the sound of a meaningless symphony, in the infinite emptiness of a mind that cannot hear itself…
"I don't want to be part of that. I want to be part of this. So, I'm going back to where we all came from. I'm going home. Live long and be Happy Amir. Bye, buddy.
"End of message… " He gestured with his right hand, pointing into the darkness.
He slowly sat up and let his lungs fill up once more with the icy air, while the mists of the lake slowly advanced in his direction. He walked several steps deeper into the frozen mud and advanced towards the water until it almost covered half of his body.
Again, he smiled and felt tears running down his cheeks.
"I'm on my way home. I'm sorry if I kept you waiting."
Those were Sergey Komarov's last words, before he was devoured by a sickly red glow, borne from some cosmic well beyond understanding.
Everything was quick and, like the flash of a shooting star in the firmament, there was no more pain or contradictions in his mind.
It wasn't more than a few seconds and everything went out again, leaving only darkness. There was no scream. There were no more tears. Only silence reigned again.
The snow, like a ghostly witness and indiscreet accomplice, continued to fall, covering the final traces of Sergey Komarov's life on earth.
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