Chapter-3 The shadow.

From behind the ruins of a collapsed building, through a stone path, he continued walking. Broken and fallen many houses, countless buildings. In the killing silence of the darkness, the howling of dogs flowed like a cold whisper.

After walking a little further, hearing some sound from somewhere, the figure looked toward that direction. Dogs were slowly tearing apart the rotten corpse of a dead child. It seemed as though they were sharing among themselves the lump of flesh they had obtained. Like a common sight on a battlefield, he ignored it and began walking forward again.

In the stillness of the night, near a small hut, two soldiers were warming themselves by a fire. One of them put his hand into his pocket and took out a cigarette packet from inside.

“This is finished, isn’t it? There’s only one left. If only there was one more whisky, we could have been more lively.”

The soldier who was leaning on his gun, half-asleep, replied lazily,

“Oh, I forgot that.”

Taking a cigarette from the packet, he lit it in the fire burning outside of the hut. Placing the filter end between his lips, he drew in a small cloud of smoke and blew it out, muttering something.

“Didn’t I tell you to take the necessary things? Now it’s finished. What will we do to get warm?”

The sleepy soldier replied,

“Isn’t one inside keeping it warm? After he comes out, you go and warm yourself.”

Blowing out the next puff of smoke, the other one took a long breath and then slowly said,

“Now that’s the only comfort left.”

From a small hut behind them, a faint female voice was heard. From inside it, cries and loud laughter could be heard.

Through that gap came a woman’s cry in a loud scream:

“Save me!!!”

Right behind it, another voice with authority followed:

“My dear, he is celebrating inside.”

Crushing the nearly finished cigarette under his foot, the soldier who had been warming himself slowly stood up.

“I’ll just go relieve myself and come. Otherwise, when my turn comes, it might become a problem.”

Thinking about the pleasurable moment he was about to receive inside, he gave a crooked smile and disappeared into the darkness.

Inside that small hut, the beast that had been licking its prey with a drooling tongue heard the sound of the door opening. Cursing her fate, lying there submitting her body to be licked by a dog, that woman’s hopeless eyes turned toward the door that had opened.

The blue-eyed woman looked at the figure standing before the light. In the light of the burning fire torch, she saw the face of that figure — thick grown-down hair, brown-colored eyes, a face without hair follicles, a long and lean face, very attractively handsome. He was wearing black boots, black pants, and a long coat, with a white shirt inside.

The moment she saw him, something began to surge inside her. Was it fear? Was it hope? Or some other feeling? Her breasts suddenly tightened and felt firm, as if overwhelmed with emotion — what was it? Had the one who came entered to protect her… or not?

Her mind became completely confused.

Round red blood — no, much more blood — in the light of the burning torch she saw it very clearly.

Among those who had taken her away from the refugee camp saying, “We have found your child…”

One of them — that person was holding the severed head of the one without a body at the doorway. It did not look like it had simply been cut off; rather, it seemed as though the head had been torn off from the body. From it, bright red small drops were falling continuously.

The man who was tormenting her was terrified when he saw his friend's headless body. Her eyes remained fixed on that form.Those helpless blue eyes found all of it unbearable. Those eyes remained locked for a few moments with the shining brown eyes.

A drop of blood, forming into a round bead, was about to fall to the ground — “click” — it fell and splattered on the floor. Even then, the soldier who had been assaulting the blue-eyed woman brutally was still on top of her. He looked toward the man standing at the doorway. At that moment, he felt a sharp pain in his lower abdomen.

As if all his pleasures had suddenly vanished, thinking he should sit a little longer, he looked down at his stomach — and then he understood two things. A hand had pierced through his back and come out through his abdomen. That same hand had also pierced through the woman’s abdomen.

As fear struck him like a tsunami, he looked toward the doorway — the man was no longer there. In the next moment, he felt something sliding down inside him. The handsome shadow slowly pulled his right hand out from their bodies. He flung aside the intestines that had been caught in his grip.

As a stream began to flow from the cavity in his stomach, with his left hand — with the force of someone plucking off the head of an ant — he tore off the soldier’s head. Then, slowly, with his blood-soaked hands, He stroked her cheeks and, looking at the final fading light that had formed in her eyes, he smiled. Slowly, he closed her eyes. Even on her ash-unstained naked lips, there was a smile.

Leaving the two dead bodies there, he walked toward the doorway. The intoxicating scent of blood filled the entire place; his feet became still. After smelling his fingers, he slowly placed them into his mouth and licked them.

At that moment, smoke-like vapor began to rise from

 all over his body. Through the strands of his long hair, he turned and looked back. Those merciless bodies lay floating in a pool of blood…