HEARTS IN DARKNESS: WAKING UP

[yourkeepers]

You wake in darkness.

At first, it doesn't occur to you as abnormal. The lights in a few areas of the house do dim as nightfall comes. The gardens, especially, plunge into the natural hues of evening and night. But it doesn't take you long to realize that this is different.

The darkness is intense, much thicker than you've ever seen, and it consumes everything. Every room has been plunged into the artificial night, and only with the aid of candles or torches will you find your way. It's quiet in a way that feels unwholesome, and any questions to the house will go unanswered.

The silence endures.

The more you try to figure out what's happening, the more it occurs to you - you don't remember going to sleep. You hardly remember anything about the previous evening, and you don't know how it transitioned to way it is now. The idea of it unnerves you.

And that's before you find the body.

HEARTS IN DARKNESS: THE BODY

[yourkeepers]

The body glimmers as the light spreads over its features, like a statue of precious metals stained with blood. Golden hair soaks in a pool of red that paints the floor like a canvas, extending out around the head and shoulders of the victim, still lazily seeping and expanding.

It's the body of the the oracle, and she is very much dead.

Her entire throat and chest is a mess of gore. The blood coats the skin and cloth so that it's hard to make out details, but there is one thing certain - something has cut deep into her chest cavity, as it carving something out from inside.

The body is still warm, but you never heard her scream.

HEARTS IN DARKNESS: THE NEXT VICTIM

[yourkeepers]

Maybe you were expecting it, maybe you weren't. But the body count doesn't remain at one for long.

Hardly even an hour after everything started, there's been another victim claimed - another light, extinguished.

When someone eventually returns to the hidden room connected to the heart, they will find Lights curled up on the floor, freshly killed. The door is open, the the faint shimmer of his remains can be seen from outside. The counter behind him shows signs of a struggle - apparently overpowered, the fairest's entire front is covered with gore and blood, from his throat and all down his chest.

While the bright yellow blood that surrounds him still glows with a strange luminescence, all the light has drained from his body. For the first time, perhaps, his regular features can be observed with actual clarity, left with dim silvery skin. Pain is still etched onto his young face from the attack that led to his death. His empty eyes are still open.

His killer, nowhere to be seen.