Chapter 2: The peach Hills
After parting ways with Kevin, Leon walked alone toward a forgotten hill draped in peach blossoms. Petals danced in the breeze, brushing past his shoulders like fading memories.
As he moved through the trees, a distant vision surfaced-a child's small hand holding his... then slowly slipping away, leaving him behind.
This hill was no ordinary place.
It was a land of the dead.
Tombs, cold and grey, stood in rows-thick slabs of concrete bearing the words:
"Here lies..."
Leon stopped at one. His eyes settled on the names etched in stone:
Asher Corvin
Daliya Corvin
His father and mother.
He knelt down, bowed his head, and whispered softly,
"I've returned, mom....dad. I have come home"
But within, the wound reopened.
Memories surged like a needle piercing flesh. The voices of his parents echoed:
"Stay with us, Leon. Don't wander off..."
He remembered how they always warned him to stay close.
Now, they were the ones who were gone.
Around him, others wept silently for their dead, the peach trees shedding petals like tears. But Leon's eyes held no sorrow. Only remembrance.
Maybe it was the spirits.
Maybe it was the wind.
The air howled through the trees, almost as if the world itself was grieving-gray clouds...
stretching like bruises across the sky.
His father once told him this was the place where he met Leon's mother-where they fell in love.in a beautifully dead place can blossom?.
But for Leon, this was not a place of love.
It was a graveyard of hope. A place of dread.
A place covered the sour memories of a five year old. The peach blossoms here grew from tears and memories of the forgotten ones embraced by mother earth .
The land still glowed under the fading light of day, but shadows stretched longer now.
leon lit a black paper covered cigarette .it had a gold lining above the filter tip by that time the winds raged and chased the light away .The clouds dark... hung over the sky ,they moved with the winds.
he exhaled the smoke he took in his lungs .The smoke danced with nature complementing its violence. Cold memories fluttered then came back but it was the smoke that kept him warm.
They were archaeologists,
Explorers of ancient ruins and lost truths.
On my fifth birthday, they left me with Grandma,
and never returned alive.
They came back in caskets. Cold. Lifeless....
In my past life... I failed to uncover what happened to them.
But this time... I won't fail again.
Maybe the truth still lies in my father's study.
---
Meanwhile...
Deep underground, in the heart of a remote valley, a squad of soldiers and men in black suits gathered outside a cave. The atmosphere was thick with tension.
Among them stood a group of elites... and a fat man with deep eye bags and a manic gleam in his eye. He raised a hand, silencing the crowd.
"Today," he said," I welcome all my brothers and sisters ""we were once the trampled, the forgotten. Broken by society. But no more."
"Each of us came here for our own reason-revenge, power, survival.
What ever it may be today we are one "
"TOGETHER "
"Gentlemen, today... we make history."
"We will find the Relic of Evil-and make our dream... a reality."
Carved into the stone at the cave entrance was a strange symbol:
A circle, enclosing a triangle, within which sat an eye-bleeding.
As if the stone itself was weeping blood.
And deeper inside the cave...
An oil lamp flickered.
Already lit.
But by whom?
And why?...
[To be continued]