A lonely moon

Twilight City was regarded as the beating heart of the seventh shelter, this bustling metropolis was so well known that it was even more famous than the capital city where the president of the shelter resided.

With a thriving and competitive economic system, Twilight City was home to many companies big and small trying to make it big and crush their opponents in a silent game of cat and mouse.

This city teeming with opportunities harbored the dreams of many youths in the shelter, and there was even a saying that one could become rich overnight in this city of giants.

Twilight City might seem impressive but all things mentioned so far weren't the reason for its popularity; the reason for its fame was also the same reason it was regarded as the safest city in the Silence.

This was because it was home to the most powerful force in the seventh shelter, the Silence.

At the heart of the city stood a gigantic building with the glaring logo of a black sword in a circle, this was the official symbol of the Silence.

Unfortunately, the headquarters wasn't today's focus of attention, and if one looked towards the parking lot they would find a moving black limo slowly leaving the building.

At the outskirts of Twilight City stood a rather large mansion, if Aiden was here he would recognize this mansion immediately after all he had resided here for most of his childhood, it was the Horatio family.

At this moment a black limo slowly parked at the front gate, and on the bonnet of this car was a familiar hood ornament which was a sword in a circle.

"Hmm not bad for a business family," a deep voice muttered from the vehicle sending shivers down one's spine.

As the voice spoke the silver gates suddenly opened and the guards stationed there bowed their every move revealing hints of professionalism.

The limo drove into this mansion parking directly in front of it, "vroom," a barely inaudible purr sounded out from this luxurious vehicle and an old man wearing a butler uniform got out from the driver's seat, his posture was amazing, and a dignified looked graced his eyes.

Walking to the back of this limo this old man opened the door allowing a figure wearing a black business suit to step out.

The next thing one would notice when looking at this figure was blond hair that almost seemed golden, a well-defined jawline, and black eyes that had an intense gaze to them.

"Drive around the mansion."

The man said towards the driver who bowed in response.

Having done this the man looked around, and all he could see was a wide open door in front of him, and apart from a maid here and there there was no one else.

The atmosphere turned frigid, hinting at his mounting impatience, but Before his frustration could boil over, a flurry of figures burst onto the scene.

Mr. Horatio and his family hurried out, brimming with excitement.

If Aiden was here he might have noticed a subtle change that was evident in this family.

Mr. Horatio and his wife both bore the marks of time, while their three children had flourished into young adults, radiating newfound maturity.

"Good afternoon Mr. Gold," Horatio said enthusiastically as he came forward for a handshake which Gold received expressionlessly.

Ignoring Gold's cold demeanor Horatio introduced his family "This is my wife Martha, and this is my oldest daughter Delia, she has managed to Contract a threat level five demon." Horatio said.

Hearing that Delia was a Contractor seemed to pull at Gold's interest a little as his gaze lingered on Delia for a few seconds.

His intense gaze made the young adult blush a little as she averted her gaze from him, enthusiastically Mr. Horatio introduced the rest of his children.

"This is my second child Aaron, he's only managed to Contract a threat level one demon, and to the right is our little Isabel, she just turned fifteen so she's not contracted a demon yet."

Gold didn't seem all that interested in Aaron, but upon hearing of a familiar name Isabel he looked towards her and asked with uncertainty.

"Isabel? Are you Isabel the violin prodigy?"

"Ha-ha so Mr. Gold has heard of my daughter, yes my daughter is indeed skilled at playing the ancient and noble violin, but it's nothing compared to Mr. Gold's achievements," Horatio said, his feeble attempts at ass-licking palpable.

Hearing her father's reply Gold walked towards the teenage girl his figure towering over her, as his gaze threatened to bore a hole through her.

Isabel on the other hand didn't feel so good, standing in front of an elite Contractor made her feel nervous as her figure shrunk, she wanted nothing more than to run inside and hide.

Everyone in her family was staring at her with an expectant look in their eyes.

So far she had been the only one who had managed to get Mr. Gold's full attention till now.

"What do they expect me to do, I-I'm fifteen, and he's so big," Isabel thought as her mind raced, she felt like crying.

Horatio looked on with a confused expression on his face, when he heard that the famous Mr. Gold was coming to pay him a visit he was excited and got his eldest daughter to come back from her business trip ahead of time.

He thought that she was the reason for Gold's visit; maybe the powerful Contractor wanted to take her under his wing due to how talented she was, he didn't think that his reason for coming would be his youngest child.

"What's so special about the Violin, only a talented Contractor can tickle the interest of the Silence, could it be that my daughter has some talent with hell energy that I didn't know about?" Horatio pondered.

"Pat, Pat," Mr. Gold suddenly patted Isabel on her head as he said with a deep voice.

"You're such a talented little girl, I've listened to some of your pieces but who would've thought you would be this cute in person, if I may ask who was able to teach you how to play an ancient instrument at such a young age?" Gold asked.

Hearing Gold talk about the violin Isabel finally looked toward him, the first thing she noticed was his dark eyes, those eyes seemed to have a golden glow in their depths.

Putting all those thoughts at the back of her mind she replied in a timid tone, "It's my big brother Aiden."

"Aiden," Gold echoed before continuing, "where is he now?"

Before Isabel could answer she was interrupted by Mr. Horatio, "Aiden is a lovely child, but he didn't want to stay, he's a foster child so when he turned eighteen he chose to leave with his inheritance."

"And pigs can fly," Gold sneered in his mind, his boss had asked him to investigate everything about Aiden, and with the resources at his disposal, he was able to find out what really happened to Aiden.

His only reason for visiting this family was to confirm something which he had already done.

He should have left by now but he found something interesting, others might not be able to see it low-level contractors that hadn't passed the threat level of fifteen had no right to see it, but he could.

The hell energy around Isabel was unusually active.

"She's an infected human, but which type?" Gold asked himself.

Quickly snapping out of his daze, Gold asked a question that shocked everyone, "Little girl would you like to be my student?"

*******************************

"Aiden you bastard open this door," Bruce yelled in an annoyed tone.

Aiden briefly shocked dashed into his room and proceeded to hurriedly change his ripped clothes, his wounds were hurting badly but Aiden endured it.

Instinct told him that the moment he told another soul of what just happened to him said person would be involved.

"Hold your horses I'll be right there," Aiden said trying to fix his composure before opening the door.

In front of him was the familiar robust Bruce who ran passed Aiden and into his house without hesitation, but there was another person, it was a girl in her youth, "Amanda long time no see, how are you." Aiden said with a smile.

But his warm greeting was met with a scoff, Amanda was a college freshman with brown hair like Bruce, but she was a bit shorter than girls her age making her seem younger than she actually was.

Studying in the music department, she had a talent with instruments learning to play modern instruments like the feather whistle, the drum, and the till, but recently she had developed an interest in the more complicated and better sounding ancient instruments like the piano, the guitar, the flute, and most of all the violin.

But learning ancient instruments was expensive and the experts were few, so she convinced Aiden to teach her how to play the violin.

Of course, Aiden readily agreed to this but since he was always occupied he was only able to give her lessons once in a while.

Aiden had learned the violin from his mother who praised him as a prodigy for learning such a complicated instrument at the young age of four.

Suddenly Amanda scoffed interrupting Aiden's thoughts.

"Hump! I'm mad at you," Amanda said pouting as she walked in.

"It's not my fault I'm busy," Aiden said, before darting in, "I would have liked to give you a few lessons today but I'm not feeling too well."

Upon hearing that Aiden was under the weather Amanda who originally had a frown on her face turned towards Aiden.

"Are you sick? What happened?" Amanda asked as she walked towards Aiden placing her hand on his forehead.

"Nothing much just feeling under the weather I guess," Aiden said before removing her hand.

"Well you should rest more, you don't have to give me lessons today," Amanda said as she walked towards the kitchen.

Throwing a bag of popcorn in the microwave, she walked towards the living room and turned on the TV.

Joining her Aiden asked, "So how's college treating you?"

"It's fun, I feel like I've learned a lot," Amanda replied halfheartedly.

"That's nice," Aiden said before darting in, "When I was in school I remember spending my nights out partying and doing a lot of crazy things hahaha."

"Well I'm not doing anything too crazy," Amanda laughed before continuing.

"There's this cute guy though, Edward, he's in my class, well he invited me to join their music group and I'm thinking of joining, he also knows how to play the guitar, I was thinking of inviting him to my place but Bruce wouldn't let me."

"Ohh a cute guy you say," Aiden muttered, he wanted to say more but his attention was drawn to Bruce who just came out of the bathroom.

"Why did you take so long, I thought you wanted to pee?" Aiden asked.

"Don't ask, you don't want to know" Bruce said as he stretched.

"Big bro can you help me bring out the popcorn it's in the microwave," Amanda asked as she turned around.

Obliging to Amanda's request Bruce asked, as he sat down with a bowl full of popcorn, "So what are you guys talking about?"

"Amanda here was telling me about some cute guy named Edward," Aiden chuckled.

"Edward?" Bruce repeated the name before saying, "Well if you bring him over or I see him around you I'm gonna kill him,"

"Hahaha," Aiden burst out into a pang of laughter.

"You guys," Amanda grumbled, and the duo laughed as they watched TV all afternoon.

Time passed quickly and before they knew it the clock had already struck 4:05 pm, by now Amanda and Bruce were leaving, "goodbye and take care," Aiden said as he watched the two leave.

As soon as they left the smile on Aiden's face was gone, "Ouch," he grunted.

His wounds were hurting and the pain seemed to be increasing, enduring the stinging feeling on his back Aiden walked to the bathroom and took a cold shower.

After properly cleaning his wounds he then applied some spirit to disinfect the wound "Ahhhhh," Aiden groaned enduring the pain as he wrapped himself up with a bandage.

He quickly dressed up leaving the house as he had a job to do; walking downstairs Aiden walked towards Mr. Turner's apartment on the first floor of the building, "Knock, Knock," Aiden knocked twice.

"I'm coming," a muffled voice sounded out, shortly after the door was opened revealing an old man with grey hair, "Aiden my boy, come in for a cup of coffee, my wife is making her famous baked bread," Mr.Turner bellowed but Aiden just shook his head.

"Thank you Mr. Turner but I'm good, it's already 4 pm so I should start driving," Aiden said.

"Ok, ok I understand," Mr. Turner replied before walking back inside, shortly after he came out giving Aiden a single key, "you know what to do, just deliver the apples to the warehouse downtown," Mr. Turner said sounding slightly disappointed.

"No problem," Aiden replied before walking away.

Mr. Turner had a small white truck he used to deliver goods, even though he owned a building and could make money by being a landlord he seemed to derive pleasure in doing more work, frankly, Aiden didn't get it, but he respected it.

Opening the back of the truck Aiden could see that it was already filled with crates of apples.

Getting in Aiden started the truck, "vroom!" the engine roared as the truck started.

Driving off immediately Aiden skillfully maneuvered the truck out of the parking lot.

As Aiden drove he couldn't help but think about the events of earlier today and ponder, "What did it all mean," Aiden asked himself.

He still felt chills when he remembered the incident, like a vivid shadow in his mind, he was locked in a state of unease.

The road was crowded with taxis and private cars driving around, Aiden didn't want to take the normal route as it would take more time to arrive at the warehouse, so he decided to take another path.

Opening his phone Aiden checked on his post, he had posted it on the main page earlier.

Scrolling through he was shocked to discover that it had over forty replies of the same content.

-What is desert rose wine?-

[Anonymous: are you selling?]

[Anonymous 2: I'll give you five million for a bottle]

[Anonymous 3: can we talk, my contact is **]

[Rudy: DM me let's chat]

[Anonymous 3: how did you get your hands on desert rose wine?]

The messages consisted of over forty people offering huge amounts or asking to talk privately, there were even some that offered an exchange with things like their house or cars.

Seeing the amounts mentioned Aiden was shocked, "did I just drink something worth millions of Creda?" He asked himself, he suddenly felt regret for some reason.

But still was it worth that much? Such a reaction from the public shocked Aiden, "what exactly did I drink?" He muttered.

Suddenly "honk, honk," two loud honks startled Aiden, he looked up from his phone and his eyes widened, his truck had somehow driven off course and was about to collide with an even larger truck.

Aiden acted fast quickly turning his steering wheel all the way to the right his heart beating erratically, "screeeeee," the sound of screeching tires invaded his ears as Aiden struggled to stabilize the truck, but he wasn't able to do so in time.

"Bang!" Aiden's truck collided with the metal bars at the side of the road with a huge amount of force and by then Aiden had already passed out from the sheer force of the collision.

"Bang, bang, bang," the truck somersaulted as it crashed at the other side of the metal bar rolling downhill rapidly, once again it collided with a rock, "Bang."

The larger truck had long since stopped as a man with a salt and pepper beard ran towards the metal bars, "Shit," he cursed.

Looking downhill he saw a wrecked white truck that was wedged by a rock, the vehicle couldn't even be called a truck anymore as it was crushed beyond recognition with smoke coming out of it.

With shaky hands, the man quickly took out his phone and called an ambulance.

********

The sun had set giving way to the cold and lonely moon, a moon that seemed gloomier than usual tonight as there were no stars in the sky.

After what seemed like ages Aiden slowly opened his eyes, and the first thing his blurry vision saw was that lonely moon.

He didn't have time to observe the moon though as what followed was pain, agonizing pain that made him feel nothing but dread.

He tried to move, but he was restrained by something, and slowly his eyes adapted to his surroundings "Hmmmm, hmmmm," he screamed as what he saw made him feel despair.

A dismembered arm lay in front of him and he could immediately tell it was his, he could tell because he couldn't feel his right arm.

He tried to yell for help but he couldn't and could only utter inhuman moans as the disgusting taste of his own blood overwhelmed his taste buds.

As Aiden struggled to move a mysterious black mist slowly seeped into the wrecked truck and in seconds a familiar voice whispered to Aiden, "We meet again human."

Aiden recognized that demonic and gender-neutral tone immediately but he didn't answer.

The being behind him didn't seem to mind though, as it continued in a casual tone.

"Human accidents sure are scary, by the looks of things you have a concussion, skull fractures, whiplash, broken ribs, internal bleeding, damaged organs, a dismembered limb, lots of cuts, bruises, and a whole lot of random fractures and dislocations."

Just when Aiden thought it was done the demon continued "There's also the severe loss of blood. Honestly, you being alive is a miracle in itself, the real question is how the fuck are you conscious?"

Aiden felt numb, even without the words of the demon he knew he was going to die it was only a matter of time, and this only served as confirmation.

The mysterious being seemed extremely talkative today as it rambled on and on about mundane matters as Aiden slowly died.

But for some reason, Aiden appreciated its company "Wiiii, wiiii," The faint sounds of sirens could be heard from the distance, it was most likely from a police car or an ambulance, but Aiden didn't feel excited, instead he felt numb and sleepy.

The pain slowly subsided as he began to lose all sense of his body.

The surrounding sounds were also beginning to get muffled.

"Badump, Badump, Bad-"

Aiden's heart stopped beating as he took his last breath, "so do you-" The being behind him sized its mundane rumblings as if sensing that the human it was talking to was no longer alive.

"Ha," it chuckled slightly before bursting into mindless laughter, "hahaha, hahaha, hahaha."

There's a saying that in the face of death one's life flashes before their very eyes, but Aiden guessed that the saying didn't apply to him.

All he remembered seeing was a brightly lit moon in a starless sky and at that moment he couldn't help but think that the moon seemed especially lonely tonight.