Chapter 8: Silvermoons

'Might be his.'

Malte felt a sense of uncertainty, but he could could guess that the house belonged to Villy, due to some details which aligned with whatever he knew about him.

Observing the residence, he first noticed a handmade sign hanging on the door. He couldn't make out the words, but the style had a unique feel that seemed to fit with what he knew about Villy's father, who was well known in his district as a prideful man who crafted things by hand.

Second, Malte saw some childish doodles etched into the wooden panels. While he had never seen them, he recognized the whimsical style from times Villy had drawn pictures with his little sister. Stars, moons and blue skies, and he knew Villy was a huge fan of astronomy.

Lastly, he noticed a path leading around the side of the house to the back. This unfamiliar path was very similar to what Villy mentioned how he and his father often took walks behind their house to a nearby clearing.

'.. Why am I even thinking so hard? There is an apocolypse happening, so who cares if you enter someone's house without permission? Oh yeah, that's called robbery, dumbass.'

".. Anyways."

After making a small cough, Malte reached the front door of the shack and knocked 3 times. Seeing that nobody has come out, he knocked on the old door again, with the same response.

Malte stood in place for a bit, and decided to knock 3 more times, just to be careful. After the second knock, though, the door creaked and fell off its hinges and crashed to the floor with a loud thud.

'I'm sure I don't have that many points in strengh?'

He winced at the huge noise, hoping it hadn't attracted any monsters, and carefully stepped into the house.

"Excuse me for intrusion.."

Malte scanned the interior of the habitat.

In front of him stood the kitchen, the living room/bedroom was on the left and a bathroom on the right. With silent steps, he went right ahead.

Before entering the kitchen, he quitely sent a prayer with closed eyes.

'I swear to god.. there has got to be at least a single piece of bread or a beef jerky, or whatever, please..'

Opening the door, his eyes brightly shined as he looked to his left, where he noticed a small pantry. His heart skipped a beat as he saw some fruits and cans, and, for some reason, a small case with a bandage roll coming out from it lying on the floor, and found shelves lined with various food items.

Without a second thought, Malte started grabbing anything he could reach and began his feast.

The hunger that had been gnawing at him for days took over, and he consumed everything in sight. There were canned vegetables, dried fruits, and even some stale bread. Although the amount of food there wasn't much, Malte still managed to satisfit his appetite. Each bite felt like a heavenly lifeline, giving him the strength he desperately needed.

For 30 minutes, Malte ate everything in his way hungrily, ignoring the taste and texture of the food. When he finally finished, he sat back against the wall, feeling a mix of relief and exhaustion. His stomach was full, and for the first time in days, he felt a bit of his strength returning.

Malte placed his hands together and took a moment to gratefully thank Villy and his family.

'Oh man, if they saw what kind of mess I made over here, they would definitely chop my head off.'

As soon as he finished, though, he fell down on the floor and was engulfed in tiredness, falling asleep.

***

Slowly opening his eyes, Malte made a huge yawn and looked around. At this point, the pantry was nearly fully emptied by him.

Stretching his arm, he felt a strong stiffness in his muscles. He rubbed his eyes and stared at the white wall in front of him for a bit, until the reality of his situation began to sink in again.

Malte decided to check how long he was out for, so he opened the screen.

[.. Ability 1: Copy (CD: 94h).]

'.. A full day already? Guess I'm quite lucky to not have been eaten alive or ripped apart by anyone or anything after I fainted.'

As he shook his head, Malte cleared his mind and stood up. He looked outside the window.

The sun was already setting down. The sight of it brought a brief moment of calm amidst the chaos that surrounded him.

As he kept staring, he remembered about the box from the day before. As Malte walked up, he couldn't help but wonder about the reason it was lying over there.

'Maybe Ms. Silvermoon was patching up someone while cooking something to eat.. I'm so bad at imagining things..'

Opening it, he realised that it was a med kit.

'Well, it was already apparent from the bandage roll.'

Other than that, inside there were a couple of medical tapes and scissors.

Soon, he wrapped up with wrapping up his injuries no pun intended. Finishing his business, Malte proceeded to leave the kitchen with another yawn. Since he didn't have any time to enter the other rooms earlier, he decided to check into the living room.

Looking around, Malte noted how it was exactly what one would expect of a handicraftsman.

It was filled with tools, materials and half finished projects. However, the usual orderliness was replaced by utter chaos. The workshop was a complete mess. It was as if someone was left in a hurry, leaving behind a storm of activities.

On the floor, there were huge footprints, possibly of a Dreadspawn, which led into the bathroom. Malte felt extremely uneasy about the situation.

Suddenly, a stark smell of blood hit his nose coming from there.

'How come I haven't noticed the footprints nor detected the smell?'

Entering inside, his heart sank deeply at the sight before him and he unconsciously took 2 steps back.

'For the love of gods..'

2 adult corpses laid in the corner of the room, unmistakable even in death. Fighting the urge to vomit, Malte forced himself to look closer. He noticed how both of their bodies were grotesquely deformed by brutal slashes.

Malte had known Villy's parents very well; They had always been kind-hearted and loving, treating him like their own son.

Ms. Silvermoon was generous and compassionate, and she would usually bake delicious cakes for the kids. To them, she was also a great doctor who knew her stuff.

Mr. Silvermoon would spend hours in his workshop, crafting wooden toys for the neighbourhood children. He was a gentle man, who was willing to lend anybody a helping hand.

And now, both of them were gone, just like that.

"Now I'm worried about Villy. I hope nothing happened to him."

'.. What am I even talking about, he lost his parents right before his eyes, probably, and is now hiding somewhere..'

Getting out of his thoughts, Malte looked back at the bodies, put his hands together and bid them farewell.