Volume 1: Shadow Rising Interlude: The Man Who Lives in the Dark

This is a lonely story, a past of a man who can only live in darkness forever.

There is an orphanage in the most remote suburb of the Italian city of Fettier, where Glenn Brown has lived for as long as he can remember.

Life here is boring, and the conditions in which they live are very poor, and more importantly, the dean has been secretly doing things that are not known: he has been working with criminal groups to sell organs, and the source of those organs is the children of the orphanage.

With only one meal a day, less than four hours of sleep, a lot of toil, and even more terrifying death, Glenn Brown has been silently enduring all this.

The orphanage, who was already living in poverty, was divided into different classes, and the taciturn Glenn was always the lowest in the moment, he had few friends, no one would care about him, and occasionally he had to endure the fists and kicks of others. He lives like a weed everywhere, and he has no pursuit of life.

The lonely life has made him like to confide in himself in the middle of the night no matter what happens, the moonlight spills through the small window, and there is a small figure talking to himself in the moonlight.

"Justice does not exist, this is the darkest place in the world. "But sometimes I often wonder if the world would be a better place if I could create justice with my own hands."

There were fewer and fewer people he knew, maybe because he was too inconspicuous, or maybe because the dean didn't pay too much attention to him, so he never pointed the finger at him, and he just kept living.

And in the exhaustion of running for his life every day, he saw too much betrayal and betrayal between his companions, just to survive for one night, and finally he insisted more and more on his idea: all people, except himself, could not be trusted.

Glenn loved to play with puppets, and when he was seven years old, he made himself a puppet with any joint movement. He loved the toy, especially when he felt an irrepressible excitement when he could manipulate the puppet to move around at will with just one finger.

Finally, one day, the dean's east window happened, and that night the dean went crazy and gathered the rest of the people, trying to lock them all in one room and burn them to death.

He stepped forward calmly, took out the broken glass that he had hidden in advance, and stabbed it into the dean's heart, and the dean fell on his back, his eyes full of disbelief. Looking at the dean who was about to breathe, Glenn only said one sentence: "Everything is for the justice of the people you killed." ”

That night, he saved everyone. And when the police counted the people, they never found Glenn Brown, as if he had disappeared from the world.

The orphanage has become a place of confinement, but the people who live around it can always faintly hear the sounds coming from inside, and some people claim to see lights and figures in the attic of the orphanage.

Glenn didn't leave, he knew that there was no place for him in this ugly world, what he pursued was solitude, to survive in the dark, and only when he was alone would he feel that he was truly alive.

"You'll never betray me, will you?" said Glenn, fiddling with the puppet in his hand. "You will not be hypocritical, you will always be sincere, you are my true friend. ”

He became more and more obsessed with making puppets like people, did he long for friends? Even he didn't know that he was used to living in such a cramped place, even if the place was filled with too much sorrow and sadness for him, he was willing to live here, and it made him feel extremely relieved to curl up in the dark.

And as he spent more and more time in the dark, he could feel that his body was becoming more and more out of shape: he often had headaches, sometimes he suddenly forgot why he was in this place, and in the end, he even suddenly forgot what he was doing.

But his twisted desire intensified, more and more disappearances occurred around abandoned orphanages, most of the missing people were mafias and criminals, and the police conducted many investigations but in vain, and because most of them were criminals, they simply stopped investigating. It became a fearful area for criminals, and since then, almost no criminal activity has taken place in nearby towns and villages.

The people around them were filled with joy and fear: they were happy that they no longer had to endure the attacks of the criminals, but they were terrified that who knew if they were guilty in the eyes of that person?

But Glenn knows the truth, and there is a corpse made into a doll in the cellar of the orphanage where the organs were traded.

He likes the process of making dolls, peeling off their skin, removing the internal organs and muscles, and finally filling them under the skin with wooden supports, and the puppets are made with a living figure.

He loved talking to the dolls, and even though he never received a response, he loved it from the bottom of his heart.

"Only what is manipulated will never lie. He wrote in his diary. "How I love this feeling, this feeling of dominating everything, trust me, if you try it once, you will not be able to stop. But I also have my principles, I kill all the wicked, and I feel more pleasure than ever when I look at their gradually cold corpses"

In this way, Glenn lived in this place for a long time until the arrival of the man.

The man was richly dressed and spoke with great grace, as if he knew where Glenn was hiding in advance, and he soon found him in the cellar of the orphanage.

When the man walked into the cellar, Glenn was so engrossed in disposing of the corpse that he didn't even look at him.

"You love making dolls. The man was not intimidated by what he saw. "I've heard your stories, the stories of a man who lives forever alone, many of them are like ghost stories, and you have become a feared presence in this place. ”

"I don't care, what I'm pursuing is to live in such a small place, I don't want to pursue anything else at all, they can spread whatever they want, let them be. ”

"Aren't you afraid that you killed someone?" the man asked.

"I'm not afraid. Glenn replied, "It's my way of living, I haven't spoken to people in a long time, humans are creatures that don't deserve to be trusted, only these puppets don't lie." ”

"Aren't you worried I'm going to tell you?"

"You're not going to tell me. Glenn smiled for the first time. "If you really want to denounce me, you don't have to take that much risk to come here yourself, you should have come directly with the police. ”

"You're smart. The man laughed too. "Would you like to join me?"

"What do I get by joining you, you should understand what I am after, right in front of me. ”

"You have killed sinful people, your heart thirsts for justice, and I am the guide who can make you absolutely righteous in the dark. The man said.

Glenn stared at him for a long time, "You're not kidding, I'm already going crazy, I can even feel the presence of a different me, you really want to recruit me?"

"You've always wanted to escape from this world, I know very well, but what is the end of the escape, have you ever thought about it?" the man took a step forward. "Only I have your place here, a man who can only live in darkness forever, I need you, justice in the dark needs you. The man held out a hand to him.

Glenn stared at the hand for a few moments before reaching out his blood-stained hand and shaking it.

"Just let me see what you can bring me, maybe show me something unusual, show me what your justice really is, at least another idea that I appreciate you. ”