The stench of acid rain made anyone who inhaled it suffer for the first half-month, regretting their ravaged nose. But over time, they stopped paying attention to it.
Because a new torture arrived.
The factory.
In the Nostramo language, the word "factory" consisted of four syllables. Quite clumsy. And if you pronounced the full name, the number of syllables grew to frightening proportions.
So the workers settled for four.
After all, what difference did it make which factory they worked in? The result was the same: illness and death in the slums. They had long since resigned themselves to it and felt no sadness.
Most of them had long since become numb.
A bony man squatted in the corner of his house, hunched over.
His posture was strange: to sit comfortably, one shouldn't arch their back like that, but he sat exactly like that.
Moreover, he seemed to feel no discomfort.
Acid rain drummed on the leaky wooden roof above his head, seeping through the cracks and forming shallow puddles on the floor. The man's expression was vacant; he wasn't going to speak or do anything about these puddles.
He simply endured.
A dull cough and the sound of footsteps came from outside. In the haze of rain, they grew closer until they were drowned out by the creak of an opening door.
"Josef!" someone croaked hoarsely from the threshold. "More!"
"...What?"
"More dead!"
The one shouting spoke with a voice that mixed fear and some complex emotions.
"He did it, it was definitely him! Blood on the walls, and a message too!"
Josef coughed and slowly straightened up. His emaciated body seemed hideously trembling in the dim light. The man, coughing, began to pull on his only jacket.
Then he asked, "Did Li go?"
"He went, he remembered the inscription too!"
"Only remembered," Josef muttered. "He's illiterate."
"Stop talking, let's go!" the one who called him excitedly turned and hurried away. His sickly body had never moved so swiftly. A flicker burned in his clouded eyes, not of numbness.
But not of hope either.
Josef shook his head and slowly walked out of the house.
The streets of the slums were already crowded. These days they didn't have to go to the factory, but seeing so many people walking in the same direction at such a time was strange.
Fortunately, Josef wasn't surprised.
He knew where they were going.
He silently joined the crowd, moving slowly under the acid rain. The foul drops soaked his hair, his clothes, burned his exposed skin, but he didn't care.
That flicker burned in his eyes too.
It was unknown how long they walked, but eventually, they reached their destination. A tall tower in the gloomy haze of rain gazed down at these thin, ragged ghosts. They raised their heads, looking at it.
Josef heard quiet conversations from the front of the crowd and began to push forward. It wasn't easy for his body; he gasped, squeezing past several people, but felt no fatigue, just kept moving forward.
After a few minutes, he reached the very front.
"Eternal Night..." he heard someone's muttering voice, which held barely suppressed horror, but not only that.
Yes, Eternal Night.
Josef's eyes widened. He didn't know how to describe his feelings; he just looked, he could only look.
The steps in front of the empty tower were littered with bodies. They lay in disarray, bandits with vacant eyes staring at the sky. Acid rain fell from the heavens, shattering in their eye sockets and washing away drops of blood.
On the wall next to the bodies, several lines were drawn in blood.
"Josef."
A quiet voice called him, and someone placed a hand on his shoulder.
Josef turned and saw a pale young face.
"Li..."
"It's terrible," Li said. "He's been killing more and more lately, and everywhere, right?"
"Yes," Josef replied, stunned, turning back to the bodies. He couldn't tear his gaze away from them.
After a while, Josef suddenly asked, "Did you write it all down?"
"Yes."
"Did Kalles and the others find anyone literate?"
"They say there's an old man in the east of the city who used to keep accounts for the lords at the factory, he's a little literate."
Li shook his head as he said this.
"But we're not sure if it's true, because many people have died in the east of the city lately. We should go."
He pulled Josef by the shoulder, leading him back. From behind, furious shouts and even a few loud gunshots could be heard. Josef flinched and lowered his head.
"It seems we're out of luck this time," Li whispered. "They've come too... They don't usually come out in rainy weather, do they?"
"Be quiet..." Josef replied quietly and hurriedly. "Let's go quickly."
"What are you afraid of?" Li said with feigned calm. "He's looking for them."
They fell silent and, following the crowd, crawled under the acid rain. The curses didn't stop, but the crowd didn't resist.
They were used to it.
Walk... keep walking. They passed the same blocks as on the way here, and under the malevolent or indifferent glances of the bandits, they were driven back into the slums. Only upon entering them did Josef finally sigh with relief.
He grabbed Li and whispered, "Don't say that again."
"Say what?"
"You know what, Li. If they hear you, you'll die."
"So be it," Li replied indifferently. "They'll die too. He'll kill them for me."
"How do you know?"
"He'll definitely kill them," Li said confidently. "Have you seen him kill anyone else? No. Right? Only bandits, and those two the other day..."
"Only a few of you saw it," Josef whispered. "Honestly, I don't really believe it myself. How could these lords die?"
"If you don't believe it, that's fine, Josef."
Li shook his head.
"Anyway, that's how it is."
"Wait."
"What?"
"Don't you have any space left on your wall?" Josef asked. "These letters... do you have any more room for them?"
Li paused for a moment, thought, and nodded: "No."
"Then let's go to my place," Josef turned and dragged him towards his house.
On the roadside, many coughing people were being baptized by acid rain. Some had already died, others were still alive. They paid no attention to the burning, just stared coldly at the grim sky, saying nothing.
They didn't look at them.
After a few minutes, Josef opened the door, and Li entered, stepping around the puddles on the floor. Josef didn't close the door. He knew that for what Li was about to do, some light was needed.
"And this wall of yours isn't bad," Li said.
"Rotten board," Josef smiled. "Yes, not bad."
Li also smiled, bent down, and pulled a piece of charcoal from his boot, which he had traded for a three-day ration.
The charcoal left marks on the wall.
He approached the rotten wall and began to write carefully, forming each stroke.
"...Do you think he's really, uh, a ghost?" Josef suddenly asked after a while.
"I don't know," Li replied quietly.
"You don't know?"
"Of course I don't know, Josef, I haven't seen him. But he definitely exists, right?"
"That's true..." Josef muttered. "He definitely exists."
He nodded and suddenly smiled.
"He definitely exists."
"And they won't find him," Li smiled too. "They look for him every day, but they can't find him."
"So he's a ghost?"
"I don't know."
"He's definitely a ghost," Josef said confidently. "I heard from Nail that only ghosts can do such things."
"Nail died a long time ago, Josef."
"He said so anyway."
Li sighed.
"Alright, he said so, he said so. I'm done."
Josef flinched, moved closer, and stammered, waving his hands: "Can I, I... can I look?"
"Of course," Li bent down and tucked the charcoal back behind his heel.
He said hoarsely, "But you still won't understand anything."
"Do you understand?" Josef retorted.
"No one understands. So look if you want."
Li straightened up and sighed.
They stood shoulder to shoulder in the cramped, dilapidated shack and, in the dim light filtering in from outside, examined the wall. Three black lines were so clear and yet so incomprehensible to them.
They didn't understand the language they spoke.
After a while, Li spoke quietly.
"I want them all to die," he said softly. "And you, Josef?"
"...Me too," Josef replied, stunned. "But will he help us?"
"He will," Li said confidently again. "He's already helping."
The rain continued, and in the distance, beyond the hearing of these poor workers, chaotic gunshots and screams could be heard.
***
Read the story months before public release — early chapters are on my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Granulan