Sometimes It's Even Darker

Chapter 1 - The Storm Is Looming

The mulch is crunching silently under her feet while she is walking towards the dense forest. It is getting darker and darker – the storm is coming and she knows it very well. She's walking fast with a basket full of mushrooms in her right hand, holding a bunch of hyperitum in the left one. 
Aethernia is alone, as always. Noone walks by her side and also noone awaits her in her wooden house in a heart of the forest, but she feels no fear at all. She knows her illness and she learned how to love her solitude. 
It's already dark as if it was night when first thunder hits the gound in a distance and the rain starts pouring heavily onto her black hair. Aethernia starts humming silently, so she can't be heard through the increasing noise of downpour. She knows many songs about storm and having them all in her mind she sings mildly and softly. When she ends „Let the storm descend upon you” she's already wet to the bone. The mushrooms saturate water very fast and Aethernia thinks that she would be probably forced to dry them before cooking. Even the hyperitum looks a little bit dolefully – the heavy rain broke some stems. „But of course I can't just throw them away, even broken hyperitum will give a good brew”, she thinks and looks ahead. When her glance pierces the curtain of rain, she screams.
The sight of huge, smokey motorcycle crashed right under the immense tree, isn't scary itself. The scariest thing is the fact that someone is probably lying down the bank, maybe dead...
Maybe he needs help.
„RUN AWAY” - thinks Aethernia, but she doesn't move paralyzed by strong fear. She knows what will happen next – she will have to call the ambulance or police. She will show her mysterious place to the world. Maybe some people will start to visit her...?
„NO”, she thinks again. „Please, no people. Please.”
Panic attack begins slowly. Aethernia not only hates people – she's also afraid of them. She knows their requests, cries and even their presence will cut her freedom into pieces. She starts to tremble.
„I cannot do it. But... maybe I'll only give a look?”
Not knowing why, she leaves her basket and hyperitum and comes a little closer. Down the bank she sees a lying man. She doesn't see his face, only his hair, but she cannot recognise its colour – it is all covered with mud and dirt. 
Aethernia must come closer. So she crawls down a bank.
When she's only a few meters away, she notices that the man is rather thin and petite and his hair is probably shoulder lenght, but she still cannot see his face.
Aethernia comes closer.
She sits in front of man on a wet mulch. Rain is still pouring heavily and the storm is near. Thunder strikes somewhere nearby her place where she turns his body to look into his face. She sees every detali in the flash of lightning.
The sound of thunder still sounds louder than her scream. 
Rain slowly washes away the blood from the forehead of person she knows perfectly well from photos, videos and covers of her favourite Cds. His eyes are closed and Aethernia isn't sure if he's still alive. When she nighs her ear to his nose, she still has to fight with horror and disgust. Then she feels his breath on her face and forgotten emotions appear suddenly – excitement mixed with sympathy hit her like a deadly shot.
„I cannot call anybody now”, she thinks. „Not only local people will know about me. The whole world will know. I will become a hero and...” She trembled in fear. What a terrifying vision!
„But on the other hand, I can't leave him here”
Darkness is crawling faster and faster and Aethernia knows she musts take Tobias Sammet to her house.