The scene starts inside a familiar wealthy Demacian home where a serious-looking Garen is silently reading the newspaper, his wooden rocking chair moving slowly back and forth as the camera lazily zooms out until we can finally see Lux and the rest of the Crownguard family happily eating their breakfast. There is also some kind of a low musical tune subtly playing in the background. The faint pleasant score so deeply interweaved with the ongoing black and white actors and various actions currently taking place inside the scratched grey screen that serves as a mere distraction to the occasional viewer until the camera suddenly zooms in on the inky black headlines occupying the front page of the wrinkled and stretched newspaper held in Garen's rigid hands, and the musical score rises in an abrupt and alarming crescendo. Causing the black inky letters that are already occupying the majority of the fine print to almost bloat and expand enough for them to reach the camera and block the viewer's vision as a single black headline abruptly stares right back into the spectator's admittedly curious eyes.
SERIAL CUDDLER STILL ON THE LOOSE!
The screen then fades and the musical score just dies off with it as the spectator is left in complete and absolute darkness.
Qqqq
The screen is assaulted by light and shapes again, the black smudges swiftly giving way to an old Demacian vehicle as it passes by a small flock of smiling pedestrians that walk among rows of colorless trees and blooming grey flowers. The camera follows the small car for a few seconds or so before it suddenly jerks back to a gathering of girls, each one wearing a simple blue dress resembling a school uniform. Lux is laughing and gossiping among her friends, all the while Quinn and Fiora are currently chasing each other somewhere on the background. Another small shiny vehicle lazily moves away from the joyous group of girls and the faint pleasant tune briefly returns as the car passes by an unknown pedestrian, the black figure's face carefully concealed behind a crumpled and smudged, wrinkled old newspaper, only for the simple tune to suddenly peak as the newspaper momentarily lowers and the viewer is unexpectedly treated to the sight of dark crafty orbs and untamed snow-white hair. The image then slowly turns black after the camera ominously sinks into those devious inky black orbs and the crumbled headline of the lowered newspaper.
SERIAL CUDDLER STILL ON THE LOOSE!
Qqqq
The new scene starts as Luxanna's lessons finally ends for the day and the students are reluctantly getting dismissed. A few silently laughing girls instantly dash for the big open doors while the more patient ones casually start walking behind their classmates and teachers, the close-up shot of a ringing bell steals just a few seconds of the viewer's attention even if the sound emitted by the visibly vibrating bell is curiously muted and absent. The frame then swiftly returns to the hasty Demacian youths hurriedly spilling out of their various classrooms.
The camera momentarily follows young Luxanna and her friends as they giggle and gossip among themselves while heading home, the dark shadow of a woman hiding behind a crumpled newspaper silently following their so silent and yet obviously noisy trail.
Qqqq
It is morning once again and Lux is playing among her friends and peers, caged inside the crowded schoolyard. A few professors can already be seen scolding Valor and Quinn, tirelessly reprimanding the usual troublemaker duo for their unbecoming behaviors as a white-haired woman wearing a simple black suit and a bowler hat casually strolls near the iron fence surrounding the schoolyard and cheerfully offers Luxanna a beautiful dark grey rose after she beckons the youngest of the Crownguards closer to the iron barrier. The strange white-haired girl merely smiles at the young Lux while sliding the grey flower between the fence's twisted iron coils that trap the blonde noblewoman inside the school's property. Lux blushes as she shyly cradles the magnificent rose accepting the fragrant grey flower and gives the strangely dressed woman a beaming smile vibrant enough to set any single heart on fire. The dark-eyed and silent pale girl then slowly reaches for the younger blonde's face and brushes a gloved thumb against the Crownguard's rosy darkening cheek as the scene once again dissolves and fades into nothing.
Qqqq
It is with such a joyous, merry musical theme that the next frame suddenly springs into life as the black and white moving slideshow abruptly barges in, showing two figures close enough to pass as one, relaxing while sitting next to each other. The two young women seemingly spending their time in relative bliss, happily holding each other's hands and they appear to be making small talk while absentmindedly feeding the deserted grey park's pure white pigeons. The young Demacian heiress is laughing in glee and the smartly dressed Noxian crook finally allows herself to sit back and wear a honest carefree smile on her lips as the blonde Crownguard sitting next to her abruptly leans in to kiss her pale cheek and Riven happily tosses more breadcrumbs towards the small army of hungry pigeons.
Qqqq
But alas the couple's happiness wasn't meant to last it seems and so the next shot is frantic and dark, two figures darting from alley to alley all the while still holding hands and the shadows of a pursuing mob spilled across their tired heels and aching ankles. The drama unfolds as both women desperately run into dead ends and attempt to knock on sealed locked doors only to once again flee with the drums of the fast paced music on their heels and the sharp stabs of the invisible merciless violins accompanying the two lovers' frantic escape into even more dark and rapidly changing, shady morbid backgrounds.
The last scene the viewer perceives showcases the dread of two panicked and trapped star-crossed lovers, trembling backs pressed flat against the dusty old brickwork of a closed clothing store as the ravenous shades of the mob surrounds the two unfortunate girls and start approaching them ominously.
Qqqq
The music is neutral, the camerawork is deliberately bad and amateurish and the lens seems to be having trouble focusing for some reason. Blurry and solemn the scene reluctantly opens in a now familiar crowded fenced schoolyard where the youngest of the Crowguard scions is sitting away from the rest of her classmates and friends. Hunched and defeated Luxanna seems to be a completely different person from the happy woman we encountered the day before, her dark-rimmed eyes lowered and still wet, her once joyous dark clear orbs now lusterless and dulled due to her torturous heartache and the seemingly endless flood of her own biter tears.
Young Luxanna stays silent like this for at least half a dozen of seconds or so, with the weight of what feels like the entire world seemingly crushing her very being until the softest of touches on the small of her back prompts a murderous glare from the crestfallen young Crownguard, glistering dark-rimmed eyes snapping towards a pale hand as Lux attempts to shoot a murderous glare towards the unknown offender. And so the last scene in this bittersweet story starts to dissolve as the smudges of white and black fade, but not before the distant and happy soundtrack of the past slowly tunes in for at least four to five seconds. The faint and happy musical tune abruptly peaks when it returns before instantly turning into a solemn and yet hopeful bittersweet melody as the wet angsty gaze of young Luxanna suddenly stumbles upon a smirking white-haired girl wearing the simple dark uniform of her school, a black bowler hat still perched on top of the ashen soft white snowflakes of the Noxian woman's hair.
The end
Note: Another one of the short stories I mentioned in the previous chapter, the basic concept behind this one was to write it as a silent film and lead the reader's attention towards particular images and shots through the mentions of the camera's lens and the gneral theme of the music. It also served as another attempt to try writing a story that manages to move forward without the use of dialogues (since I am bad at them). Inspired by the imagery of silent films where not everything has to be expained as long as the characters reach a happy ending.