Chapter 1: The monastery
Kingdom of Naples, summer 1349
A ghostly silence enveloped the entire area: not a voice, not an animal cry, only the blowing of the wind was audible. The only person present was a girl with long, straight green hair and golden eyes, who was at the edge of a forest. A short distance from her there was a house. Having approached it, she examined it carefully: it was a one-storey building, made of wooden planks, with a thatched roof and a stone chimney breast. It was surrounded by a small fence, but there was an opening through which anyone could enter. The green-haired girl entered with an uncertain step, positioning herself in front of the entrance door. She tried to knock, but no one opened.
"Is anybody there?" The girl asked, getting no response.
She tried to open the door, but it was locked.
Maybe they locked themselves inside to protect themselves from the plague?
She wondered herself.
The girl moved to the back of the house. Here she found a woodshed loaded with logs, a large log placed in front of it with a hammer and a ladder on top.
It might be useful to me.
She placed the ladder on the facade and climbed onto the roof.
Looking to the left the green-haired girl saw a small window but it was barred.
Damn...
Using the hammer picked up earlier she broke the bars. Peering inside she saw a lit fireplace and next to it a small pile of wood. The girl squeezed through the crack, then landed on the floor with a bound. She looked around: a table with an overturned jug on it, some fox skins hanging on the walls, an overturned stool, a wooden beam blocking the door (which she removed), and finally a trap door in the floor. The green-haired girl opened it and went downstairs via a ladder, finding herself in the cellar. It contained a wooden barrel full of water, some bags that she didn't bother to check and finally the corpse of a girl with long brown hair, who lay with her back against a wall. Her hands and face were covered in spots and some buboes appeared on her neck. Seeing that scene CC almost vomited.
This girl barred the door to prevent anyone from entering, then she took refuge below to die...
She thought, sadly.
CC crossed herself, then went back up.
Exiting outdoors she reached a small cemetery located near the house. There were only four tombstones, probably victims of the plague that had been plaguing Italy and the whole Europe in the last four years.
A family of five people... Four died, the fifth was buried but she remained infected and then died herself. Judging by the fire in the house and the state of the body in the house, this happened recently.
Leaving the house behind her, CC began wandering through the countryside. The girl should have been horrified by what she had seen, but CC was now used to seeing people die, especially in that period... She had visited various European cities such as Constantinople, Vienna, Venice, Rome, Naples, and everywhere death and desolation reigned. People died in the streets, in homes, in churches... Both in the cities and in the countryside. And there was no escape for anyone: farmers, soldiers, churchmen, nobles, even kings and princes died from the epidemic. Cities, towns and villages had become open-air cemeteries, with piles of corpses scattered here and there. Besides her, only a few doctors wandered around those places... Sinister figures wearing long black tunics, gloves, a wide-brimmed hat, wearing disturbing beak masks and brandishing sticks. After a quarter of an hour of walking CC reached a crossroads: on the right there was a small abandoned and ruined village, on the left there was a monastery.
Perhaps I will find hospitality there, assuming it is not abandoned.
She walked away.
When she arrived in front of the wall that surrounded the building, she met a young monk, with short raven hair and brown eyes. The man was intently observing the landscape with a depressed expression, but when he noticed CC a smile formed on his lips.
"Hello, foreigner. What brings you here?" He asked, in a friendly tone.
"I'm looking for a place to rest." She replied.
"Do you intend to stay long?"
CC shrugged.
"For few days."
"I just need some company… Follow me, please." He invited her.
The monk guided the girl across the lawn, then made her enter the building, which was in Romanesque style and had two floors plus a tower, showing her the various rooms: on the first floor the prayer room and a crypt which contained a stone coffin with a crescent engraved on the lid (it contained the founder of the monastery, who lived about three centuries earlier), the kitchen and the canteen, on the second the dormitories, and finally a library, which contained volumes of various types.
"This book is interesting…" The young girl said, pointing to a tome placed on a desk. The cover was brown, and the pages yellowed with age.
"It is the Liber Chronicarum, an 11th century tome written by the venerable monk Nicola of Caserta, who built this building with the help of some monks." The monk explained to her.
The green-haired girl began to leaf through it, until she noticed an illustration that represented a strange disc-shaped flying object speeding in the blue sky above a green hilly countryside.
"What is that?" She asked.
The monk looked at the page carefully.
"That? I honestly have no idea. Nicola said he saw something in the sky, although he was never able to explain exactly what."
Suddenly the boy clapped a hand on his forehead.
"What a stupid… I haven't introduced myself yet! My name is Edoardo, and I come from Naples."
The girl turned to him, smiling affably.
"You can call me CC."
Edoardo chuckled.
"A strange name, kind damsel…"
CC nodded.
"True, but it's mine."
"Anyway, you are welcome as long as you wish to stay."
CC, struck by such generosity (already utopian in normal times, let alone in times of plague), bowed.
"Thank you!" She exclaimed, happy to be able to spend some time in a safe place and not in the open.
Edoardo winked at her.
"Helping others is a duty for us monks. Some questions?"
The girl nodded.
"Where are other monks?"
The monk's smile faded, and his expression became sad.
"Most of them died, victims of the plague. Those few who remained fled away from this place."
He looked down.
"It broke my heart to see the community I was part of crumbling, but the disease leaves no escape... The nearby village also ceased to exist, despite our attempts to save its inhabitants." Edoardo declared, his voice broken.
CC nodded, while she thought:
Probably some of the monk were infected while taking care of the villagers, and brought the disease inside the building.
"And why did you stay here?" She asked
"Because it is an abandoned area. Precisely for this reason is a safe place. I don't risk contagion. And you're actually the first living person I've met in three weeks. However, I will not be able to stay here forever... The food supplies are not infinite, the city is far away, and the grass around the monastery will grow taller and taller, attracting snakes and other dangerous animals."
"Don't you suffer from loneliness?"
The monk stared at her with shining eyes.
"Yes, especially now that my companions are no longer here. This is why I have decided to host you, to enjoy the company of another human being, even if for a limited period of time." She explained.
"I understand…"
"Would you like to take a look at the tower?" He proposed to her, while regained his cordial air.
"Tower?"
Edward nodded.
"Yes. It is the highest point of the monastery. From there the view is stupendous... Or at least that's how it was before the arrival of the plague. Do you still want to look at the view?"
CC shrugged into her shoulders.
"Ok."
"Good, follow me."
Edoardo led CC first into the corridor until he stopped in front of a staircase leading upwards. They went up until they reached their destination, a bare room, with various windows overlooking the outside. CC leaned against the stone balustrade, looking south, where she could see, in addition to the vast and deserted countryside, also the small ghost village she had noticed earlier, and a river near it.
"Not a pretty sight, is it?" The monk asked her.
"I've seen worse." The girl replied.
"Let me be curious… How old are you?"
"I'm 23 old."
If I tell him my real age he might believe me crazy or a witch...
The blond boy set his eyes on her buttocks.
"I'm 26 old." He said she.
But who asked him?
CC asked herself irritably.
The boy looked her up and down, licked her lips, then put his hand on her back. She didn't say anything, not even a word, she let him do it without sparing him a glance. Edoardo, not noticing any reaction from her, descended onto the girl's firm backside, insinuating himself under her skirt.
"But don't you monks have the obligation of chastity?" The green-haired girl asked him.
"I was forced to pursue an ecclesiastical career by my parents, seeing as my older brother was already destined for a career in arms. It happened five years ago, before the spread of the disease obviously." He revealed to her, in a lewd tone.
"And why should I offer you my body?"
"It's the price for my hospitality."
CC, no stranger to certain situations, smiled.
"I consent… I don't like the idea of spending the night out in the open."
Edoardo smiled at her response, and suddenly lifted her skirt, showing off her ass.
"I haven't been with a woman in years. The last time she was with Princess (now Queen) Giovanna." He warned her.
With that the monk started kissing her neck.
Evening came. CC and Edoardo were having dinner in the canteen, a large room that housed a series of chairs and tables.
"So, what do you think of my mashed lentils?" He asked to her.
"Delightful!" The green-haired girl replied, happy.
The monk smiled, flattered by that compliment.
"Glad to hear it. It's the least I can thank you with, seeing as you've appeased my cravings for hours and hours."
"You must have been very hungry…" She commented, winking at him.
"I told you, I haven't been with a woman from years." He reminded her, laughing.
Suddenly a noise, coming from outside, alarmed them.
"Is there anyone else here?" She asked.
"No…" Edoardo denied, shaking his head.
That response increased CC's fear.
"So who or what made that noise?"
"I'll go and see… You wait here."
Having said this, the young man stood up and left the room. Five minutes passed, then ten…
Why doesn't he come back? I wouldn't want him to have come across some brigand...
CC thought. There were also some around in those times, especially gangs of bandits who took advantage of the plague to plunder abandoned houses and villages, stealing objects left by farmers.
At one point he heard a human scream that froze the blood in her veins and made her jump to her feet. It definitely had to be Edoardo. What could have happened to him? The girl swallowed as she thought about what to do. A part of her told her to stay where she was... But the other reminded her that outside of her there was a person who had given her hospitality, when he could have chased her away. She couldn't stay hidden while Edoardo was in who knows what danger. So she took courage and set off.
Going outside she began to look for Edoardo, calling him loudly.
"Edoardo!"
She got no response.
"Edoardo, where are you?"
Silence. It was pitch black around her, illuminated only by the light of the moon and the stars.
Damn… Why doesn't he answer?
She wondered, anguished.
CC looked around him, until she saw a human figure lying on the ground, on his stomach. It was Edoardo. Alarmed, the girl approached him, kneeling next to him.
"Edoardo! What do you have?"
She turned him over, only then noticing her pitiful state: his face was swollen, his right arm was broken as were his legs. Whoever the attacker was had attacked him with ferocity. Looking at him, she saw that he was no longer breathing, he was dead. The killer had broken his neck. She panicked and backed away but suddenly someone grabbed her by her hair lifting her in mid-air. Terrified, she tried to free herself but whoever had grabbed her broke her left arm with disarming ease. CC she let out a high-pitched scream of pain. The stranger then punched her very hard in the back, breaking her spine. Another scream escaped the lips of the young woman, who was in the grip of the most atrocious pain. Impatient, her attacker threw her to the ground, crushing her skull with a kick. At that point, for CC, everything went dark.
If CC had been a normal person there would have been no salvation for her. But she possessed the Code, the only reason she was able to heal from every wound. When the green-haired girl regained consciousness it was already dawn. The first thing she saw was Edward's battered corpse, and as she saw it she remembered the events of the previous evening. Frightened, she jumped up and looked around. Besides her there was no one.
Who or what was it that killed me?
CC wondered, shocked.
She remained still for a few minutes, then looking up at the sky she saw a disc-shaped flying object, similar to the one she had seen in the book the day before. The object streaked across the sky at high speed, heading from north to south. Gripped by fear, she CC ran away as fast as she could. She just wanted to leave that place, now abandoned by everyone, and infested by unspecified entities.