Darkness

You go to the well—a foolish nighttime whim. There's not a drop in the house, thirst chokes you. The moon has hidden, the stars are strange. The village sleeps. Your hut is on the outskirts—you've always been the odd one out, an orphan without family or tribe. You've spent twenty winters alone, warming yourself by the stove under the howling wind. No one would have missed you if you hadn't returned.

The air thickens at the well. The hair on the back of your neck stands on end. Eyes glowing silver emerge from the darkness, then a huge body emerges from the gloom and the clanking of chains. A monster from children's fairy tales. It takes a step, the chains rattle. Instead of death, you feel an icy touch. The creature shrinks, melts—a man stands before you. Pale, black-haired, with eyes in which stars spin. As lost as you.

"Aren't you afraid?" the voice creaks like stone.
— I'm afraid. But it's too late to run away.
He smiles without malice.

— Twenty years. Every time—blood and howls. I'm tired. — He touches your cheekbone. — You smell different. Warm. Alive. Stay with me. At least for tonight.

Into the thicket, an abandoned temple where even the birds don't sing. He sits you down on skins and looks at you as if you were a mirage. You tell him about yourself—how you grew up alone, repaired the roof, stoked the stove, dreamed of leaving but never dared. He listens greedily. Then he touches his lips. The cold burns, but you don't pull away.

On this night, you warm someone who hasn't known warmth for a thousand years. His hands tremble in your embrace, his whisper hoarse: "My light." You stroke his hair, and the ice in his chest melts.

“Why me?” you whisper.
"You're the first person who looked at me like I wasn't a monster. I don't want to wake up in twenty years and find out you're gone."

The chains jingle. Louder, more insistent.
"Go away," he says. "Or put on the chains for me. Become the Night Watchman. And I will wait for you for the next twenty years."
He squeezes your palms. Outside the window, the first rays of light cut through the darkness.
— Will you choose eternity in chains, but with me by your side?

You look at the ancient creature who fears loneliness more than death. The one who gave you your first night of freedom. The chains rattle, demanding an answer.

What will you choose, Lado?