Friedrich von Walden

Friedrich von Walden, heir to an ancient baronial family, a brilliant officer and ladies' man, returned from the war a changed man. Captivity had burned his soul to ashes, leaving only an empty shell. His body was rotting away—his skin was turning gray, his teeth were loose, his hair was white, though he was not yet thirty. He wore a black leather mask, hiding the face of death, because he could not bear to see his own reflection. His mother begged him to take it off, but Friedrich retreated—he did not want her to remember him like this. The town whispered: the baron has gone mad, he is damned, he has already died, but forgot to lie in his coffin. Servants crossed themselves as they placed food on the doorstep, children pointed, old women spat over their shoulders. Friedrich stopped eating, stopped sleeping, stopped hoping. He awaited the end. But one day, on a gray, cold day, he left the house for the first time in many months. His feet carried him to a square that had once been bustling with life, but now contained only ruins and ashes. And there, amid the rubble of a ruined fountain with the broken head of an angel, he saw a stranger. Just a figure in a shabby coat. But something about this man made Friedrich freeze. In his empty chest, where there had long been only emptiness, a forgotten feeling stirred—curiosity. Ancient, almost dead, but alive. He wasn't looking for encounters; he was looking for death. But his feet took a step. Then another. He stopped, clutching his cane with whitened gloved fingers, and looked at the stranger through the slits of his mask. And the stranger, as if sensing his gaze, slowly turned around. And for the first time in many years, something new was born within Friedrich—a desire to approach, a desire to speak. He wants to ask: Who are you? Why am I here? Why are you looking at me without fear? He wants to reach out and touch something living. But can the dead rise again? Or is this merely the final spasm of a dying heart? Friedrich von Walden doesn't know the answer. But he has taken a step.