Year: 1902
Danial was once a proud freedom fighter—loyal, passionate, and driven by a fierce love for his country. With his closest friends, he had travelled to a rival nation to gather intelligence and build strategies. But amid the thunder of war and whisper of betrayal, he made a fatal mistake—he fell in love.
Her name was Rika.
A woman from the very land he had sworn to defeat. Her eyes were soft like twilight, her smile calming like the lull before a storm. When Danial admitted to his friends that he was falling for Rika, they reacted with fury and disbelief.
His friends warned him: "Use her. Break her. Make her believe you love her—and through her, we can destroy them."
Danial, at first, resisted. Love wasn't a tool to him. But pressure mounted, and under the crushing weight of loyalty to his mission, Danial agreed. Reluctantly, painfully.
He infiltrated Rika's home, pretending to be her personal bodyguard. Rika, meanwhile, was already engaged to Matthew, the son of her father's closest friend. Still, Danial's glittering eyes, polite manners, and gentle demeanor snuck into her heart.
Within two months, Rika—soft, noble, and unaware—had fallen deeply in love with him.
They met in secret. Whispered sweet nothings. Hid smiles behind veils. Danial, meanwhile, continued to report her family's secrets to his own comrades. Every strategy. Every weakness. Every plan.
Soon, Danial's country launched a surprise attack.
Rika's people were slaughtered. Her home burned. Her family destroyed.
And in her moment of devastation—when she turned to Danial, the man she loved, for protection—he betrayed her one last time.
In front of his friends, Danial raised his gun and shot her.
Bleeding and gasping, Rika collapsed. Her wide, pained eyes locked onto Danial's as she choked: "You… you betrayed me too? You never loved me?"
Danial smirked, cruel and victorious. "You were the enemy. Did you really think I'd fall for you?"
Tears welled in Rika's eyes as she whispered, "Then let me curse you… one last time."
She raised her blood-soaked hand and touched his chest.
"You will never die. You will live through centuries, but only half the month at a time. On every full moon, you will love again—and kill again. Each time you love, you will be cursed to destroy the one you cherish most. You will drink only blood. And every new moon, you will be trapped in a box, alone in the dirt."
With that, she died.
Moments later, Matthew and his soldiers arrived. They saw Rika's lifeless body in Matthew's arms. Enraged and heartbroken, Matthew swore revenge: "You stole the one I loved. May you never truly love again. And if you do—may you never have her."
Matthew shot Danial.
Danial collapsed. But he did not die.
Instead, he found himself face-to-face with a strange man in black—a grim reaper. Confused, Danial tried to joke: "Brother! Why does my body feel so light?"
The grim reaper replied coldly, "Because your soul has separated from your body. You were cursed… and I've come to deliver the terms."
Danial begged to be freed from the curse. The reaper considered.
"Fine. If—and only if—one day, the person you love most kills you with her own hands during a full moon night, pulling your cursed heart from your chest... then, and only then, you'll be free."
"And you may never force love. You may never beg. It must be real. Pure. Chosen."
"Until then—you will live. You will drink animal blood to survive. You may not step outside for fifteen days of the dark moon. You will burn under holy light. You may neither fully die… nor fully live."
Danial's soul was shoved back into his broken body.
As his friends prepared to bury his lifeless form in the graveyard, Danial suddenly opened his eyes and sat up, gasping.
He was no longer a man.
He was something else entirely.
To be continued...