Бесплатный фрагмент - The Story of one Awakening

Dear Reader

This is not just a book. You’re looking at a journey. A journey to the most secret corners of the human soul, where pain is intertwined with hope, and despair gives birth to incredible strength.

«Echoes of Silence» is the story of Elias Burton, a talented artist whose life was shattered by a single betrayal, locking him in voluntary recluse. But even in the most impenetrable darkness, there is always room for light. And when mysterious letters appear on the doorstep of his old home and an elusive shadow flickers in the depths of a broken mirror, Elias begins his painful but necessary return.

This novel will take you through labyrinths of deception and self-discovery. You will witness the struggle for justice, the uncovering of old secrets and difficult encounters with the past. You will feel how every brush stroke, every note, every word in this story is filled with sincere emotions — from searing pain to all-encompassing forgiveness.

Echoes of Silence has no one-size-fits-all answers. It invites you to ponder the nature of talent and envy, the cost of choice and the ability of human beings to find their own path to redemption. Perhaps in Elias’s story you will recognize a part of yourself, your own doubts and aspirations.

I hope this book will capture you from the first pages and leave a deep mark on your soul. May it become for you not just a story you read, but a mirror in which you will see your own possibilities for the Dawn.

Enjoy your reading.

Prologue

Silence had always been his companion. Not that comforting, deep silence that embraces the soul in a forest or on the top of a sleeping mountain. No. It was a different kind of silence-dense, sticky, like a spider’s web, woven of unspoken words and forgotten promises. It seeped through the thick walls of the old house, crawled into the cracks of the window frames, hung heavy and pressing in the air. He had long ago learned to breathe it, this silence, this dust of oblivion that settled on every object, on every memory.

Ten years. Ten years separated by the gulf between what he was and what he had become. Between Elias Burton, the genius whose brushstrokes whispered to the world about the invisible, and Elias, the recluse whose hands could only shakily take a cup of coffee to his lips. His studio, once flooded with light and filled with the smell of paint, was now a crypt. An easel stood in the center, covered by a faded canvas like a mute accusation. Beneath it were hundreds of other, equally mute, sealed canvases, each holding not a painting but a fragment of a soul frozen in time.

He remembered the day his world came crashing down. The flashes of cameras, the noise of admiring voices, the promise of fame. And her eyes. Anna’s eyes, in which he had seen only love and faith. Eyes that carried something else in them — a harbinger of imminent disaster. And then her words, scathing like the blow of a whip, had turned his talent, his future, his very existence into ashes. She sold him. Sold him for money, for power, for the place that should have been his.

He’s been dead to the world ever since. And the world died to him.

But even in this dense, all-consuming silence, a whisper was sometimes heard. A whisper brought by the wind, seeping through the cracks under the door in the form of a white envelope with a single word. Words that were absurd, meaningless, but which, like drops of poison, were slowly eating away at his apathy. «DUSK.» «SHADOW.» «LABYRINTH.»

And then one day, through the dust and oblivion, Elias saw something in the eyes of the painted Anna in the old portrait that stood in his studio. A barely perceptible glare. A tiny, distorted reflection. A reflection that carried far more than just light. It carried a hint. A hint of the presence of a third. A hint of a lie that was deeper than he could imagine.

Silence. She was still his companion. But now she wasn’t dead. It was tense. Filled with anticipation. Because Elias Burton, the man who had buried himself alive, felt something forgotten in him awaken. Something stronger than apathy, stronger than fear.

Thirst for truth.

And he knew that when the real dawn came, it wouldn’t just be a new day. It would be the end of a long night. And the beginning of his personal battle for justice.

Chapter 1: Whispers of the Canvas and Echoes of the Past

Elias’s mornings always began with silence. Not the soothing, peaceful silence of a deep forest or a mountaintop, but the dense, crushing silence of the old house, swallowing up sounds like a thick fog. It seeped through the thick walls, crawled into the cracks of the window frames, hung heavy in the air like a spider’s web of unspoken words and forgotten memories. He didn’t wake up, no. He was just slowly drifting out of the nothingness of sleep, where his only companion was the same silent gloom, into the nothingness of wakefulness.

The sun, if it managed to get through the perpetually closed blinds, only glided in pale streaks across the wiped parquet of his second-floor workshop. It was the largest room in the house, with huge windows that once should have flooded it with light but now seemed more like portals to an invisible world. In fact, Elias had closed them himself. Too much light, too much reality.

He never set the alarm clock. Why would he? The days had long since ceased to be different from one another. Up at seven, no breakfast. Coffee, black as his soul, on the old, scrubby kitchen table. Then a leisurely, almost ritualistic climb up the creaky steps to the workshop. There, in the center of the room, under a blanket of faded canvas, stood him — his easel. His only refuge, his silent confessor, his curse.

Elias didn’t paint. He hadn’t for years. His hands, which had once worked wonders on canvas, were now mere tools for the most basic needs: lifting a cup, turning a page of newspaper, wiping dust off polished surfaces that no one but he watched. Canvases, hundreds of them, stood along the walls, neatly folded, leaning against each other. Each one was sealed, like a tombstone burying not a painting but a part of his soul. He couldn’t throw them away, couldn’t burn them. They were part of him, and each such «slab» was a mute reproach, a testimony to his former greatness and his present collapse.

This morning was no different. Elias slowly ran his hand over the dusty surface of the old dresser. His fingers, once sensitive to the slightest nuances of texture, now felt only rough dust. He sighed, and that sigh carried through the room like an old gramophone making one last squeak before it stopped. Going to the window, he carefully opened one of the slats of the blinds. A narrow strip of light cut through the twilight like a blade, and he squeezed his eyes shut. The street below was empty. No cars, no people, not even stray dogs. The old, ivy-covered fence seemed to hold not only the perimeter of his lot, but time itself, making it flow slower, more viscous.

He let go of the blinds. Ordinariness enveloped him again. The letter carrier. He should be here soon. The only connection to the outside world, and even that was questionable. Not that he was expecting anything. Just habit. Years of habit, embedded in his subcortex, like the smell of turpentine in his old, living workshop.

Elias moved toward an old chair upholstered in faded velvet. He sank into it, feeling the springs sigh under his weight. An old, tattered book clutched in his hand. He wasn’t reading it, just holding it. The heaviness of the volume, the smell of it, it was all part of the ritual. His eyes glided over the lines, but his mind was far away. He was in another time, in another life that seemed to belong to a completely different person.

«Talent is a curse, Elias, if not managed,» came the voice in his head that he had carefully tried to drown out over the years. Anna’s voice. Her words were always as sharp as a pencil and as precise as a brush stroke. She knew him better than anyone. She was his muse, his critic, his manager. And his betrayer.

The memory came on suddenly, like a wave on the shore, leaving behind only the bitter taste of salt. He felt his heart clench. The old, nagging ache that he’d learned to ignore, but that never fully went away. It was always there, smoldering beneath the surface, ready to flare up at any moment.

That was ten years ago. Or was it a hundred? Time had erased the clear boundaries, leaving only a blurry blur of searing pain. His exhibition. The culmination of his entire life, years of painstaking labor, dozens of paintings, in each of which he put a part of his soul. Critics called him a genius, a new voice in art, prophesied his world fame. Anna was by his side, always, her brilliant eyes shining with pride, her words of support were a balm for his ever-doubting nature.

He remembered the day he had come to the opening. The hall was full. The murmur of voices, the flash of cameras, the sparkle of champagne glasses. He stood in the center, feeling on top of the world. And then…

Then Anna took him aside. Her face was pale, her eyes glittering feverishly. «Elias, I… I couldn’t help myself. I’ve been offered a deal. Huge sums of money. They wanted your… your work. For themselves. I promised them exclusivity. Forever. You can never exhibit again. Ever.»

Her words seemed absurd at the time, a joke. But the look in her eyes… He couldn’t believe it. Anna, his Anna, had sold his talent, his future, his life, like a commodity on the market. He remembered the air gone from his lungs, the ground gone from under his feet. The galore, the screams, the flashes, it all suddenly took on a surreal hue, becoming the setting for the worst nightmare. His name, his fame, his future — it had all been stolen from him, sold for money he never saw, never wanted to see.

From that moment on, the world around him began to crumble. Contracts were being canceled, galleries were refusing him. His name became toxic. He tried to fight, but without Anna, who was his only link to the art world, he was helpless. She simply disappeared, leaving behind only the ruins of his career and soul. He locked himself in this house that had once been his bastion of creativity, but was now his prison. The paints dried up in tubes, the brushes hardened, and the canvases, once clean and full of potential, became white shrouds for his unborn masterpieces.

He hated her. No, he didn’t hate her. It was something much deeper than hate. It was pain mixed with disappointment, with a sense of irreparable loss. The loss not only of his career, but of his faith in people, in intimacy, in love.

The thoughts were interrupted. Somewhere downstairs, on the first floor, there was a light knock. The letter carrier.

Elias rose slowly. Every movement seemed like an effort. He descended the stairs, his steps heavy, like a man carrying an impossible burden. In the hallway, on the floor, through a slit in the door, lay an envelope. White, unmarked and without return address. Exactly like the hundreds of others he’d received over the past five years.

He bent down, picked it up. His fingers felt the thin, slightly rough paper. He ran his thumb slowly over the surface, as if trying to read something between the lines, to catch some invisible meaning. His eyes, gray and tired, focused on a single word written in calligraphic, elegant handwriting. A handwriting that was painfully familiar to him.

«DUSSELS.»

One word. Every day, a new word. Sometimes they were ordinary words: «Autumn», «Rain», «Stone». Sometimes they were more abstract: «Dream,» «Echo,» «Oblivion.» But there was never anything that directly indicated the sender or purpose of these messages. He tried to analyze them, to find a pattern, but to no avail. They were meaningless, and yet… there was something about them. Something that kept him going, something that kept him afloat in this sea of loneliness.

Today’s word — «Dawn» — struck him as particularly cynical. What dawn? There had been no dawns in his life for a long time, only an endless twilight day followed by an equally endless twilight night.

He placed the envelope on the antique table in the hallway, next to a stack of other letters just like it that he had never thrown away. They were his personal collection of riddles, his unsolved rebus. He went back to the workshop. The streak of sunlight streaming through the blinds now fell directly on the easel standing in the center. The white canvas, under the coverlet, seemed even whiter in this ray.

Suddenly, on an impulse he could not explain, Elias reached for the bedspread. His fingers touched the rough fabric. He felt something inside him tremble. It was like touching a sleeping beast that was about to wake up. He knew he shouldn’t. Knew it would only bring pain. But there was something in the word «DUSK» that whispered to him: look.

He pulled down the bedspread. The canvas was clean. For ten years it had stood there, pristine white, waiting for the touch of a brush. But Elias did not pick up the brush. Instead, he walked over to one of the closed canvases against the wall. That one was the size of a door. He carefully turned it over, careful not to make any unnecessary movements.

A painting appeared before him. It was painted in his late, «golden» period, shortly before his collapse. It was a portrait. A portrait of Anna.

Her eyes, deep, sparkling with laughter, looked straight at him. Her lips were slightly open, as if she were about to say something. Her red hair, spilling over her shoulders, seemed alive, fluttering in the breeze. He remembered how long he had worked on this painting, putting all his love and admiration into it. She was his ideal, his inspiration, his everything.

Elias reached out and slowly touched her painted face. The cold, rough surface of the canvas. He closed his eyes, and her voice, her words of betrayal, came back into his mind. And then… he was overcome by a sensation he hadn’t felt in a long time.

It wasn’t just a memory. It was a feeling. The feeling that the painting was looking at him. That Anna, painted by him, was trying to tell him something. Not with words, but with a look, a facial expression. Something he had missed then, in the maelstrom of pain and anger. Something important.

For the first time in years, Elias felt not just despair, but a thin thread pulling from the past. A thread woven from incompleteness, from unspoken words. And in that thread, like a spark, something like… curiosity. curiosity.

Who’s sending these letters? Why is it «Dawn» today? And what was Anna trying to tell him from that canvas? For the first time in a long time, the familiar, stifling silence of his house did not seem so dense. Through it, very quietly but insistently, a whisper of some kind was breaking through. A whisper of the past, calling to him.

Chapter 2: Touching the Shadow

The silence in the studio seemed to grow thicker, but it was no longer a deaf, dead silence, but rather a tense, ringing stillness, as before a thunderstorm. Elias stood in front of Anna’s portrait, his fingers still touching the canvas, feeling its cool, slightly rough surface. He wanted to yank his hand away, to pull away from this image that had once been the embodiment of his love and now was a symbol of his fall. But he couldn’t. The painting held him, attracted him with some new, inexplicable force.

Her eyes. He’d always remembered their brilliance, their liveliness. Now there was something different in them. Not mockery, not regret, not even indifference. Something elusive, something that demanded to be unraveled. It was as if the painted Anna were trying to tell him something important, something he had stubbornly refused to hear all these years, hiding behind the walls of his anger and resentment.

Elias sank slowly to the floor, never taking his eyes off the portrait. His legs felt as if they were shaky. He felt suddenly weak, as if he had been ill for a long time. For the first time in a long time, this house, this refuge, seemed to him not a fortress, but a crypt, where he had voluntarily buried himself alive. And now, after ten years, something began to breathe in that crypt, something that was much more alive than he was.

Thoughts fluttered around in my head like caught birds. «Dawn.» That word from the letter. He tried to connect it to Anna’s image, to the betrayal, but the meaning eluded him. What kind of dawn could there be after such a hopeless night? What could rise after his world had been razed to the ground?

He closed his eyes. The memories came back with renewed force, no longer just fragments, but a coherent, painful movie. He saw himself young, full of strength and ambition. His hands, confidently leading the brush on the canvas. Each stroke was an embodiment of an idea, each line an emotion. He remembered the smell of paint, the sound of solvent, the rustle of canvas under the brush. It was his element, his air. He was born to paint. And Anna was there for him.

Their meeting was like a lightning strike. He, then a little-known artist, exhibited in a tiny gallery on the outskirts of the city. She was an art student, bright, intelligent, with eyes full of fire. She immediately saw something in him that others didn’t. Not just talent, but something more — providence, the ability to convey on canvas the very essence of the human soul.

«Elias, you’re a genius,» she whispered to him, her breath tickling his ear as they sat until dawn in his then small studio, «you’re going to change the art world. I know it. I can feel it.»

Her faith was his fuel. Her energy was its engine. She took care of everything: finding galleries, negotiating, promoting. He just painted. He created, and she created the space for him to create. She was his voice, his shield from the harsh world of business. He trusted her completely. Trusted her more than he trusted himself. It was the total, blind trust of a man consumed by his art, the person he thought understood it best.

But there was one shadow he hadn’t noticed at the time. Or didn’t want to notice. Anna had always been incredibly ambitious. He appreciated that in her, seeing her drive for success as part of their shared path. She wanted not just fame for him, but unconditional, undeniable greatness. And he, in his creative frenzy, didn’t realize how perverse that desire could become.

He remembered their last conversation, the one that had taken place the week before the exhibition. They had been sitting in a café flooded with sunlight. Anna looked unusually excited. «Elias, I’ve received an incredible offer,» she said, her eyes running around, «From the Absolut Foundation. They’re willing to invest millions in your name. To make you the most influential artist of our time. But… there’s one condition.» He waved it away then. «There are always conditions, Anna. What’s the condition?» «They want an exclusive. Complete. All your work, present and future, will have to belong to them alone. No exhibitions, no selling to others. Only they will decide how and where to show your paintings. In essence, you will be creating for them.» Elias laughed then. «Bullshit! I won’t be able to work like that. I’m not their property. My art is my freedom. It is my breath. Tell them no, Anna. Tell them we are going our own way.» Anna only smiled weakly then. «Of course, Elias. Whatever you say.» He was not alarmed by her strange calmness then. He was dazzled by the anticipation of the exhibition, his ego inflated to the heavens. He couldn’t even imagine that she’d already made her decision, that she’d already sold him.

And now he sits here, ten years later, in front of that damned portrait, and realizes that that smile was not consent, but anticipation of his own triumph. A triumph built on his ruins.

Bitterness filled his mouth again, but something else was mixed in. A confusion. Why? Why would she do such a thing? For money? For power? Or for something else he still couldn’t fathom? She knew how much he valued artistic freedom. She knew that to him, it was the same as taking his breath away. And she did it anyway.

Suddenly Elias’s gaze fell on the small, almost imperceptible glare in Anna’s eyes in the portrait. He squinted at it. There, in the depths of her pupil, was a tiny, barely perceptible glow. Not just a light, but a sort of… reflection. He stood up slowly, stepped closer. It was strange. It seemed as if that glow wasn’t just a glare, but something that had appeared there after the painting had been completed. Or maybe he had just never paid attention to it before, absorbed in the overall image.

He leaned closer, almost touching the canvas with his nose. The glow was so small that it was barely distinguishable. But the longer he stared, the clearer it became that it wasn’t an accidental glare. It was… a reflection of something. Something that had been there with Anna at the moment he’d written it.

He closed his eyes, trying to replay in his mind the day he had worked on that portrait. They were in his old studio. The sun was shining through the large window. Anna was sitting in an armchair. He remembered every detail of her face, every movement of her eyelashes. But what could have been in her eyes?

Then Elias remembered. Across from her, at the other end of the room, stood a large, antique mirror in a carved frame that he used to see the whole picture, to make quick assessments from afar. A mirror he later sold when he sold off the remnants of his past life. So what he saw in her eyes was a reflection of that mirror? But why did it seem so strange? So… wrong?

He stepped back. He looked at the portrait again. And then it hit him. If it was the reflection of a mirror, what should it reflect? A room. A workshop. But what he saw in Anna’s pupil was just a tiny dot of light. Perhaps it was just some kind of aberration? Or a play of light and shadow?

But something inside him refused to accept this explanation. Intuition, his old, rusty artist’s intuition that had always led him to truth in art, whispered: «Look closer. There’s something there.»

Suddenly, a crazy thought occurred to him. What if it’s not just a reflection of the room? What if it was a reflection of something inside the mirror? Or a reflection of what was behind the mirror, at the moment Anna posed? It was absurd, but his mind, for the first time in years, began to work, to search, to analyze.

He walked over to the stack of other paintings again. His gaze fell on one of them, standing slightly off to the side. He remembered it. It was a sketch. A sketch for another series, never completed, on which he had begun work after the portrait of Anne, but before the exhibition. The sketch had been made in the same studio, in the same light.

Slowly, almost reverently, he removed the veil from this painting. It was a quick, dynamic study of a dancer. There must have been a reflection in her eyes, too, he knew, if she was posing in the same spot. He squinted, peering into the tiny pupils. And there, in one of them, he saw the same, strange, tiny glare. But this time it was a little more discernible, as if a little more light had hit it. And Elias saw it.

It wasn’t just a reflection. It was something behind the mirror. Or at least it seemed to be. A blurry, almost indistinguishable blur, but he had a feeling that it was… a figure. A human figure, hidden from direct view, but captured by the reflection in the model’s eye, and then transferred to the canvas by his subconscious.

Elias’s heart beat faster. He wasn’t paranoid, didn’t believe in ghosts. But this was too strange, too inexplicable. Who could be behind the mirror in his workshop? In his private workshop, closed to everyone but Anna?

Cold sweat broke out on his forehead. His whole theory about Anna’s betrayal was based on the fact that she had acted alone. But what if she hadn’t? What if she wasn’t alone? What if there was someone else behind her back, or beside her, someone else who was directing her actions, or was an accomplice?

The thought was so shocking, so undermining of his decades-old beliefs, that he faltered. He looked again at Anna’s portrait. Her eyes now seemed to be not just looking at him, but hiding a terrible secret. A secret that was literally sealed in her gaze.

His gaze flickered to the envelope labeled «DUSK». Connection. There had to be a connection here somewhere. «Dawn is the beginning of something new. Maybe the beginning of a clue? Unraveling what really happened ten years ago?

For the first time in a very long time, something more than apathy awoke in Elias. It was a thirst for the truth. This thirst was acute, almost physical. He had to know. Had to figure out what that figure was, if it was there. And who was sending him those damn letters.

The world he had so carefully built around himself-a world of loneliness and ignorance-began to crack. And through those cracks, like the first rays of the morning sun, there was something that looked like hope. Hope, not for forgiveness, not for a return to former glory, but for understanding. An understanding that might be the only way to a true dawn.

Chapter 3: Shadow from the Looking Glass

A shiver ran through Elias’s body, though there was no draft in the room. It was not cold, but a chill of anticipation mixed with terror. The mysterious glare in Anna’s eyes in the portrait, and then in the other study, kept him awake. A figure. A blurred, elusive, but definitely a figure standing behind the mirror. The thought of it was absurd, bordering on insanity, but his mind, dormant for a decade, was now working at feverish speed.

He leaned toward the portrait again. His eyes, which had once seen the world in shades and halftones, were now searching for just that tiny hint of something hidden. If there was a figure there, who was it? And why would Anna, his Anna, allow someone to witness their private, creative moments? Especially if it involved her betrayal.

Elias pulled away from the painting and looked around slowly. For ten years he had lived in this house, which had once been his parents’ home and then had become his own studio. Every corner, every speck of dust here was familiar. He’d sold almost all the furniture, leaving only the essentials. A mirror. That old mirror in the carved frame. He remembered it. It stood in the corner, reflecting the light from the windows, giving the illusion of extra space.

When he sold things after the art world closed its doors to him, the mirror was one of the first things to go. He hadn’t thought of it then. Just an unnecessary object that reminded him of a past, non-existent life. But now…

He tried to remember who he had sold it to. After so many years, it seemed impossible. People came and went, taking his furniture, his paintings (the ones that remained), his belongings. The faces blended into one blurred mass.

But a name. There had to be a name. He went back to the old dresser, opened the drawer. Old papers lay there: bank statements, utility bills, receipts. All that remained of his former, orderly life. His fingers trembled as he thumbed through the yellowed sheets. Dust rose in light clouds, making him sneeze.

Finally, under a stack of old newspapers, he found it. A small, neatly handwritten receipt. It was dated a month after that fateful exhibition. «Mirror, framed in walnut. «Sold to Mrs. Evelyn Stone. Address: 17 Elm Street.»

Evelyn Stone. The name didn’t tell him anything. He’d never heard of her. But the address. Elm Street. It was one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city, far from downtown, in a part he rarely visited.

«17 Elm Street.» This information, seemingly so insignificant, suddenly became a beacon in his foggy mind. It was a clue. The first real, tangible lead in ten years.

Elias felt a surge of energy, long forgotten, almost frightening in its intensity. His legs, which a moment ago had felt like cotton balls, were now ready to run. He had to find that mirror. He had to see it, maybe touch it. To see what it reflected now. Or to understand why it had reflected that figure then.

He headed for the phone. An old, disk phone that stood in the hallway. He hadn’t used it in years. His cell phone, if it existed at all, lay somewhere in the bowels of the closet, unloaded and forgotten. He picked up the phone. There was no dial tone. Of course there was. He’d long ago disconnected the landline to minimize contact with the outside world.

Disappointment pricked him, but was immediately supplanted by determination. Walk, then. Or by bus. Or whatever. He must get out of this house. For the first time in a long time, the thought didn’t cause panic, only impatience.

He quickly went up to the bedroom, pulled on the simplest of clothes — old jeans and a faded shirt. He found the keys to the front door, which felt foreign in his hand. His fingers absently felt them, remembering their shape.

Before going out, he paused in the hallway. His gaze fell on an envelope labeled «DUSK.» He picked it up. Swiped his thumb across the word. Perhaps it wasn’t just a cynical message. Perhaps it was a clue. A symbol that his private night was over. That it was time for clarity.

As he stepped out of the house, Elias felt the sunlight, unaccustomed to his face, hit his eyes painfully. He squeezed his eyes shut, then slowly opened them. The world around him was as he had left it ten years ago, but now he saw it differently. The trees seemed greener, the sky seemed bluer, and the air seemed fresher. Or was it just his perception that had changed?

He inhaled deeply, smelling the smells of the city — gasoline, wet earth, flowers. It was strange. Unpleasant and at the same time...alive. He felt like a stranger in this world, like a time traveler landing in an unfamiliar century.

It was quite a long way to Elm Street. He decided to walk to get used to his surroundings, the people, the noise. It was hard at first. Every step seemed like a challenge. His body, used to a sedentary lifestyle, protested. His legs ached, his lungs burned. But he kept walking.

Cars whizzed past him, children laughing, people running. He watched them as if they were aliens. On their faces he could read their worries, their joys, their ordinariness. He felt cut off, as if an invisible wall separated him from the living, moving world. He was an observer, not a participant.

As he moved away from his neighborhood, the houses grew older, the streets narrower, the trees taller, creating tunnels of foliage. Elm Street was exactly as he’d envisioned it: quiet, almost abandoned, with houses that breathed history but also dilapidation. Some of the windows were broken, the roofs were failing. It was a neighborhood forgotten by time.

Number 17. It was an old, two-story mansion buried in a thicket of wild grapes. Its fence, once perhaps majestic, was now gnarled and moss-covered. The windows were covered with heavy, dusty curtains that let in not a single ray of light. The house looked as if no one had lived in it for years.

Elias felt a pang of disappointment. He’d come all this way, hoping for a clue, but instead all he’d found was an abandoned house. Or had he?

He went to the wicket. It was locked with a rusty deadbolt. He tried to push it open, but it wouldn’t budge. Then, he noticed a small, faded sign next to the door, nailed to the leaning jamb. «For Sale. Time and Memory Real Estate Agency.» And a phone number.

Time and Memory. The title seemed ironic, almost mocking. This is what he had lost. Time and memory. But now, perhaps he was on his way to getting them back.

He took out of his pocket the old notebook and pencil he had always carried with him for some reason. With difficulty, his fingers a little stiff from the unfamiliar road, he wrote down the phone number.

What’s next? Call the agency? Explain why he needed to see an old mirror in a possibly already sold or listed house? It sounded like madness. Who would believe him? The real estate agent would probably just think he was crazy.

Elias walked around the house. The backyard was overgrown, jungle-like. He saw the back door boarded up. An outhouse, a shed, a dilapidated gazebo. No sign of life. No sign that anyone lived here or had been here recently.

He sat down on an old, fallen bench buried in the weeds. His head rumbled again. Perhaps this was a dead end. Perhaps this shadow chase was just another manifestation of his madness. For ten years he had been hiding from the world, and now that he dared to come out, the world met him with an empty house and closed doors.

But then he remembered Anna’s portrait. Her eyes. That tiny glare. It was there. It was real. It wasn’t his imagination. And he couldn’t just give up.

He pulled out his cell phone. It was an old, button cell phone, long forgotten. He’d slipped it into his pocket when he left the house, just in case. It was dead now. He remembered that he had a portable battery in his old backpack, the one he used to take with him when he went to plein air painting. The backpack was in the pantry.

He took a deep breath. This journey was a test. A test of how badly he wanted to know the truth. And he did. Wanted it as badly as he hadn’t wanted anything in ten years.

With that thought, he stood up. A fire glinted in his eyes for the first time in a long time. Not the fire of joy, but the fire of determination. He would go home. Charge his cell phone. And call the agency. Even if they think he’s crazy. Because he has nothing left to lose. He’d already lost everything. And now he was ready to fight for the only thing he had left, the truth. To unravel this mystery that might free him from the shackles of his past.

Chapter 4: A Call to the Unknown

The way home was harder than the way there. The fatigue of ten years of inactivity was making itself felt. Every movement felt like an aching pain in my muscles. But it was different now. Not that oppressive, dull pain of apathy, but a lively, almost pleasant pain of effort. A pain that told him he was moving, that he was alive.

When Elias finally reached his home, the sun was already beginning to set, coloring the sky in shades of orange and purple. He hadn’t even noticed how the time had passed. The whole day, which usually stretched on endlessly, now flashed by, consumed by a single purpose.

The first thing he did was head to the pantry. He found his backpack among a pile of old rags and empty cans. It was the same old one, with faded straps and paint stains. It smelled of memories — the fresh air of plein air, the smell of grass and distant forests. He took out his portable charger and his old cell phone.

The phone was like an artifact from another era. A push-button, with a small monochrome screen. He plugged it into the battery, and the screen lit up with a tiny battery icon, slowly but surely filling up. He felt impatience. This waiting was almost unbearable, but he knew that rushing was pointless.

While the phone charged, Elias returned to the studio. The twilight light was falling on Anna’s portrait, making her features softer, almost ghostly. He approached her again, but this time not with pain and anger, but with a new, sharp sense of mystery.

He closed his eyes, trying to visualize that scene. Anna sitting, posing, laughing. And behind the mirror, in his own studio, someone is hiding. Who? And why? Could he have seen it? Could he have been so blinded by his passion for art and for her that he didn’t see the obvious?

The word from the letter came back to his mind: «DUSK». He realized what it meant. This is not just the dawn of a new day. It was the dawn of truth. The light that was to shine on his past, illuminating every dark secret.

When the charging indicator on his phone showed a full battery, Elias felt his heart twitch. This was it, the moment of truth. He pulled out a notepad, found the number of the real estate agency. His fingers fumbled for the buttons. His hands had grown accustomed to the brush, to the delicate movements. Dialing the number seemed unnatural, alien.

He dialed. Long beeps. His breathing quickened. He waited, preparing himself for disappointment, for no one to answer or to be sent away. «Hello, Time and Memory Real Estate Agency, I’m listening to you,» came a polite but tired female voice in the receiver.

Elias hesitated for a moment. The voice was unfamiliar, but there was a tinge of professionalism mixed with the monotony of routine. «Hello,» his own voice sounded hoarse, unfamiliar, as if he hadn’t used it in a long time. He cleared his throat. «My name is Elias. Elias Burton.»

There was a short pause on the other end of the phone. He expected a question, a confirmation, but instead something else followed. «Elias Burton? Are you… the Elias Burton?» — There was surprise in the woman’s voice, mixed with some hidden emotion. It was as if she recognized a name that had long been forgotten.

That reaction took him by surprise. His name? After everything that had happened? «Yes, it’s me,» he answered, feeling the tension building. «I’m calling about the house at 17 Elm Street. Your for sale sign is hanging there.»

«Ah, yes, of course. Mrs. Stone’s house. It’s-yes, it’s for sale. But you… you’re not interested in buying it, are you, Mr. Burton?» — There was a note of caution in her voice.

Elias realized he would have to explain. And it was going to be complicated. «No, I’m not going to buy it. I… I need to get inside. There’s this antique mirror in there that used to belong to me. I sold it to Mrs. Stone years ago. I…I need to see it. It’s very important.»

Another pause. A longer one this time. He imagined her probably frowning, trying to figure out if she was dealing with a madman or someone else. «A mirror, you say? Mr. Burton, I’m sorry, but we can’t just let a stranger into the house. Especially over some old mirror. We have strict rules of confidentiality and security. And if you’re not a potential buyer, then…»

«Listen,» Elias interrupted her, a note of desperation in his voice that he couldn’t hide. «I realize this sounds crazy. But this isn’t just a mirror. It’s connected to my past. With my… career. With the things that ruined my life. I think it might shed some light on what really happened. Please. It’s a matter of my life. I’m willing to pay. Any amount. Just let me come in and look at it.»

There was dead silence. Elias heard only his own heartbeat. He realized that he was putting everything at stake. That his desperate plea might seem ridiculous.

«Mr. Burton,» the woman finally said, her voice quieter, almost pensive. «Я… I’ve heard of you. Your name… it conjures up many things. My grandmother was a great admirer of your art. She used to say that your paintings… they were alive. And when you disappeared… it was a great shock to many.»

Elias felt something tremble in his chest. An unexpected confession. He didn’t think anyone else remembered him. That anyone else appreciated his past. «Thank you,» he murmured, his voice graying again.

«But that doesn’t change the situation of the house, Mr. Burton,» she continued, but her tone became softer, more human. «Mrs. Stone-she’s dead. The house is in the probate process right now. And we can’t just let you inside. However…»

She mewled. Elias held his breath. «What ’however’?»

«However… there is something I can do for you. Perhaps. I’ll try to contact her lawyer. Explain the situation. Maybe they can make an exception, given… your reputation and what you say. But I can’t promise anything. It could take time. And I don’t know if that mirror is even in the house. It may have been sold or thrown away.»

Elias’s heart fell. Sold. Thrown away. The thought was unbearable. But then he grasped at the words «maybe» and «I’ll try.» It wasn’t rejection. It was hope.

«Please,» he said, putting all his pleading into that word. «Do what you can. I’ll wait. As long as it takes.»

«Okay, Mr. Burton. Leave your phone number. I’ll get back to you as soon as I know something.»

Elias dictated the number that now seemed so important to him. He ended the call and slowly lowered the receiver. The house fell into silence again, but now it was a different kind of silence. Not the silence of despair, but the silence of waiting.

He returned to the workshop. The sun was almost down, and the room was in twilight. Anna’s portrait shimmered faintly in the last rays of light. He sat down in his chair, feeling a strange mixture of fatigue and excitement. He took the first step. He stepped out of his voluntary confinement. And the world he had ignored for so long now seemed to respond to him.

The letter «DISTANCE» was on the table in the hallway. Elias felt that the word had even more meaning now. Perhaps it wasn’t just a hint. Perhaps it was a promise. A promise that after a long night, there would indeed be a dawn in his life. A dawn of truth that would reveal all the shadows of the past.

Chapter 5: Waiting and Believing

The days dragged on, colored with a new, unfamiliar hue. Anticipation. This waiting was not like the aimless languor in which Elias had spent the last ten years. It was a living, pulsing feeling, filling every moment with meaning, albeit uncertain. He no longer simply existed; he waited. Waiting for the call that could change everything.

The routine of his life, once unshakable, was now cracking. He still got up early and drank his black coffee, but now his movements were no longer sluggish, but newly focused. He often went to the window in the studio, opening the blinds to look outside. Not because he was waiting for something outside, but because the outside world seemed real to him for the first time in a long time, part of his own, resurgent history.

The cell phone lay on the hallway table, next to a stack of letters with no return address. Charged, ready to ring. He checked it every few hours, just to make sure it was working, that the connection hadn’t dropped. It was his only bridge to the possibility of solving the mystery.

Every morning a new envelope appeared on the floor. The word changed. «SUNSET,» «MAZE,» «SHADOW.» These words were no longer seen by him as meaningless messages, but as pieces of some message, a puzzle he had to solve. «Sunset» was perhaps the end of something that came before «Dawn»? «Labyrinth» is the path he is now traveling? «Shadow» — a hint of the figure he saw in the reflection? His mind, accustomed to emptiness over the years, was now frantically searching for connections, weaving a web of meanings.

He reread the old letters, trying to find hidden messages in them that he hadn’t realized before. Each word now seemed meaningful, each letter part of a larger cipher. He spread them out on the table, trying to line them up in a sequence that might lead to a clue. But to no avail. They were still just individual words, but now their meaninglessness was intriguing rather than annoying.