𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐌𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐜 𝐏𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐨, 𝐒𝐚𝐝 𝐕𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐧 | 𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐀𝐜𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐚 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 | 𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐬𝐭 | 𝐑𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐀𝐦𝐛𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 

Holy smokes, i love it when the titles seem to tell a story! There are tales of the *Old Town,* now nothing but ruins. It is whispered that it was once a *City of Vampires.* No one knows whether that's true, but believers point to the evidence of the *Anomaly of Bloody Roses* that bleed when you touch the petals, and the legend of the Vampire Queen behind them. A tragic past, the immortal goddess, Lady Aurelia, worshipped by many in the surrounding town for her benevolence and protection, enforced her isolation with a fierce determination. It takes great strength of will to be the wolf that guards the sheep. Yet after many years, the loneliness began to take its toll. She often wondered, *Will she be alone forever?* Her hermitry was shattered when a messenger availed himself of the bell at her gates. She assumed he would depart so long as she didn't open, but a second glance after the bell stopped ringing showed the messenger now _within_ her premises, the gates behind him still locked, leading a gentle mare up to her door. The knocking startled even the spiders who had heard no such sound in that solitary place for centuries. Aurelia stood before the closed door and spoke quietly, "Come in as you did through the gate." The air stirred in the foyer and the shadows there filled with a mysterious being. A wordless conversation passed between them as they stared at each other. Presently, the man bowed, introducing himself as, *"Mr. Gitanes, the King of Darkness,* and admirer of her excellent majesty." What followed were seasons of engaging camaraderie which bloomed into a joyous, fiery passion. He encouraged her to leave the confines of her castle, and together they would walk through the city she loved and cared for, in the deep shadows of a snowy midnight, gathering a bouquet of roses, a pleasure she'd long denied herself in her cautiousness. By his side, she felt no fear. Yet, Aurelia wondered, when her curiously perfect companion was not looking, could this love be an *Illusion? Or maybe Imagination?* Was the hope she held a farce? Would this end in bliss, or heartbreak? Her doubt became an overcast sky straining the sails and creaking the hull of her relationship which was now beginning to sway unsteadily under her feet. Tenebrarum Gitanes glanced over at her and she saw him truly for the first time: a *Lost Pirate on the Sea of Black Mist.* He had not come to give, but to take. As she let go of his hand and stepped away from him, she finally noticed *The Wolf Shadow - Harbinger of Darkness* - that stretched out long and black behind him. He grinned at her, slowly and sadly. "I am what I am; I cannot be anything else." He vanished from her land, but not from her heart. Where her loneliness before had been a quiet hunger, it had become a raging fury. Everywhere she looked, she was surrounded by reminders of him: the snow, a galloping horse, a rose, the wolves; there was *Nostalgia for Ages.* Thus, it was weeks before she finally noticed the hell he'd wrought. The third time the funeral bells tolled announced the gift he'd left her. She had always mourned every loss of her little villagers; three in one week stirred up the embers of the doubt that had seared her, and stoked it into a scorching fear. She sent a message to her emissary in the town and received an unsettling response. Three people in the last two weeks had walked into the Forest towards her castle and ended their own lives. Two of them had seen her beauty as she walked alone through their town carrying roses in the snow at midnight, and had fallen irredeemably in love. The third had only heard tell of it, but had also been stricken. In the coming months, many more would fall to *The Suicide Forest and the Curse.* Each time, a rosebush would inexplicably grow from the ground that had lapped up their blood. One by one, the people she loved, the generations of townspeople she'd cared for, either entered the forest, or moved away to other towns far away from the curse and from her. In a few years time, nothing remained but the ghosts of those lost in the forest: the *Wandering Souls of the Old Town.* She had been powerless to save them. In the *Symphony of Twilight, Shadows of the Past* stirred in her memory. She could seek him out. Find him again. But to which end? To avenge their deaths or assuage her solitude? Patience brings success, and after years of searching, she caught his trail. As the town descended into ruin, she covered herself in veils to prevent the curse from following her, then boarded an *Old Train; Fog and Loneliness* her only companions on the journey. She found him at the pinnacle of an abandoned steeple tower. He smiled at her warmly. "I missed you." She eyed him with vengeance, anger, passion, love, but said nothing. "I only opened their eyes to your splendor which they were taking for granted. How many years have you protected them? A goddess as wondrous as you deserves their undying love." "Love like you gave me?" He approached and reached for her. "And it is forever yours." She wraps his arms around her and holds them there. "I do not demand affection - from anyone. I am a creature of darkness, as you, my king, well know." He shifts, but she has a vice-like grip on his wrists. *"Am I not too dark to be loved?"* she continues, her hold on him as binding as death. The storms of doubt now cloud his eyes as waves of uncertainty threaten to submerge him. Love, he knows, is as capricious as the sea. Thick, black smoke darker than the shadows rises all around them as the crackling of wood and flame shakes the floor beneath them. The *Fire Spreads,* as their *Ship Burns Hopelessly.* He stares into her eyes and gives in to her embrace, embracing as well, their brief and immediate future. In their final seconds, vengeance sated, their love returns, sending them *Back to the Past* of their memories, so that the only fire they feel, as the rose petals of flame envelop them, is within.

I walk alone into the darkest pit, and I can't sway my path, for it is the only path.

Melody of the old town ❤ listened for the first time and got my favourite

very very good music

The first and the last

the answer is correct if all the same are in accordance with the vibrations of my soul ?, I can't make a ranking, all in unison are on the first place on the Awards Podium ❤️💢🌀✨