Whoever is not afraid of the face of the monster is said to resemble it. The possible extension of the maxim is, to get used to horror, to be frightened by beauty.. - Manos Hatzidakis

In 1943 Warsaw, young Samuel Cohen survives the annihilation of the Jewish ghetto after his mother, Miriam, sacrifices herself in a grenade blast to resist Nazi officer Friedrich Vogel. Her defiance allows Samuel to flee through tunnels to freedom, haunted by loss but carrying her legacy of survival.

The day was coming to an end. Soon, the two moons would be the only sources of light in the starry sky. Duncan sat at his desk in the research center, his face full of tension. His access to the central server had just been cut off, and he knew he had to find a solution immediately. He picked up the videophone and called Tannis, a trusted colleague of his.

The short story I'm sending was written as part of an exercise in a creative writing workshop I participated in. The theme of the exercise was to imagine a meeting with a literary hero of our choice. For this exercise, I chose Hercule Poirot. The original text was written in Greek, and for this platform, I attempted to translate it into English. I want to emphasize that the story is fictional, and any similarities to real persons or situations are coincidental. The only true elements are that I did study in London, unfortunately without meeting Hercule Poirot, and that finding good coffee can be challenging.