Lost in Hall of Shadows

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Maria  POV
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In front of us was a long school hallway, its yellow walls contrasted with its white floors, everything was decorated with a festive atmosphere, but as the floor spread, so did the darkness until it became completely black and then it was lost to sight, the burned boy ran into the place while trying to mock his sister, a new section was in front of us, Elise looked at the path with a mixture of desire and fear, the darkness present at the end of the hallway.

Elise took Tamamo's hand, she seemed to hold it tightly, trying not to let her out of her sight. The goddess approached the little girl and said:

"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere."
"Never and ever."

The white girl timidly took the first step down the corridor, then the other, the goddess continued behind him bravely. We were behind them, but before we entered the hallway Luna warned us again.

"Remember, bad things like death prefer the darkness."
"It is possible that the True Dragon of Death haunts these places."

But even with what she said, I went in without a second thought and walked behind the others. We also continued, because there was no other way but that and we had to help my brother in whatever was going on here.

The walk down the corridor did not take long, just a couple of minutes, the music was getting louder and louder, but it was not a single song that was playing, but a strange and bad combination of different types of genres as if the music manager could not decide on a single song at any time. At a certain point, we arrived at what must have been the door to the indoor sports hall, several posters were in the form of decorations all around, all of which instead of saying celebration quotes had only insults or mockery.

"You were always a mediocre person who never excelled at anything."

"No wonder you could never do anything well, you've always been so weak."

"I guess you're just not capable enough to excel at anything important."

"Are you really a man?"

"My, it seems that since we broke up you've gotten pretty sloppy, haven't you?"

"No wonder we didn't work out as a couple, you could never satisfy me."

"I was doing you a favor by teaching you about what life is really like."

"I remember clearly all the times you let me down, you're a coward and always will be."

"I can't believe that at some point I liked someone like you, you really like girl stuff? How pathetic, grow up and be a man! "

"I don't understand how anyone could waste time on such nonsense like liking cute girl clothes, you are a lesser person "

"I was always the one who had to pretend to be satisfied."

"Shaming is the only thing you're good at isn't it?"

"You are hurting yourself, this is just my way of showing you that, you should be thanking me instead"

"I always knew you would never achieve anything in your life, but I thought you could at least get a decent job."

"No one else will ever want you, you're too insecure and needy to have a real relationship."

Little Elise looked at them before opening the door, and as if they had stolen her strength, she could not open the door by herself. The moment Tamamo passed by the posters they all began to burn spontaneously, a mystical blue fire consumed them in a moment. The goddess was angry; her previous action proved it, but instead of wasting her time, she approached the little girl again and hugged her. She hugged her tightly and tenderly, trying to offer her comfort and protection at this difficult time. Tamamo could feel the sadness and pain emanating from Elise and knew there was much healing to be done in her heart.

"It's okay, Elise."
"I'm here with you."
"I'm not going anywhere."

Elise clung to Tamamo, she said nothing, but looked like a child next to her mother. The blue flames that had consumed the posters were extinguished, leaving only ashes behind

"Thank you..." whispered Elise, her voice trembling.

The huge doors opened of their own accord. A horrible creaking sound was heard throughout the place, now the huge hall came into view. Tables and chairs, each with a guest list of who should sit where were all in illegible handwriting. There were more decorations all around the place and even a ball of mirrors in the center of the place. But the place had only dim lighting, and despite all that, the party was quite poor, the decorations decaying, where even the speakers of the strange mix of music had become dull.

"What is this place?" I asked.

"It's known as Hall of Shadows"
"A place sealed off from the others" Luna replied.

"No"
"....."
"This place is Cesar's graduation party"
"When he passed high school, all the graduates were invited to the party" said my mother admiring a little around.
"....."
"Although the place wasn't that bad, the party was actually a Costume Neon themed, not this."
"This place is super depressing"
"But the shape of the place is the same."
"Oh my gosh .... I didn't know that taking those pictures of him would bother him so much"

"So the Crazy Old Lady does know why this is here?"
"Will you be able to be aware of what you did?"
"Or are you now going to say that you are innocent?"
"Because the great Saint Adelis can do no wrong in any way!"
"I am always the one in the wrong?"
"I am always the problem, am I not?"

The burned boy spoke from a stage with a microphone, in his voice you could hear fury.

"I didn't know!"

"For 15 years you didn't know?"
"For 15 years you never apologized?"
"For 15 years you never thought about it?"
"Am I the crazy one for remembering? Am I the bad guy?"
"Am I the bad guy for getting mad at something you did?"

"You took it wrong! I of course .......!"
"....."
"....."

"Yes, just what I thought"

"Oka-san, if you're not going to say anything that’ll help, then shut your mouth."
"Listen for once to the son you always ignore." Tamamo said looking at her with condemnation.

"I have never ignored him!"

"You never ignored us, you say?"
"Ha!"
"Grossest lie!"
"....."
"Let's do something simple"
"I'm going to ask you something from the early years, that way you won't get help from the others."
"From the time when you were in control of everything, where nothing bad ever happened."
"....."
"What is Cesar's favorite car?"

"Favorite car?"
"How would I know that?"
"It's a race car isn't it?"

"Ok, that's fine."
"....."
"And what is Maria's favorite singer?"
"Also what is her favorite toy?"

"Well, she has several, but without a doubt her favorite is Michael Jackson."
"And she always has a magic set in her room, she's always trying to get the latest one possible."

"Okay, I agree."
"...."
"And Leon's favorite video game?"
"He had something he never knew about, didn't he?"

"That racing game on play station 1."
"He would play it all day long with his cousins."
"He loved this remote control car from the same game, he even slept with it every night."

"And now"
"Cesar's favorite song?"

"????"
"I don't know, he always uses his headphones"

"And Cesar's video game?"

"How am I supposed to know that?"
"He plays a lot of them."

"What was his favorite study topic?"

"Cesar's? I don't know, he liked history a lot."
"General history of the world, right?"

"Favorite childhood game?"

"He had a lot of toys!"
"How should I know? Did you see all the stuff that was in the room before?"

"Not only are you ignorant, but you're proud of it!"

"Oka-san, please stop."
"You're just giving him more motives and you're not realizing"

"It was no secret to anyone that Mom preferred Leon the most."
"And even in that I failed because I still preferred Ivania to the others" This time I also spoke about something that I had been holding back.

"You too Maria?"

"Oka-san, even if the accusations are wrong or exaggerated, this is the mind of Cesar."
"This is what he feels, this is what is in his mind."
"The Emperor's word is absolute and that is the only truth in this land."

"But I always worry about Cesar!" Said my mother, a little annoyed by the comments of others

"After he came back from the dead"
"Before that, you didn't even know he was in the war, did you?" I answered for my brother.

"!!!!!"
"That was a mistake!"

Tamamo instead took the initiative and climbed up to the stage to hug the burned boy in the same way he had done with Elise before entering the room. The action seemed to take the ugly boy by surprise, for he even let himself be loved for a moment.

"I once heard Cesar say that he loved to cuddle"
"He said he liked to feel a girl's body."
"That if he had felt something like this before maybe it would have helped him become a better person."
"...."
"I also know many more things about him that he told me himself during our time together."
"Like his favorite toy was a blue and white racing car, it was a gift from his father on his birthday."
"Because of that they are also his favorite colors, for the same reason that his dragon shape is white."
"The same toy car was real, so that same model of car is your favorite, and you always wanted to drive it."
"His favorite game is a racing game, where he uses the same car."
"He loves to play that game on rainy days because he thinks it provides the ideal environment, he loves rainy days because for him they have a sense of peace."
"His favorite songs come from that game"
"He loves to listen to them every day while riding the train to school."
"Cesar loves to watch history documentaries all the time, that's why he is so intelligent and knows so many different things."
"His favorite subject is World War II, after seeing so much information about it he knows it by heart."
"Enough so that the history teacher left him in charge of the class for the week."

"True"
"....."
"....."
"But you still don't fool me you fucking bitch!"
"What makes you any different from any of the other bitches!?"
"She said the same thing only to turn into a bitch later and use it against me!"

"You ugly fucker, stop it!"
"Leave her alone"! Elise said towards her brother

"You shut up you fucking slut!"
"You're just after the breasts!"
"You don't even have the courage to back up what you say!"

"Ladies and Elise the faggot"
"Get ready for the entrance of the princess of the party!"
"The one Adelis once called the woman destined for Caesar!"
"With you the one and only, Sharon!"

A clear voice broke the cacophony of the speakers, and as if an invisible presenter had awakened it mentioned the entrance of a woman. The doors of the room opened and a girl came walking through, waving at nothing, trying to model herself to the lights of the non-existent cameras. She must surely have been the girl Cesar had been mentioning, something like an ex-girlfriend if they even came to that.

"Oh boy, I thought I went to a nice party, not this dump."
"Is this really the best you could get me Elise?"
"I mean, I knew you were pathetic and poor, but this is over the top."
"I deserve better, don't I?"
"I mean, I take all the time to come and improve your life and this is how you repay me?"
"Do you have so little value for me?"

Sharon made her triumphant entrance into the gloomy place. Her presence radiated a mixture of superiority and contempt as she walked toward Elise with a sarcastic smile on her face.

"Oh, look who's here," Sharon said disdainfully, looking Elise up and down.
"The girl who always wanted to be liked like me, right? I thought you'd grown out of that phase a long time ago."

Elise clenched her fists, feeling the weight of Sharon's words. Her confidence was fading fast in the presence of her, who seemed to enjoy making her feel insecure and humiliated.

"I heard you've been playing with these little toys, Cesar and I just had to see it for myself"
"Is this some kind of sick fantasy of yours?"
"Don't you have any self-respect?"
"But then again, what can you expect from someone who died a virgin?"
"Surely you just chain some girls so they maybe will ever appreciate your presence in their lives after breaking their will long enough."
"How disgusting, only a degenerate psychopath would do something like this."

Elise could only stand by and watch as the new visitor assaulted him with every word she said. She was immobile unable to say anything back.

"Why don't you do something for once in your life"
"You know why I'm here"
"Put on your suit and let's take another picture"
"Come on, everybody's here waiting"
"Just look how many girls you can disappoint at the same time."
"Isn't that what you like? You've been doing it for a lifetime after all."
"Come on, don't make them wait, she's got to get out of your life sooner than later."
"That's your fate, your duty is to die alone."

Through the door a new thing came walking, it was an adult with a rabbit suit, he walked sadly and tired, he gave off a horrible smell, it was sweat, the person inside the suit looked like he had run a marathon in that suit. He seemed to be the mascot of an amusement park, he was carrying a bag with several broken things, but after a little rummaging he took out a camera.

The sad rabbit gave the camera to Adelis, who fearfully received it with her hands. Then he approached Elise and taking her by the hand he started to drag her towards Sharon, almost with complete impunity because of the girl's panic. All until the Goddess intervened, and with her hand she struck the rabbit man and took the white girl in her arms before speaking.

"Elise, you don't have to go through with this."
"If you don't like what's going on then just say no."
"Nothing will happen by refusing something you don't agree with."
"If you are so distressed by all of this then just say so, tell others that you don't like it."
"You don't have to keep quiet just to please others, you can decide for yourself what is best for you, regardless of what others think."
"This is all about your mother, isn't it? This isn't even about Sharon."
"The time she visited you at home, when she tried to lie and say that you had a child with her, you made it clear that you didn't feel anything for her."
"....."
"All of this happened because you wanted to try to obey your mother and marry the person your mother said you should marry."
"You were supposed to go out with her to have a normal life according to what she told you, right?"
"But you never agreed, there was never any real love."
"A relationship that was destined to fail from the start."
"What she did with you only added to the problem."
"...."
"But what happened in the past is"
"...."
"Your mother is there, why don't you say something to her?"

"I.....I......I don't want it"
"...."
"I don't like this."
"This was never right."
"It's not what I want for my life, these are not my dreams."
"Now I just feel lost in all of this."

Silence fell over the place as Elise looked at her mother with a mixture of pain and confusion in her eyes. Adelis, his mother, seemed to crumble under Tamamo's accusing gaze and her son's revelations.

"I didn't want things to be like this," Adelis murmured in a shaky voice.
"I just wanted what was best for you, for all of you."

"We all make mistakes, Adelis."
"But the important part is to recognize them and try to make amends."
"Isn't that what you always say, Elise?" Said the goddess with Elise in her arms.

"You may have won this"
"But there are still several other things"
"What about the day you lost everything?"
"What about the hell of war?"
"Do you think that all that goes away spoken?"
"You can all go to eat shit!" The burned boy was still lashing out in fury.

The burned boy was kicking in place, while the room began to change strangely and suddenly. Sharon and the conose faded away like dust in the wind without saying a word. Neon colors took over the place, the decorations changed. Plants replaced the chairs and tables, the sky and the heights took the place of the ceiling, and the sounds of nature replaced the music from the speakers. And by the time we wanted to notice, we were now in a completely different place.

The Lost Word indicated Luna, the home of the dragons.