The Rebirth of a Dragon: Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen

      

   When he arrived on campus, Seth got the feeling that something was off and it was not the normal type of off that he always felt around the ''untouchables." For a while he just continued walking and ignoring that feeling until he caught some whispers and he came to the conclusion that the "off-feeling" was not because of the school, but was because of him. His classmates were eyeing him like he had grown an extra head and rumors and whispers that had his name attached were flying throughout the halls. He heard such phrases like, "Seth Drak is back, but I thought he got expelled for starting that fire" or "Didn't he run away to Europe after nearly blowing Kane Lupe to pieces?" As he walked he decided to ignore what was being said until he heard James call out his name. 

      He stopped and turned to greet his friend only to have a fist planted in his jaw. "What the hell," exclaimed a shocked Seth. James shook his hand out and said, "Jesus, what the fuck is your jaw made out of? That hurt like a son of a bitch. Oh, and for the record, I'm not sorry because you completely deserved it. Who would have ever thought that you of all people would have pulled a disappearing act for a whole month? Never mind, we're causing a scene. Meet me at the spot at lunch..." He started to walk away, but turned his head and said,"Oh and if you don't show up and explain where the fuck you've been,we are not friends anymore." When James left, Seth found that he was more confused than he'd ever been in his entire life which was saying something after the revelations that he'd hd. Just what did James mean when he said that Seth had been gone a month. He couldn't have been gone longer than two, maybe, three days tops. 

     His thoughts were put to an abrupt halt when he saw that everyone in the halls wasn't even pretending to not stare at the scene that just happened. Damn, didn't they all have anything better to do with their lives than gossip? This was his life, not theirs' so they should mind their own damn business. He knew that this was high school and once you were in the limelight, your life was all that was spoken of, but he didn't think that skipping a few days of school could put him in that annoying spot, but then again he supposed that ditching for a couple days after getting into a fight could cause this side-affect.

    He decided to ignore them and head to his class, but then he realized that his schedule was in the backpack he hadn't seen since the last time he saw his dad and that he wasn't sure if today was an even or odd day. Crap,where had his brain gone too? It wasn't like him to go to school ,or anywhere really, so completely unprepared. Even with everything that had happened, he couldn't believe that he could be so careless. Seth told himself to calm down and rationally think of a way out of his situation... That's it! He would just go to the office and say that he was dealing with some personal problems. He was an honor student with the highest GPA with no past discrepancies (if they forgot that fight) so they were bound to help him. Right?

     Seth decided that he couldn't afford to be doubtful so he made his way to the office and asked to speak with his assigned councilor. The elderly lady at the desk asked what his name was and he replied, "Seth Drak." After this, her personality took a turn from bored receptionist helping a student to adult dealing with the delinquent kid that you wish would just get expelled. She said, "Now why would you want to talk with your councilor? You cause anymore trouble while you were gone? Well, it always is the quiet ones that you should watch out for." It took a moment for her words to register because Seth had never been talked to like that by a member of the school's staff in his entire life. 

     Once the words had finally clicked, he said, "Excuse me, but have I done anything to offend you because I think that you've mistaken me for someone else Mrs...Lupe-crap." The old hag smiled and said, "Mr.Drak, your grades to me don't matter to me, but from what I hear you are on a full scholarship. I wonder what would happen if it got out that a scholarship student was that sort of boy." Irritating old hag! Seth clenched his fists and said, "I am sorry, but I meant you no disrespect." "Don't apologize to this bitch! She's blatantly goading you on! You owe her nothing," screamed a voice in Seth's head that was eerily similar to his own. It didn't even have a foreign feel to it like he would have expected a voice that screamed at him to have. 

    "Mr. Drak! Are you even listening," screeched the hag. To which Seth said, "Wha?" She said, "That's it! Principal's office! Now!" Seth reasoned, "With all due respect, I have not done anything to warrant this treatment and refuse to go there unless you can give me a plausible reason." "Idiot! Is that organ you call a brain just there for decoration," lectured the voice. Seth decided to fight back and thought, "Shut up! You have any better ideas? And who the hell are you anyway?" The voice said,"And for a second I thought that you'd grown half a brain, but your still an idiot. Listen, Because I'm only going to say this once. I am you and you are me. The only difference is that I'm your beastly side and your my wimpy mortal counterpart, but don't worry we'll work on getting rid of your cowardice later." 

      

The Rebirth of a Dragon: Chapter 18

   Chapter Eighteen

  The man sat and began to remember all that had brought him to his impending doom. He did so not because he particularly cared about where his brother's traitorous habits had sprung from, but because he was bored and could think of nothing better to do in his cell. So he thought back to when this had all started. Yes, now it was so clear. It must have been ten years ago. Back on the day that he had decided to break routine and tradition for the first time in-well now that he thought about it he couldn't really remember when he had done that before. Perhaps when he was going through his first century of life? No matter, it was too long ago to recall so he put that out of his mind and remembered.

     That day the man was bored. Winter had begun again and it had encased his city in white once more. He was very irritable that day and for the first time in what seemed to be forever he snapped at his councilmen. He remembered their shocked faces that someone who had an eternal pokerface could actually express real emotion. They surely must have thought him to have finally gone mad! And why not? Most others of his kind had already succumbed to  madness and been properly disposed of by their fifth or sixth millennia -the idiots- so why would it surprise them if the man who had lived well into his tenth millennia was also to succumb to that bothersome ailment? After such a political faux-pas, the man had decided that he would just drop everything and leave. He knew it was a rash decision, but if he had already made a fool of himself today, then what would it matter if he chose to spurn  tradition for the rest of the day? It was not as if anyone could ever hope to stop him. He was after all the oldest and most powerful of his kind.

    He decided to go into the mountains and take flight, not because there was any need, but just because he wanted to. It had been a while since he could do that and it was one of his few pleasures. Life rarely held any surprises for a man of his age. Even so, the one that never failed to surprise him, no matter how much time had passed, was the excitement and anticipation he felt at being able to shift. The feeling was complexly incomparable to anything else. Since he had decided to waste the day away, he didn't go to any of his usual mountains, but instead went to one that was a little out of the way. He first had to cross through the woods for a few hours and then hike up for another few hours to reach it. He supposed that if he was human it would have taken days to reach the summit, but he wasn't human. He never was and he never would be. Not as if it mattered. He never could understand what was so great about weaklings whose lives could flash by in the blink of an eye. Not that he'd ever harm them. Contrary to popular belief, he did follow some honor code. As if he would ever be stupid enough to let that fact be known.

    Looking back, he liked to think that it was fate. It was while he was lost in his thoughts that he heard a distant voice singing. The man had heard the beautiful voices of the eleven and fey in times past, but this voice was different than that. It was soft and mournful like a hymn, but the thing that surprised him the most was that even though the voice was surely not sung by either a skřítek or a víla the voice was singing in the old language of his birth.

      He remembered this song. It was about a mortal who was hated by other mortals for the death of her mother at her birth and in her loneliness took to wandering the forest and in her wanderings, she had met and befriended an elfí lad. The song started when they were children and spoke of how as the girl turned to a maid and the lad into a man their bond only grew stronger and then on a night when spirits and demons are said to roam free she heard her father speak of sending her away because there was  no need of such a child here and at the thought of leaving behind not only her elfí lad, but also her birth land, she fled into the forest and it was there that she heard a voice call to her from the river to jump in and end it all. Right before she was about to jump the elf she had befriended cast a spell to banish the water spirit and the maiden returned with the elf to spend the rest of her life with the elf and his clan.

     He had not realized it, but as he listened, the man began to approach the source of that voice and it was there that he saw her, perched on a branch of an old oak tree. A woman with eyes like the forest and hair as black as night, but the strangest thing of all was that even though this was a song of the children of the sun and moon, the singer in question was completely and utterly mortal.

     Seth awoke at this point with the feeling that he had dreamed something important and for a few moments the dream stayed with him, but then it disappeared. He tried to grasp on to whatever it was that he had dreamed, in case it seemed to have some real meaning, but gave up when he found his efforts to be in vain. Normally Seth would have never done something as pointless as trying to remember a dream that can't be remembered, but before Seth fell asleep, he had come to the decision that he would never again doubt another fairy tale, myth, or superstition again. 

    Since he was awake, Seth decided that he would ditch school again in favor of figuring out who the hell had sealed him and what would they have to gain from doing something like that. To do that, he'd have to find someone stupid enough to tell him how to find that Magi guy, but not able to figure out that he plans on pissing off the said magician, warlock, or whatever.

     He thought for a moment and went through a mental checklist. Jack. Would probably stop me because even though he hates my dad, he wouldn't let some kid do something that would send him to an early grave. Kane. Would say no just to spite me. Katrina. Would probably snitch on me to Jack, Kane, or both. James. Is probably human and would laugh at my face if I ever told him any of this. Dad. Would rather shoot myself than ask him for help. Mom. Love her, but she would stop me and tell dad what I was planning. He sat on the edge of the bed and pondered who else he knew that would be able to help him.

     All of a sudden, Seth knew who to ask. He made his way to school deciding that he wouldn't ditch today as he had planned, but would instead get the start of all his problems to help him. After all, that person wouldn't dare to rat him out after the hellhole that she had put him through in the span of only a couple of days.

    

The Rebirth of a Draon : Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

   When he heard this Seth felt something inside of him snap, but instead of trying to punch out Kane as his instincts told him to do, he spoke in a low, and cold voice as he said, "I'm sorry, but what the fuck did you just say?" Kane smirked and said, "Exactly as I said. You had your powers sealed and from the looks of it maybe a little personality alteration. I'm no warlock, but it's pretty obvious that you aren't the same cowardly little turd that you were  a couple weeks ago." Seth told himself that although Kane was a prick, it was no reason to punch him out and that if he were to start a bar fight then there was no way he was going to be able to meet up with Jack. 

    After he took a deep breath to calm down he asked, "Is there any witch, warlock, or whatever that has the ability to do that for the entire fu- sixteen years that I've been alive for in this city?" Kane said, "Are you retarded? This is freaking New York City." Katrina must have seen that Seth was close to snapping so she chanted in, "New York. London. Prague. Paris. Alexandria. Kyoto. Hon-Kong. New Orleans. Surat-" "Why the hell are you listing random cities," questioned Seth. She said, "I'm not. These are just a few of them, but all these places are areas that attract a large number of children of the sun and moon. That also means that if you want to find someone whose got any real talent or skill, you head to these places and more to the point New York is famous among our community for housing the Grand Master of the House of the Magi. A.K.A the ruler of every witch and warlock." 

      Seth looked at her like she was speaking Greek so she said, "You've got talent, but this guy can flick his rest and turn you into lizard dust without even batting an eyelash. Not only that, but his council is filled with the most powerful witches and warlock in the whole world. So to answer your question, yeah there's a lot of people who can do what they did to you without you ever figuring out that it was done to you." Seth took a moment to let this sink in and remind himself that no, it still wasn't a dream and that yes, this was now his reality.

     When this was done he asked, ''Do you know where Jack Giftzahn is?" Katrina said, "Jack, why do you want him?" He said, "I have a favor to ask of him." Kane laughed and said, "You seriously think that the Alpha of the New York pack is gonna do a favor for some coal sucker who probably hasn't figured out how to shift and has absolutely no control over his abilities?" Seth said, "On second thought, screw not starting a fight." Seconds later, Seth saw his right hand morph into something filled with blue-black scales and white claws as this other hand fisted and connected with Kane's Jaw. 

   "Now while he's surprised push him against the bar and put your claw at his neck," came a thought to his head. Not one to disappoint, Seth did just that and said, "I'm sorry, but what is it that you were saying?" Kane's eyes changed to a golden color and glowed as he said, "Let go of me and I'll show you how a real fight is supposed to be." Seth smirked and said, "And why would I do that? It's pretty clear here who the stronger one is." In the back his mind, Seth wondered just when he had become so callous, but quickly shoved that thought away when Kane said, "What coal sucker? Scared of getting in a fair fight with a real shifter?" At this moment Seth really wanted to hit something so he pushed Kane away and said, "Game on. You ready to go?" 

      "Just what are you brats doing," asked an annoyed Jack. Kane and Seth turned their heads to the intruder as Jack continued, "And you, put that away, we're not in the right company for that." this was directed at Seth and as he was about to say that he wasn't sure how this happened, Seth's claw morphed back into a hand. Jack then pointed to Kane and said, "And you I expect better from. You know better than picking a fight with someone who has a lot of power, but no control. Now that we're done with that, what the hell are you doing here again other than disrupting my club with your antics?" 

      Seth said, "I need a place to stay for the night." Jack said, "And why would I give you one? You have parents and a home and to be frank I don't have much patience for annoying brats." Seth said, "I refuse to go home and if you give me a place to stay it would piss off my dad because he hasn't a clue to where I've been since the last time I was here." Jack said, "You are really underestimating your old man. You know that right? Listen here. Aleksander Drak has been around for a few millennium and back in Prague, he was regarded as one of the most powerful members of the Order of Ouroboros. Do you honestly believe that a person like that would be stupid enough not to be able to keep track of his own son?" Seth said, "Then how about the fact that it would annoy him to know I went to you for help instead of asking him for help even though I am aware of the fact that there is no love lost between the two of you." 

    The longest silence that Seth had ever felt occurred and then Jack muttered a curse before he said, "If you break anything, I'll tear you apart, but you can take one of the guest rooms upstairs." Seth kept his face impassive and said, "Thank you for your help" before slipping up the stairs behind the bar.

      

    

       

The Rebirth of a Dragon: Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

     Seth had managed to find a back door, not that it was too much of a chore. It was really simple, to be completely honest. All he had to do was follow the trail of druggies and drunkards that had trickled out of the back door and had wandered off. In the back of his mind, he wondered if he should feel disgust at seeing this when night had only fallen about an hour or so back, but for some unexplainable reason the only thing that he felt was a cold calm to finish the task at hand. Well that and a feeling that he had done this before, but that was preposterous because he would have remembered going to a club before. Right? 

    When he had reached the door and found that it was locked, he thought that instead of trying to pick a lock without the knowledge of how to do so he should just stake out the door. He decided to do this because of the way that a lot of people had found there way out. He surmised that the most logical thing to do would be to wait for another party-goer to trickle out and then sneak in so he stood next to the entrance of the back door, crossed his arms and waited...and waited...and waited until he thought he was going to completely lose it. It was when he was contemplating testing out his new found super strength on the door that an arguing couple came out. 

    Not one to tempt fate, Seth immediately slipped in while the couple was distracted with there own problems. When he entered, the club had been as completely transformed from the inside as it was from the outside. While he was looking at the dark room filled with bright strobe lights and people, he was struck with a sense of familiarity at the sight. He saw people of all kind. Men with women, women with women, men with men, and some people were grinding together in groups far greater than the standard two-people couple. He thought that he should feel disgust or shame at seeing some of the things that these people were doing in front of a large crowd, but he couldn't muster any emotion other than indifference and a sort of righteous anger that he should feel something, anything really, but he couldn't so he gave up and focused on scanning the room for the bar or Jack. It didn't matter him how he found Jack as long as he did. In his mind, the temperamental bartender seemed to be his only lifeline.

      Finding Jack in this crowd was an impossibility and the bar was on the other side of the dance floor. He thought that it would be a pain to navigate through the crowd, but moved through anyway. For some reason, the clubbers tried to avoid him and he managed to reach the bar with a minimal amount of interaction. When he got there, he was about to ask where to find Jack since the current bartender was not him, but instead exclaimed, "Shit" at the people he saw next to him. The people in question were His and Her Craziness in the flesh. 

      At his curse, Kane and Katrina Lupe turned to face him. He also noticed that contrary to everyone's beliefs that he had burned Kane to a crisp with his freaky dragon powers, Kane didn't have a scratch on him. This caused him to say, "Your not burned or dead." Kane stared at him or while and when Seth thought he was going to start something, he just turned back around and muttered, "Fire-breathing prick." Katrina said, "What the hell are you doing here? Didn't you go back to Europe?" Seth gave her a blank stare and said, "Europe? Why would I go there?" Then she started laughing. 

     Seth knew that Katrina was crazy, but he was supposed to be some sort of bad-ass dragon now so with a coldness that he would have never done before, he said, "And just what is it do you find that is so funny?" she stopped and said,"You really don't know anything, do you? I bet you even thought you were some human...Oh my god, you did, didn't you." Kane scoffed and said, "I can't believe I lost to a retard who couldn't even figure out that he's not human." Seth retorted, "It's not my fault that my dad thought it would be better if I didn't know anything." Abruptly shock registered on both their faces and then one thing akin to pity. 

     Seth didn't want pity from anyone, especially two people-wait make that somethings since they just admitted that they are not human- who he had always considered to be a little more on the crazy side so he said, "Cut the pity-routine because I am not in the mood." Kane said, "Pity-routine? Why the hell would I pity you? It's not my problem that you got your sorry ass sealed and needed a little action to get rid of it?"

The Rebirth of a Dragon: Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

     "What the hell," exclaimed Seth for what seemed to be the thousandth time in the past few hours. The reason to his distress was not because of yet another supernatural revelation, but was due to his bike pulling a disappearing act. He was sure that he had parked it right outside the park and had even checked the surrounding streets just in case of the extremely unlikely situation that he had forgotten the precise location that he had parked. Of course, this idea was completely idiotic because Seth Drak never ever forgot anything, let alone the location of his most precious possession. This was of course proven true when he had repeatedly scoured the area to find himself still completely bike-less. 

     At the end of this, all he was left with was an overwhelming need to punch something at the unfairness that his life had taken. So he did. On a boulder. Instead of smashing his hand, the boulder had been demolished into a billion tiny pieces. He muttered, "Add super strength to my growing list of 'Reasons Why I am Now a Freak'" He looked around and breathed a sigh of relief that no one was around to witness his weirdness. He may have not liked or wanted his abilities, but he didn't want to end up as some experimental test subject for the government. He looked at the sun and figured that he had an hour or so until sundown and he was in freaking Central Park without a penny in his pockets, a ride, and a cell phone. 

    Seth considered himself to be logical so he looked over his options in his mind:

  a) Walk for over four hours and reach home in the dead of night with numerous

      questions and accusations that come from both his parents. There is a chance 

      that someone would try to rob him, but he doesn't have anything in his pockets

      except the keys to his now-missing bike and his new abilities would make it a 

      Herculean task to try to fight him.

  b) Beg some random passerby for some money to take the metro and sneak into his 

      room without his parents noticing. Then again, his dad is a godforsaken DRAGON. 

      Seth was still figuring out his abilities (out of necessity), but his dad most likely

      has a lot more experience and control than Seth and could therefore overpower 

      him as easily as the European knights did to the peasants during all those revolts

      and he definitely wasn't dealing with another father-son chat after the way 

      he had parted ways with his father the other night.

  c) Walk the twenty minutes it takes to get to Lower Manhattan and ask about 

      that club, what was it called...Club Blue Moon, yeah that was it. He wasn't sure 

      that if he went with this option what he would exactly do, but he kind of knew 

      the people there and it was an option. The walk wasn't too long and if he hurried 

      he might actually make it before nightfall.

Seth looked through each option and immediately took away option b because there were to many cons and not enough pros and more to the point, he had never begged for anything in his life and didn't plan on starting now just because his life had taken a turn for the weird and creepy. Option a sounded like it had the potential to turn into an extremely annoying situation that he was definitely NOT prepared to deal with, even if he were offered a billion dollars up front so this left him with option c. Not his first choice, but it seemed to be a lot more promising than the other two.

     With a point of destination firmly in mind, he set off for the club. It wasn't that hard to find because it was apparently well-known, as if he would know anything about this. God, he felt like some freaking greenhorn after he reached Lower Manhattan and asked for directions. By the time he had reached it, the sun was barely noticeable and there was a huge line to enter the club. He didn't notice it the only other time he was here, but then again, the last time he was here it was only the afternoon and this seemed to him to be the sort of nocturnal place that only was filled with people as long as the sun was dormant. 

     At the sight of the line he muttered, "Crap." At the sight of the bouncer who was actually taller than Seth (this was not easy considering that he was 6'4) and two or three times his width, he muttered, "Double crap." If he waited in line like everyone else, he would be stuck out here until freaking dawn and with the way his luck was going, it was extremely possible that someone he knew would saunter by and recognize him and therefore be under the assumption that they had caught strait-laced, honor-student Seth Drak trying to sneak into a club after ditching school. He could hear the rumors now and knew that if something liked that was to occur than his last two years of high school would be a veritable living hell. He wasn't a girl so he couldn't get the bouncer to let him cut like he saw some girls doing. If the bouncer wasn't a freaking giant than maybe he could get in by saying that he knew the bartender, but there was no way that the bouncer wouldn't see him as some teenage-brat that not only wanted to sneak in, but also cut in line to get into the said club.

    With these thoughts in mind, he did something that the Seth of a few days ago would have never done in a million years. He went into one of the alleys adjacent to the club to see if he could find a window or back door that he could sneak in through. As he was doing this, Seth couldn't help thinking that if this didn't work, he was so f-ing screwed.

   

The Rebirth of a Dragon: Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

 

December 21, 2004-sometime after lunch

     

Today, I am eight years-old. And this is the weirdest birthday ever. First of all, I can't see my mom, dad and siblings. The people giving me a birthday are all bad guys. I don't see why those adults celebrate with me if I can't even leave here. They think I'm just some stupid kid that they can get to do whatever they want, but I still remember papa's face during that time and what they threatened to do to mama. I promise that no matter what happens I won't forget and I'll never let those adults read what I write here. They may have gotten this for me, but I still have siblings and know how to keep a good secret and hide things really well. I know that I won't be here forever too because when I left with those grown-ups papa said, "My little one, do not forget us and know that you will never stray from our thoughts and be one who is close to our hearts." He didn't say bye-bye and he told me to always think about him and mama and everyone else so that means that we are going to see each other again. I hear footsteps now so I'll hide this for now, but when they go away I'll write what happened.

December 21, 2004-early twilight

When those oldies came in they had on these smiles that were just scary and asked those stupid questions about my dreams again. Like I'd ever tell them what I really dreamed so I just told them that I forgot it. For a second, I thought that they were gonna get really mad and hit me like the bad guys do in the movies. You know, I've never been hit before. Not even that time that I punched that guy in school for making fun of my brother. Anyways, they just put on the same phony smiles and Scarface (scariest one) said, "My dear, we know that you are very young and things like these do happen, but it has been been nearly a month since you have come here and that has been your answer each and every time. Next time try not to forget, after all you are a pretty child and it would be such a shame if something happened to that prettiness when you are so young." Now, I may only be a kid, but I've seen movies and read books. I know when someone is saying to do what they want or your going to get hurt. And anyways, out of all those oldies Scarface is the one who scares me the most. I wonder if I should lie, but I've never lied before. Mama says that lying is wrong, but what they're doing is more wrong so I guess it's okay. Right? Now I'm not to sure. I'll see what happens and then pick what to do. It's starting to get dark now and I want to read before I sleep so that's it for today.

December 22-sometime after breakfast

Today they (the bad guys) asked me that question. They were so stupid. Instead of telling them my real dream I told them that I dreamed of papa practicing with my brother. They even believed me. This just shows you what happens when you underestimate a kid. The bad part is- 

     Seth-kid heard footsteps from outside so he closed the diary, absently tucked it in his bag, and hid under the bed. He held his breath and waited for the footsteps to recede. After what seemed to be an eternity, but what was really only a few seconds Kid-Seth slid from under the bed. He then slipped out the door. After this happened Seth felt Josephine grab, or more like yank, his hand and push him through another vortex.   

    This time when they came out, Josephine landed on her feet, but Seth landed flat on his back. He gave himself a mental high-five that he did not faint like a girl this time and then faintly wondered if he was getting used to the vortex thing.He muttered a curse and then said, "If we were inside my memories how come it feels like I fell from some random place?" Josephine helped him up and then said, "Because although we were visiting your memories, I can't just pop both of our consciousnesses into your brain so I took us to a place that deals with only your lifetime." He looked at her like she was speaking Greek and then said, "Never mind. I've got enough on my mind to think about without trying to think about how your abilities work." 

     After this new proof, Seth sat down and looked at the events that had happened all in the span of two days. He knew that he was not in a dream because the pain that he felt was real and he had woken up on his motorcycle instead of his bed so he did not hold out hope that this was some elaborate scenario that his psyche had created from the trauma of getting into a fight. He had no choice, but to rule out the insane idea because of the proof that was shown to him not only by Josephine, but also by his own body. In the midst of his thoughts a cellphone went off and Josephine  whispered a curse before saying, "Hey, I really hate to run after showing you all that, but we were there for a while so I have to head home before I get even more screwed than I already am." Seth absently nodded and wondered what the hell he was supposed to do now.

The Reburth of a Dragon: Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

    Seth remembered reading that Gothic architecture was designed to make the visitor of the building feel small and insignificant. He had never before believed that a building could inspire such emotions, but following his younger self, he began to understand and remember that feeling. Now that he thought about it, the feeling of remembering his memories as he watched his younger self experience what happened to him for the first time was sort of surreal and Seth thought that he probably did not want to make a repeat of this experience, not that he had much of a choice the first time around.

       The corridor they were walking in fit the Gothic/horror theme that the outside gave. It was dark because there was nothing to light the way, but from what Seth could barely make out, it wouldn't seem to be appealing even if there was a light. The walls were made of stone and Seth remembered that they felt like ice to the touch. As for Kid-Seth, he had taken his gloves off when he entered the building and was now feeling his way across the walls to move around. As for Josephine, she seemed to have turned three shades paler when entering and as a result, seemed to forget about her anger. Seth knew this to be true because when they entered, she always made sure that they were walking shoulder length apart. 

     Seth didn't want to upset her again so he focused all his attention on following his younger self and pretended not to notice her fear of this place. He had reasoned that if  she wanted to keep her secrets, it was fine by him for heaven knew that he couldn't deal with anymore baggage for a long, long while. As soon as he thought this, a wave of guilt hit him. This was followed by anger and annoyance that he should feel guilty for not being able to help a person who so obviously didn't care for him, but a tiny voice from deep in his psyche whispered, "If that were true, then why did she try to warn you about her dream? Why did she continue to push the subject, even after you had so blatantly disregarded her words as nonsense? And why are you currently in this situation? Would someone who gave no thought to your well being have went so far for you?" Seth would rather deal with his irritation than with the feelings that some  of these questions brought up so he mentally told that voice to take a hike. In response, Seth could have sworn that this voice had called him an idiot.

    This made him pause and break the silence by asking Josephine if it was possible to enter another person's mind and fool the said person into thinking thoughts that are not that person's thoughts. She replied by telling him that although there were a lot of creatures that could read minds and think things into another's mind, but the person that it was being done to would be able to differentiate his thoughts from the thoughts of the alien presence in his mind. When she finished explaining, she asked him why he would ask something like that. Seth thought that hell would freeze over before he ever told her about his inner monologue. Out loud, he said, "No reason. Just call it morbid curiosity that happened in the spur of the moment." She gave him an odd look, but let the subject drop. 

       Afterwards both focused on Kid-Seth because the wall had ended and turned into a corner that looked like a stairwell, but unlike the corridor, the wall adjacent the stairwell was filled with lit candelabras. When faced with this, the child looked at the stairwell with big, fearful eyes that were shaken off after he took a picture of the stairwell and tested the first couple of stairs to deem them safe for travel. Seth remembered that at the time, he thought that he had gone too far to back out now so he might as well finish exploring this place and that he might never have a chance like this again. 

      With a light to guide him, navigation became much easier for the child and with that power came the sort of confidence that only a child could muster in such a situation. Because of this fact, it was only natural that Kid-Seth passed through the stairwell much faster than he had the corridor. And at the top of this stairwell was not another corridor as the ten year-old expected, but a door. And when he opened that door, he saw a room. What surprised him the most was that it was not a room that matched the rest of the castle with it's dark and gloomy colors that seemed to give an aura of despair, but that it was but a child's room that awaited him.

      It was a room filled with the things that any ordinary girl-child would enjoy. The walls were pink with the exception of one side which was a mural of the forest that stood outside, but in the middle of spring instead of winter. The right corner was filled with toys and there was a bed designed for one of Kid-Seth's height in the left corner. It was directly below this ledge that was just under a giant window that overlooked the forest below. The bed was also the pink of most of the room. On the right of it was a bookshelf, no taller than Kid-Seth's eyes, filled with fairy tales and classics in a variety of languages. 

      Kid-Seth had bended down to take a look at the contents of the shelf and before he got up, he caught something out of the corner of his eye. When he turned to the bed there was something jammed in under the mattress. Kid-Seth pulled it out and saw that it was some sort of diary. The cover read, "J's Journal" in pretty cursive writing. He wondered who J was for a moment and in his imagination thought that it must be the name of the girl who lived here.

      Kid-Seth knew that it would be rude to read someone's diary, but the temptation of finding out what it was like for whoever lived here proved to be too much for the boy. So with a silent apology he cracked it open and read with the present Seth and Josephine able to follow along with him through the same power that had brought them here.