Chapter 200: Love and Fear (1/2)

Chapter 200: Love and Fear "You like it? I'etically "I didn't like how cold that place beloas So I wanted to make this place as warm as possible" "Cold, hm? That place below, if you didn't make it, do you knoho did?" said

Aldrich "The Shadows did," said the Chrysalis The ht they werefun of me" "I see" Aldrich did not exactly knohat this meant What were the Shadows?

If they were a part of his soul fro as the Chrysalis had said, then were they just some other aspect of him? Perhaps his 'colder' side?

But then why did he lack control over it? Why was it separate to begin with?

Questions, and more questions He would consult the Death Lord later, once he nished whatever trial he had left in here

Speaking of, what exactly was the trial here? Was it just to witness this roo far less dramatic than what the Death Lord clai a Boundary core for the rst time would be "I like it," said Aldrich He stood up "But I need to go" "Go?" The Chrysalis cast her eyes doard, saddened "Already? You don't want to stay here? Where it's warm?" "I do," said Aldrich He looked around at the familiar room around him, at all the warm memories they represented that he had lost "But this is still the past

I have other people out there that need me who live in the present" "Thenthen can I come with you?" The Chrysalis looked up at Aldrich ide, pleading eyes "Don't you need to stay here to maintain all this?" said Aldrich

The Chrysalis shook her head "No Once I ht then, I don't seen an issue with you co with me," said Aldrich "Yay," said the Chrysalis She hopped o the couch and looked at Aldrich "Where do we go now?" "I was hoping you would tell ht you kneay out of here" "Me? No?" The Chrysalis cocked her head, clueless "Hm?" Aldrich raised a bro concerned Was he trapped here? There ht it would have been autoht the Death Lord would tell him the manual way to leave

The fact that she did not made Aldrich entertain the suspicion that she wanted to trap him here It was a rather low probability suspicion, but he did not discard it

Aldrich heard a sudden loud crackling of static from across the roo, hugging it like a pillar of support

A wide telescreen at the other end of the room ashed alive At rst, there was just pure static From the reaction of the Chrysalis, Aldrich could tell she had not turned it on

The war o co darkness take a hold of the rooh the air The plants in vases started to wilt The paintings started to chip away The books started to crumple

Decay started to leech in everywhere The place started to look round that Aldrich had turned it into "No-," Aldrich reached out a hand, trying to preserve everything he saw fading away He could not let that happen, not again, and yet, there were too s to try and save

The telescreen's static faded away, revealing a split screen One half was an angry red The other half a deep, dark blue Twin voices radiated out from each half of the screen From the red, his father's voice From the blue, his mother's

Their voices were not kind They were not welco They were not warm "Sonwhat happened to you?" said his father "Wh-what is all that behind you?" said his mother's horried voice

Aldrich looked behind hi his family portrait, he instead saw a canvas of darkness The darkness shaped into a host of shi+fting faces twisted in expressions of pain and agony Faces he recognized Faces he had killed "My Godwhat have you done?" said his father "What-what made you do this?" "No, no, no You can't be our son," said his mother "Not that sweet child who always s inside You always thought of others, just the e taught you to You can't be like this, like like a monster"

A monster

If anyone else had called Aldrich a reed But hearing it froh hih his heart

Those voices that had shown nothing but love and support, those voices he had always looked up to - reducing hi but a monster The sheer horror in their voice, that sense of pure otherness, like they were talking not to their son but so to shun and curse - it hit Aldrich harder than any blow he had felt