I… I can’t see.” your friend stated. He had just woken up. You’ve searched far and wide for him. You arrived at this broken down castle that seemed to have corroded for centuries. In one of the far rooms, you found your friend, your companion. “I’m going to get you out of here,” you told him, “you’ll be safe soon.” You grabbed him by the arm, trying to haul him up. He yelled your name in a panic, followed by a frantic “I can’t see!” Tears streamed down his face. You looked into his eyes. The faded, dark color looked familiar, but you couldn’t place it. “Listen,” you began, “it’s not safe here. I’ve encountered… things… beings. Beings I never thought existed. We must go.” Your friend’s blind eyes looked up at you. His ragged breathing and pleading expression made your heart clench. You’ve known each other since childhood, gone on so many adventures together. “He belongs to us now” a new voice says. You jump, startled by the appearance of what seems to be a young woman. You curse yourself for not noticing someone else entering the small, windowless room. But when you look at the woman, you see right through her. Her long brown hair and white gown are moving as if the wind is blowing through it. You see the beauty which she once possessed. You’ve seen this before, you realized. Back in the ballroom. You fell under a spell, watching a gorgeous young girl dance in front of you until you remembered your companion. After you remembered, you began to see the girl’s true body hidden underneath the spell. This woman is the same. Her rotting limbs and missing jaw couldn’t lie. “He belongs to us” the woman repeats. “No” you protest breathlessly, but you know she speaks true. Your friend calls out your name softly. “What is happening?” he asks. You turn to him again. You see his eyes. You see death, and you release him arm. He calls your name again, now more loudly, clearly concerned. You take a step back. After all this time. How did you not notice? Your companion didn’t exist anymore. This… being sitting there… it’s just a shell of what your friend once was. A shadow of his true self. You look at the woman, who slowly strides towards you. You’re filled with fear. Not that you’re afraid she’ll harm you, but more of what this place has done. What it has done to your friend. She stops in front of you and looks you in the eyes with her own, blind ones. “You have no place here. Leave now you still have the chance. Escape this place before you become like us. Before you become a shadow. Before you become a puppet of darkness.” You take one last look at your former friend. His head hangs low, non-seeing eyes staring at the rotten floorboards. You take a step back, then another. You turn to the old door, still glancing at the figure sitting there. “Goodbye”, whisper the voice, before you step out into the dusty hallway, never to return again like your friend Jim did when his love his women. But Anias didn’t take the dark voice advice and he was sucked in to the darkness forever until he found the woman he was looking for. Many years have passed and a woman was standing in front of a mirror with a beautiful dress on, she sees her own reflection in it. Then, she notices a man in the reflection next to her. She starts dancing, as if she is dancing with someone but in the mirror, she is. As soon as they stop, the man reaches his hand out to her, she puts her hand on the mirror and his hand grabs hers and pulls her in the mirror, leaving only the shadow of the woman to eternally dance in front of the mirror and Anias had claimed another soul to his fate that the dark voice had warned him about and now the poor woman, Amaya was doomed to his fate because she too, was looking for love but she didn’t listen to the dark voice’s warning. Many more years have passed and a lovely princess was to be married off. A masquerade ball was held in order for her to choose a husband. The night of the ball was a stormy one, but nonetheless all the more thrilling and mysterious. The princess danced with many gentlemen before becoming tired. Taking a break, she strode off to the side, but was immediately spoken to by a gentleman who she had not seen. “My dear lady, you look positively exhausted,” the masked man stated. The princess smiled sadly, “It seems none of the gentlemen appeal to me.” The masked man replied, “We’ll see about that,” and immediately whisked her back onto the dance floor. The princess was positively dazzled by the courtesy and charm of the masked man, and knew that she wanted to take him as her husband. The next day, she had the man at the ball be called to castle, and presented him to her parents with the utmost optimism. The king didn’t approve. He had hoped she would have chosen to marry a prince in one of the other kingdoms, but instead she had chosen a low-class noble. He couldn’t afford for the crown to stoop so low. But alas, the princess was so in love with the man that they knew that she would still marry him without their approval, so he had no choice but to kill him. To avoid suspicion, he faked his approval, and called for the man’s presence that evening to discuss various matters. The king offered the man a goblet of wine, which had been poisoned. The man drank it unknowingly, and quickly fell, dead. News of the death spread around the palace quickly, and the princess was devastated. She shut herself in her room, and wouldn’t allow anyone to see her in her mourning. The king tried to cheer up his daughter, but no attempts proved themselves successful. The king eventually tried to marry his daughter off to a prestigious prince, but she refused. She still was in love with the gentleman she met at the ball, and would never marry another. The king, realizing how much his daughter was hurting, fell ill from guilt. Over the years, the kingdom fell into ruin as his condition worsened. The palace staff was dismissed, and the inhabitants of the kingdom moved away, but the princess and the king remained, shut up in the castle, until his death. After the king’s death, the princess held a small funeral with only herself for him, still unknowing that her father was the one to kill her love. For decades, the princess remained in castle, until she became an old woman. One night, a rain storm pounded the weathered palace, similar to the night of the ball. The princess made her way to the ballroom, where many people were dancing to lively music. The ballroom looked exactly the same as the night of the ball. When the princess looked in a mirror, she saw a young reflection of herself looking back. On the side of the dance floor, her love was waiting for her, and smiled beneath his mask when he saw her. The two danced throughout the night, but when it came time for the ball to end, the two didn’t depart from each other. The two souls remained bound to each other, and departed for heaven together. Kitana was the unlucky soul who also ignored the dark voice’s warning about looking and dancing in the forbidden, dark mirror and she was taken by Anias and Amaya to receive the same fate that they had but Kitana’s fate was different, because she welcomed death where they despised it and she enjoyed the darkness where she made them her slaves because she was the voice that lead them to her doom for her to be free in the afterlife with her love Robert and she went to live on happily ever after while Amaya and Anias tried to lure souls to the mirror so they can be set free to be with their love. They were tricked by the darkness itself and now the darkness is free while they suffer a fate worst than death, which is they can’t love the person they want the most. THE END!
