October 11th, 1844
Present day
"It's time for the interrogation," she smiled.
A cold wave of air moved through the room as Alethia murmured a few specific words.
The four men on the chairs changed immediately; their eyeballs turned white, and in a second, they knew that they were now exposed.
"Say your secrets, gentlemen," Alethia demanded.
"I'm a reflection," the four men replied in unison.
"I knew it," Alethia thought, and before any of the men in front of her could move a muscle, guards entered the room in a rush.
The room was now filled with guards surrounding the mahogany table as Alethia watched the men in a way that indicated she had a lot of questions to ask.
"Don't bother running; all the guards in the entire building are alarmed about your existence," she said. Then, one after the other, she interrogated the men until...
"Now it's your turn, Edward," Alethia said, talking to the silver man who was in shock; he surely didn't think he would get caught nor that there were other reflections like himself that had reached the stage of becoming a member of the flame holder's organization.
"I have nothing to say to you, woman," Edward said.
"Woman? Should I take this as an offense? Even reflections think that men are better than women; unbelievable," Alethia said as she came behind Edward, touching his shoulders from behind, using her gentle touch to get what she wanted.
"Well, my sources say you have plenty of secrets to reveal, Edward; for instance, why would you become a member of our organization if you know that we hunt reflections?"
"I did it for myself," Edward answered.
"For yourself? Interesting; you refer to yourself as 'I,' like you're a real person."
"I am real!" Edward screamed, interrupting Alethia.
The guards held their iron bars in patience, waiting for the order to attack.
"It's okay, let him speak," Alethia comforted the guards, who were scared out of their wits; you don't get to meet a mythical creature like a reflection every day. How about four of them sitting in a room with you, taking the forms of men all at the same time?
"I'm real! I have thoughts, I can talk, I have feelings, the same as all of you people. What gives you the right to hunt us?" Edward said, slamming the table in rage.
"Well, you haven't been born, have you?" Alethia said, then carried on.
"You're an idea in the mind of an infected person that has slowly developed itself until it took shape, or in your case, feelings."
"An idea?"
"Yes, the only thing that gave you life is the infection from the Diamond of Hope; in other words, you're not real. None of you gentlemen ever existed, and the sooner you realize this truth, the faster you will turn into what you really are, which is..."
"Nothing," Alethia smiled, saying the last word.
"That's not true! I refuse to believe that I'm nothing. I might have come into this world in a different way than you, but if I die, I shall die as a man, not as an idea," Edward said, then added,
"Elisabeth Bartfill."
Everyone in the room opened their mouths at the mention of this name; Edward had just said something well-known.
"Elisabeth Bartfill, the reflection of Queen Victoria? What about her?" Alethia asked.
"What about her? You all know the story, don't you? At first, she was a reflection, but one day after finding the Diamond of Hope, she turned into a real person," Edward stated.
"And you think that you can do just like her?" Alethia asked while Edward turned to face the woman and replied,
"Yes."
Alethia took a few moments to understand what Edward was after before she raised a hand and Edward fell asleep in an instant.
The other three men looked terrified as they saw Alethia's abilities to control a reflection.
Aside from being a truth extractor, Alethia could control reflections around her, making them sleep or do whatever she wanted them to do-abilities she gained after encountering her own reflection and killing it.
She turned to the other three men and whispered, "Vanish."
The three men started shaking as a black vapor escaped from them, and soon, they all turned to nothing in the sight of the guards who were watching closely.
"They are of no use to me now; I got what I wanted from them," Alethia said, then ordered the guards to take the sleeping Edward to a cell until she decided what to do with him.
"You want to turn real too, huh, Edward? Interesting," Alethia said, petting her Honeybird.

October 12th, 1844
Present day

In the next morning, inside a small room with two doors on each side of it...

"Ah..." Kosie yelled as he woke up in bed.

/Knock...Knock.../

The boy held his breath for a second...

/Knock...Knock...Knock.../

"Who's there...?" Kosie thinks as the sound of knocking gets faster...

It was the first time in years that someone knocked on the iron door, and while the boy tried to figure out who it was, a voice interrupted him...

"Come out; I know you're inside..."

"Him...?" Kosie said as he stood off the bed...

"Is it morning already...? It can't be...?" Kosie thinks...

"Come out, kid..." Merny yelled as he knocked on the door again...

"What now?" Kosie thinks while he rushed to the door...

He touched it slowly, then stopped...

"I'm so not going with him... no chance... but" and for a second, he turned to the green door behind him...

"Did she suffer?"
He couldn't forget nor forgive himself; in a clime, the face of Mark showed up...

"Don't give promises you can't keep..." Kosie said as he repeated the words that his father told him...

"Well, here I am..." Kosie shushed...

He got back slowly to the center of the room with his face down...

"Even if I found a way back through these doors, then what...? Mark will be dead and Dad will..." he thinks...

"He was right... there is no cure... maybe I've escaped because I was afraid to..."

"See Mark dying like Mom did..." Kosie said...

While the kid was trapped in his thoughts, a voice emerged through the door...

"I know the solution to the path..."

"What...?" Kosie said, then stood still for a second like he couldn't believe his ears...

"A solution...!" he murmured as he rushed to the door and opened it...

(Could it be the end of his quest...?)

"Poor fish... easy to swallow the bait..." Merny thought...
At the doorway of an old house, a young gentleman closed both eyes and smiled...

"I can help you..." Merny said as he smiled at Kosie, who was still in shock...

"May I enter or will I spend the whole day like this...?" Merny said...

"The answer is no..." Kosie said, then put his head down...

"What...?"

"You've heard me, sir, thank you for this opportunity, but no thanks... have a nice day..." Kosie said, then slowly shut the door in Merny's face...

"No...! Has he lost his mind...? Who the hell does he think he is...? To get rid of me like this...?" Merny thinks as the smile on his face was now replaced with a cold expression...

"Wait...?" Merny yelled, putting his cane against the door's side just before it closed...

"May I enter...? If you want to, of course," the man said as he took a few steps forward to the room...

"Now you're being polite... huh..." Kosie thinks as he stepped back; for a second, Merny looked to him like a desperate man, but why...? he couldn't tell...

"He surely wants something from me; otherwise, he wouldn't persist..."
"You've already entered the house!" Kosie thought as he watched Merny coming in.

"Why did you help me yesterday...?" Kosie said...

Merny didn't seem to hear him and started to turn in the small space...

"What is he doing...?" Kosie thinks as he saw the young man's strange behavior...

Suddenly, Merny touched the surface of the door, then said...

"Yesterday, I helped an injured child because..." Merny said, then stopped for a second as he faced the other door of the room... At that moment, Kosie was not afraid that the man in front of him would open the green door... no... the last time when the mayor came and opened the door, all he could see back then was a grey wall leading to nowhere...

Kosie knew he was the only one who could see the path... so his secret was safe at that moment... until...

"I know the right door between them..." Merny said as he looked at the four numbers on the door's surface...

"What...!?" Kosie said, then stepped forward but stopped...

"Does he know about...? It can't be..." Kosie thinks...

His line of thoughts was cut by a voice...

"Do you have chalk..."

"What...!"

"Chalk, you fool... you ask a lot of questions, you know..." Merny yelled...

The kid didn't understand the man's need, but he went to the bed and brought the chalk to Merny, who added...

"Okay, listen to me, if you want to get back home, I know the way to do it..."

"What are you talking about...?" Kosie said as a last attempt to hide his secret... but...

"One more question, and I'm out of this filthy place..." Merny said while he insisted on the word "filthy."

"I'll write the solution on the door; after that, you become my assistant..." Merny said, then added,

"Have you heard of the Great Fire Incident...?"

The words sounded familiar to Kosie, who moved his head in agreement...

"We...?"

"Yes, you thought you were the only one who had something to hide... anyway, if you have lost someone behind these doors, I can help you find him, but..." Merny said, then stopped for a second...

"But in exchange for being your servant..." Kosie said...

"Everything has a price, you know... so..." Merny said, then raised the chalk bar and looked at it...

"Should I say yes...? He doesn't seem like a trustworthy person... but..." Kosie thinks...

"Give me a few seconds..." Kosie said, then turned around, and the moment he did, he saw the writing that Edward left behind him.
"Say no," the words were written in fresh blood on the wall of the room.
"Who wrote that?" Kosie thinks to himself; a lot of questions came to his head but no answers. At last, Kosie decided to follow his basic instincts.

"The answer is still no," Kosie said.
The boy's courage failed him... he was not ready to take the risks of trusting Merny... he barely knew him.
And in all these events, Merny had a moment of flash as he remembered the past.

. . .

April 23rd, 1838

Six years earlier, before Kosie met Merny, there was a kid sitting at the end of a stairway, and as he looked down, he screamed.
"What in the hell?" Little Merny said as he observed the stairs that were made of remnants of dead people.
The scene was too much, and the child quickly ran upstairs to the nearest room.
"Relax," a voice said, comforting the child as he looked around him to see Mr. Frederick L. Rockefeller sitting on a chair.
"What's this place, and that man I just shot? Where did his body disappear to?" Merny said as he had a lot of questions that needed to be answered, and who was better than the founder of the flame holders to answer them?
"Sit, and I'll explain everything," Frederick said, then moved the chair ahead of him with his legs.
Merny had a lot of feelings right now, especially after shooting a man and seeing those stairs of dead bodies, but despite all of this, he somehow managed to take a seat.
"It all started with my great-grandfather Phelps Rockefeller," Frederick said, then folded both hands on the table.
"Back then, during his journey in Africa, my grandfather Phelps found a jewelry piece that was later called the Diamond of Hope.

After getting back home with this jewelry, he received a visit from a man called Hemingway who revealed dark secrets about the diamond."
The priest stopped for a second and looked at Merny.
"And?" Merny asked Frederick, then gathered both hands.

"This Hemingway was no ordinary man; he informed my grandfather that he was not a real man and that he lived only as a reflection of an African man named Mesaka, who has been sleeping for the past two hundred years and, in part, asking for the diamond back before other reflections like himself enter this world.

Not believing Hemingway's claims, Phelps laughed at the man, calling him many names before finally dismissing him. Before he left, Hemingway threatened that if the diamond was not returned to its original place, there would be consequences that would affect anyone near the cursed object."
"Cursed? You mean the diamond?" Merny asked.
"Yes, and what I'm about to tell you is known only to a few members of our family. Son, are you ready for the truth?" Frederick asked, showing both hands.

. . .

October 12th, 1844
Present day

"No...!" Merny repeated as a gun appeared from his pocket...
"I wasn't ready for the truth back then; I'm not ready for the truth even after all this time. I wish I had never killed that reflection six years earlier; maybe things would be different. Maybe if I weren't such an arrogant spoiled child, things would have been different, maybe..."

"I don't take 'no' for an answer, kid," Merny said, pointing the gun at Kosie.
.............................................................

. .
{...chapter seven ends...}