[The Corridor: The Crime Scene]
Vanitas stopped. The sound of rapid footsteps approaching. The clicking of women's shoes on the marble floor.
"Justitia."
She stood there. Her eyes widened slowly to process the scene. Mira's mashed body, and the blood staining Vanitas's hands and formal clothes. She didn't utter a word.
She advanced with heavy steps, as if in a dream. She reached him, extending her trembling hands to grab the collar of his stained shirt. She gripped his clothes. She looked into his eyes. Her face was as pale as death, her eyes searching for the remains of her brother, for an explanation, for any shred of emotion.
He met them with dead silence. His eyes were glassy. He remained silent, watching her silence. Then, he opened his mouth very calmly: "My dear sister... look at who is lying there, and who is in front of you."
He raised his blood-stained hand, and with all tenderness, in a very slow and gentle motion, he removed her trembling hands from his collar. He left her standing. He turned, and began walking away down the long corridor.
Justitia remained frozen in her place, her eyes fixed on Mira's disfigured corpse, enveloped by the silence of graves.
...
Step. Crunch. He looked down. The floor. It was alive with his reflection upon it. Thousands.. Millions. Cockroaches emerging from the walls, flapping their wings.
Step. He stepped on one. The white fluid exploded under his shoe. He didn't feel disgusted.
"Shut up," he whispered to his heart. His heart was pounding in his chest with painful force. Fast, panicked beats.
(You are sad for the maid..) "Shut up!" He struck his chest with his fist.
(You are happy your kindness is dead.. admit it!) "Yes.. happy."
He smiled, tears gathering in the corners of his eyes against his will. "In this miserable world.. kindness is a sin."
He stomped harder. Crack. "I must not be myself.. only then will I be happy."
(Don't cry!) the voice screamed in his head. (You cry for her?) He wiped his eyes violently, smearing more blood across his face. "Don't cry.. scream."
He opened his mouth. No sound came out, only a choked laugh resembling a croak. "If I scream now, they will say I'm mad. And madness is power. But crying... crying is weakness."
"Son!" A warm hand grabbed his arm. He turned. Mother, her face pale, looking at the blood on him.
"Son.. calm down.. what happened?" He looked at her hand. The hand that had choked him for years. He pushed her hand away slowly, as if peeling off an annoying sticker.
"Nothing, Mother." He said in a hollow voice. "Nothing? You are covered in blood!"
He turned to continue on his way. "Vanitas! Where are you going? Vanitas!" He didn't stop.
He looked at the floor, at the multiplying cockroaches chasing him. He raised his foot. Stomp. Stomp. Stomp. The noise filled his ears. The sound of crushing drowned out his mother's voice. He laughed in a faint, panting voice, as he crushed more and more.
...
The Garden: The Labyrinth
The trees here are high, intertwined, blocking the light. He reached the center. Where the old, dry fountain lay.
His legs collapsed. He fell to his knees in the dirt. He looked at the black sky.
"Stop..." The tears did not listen to him. They poured down hot, burning his cheeks, washing the dried blood. "I am weak..."
He gasped. His body shivering like a lost child. "Please don't cry.. stop, my eyes."
Before his eyes, in the darkness, something materialized. It wasn't a cockroach this time. It was a mask. A pure white mask, cast upon the grass, speckled with black spots that looked like burnt tears. The mask bore the face of "The Child Vanitas".
The mask spoke in a trembling voice: "Why do they hate me?"
Vanitas covered his ears. "What did I do to them?" the mask continued, the voice escaping from Vanitas's own lips against his will. "I just wanted to play.."
"Shut up!" Vanitas screamed at the mask. "Am I not a son of this family too? Why am I the only outcast?"
The mask wept. The black spots on it expanded. "I want to be one of them.. I want Mama.. I want my sister.."
"I told you to shut up!" Vanitas lunged at the ground. He struck the illusionary mask with his fist. He struck the dirt. He struck the grass. He was beating "the child" inside him.
"Don't say it! Please don't say it!" he screamed, bashing his head against the ground. "I don't want to hear that!" "I want them to love me.."
"Die! Die! Die!" He picked up a stone, and began striking the ground where he saw the mask. He struck until his nails broke, and the blood of his fingers mixed with the garden's dirt.
"I am not that child!"
The voice finally fell silent. His panting gradually stopped. He raised his head slowly. His face was smeared with mud and blood, his eyes red and swollen. He looked at where the mask had been. It was gone. The child was gone. The internal crying was gone.
Absolute stillness prevailed.
He stood up. He dusted off his knees calmly, as if he had just finished a boring, routine chore. He looked toward the quiet palace in the background. Then he looked at his hands, stained with blood and mud.
He didn't smile. He didn't scream. He merely took a deep breath of the cold air, and exhaled slowly. He turned, and began walking back toward his room. His steps were not heavy, nor were they confident. They were the steps of someone going to sleep.
[Fragment from an Unknown Explorer's Diary - Found in the Wreckage of a Camp in the Mountains of Silence]
Subject: "Nihillum" Entities - The Creator's Joke in the Farthest Reaches of the Mountains
"Listen, if you are reading this while still in the Mountains of Silence, chances are you will die soon, so enjoy this information while you still have lungs."
The Designation: Nihillum I gave them this name because they represent absolute 'zero'. In the Mountains of Silence, where everything tries to kill you using (Rei) or (Alchemy), these cockroaches stand out as the strangest anomaly in the history of nature.
The Enigma of the "Stupid Radars": The storage and warning rings worn by nobles in their palaces? Junk. Trivial decorative pieces. Sensor rings are designed to detect energy flow, but the Nihillum do not possess a single atom of it. No (Rei), no (Alchemy), no magical heat. They are a moving void. I walked right into the middle of a swarm of them, and my ring was completely silent as if I were in a flower garden, while they started gnawing at my boots. How does an entity move without energy? This question alone is enough to make the grandmasters of the Royal Academy hang themselves with their own boring books.
The Hypotheses: They say in the books it is 'undiscovered energy'. Bullshit! There is no energy that escapes detection for centuries. The true and only possibility I believe in is that these creatures are the manifestation of the Creator.
Yes, laugh! Think about it cynically: The Creator wanted to observe us, so He decided not to manifest in the form of an angel with two wings, but in the form of a disgusting cockroach with no energy, to enter our homes, hide under our beds, and watch our sins while we think we are 'alone' because our rings didn't flash. It is the only miracle in this cursed world; something that exists and acts but is technologically undetectable.
Final Advice: "If the Nihillum attack you, don't waste your time charging your Alchemical Cards, for they won't even sense your existence as an alchemist, they will just see you as dinner. Run, or start kissing the ground; perhaps the little 'Creator' crawling towards your leg right now will be pleased with you. Hahaha!"