CHAPTER XXXI
"A Maze of Intentions and Unspoken Fates"
Unaware of the dangers that lay ahead, Caelum, Celeste, Olivia, and Ivory stepped into the labyrinth — their feet echoing softly against the ancient stone, swallowed by a darkness that felt too still, too quiet.
They walked forward with courage in their hearts, but with different truths buried within them.
Celeste moved with a quiet determination — each step heavy with memories, each corner holding the shape of a question she hadn't dared to ask aloud.
> "Did Cael walk this same path?"
"Did he survive it?"
"Did he reach Mother Fairy?"
"Or… is what I'm thinking true? Is he still beside me, just hidden in a different form?"
Her heart beat louder than her footsteps.
Not from fear of the maze, but from the uncertainty within herself.
The hope she clung to… the truth she feared.
Elsewhere in the twisting maze, Olivia strode forward with purpose — calm, silent, and focused.
She had no doubt about what needed to be done.
She knew the rules. She had studied the maps.
She had memorized the pulse of the walls and learned how to read the turns like riddles etched in stone.
> She had only one goal:
To guide Cael to Mother Fairy — before fate could steal her away.
Because Olivia, more than anyone, had seen the prophecy.
Had felt the weight of that single word.
> "Death."
And she had decided long ago…
> "Not her. Anyone but her."
Ivory, not far behind, followed her sister's instructions with quiet loyalty.
She didn't have Olivia's certainty, but she had her trust.
Olivia had told her everything.
How to find the glowing hearts scattered across the maze.
How to avoid the living traps and shadow creatures that roamed the deeper corners.
How to reach the Giant Heart, hidden at the very center — the key that would unlock the final cursed gate to Mother Fairy.
> But neither Ivory nor Olivia knew one truth…
> The maze had changed.
Mother Fairy — wise and watching — had altered the maze's rules.
Paths had shifted.
Walls had moved.
Traps now breathed, and the air itself could whisper.
And she had done it for one reason.
> To test Caelum.
To measure her strength.
To weigh her choices.
To see whether the soul who had once been cursed — once broken — could now walk a path without falling.
She did not want answers.
> She wanted a mistake.
A single misstep.
One moment of doubt.
So she could know: was Caelum truly worthy of rewriting fate?
As the maze twisted around them, Celeste's thoughts began to spiral.
The deeper she walked, the more the silence screamed.
She wasn't afraid of the dark.
She wasn't afraid of what waited ahead.
She was afraid of what she already knew — but hadn't accepted yet.
> "What if the one I've been walking beside… before is Cael?"
> "What if he never left?"
> "What if all this time… I wasn't just searching for him — I was already walking with him?"
The ache in her chest deepened.
The questions wrapped around her like vines.
But she kept walking.
Because until she found the heart…
> She would never know her own.
Far away, walls shifted again.
Doors closed that had once been open.
And somewhere, hidden deep in the heart of the maze…
> A truth waited.
A truth that would either break them…
> Or set them free.
"The False Face of Sorrow"
Caelum moved through the twisting paths of the cursed house with a single thought echoing in her mind — get out.
She knew what lay ahead.
The final three houses were not filled with traps or beasts or illusions. They were beautiful. Almost too beautiful. Places where one could get lost in the peace, in the comfort — and forget to move forward.
Compared to this nightmare of the Fourth House, they would feel like dreams.
But dreams were dangerous in their own way.
> "I just need to get out of here," she muttered under her breath. "Just keep going. Keep walking."
The ground beneath her cracked with every step. The walls whispered things she didn't want to hear. But she pressed on, determined, her eyes fixed forward — until something caught her attention.
A sound.
> Crying.
Soft. Muffled. Choked.
She turned toward the corner where it came from, and what she saw stopped her in her tracks.
There, sitting alone in a shadowed corner, was Celeste — her head in her hands, her body trembling with every sob. Her long hair fell over her face, and her shoulders shook like she was holding the weight of the world inside her.
Caelum's heart clenched.
> "Celeste…?"
A wave of confusion and concern washed over her.
What was she doing here?
Hadn't they all taken different doors?
Without thinking, Caelum rushed forward, her wings dragging slightly behind her, her breath catching in her throat.
> "Why are you crying?" she asked, kneeling beside her.
"Did you see something? Some monster? Or… are you trapped in a loop?"
The figure didn't answer at first. She just lifted her head slowly, her tear-streaked face turning toward Caelum.
And then — she threw her arms around her.
She buried her face in Caelum's shoulder, clutching her like someone desperate not to be alone.
Caelum froze.
For a moment… she let it happen.
For a moment… she believed.
She wanted to believe.
But the longer the embrace lasted, the heavier it began to feel — not in weight, but in energy.
Her skin prickled.
Her breath hitched.
And then she knew.
> This wasn't Celeste.
This… wasn't her at all.
> "No—"
But it was too late.
The second Caelum tried to pull away, something surged through her body — a pulse of dark magic, thick and heavy like smoke.
She gasped, her limbs stiffening.
> "What did you—"
But she couldn't finish the sentence.
The creature holding her wasn't weeping anymore.
It pulled away, its face twisted into a cruel smile — Celeste's features melting like wax, revealing something else underneath. Something pale and hollow-eyed, with a mouth too wide and a presence too cold.
A mimic.
A parasite of sorrow.
A cursed creature that fed on emotions… and pretended to be the ones we loved most.
> "You looked so hard for her," it hissed sweetly, brushing a clawed hand down her cheek.
"And now, you'll never look again."
The magic wrapped around Caelum like chains — not physical, but mental.
A fog clouded her thoughts.
Her body moved… but not by her own will.
Her wings drooped. Her eyes dulled.
And when the mimic turned and began to walk into the deeper shadows of the maze…
> Caelum followed.
One step behind.
Like a puppet bound by invisible strings.
The maze had claimed another.
And this time… it wasn't a test.
> It was a trap designed just for her.
To be continued...