Welcome to Gaia! ::

Nojha accepted the bag with silent reverence in the presence of the goddess. When he opened it, he didn't understand at first that there should have been something within the bag. He thought that the absence of anything might be a gift in itself. The Goddesses had removed him from chaos. Maybe this bag was a metaphoric reminder?

His musings were cut short when the Goddess gave him a task. And scissors to go with it.

Retrieve a heart.

He was... uneasy, but the smile of the goddess urged him onward, and he stepped into the tiny opening.

Three doors. With three different auras. Nojha hesitated. Which one did he go through? The one with the pumpkin was innocuous. The spiral made him uneasy, and the tree... He didn't like the tree one bit. Nevertheless, he found himself reaching for its handle, and pulling it open.

The heart was in the bag. He'd accomplished this much. Nojha didn't want to dwell on what had happened. But as the floor slowly became wetter and wetter, Nojha could swear he was being followed. He turned numerous times, hand brushing nervously at the place where the thing had gripped him.

He hadn't liked it. Hadn't liked what it had made him see back there. His feet splashed into water. He was wading into it, and even though he made a lot of noise sloshing through it, he still heard the voice speak to him.

"No!" he answered, wanting to cover his ears, but he nearly pitched forward into the water.

And then two hands finished the job. The cold waters enveloped him.

"Give me back my heart."

Nojha stared into the figures eyes. The water distorted his vision, but he knew this spectre.

He was sitting at a desk. A candle flickered its light over the pages of a journal. He kept his own such journal. Entire rows of the family library were dedicated to just such volumes. Sleep dragged at his eyelids, but he blinked hard and focused on the page.

He skimmed over the words his Vater had left him.

'I need to tell you how important you are to me. The best I can do is put as much of what I feel into this journal as I possibly can before I can no longer move this pen. ... It will be hard on you. The ladies are there to support you, of course, but they'll never understand as completely as the ones waiting down in the dark do. ... You have the best chance that any of us will ever have. I don't have much time left, but you will! I know it isn't fair, but please don't forget us. Don't forget me... I want to be able to talk to you, face to face...'

He closed the journal's cover, and ground the heels of his hands into his eyes. He took one last look at the journal before pulling another reference tome over to him. He started to take notes. Everyone below was depending on him. He could sleep later.

Nojha awoke in an unfamiliar place. Wait. How had he gotten here? He looked at the stark white room, blinking in discomfort as his eyes struggled to adjust to the bright light.

"Vhat? Vhat is this place?" he asked, his voice was absorbed by the walls, and silence pressed against his eardrums.

Every facet of the room felt hostile. Nojha needed to leave. Now.

The only door led to a long, long hallway. Far at the end, he could make out an exit. Something slammed behind him, nearly making Nojha leap out of his skin. Whirling around, he looked back into the room. It was still open. The table was gone, though. Where? He didn't really care to find out.

He walked towards the exit, but a thudding began behind him. He looked back, expecting to see nothing. His heart leaped in his chest.

What was...?

It was following him! He could hear the scrape of the scissors as it opened and closed them, opened and closed them.

Nojha ran.

Ran, and ran, and ran, until the doors stopped his progress. He pushed desperately against them, but they wouldn't budge! He could hear the thing approach. Was it saying something?

"Alvays studying, studying, studying. Make a few more cross-references, vhy don't you? Maybe the door vill open."

Thud. Screech.

"A C E G!" he tried saying, hoping that would open the doors. Nothing. He pushed against them.

"Open!" he yelled at them.

Thud. Screech.

"Pathetic. Vhere's your magic now? Useless, useless, useless." the voice chided from over his shoulder.

Nojha recovered enough composure to do another quick search, but the thing's words had triggered something in him. The doors blurred. He was, he was

Johan disliked going downstairs nowadays. Walking in front of those silent figures. Knowing they could see him, could see that he still hadn't figured it out. Did they hate him for his incompetence? Were they jealous of him? Were the oldest one even capable of rational thought anymore?

Nevertheless, he walked the silent rows. A dim rune of light preceded him until he reached the familiar alcove.

"Guten Tag, Vater." he greeted the statue. His echo answered him. "I've come to tell you that I'll be leaving for Amityville Academy soon. I've been through the family library about three times. I need fresh material to study from."

The quiet was stifling. Johan hesitated before continuing.

"I- I still haven't found anything, Vater." he admitted, and hurried onward, his tongue tripping over the syllables. "B-but I haven, I have not stopped looking. I haven't given up. I promise I von't stop looking."

It was so close! Nojha threw himself against the door. Why wouldn't it open?

Thud. Screech.

"You've doomed us all!"

As he panicked, his eyes began to fog over again. Where was he?

He was just a child. A terrified child who'd found evidence of the curse on his own body for the first time. He ran downstairs, and through the silent rows until he found his Vater. Tears streaming down his cheeks, he climbed into the space at his Vater's feet, and curled in on himself.

He stayed there, shivering in the cold, contemplating, truly understanding for the first time what this curse meant.

His Vater couldn't hold him, couldn't offer more comfort than this. He didn't want this! He wanted his Vater to hug him, to get up, to do something! The young boil burst into scared, frustrated tears. He cried himself to sleep at his Vater's feet.

When his vision cleared, the sounds had stopped. Filled with dread, he turned around slowly.

It.

Was.

Right.

There.

A hand reached out and grabbed his head. He couldn't move. Couldn't get any of his limbs to co-operate.

He could barely understand what it said to him, but the sound. The sound.

Snip.

The pain was brief, but all-encompassing. And then it was gone.

Snip.

Nojha's vision blurred again. When he could see, the figure had withdrawn its hand from his head. It pulled Nojha's beating heart from his chest. Turned.
And walked back down the hallway.

The white hallway began to lose definition. Nojha sank downwards.