Disclaimer: The riddle from several chapters before is rementioned in this chapter. Look back to "Puzzle to review. Also, I have made a terrible mistake and left out a chapter in the middle. Go back and read it, please. The title is "Fear."

Confrontation

3rd Person Mode

"Ah, so you've finally returned," Dahlia said to Daniel as he reentered the Cathedral through the sidedoor.

"It's not like I wanted to," Daniel said. "I'm sure you've heard every word that I've protested."

"Actually, no," Dahlia answered. "I decided not to monitor you, seeing as though I could trust you not to reveal vital information to Unique?"

Daniel said nothing.

Dahlia smiled. "It matters not. It is.. inevitable that God be born from that girl."

"Who said I was lying?" Daniel said.

"You're a poor liar," Dahlia concluded. "An obvious soul to deceitfulness, just like your father: everything had to be done in absolute obviousness. He craved danger, carving numbers 01121 through 21121 into every victim's flesh of the Twenty One Sacraments."

"Don't compare me to that maniac," Daniel muttered.

"But are you and he not the same? You killed Walter, you killed Heather.."

"How can you conclude that I killed Heather?" Daniel yelled.

"..And soon, I, too, will perish by your hand," Dahlia said.

"And what if you don't? Your chronicles will be thrown off, and your proverb will be unfinished," Daniel said.

"I am unsure what to name you," Dahlia began. "Messenger? Murderer? The Fresh Lamb?"

"I won't have a name in your book," Daniel mumbled.

"Why have you returned to here, boy?" asked Dahlia.

"I needed time to think," he replied.

"What is there to think about? All of the different methods of my death?" Dahlia asked with a twisted smirk.

"No. Of how to stop this insane testament, but it's so obvious, it's so simple." He paused. "I just won't kill you."

"But you know it's inevitable," Dahlia repeated. "I know you hate me. You know that you hate me. The hatred in your heart grows the more you find out about Unique's past, but it's boiling inside of you higher and higher because of your feelings for her."

"You know nothing of my feelings for her!" Daniel shouted.

"Offensive, aren't we?" Dahlia said, turning towards the alter. "All the more weakness you have that will help you in your final moments. Afterall, you are the murderer, and you will suffer your own fate."

Daniel turned away from her. He glared at her over his shoulder.

"See the hatred that bears on your heart?" Dahlia smiled.

"I have been meaning to ask who that girl was that visited several days ago," Daniel said, changing the subject.

"That was your step-sister," Dahlia spat.

"Alessa?" Daniel asked.

"Alessa died, you fool. It was Alessa's reincarnated body. Heather."

"So that was Heather Mason? Why did she come here?"

"I beckoned her here. She has always been drawn to my voice, as you will be."

"What was she talking about? Saying that she had to die?" Daniel asked.

"That was to throw Unique off in case she heard any of our conversation, but she was, for the most part, referring to the rebirth of her soul."

Daniel said nothing.

"You see, Alessa's soul still lives within that girl," Dahlia explained. "Whenever I refer to her as Alessa, she is drawn to me as though a lost child searching for her mother." She paused. "Your fate will be similar."

"I'm not a monster," Daniel said. "Therefore, the prophecy won't come true."

"You killed my daughter," Dahlia whispered.

"I did not kill her!" Daniel screamed angrily.

"You will kill that girl with another sin of yours," Dahlia said as Daniel walked off.

But Daniel did not hear her final words. He had already stepped through the door, once more, where Unique had been trapped.

Unique was not there, however. She had seemed to return, again, to her past.

1st Person Mode

I had stepped through, again, to the world from before. One of the many that I had recalled from mostly horrid memories. I had returned to the Amusement Park. I felt that something had to be straightened.

I stepped up to the carousel from before, and looked to see that the dolls had dropped, again, from the ceiling above, which exceeding above my head into darkness. They were in the same order as before:

1 2 1 3 2 4

5 6 7 X 8 X

9

10

Q

The riddle had not changed, but the final paragraph was now missing. It had been tacked to the face of doll "Q", but when I removed the memo to examine it further, I noticed a message scrawled across the face of the "Q" doll:

"Who will die next? The true murderer?"

By now, it seemed so clear to me what the true answer was. Before, I didn't believe that the "7" doll should have been pulled. Now, I reached for doll "1". Instead of the set of dolls retracting back into the ceiling, they fell at my feet, and a message fell from the empty space above. It said the following:

"The tree has been cut down. The lost souls have been freed."

Suddenly, not a moment later after reading this, I felt light headed. My body ached and twitched. I fell to the ground, feeling cold and sick to my stomach. Everything went darker around me. The ground began to feel soft, and not cold and rusted as before. The sky above me turned lighter, but everything quickly went to darkness as I felt myself slipping away.