5.

Shining beauty spurting out of earth within a majestic wave filled with mystery and unknown knowledge… such was the overwhelming feeling the greatest Nature's enigma would transplant into a human soul. The Mako Fountain, the sole reason of this project's very existence, was lying a few short steps from the main character of this hidden sorrow… blood spilling out of his wounds in a sadistically slow fashion; the proud artisan of said wounds was just in front of him.

Inhuman (or should I say, too human) diabolical laughs filled the energy intoxicated atmosphere of the mountain cave.

The perfect hiding place for a murder, indeed.

As gruesome droplets of vital fluid waterfell from the punished man's mouth, a pain even greater of the one he was already experiencing manifested itself through his sour mouth… a single line of words he would repeat over and over again…

"Where's… Vincent?" Then he drowned in his own blood.

An aching pain caused him to fall unconscious, and another aching pain brought him back to the waking world; it was just his routine. His fuzzy hand seemed to be glued in the perpetual motion of holding his blood pulsing heart (or whatever vital organ he possessed) while thick air was being released from his lungs as a further proof of his latest illness. The sorrowful memory he'd just felt wasn't something new to him, as a glamorously matter of fact. It was one of the most painful hidden memories of Dr. Grimoire Valentine, the man whose deep comprehension managed to slip even the King of Sorrow's knowledge, the man who was forced to work for and punished by Hojo due to a certain sin he dared to commit… the father whose own son was deprived from his loving embrace.

The hurt green wonder of un-nature couldn't help but feel a great amount of discomfort, greater than usual, towards this particular memory and the combined ones of another person he happened to know very well… if he could, he would have been baffled, for there was something, in all of this story, that was missing; a secret sub-plot, a disfiguring twist, an absent clue that lay high upon his or anyone else's reach, mocking him, laughing at his miseries just like the deranged professor would do.

The professor… the only human he could not scope for hidden sorrows because he had none, he only had irritation. In KoS's head, his creator, his God (as the madman would want to be revered), was the key to the Chamber of Secrets' keyhole. The monarch already knew everything about his own genesis, especially the untold part, but the relationship that intertwined between that event and the mystery man known as Grimoire was yet to be apprehended.

After the returning trip of his Hong Kong express of thoughts, the fluffy eared boy finally had the chance to look at his current surroundings, which, fruitless to say, happened to be enormously different from the cold, dark and humid ones he was used to, back in the mansion. As his heart melting red eyes adjusted to the invasive, bright twilight coming from the window, he could finally notice the somewhat hypocritical lack of negativity that was literally engulfing the disturbingly pink walls of the room he found himself in.

Annoyingly girlish was perhaps the closest comment possible to properly describe such preposterous place… a place meant to stand as a fake heaven to protect its owner from the dangers of the outside, mortal world. A world filled with Pain…

The bed was rather comfortable though, if he could appreciate it that is.

Just a few centimetres from his barely awaken form, sat on a small toy chair, lay the unique source of all unjustified in-your-face, happy feelings. Marlene was staring at him with a very preoccupied gaze that immediately turned into an obnoxiously content one; her smile was broader than a sunshine based, feeling good motivational song performed by a choir of colourful, dumb TV puppets... she seemed to be THAT relieved. The King of Sorrow's expression, on the other hand, was as blank and unemotional as ever, once again creating the perfect antithetic balance between the two of them… some sort of Yin and Yang, so to speak.

"You okay? You've been asleep for so long…" The cheerful one stated.

"I'm fine." The glooming one slowly replied, not wanting this conversation to go any further.

They both stared at each other for quite a while in silence, once again carefully studying each other, until their frailly built mantra was shattered by the intrusion of a third party member, Marlene's mother, to be more accurate.

As soon as the middle aged woman entered the room holding a fine snack platter, the seemingly peaceful and carefree atmosphere of the room changed abruptly. A figurative cloud of suffering darkness followed her every move, bringing all the torment of the Real World she was desperately trying to hide from her beloved daughter's heart… but she could not hide them from KoS's. Her smile, the caring but fake smile eternally printed on her hurt consumed facial features was just the proverbial peek of the iceberg… an iceberg that was slowly crushing not just her inner self, but her unexpected guest as well.

"How are we feeling today?" She asked to the bedridden creature while motioning positively to her precious, precious child, who smiled back "Here's some fine nourishment for our little guest!" She added with all the enthusiasm she managed to muster… which was a lot, surprisingly enough.

It was in that precise moment that Elmyra's own gaze fixed itself upon the greenish child's crimson one for the first time. He stood there, sat on her daughter's bed in her daughter's bedroom, eyes wide open literally glued at her form, as if they were scoping for her soul, seeing things no one should see. A venomous chill ran down her spine, basically freezing her body; she didn't know how or why, but she felt as if she was being judged by some superior entity that knew just about everything about her… all of her sins, all of her crimes, all of her human mistakes.

He would still stare at her with his huge, inescapable eyes of divine judgement, as if seeking for her mental breakdown, for her inevitable confession.

"Mom?" The unexplainable hold he had on her very soul was abruptly interrupted by Marlene's sudden intervention; she seemed to be a little taken aback by her mother's strange rudeness towards their royal guest… the little angel.

Elmyra lowered her gaze to her and did what she could do best: she smiled; then she quickly left the room whispering something about an imminent dinner's guest. KoS's gaze never diverted from her direction, not even once. He was so close…

"Say, if you're a king, where's your castle?" And once again the seemingly heaviness of the atmosphere was broken by a certain little girl's intervention. The boy looked back at her with a questioning look (or better, a would be questioning look).

"I beg your pardon?" He politely asked.

"Yeah, every king as a castle… that's the rule! You can't be a king without a castle…" Then she thought it for a second and added: "or a queen, for that matter. Do you have a queen? Can I be your queen and live in your castle?" The cute girl said with a disturbingly dreaming expression; creepy sparkles floating around her face. "Do you have a pony ranch?" She insisted, earning the usual unemotional glare from her would be "charming prince on a white errrrr… pony!"

Despite the fact that he had absolutely no idea of how a pony looked like, he couldn't help but feel, or pretended to feel, aggravated by the knowledge of how real kings used to live. If he was, indeed, a monarch, then why he was not ruling anything? Where was his castle? What happened to his queen and his pony ranch? What happened to his birth right? The more he would think about it, the more he would begin to feel a whole new different emotion… not just pretend to. Suddenly, he snapped out of the trance; a new intruder has arrived.

"He's here." He muttered in a low tone, almost to himself, earning a baffled glance from his seemingly younger would be queen.

At the entrance door, Elmyra was politely welcoming her dinner's guest, a man that she secretly admired beyond regular basis. He seemed to be pleased by her hosting abilities.

"Aaaah, Miss Gainsborough, you look particularly radiant today." He complimented, making her blush like a pre-scholar gal.

"Aww, you're such a gentleman… Professor." And within a small amount of ominous steps, the real Devil better known as Hojo made his way into the façade of Elmyra's heaven; the cloud of darkness has become a storm.

"The Lifestream… a never ending flux of energy running through this planet's own veins, a limitless source of Power that, scientifically speaking, shouldn't even exist... and yet, here, in this scornful mountains, lies the undeniable proof of his existence: the Mako Fountain, a natural reserve of earthly energy condensed into shaped and manufacturing material. When I was chosen for this task, for this project, by our beloved sponsors, I was thrilled… but most of all, I was blinded by my own ignorance… Yes, you've heard it right! I was a fool because I did not realize what the Lifestream was really all about. I wanted to use the refined Mako energy to create the ultimate weapon! A soulless creature that would have changed Warfare forever! But what I've gotten instead, was nothing but a small, feeble being that couldn't even fetch for himself…

Needless to say, I felt outraged by such preposterousness to the point that I even began to question my abilities as a scientist. Then, the Experiment began showing his peculiar powers… apparently he could assume people's deepest and most suffering secrets, a power that, quite frankly, seemed more like a Damocles' sword, for it caused him more backstabbing pain than anything else. As a result of this discovery, I began to study in hope to find a scientific explanation to this dilemma… only to eventually understand that Science, amazingly enough, wasn't the answer!

Do you recall all the tests we've been running on his endurance? I have to admit I've been quite the sadist at the time, eeh eeh eeh… But that's besides the point; they did nothing but prove that he was impervious to pain, as long as it was physical.

The title "King of Sorrow" couldn't possibly be more appropriate to label him with, he was the embodiment of every one's hidden torments and, amazingly enough, he could feel them as his own… which was the exact opposite goal I wanted to accomplish with the whole project.

But right when I was about to give up and rightfully suppress him… a very, unique realization struck my brain. The Lifestream, the vital force of the planet itself, isn't just a common source of energy… it is made of raw emotions! It's the overwhelming compound of every living being's feelings and dreams, it's what generated Life in the first place and also what shalt bring it back when the time will occur… I guess you can call it God! If my theory is correct, and it is, I have created a new Messiah that is yet to uncover his true capacities… I AM JOSEPH!"

The hysterically high perched yells of the sole proclaimed "Joseph" of the modern age could be heard in all over the manor, scaring the holy high purgatory out of its current inhabitants… all of them, except the one person Hojo was talking to (or rather, soliloquizing to), Dr. Lucrecia Crescent, who by now, was struggling to not explode into a blazing volcano of unearthly rage… She did not believe in a God, whether being almighty or artificial, but that wacky theory about the Lifestream being the source of human life and emotions was just too much to bear, not to mention, the absurd way the deranged scientist was now referring to her child…

He was Her child… not His!

As if on cue, Hojo slowly turned his head towards his one-person crowd; the dim light of the library made his shadow appear ten times bigger, granting him the very appropriate image of a hellish demon. His eyes shined from behind his glasses as an old book labelled "The Study of Planet Earth and the Lifestream" fell from his hand. He smiled the creepiest among smiles at her, managing to turn all of her previous anger into the usual amount of nervousness. A sentence came out of his mouth, the unmistakable conclusion to his last statement.

"… and you, Dr. Crescent… YOU ARE MARIA!" His arms raised in the air in the typical "I understood everything" fashion while Lucrecia fell on her knees in shock. He approached her, eternal smirk plastered on his face, and added: "The King's true powers are yet to be proven… that is why, he needs some time in the Real World, but I am tired to wait, therefore I'm going to take things into my own hands… I have a dinner appointment in just a few minutes, I've better be ready, eeh eeh eeh…" He started walking towards the door when he remembered one last thing and didn't hesitate to blurt it out: "Oh and… Lucrecia? I think he probably knows… he knows about you!" And with that said, the maniacal one left a very disturbed woman alone in the chamber, throwing the hell out of her stomach in utter pain.

The pain of a mother.