"Lilith High."

Strife Mansion, A Week Later.

So this was why he had to wear his cloak to school. He looked ahead as the person feet away in front of him, wearing a completely black robe, silently creaked the door open and tiptoed through it.

Roxas and Kairi were standing in a silent, dark and large hall. Stone bricks were lit with the orangish flames of the torches as drops of water fell to the dusty floors. To decorate the walls were paintings that, from Roxas's interpretation, seemed to be prehistoric and Paleolithic.. Strange carvings of what looked like beasts with bleeding wounds and nomads with sticks drawing symbols had rested against the cold walls.

Kairi, being more mature with the events that she had occurred, wondrously ventured about toward what had seemed like the largest painting yet to find in this ancient place. Roxas was about to yell, "Hey! Come back!" When he noticed truly what Kairi was standing in front of. He walked over to her side and glanced about at her expression.

There, in the eyes of Kairi, laid fear and memory, as she started to shake and back away, breathing heavily as she slowly fell to her knees.

Roxas urgently reacted by falling to his knees too, hugging her close to him as he asked, concerned, "What's wrong, Kairi? We could go now if you li-" But a finger had risen, pointed at the painting as Roxas gasped slowly. He turned his head worriedly as he stared on over at the illustration.

He stood up, walking towards it. Blood pulsed through him as his heartbeat fastened. The drawing was of a hooded being, with no sudden shape whatsoever, as ragged textures designed the bricks. A ghostly face was drawn horribly on the figure as black, silky and smoky lines had been looped on the wall. The catch that brought attention to the siblings was that the horrible painting also had an illustration of a woman, who was standing in a terrified position. Her clothes and arms had not been detailed, a stick figure was drawn for her body, but beside the position she was standing in, Roxas felt the lady knew she would die. Still, that didn't bring him in to suspicion. The thing that did, though,was that the woman's hair was dark brown, just like his mother's was... Red lipstick and Burgundy eyes with a shine of Rouge had been a feature of hers too.. He felt utterly disturbed... Nevertheless he helped Kairi up as the two kids ran on over toward the doorway to the mysterious school.

As Roxas opened the door for both Kairi and himself, the two siblings saw a gigantic room. The ceiling was so high that a million ladders could not reach three quarters of it. The size also held beauty, however, for the sun's rays glowed through the ceiling's beautiful Picasso styled paintings of gods and goddesses that stretched out kind hands to pleading servants and slaves... The walls held torches that bloomed into different colors as paintings of roses and many designs had been stretched throughout them. At the bottom, the largest decoration had been the amount of fellow students at Lilith High, all of which were enjoying a feast from a single table that was very, very long.

Booming voices and high pitched laughs filled the room as Roxas took his priorities to the top of the list. He looked around for the sight of the gal he wanted to sit himself next to, and his big brother too. He finally caught their eye as they did his, and Roxas tugged on Kairi's dress sleeve to grasp her attention. Kairi smiled as she walked with Roxas through the crowds of friends and teenagers, and they both ended up right in front of Namine and Cloud. Kairi hugged her brother and Namine, as the four friends walked on over to their spot at the ginormous table. Roxas was utterly surprised to finally have a feeling of hunger after the harsh weeks and days of complications as he started grabbing at a small bowl of oatmeal along with toast. As they feasted on simple yet wonderful breakfast, Roxas still wondered about that painting he had seen before entering the room. He could only hope it wasn't his mother as the friends finished up their breakfast..

Hall of rooms, 30 Minutes later.

They all strolled along together, talking to each other about how their year at Lilith High was going to be. Roxas played along casually and planned secretly for the future conversation of "I saw something strange today."

Namine looked over at Roxas's pondering, worried face as she asked softly, "What's wrong? Something happened?"

Roxas decided it was the time to say it. "Okay, so..." He cleared his throat. "Well, Kairi and I were walking through to the door and we saw this painting. It was of a monster that looked like it was about to attack a girl."

Everybody's eyes widened.

Roxas felt like he was 4 feet shorter than everybody else as he awkwardly concluded, "It looked like my mom."

Namine's eyes seemed to calm down as she replied, "Oh, that... the Peinture De La Mort."

The boy, confused, rang in- "What?!" as Kairi giggled to herself, probably thinking it was rather indeed funny.

Namine smiled and explained. "The Peinture De La Mort, French for 'the painting of death', is a painting that explains a tragedy a keeper of hearts has been through- or basically some important event that had been placed in such a timeline. Your mother's death left a mark of sadness, anger, and a craving for revenge, and so then, the Peinture De La Mort had changed. "

Roxas couldn't help but feel quite disturbed and troubled by the fact that the mere events that Roxas had endured personally were reflecting upon even the grounds of Lilith High- a place he didn't even know.

A few minutes of a long, tiring walk ended with happy hugs and goodbyes, but the picture that lingered in Roxas's head was so eldritch he couldn't say much. He needed to know more about the Peinture De La Mort. He felt it had something to do with... with him. With the enemy...

This painting was hiding something from him.