Unwavering Commitment (Persona 3 Fanfic)

My Choice

He said before that he would always watch over and help us in anyway possible and yet... he...!

Igor shifted his eyes towards the tarot cards laid out on the velvet clothed table. "As proof of one's life, there exists death. This proof exists as a flame, painfully burning one's life away. Yet though a life crumbles to dust, time moves ever onward. He who had been your proof, your life itself...The answer has been lost, never to be found again." And then he looks up at me. "Do you conceivably have a conception towards who or what I may be referring to? If so, then please do partake on this."

He's definitely talking about Ken and I.

"My answer... True... It might really be lost now that my life is gone..." Ken disappeared. Now I can't continue on or have a goal in my life. What am I supposed to do?

Igor chuckled. "The Masque of the Red Death. Are you aware of that novelette?"

The Masque of The Red Death... umm... Where have I heard of that before...

'All right, class. Today, we're going to learn about Edgar Allan Poe's short story, The Masque of the Red Death along with Annabel Lee. These two are famous for their eerie feeling and-'

That's right. Not too long ago, Ms. Toriumi was telling us about how she had mixed feelings about Edgar.

If I could remember...

"It's a story about a wealthy but recreant prince who shut himself and other wealthy people inside his mansion away from the deadly disease known as the Red Death. He locked everyone away within that mansion. No one could possibly get in nor out since even the gates were bolted shut. One day, he held a party, I think. Then he talked about the interior designing of the mansion. He gave much care about how there were 7 rooms lined up in the order of these colors: blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet and the last was black and red. The very last room was a room that many people feared. It had an eerie feeling about its choice of design and color. And at every hour, a huge ebony clock in that room would heavily ring. It would stop everyone and everything from their current state and bring in them fear and awkwardness but after the last echo of that clock, everyone would go back to what they were normally doing. Everyone feared that room and the clock that rang at the struck of every hour." I briefly explain.

"Then there was this man who came in during the party. He was wearing a cloth that was as black as ebony and a horrid mask. Everyone was scared of him as that man showed symptoms of the Red Death. His 'face' showed just as much. The prince was very angry and ordered the guards to chase after him but everyone didn't move for they were afraid of the Red Death. The masked man walked freely around and made his way through the 7 connected rooms. The prince was absolutely furious and ran after the man. They passed the blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet and finally stopped at the last room. The black and red room that nobody dared to enter. The masked man stopped there and the prince caught up to him but suddenly, the prince suddenly screamed in agony, immediately died and fell to the ground. Because of some wild courage they got from despair, the guests and the guards followed afterwards. They also wanted the man to be unmasked and beheaded. When they all finally reached the black and red door, they unmasked the man and saw no tangible form. The cloth fell down and revealed nothing. One by one, everyone died. By that time, everyone had finally acknowledged the Red Death. They had realized that the darkness, decay and the Red Death had won. They were pathetic. They used their wealth to hide within their locked walls, only to find that once the sickness sets in, they can never get out." Well, that's how I understood the story, at least.

"Precisely. Isn't it peculiar for the 7 rooms to be so detailed? Why is that?" Igor asked.

He's right. I do have an idea about it but...