This a heads up for those who read this. This chapter
contains dark descriptions in letter form. Reader description is advised.
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-Max pov-
I couldn't help but wonder why zöhm was even here...how did he know i would come here?! At that moment i remembered that nate said that he would antagonize the magishadow, but i never expected that would include zöhm, or that he would do so that quickly! "Nate, you crazy idiot.." I muttered while the breathing part of mask slowly went back to normal, which is weird since i highly doubt darth vader's did that too. The memories began flooding back into my mind as i sat there for a few minutes...the hours i would spend in here alone, waiting and hoping that i would get adopted at the time...i never enjoyed being here...especially during the holidays. On the morning i got adopted, i would've done the same exact thing too.
I'm glad that never happened and i am so glad to be part of a family that i had no idea would be so..i don't know..influential? Some of the memories were good and some...were bad. I never did get bullied by some asshole while i was here assuming if there were any, but most never wanted to go near me. Was it really because i was the tallest 'human' they've ever seen? Or..was it something else?
Before i could go any deeper into my own thoughts, i knew that i needed to go back to my old room and slowly got up, grunting in pain since the the pain of my scar burning was still very present. I'm just thankful that it didn't spread to my entire body!
-Narration-
Max walks over to the front desk, expecting to find something and aside from a empty desk and a old computer from the early 1990's, he would have thought nothing of it, but found that it was still working and upon turning it on, it immediately shows a note that had been typed on it. He reads what is on the computer screen, hoping that would give some sort of clue as to who wrote it.
"To whoever finds this:
The bridge of hope was a von ghoul facility designed to help kids who were brought here to find permanent homes, or help them prepare for the outside world should they get to a certain age. Once the parent or parents sign the documents, they officially adopt them without any strings attached. In its prime, most kids got adopted weeks, or even months after they arrived and the kids who got adopted would always send letters or even call thanking the facility for looking after them. The von ghoul family truly loved kids and made sure they would all be treated fairly.
However, things took a turn in the mid 2000's. It's been said that this place shut down due to funding that allows this place to stay running, but that's just a cover. In reality, it's because of zöhm began to send his followers who looked like any normal person in order to adopt kids and have them join him and it's highly likely that he poisoned their minds to the point that thinking for themselves would be almost impossible. Most were never seen or heard from again and the bridge of hope quickly lost its popularity. Would you believe me if i were to say that this place has been around for over two hundred and fifty thousands years, but the public thought it's been around since the early 1700's? I didn't believe it either until i did some deep research on this place. This place was truly ahead of its time....
No one really knows why zöhm decided to adopt kids, though it's long since been theorized that something horrible happened that causes him to hide whatever he did in the past by giving kids a home with him. It's rumored that he's obsessed with creating the perfect image in order to hide something truly abhorrent while also desiring to become the most powerful being, and no one has ever found out why.
Signed:
Nate bennett."
Max couldn't believe what had been typed down. It's been here for that long?! He look for a printer and sure enough, he finds one that is still operational despite it being dusty and old and after find out out how to print out a copy of it, he make sure to fold it up neatly in his left pocket.
-Max pov-
Holy shit, nate must've typed this when he found out that I had been adopted hours earlier...but why? Why do type knowing that no one would ever come here? Or perhaps he wanted me to find it when the time is right? I still can't believe that this place has been around for that long...how is that possible?! And the fact that the magishadow were adopting kids just for them to join zöhm's following...why the hell would he do that? What kind of 'perfect image' was he wanting to publicly show, assuming if that's what he was trying to do?
-Narration-
He walks towards the hallway he had always walked in. Looking at it now...how empty it is...how utterly quiet it is...it made him feel incredibly uneasy before walking down the hall and comes across the clock he looked at on the morning kylie told him he was getting adopted. It read that it was 2:27 pm even though it was incredibly dim and some of the ceiling lights, while most were off and some were dim, flickered randomly. It didn't take him long until he find the very room he was living in with the door unlocked. "Nate must've found the key..." Max muttered before he got ready to walk in until he looks at the door. He knew that all the bedrooms here had a number on it even though he never paid much attention to it at the time, but this one...had the number 237. And the room number in his hospital room he once woke up in...also had the same exact number!
"No way...it can't be..." Max utters. Beneath his mask, he had a shocked look on his face. Was it just a coincidence? Or..did this number in particular have a deeper meaning?
Max walks in his old room and find that the lamp that he had in there was turned on and his old double bed is still in there and so is his old nightstand along with the lamp that had been turned on albeit dim. On the nightstand, he found another letter, and to his surprise, he also found the very book his mom wanted him to read without saying anything written down out loud and a small, yet old looking jewelry box on top of it. "I never thought i would see this book again..." Max mutters as he sat on his old bed. He looks out his window only sees a rainy yet foggy scene. He never bothered to look outside much, if at all and he never had the energy to explore the adoption home in its entirety. He could do that right now, but he didn't want to stay here any longer than he has already. He looks at the letter that is a couple of pages long and he knew that nate wrote this for him to see and reads it without having any idea what to expect.
"Dear max:
I don't know if you'll ever get this letter, but i do know that when i arrived here, you were already gone. I originally planned to take you out of here and uncover to mysteries of your von ghoul family history while finding a way for you to break the concealment spell placed over by your mother, but i now realize that would've been a complicated mess. I don't know if you were ever aware of this, but once every six or seven months, you would get sick and your body would feel painfully sore since you complained that's what you would feel. Clawdine would cast the concealment spell on you once you fell asleep during that night or in the afternoon depending on what time it was and you would always wake up feeling better and you were always told that you must've caught a nasty cold or a stomach bug. In fact...before you came here, clawdine used a long term spell on you in order to ensure that the concealment spell wouldn't break while you were here. I highly doubt any of the staff were even aware of the spell.
That was a lie of course, but she didn't want you finding out what she was doing. She got mighty sore with me when she found that i told you that you were more than human, and i reasoned with her saying that she can't protect you forever, which she immediately grew quiet and i saw the look of despair in her eyes. She truly believed that she could protect you by not letting you explore the outside world, yet was ok with you exploring koopa village which made no sense to me at all.
And as for me...I think it's time you should know who i really am. You remember the stories of the human world right? Well..i am from the human world. However...i have been alive since 1845. During that time, the human world was...different. I was born in a state called north carolina and...racism was horrible during those days to the point that you were slave if you..weren't white. My father was a hateful man. He would personally beat slaves if they even so much as looked at him wrong and amount other things. Pride and status was his main focus in life, and he fully expected me to be just like him and even beat me to ensure i would show no compassion like my mother did.
I hated him. I hated treating people like slaves just because of their skin color. I hated it with a passion but i couldn't just defy my father. Not with him being a violent and ignorant racist. I had to defy him in secret and in way that he would never suspect that it was me or anyone else he knew. All while i planned on running away in order to be with my mother in another state called new york. To this day i don't why my mother married that son of a bitch, but she always said that i was destined for great things and a better life. The only reason i was with my father, was simply because my father made it impossible for her to let me see her after they got divorced.
But when the american civil war came in 1861 that was my chance to make my stand, and i bolted while saving slaves in the process. It was chaos...men dying...guns going off..explosions everywhere all while my father began to try and hunt me down when he realized that i betrayed him. I was only a kid that was about to be sixteen in a few days...and i hated the civil war knowing that death was all around. Knowing that war only makes good people do horrible things. I did my best to stay out of it as long as i possibly could.
Eventually, my father finally found me two years later long after i arrived in new york. Before that time, i lived with my mother, but..by then she had fallen ill and died a few weeks later. I barely remember what happened when he found me, but i do remember that once he talked about my mom in a insulting way, i ended up beating him to death with my bare hands, but not before he stabbed me. All that pent up rage and resentment towards him had finally unleashed and i don't regret it at all.
I should've died that day knowing that i had nothing left, but i was saved by zöhm of all people. At the time, he looked like a guy from the city and he offered me a chance to live a long life and see a whole new world while becoming a follower. Knowing that i had nothing left to go back to, i took the offer. His followers...the magishadow...i was shocked and frightened to know that most, if not all of them weren't human, but they were friendly towards me even though i was practically a giant to most of them. Zöhm gave me what i truly wanted...a family that isn't hateful. An opportunity to explore a new world before my eyes. For a long time, i was happy and i never saw or wanted to see the human world again.
Unfortunately..it slowly became apparent that he was not who i thought he was and he eventually tried to force me to submit. but i was saved by two sisters named clawdia and clawdine. It all happened too fast for me to comprehend what was going on, but..it ended with zöhm being defeated by them both. Because of him, i hardly see myself as human, and i am a naive fool for joining him. But thanks to both sister's efforts in helping me adjust to my new life and assuring me that it wasn't my fault, i believed that i was finally going to live a life of peace.
However...clawdia's death after junior's birth hit your mother hard. Especially since her death was said to be that of a rare heart condition when in reality, it was zöhm who murdered her. All i know, is that your mother kept saying, and i quote: "He killed her...the curse..he killed her.." unquote.
What i can explain, is that your mother made a heartbreaking decision to send your brother roy to the bridge of hope adoption home. She believed that zöhm would come after the two of you and wasn't in her right mind at all at the time and even more so when she realized that roy wasn't the one zöhm was after. He was after you for whatever reason, and your mother desperately wanted to keep you hidden while moving on and found a job as a real estate agent. And i became an explorer, and i became famous for finding hidden treasures and even hidden rooms depending on where i was at the time which i hardly expected. It surprised me to know that magishadow never once showed themselves even though i knew that they're always watching.
Clawdia was able to adopt roy of course, but the most shocking thing, is that the rest of the koopalings were all sent here and she came here and adopted every single one of them without telling bowser where she got them. I was never able to find out why the koopalings were all sent here, though i do know that neither were in danger of zöhm finding them. Especially ludwig considering that he has von in his name.
As for the book and box that is with this letter that is a few pages long at this point...she wanted you to keep the book, but..after what happened...it was forgotten until i found it a month before i got here. Your old home still stands by the way. In fact...you mother is currently renovating it for some reason while also finding ways to defy the magishadow. I just wish i knew why she's doing this now...her secrecy at this point has become legendary, especially when the number 237 is involved. She claims that it's lucky number, but...i think there's a deeper meaning behind it.
And finally...the box itself contains an item that can be used with the crystal of yours...your mom calls it a starlight crystal, and has no idea where you found it, though i'm sure you'll end up finding out what it's called before you read this. I would much rather you open that box when you're with your new family. I have a feeling one of your brothers will...what's the phrase...geek out? Don't know if that's a thing kids say now.
Anyway, that crystal has a specific purpose to serve with what's in that box and you'll be in for quite a surprise once you see it. You should also know this: Von ghouls have friends in dark places, and...well, let's just say that i met one of them who gave me that box so that i would give it to you.
Godspeed max...i hope i can see you again one day."
-Max pov-
I couldn't believe what i was reading...it was just so much to process...clawdia was actually murdered even though it was discovered that she had a rare heart condition..? HOW?! And nate...my god...he's lived a chaotic life. I made sure to stack the many paged letter neatly and place it inside that first page of the book mom wanted come to have and i pick the medium sized box up as well. My scar still hurt from that encounter with zöhm, but that's the furthest thing from my mind...for now. I'm also floored that my mom and clawdia defeated zöhm...and i remembered all those time i got sick, but..i never questioned it since i was convinced that it was nothing to truly worry about.
And..geek out? I look at the old jewelry box for a moment and couldn't help but chuckle, willfully ignoring the fact that me chuckling with my mask on makes it sound terrifying. If this is what i think it is, then iggy is DEFINITELY going to 'geek out' as nate puts it.
-Narration-
Max gets up from his old bed and walks out and decides to close the door and walk the long hallway one last time and look at the dimly lit clock that had long since been installed on the wall. "3 pm..." Max muttered, before he walks out of the adoption home in its entirety. The fog had had lifted slightly but the rain remained.
He could only imagine just how the koopalings would react to what he's learned...especially bowser. He also wondered just what could possibly be in the box that required the starlight crystal. In a way...it quickly reminded him of marx's gift even though it was quite different from whatever is in the box he now holds in his hand.
Max now realizes just how serious this has become, and while he didn't like where it may lead, he knew that doing nothing is no longer possible.