"Doll, pretty doll

Of wax or of rag

Of mud or of light

Providential damnation

Doll, pretty doll

Substitute of a body

Curse of a soul

Sacrificial damnation

Doll, pretty doll

Of porcelain or lead

Fragile and cowardly

Eternal damnation

Doll, pretty doll

Cry, sing

Burn, don't live anymore

Cruel Damnation "

Damnation, Anonymous Author, Chronicles of Lost Time

***

Eheil had returned to find Caleb and were currently walking through the corridors. Following Eheil and his fox, Caleb had not said a word since the beginning. Neither had his companion, for that matter. Suddenly, his guide disappeared without a trace. Caleb found himself alone in a dark hallway with only candlelight. With feigned calm, he continued to walk down the dark and silent hallway as light flashed from the openings of a hundred doors in a row. He continued to move forward when he heard very small drops falling on the paving stones and the sound of a gong began to echo throughout the corridor.

He immediately started to run when he felt an unknown force. It sent him whirling through several rooms. Soon he was stranded on a tile floor that looked like a chess board.

The sound of the gong, the droplets falling on the wet floor, and the light streaming from the openings all came to a sudden halt. His hurried steps stopped in front of a frightening black door that looked like a gaping mouth. His heart pounded and sweat poured down his neck until a gust of wind blew him straight into the monster's mouth. Caleb closed his eyes in shock and felt as if his bones were breaking as he fell. Finally, he passed out.

Unaware of how long he had been unconscious, Caleb looked around curiously at the place where he had fallen. He was in a large room, all white and black, with no objects except for a strange bookcase filled with ice-like wax dolls. They seemed to move when he moved.

He approached a black door studded with red crystals that he had seen a few minutes earlier. With his back to the opening he began to hear strange, squeaky sounds. Caleb slowly turned around and faced a disturbing sight. In front of him, pale-faced dolls that had previously sported cute little faces had begun to be disfigured. Their faces were melting into bloody flesh and their mouths were forming frightening bloody grimaces.

The cackling became heavier, more urgent. Swallowing his saliva, he backed up towards the only possible exit of the room. As he backed away, his feet became entangled, causing him to fall with all his weight on the crystal door. For the second time, he fell into the void accompanied by a strong wind.

As Caleb spun around, the laughter died down, the wind stopped and he sank into something soft and sticky.

Quickly regaining his senses he moved away from the thing that had broken his fall. Turning back to the famous thing, his face turned white immediately in front of this hideous thing resembling a giant slug, with hair on top. I'm sure Aki would have loved to be here, he thought.

- Aki, who is it?" asked Alew, who strangely hadn't spoken for a long time.

- Why should I tell you? Never trust... And what were you doing?

- I couldn't reach you anymore, he answered warmly after a silence, which seemed to Caleb doubtful.

- So you don't know what those dolls were, or that strange hallway, the one with all the doors?

- ... I don't.

- And that blue thing? Caleb asked, pointing to the giant slug.

- That? That's a muir. It's a peaceful bug although it's hard to catch its main function is to serve as a couch.

- Oh. Any idea what I'm doing here?

- I have my own idea...

While Alew kept the suspense going, Caleb took a look around the room. Unlike the other mystery room, this one was smaller and its pearl gray walls contrasted with the cozy turquoise blue carpet. In addition to that, there were a few coffee tables, two shelves filled with knickknacks and thick books, and three more muffins. Caleb felt the urge to take off his shoes to feel the soft carpet under his feet. He did so quickly and threw himself on the muir, his disgust relegated to the background. Alew continued:

- Here we call them the "Three little demons of Paradise". They are old friends of Eheil, they love to make a mess wherever they go, to the detriment of many people, be it the personal angels, the demons or the New Ones.

- The New Ones? Who are they?

- God will tell you more in due time. I don't have enough authority to tell you about them. Ah! Our three devils are coming

Indeed, three little cherubs came running and laughing into the room through the hidden door on the left side of the library. They lined up in a row, retracting their wings, and two heads popped out from behind the first figure's back. This added a trace of mischief to their behavior.

The cherub with the sparkling eyes of mischief to the left of the first, moved to the side and introduced himself energetically:

- Caleb I presume. Me he said while pointing of the finger, it is Erwë enchanted!

- Rawën for me! Chained the second angel, his green head leaning to the side.

The third person who was still hiding moved to the side, a small child with pink hair nodded

- Aloÿs

- Nice to meet you. Are you the one who dropped me in a room full of... demonic dolls...

A disturbing sensation froze Claeb and suddenly stopped him in his tracks. It was as if he could hear the sardonic laughter of those damned dolls in the background.  This sensation of having someone behind him looking at him from the corner of the eye with an evil look. As if the famous person was subject to many grievances towards him.

Suddenly, in front of the three cherubic eyes, Caleb fell to the ground holding his head in his hands. He had seen that mischievous look on many faces. Too many to count, mixing disgust and hatred. A repulsion so pure, a hatred so simple that it was almost laughable. Having been bathed in it all his childhood and until his death, these looks made him lose hope in Humanity, making him almost afraid. With the laws promulgated by Jasmin, Rohann's father and former king of Hor, he found and still finds this distance that is created between the so-called "normal" humans and the "cursed" children. Then these so-called different humans began to live with this fear of what others saw in them and what they saw in themselves: monsters, abnormal.

This belief was transmitted like a virus to such an extent that rejection, mockery and harassment were an integral part of this life. So much so that Caleb always wondered if benevolence still existed. Whatever confidence he had was drowned in the quagmire that was his life. Only two people had managed to break down his barriers. Caleb in the same way that one looks at a treasure. But it wasn't the looks that treated him like a treasure that would change his truth. People and customs did not suddenly change, it was impossible. Whether it was the attacked or the attackers. Whether it was strangers and even parents, those dear parents, those disgusting monsters.

As these flowed like a poison, this pain became more and more pronounced. His breath quickened until he could only breathe intermittently, his body was burning with a scorching heat similar to the temperature of the sun. He was burning from within and his heart was consumed. He was weak. He missed Aki and Ada his mother.

Caleb was starting to go crazy when that mischievous look went away. The feeling of warmth was replaced by coolness. Dazed he opened his eyes that he had closed until then and slowly stood up and faced three stunned faces. Still beset by these malignant thoughts Caleb asked in a voice harder than usual:

- Don't say anything about what just happened. Otherwise...

- I think it's too late," said a cold voice.

**********