Velvet seats ran throughout the entire hall, and soft orange floating balls illuminated them. Smaller ones lit his box as well. He took his seat on the left and took in the stunning view of grand architecture and swirling patterns throughout.

To think he was sitting in something created by people whom lived so long ago as to know a world without a priestess.

It wasn’t long before the lights began to dim in preparation for the many performances to come.

But not before a guilty cringe settled in Snow’s

gut.

“I-i completely forgot about him..”

He’d never told you Oz about the private box he’d gotten at the entrance. In fact, he did that on purpose much to his regret now.

Well, I’ll find him after the show, he thought, sitting more comfortably in his seat.

Soon the lights were at a darkness with only a few floating balls over the stage. Emanating a silver-white light.

There was no one there. But soon a melody began to play. A soft, somber sound, all the lights turned, melding into one, becoming a single spotlight. King’s blindfold was still active. Feeding him the deep sensation of anticipation from all around. Soon their wait was met, and a figure began to descend.

White heels appeared first, then a white floral lace dress clung tightly to a woman’s figure; bell sleeves gathered at the ends of her arms, a hooded bodice covering some of her head. Her hair was black and short, barely reaching her ears. Curling up at the ends lay down softly around her head. She turned and twisted, seeming to float down to the stage.

The music in sync with her every move. When she landed it, her body splaying on the stage, it stopped. and began a strong note in sync with her rise.

Snow was entranced; golden mahogany brown skin… the same color as the mole beneath his eye, the same color as his mother… she spun and flipped the notes striking at her every twist; her face no younger than his he could tell, with a glimpse. Her eyes beneath the white lace mask, too round orbs of pure white silver, pupil-less… They caught the light, reflecting it out onto the world…

like twin moons had been birthed in the place where her eyes should have been. Like night gazing at the world surrounding, his world brought to life in her face…

She moved with passion, pressure, and grace, her white dress only a trail to follow.

Snow could not only see it… but feel it… He could feel her passion, her practice, her appreciation for what she was performing and its meaning. Snow had never felt a carnal interest in anything in his life thus far. The event had never presented itself to him…. Till now,

This performance- no, this woman’s performance had unleashed that carnal passion that had been locked away beneath his strength and trauma. He was reverent and grounded. It—it aroused him…

not just the passion and performance but simply the woman herself aroused him, an Aeipathy for her in him growing as she performed

Leaping high, the lights cut out to darkness, with only one small light on her now. White strings illuminated around her. She was wrapped in them like a spider on a web…

And with grace, she unraveled herself from the web's pattern until only one string brighter than all the others wrapped around her pointer finger, Gently brought her down and snapped with her landing drowning everything in complete darkness.

A light sweat had built up on Snow, his breath a bit heavier than usual. His head felt light and full. Arousal was his nature at the moment. The orange light spilled all over once again. And the hall erupted with cheers and claps.

Snow leaned back in the lavish chair, a heavy sigh escaping him.

“Beautifully done, bravo, and only the first performance of the day”

A man had taken his place in the seat next to Snow in the midst of his reverie.

Dressed in robes of emerald silk, golden patterns throughout, and a white owl mask in contrast with his electric green hair.

Snow was completely caught off guard by the man’s presence, but he made an effort not to let this show in his expression or mannerisms

“Yeah—it was amazing, I didn’t expect anyone to come to this box, who are you?”

The man chuckled a muted sound beneath his mask.

“I’m just an admirer like anyone else here. I found this spot of good view, I hope I haven’t offended”

“Not at all.”

“Splendid…”

The man turned his mask towards Snow, his eyes peeking from beneath the mask Green and sparkling.

“Do you know the name of this place?”

Snow met his gaze, studying his mask.

“I wasn’t aware it even had one”

A chuckle came from beneath the mask again

“Mon endroit d’amour, that is the name of this place, my place of love. Quite fitting isn’t.”

“It is…But I can’t say I know that language”

Snow replied

“Oh I didn’t expect you to, you see that is an ancient language even more so than this building”

And who are you to know something that ancient, snow thought.

“Would you mind if I indulged you for a friendly debate, I’ve… encountered a—dilemma as of recently”

Snow rested his hands on the shoulders of his chair before replying.

“I can’t see why I shouldn’t”

There was something about this man… his presence was too inviting, almost eerie.

He chuckled once more.

“Then I’ll start with a question, what do you think warrants evolution?”

Snow’s response was delayed, a questioning look in eyes above the feminine mask.

“Evolution?,”

He looked away then back thoughtful.

“Pressure”

He said in a low voice.

“History dictates that”

The man’s eyes seemed to glow for but the smallest moment before he spoke.

“Yes that is what history has dictated, but think of this… we often forget that “pressure” as you have put it; Is the only or most prominent way in which we have evolved. But you, I, and many more cannot adhere to that logic in this day and age, we live in a time where so much is peaceful, so much is guarded… Think now too our long history how much in say maybe… the last 2 cycles of priestess so 2,000 years. How much has society evolved?”

This Question was odd pretreating a hit of darkness. This was a particularly hard Question for someone like Snow. He was not of this world. So it was more foreign to him than any other. But from the tone of this man’s Question the answer he could summarize the answer.

“Great people have changed a lot of things in that amount of time, but maybe to a smaller scale than you suggest. So… society hasn’t changed that much in the last 2,000 years”

A response came quickly from the man.

“Then we agree, but do you think you can deduce why that is?”

“Lack of pressure?”

A light chuckle from the man followed Snow’s reply

“Yes, but it’s quite easy to argue that it’s not a bad thing; that lack of pressure, but I am of the opinion that pressure for evolution is never really subsided, but merely pushed away onto something else.”

Snow responding quickly this time said

“But if this has been working then why should the need to evolve even be a concern then?”

“Because stagnancy is death.”

The reply from the man was cold, lacking the laxity of his tone before.

“You see much like you, most have summed up evolution to the need for pressure, and move according to that, when that has been meagerly the tiniest of things needed, they miss the reality of what actually happens, that is how you fall into the category of destruction when Evolution crushes the comfortability stagnancy. You see, evolution is precise and cynical. The true marker for evolution is not how much pressure was exerted. But how much change happened? genetic drift, mutation, migration, and even sexual selection.”

His tone was control, filled with precise malice decorated with the accent of a king… Snow only now feeling the intensity of this man’s dark emotions

How had I not picked up on his emotions before? He thought in a panicked voice.

And before Snow could even fathom what was happening. An invisible force descended on him. Caving his seat into the floor of their box.

The man gently raised his right hand, twisting the back side to face Snow.

He chuckled, this one far less human than any other before.

He began to close his hand leaving only his pointer finger.

Snow could only struggle under the invisible pressure, his eyes forced by force unknown, to follow this man’s hand. The man pointed downward to the ground floor of the Opera House. There, tumbling down the open floor between the vast rows of seats,

a man was tearing his clothes to shreds as if trying to tear away a parasite. As turned and twisted, torn flesh was visible, cabled steel bursting unnaturally from his chest and in the place where his heart should be a red bulge the size of his head, was beating faster than the strike of notes on a piano.

“Now see what happens to those who remain stagnant in the face of evolution”

The bulge grew and grew and grew, screams tearing from the man. Awakened armed themselves apprehensively. With elements and muses. But before any strike came from them, one came from him… and he exploded. Sending a shocked wave of force and fire throughout shaking the entire hall.

The man stood a force blocking the explosion as he did, shattering the guard railing in front, he turned to face Snow once again floating slightly off the ground into the open air where the railing used to be.

“Now it’s your turn, all of you. Show me, what you will do in the face of evolution?”

As he spoke his final sentence golden green lights began to form all around.

And the force grounding Snow disappeared…Until another struck, this time from one of the orbs of light. It forced him into the wall behind, crashing through into the hallway.

Agony followed its forced entry into his body. And Snow screamed a scream like no other in his life. He felt his ribs twist and tear through his flesh and out of his skin. But more than this he felt a force creep up from within to his mind,

He tried his hardest to fight using King’s blindfold to split his mind into 4 segments, a technique he learned after much practice and time, but it was of no consequence this force simply grabbed them all, forcing them into one and plunging his mind into darkness.

You smile with the eternal grin of a skull.

—— Words Of a Future Self ——