It was almost dawn by the time Meld returned to Sanctuary's golden doors. Always a night owl, recently she had been having even more difficulties sleeping than usual. Since her memory had been wiped she no longer knew completely who and what she was. Cobwebs and shadows of memories would flitter in and out of her mind but any time she tried to focus too strongly on a familiar face or voice, pain would ark through her head. She had the horrible feeling that something bad had happened before she lost her memory, that she was forgetting something very important but trying to decipher what that might be was completely beyond her. With a sigh she crawled into bed and waited for the darkness of sleep. to overcome her.

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Meld found herself in hallway, stark and white and stretching farther than the eye could see both behind her and in front of her. She knew she had come from behind and could only continue walking because there was something important that she needed to see, something important that she needed to find, at the end of the hallway. As she walked, her metal feet clacked against the hard marble floor, echoing strangely in the empty hallway. It didn't matter, all that mattered was that she get to the room at the end of the hallway.

For how long she continued walking, Meld was unsure but eventually she came to a set of pitch black doors. She pushed them open, surprised to find them heavy. Inside was a large skinny room, completely sterile white but she could not see to the end of the room. To either side of the corridor were glass enclosures and inside of each enclosure was a man or a woman, imprisoned and unable to escape. There were signs written in stone at the bottom of each enclosure. She walked up to the first one and found a man, by the looks of his uniform, an officer. His arm was severed at his elbow, cut cleanly off but he was still alive and watching Meld, silently, as she approached. The sign below his enclosure read that his death was self defense. He had tried to kill or imprison her and she had ended his life instead and that she hadn't meant for him to actually die.

Walking up to the next enclosure, Meld saw another man, this one who's chest had been torn up. Like the first he continued to stare mutely at her, eyes dead and cold. His sign said that he had tried to organize anti-mutant rallies and she had taken her revenge on him. He had died because he was a threat to the mutant cause so his death had been justified.

As Meld continued to walk down the room, she stopped at each enclosure which held a man or a woman with some kind of horrible wound that had ended his or her life and a sign below that explained why he or she had died and why it was justified. As she continued further down, however, the room itself began to change. Where it had started out a stark and sterile white, dirt and grim began to appear. At first it was barely noticeable, just a speck of dirt here or there but gradually it began to permeate the place. No longer were the walls white, but streaked with an unidentifiable black ichor that smelled of rotting flesh.

As the walls and floor began to darken, so did the men and woman in the enclosures begin to change. Their wounds became ever more gruesome and other wounds, signs of torture, began to appear on their bodies as well. Their eyes, which had started out cold and dead, became accusatory and the signs explaining their deaths started to speak of things like pleasure and torture and the justifications that they laid out for the deaths of her victims became ever more empty and trivial.

Brian looked around and smiled. He finally had taken his stuff from his apartment and managed to move it to the mansion where he had just recently got himself a new room. It wasn't much but it was cosy. Next he spent pretty much a large part of the night on his laptop trying to find a job. He couldn't keep asking his mother to send him more money every time. But finding a job was harder then he had imagined. Eventually when dawn arrived he sighed in defeat knowing that if he would find one ... it wouldn't be for today. And since he didn't wanted to crash asleep somewhere ... what he did most of the times if he didn't had a good sleep. Sometimes his powers could be a real pain. Yawning he dropped himself on his bed and surrendered himself to his reality of dreams. A place where everything was possible and where people often where confronted by themselves and their dark secrets.

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As he felt the dreams of other pass by him he wondered what too do. Most people where at the end of their dreams and barging in like that wasn't really his style. When he wanted to relax and go for a dreamless sleep however he noticed something. At the edges of his mental reach there was somebody who just stumbled asleep and he could feel that it was a rather heavy dream. He always was a curious guy and after a bit considering his options he eventually decided. Concentrating on the dream he soon felt himself getting dragged in. Up into the curious world of this dreamers mind.

As he took shape it was always first that of a glowing white sphere. As he looked around he could see that the room he was in was a white hallway with made it easier for him to hide himself. He didn't needed to wait long for he sensed the dreamed and when he saw the girl he was rather shocked at her appearance ... Sure in dreams everything was possible but he knew that this is how she looked for real. Keeping to hover out of her sight he followed her and let himself slowly get synchronized whit this dream.

This dream actually had a horrifying mood that he never felt before as he passed into the next room whit her by just phasing trough the wall. Inside where the corpses of several people. After she passed he flew down to read what was written on each of them why they died. He grew more and more disgusted as he followed her to the darker parts of her dreams seeing all the slaughtered people and the explications... Who was she ?

My now the walls were almost completely covered in black ichor and the smell was enough to almost make Meld physically sick. Still, she kept walking, stopping to look at each enclosure as if by compulsion. She had lost track of just how many people she had killed, because she knew that every single one of these men and women were her victims. As each new enclosure was past, the sick feeling at the pit of her stomach increased.

"You killed me." This from a man who's throat had been torn to shreds and shouldn't even be able to speak any more. His sign said that he had insulted her and punched her. She had replied by offering him death.

"You enjoyed killing me." This from a woman who's eye had been gouged out of her head and claw marks ran down her face. Her sign read that she had the misfortune of being a part of a cult of humans who hated and sometimes killed mutants. She had killed no one herself but had died through the misfortune of spending time with the wrong kind of people.

"I had a mother and a father who loved me." Words from a girl,barely sixteen. Her clothes were in tatters and her arms and legs were covered in dozens of little cuts. Her death had been neither slow nor pleasant. Her sign read that she had been a church goer, used as a hostage to ensure that the police did not come in and do anything drastic. She hadn't even done anything wrong.

As Meld continued to walk down the corridor, each dead victim spoke to her, accusing her and pleading their innocence, why they didn't deserve to die. The ichor on the roof and walls began to appear on the floor and each step resulted in a sucking sound as metal feet step into and then pulled out of the stinking black goop.

The deeper they went the darker the room became. After experiencing the rotten stench himself he altered his own sense filtering it out as he followed her. Dream manipulation definitely had their advantages concerning this. The wounds on the people grew worse and the reasons even more sickening as suddenly he could feel that the dream changed again. Soon after this he knew what it was as the voices of the death rang trough the room. Blaming her for their deaths and explaining why they where innocent. For some kills he could bring up sympathy ... But these where just sickening.

But then again he wasn't here to judge or lecture anybody without knowing more about them , their past or their personality. He was dreamer , a guide of dreams and someone who would assist people in their darkest dreams if he decided not to punish them. His current form the glowing white orb was soon the only form of light in the darkest parts of her dreams as he flew in her sight now, floating above her head but remaining silent for now as he let her see the rest of her dream.

Meld finally came to the end of the long room and at the end of the room were two doors, one white and one black. Upon each door was a window, low and large enough that it could be looked through. She was aware that she could only choose to go through one of these doors and once she had gone through there would be no turning back. The windows were there for her to get a glimpse of what lay behind each door before she actually chose one to open.

The first door Meld approached was the white one. Behind the door lay a maze filled with thorns, fire and shards of broken glass. There was a safe path through the maze that could be seen but the path was murky and difficult to navigate and even going by the path itself was wrought with untold and unknown dangers.

Having seen what was behind the white door, Meld walked over to the black door and looked through its window. Inside there was a clear and straight path, easy to see with few dangers. On either side, however, were screaming corpses, covered in wounds and blood. Rivers of blood cris-crossed the path. Meld stood in indecision in front of the two doors, trying to decide which one was the right one to choose.

At the doors he silently guided her towards them so she could see what there was lying behind before he spinned a few times around her so she would notice him as he flew behind her back. The glowing sphere glowed brighter and grew out. Soon a large glowing humanoid shape was standing behind her looking at each door. "You have quite a violent life already behind you ... and it seems that you can make your choice again to which path you should follow. I wonder what you will take"

His new form floated above the black ichor untouched and unspoiled unlike the rest of the dream he gestured to the first door. "The white path is always the one hardest to walk. You never know when trouble or misfortune might hit you. Even at the end it isn't sure if you will have a happy life but you will have walked the correct path." He floated to the other door. "The dark path ... would be continuing your current life. Doing as you please and live happily without respect of other peoples lives. It is easier indeed but you will only end up filling up this hallway further and further ..." He floats in between the two doors looking at her. "What will it be ?"

As Meld stood in indecision before the two doors, trying to figure out which one was the correct one to choose, she gradually became aware of a floating ball of light that condensed itself into a glowing human. "Who are you?" Meld asked it. She had known all the victims, they had been hers. Even if her waking mind did not remember their faces or their stories, her sleeping mind knew them all intimately. Each of them had died by her hands and so none of them could be truly forgotten. Their history and the end of that history were forever imprinted upon her soul.

It didn't really matter who the glowing person was and his words compelled her to return her attention to the two doors. "What if I can't make it?" Meld asked. Surely he must be a figment of her subconscious mind. "I'm alone and there is no one to help me. I can only make one choice and succeed." She took an uncertain step towards the black door.

The glowing human chuckled. The sound of his voice sounded out of place here having a small echo behind it. "I'm ... just a guide who is passing trough himself. I help people trough this place and mostly of all ... i am just curious." He shook his head a bit as he floated aside so that she stood before those two doors now whit his light shining and enlightening the whole area. So much violence and so much killing in her past and yet ... so uncertain. Dreams often revealed sides of people that they didn't wanted other too see.

"True there is a chance you won't make it and I'm sure that your ... rampage left you whit little people to support you. But deep in the end people always are alone and have to take care of themselves... especially mutants. And yes ... You can only take one decision but once you do you can dedicate your life to it. The white one will lead you to a path that makes you atone for what you did. That's why it is so hard to walk that one and it isn't even sure if you get rewarded for doing so." He sighs looking at the doors tilting his head a bit "More i can't say ... The choice is up to you and I'm not here to influence you... Not that i could anyways since i have still to reach the point of my life where i am before this choice. So far i have been walking a grey road and i don't know when the end will be there... So what is it that you wanna do ?"

Was it normal for one's mind to create a sub-conscious guide guide with a personality trait of curious? Even Meld's dreaming mind realized that something was a little off, but the doors beckoned and she wasn't able to concentrate on what seemed not to fit. She had to choose, it was impossible to remain outside in the corridor. Something was coming, blood was slowly filling the hallway. She looked down and the blood had come to her ankles. She had to choose before the blood filled the room or it would engulf her and she would drown. She had to choose and save her life.

Another uncertain, sloshing step was taken towards the back door and two figures appeared, each of them ghosty and transparent. The figure next to the black door she recognized instantly, a smaller woman with brown hair and a faint shimmering pink aura. The second figure, in front of the white door, her unconscious mind recognized even if her conscious mind had forgotten, a taller man with silver eyes an fangs. Each of the two figures beckoned towards their respective doors, enticing her to choose and choose now. Each promised to help and support her decision but only if she choose correctly. What would she choose?

Time was running out and she had to choose. Her dream coaxed her into thinking it over faster as slowly the hallway started to fill whit blood. It didn't seemed to affect the glowing humanoid shape but it turned his glow blood red. "Its time ... choise" He smiled crossing his arms as he got another surprise in that girls dream. As the two ghostly figures appear at each door he realised that whatever choice she would make, there where still people that would help and support her. He didn't recognised the man beside the white door but strangely enough he knew the girl beside the black door. The shimmering pink aura easily gave her away. Aura , a girl who's dream he visited as well lately.

By then the blood was almost at their knees and he looked at her "Decision time ... Black or white what will it be ... But it seems you won't be so alone after all ... Now choice your friends ... and your enemy's." He smirks crossing his arms as he actually amused himself by doubting which way she would take. In the end however ... it was all up to her.

Meld didn't know what to choose, didn't know what was the right option. On hand hand there was the black door with her best friend Aura and that promised an easy path in which she could indulge all of her base instincts. It was a path of violence, death and power but in the end her monster would consume her and she would end up barely human.

In the other door was the one person who had believed that she had so much of a chance to change, Hunter, the one person who had tried to help her. Behind that door lie an almost impossible path filled with pit traps and temptations all of which could be potentially deadly but in the end she would retain her humanity and surely that would be something worth while because she realized she wanted to retain her humanity.

The blood had reached up to her waist and she began walking, trying desperately to reach the white door because, in a moment of revelation, she realized that it was worth it. She wanted her humanity to remain in tact. The struggle was desperate as more blood began to fill the corridor making it ever more difficult to continue to move forward. If she didn't reach the door soon, she would drown before she even had the chance of salvation. She looked desperately at the glowing person, hoping against hope that he could help her reach the door which she now realized she absolutely needed to reach.

He silently watched the girl decide and actually against what he suspected she would do she turned of from the black and tried to reach the white door desperately. More blood filled the room and he saw her struggle to reach it. Should he just let her struggle and maybe drown in her dream as punishment for what she did ? It would be just seeing her victims but that wasn't the girl who did that anymore. He saw somebody that wanted redemption. "You have made your choice ... and ill guide you there." It was time to step in action and use his manipulation ability's.

It seemed as if reality started to ripple outwards from the glowing form before the blood got pushed away by some unseen force. Once the blood was pushed of you it formed a wall behind you locking the way back and the way towards the black door of. Now the only way to go was trough the white door. He nodded approvingly and the ghost of the man stepped forward and opened the door for you before disappearing. "Come ... Lets go and face the path you have chosen."

The glowing figure agreed to help Meld and the blood began to drain from the corridor, forming a solid wall behind the two of them. She knew without having to test it that she wasn't going to be able to go back, only go forward. The blood left stains on her legs, stains that she would never be able to get rid of. The past was there forever and even moving beyond it, it would never stop being an influence in her life.

Meld took a cautious step forward, closer to the white door. The figure of Hunter opened it and beckoned her forward before disappearing. She took her first step upon the maze she had seen from the window in the door, alone save for the glowing figure beside her. As soon as she stepped onto the path, the white door disappeared behind her, barring her way back. The maze itself appeared to grow and twist the moment she entered it, the path she knew she had to follow barely visible. She took her first step upon the path.

The moment she stepped in the figure followed you. But being in this bright lit room his old shape wasn't needed anymore. In a small flash the light disappeared and now a young guy stood beside her whit dark blonde hair. He smiled at her as he put his hands in his pockets of his jacket as he looked around curiously. "Its bright enough so you don't need me anymore to lighten your path, so i got more casual." He chuckled amused as he looked back at the door.

"You actually surprised me you know that... I taught that you would go for the black door for a second there. But all by all you have taken this path. You want to see trough these dangers just to make up for what you did in your past ... Your a brave one to decide on that. Most people go and keep it simple and easy" He smiles as he seemingly studies the strange maze now.

Meld was distracted from the content of the dream for a moment as she watched in fascination while her guide changed from a glowing humanoid figure to something more properly human. "You aren't one of mine." Surprised revelation as the parts that weren't fitting together before finally formed themselves into a whole. She had come to the realization that her guide was something outside of herself, something difficult to grasp for someone who had never believed in God or guardian angels. Perhaps the new agers had it right after all, and people really did have spirit guides. She certainly seemed to have one.

Having made up her mind that the boy must indeed be her spirit guide, Meld took her fist step along the path. "I can't have the blood be everything that I am," she answered her guide distractedly. The first step along the path was easy and the few after that but then she came to a fork in the road. On one side the path continued in its meandering and thorny fashion. She could see that the underbrush had grown to such a degree that she couldn't see what threats lay within, except for the thorns, thorns that would draw blood if she wasn't careful. The path on the other side was much thinner, more of a dear trail, but also much clearer. Trees and flowers lined the path and at the end was a clear pool of water. Though the deer trail was smaller, it was also much clearer and easier to navigate and the pool looked very inviting. She could go down there and take a drink, surely, and then return to the path she was on?

Meld took a single step onto the deer trail and as she watched the clear pool of water changed to red blood and the trees transformed themselves into horribly mutilated corpses. The flowers changed to titanium blades, identical to the ones she currently possessed on each of her flesh melds. Freezing in place, she looked desperately backwards, seeing the larger path gradually become shrouded in mist. She didn't want this path, she didn't want the blood pool that had been masked by crystal purity. She wanted the path that would lead to her redemption, she only hoped it wasn't too late.