Hyoen and Arisa finally arrived in this haunted looking town and honestly, it wasn't that impressive. Then again, this town wasn't created to impress people, right? Her eyes that glowed gold would shimmer as well as her aura in this time. 'Fuck...' she thought as she could notice the darkness of this retched place. Some if not all, they were filled with dark aura, but not powerful. Were most of these people not human? Slowly she licked her lips as she glared at them all. With the glare, they would sink back into their house or where they came from. Were they afraid? Arisa wondered more on this subject and so she walked to the nearest hotel with her dear friend, Hyoen. They weren't sure if these guys were the typical stereotype races from stories that a child would be told by their mother or what. ''Don't move so far from me, Hyoen...'' she whispered to him, cornering her eyes away from him so it didn't look like she was planning something.

This area was reeking of the smell of wet dog and blood that dried up over months. Some metal here and there was rusted up, but soon she saw the hotel not so far. It looked like some haunted house from the distance she was. Arisa was hoping that Hyoen will listen and stayed close. Her heart was pounding quickly, anxious and nervous with what she was feeling, what she was seeing and her curiosities with this place in general.

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Dahlia Town… when he first entered, the town was pretty foggy. It wasn’t a bad thing, but it surely changed atmosphere from the woods of Worth Woodsea. Upon entering, the Fire Mage felt that this place was much more different than any other town that he had been. The streets… they were almost empty for good. No strolling people other than him and Ana, and lights were turned on faintly inside the houses. It was around the break of dawn now, a while after they first sat foot in here, and the place just didn’t surprise the other Lamia Mage as it fascinated himself. Yes, it might have been too grey to appear welcoming, and the people around might have not been looking so much more welcoming themselves, given that the instant they saw Ana and Hyōen enter, some were already inside their houses and others were heading for their residents as well. It all screamed paranoia, and that was the interesting thing; what exactly made them like this? Did the town have a bad history?

Ana had whispered something to him, and he only barely got to hear it. She wanted him close, because things didn’t look as peacefully as the silent sound was. Coda didn’t peep even once after they had entered the town, and that too worried the wizard a little. Then again, unlike the abnormal phenomenon with the animals earlier, he too felt what Coda was shivering by… it was a very dark presence, especially near the house that they were heading to. “… There went all my expectations for this Dahlia Town,” he spoke quietly with a lowered, yet funny face. There was some kind of huge, seemingly, presumably and most likely haunted given by its appearance only, and they were smart in holding their distance from it right now. Something eerie came out of it, but he couldn’t tell… he did feel something, but it was faint and vague.

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Arisa walked with a dirty kimono for her outfit. She still had no shoes on as she never had any with her in the first place. Her eyes of the blazing sun glared forward to make it look like she wasn't the type to mess with. Honestly, she really wasn't the type to mess with, mostly right now with the being within her stomach. Her hand slowly hovered over her stomach where she gained weight at. It was much weight, but maybe that was because of how large her body was -- with her tall height and the plus sized portion in the right places. Her violet hair was radiant in this place compared to everyone else. She glowed like a human never glowed. Did she truly stand out like a light bulb in this area? Arisa never noticed how bad she glowed till now.

Her heart started be beat slower as she entered the haunted looking house. Her eyes widened in amazement as it looked very beautiful. The walls were maroon and gold, the floors were waxed black marble with blood colored rugs to guide people to where they needed to go. For lights they had gothic designed wall lights and in the middle of the huge area was a chandelier lit up. ''Not sure what you are, but you're still welcomed in here young lass.'' spoke a random voice. It sounded very old, crackly and as she turned a full 90 degrees, she saw an old lady hunched with a cane holding her up. Her hair was in a bun, Chinese needle in her hair and her outfit was grey, dull colored and her shoes were sandals. ''Ye need a room for two, aye?'' she questioned them and chuckled.

''Don't worry. No one here is here to get ya. I'll give you two the suite. Such lovely dearys.'' she spoke as she walked off with a key. It was obvious to her that she should follow her as well as Hyoen should. ''A real nice place you got here... You must take well care of it, granny.'' Arisa stated. She really wasn't her grandma, but nonetheless, she was old. Her eyes wandered as they went through the halls and at the end of the hall was their room. The door opened on its own, the handle was golden, but had steel stones in it on the edges. Slowly she entered the room with caution, seeing the room then light up on its own as well. Once again the place was amazing. It was as if she was going to sleep in a castle. The bed was a maroon and black designed canopy bed, two large sofas, fire place and a full suite that had a spa room and hot tub. The place was quite something.

The house was, surprisingly, larger than he expected. Upon approaching it, Hyōen had to credit the size of this place that was approximately 10 times bigger than his own cottage or something. He couldn’t really set a precise size for the building, though, because when they were getting closer and closer, the building just seemed to increase in size. Maybe it was 20 times bigger, or around 25 times. It caused question marks to pop out of his head, fascinating the Fire Mage just like the town did earlier. Looking over at Ana, she suddenly appeared more… well, apparent due to whatever, or rather mostly because of the dull old atmosphere that this town emitted. The mage never noticed it before, but she sure shone a lot for an ordinary human being. It was likely her magic’s doing as she did show some effects of it back at Worth Woodsea with all the bristling flames and all that.

They managed to reach the entrance to the large house that appeared to have been a hotel of sorts, in which they both entered the haunted looking place. However, once when they were inside, everything looked rather fine for such a weird looking house, or at least, it did look strange from the outside. The walls were finely decorated, and as soon as they began looking around, an elderly woman arrived behind them. She sounded to have been the owner, or at least, the leader of the hotel as she greeted them. They were, per her words, welcomed in the hotel, unlike the feeling that they both had when seeing all the other people outside close their doors by their mere presence. The older woman was friendlier, or perhaps just very socially welcoming compared to the rest of the people.

She offered them both a place to stay, a suite as she called it. It was the first time that he heard of such a word, but he simply followed the elder lady along with Ana to another room that turned out to be as large as his damn cottage in whole. “Woah..!” he let out in amaze, “This room is… larger than my home.” He didn’t hesitate in entering the same room, taking looks everywhere as he literally just popped around as a very curious looker, until he caught sight of the spa room. “Dips!” came out of his words faster than he could think as he jumped into the spa, once midair taking off his clothes until he was mere trunks, as he landed in the hot, almost burning water. For him, though, it was like jumping into a heaven, and he couldn’t but close his eyes and float around in tranquillity…

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She looked at both of the beds as she didn't really care which one Hyoen wished to take. Both of them looked comfortable and the only real important thing to her was to get to shower first. She turned back to thank the old lady, but before she could, the lady was gone. ''Weird.... anyways.'' she started to say and looked at her friend, Hyoen. ''I'm going to go take a shower since it's been a bit. You go ahead and pick what bed you're taking. I can use some real sleep by now.'' she started to say as she picked up some robe and walked towards the master bathroom. Her hand gripped the door ledge. ''Oh yes... I would advise you to not go anywhere without me... These aren't normal people..'' she warned. Arisa couldn't tell him how she knew as she didn't want to tell him she was an angel. Who would believe such rubbish? Letting go of the ledge she then shut the door and locked it.

Meanwhile, the old lady went through the halls to go back to where she was sitting, behind the counter. Her eyes felt rather droopy and tired. Her body felt like falling apart, but she felt like she had to keep on going. She missed her son, even if he was seen as horrible. Yawning the lady got to her rocking chair and sat her cane on her lap and fell asleep. Her snoring could out-do an earthquake, but because the walls are so thick no one could hear her snoring.

Arisa grabbed the shampoo as she already got undressed and threw the clothes to the other side of the bathroom, she started to wash her hair. Her sharp long nails combed through her thick violet hair and finger tips that were smooth rubbed against her scalp. ''Oooh my god, this water feels amazing.'' she groaned as she enjoyed the feeling of water. The steaming water dripped off her hair and onto the ground as well from her body like droplets of rain. Her sun-like eyes cornered to look at the door as she had trusting issues with that. She feared that someone could be standing there or someone was watching her. Her heart started beating as she hurried to wash her hair with her eyes closed. Soon enough she was done, wrapped herself in a robe and went out to get into the bed Hyoen wasn't in and sleep.

The water caressed his skin like an ally of his, making sure that his body felt warm and welcome in the spa. It was the second time in his life that he ever tried out a spa like this one, the first time being back in Magnolia Town where he got a free spa time due to a request that he completed for the owner of that very same spa. Remembering the day back then, he smiled a little, thinking that it wasn’t too bad to have a spa time like this once in a while. Hell, or rather, no, it was far from hell, it was a Paradise, a place of rest and peace, a place of comfy feelings and safety. That was what circled through his mind as he enjoyed the hot waters embrace him. Coda wasn’t holding back herself, heck no, she was trying to dip her entire body down underwater to truly feel it all wash away her worries. Her feathers were surprisingly dense, and when she had dipped her body underwater and went back up, the water danced off her plumage like rivers and waterfalls. It was a pretty view, but the Fire Mage was a bit too focused on the water’s caressing of himself as he felt all his exhaustions being washed off. “Ahhh… this is the best,” he mumbled to himself in peace, ah, peace…

He often began diving in the spa, realizing that it was just like this when he found the magic circle in the depth of Hargeon Town’s shores. He remembered Ana’s worried face when he first saw her sitting there, on that sand hill, all alone and in deep thought… she barely shared her thoughts with him, but it still worried him to a certain degree. After the spa time, he made sure to not end up with marks on his body due to too long baths, and looked over at Ana as she had fallen asleep already. She was still in her robe- looking away, he simply threw himself onto his own bed and covered himself under his duvet and pillow. He had no right to look at her, his mum learned him to much about behaving around women, and even though most perverts out there would find this a golden opportunity, he wasn’t really a pervert himself… at times, but majorly not.

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She rolled around on her bed as she was fast alseep. Her mind was in no shape to think logically as when she's in her dream world, it was nothing but mentality. Every dark thought, every fear she held was in this 'world' of hers. There was no one, nothing to defeat them as she stood in the middle of it all alone. She was alone again as her heart was no longer reachable or so she thought. When she looked at men or women, she found no attraction to them. When one was so kind to her, she had no affection or happiness to them. A huge part of her was not just a huge actress of emotions and expressions. A couple of mumbles and then something broke, waking her up after two hours later of finally getting sleep.

Her body reacted quickly as she motioned upward to see a ghost, a spirit of man. He stood looking at her with a sorrow-like face. ''What's your deal?'' she questioned, yawned and rubbed her eyes. He looked at her confused, in question. ''You act as if this is natural.'' he spoke quietly. ''Mmm? Oh yes... you're the third one this week. I feel like some spiritual councilor and problem solver. So tell me your problem.'' she ordered in a tired-like state. He looked nervous for a ghost, but he spoke and not quietly this time. He explained that he was once a killer, a murderer who died. His mother who was old, lived in a house that had some bodies hidden in them. He didn't want his poor mother convicted and killed for his own crimes. The mission would be for her and Hyoen to pretty much find these bodies and take them out, probably burn them in the end. With that, if Hyoen didn't wake up from him talking then she woke him up, explaining and they'd then go to the old ladies house. They searched for a couple of hours after they got dressed and ready and to the house. Some moments later they found them, dragged them out and did what they had to with them.

After his awkward expressions flew away, he slowly went into sleeping again. Hyōen His dreams were beginning to manifest as images, pictures of him and his mother once again together. He wondered if she would make an appearance during Halloween, but who would know. For all that he knew, it was a possibility since they had already encountered like two other ghosts, and his earlier fear of them had disappeared completely. Whilst sleeping, he also began seeing images of people that he had met before; Evangeline, Alice, Kenny, even that cat guy. He wondered what they were doing in times like this, but given that he and Ana had met a fair amount of ghosts until now, maybe they were bumping into experiences with those walkers as well. It was weird how ghosts just came to be around these lands in this time, because he was certain that the deceased were to rest in peace when they had left the world. One could not really rest in peace when walking around streets of the living like a madman, so what was the deal? What caused all of it? These words echoed throughout his vast, curious mind like as if a speaker was talking.

He suddenly heard the talk from Ana about some problem and slowly rose the duvet off, taking a look. “H-Hey, who’s here-“ he was about to ask, until he saw a pale-looking manifestation of a man. It looked as if he was purely auric, which indicated that he too was a ghost, in which the Fire Mage couldn’t but yawn a little. “What’s his deal, now..?” he vaguely asked whilst looking at the ghost. It appeared that he had an issue, since he was a previous criminal and serial killer who had stacked five bodies away from the locals. They were somewhere nearby, and it sounded that the old lady whom he talked about was the same old lady who granted them this suite. He requested them to help by finding and getting rid of the bodies in case if the locals would come after his innocent mother, in which the Fire Mage could understand. Having done horrible things in life oneself, you couldn’t let your mom be dragged into it if she was innocent. Besides, a suggested way to getting rid of the bodies was to burn them, and who was a very efficient fire mage here?

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-exit-