***

What does time teach us? What kind of a question was that? Was the gypsy playing a trick on him or did she really think he wouldn’t make an educated guess?

“That’s the question you want me to answer?” he asked, wondering what the gypsy might be up to.

“I would not have asked it otherwise,” she retorted, that crystal ball of hers. “Do you give up already, Tao?”

“Never!” he spewed. “The answer is obvious. Time teaches us that life is short and that eventually, it will run out for everyone,” he answered, attempting to get out of the chair so he could immediately get back on track without wasting too much time.

“I’m right, aren’t I? Now, tell me where I can find Jae-noona,” he demanded, but instead, the gypsy merely laughed at him. The puppet behind him on the shelf had started muttering as well, though it sounded disappointed and worried. If Tao wasn’t mistaken, he thought he heard the doll cry out for him to run.

When he turned towards the gypsy woman, he jolted back at seeing how much she had changed. She looked even older now, despite that she was grinning, her eyes glowing and sunken further into her face, spiders crawled from her hair, worms, maggots, and all manner of creepy crawlers fell from her body unto the table, making Tao shriek and bolt away from it. He banged his back against the bookcase.

“What’s happening? What are you doing? I answered your question now tell me what I need to know!” he still demanded, but the gypsy only cackled. She cackled and cackled until the light in the crystal ball became too bright for Tao to bear. He crushed his eyes shut, covering his face with his hands until he could see it visibly darkening again from behind his eyelids. The cackling had quieted down and the room seemed a lot darker than before. When Tao opened his eyes he gasped in confusion when he saw that he was back in the foyer, where he had met Luhan and Lay.

“What? How did I get back here?” he murmured to himself, looking left and right for his brothers, but finding no one there. Without skipping a beat, Tao climbed up the stairs and ran towards the office which was empty. Even the fireplace wasn’t burning.

“What’s going on?” he breathed, running towards the bride’s chamber, finding it eerily empty, and even the painting he had torn up was hanging on the wall again, though it showed an innocent-looking portrait of a young girl playing with a dog instead.

Confused and angry, he ran towards the room where the gypsy resided and found the woman calmly sitting behind her table.

“What did you do? Why did you sent me all the way back to the foyer?!” he yelled, the gypsy only meeting him with that stupid, creepy grin on her face.

“Back again, I see? Have you found your noona yet?”

“What? No, of course not, you’ve not told me where to find her!” Tao exclaimed in indignation.

“What a shame indeed, my pet. Well, perhaps you should go look for her again!”

Tao had only blinked for a split second and there he was again, in the foyer, alone in the darkness. Frustrated he made the journey back until he got to the gypsy room again.

“Yah! What is this game you’re playing?! I don’t have time for this! I answered your question, now you do your part of the deal and tell me where I can find Jae-noona!” he demanded, even slamming his hand down on the floating table.

“You did answer my question,” the gypsy stated calmly, “but who ever said that the answer you gave me was the correct one?” she smirked, laughing maniacally at the look of horror on his face.

“You wished to look for your noona, Huang Zitao? Well, be my guest,” she snapped her fingers and there he was again in the foyer. Try as he may, Tao couldn’t fight it. Even when he tried to take a different route, the doors would simply not open, the hallways would lead him to a dead end or simply stopped him with an invisible wall. He would always end up in the gypsy room, none the wiser, no step further, and the process would repeat itself again, and again, and again, in an infinite loop.

“Considering you, a master of time, knows so little of the power you wield, perhaps it is not unwise for you to become the student of time once more,” the gypsy commented before she sent him back into the foyer again.

Tao dragged his feet in hopelessness, tears streaming from his eyes as he became no more than the many souls that resided in the haunted house. Lost and alone, until the end of time.
 

=== BAD ENDING: ETERNAL SEARCH ===

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