I closed my eyes, and suddenly the world melted away. The chamber's dim phosphorescence dissolved into a blinding, swirling vortex of memory and shadow. In that overwhelming surge, I was no longer standing in the cold, silent temple. Instead, I found myself back in a time that I had long tried to forget—a time when I was nothing more than a scrawny orphan navigating the treacherous corridors of a school where every day was a battle for survival.
In this flashback, the hallways were cramped and oppressive, the scent of disinfectant and stale sweat mingling in the air. I was smaller then, my shoulders hunched as if perpetually trying to hide from the world. The walls seemed to close in on me, each classroom a confessional of cruelty. I remembered the whispers like shards of glass: "Monster," "Pariah," "He killed his parents." The labels clung to me as tenaciously as the grime on the school's worn desks.
