The hand creeped out holding onto the crack's edges.
Boy in his brown overcoat looked at it for quite a while. His gaze fixated on it like he should be knowing whose it is.
Shaking his head, he proceeded ahead. Gazing at where the shrouded being was, he was perplexed by the sight in front.
The being in the dark shroud was ahead of him by several archways, however its shadow was not casted down at the ground behind it.
Its shadow remained on the two walls and the roof. Fixed.
He took three steps forward. The shadows moved by three equal paces.
Thinking something, he took three paces back.
The shadows moved two paces back.
'But whose hand is it?' His mind wandered.
He was as puzzled by the hand as he was of the oddity of the being's three shadows. To him, it was against what he thought was possible. The being according to him should have one large shadow as it was in the direct path of the light ahead.
Yet, it had three detailed shadows and none on the ground.
He crossed into the next archway. Murals on the left and right had vast progression compared to the earlier murals.
And a change not seen.
Colour.
The murals on both sides held colour for the first time. Even if it was white, the monotone murals were now filled with two colours of black and white.
The man on the left stood above a white land. Meanwhile the little girl stood surrounded by white clouds in a dark land. Both the murals held the very same window as the previous painting showing the previous creation through it.
As he observed all of that in a split second, he looked up at the roof next.
Again he stood gazing at it. For the strangeness from viewing the mural of the roof touched something within him.
A being stepped through the crack looking to its right, while three more cracks appeared on the roof. They were parallel to the first.
Hands grabbing on the cracks they were breaking out of.
The mural of the roof held a little plant as well. Who made it was not clear, it just appeared in the current one.
Questions and curiosity rose within him. Over and over.
'Still it is not anything evil looking yet? Right?' His suspicion did not believe so.
Grabbing on his arm, he turned his gaze down at the black path he has been walking on. His reflection stared back at him.
'Not rough, huh?'
His reflection was as singular in colour as his surroundings were. Even his brown overcoat looked dark than its own original colour.
Step after step he crossed over to the next archway.
"I have been walking straight for quite a while." Looking to the mural to his right, "how long is this corridor? And where is that one leading me?"
His eyes reflected back the silhouette drawn by the shrouded dark being.
The wanderer looked at the mural to the left too. 'Not much progression in both except both are now creating some sort of being… again.' He exhaled.
Looking up felt to him as if he had witnessed some betrayal except what he saw was still normal looking to one part of his mind.
The three cracks from before had beings stepping out of them as the cracks widened. While the previous crack through which a being already stepped out, it vanished as the very same being waved their hand in the air making lines in the sky.
What they were creating wasn't coherent to him, so he moved on. Staying true to his reason for entering, he did not stop more than moment.
As he exhaled again, he whispered to himself, "how boring is this chase?" Head hanging, he took steps to the next archway. The boy's mind had questions but he felt the monotone nature of the castle washing over him running him empty.
Reaching the next one without skipping a beat, the boy took respective peeks at all three murals and moved on again.
The right one had the little girl having created beings more than two this time and all of them together were making some resemblance of low hanging plants with thick trunks.
While the left mural of man and his created beings were working on making some structure with sharp geometric patterns.
For the roof showed a different scenery, the first being had created their own irregular shaped canvas it seemed and was drawing things on it. Things they understood but felt strange to the boy.
A similar progress as the last roof mural was happening for the other three beings who came into the mural. Each drawing lines in their own way but what were those lines leading up to was as non-coherent to him as the earlier one was.
Moving at a brisk pace now, he kept glancing up, left and right. Never stopping for more than a heartbeat to look at the murals.
Next few murals had similar story to show. The roof had beings entering through cracks and making lines and then the next mural showed the very same being having their own irregular canvas.
For the mural on the right it went through a similar cycle of creation and blank canvas for three runs. A similar scenery repeated for the left mural as well. The changes were fast but it showed the little girl creating beings, structures for the beings, and greenery in black and white.
The man acted similarly.
These new murals did not connect deeply to him. He just looked at them and went past them. Each time he glanced at the right mural, he thought of what the little girl helped in making.
For a similar sentiment rose, but with a different thought about the man and his creations.
The two murals still had one particular change. Now each of them held four windows showing a small section of the past creations, whether that contained a being or not did not affect.
Yet none of the windows ever showed the same being in the same position. It was as if they still moved somewhere not viewable from the windows.