Chapter 7: Checkmate

　　Section 1: Equilibrium　　"What's happening?" Ji An's brow was deeply furrowed, baffled by the sudden shift. The previous scene had been so visceral, yet he hadn't seemed this unsettled then. "Hinson, you don't get it. In soul-analysis, the perspective is strictlythird-person!" He was pacing now, agitated, as if his control over the process was slipping.　　"Just relax and watch!"　　"No... this isn't right..." He seemed entranced, barely hearing me. I shook my head and turned my attention back to Sister Molly's memory, following it alone around the bend. What unfolded was a surreal, fragmented tableau.　　Centered in the vision lay a featureless doll, its form twisting under a shroud of countless blood-red petals. The nearby flashlight beam was split cleanly in two by several of these crimson flowers—one side a stark, luminous white, the other a deep, shadowy red—cleaving the cavern into a dichromatic world.　　The left side, the 'white cave,' was bathed in cold light. A soft, melodic singing, ethereal and hypnotic, seemed to emanate from the doll. The right side, the 'red cave,' was dim. Upon its walls, faint shadows played—a hand connected to a blade, tracing a path across a chest! Between the red and the white, a storm of infinite petals erupted, swirling like frost-edged blades tilling flesh, forcing forth a grotesque bloom...　　A clatter.I heard something fall nearby. Sister Molly turned. It was "me," bending to pick up a phone.　　"Xiaocheng!" The name was torn from "my" lips.　　Sister Molly studied "me," utterly bewildered by this stranger's sudden appearance. She slowly moved back around the corner and found Teacher Dan and Feng Shao standing behind "me."　　"I toldyou you'd been here!" Ji An pointed a trembling finger at the "us" in the scene, his handsome face gone ashen. "You've been here!"　　"Alright, yes, I've been here!" But I was thinking, I never saw her that day. So where is this memory coming from?　　A dry, humorless laugh escaped Ji An. "What's the point of the lies? Is thi