The doll was rather disturbing to Kuto.
Wearing a blood red cloak, the doll had unusually large eyes and its pupils always seem to be dilated. Having a long tongue hanging out of its mouth was not helping much to lessen Kuto's fear of such things.
Oh how he wished these things had not existed in the first place, to him, it was a root of fear and the path to hallucination and nightmares.
But there it was, clutched by Homeee who treated it as if it was a lifelong treasure to him. The doll seemed to stare sidewards at Homeee, its eyes lifeless and unforgiving.
Homeee would succumb to his childish antics and make life into the doll, moving it with his fingers like a puppet just to amuse the Roserade sisters or even to kill some time. It was as if it was alive, the way how Homeee acted out how it would sound, a shallow squeaky voice, or how it would walk on four limbs. To Kuto, it was horrifying.
It was as if... As if the doll had started murmuring his name from afar and suddenly appeared behind him to penetrate his soul with fear. Was he hallucinating? Or maybe he did not have enough sleep last night?
No, he told himself. It was all just hallucinations. Yes that's it. He must have been visiting the Shadow Castle too much and too recently that all the energy he put into completing missions had taken a toll on him. He needed to take a break.
Instead, he soon found himself pulled into the Shadow Castle once again, to complete tasks with the amusingly annoying Roserade sisters, the enthusiastic Homeee and the ominous doll he so wished that would not be in Homeee's or anyone's possession.
To get into the Shadow Castle was easy. Kill the goblins, clear a path for the explosive barrel and ice when needed. But what he didn't expect was himself to be stuck along the edge of a barricade, with molten ground on his right with a drop and Homeee on his left. Oh no, he didn't mind Homeee at all. But what he did mind was the doll.
It seemed to relentlessly stare at him, threatening to push him off the edge and send him to his death.
He forcefully pulled his mind off the offending piece of stitched-together cloth and concentrated on doing his task. However, the unexpected happened. Homeee felt a slight tug on his shirt and could not shake of the feeling that it might be the doll pulling on his shirt, since it was the closest to him.
He turned and-
BertongKuto dropped out.