This... this can't be right.
I stared at the mantel clock before me; it's stationary hands stuck at the number twelve in spite of its continuous chiming. Walking back over to the window with gelatin-like legs, I separated the heavy red fabric once more- revealing a picture of an immobile cat's claw presenting itself in the same, eternal black sky above. A cold sweat broke out as my heart thudded violently within my chest.
Nothing's moved at all. Not even the moon.
I fell to my knees in disbelief and utter confusion- my distress rising as an unknown crumpling sound made itself known from the folds of my dress.
My eyebrows scrunched together as I reached into my dress pocket, my fingers instantly brushing against a thick, papered object. Lightly wrapping my stiff appendages around it, I tugged it out to see that the object was in the form of an envelope- a single word intricately inked onto the back.
"It's addressed to me?" I asked aloud, perplexed as to how it had entered without my noticing. I had no family left, and the friends I once had were now a memory of the past. The only ones left to think of were the owners of this mansion. But why would they write a letter to a stranger that they hadn't even known for a day?
I curiously tore open the envelope and pulled out a paper with an uneven, jagged edge- looking as if it had been ripped out of a book. As I read the hastily scrawled writing upon the page, my mind became muddled with bewilderment.
That was until I happened to come across the last sentence.
"What kind of sick joke is this?!" I choked out, my eyes widened in fear as the papers trembled in my grasp.
I wanted answers, and I needed them now.
I looked around at every never-ending corridor as I wandered throughout the mansion; noticing how lonely and dreary it seemed to become with each step. I knew it was rude of me as a guest (and as a stranger, nonetheless) to be prowling about like this, but I needed to talk to one of the family members about all of this. Why, even one of the two servants would suffice!
One person has to at least be awake! I thought, holding the envelope to my chest as I stepped down to the second floor- only to quickly stop in my tracks. I slowly turned around to look back at the darkness from which I had just descended. My memories of climbing the staircase to the third floor, or being able to fall asleep in a strange home, missing.
"How-," a loud crash cut me off, causing a sharp intake of breath to sound from my lips.
I whipped my body around to see a door partially opened, slivers of golden yellow slipping through the cracks and onto an old, grandfather clock across the hallway- along with multiple, hushed tones. I'm not sure what it was, but it felt as if though I was being pulled towards the door, my breath shuddering with every struggling step. It didn't take long before I was a hair's width away from the light that poured its way past the door. I timidly raised a fist to knock, but the mentioning of my name and the harsh whispering that followed from the opposite side chilled every fiber of my being.
I lowered my fist, finding myself peeking past the slivers of light and into the room instead. I gawked in shock once I saw everybody positioned about in, what seemed to be, the study room. The master of the household, his wife, their eldest daughter, and their twin children. Even the butler and maid were there!
"Let's do it! If we sacrifice the outsider, then we can be set free!" The master sounded dead set on this as he banged his fist upon a nearby desk.
"We want to leave!" The twins cried out simultaneously.
The wife hushed her children softly as she crouched down to pull them into a loving hug. "We'll leave soon enough, my dears. Don't you worry."
"And how is that supposed to happen if we can't find the End Page?!" The eldest daughter said harshly, glaring at her mother.
My eyes pooled with tears of betrayal. I stared down at the envelope in my hand just as the warm droplets slipped past my lashes and onto the ink of my name.
They know about the End Page?!
I crumpled the envelope in my hand and turned around to flee this twisted mansion, but the grandfather clock across the hall stopped me from doing so. Its metallic golden hands remained motionless as it showed midnight, despite the incessant ticking resonating from within it.
My jaw clenched.
Time was mocking me.
In pent up frustration, I shattered the glass barrier with my fists- uncaring to the shards as they pierced away at my flesh and envelope in hand- and tore out the newly vulnerable hands from the face of the clock. I stared at the broken timekeeper in front of me as tears trailed down my face, narrowly aware to the artificial lighting and differently sized silhouettes that drenched my being.
"M-My dear," I heard the mother's voice stutter, "what are you doing up so late? A beautiful, young lady like you needs her rest!"
I slowly turned to face them, a twisted smile stretching along my lips at their shocked faces, their eyes glued to the parchment clutched in my bleeding hand. "Change the dialogue, change the pace, change the order... the ending is up to you. However, If one of the imprisoned dies, the others shall die. And if it is so that you choose, your death and their deaths shall forever be refrained." I repeated, a section of the End Page that I had memorized.
"No, Miss! You mustn't!" The maid shouted out. "You don't know what you're doing!"
I glanced into each pair of glassy eyes. "You can't fool me."
I then raised a hand, the golden blade pointing downwards.
"Good show, good show!" A cloaked figure cheered as it maneuvered around the corpses, stopping next to the play's lead role. "Surprising me yet again, young protagonist. I wonder what you will do next. " It hummed to itself as it picked up the, somehow, unmarred envelope. "I wonder, I wonder."
It then walked away, eight souls in hand.
A friend and I have been trying to make sense of the Bad End Night song series, and this is pretty much our interpretation of it (while still keeping the vague complexity of it all).
But we are still confused. .-.
Anyway, I was going to update on another one of my stories, but I've been showing signs of Carpal Tunnel; so I'm not sure when I will be able to update...
It hurts to write this A/N, so I'll end this by saying: constructive criticism is very appreciated! And if anyone can explain this better, or if I forgot something (excluding the coffins or dialogues of other characters), let me know in the reviews! :)