Puzzle

3rd Person Mode

Ahead lied the amusement park, and Daniel couldn't help but feel uncomfortable. The amusement park was on the other side of the town, far away from Lake Toluca, and so why was it here?

The park held no comfort to either Unique nor Daniel. There were no bright, flashing colors and laughing children. Instead, Unique expected children that were very unlikely anticipated: the small girls with knives of the hospital, she feared. There was faint music, but it was badly out of tune, and in minor key, which added to the terror.

Unique followed the faint music to the carousel nearby, which was also covered in rust. She also noticed that empty cages hung in the air by chains that reached as high as the high could see. Higher into darkness, much like the emptiness below them. Unique shook away her chills, feeling that she could be sucked into the darkness forever.

Alone.

Unique stepped onto the carousel and screeched when she heard a loud thump. She fell back and onto the ground. The rusted floor echoed and shook. She held her breath for any noise that followed after.

"Are you okay?" asked Daniel.

"I'm fine," Unique said, using Daniel to stand. She looked up to see that a section from the roof of the carousel had collapsed, and several dolls hanging by ropes had fallen into midair. They were dirty, torn, and had several different inscriptions written in blood on each face of each doll. Their sequence was as follows:

1 2 1 3 2 4

5 6 7 X 8 X

9

10

Q

Each X represented a child that was not born of a previous generation. For instance, 1 and 2 had children 5 and 6, but parents 1 and 3 had only child 7.

On the face of doll Q held a memo. A riddle. Unique read it aloud:

Welcome, stranger, to the tree

of anger, incest, hypocrisy

Here, you will find much bloodshed, woe

Thou should turn back, but nowhere to go.

Your destiny? To find he who

will have another turn of the screw

Your reward? Shalt see, impatient is ye

so are you ready to begin?

1 seen twice, for she slept with 2

and he was unaware what he'd gotten into

for the offspring, 5, was also father to 7

who would fall in his father's steps as he grew.

2 was a stranger who slept, also, with 4

a prostitute, who'd be later killed by 3

who killed, also, 8, but in holy grounds.

The sister of the murderer, 6

gave birth to 9, who passed the child to 10

and a miraculous miracle happened of Q.

But what of 7?

Seems so innocent, but yet, cursed to lead the path of sin

as the fresh life of the new spring will begin.

And so who shalt be punished for the sin of deceit?

The sin of murder and rape?

Take all of the before, and see what's in store;

choose your destiny, your fate.

"Uhm," Unique began, and moved to pull one of the dolls. Daniel stepped ahead of her, instead, and pulled doll 7. "What are you doing?" asked Unique. "He was the innocent one."

"One shouldn't question the innocence of men," Daniel merely said. Unique stepped back and shook her head. He sounded almost possessed.

But what Daniel anticipated was actually true. The dolls rose back to the ceiling by their ropes, and Unique stepped forward to look up into the empty ceiling when a body held by a noose broke it's weight under her fall. She screamed and backed away from it.

"What is that thing?" she yelped.

Daniel, under closer inspection, saw that the body seemed familiar: a blonde woman with a green skirt, knee high, brown boots, and a white vest covering an orange shirt. Unique saw her as familiar when she stood.

"That's the girl I saw in the mirror several days ago," she explained.

"Do you know who she is?" Daniel asked.

Unique shook her head. "She seems slightly familiar, but I'm not sure who it is."

Daniel said nothing, but examined, next, the paper that was tacked to the back of the woman. The next part of the tree:

Dahlia and ?

Walter

"So Walter had a sister?" Unique turned to Daniel. "Do you know who she is?"

"I guess that would make her my aunt.. or cousin, or something like that," Daniel answered.

"How do you figure?" asked Unique.

He shook his head. "Whatever, it's complicated." He took the paper, folded it, and placed it in his pocket. "Let's continue moving."