Chapter 21:

2nd night: Part seven

Author's notes: Okay, I'm sorry this one took so long. I've been pre-occupied in real life, too much for my wasted brain to think about.

I have bad news concerning the story. It seems I'm stuck on one specific part in the game, and I am working at it, but it's giving me trouble. I have currently found a visual walkthrough off the game (Thank you Persona!!!) So I will be able to continue writing it, and have good visuals of the backgrounds. However, all sections featuring cut scenes will be made purely off of my imagination.

I'm hoping it doesn't come down to that. Some of the cut scenes in the game are beautiful, in a really scary way.

Oh well! We haven't reached that point yet, so on with the story!

Slowly, Lina turned around. Her breath was caught in her through, and her body was trembling. Sweat trickled down her brow and she struggle to keep her heat from bursting. She slowly blinked and looked on. Nothing…

But that was impossible! She could've sworn she had heard something…

Lina sighed. The Mansion was getting to her. Steadying herself a bit, she began to make her way to the ladder. And then, it seems to go in slow motion.

A voice screamed out, and Lina suddenly felt as though she were in a freezer. She turned as quickly as she could, just in time to see a white blur rushing at her. She suddenly felt frozen in place. She could see the outline of the blind woman. She couldn't move her feet; she was too scared. So, instead, she braced herself. Her fingernails dug crescents into her palms as she squeezed her eyes shut.

Something about this woman terrified her. She couldn't understand it, but she had a nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach about her, and it paralyzed her. Quickly, she opened her eyes, and found herself face to face with said ghost. Without thinking, her finger pressed on the shutter button, and the blind ghost pulled back, shrieking and moaning.

Lina took this chance to run as far as possible. The ghost quickly recovered, and began to stumble around, arms outstretched as she moaned and cried out.

Lina stood still, and thought for a moment. Suddenly seeming much braver than she felt, she slowly and noiselessly knelt down and grabbed a pebble or two. Standing again, her heart racing, she tossed the pebbles to the side of her. In an instant, the ghost was on top of the pebbles. Lina could feel her arm becoming a giant ice sickle as the ghost barely brushed her.

Trembling, Lina pulled the camera up and took careful aim, struggling to keep track of the spirit as she wander around aimlessly.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, she felt the camera begin to tremble. Taking a slow, shaky breath to calm her heart, she pressed the shutter and watched.

Blinded, as Lina had decided to call her, shrieked loudly, loud enough to wake the dead. Lina silently felt like slapping herself. That was NOT funny. Not in even the smallest way. Shuddering, as the echo of the scream died away, Lina took relief as the ghost disappeared, as well as her presence. Lina carefully gathered up the photos she had taken and scanned them over. When she reached the last photo, however, it was odd. Instead of seeing Blinded, she saw a row of candles. She recognized the background. Slowly, Lina pulled out her map and looked it over.

The room, if you could call it that, was called the Demon Mouth. The Corridor led to it, and the room that led to the Corridor, the room with all the broken pieces of things, was called the Rubble Room.

How fitting… Lina thought bitterly, looking up for a moment. Turning back to the map, Lina found the room she was looking for, the room with the candles, the Burial Room. That was where she had seen the row of candles. Lina carefully placed the photos in her backpack.

Then, she scanned the ground, in hopes that she missed something. And almost instantly she noticed a small box. Slowly, she knelt down and carefully lifted it up. The box was small, with a rough material- maybe sandpaper- on the sides. It was red and yellow, with old kanji markings Lina couldn't understand. Lina gently shook it. Inside, some small objects rattled around.

Gingerly, Lina eased the box open; weary of anything around her that might move. Inside, about four matches lay. Lina quickly headed back to the Burial Room.

Nothing happened as she passed the Corridor, which Lina was incredibly grateful for. The only thing that was odd was that the closer she got to the Burial Room, while she picked her way through the broken items in the Rubble Room, was that it was much colder than she remembered.

Finally, Lina reached the door leading to the Burial Room. Stopping for a brief moment to make sure she had film in her camera, Lina took a deep breath and opened the door, expecting something to pop out and attack her.

Something did appear. But it didn't attack. The little girl in the white kimono stood there. For once, Lina didn't jump back, or cry out. She was startled, but it hardly showed. The girl was pointing to the small table in the corner, her face showing concern, and maybe… a little fear?

"This way!" she called, pointing frantically, before fading slowly. Lina quickly caught a glance at where she was pointing before the girl disappeared, her voice still echoing in the air.

Lina hurried over to the table and looked over it with her flashlight. Standing up tall were eight candles, four red and four white. The table looked like it had been dusted recently… Lina pulled out her matches. She only had four… and considering how tiny the matches were, she couldn't light them all…

With a sigh, Lina set the matchbox on the table and pulled up her camera. Aiming carefully, and weary that she was running low on film, she snapped the photo and pulled it out. Slowly, it developed, revealing the candles.

"The red ones are lit…" Lina muttered to no one. She gently picked up the matchbox and pulled out a match. With trembling fingers, she struck the head of it against the sandpaper and watched the flame flare up. Slowly, she lit the first red candle, just before the flame of the match disappeared. Lina picked up another match, stuck it, and lit the next candle. Soon, she was on her last match, and lighting the last candle.

As she blew out the candle, the sound of something unlocking reached her ears. Slowly, she reached behind the candles, careful not to touch the flames. Behind them, a small drawer had unlocked. Lina pulled it open and pulled out it's contents.

A scroll, rolled up, sat in her palm. She carefully unrolled it and looked it over, using the candlelight and the light from her flashlight. She could make out what looked like children on a dark background. It looked familiar.

Lina quickly pulled off her backpack and pulled out the photos she had collected. Going through them as quickly as possible, she pulled out the one she was looking for. It was the picture she had taken in the Doll Room. The scroll in the picture matched the one she held.

Lina smirked and put both the scroll and her photos away. She was finally getting somewhere. And that was good. Lina knew she wasn't far from the Doll Room. Which meant there was less a chance of her getting caught by a ghost along the way.

Shouldering her pack, Lina went over to the door that led to the Cherry Atrium. She kind of liked the name of the porch. If she didn't know how creepy it was, it might've actually held some sort of welcoming sense to it. As she made her way down the porch, she couldn't help but shiver. The temperature was getting colder. It made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, and she felt as though something were behind her.

She had checked several times before she had reached the Doll Room. Entering, her blood suddenly went cold, and she suddenly found it hard to breath. Lina swallowed, her dry throat aching from the gesture. She slowly made her way to the wall by the roped off doll. She suddenly felt eyes on her. But it was probably from the dolls. Doll eyes always had freaked her out. While other kids were terrified of monsters under their beds, she was afraid of having a doll in the same room with her.

Lina glanced to her sides as she looked at the dolls. Her hands were trembling.

She stopped walking for a moment to calm her nerves. Her mind was racing, like her heart. Her head shot up, as suddenly she knew she wasn't alone in the room. Turning slowly, she looked around. And then almost fell backwards. She saw a small child. The child bared a strong resemblance to the one she had fought in the same room. And she was slowly crawling towards her.

I love cliffhangers! They're so much fun! Actually, I had hoped to get much farther than this, but it's okay. Till the next chapter!