Yuki woke up with a cold sweat in the middle of the night. Her hair was matted and moist and her skin shined. Just a minute ago, she heard something in her closet. It sounded like a rattle or a shake of something plastic banging against the hard walls. She looked around and saw Plushbun in her arms, his smiling grin glued to his face still. Yuki hugged the rabbit tightly to her chest like she always did with her doll Susan. She heard the banging once more in her closet, this one was louder than last time.
Yuki looked around her environment, she was concerned that her older cousin wouldn't wake up to the banging and come into her room and yell at her as a reason why she was making all that noise. But it didn't happen. Which was strange for Yuki.
In her arms, she felt movement in her grasp and saw that the rabbit doll was shaking violently and gasped and dropped Plushbun on the floor of her room harshly. She watched in terror as Plushbun was twitching and shaking all over the floor like it was having a seizure. Yuki clutched the blanket close and trembled then the shaking stopped. With shaky breaths, Yuki leaned in closer. Plushbun's eyes were dark with no star pupils in them. Just two dark gaping black holes that had the resemblance of tunnels that never end.
The star pupils then returned with a flash and Yuki jumped back, whimpering as she watched. Plushbun raised his arms then brought it down to raise himself up. Then another arm did the same thing until its elbows were on the floor. Plushbun then rose up with his legs trembling then stood still in the room, its head was down with his ears almost touching the ground. Plushbun raised his head and his eyes met Yuki's.
Yuki had her legs to her chest with her arms around them. Those burning white star pupils met her normal round ones.
"Hi Yuki…" Plushbun said, his voice sounded high-pitched and clear. "Do you wanna play with me?" Yuki just stared at the plush rabbit. Plushbun cocked his head to the left. "Don't be so scared, I don't bite." Plushbun's eyes then darted to her closet with his head moving as Yuki watched the rabbit walk slowly to her closet, his black sharp nails clicking on the wooden floor. With a talon fingernail, he pointed to her closet and moved his head to her. "If you want to play, you can, it's an option only you can decide. There is a small door that's invisible but you can only see it if you unlock it with the key in your pajama pants pocket."
"What key…?" Yuki whispered and shoved her hand down her pocket and fumbled around until she felt something and pulled it out. A ridged key was held out in her hand, in the air, with a loop of string attached to it like its purpose was a necklace with a felt loop. She looked at the key then at Plushbun. A knot was in her stomach. "Is there anything bad about this game?" The dark eyes returned and the plush shook its head with its pupils returning.
Yuki climbed out of bed until her feet felt the cool wood and walked to her white closet and grasped the handle, she looked at Plushbun once for confirmation and his eyes darted on the door once more. Yuki pulled the handle and there, her clothes and boxes of small toys weren't there and only a keyhole was on the wall of the pink insides of her closet. She took the key and inserted, Yuki heard the small chuckle of the rabbit behind her as she turned the key and a line appeared with the shape of a door. Yuki pulled it open to reveal a dark empty abyss of black.
Suddenly, two eyes appeared into the black abyss, both were in different colors like a cat's eyes. One eye on the right was yellow with a dark pupil while the other one was the opposite, it was black with a yellow pupil. In a glitchy static raspy voice, it spoke:
"Hello there, friend…"
Yuki sat up in bed with her doll Susan in her arms and not Plushbun. She turned to her closet and saw that her closet was opened but her clothes and toys were all there in the same place they were when she left them. There was no keyhole as she shuffled her pocket, no key. Yuki turned to the corner of her room and saw Plushbun propped up in her doll Susan's chair, his arms slumped and his burning white star-like pupils staring at her and the grin stuck on his face.
It was only a nightmare. Yuki thought. "Hey dweeb, breakfast is almost ready! Are you coming down or what?" Ying called out from below the stairs. Yuki pulled away the covers and walked over to Plushbun, she swapped Susan to the chair and Plushbun in her arms.
"Sorry Susan," Yuki apologized to the doll. "I'll see you later today though." She promised the doll. She got out of her room and walked down the stairs and saw in the kitchen with Ying in front of the waffle maker and her little brother Keong having a triangle of a waffle. Ying turned around and a disgusted look was on her face immediately.
"Ugh! You brought that thing to breakfast? I'm going to throw up after!"
Yuki pulled up a chair and sat Plushbun down on her lap. "Plushbun can have breakfast with us if he wants, so don't be mean. And Keong doesn't seem to mind." Keong, who was chewing on the waffle, looked at Yuki with Plushbun on her lap for a second then returned to his waffle. Ying opened up the waffle maker and putted down a chocolate chip waffle in front of Yuki.
"Eat up quickly, we're going to some place today."
"Who's place?" Yuki asked.
"Not a who Yuki," Ying pointed out. She poured more batter into the waffle maker and shut it close. Yuki looked at her little brother.
"What about Keong? I don't want him to get hurt."
Ying rolled her eyes, "I called a babysitter dummy! And she's cheap, I'll tell you that." The waffle maker dinged and Ying opened it and putted the hot waffle on her plate and made her way to the table with a bottle of maple syrup. "Plus, this place is somewhat dangerous so I'm going to shop at a hardware store."
Yuki and Ying sat in the cab driver's back seat as he drove mildly in the road. Ying sat quietly in her seat with her hands folded in her lap while Yuki had her bag on the ground of the car's floor. The cab driver, who was a middle-aged man with gray hairs sticking out, looked at the driver's view and spoke with a gruff voice; "So, where are you girls heading today? Somewhere special?"
Ying shook her head. "No," She responded politely. "Me and my cousin are just going somewhere. Nothing important." The cab driver looked at the girls for a moment before he placed the hover car in park. They were at the front of the hardware store.
"Okay, that'll be twenty dollars and seventy-five cents please." Ying pulled out her wallet and took out a twenty dollar bill and three quarters and both girls got out of the hover cab. Yuki put her bag on her shoulder and she and Ying went into the store with the automatic doors opening. Air conditioning hit their skin.
"Hi! How can I help you two?" A man walked to them and said.
"Do you know any survival gear? Or something related to that topic?" Ying asked.
"We do have tents and flashlights in aisle two and three, are those okay enough for you?"
"They are."
Yuki walked behind Ying as they entered aisle two. Heavy duty flashlights hung on hooks and tents were up for advertisement. Ying pulled off two flashlights and tossed one to Yuki, who successfully caught it in her hands. "You need this in case you can't see." She pointed out, she grabbed a sickle with ridged teeth on the blade. "You never know what you'd find." Ying grabbed many more: a miniature axe, two camouflage vests, a flare gun with bullets. Yuki and her cousin then went into the back of the store.
Yuki saw guns of all shapes and colors along with accessories on them, she saw a pistol with a purple handle and a rifle in the art of a shark. Yuki winced a little. "Are we supposed to be here?" Yuki asked timidly. Ying sighed heavily.
"Don't worry about it." They were then stopped by a dark-skinned woman with piercing on her nose and lips and had pink hair that faded into a blue.
"Are you just window shopping girls? Because you know that you can't purchase a gun without a license." Ying smirked at the woman before she took out her pocket a small card and held it out to the woman. Yuki was in shock.
"I would like a pump action rifle along with a Tokarev 1930." Ying answered in response to the woman, the woman gestured Ying with her hand.
"Come with me and I'll show you," she looked at Yuki. "But the little one can sit on the bench while she waits, can't have little kids handling guns." The woman pointed her finger to a small wooden bench with red paint coating the top. Yuki followed the woman's order and sat on the bench as Ying walked over to the counter with many guns showing the casing. Yuki watched as her cousin was nodding to the woman as she held out a Tokarev gun in her hands with a rifle gun on the counter. She could barely make out what they were saying, but Yuki didn't care.
Ying walked over to Yuki with a large plastic shopping bag that said; Eleanor's Guns on the bag showing a woman with muscles holding a firing machine gun. "Where did you get a gun license anyway?"
"Doesn't matter," Ying leaned into an aisle and took four cardboard boxes of bullets for the rifle and Tokarev. "Let's just pay our things and go to that one place." After paying their things with a cheaper price, they got out of the hardware store and walked over to the bus stop. Both girls entered the bus and took a seat next to a pregnant woman and her husband. Ying took out their things and laid them out on her lap, except for the guns. Ying was quietly saying things under her breath and her eyes were darting back and forth until she announced
"Okay, that's everything!" Ying said, putting everything away
"Where are we going Ying?" Yuki asked anxiously, tugging on Ying's sleeve.
"You'll see." The bus stopped and Ying yanked Yuki out of their seat and got off into a road with gravel. Yuki begin to walk behind Ying. "Hope you don't hate me for this." Ying sing-songed, Yuki then saw a golden gate: the same gate that resembled Don "Donbot" Smith's gate. Yuki felt queasy in her stomach, her mind was reviving memories of her kidnap when she was six, it was a year ago when it happened.
They got to the gate and pushed it open, the gate made a loud ear-piercing creak to it and they managed it open. Ying squeezed herself into the gate and her feet landed and broken rock and gravel. She held out a hand to Yuki.
"C'mon Yuki! I'm not waiting forever ya know!" She called out to the seven-year-old, Yuki slipped herself into the gate. A lot has changed since; the fountain with a golden robot angel was rusted and didn't have any water spouting out. The angel was broken off and the pool was empty, only a floor of dead leaves and some twigs were there. The other gate which lent the household of the Smith residence was in bad shape, the door was loose and broken and one of the gate's spikes snapped off and were hanging.
Something isn't right here. "Hey Yuki! Over here!" Ying was now at the Smith's door and half of her body was already on the other side of the door. Yuki scurried across the gravel and to the door where Ying was waiting. Ying opened the door wider for Yuki, the room was dirty and a couple of leaves were strewing all over, the room was also dark as night. Ying opened up her flashlight and turned it on.
"Yuki, turn your flashlight on!" Yuki turned it on. Two circles of light hit the wall of the room. A few centipedes and cockroaches made their way out of the light. The two cousins began to walk with their flashlights bobbing in the dark. Cool air hitted them very fast and Ying giggled. "Cool! This place is almost like Stephen King's The Shining! Where the couple and their kid went into that Colorado hotel!" Yuki was confused, but shook her head at her cousin.
Yuki then hitted her flashlight in a hallway. "Let's go here," Yuki pointed out, she saw a broken window along with a couple of dirty ones. Ying and Yuki ran over to the broken window, glass was still on the ground. Ying looked out the window, gray clouds were about to cover the blue sky. Yuki looked at the wall, a slit was on the wall.
"Looks like it gonna rain-" Ying turned around and saw her cousin looking at the slit in the wall, she walked over to her and kneeled. She sighed, "I know last year made you remember shit." Ying said. "But, I made you come here so you wouldn't have to worry about that bastard Don any longer Yuki." Ying held out a finger and glided her index to the slit. "Some things are strange sometimes Yuki, you just need to remember that as long as possible."
Ying then felt her cousin's arms grip her waist and chuckled a bit. "Heh," She sighed. "Do you want to get out of here?" Yuki looked up at her cousin and grabbed her hand.
"This way Ying! I want to show you something!" Yuki dragged her cousin down a hallway and made a left. They stopped at a door, planks of wood were on the floor along with bent nails and the door's hinges were broken and loose. Ying went into the door and was now in the Smith basement. Yuki giggled silently. "Wanna see where I was locked up?" Ying looked at Yuki.
"Sure thing cous!" Yuki walked down the cement stairs and pointed to a box of empty wooden crates.
"This was where I was locked up! It's just behind these crates." Yuki then kicked the wooden crates without care to reveal a vault door. Ying smelled something sour and putrid.
"Gross! What's that smell?!" Ying exclaimed, covering her nose with her hands and coughing. "It smells horrible! Like something died!" Yuki rolled her eyes.
"You complain too much." Yuki pointed out. She turned the vault door and opened it. Yuki had a confused look on her face. Inside of the cement little room she was captured in, there was nothing but dirt, just dry dirt. Ying, who was still covering her mouth, leaned over to Yuki's right side.
"There's just dirt Yuki."
"But...there was a cement room. I was captured there and was put here!"
"C'mon Yuki, we have to get out of here before we get caught."
When they got home before the rain came pouring down at them, Angelyne was on the couch with Yuki's little brother in her arms. "There you are you two!" Angelyne exclaimed. "How was your day?" Both cousin's looked at each other then to Angelyne.
"It was kinda boring," Yuki lied. "But we did have a little fun in the park."
"That's great." Angelyne put down Keong and went to the door. "You girls don't have to pay me, the service was free. Oh, and your mother left a message for you Yuki." Angelyne shut the door and Yuki went to the phone and saw a blinking red light and pressed it.
"Yuki, this is your mother." It was Ally Collin. "I'm afraid that your uncle Jim went down with an infection to the muscle and he is now in the ICU. Your other mother is in court at the moment and can't talk right now. Since your uncle has an infection, our absence is now up to the whole month. I wish I was there with you guys now, and since I didn't want three kids alone in a house. I told your babysitters that they will take you in as guardians until your uncle is better. You will have Leela and Amy for the weekend and the others will have you weekdays. So you better pack your stuff for tomorrow, Francis is picking you up."
The message ended with a click.
Early the next morning, the bronze Subaru parked in the driveway with Francis waiting in the driver's seat. Ying came out the front door with the sleeping baby Keong in his carseat all buckled up in pants and a gray tank top. "Where's Yuki?" Francis asked.
"Still packing I think." Ying said while adjusting her baby cousin's seat.
In her room, Yuki was zipping up the zipper of her duffel bag and putted on her sandals. She put the bag over her head to her shoulder and looked around. Her bed was made neatly and her pillows were fluffed and laid out. Her closet was closed. She looked around and saw two of her toys sitting in a chair, Susan and Plushbun. Who should I take? She looked at Susan, then at Plushbun.
"C'mon Yuki!" Ying called out from outside, Yuki gasped and quickly grabbed Plushbun, leaving the other doll still sitting in her own chair.
"Sorry Susan, but Ying told me to bring only one doll." She opened her duffel bag and put Plushbun neatly on top of her clothes and zipped up.
When they got to Francis' house, the rain had already started to pour down on the car and on the front lawn. They quickly ran inside and shutted the door. Keong woke up from his sleep and yawned.
"Where's Beelzebot?" Yuki asked, her answer was a loud sound that sounded of someone vomiting.
"He came down with a stomach bug yesterday and today." Francis said, washing one of the dog's water dishes. "It's best if you stay a distance away from him. I don't want anybody getting sick from puking their guts out." Another sound of hurling was heard, this time Yuki heard something wet being dropped on the ground, like someone accidentally spilled their water on the bathroom floor.
"Francis! Can you get some paper towels?" Robot Devil called out from the bathroom above. Francis rushed up the stairs with a roll in his clamps. Yuki was about to head up the stairs also but Ying stopped her.
"I think he can handle this one…" Ying said, she grabbed her suitcase and headed up the stairs. "Our room is this way." Ying got up the stairs, but Yuki didn't follow her. She leaned to her left and saw the keyhole with the hook holding the ridged key. The same door from my dream… She thought to herself but shook her head and went up the stairs. The bathroom was open with light shining.
"You okay?" Yuki heard Francis say.
"Yeah...I'm okay…" Robot Devil sounded weak, like all the vomiting zapped the energy out of him. She saw Ying at the end of the stretched hallway and the door was the guest bedroom. Ying had her suitcase open and was putting clothes away in a drawer. Yuki did the same thing and unzipped her bag and pulled out the first thing from her bag; Plushbun. She settled him down on the bed before pulling a pair of folded shirts and pants into the same drawer right next to Ying's stuff. Ying sat on the bed next to the plush purple rabbit.
"Am...Am I allowed to...touch your rabbit?" Ying asked uneasy.
"You mean Plushbun?"
"Whatever that name, but yes."
Yuki shrugged. "I don't mind." Ying took the rabbit in her hands and held it up across her, Plushbun's burning white four-pointed star pupils were staring straight at her while his smile was still grinning back at her. Ying felt uncomfortable from the rabbit and tried to break away eye contact but couldn't. Suddenly, Yuki heard her cousin scream and throw the plush across the room making Plushbun do a small thud when he hit the wall and landed on the floor. Francis came rushing in.
"What?! What happened?" Francis asked.
"That thing-Plushbun-moved his eyes!" Ying shouted, pointing at the rabbit. Francis looked at the rabbit and picked it up from the floor and placed it on the bed then turned to Ying.
"Ying, look, I know you hate Yuki's new toy but that doesn't mean you have you throw it around and scream that it's alive."
"I'm serious! I saw his pupils look directly at me and stare right at me!" Ying shouted and pointed at the plush once more. Francis rolled his eyes and left.
"I've got better things to do…" He muttered under his breath.
Yuki woke up in her bed that she shared with Ying. The sound was heard once more yet again. She turned and saw her cousin sleeping with the covers draped over her head. She lifted away the covers and went outside the room. She tip-toed quietly making sure she didn't wake anyone up from the noise. The floorboard slightly creaked under her feet but wasn't enough to wake up anybody. She went past the bathroom, Francis had paper towels littering the bathroom floor that had soaked up something putrid. She didn't want to even know.
She went down the stairs and checked the kitchen, nothing was there. Yuki heard the sound of a door opening and went out of the kitchen. The front or back door wasn't open and was locked shut. She then leaned to her left, the secret door under Francis' stairs was wide open, the key was still in. Yuki hurried and shutted the door and pry the ridged key out of the keyhole and putted it back on the hook. Gasping with air, her heart was skipping beats and her skin was gleaming with sweat. Yuki suddenly heard the sound of metal scraping against metal and turned around.
"Thank you friend…" The figure replied in a glitchy voice.
Yuki woke up to the sound of Beelzebot vomiting once more in the bathroom and peeked out her door. Beelzebot came out of the bathroom and wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his bathrobe and saw Yuki.
"Hey Yuki…" Robot Devil said weakly. "Been a long time my friend, how are you?" He looks terrible!
"Hey Beelze, I think you should maybe see a doctor? I'm worried about you." Robot Devil snapped his fingers.
"Good idea Yuki…" He retreated back to his room that he shared with his boyfriend, he stopped shortly and groaned before retreating back to the room and shutting the door.