Allen sat for the longest time staring at the pile of dirt that supposedly had seeds in it. Nobody could do a task like that! He was only human, anyway. Allen looked down at his hands and nearly lost himself in his staring again before shaking himself out of that, too. Allen stumbled out of his chair, taking a furtive glance at the door before backing his way into the hall that led to the bedrooms.

He had a bad feeling about this, he had a bad feeling about all of this. This was all so strange and the old woman had just moved from being standoffish to outright unnerving. Why would she ask him to do these things and why did she say she'd let him stay even if he didn't do the impossible task? What was the point of it, then? Allen didn't understand any of it and that was making him frightened.

This time, when Allen found himself back at the elderly woman's bedroom, it was on purpose. He didn't hesitate in pushing open her door and slipping inside, letting the door slide closed behind him. It was dark and Allen couldn't see, but he remembered the layout of the room enough to carefully wade through it and find a candle to light. The room looked just the same as it had before, with no changes except for the cauldron. It was gone…

Allen crept into the room. He really didn't know what he was looking for, but he was hoping he would find something. Something that would give him an idea of what was going on. He felt a little guilty at going through someone else's things, but he silenced it as he continued. He carefully rifled through clothes and books and other items without success...until he got to a doll. He was going to place it to the side, but-

"Hello." A small voice spoke from the doll.

"Ah!" Allen screeched and in instinctive panic, tossed the doll away from him and across the room. "W-What the-" He stared at the doll laying on the floor a distance away, it wasn't moving. Was it all in his head? Was he imagining it?

"I said hello." The voice repeated, no inflection in its voice.

Allen stared at the doll in shock for a few minutes and then, "H-Hello." He replied, cautiously. "What are-what are you?"

"I am an enchanted doll." It spoke as before, with no particular tone.

"And...what are you doing here?" Allen asked, crawling forward on his hands and knees to get a better look at it. He still kept a small distance, though. The thing still scared him a bit.

"I was owned once, long ago, by a little girl. She escaped from here, but I was left behind. I have been kept here ever since." It informed him.

Allen thought over the information and then jolted a little as the doll's word choice sunk in. "Wait. Escaped?" He asked.

The doll still did not move, but again it spoke. "Yes. She was lost and far away from home," That sounded familiar. "And the witch that lives here provided her shelter."

It might have said more, but Allen had an outburst before it could. "Wait, hold on. The witch that lives here?" A-A witch?

The doll continued. "Yes, the witch that lives here. Surely you have met the elderly lady who resides here. She has kept me locked up since I was left behind, but I know that she still lives in this home."

"Yes…" Allen breathed out, fear beginning to rise in his voice. "Yes, I have met the old woman. Who-Who is she?" His voice was shaking. The doll either didn't notice or didn't care.

"She has many names, but her most common one is Baba Yaga." The doll answered, easily. "She has quite the habit of accepting travelers and not letting them leave."

Baby Yaga...he'd done quite a bit of reading on monsters, but he hadn't heard of her. "What happened to your old owner? The little girl. If Baba Yaga doesn't like to let people leave, then how did she get away?" He leaned forward, desperately. Maybe knowing what happened in the past could help him now. It was beginning to set in, the kind of danger he was in. The bad feeling he'd had...all the strange happenings, and the standoffish behavior of the woman now coming together as they were added to the horrifying realization of what she was.

"Mostly with my help. I do not think she would have lived through the ordeal if I had not been with her." The doll informed. "She assigned the girl impossible tasks, with the object that she would inevitably fail and then the witch would have an excuse to kill and eat her. Baba Yaga would leave, then come back later to check if the task was complete." What? Allen thought, breaking into a nervous sweat. "I helped her with each one. My enchantments are many and while I am not all-powerful, I can perform higher than any human could. Each task she was given, I completed, and we hoped that that would be enough to have Baba Yaga release her."

"And was it?" Allen asked, worriedly.

"It was not." The doll replied, for the first time, sounding sorry. "The witch was displeased every time she returned and the tasks were completed. This is understandable, considering she was setting up my owner to fail. That was why she kept assigning new tasks, hoping that my owner would only succeed in doing her tasks the once. She didn't know about me then, she only found out about my existence when my owner ran and realized that I had been the one completing the tasks. That is also why she kept me here in the dark, she does not like to lose and I had made a fool of her."

"So she was angry about it…" Allen whispered, more to himself than to the doll. "What happened next?" He wanted to know. Needed to know. If this Baba Yaga was planning on hurting him in any way - eating him, he shivered - then this was something he needed to know.

"She was a sore loser," The doll replied. "Or so it seemed. When the task was completed when she returned for the third time in a row, the witch lost her temper. She flew into a rage and decided that she would eat my owner, regardless. That is when she found out about my existence, as I drew attention to myself and allowed my owner to escape by distracting Baba Yaga. It gave my girl a head start and she ran for it, but the witch soon realized it and gave chase.

It was only due to the girl's quick running speed and ability to hide in the nearby foliage that she wasn't caught. The witch had given chase in her flying cauldron. It is how she travels long distances and makes her much quicker than she would otherwise be. However, my girl was faster and trickier. That's how she escaped." The doll finished.

Allen breathed out a gasp, his eyes wide as he stared at the doll and processed all of the story. So that was how his predecessor escaped. "A flying…" His eyes found the spot in the corner where the missing cauldron had sat earlier. It was a very large cauldron, he remembered. Big enough to stand or ride in, if need be. And, more importantly, it was gone.

Allen decided that that gave credence to the talking doll's story if a talking doll wasn't already enough itself. But what did he do now? How...how could he get away? "Could I run now?" He found himself asking the doll. If he ran now, before Baba Yaga got back, then perhaps she wouldn't find out he had left until it was too late! Allen felt himself buzzing with energy as he made plans.

"I would not recommend it." The doll replied, startling Allen. "I don't know how long she has been gone, but I cannot imagine it will be long before she's back, perhaps she is even moments away. While I don't know when she will return, I know from experience that she does not leave for very long when she gives out her tasks. She seemingly does not want to let her...meals...stay alone for too long once she's assigned them to do something. Perhaps she fears they will run when they cannot complete her tasks or perhaps she fears they might find a way and doesn't want to give them much time to do so." It pondered.

Allen's shoulders slumped. He could still try to run, he supposed. He might still make it, especially if she happened to be taking a longer trip this time or if he could hide somewhere nearby, but even as he thought that he found himself unsure about the likelihood of either of those happening in time to save his life. He wasn't enough of a fool to disregard the doll's advice, Allen truly didn't know what he was doing. He was scared! He wished Kanda or Lavi was…

Allen paused and stared down at the floor. They weren't here, though. They weren't...because he hadn't gone back to them and now he was here. Allen found himself having enough of mourning his decisions. It didn't mean he didn't still have regrets about running off, but that was enough moping! They weren't here to tell him what to do, he had to take matters into his own hands instead of wishing they could do it. He'd...he'd decide what to do once he got out of this alive.

Allen could do this. Despite whatever horrible process had gone into his creation, Lavi and Kanda had assured him that he was, in fact, human. The girl whose story he had just heard was also human and her story ended in survival. Why couldn't his? No matter how young he was, he wasn't stupid and he wasn't helpless and with a lot of luck, he could emulate that girl's success. The witch had been beaten once, so she could be beaten again.

"You helped your previous owner live. She got away and maybe even went on to live her life, away from this place. You helped her." Allen straightened his back, lifted his chin, and took a steadying breath. He would get out of this. "Could you help me too?"