A less than stellar chapter, but I've had a rough day. My TV burnt out and my dog ate my gloves. No, I'm not kidding.

A gazillion thanks to everyone following this, thanks for all the support. I'd glomp you all, but as this is the internet you'll have to settle for an e-glomp instead.

*e-glomps everyone*

I've been planning on doing this episode almost since I started, and now that I'm actually doing it I've ended up changing it completely. I was going to do a kind of doll siege like something from a zombie film, but now I've had a different idea. Hopefully it won't suck.

Rozen Maiden: Märchen

EPISODE 5

Bump in the Night

Micchan lay spread out on the couch, dozing gently with a bundle of pictures clutched in her drooping fingers. It had been a long day. Despite this, the two dolls were still very much awake. They sat in the kitchen together as Kanaria introduced Barasuishou to her favourite food.

"Sweet eggy omelette! Its divine taste is simply unmatched y'know?"

The second Rozen Maiden doll had slowly started to warm up to the scary BaraBara when it became clear to her that said scary doll wasn't going to fight her and take her Rosa Mystica. Kanaria still had a chip on her shoulder given past events, but Jun had assured her that Barasuishou was mending her ways and helping out. And, well, Micchan certainly liked her.

"You like this?"

Kanaria nodded, gazing at the food on the end of her fork with intense anticipation. "It's Kana's favourite snack in all the world. It's just so yummy!" She swallowed the forkful, a dreamy expression crossing her face. Her eyes sparkled with delight. Barasuishou tried some. Her reaction was not quite as ecstatic, though that was just her being her usual self. She still enjoyed the taste. Food - it was something she'd seldom bothered with before. She'd never realised what she'd been missing out on.

"It's good, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"So ... ? What's your favourite food? You must have one."

Barasuishou considered the question carefully. It was hard to say, although one thing sprang to mind. "I like chocolate," she said eventually.

The dolls were both currently sporting very frilly maid outfits. These were by no means the only attire they'd tried on that day, merely the latest. Barasuishou had actually enjoyed the experience. She'd never worn anything else before. It was amazing how much a different dress could change someone's appearance. It came as quite a surprise as well to learn that some of the outfits Micchan had her try on were made by her father, Enju. Apparently the woman had been a frequent customer of the doll shop before it had closed down, and had purchased many dolls clothes and other accessories. Her whole apartment was stuffed with dolls and doll-related things; it made it painfully clear where her passions lay.

"What's wrong?" Kanaria asked, "Is there a problem with your omelette?"

"No," Barasuishou shook her head and set her fork down, "I was just wondering if the others had finished watching their movie by now."

"Huh? What movie?"

Barasuishou rubbed at her left eye. "Did I not mention before? Sakurada invited his friends over to watch a late-night horror movie together."

Kanaria gasped, thunderstruck. She stared at the other doll in stunned disbelief for a long moment, before spluttering. "W-what? Invited? Together? But, but..."

"Is there a problem?"

Kanaria slammed the bottom of her fork against the table. "You're damn right! How could they not invite me? I, Kanaria, the brainiest and most charming of the Rozen Maiden! It's totally scandalous!"

Barasuishou did not have a lot of social skills when it came to dealing with other dolls. Or people for that matter. So she chose exactly the wrong thing to say at that moment. "You are not the brainiest Rozen Maiden," she said, as if pointing out an incorrect math solution, "Souseiseki is. And I believe Hinaichigo is the most charming."

It was a sure sign of how mad Kanaria was that she hurled a perfectly good plate of eggy omelette at Barasuishou. The Enju doll briefly vanished prior to the dish hitting her in the face, only to reappear a split second later in the exact same spot. The plate smashed against the wall, the sweet omelette sliding down after the shattered fragments. Kanaria gripped the table and fumed at her.

"This is unacceptable! I won't stand for it, y'hear!"

"What do you intend to do?" asked Barasuishou, seemingly unfazed by the fact that she'd just had a plate of food thrown at her. Kanaria crossed her arms and glowered at nothing in particular.

"Watching a horror movie, are they? Well then, Kana will just have to show them what real horror is all about!" She sniggered, which turned into a chuckle, and then into outright laughter. Barasuishou watched her, bemused.

"Is the laughter really necessary?"

Kanaria stopped. "Of course, it sets a dramatic scene, y'know?"

"Ow! My foot!"

"Everyone just stay calm! Ouch, Hina! That's my hair!"

"Unyuu, Hina doesn't like the dark..."

"Jun-kun, do something!"

"Hey! Someone just touched my butt! I so don't believe it!"

"Sorry, that was me."

"Oh. Okay, never mind."

"Jun, the lights aren't working. I think the power is out."

"Oh for crying out ... Hinaichigo?"

"Yes, Jun?"

"Can you call your artificial spirit?"

"Oh! Yeah! Berrybell? Berrybell, come out!"

And there was light. Hinaichigo's artificial spirit appeared, floating in the air right beside Jun's head, casting a soft pinkish glow across the darkened living room. Catching on quickly, the other dolls did the same. Lempicka and Sui Dream emerged from their respective owners and added more light to the gloomy proceedings. It also served to highlight something else.

Shinku hadn't called Holie.

"Hey, guys, where's Shinku?" Jun asked, casting his gaze about. The living room was a patchwork of multi-coloured light, and everything was shrouded in long shadows. But of Shinku, there was no sign.

"Shinku?" Nori blinked and looked around, "She was right here a second ago - oh! Jun!"

Jun joined his sister and peered down at the spot on the couch where Shinku had been sitting just prior to the power going out. She was conspicuously absent, however in her place, gleaming in Berrybell's light, was her pocket watch. Nori picked it up and opened it.

"It's stopped," she said. She turned to her brother, her expression clouded with worry. "Jun-kun, she's gone!"

Everyone called out to her, but there was no answer. A swift search of the living room revealed nothing. Indeed all of the doors and windows were still closed, just as they'd left them. In the seconds between the lights going out and the dolls summoning their spirits, Shinku had vanished into thin air.

"What happened to her?" Tomoe wondered aloud. Jun took the pocket watch from Nori and examined it, but if there were any clues to her sudden disappearance, he couldn't deduce them. He tucked it away, frowning. Everyone was watching him expectantly, save for Hinaichigo, who was still sitting on top of his head like a strange pink hat.

"Something odd is definitely going on here," he said, trying to figure things out. Suiseiseki snorted.

"You think?"

"We need to find out what's causing all of this," Jun continued, ignoring her, "and we need to find Shinku. Someone should also go upstairs and check out that sound we heard a few minutes ago."

The silence was so sudden and total you could have heard a hair drop. Jun scowled. "That'll be me then."

"Bravo!" Suiseiseki clapped her hands, "I always knew you had the heart of a lion, Jun."

"You're coming with me."

The clapping stopped and Suiseiseki looked as if he'd just suggested that she jump into an alligator infested swamp. She swallowed. "W-wait, what now?"

"I'm your Medium, remember? You'll be stronger and safer if you stick close to me."

Suiseiseki sagged, unable to argue with that logic, much as she would dearly love to. "Darn."

"What about the rest of us?" asked Tomoe. Jun reached up and removed Hinaichigo from his head, before setting her carefully down on the ground.

"You guys should search the ground floor and the garden. I'd suggest you and Nori each take one of the dolls with you so their artificial spirits will give you some light to see by."

"Umm, you mean split up?" Souseiseki frowned, "Isn't that the kind of thing that gets everyone killed in the movies?"

"She's got a point Jun-kun, we should stick together!"

Jun sighed and put his hands on his hips, doing his best to bury his frustration. Why did they have to argue? "Fine, stick together. But if you find Shinku and she's been torn into tiny pieces because you took too long to find her, just remember whose fault that'll be."

It was a mean thing to say, but it worked. They agreed to split up and search, and Jun left them in the living room while he and Suiseiseki headed upstairs to find out what the creepy sound had been.

On the whole Jun wasn't that scared of ghosts and goblins. He'd spent months buying cursed talismans and voodoo dolls online, and it was all just junk. None of it was real. Of course the Rozen Maidens were real, but he was used to dealing with them by now, even the crazy psychotic ones. Either way, he'd much rather face down a murderous ghost than a classroom full of people. If he could make it through a day of school, he could damn well search his own house in the dark without turning into a quivering wreck.

"After you," Suiseiseki said, standing at the foot of the stairs. By the dim light Sui Dream provided, they couldn't even see the upstairs landing. Anything could be waiting up there. Jun looked from the stairs to the doll. Brave he may be, but that didn't mean he was stupid.

"Ladies first."

Suiseiseki crossed her arms. "Well in that case, I wouldn't dream of going before you."

"Just what the heck is that supposed to mean?"

"Just that if you don't want people at school to know that you don't actually have a cousin, you better march your girly butt up those stairs before I decide to tell them."

"I hate you."

"No you don't. I'm a lovable rascal."

"Operation 'Night Terror' is about to commence!" said Kanaria, lying on her stomach amidst the bushes of the Sakurada garden. She peered through her binoculars, surveying the area for any sign of activity. Unfortunately it was too dark to see more than a few feet in any direction, which was something of a drawback.

"What are you doing?" said Barasuishou. Kanaria yelped and dropped her binoculars. She looked up and saw that the Enju doll was now standing directly in front of the bush she was hiding in. She was also still wearing her maid outfit. Kanaria barred her teeth.

"What are you doing? You're ruining my brilliant ingenious plan!"

"Ingenious ... plan?"

Kanaria got up, retrieved her binoculars and stuffed them away in her bag. There was no point in hiding; the darkness would conceal her as it was. She was simply being overcautious, that was all. She sniffed.

"I'm planning my stealthy insertion into the house, if you must know. It's awfully quiet though. I wonder..."

Barasuishou turned and gestured towards the front of the house. "The front door is locked. There are several other ways you could use to gain entry, however I advise against it."

Advise against it? "Huh? Why?"

Barasuishou turned back to her, and in the darkness her yellow eyes gleamed like ominous stars. "Something has awakened within. I sense a malevolent presence inside, full of anger and hate. It is not safe."

"R-really?" Kanaria clenched her hands to keep them from shaking. "That ... that doesn't sound good, does it?" She cried out in alarm as she heard rustling nearby, and promptly burst into a panicked run. If she had been in a calmer frame of mind, she might not have ran towards the sound. As it was she collided with something in the dark and screamed. Whatever it was screamed back at her. A moment later a soft pink glow threw some light on the scene and both of them stopped screaming.

"Kanaria?"

Kana blinked. "Hina ... Ichigo?"

"Hey, what's with all the screaming?" said Nori, emerging from the darkness. Kanaria looked from human to doll, utterly at a loss.

"What ... what are you guys doing outside?" she asked when her senses had fully returned. Hinaichigo cringed and looked around, as if afraid that something might spring out of the bushes at her. Besides Kanaria.

"Shinku's missing, and we're trying to find her, but it's really scary and weird things keep happening, and Hina wishes it would all just stop and go back to normal. Why are you here?"

Kanaria balked. It probably wouldn't be a good idea to admit that she'd come to break into their house and scare them all for not inviting her over. She thought hurriedly. "I, uh ... had a premonition, y'know? That something was wrong. So I came right over to help out. That's it!" she laughed, a short forced laugh. Hinaichigo blinked.

"Unyuu?"

None of them got another word out, because at that point a hole appeared in the side of the house. It was a strange kind of hole, as if the wall sort of sank in on itself. They stared at it with dumbstruck horror, and watched as several metal chains shot outwards and wrapped around them all. Hinaichigo closed her eyes and cried, whilst Nori panicked and struggled to free herself. Kanaria tripped and fell over, but the chain that ensnared her quickly and effortlessly lifted her up. Within seconds all three were pulled into the hole and vanished. An instant later the hole itself was gone, leaving no sign that it had ever been there in the first place.

Barasuishou walked into the sphere of light provided by Berrybell, who flitted about frantically out of concern for the now absent Hinaichigo. She extended her hand towards the artificial spirit and drew it close to her face.

"Tell me," she said in a hushed voice, "what has been happening here?"