Aya watched as she stepped through the doorway, the wooden door creaking as she closed it behind her.
Aya sighed and ran back into the cafeteria, taking a deep breath to calm her nerves.
Suddenly, she heard a growl come from the darkness. Aya jumped.
"So…hungry…" A voice said.
She walked a little ways towards the voice and found a little boy sitting at the cafeteria table, his head down and his stomach growling.
"…D-do you want something from the kitchen…?" Aya asked the little boy.
The boy jumped from hearing her voice but nodded.
She smiled and went into the back where the stove was.
Aya spotted some rotting ham hanging from the ceiling. Maybe that'll work…?
Aya shrugged and cut a few pieces off with her chainsaw and put them in the frying pan that was sitting on the stove.
One of the burners was on; the flame lashing out to anything it could burn.
Aya hummed a little tune to herself as she placed the pan on the burner and fried the ham.
Even though this ham was rotting…this sure does smell good! She thought happily, finishing up and placing the ham on a clean plate sitting next to the stove.
She picked up the plate and carried it to the little boy, placing it down in front of him.
He lifted his head and sniffed.
"…mmm. Smells just like my favorite fried ham…" He spoke faintly, picking up a piece of the food before shoving it into his mouth and smiling.
Aya smiled at the boy as he ate.
"Mm! So yummy!" He exclaimed, putting the last piece in his mouth. "Tastes just like mom's…"
The little boy sighed and turned to Aya. "Not quite to mom's standards…but it was pretty tasty!"
Aya smiled again.
The boy looked down. "I ain't had a bite to eat since I was locked up here…I sure was starvin'!"
Aya's smiled dropped a bit. "Maria did always bring food down to the basement…didn't you get any of that?"
The boy looked at her. "Everyone else got food, but me…I was always the unwanted one…No use to anyone and just pissed people off…so I was abandoned…
He looked down, his face red as he held out his hand, a napkin in it.
"Here…" He said. "…as thanks for givin' me food."
He looked back at Aya. "And…um…thanks…I guess…" He said as he disappeared.
Aya smiled sweetly. "Right!" She said happily.
She took the napkin he gave her and tucked it into her breast pocket as she continued.
She walked through the place where the ghost attacked her and she stiffened up.
She heaved a sigh of relief as she passed through unfazed. She opened the metal door close by and stepped inside.
Suddenly, the door closed on its own, trapping Aya.
She turned around and saw a familiar figure floating at the end of the long hallway she entered. It slowly began to move forward.
Her eyes widened and she turned around towards the door, jiggling the handle and hitting the door with her shoulder, until it finally opened.
Aya stepped through and closed the door again in one swift motion.
She felt no struggle from the other side after a she took a few moments to breathe.
She cracked the door and saw nothing.
She swung open the door and walked down the long hallway with slow steps, until she arrived at the end, where she found Ogre.
When he spotted her emerging from the darkness, he bowed. "This passage was a little cluttered…so I cleaned it up a bit…"
He rose and walked calmly away, Aya watching cautiously over her shoulder as he slipped into the darkness.
She turned around and saw two doors in front of her.
She played "Rock, Paper, Scissors" and decided on the left door.
She opened the metal bared door and found herself in the middle of a group of three dolls, all dressed in royal attire.
Two dolls were standing sideways on the tip of the red carpet that ran through the room, while a king doll stood at the back where it ended.
Aya gasped. The king doll had no head.
Aya stood next to the king and tried pushing it sideways. It didn't budge.
Maybe I should find his head? She wondered as she stepped around the wall the king had his back to.
Before she passed the wall completely, though, she spotted a picture of a lovely woman hanging behind the king.
She raised an eyebrow and continued walking.
A Knight stood by the left of the exit, a spear in his left hand, and a beautiful bouquet of flowers in a vase stood by the right of the door.
Oh! They're so pretty! And they smell nice, too! She thought as she exited.
She stopped short when her face met a tuxedo. She looked up and saw Ogre chuckling.
"Oh my! I sure do appear in peculiar places, don't I?" He asked. "Have you finished the puzzle that unlocks this door?" He said as he stepped aside to show a double door.
"The…puzzle?" Aya asked curiously, trying her best to open the locked doors, but her struggle was in vain.
She stopped and turned around to find Ogre missing. She shrugged and stepped to the other door adjacent to the one she exited.
W-wait…wasn't I just in here? She thought as she looked around the room, which was a replica of the room she was just in.
She looked to her right and found an identical Knight doll like in the other room, except this one was pushed almost completely in front of the door she entered.
She pushed it all little to see if was also stuck to the floor, and it wasn't, so she pushed it back into place.
Wait! She stopped and turned back around into the double doors room.
Aha! She smiled as she spotted an identical King doll facing the wall.
She pushed the doll, which was surprisingly not heavy and tried putting it in the place that the other King was in the other room.
She placed him and placed her hands on her hips. What am I supposed to do about the headless King? I'm supposed to find his head, right?
She sighed and looked around. She adjusted the picture behind the king so that it was right-side up and walked towards the knight again.
She saw a creamy blue vase and a light bulb went over her head.
She rushed into the other room and noticed the flowers in the other vase were practically crammed into the pottery.
Aya took about half of the flowers and placed them in the same arrangement as the other vase.
She rushed back and saw that the Knight in the room she was in had a spear, but the other one didn't.
Aya took it from the Knight and walked carefully back to the other room. She walked around the room and tried to find someplace to put it when she accidentally knocked the sharpened end into the king and cut the kings head off.
She gasped and dropped the spear.
She picked up his head, but only for it to suddenly disappear into thin air.
She turned around to pick up the spear, but only for that to disappear too.
Then she heard an unlocking sound.
She walked out and noticed the double doors were hanging slightly ajar, so she walked through.
She found herself in a very small room with about three wooden tables stained with blood.
She shuddered slightly and walked to the end of the room, only to be startled by the King's head falling on the floor in front of her out of nowhere, blood spilling from his neck.
She cringed and stepped over it to get into the next room.
Once she got there, an open book was placed on a pedestal in front of her.
It read: My Diary…
The book suddenly disappeared, letting Aya walk forward a little ways more until she reached a second book.
Xuary Xth
I was born. I slept cuddling with my mother…
Suddenly that pedestal disappeared too, letting Aya walk into a small room with porcelain dolls in it. The baby doll was across the room from the woman doll lying in a bed in the middle of the room.
Aya picked up the baby and laid it with the woman.
The pedestal blocking the way out disappeared, the way leading to a door.
Aya stepped through and found yet another book and pedestal.
Xuary Xth
I killed an animal for fun. Then I got addicted. There's always dead cats and birds in my room…
Mother gets mad at me when she finds them. Whenever mother is out, I always hide the corpses in the dresser…
Aya watched as the book and pedestal disappeared, leaving the way clear until she arrived in yet another room with more porcelain dolls.
A small bird doll lay sprawled on the rug in the room, a puddle of blood under the corpse.
Aya picked it up and looked at it before remembering what the book said.
This must be another puzzle… She thought as she opened the vacant dresser in the room and placed the bird inside.
She went and got the cat, too, placing it beside the bird and closing the dresser.
Nothing happened.
Hmm? Why is… Then she remembered: When mother is out…
She pushed the mother out of the door that she entered and closed the door, hearing the sound of the pedestal disappearing.
She walked through the other door that was behind the pedestal and read the next book that lay in front of her.
Xuary Xth
Mother found out that I had been killing animals. Mother scolded me.
Shut up.
I stabbed mother with a knife. Mother fell over, all red. It didn't suit such a pretty face. So I wiped mother's face. Her dead face was very pretty….
Aya stepped through when the pedestal disappeared and found the boy porcelain doll again covered in blood and staring at the woman porcelain doll lay on the ground, also covered with blood.
There was a knife with blood on it, too, but it was on the kitchen counter instead of in the boy's hand.
Aya picked it up and carried it to the boy, where she placed it in his hand.
She looked at the "mother" and took out the napkin the little boy from the cafeteria gave her and wiped the blood off her face until she was shiny.
The pedestal blocking the way disappeared, leading to yet another door.
Aya walked in and read the next entry.
Xuary Xth
I killed mother. I got scared and ran away. Far away…to the ocean…
I wanted to forget everything...but I couldn't forget mother's pretty dead face…
I killed another.
I eventually got addicted…to seeing people's dead faces…
It disappeared and Aya walked into a scene in a forest, where she found several dolls laying about but two.
The little boy doll and a frightened little girl doll were the only one's standing.
The little boy was holding a knife and had a smile spread across his face as he looked down at the little girl.
Aya gazed at them.
She tried pushing the boy, but he wouldn't budge.
Suddenly, Aya felt a weight on her back that she had barely noticed the whole time she has been running around.
Her chainsaw.
She looked back at the frightened little girl and tears welled in her eyes as she pulled out her chainsaw slowly and positioned it above her.
Aya slowly raised it and struck the doll, the head cracking and caving in, the pieces of porcelain falling into a pool of blood on the inside of the little girl doll.
Aya's tears fell as she put her chainsaw back and walked to the next door that the pedestal had been blocking.
She walked through, looked back at the porcelain mess and closed the door.
She wiped her eyes on her sleeve and found that she was back in the hallways of the house and not in the nightmare of the living that strange little boy's life.
A black crow stood next to her and cawed before it flew away.
Aya stood up and walked down the stairs to her right, climbing down them, her legs slowly coming to a stop at the bottom.
"I can barely feel my legs…" She said aloud as she fell down in front of a wooden door.
"I have to…save father…" She said drowsily, slowly drifting off into sleep.
Ogre walked down the stairs and gazed at Aya while she slept.
"At your limit, are you?" He asked quietly, picking Aya up. "Perhaps you should rest a bit…" He said as he walked into the room that she lied down next to and closed the door.