It Seeks
Jacob's next move was to engage in his usual strategy, identifying any outlying features in the room before investigating them one by one.
But first, he needed to check something.
Had the 'breathing ghost' been able to enter the room?
A quick check by holding his breath confirmed that it was no longer with him. Either that or it had gotten better at hiding.
'So that screech earlier was it being unable to pass through. But why was it unable to come in here? It doesn't seem restricted to the hallways like the darkness ghost since it was with me in the study.' Jacob thought to himself, trying to connect the dots and understand what made this room safe compared to the study.
Unable to determine the cause with his current information, Jacob began his investigation of the room.
On this occasion, Jacob's investigation turned up frighteningly little.
The room housed two beds that took up residence on opposite sides of the room, the footboards of the beds closer to the door with the bedheads pressed against the opposite wall.
Between the two beds was an open space where several, dolls, balls, toy cars, and the like were scattered as if the children had just finished playing with them.
A dresser was placed against the wall between the two beds.
Finally, there was a small walk-in closet, not built into the wall but constructed to jut into the room.
its door was the slatted type, allowing some ventilation with minimal lighting.
It was located on the left-hand side of the room, a small distance from the end of one of the beds, the girl's based on the pink bedsheet.
The only thing that stood out in the room was the closet. Other than that, everything seemed very typical, nothing presented itself actively as a clue.
Deciding to leave the closet for last, he went to the dresser, only to find something unexpected but potentially very useful.
A handheld mirror.
His best guess was that it had belonged to the daughter. It was quite possibly the most valuable item he had found since the lantern.
For whatever reason mirrors held a certain significance in the mansion.
He tried the dresser drawers only to find they refused to budge an inch despite his forceful persuasion.
Looking through the mirror, he attempted to get a second view of the room, the mirror's view.
He hoped to find an anomaly of some sort, like the lamp in the study.
What he saw was…
Disappointing.
There were no weird occurrences, lit-up magical items, or helpful messages.
What he could see was the same old room, just in reverse.
Sighing, he returned to the front end of the room, preparing to explore the closet.
Only to be startled by a loud bang echoing from the door.
"TiiiiM333EE T@OOOOOO0000 StUUUDddDYYYY CH1ILLLLDR3N" A deep and distorted voice howled from behind the closed door as the powerful 'knocking' continued.
'Ok, not the best situation to be in. Trapped in the kid's room while a ghost bangs at the door telling me to study, take out the supernatural and I'd feel nostalgic.'
Jacob yet again distracted himself from the danger with a ridiculous and unrelated thought process as his eyes swept the room, searching for an escape.
Eventually, he had a brain wave. When a kid wants to hide from an adult trying to make them do something, where would they go?
Under the bed!
Jacob quickly got down to his knees and began to search underneath the bed. Unfortunately for him, his search came up with zilch.
In addition, the space between the bed and the floor may have been enough for a child to hide in, but not for a young man like himself.
Cursing in his mind, he turned his head to try and search the other bed from where he was without moving, hoping there may be some item he could use to get out of the situation.
Only to discover something very odd.
The world was in greyscale.
Not like someone had changed everything to black and white, but like he had suddenly gone colourblind.
Closing his eyes and shaking his head, he righted himself and looked one more, only to discover the room back in its original state.
'This… this might be something.' Jacob thought as he once again assumed the position from before.
A few moments of experimentation later revealed that anytime he opened his eyes while his head was upside down the world would lose its colour. While the opposite would happen when he did so the right way up.
At this point, the banging and shouting from the door had whipped into a frenzy. He was sure he had only a few moments before whatever was on the other side burst through the door.
That's when he spotted it.
A doll.
But unlike the others, the doll had a feature that distinguished it.
The doll's hand was a faint pink in a room full of grey.
Grabbing the doll, he went to the only hiding spot he could think of, the closet.
Once he reached the closet, he opened it, went inside, and closed the door behind him as softly as possible.
At the moment he finished closing the closet door, the 'knocking ghost' barged through the door.
Jacob clutched the doll and the mirror to his chest.
The closet was filled with shelving and only just offered enough space for him to stand in.
He watched through the slats of the closed door as the monster slowly made its way through the room.
He couldn't quite make out its features. It felt distorted somehow. The only real impression it gave was of slow and steady demise, its stature was large, and it seemed to lean forward as its body mass bent towards its front. He couldn't make out a head as it appeared to be covered in cloth, but its legs were another matter. It had at least 6 human legs moving in unison under the coat that covered most of its body.
Jacob prayed he wasn't breathing too loudly as he studied the doll in his hand, or to be more specific, the hand of the doll.
It certainly wasn't standard in its make.
Its thumb was stretched perfectly straight, forming a 90-degree angle with the index finger. In addition, the other three fingers down to the pinkie were all perfectly straight. That wasn't too off, but the fingers were at weird lengths. For example, the index was much shorter than the pink, while the ring finder was slightly larger than the pinkie.
Jacob's attempts at fiddling with it only provided one result, the hand detached from the doll.
This was good news as he wasn't too thrilled with the idea of lugging around a children's toy the entire time he was in the mansion.
Pocketing the doll's hand, he then looked at the mirror, his thought process being that if he couldn't see something with it in the main room, maybe there was a clue in the closet.
Moving the mirror away from his chest, he silently cursed as he realised he had fogged it up with his breath.
He was about to wipe it away with his sleeve when he realised it was already being wiped.
Not properly, but by a finger, just like the one he had seen in the first mirror of the mansion.
It wrote out the words RAC EHT ESU.
By once again decoding the message, he found the actual words. USE THE CAR.
'There's a car? No, that can't be what the clue means. How the hell am I even meant to know where the garage is, much less the car keys or how to hotwire it. It doesn't fit with this situation. I need to think.' Jacob wracked his brain for an answer for only a few moments.
As he stood silently in the closet, the monster made it's way further into the room, checking under the bed further from the closet as he did so.
'OF COURSE' Exclaimed Jacob in his head. The car he was looking for wasn't a real one, but one of the toy cars that were scattered in the room.
Searching around the cramped space of the closet, Jacob quickly discovered a windup toy car.
So, Jacob took the most obvious course of action he could see. He wound it up.
After winding it until it seemed like it could no longer be wound, he took a look at the 'knocking ghost.'
It had now made its way to the other bed and was knelt while searching underneath it.
Figuring there was no time like the present, Jacob knelt down, opened the closet door slightly, aimed the car at the opposite end of the room, and let it go.
It moved with surprising swiftness, as did the ghost upon seeing it.
First, it pounced, crashing into it at full speed before Jacob could react.
But then, it was still.
It held the now broken car in its hands, completely immobile, its madness gone as it knelt motionlessly, holding the broken wreckage of the toy.
Since the creature's back was to him, and consequently the door, Jacob slowly opened the closet wide enough for him to escape.
Thanking whoever was responsible for oiling the hinges as he did so.
He held his breath as he quietly made his way to the door, opened it, and moved back into the hallway.
Only when the door was once again closed did he feel relieved and allow himself to relax somewhat.
Then.
All hell broke loose.