Doll House(1)

Chu Yi appeared in a narrow, green forest, a winding unbroken dirt road beneath his feet. Only a gloomy silence surrounded him and even the occasional rustle of dead leaves was almost jarring in the dim light.

Walking alone, along the narrow path- eventually he bridged upon a large, dystopian-like castle.

It wasn't like the ones told in every 'once upon a time' fairytale, this tower looked to have been taken straight from a page in hell!

The castle grounds were beyond derelict and desolate, surrounded by unkempt bushes that hadn't been trimmed in what seemed like forever and wild weeds that had grown uncontrollably. The greenery was so dense, with ivies sprouting all over, thickly enwreathing everything in its path and obstructing any 'visitors' line of sight. Past the iron fence existed boundless, stifling fog, treacherously cloaking the area, seeming to threaten intruders with the horrible possibilities hidden amidst it. Just a mere glance left visitors ill at ease, wanting to stay far away from the foreboding fog.

Outside the gate stood about 15 people, one of them was a currently sobbing girl, screaming in panicked hysteria!

"Uwaaaa, why am I here? What the hell did you all do to me?!" "Why did you guys take me here!" It was a miracle that his first instance was relatively calm and there was no frantic newcomer amongst them —Chu Yi was actually a bit surprised. He observed the young woman, haughtily dressed, wearing designer shoes and well manicured nails.

Vain and well-off.

Obviously someone who had been born into high society. Even as she wiped her tears, she was careful not to cry too hard or smudge her makeup.

"You goddamn perverts, you guys must have kidnapped me. I'm going to call the cops and have you all arrested!!"

There were one or two people who looked just as panicked as her but hadn't yet dissolved into tears. None of the veterans bothered to comfort the girl, knowing that saying anything more would just create a bigger mess.

With a rusty creak, the gate to the castle opened up and in front of them appeared a well dressed but old butler.

There was nothing wrong with him at first glance but somehow there was an eerie feeling about him, that even suppressed the cries of the classy woman 

"Where in the world are we?" The sobbing woman had also been scared by the man before her, and she spoke: "are we filming a show? I'm really, really scared, can I please quit? I don't want to play anymore, I'm begging you…"

The butler smiled in response to her frenzy but didn't respond, and with a hearty clap turned to the visitors.

"You must be the young master's new servants. "

"Oh dear me, you must be tired, come in, come in."

No one dared to disobey the man's orders and could only follow behind in trepidation as he gave them a tour of the uncanny premises.

The interior of the castle wasn't as decrepit as the outside.

A grand mahogany staircase stood in the center of the room leading up to a vacant second floor. The rest of the stairs branching out into the different sections of the castle.

The first thing they noticed however was the stairs, the mahogany wood reflected an almost bloody glint.

The staircase and floors was crafted from the same deep, alluring wood, that amplified their faint footsteps; every step they took issued a crisp clacking sound that echoed within the dreary castle grounds. There was more than one pathway to the top of the castle; there were even two old, moldering stone stairways on opposite sides of this dismal castle, leading from the first floor all the way to the roof.

Most of the rooms in this ancient castle were locked, with only a few being accessible to outsiders. Almost all of the unrestricted rooms resembled small play rooms, where a wide variety of deranged and surreal dolls were chaotically scattered all over, arranged in an abstract manner. These dolls left viewers completely mystified at its ambiguous nature, some of they were created from wood , some cotton but each of them had a similar feature, but the most common ones were ragdolls. These ones were incomplete.

The butler seemed to have noticed their gazes and exclaimed with a wave of his hands.

"Oh yes, this castle has existed since the Days of Old Count Baron, the first owner of this land. Madam Baron was the fifth inheritor of this grand castle, and I've been serving here since the Madams birth. "

"The doll's that you see here, is just a little fancy hobby of the Madam. It's her most prized collection."

As if noticing their fascination, the old butler continued used to introduced the castle with a proud harumph but quicker than they could blink, changed faces.

"Therefore I know every crook and cranny of this estate and if any of you get any bad ideas, I'll know."

Something about the way he kept a smile on his wrinkled face but his eyes showing a maniacal bloodthirst, send the already fragile newcomer into another bout of hysterics. Choked, suppressed sobs wracking her petite figure.

The butler thankfully moved on to the important topic and told their actual purpose here.

" Right then, You've all been invited here as the young masters temporary servants since the ungrateful white eyed woles had up and disappeared with the young masters favorite doll. The filthy wretches had even gone so far as to frighten the poor young master. Really, what a bunch of ungrateful rats-"

After a long bout of cursing from the upset butler to the numbed players, he issued the rules of the castle,

"The madam is very strict on time but she's also a very kind madam. She allows you lowly servants to dine openly at the same table as her and even sleep in the hospitable bedrooms on the second floor. The only thing she asks is for you is to finish your tasks and play with the poor, frightened young master every once in a while to comfort his soul."

Al first glance, their tasks it didn't seem difficult but that was based on the premise that they didn't die first. None of the veterans dared to underestimate the systems arrangement and most of them had already picked out some key clues from the butler's words.

'Time'

It was definitely important.

"It shouldn't be hard for you lot as I've been told your the best of the new batch of servants trained in the village . "

"Now then, since we've gotten all of that out of the way, it's already time for dinner and you can also greet the Madam as well."

They followed the ghoulish butler in trepidation to the dining room and although they were already mentally prepared, they still felt a spine chilling tingle upon sight of the Madam

 Like the color fading from a ghastly painting until all that was left was an ashen hue. She was almost like a dark shadow sitting quietly at the head of the table.

No, rather, it wasn't a dark shadow but more like a large doll. With large coal black eyes, she stared dead at the shivering group, her hollow gaze resembling an inky abyss.

There was a sharp squeal from beside Chu Yi as one of the newcomers who had been silent all along let out a frightened gasp.

"S-s-she doesn't have any eyes!!"

Startled the group looked closer.

Yes.

They weren't staring at her eyes, they were staring at the empty sockets in her skull.

The group went pale

"Disrespectful!!, it's rude to stare so blatantly at the Madam like that. I'll have your eyes gouged out for the offense you uncouth lot. " 

After being duly reprimanded by the angry butler , the others hurriedly took a seat at the table in dread.

"I only ask you to serve my son well, he's been terrible frightened by the disgraceful bunch. "

The Madam gave what she felt was a kindly smile.

Shuddering the group looked away, at the corner of that smile appeared a small rip as if cloth had been stretched too far and torn.

The butler served them steaming steaks covered in what seemed to be delicous red sauce. However in the face of this, no one spoke for a solid moment as they stared at the meat, the same paranoid suspicion running through their minds but at the growing anger of the butler who stood behind them ,they could only bite the bullet and eat.

What was strange was that throughout the entire dinner, there was no sight of that little young master whom they were to serve. A very contradictory thing compared to the Madams fond declaration of love at the start.

However there was not enough clues right now and the butler and the Madam promptly dissapeared after the meal, leaving the new servants to their own devices.

" Ex-Excuse me, but where are we?" With a nasty scowl, one of the veterans finally spoke up,

"The Nightmare Shuttle."