Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Doll House ❯ Chapter Three ( Chapter 3 )

I was beat. This hellish day couldn't end sooner. Dropping my pants I slipped my feet from the cuffs around my ankles then slid on my pajama bottoms; it has pictures of hot dogs on it. Seifer got them for me. I've been wearing them ever since, besides that my old ones have a hole on the crotch, so wearing those with no intentions to mend them seemed kind of dumb.

When my head hit the pillow I instantly closed my eyes and got ready to feel the sleep take over me, when a shadow ran past. "...the hell was that?" I said to myself, snapping my eyes open and sitting up.

I scanned the room with my eyes and saw nothing. Just the usual darkened places mixed with pockets of pale blue where the moon was slightly dying the white items in the room.

"I'm just gonna go to sleep and..."

But my words were cut off seeing who I knew would be standing there - that little girl.

"Oh, go away." I groaned. "I'm done chasing you around school. It's more than obvious that I can't help you, because you would have told me what to do by now."

"I want you to be my friend, and play with me." The little girl stated.

My brow quirks. This kid didn't sound like the little girl from earlier. She sounded kind of... off.

"Who are you?" I asked.

She just laughed and turned around heading out the door.

"Little girl, wait!" I shouted. Putting a foot to the floor, I drew it back up under the covers, and let out a sigh. "Forget it, play hide-and-seek with yourself, I'm going to bed."

Lying back down I closed my eyes, but no sooner than when my eyes closed, there was someone there - breathing beside me. My eyes cracked a little so I could look without being caught awake. It was that little girl again.

"Help me...please..." She said to me.

The switch of dialogue from before had surprised me, but listening to the tone, I was beginning to wonder if I'd been mistaken. Is there a chance that there are two girls?

"What do you want me to do?" I asked. I wake myself up fully. It's clear that apparently I can't sleep today, on top of catching no breaks. This little girl would probably keep me up every night until I help her.

"Where are you?" I then asked. She was nowhere in sight as I got to my feet.

"Help me...please help me..." She moved from out of a shadow and walked to the door.

I slid my slippers on and ran out my door after her. Looking both ways for her once I'm out in the hall, I jumped hearing the sudden sound of my door sliding shut behind me. Letting out a breath I held my chest and sighed.

"Calm down, Zell, you're too young and healthy for a heart attack."

"Ahahahaha." I heard the other little girl's laugh.

I turned my head in search of her, and see she's dashing down the hall into the main area.

"Wait!" I shouted in a whisper so I wouldn't wake up the other cadets. This was not going to come to a conclusion if others make her - possibly them - disappear; running down the hall, I turned off in the direction of the parking lot and saw the little girl go into the elevator just like before. I instantly knew where she was taking me - the bridge.

"Slow down!" I softly shouted again when I was at the top of the stairs.

After nearly punching in the button on the elevator it took me to the second floor. I ran off and down the hall.

"Come on, play with me!" The little girl shouted.

I sped past the classrooms nearly catching up with the little brat. The door would slow her down a bit, at least I'd thought so, but she passed right through it!

"Whoa!" I shouted, tripping over my own feet and falling forwards onto my hands and knees. "Did she just go through that door?" I asked my brain to make sure I really saw what I saw.

As the mental replay played it back for me, it revealed that it was true.

"Am I chasing a ghost?" I asked myself. I heard the first little girl trailing up the hall behind me. "Help me, Zell.. Come this way." She asked. She walked right by me towards the bridge as well.

I took in a breath and watched as she too passed through the door. "Get a hold of yourself, Dincht. This serious business. Maybe I should wake up Squall and tell him about it." That idea was scratched away quickly. "No. This time I'm gonna do it alone. I don't need someone to bail me out - I'm no chicken!" I shouted to myself and got up. "It's go time, baby."

I ran to the door and pushed it open then ran up the stairwell and outside.

"Now which way did they go?"

I wondered, knowing that there wasn't any real place they could go. We're like three stories up in the air! And with the ceiling height of this place, who knows what the actual height is.

"Little girl!?" I called walking over to the balcony edge. "Sure is a long drop." I noted, about to turn around and leave when I heard the second little girl laugh.

She barreled right into me, knocking me over.

"No!" I shouted when she was right in my face. It was too late! I'm falling! "Aaahhh! Oof!"

It was dizzying seeing everything flip upside down then back again to righted, before the blinding views of rushing scenery of dropping. Am I dead? I opened my eyes slowly, expecting to see not yet angels but red vision as I'm alive enough to assess my injuries before I die of them. Then an angel that oddly looks like Seifer would appear as Itake my last breath. But I was alive, and in some weird looking hallway.

"What the...?" I sat up on a lean supported by my elbows, and tilted my head back looking behind me.

There was another hallway and I was at the innersection with a hall to either side of me. The interior design was done in pink and half of the wall at the bottom was done in brown wood. The floor could use some work with carpeting, because it didn't match at all. It's walnut and cherry wood. Hideous.

"Little girl?" I called out.

"This way." A tiny voice came.

"Which way?!" I shouted.

I stood up, a bit wobbly from nerves still calming down. I wonder where I fell from, if I hadn't splattered all over the Balamb grounds after getting dices by the fans that help the school move. Examining the direction I fell, there was nothing but wall in front of me. I pushed on it. Solid. The kid - right. I started down the hallway, feeling a little uneasy about where I am and how I got here.

"Little girl?" I asked again, because she had stopped talking to me.

"This way, I'm in the bedroom." She replied.

"Yeah, I figured that. But where is it." I wondered because there are a few doors on both sides. "Count. I'll follow your voice."

It was faint, but she did as I asked. I walked down the dark hall, my hand tracing along the wall as I go. I took two corners then the voice grew louder.

"Here you are." I walked into the room, and saw the little girl laying on a bed. "What did you need help with?" I asked her. She didn't move to sit up or anything once I stood beside the bed. "Are you ok?" I asked her.

I reached down to help her up, thinking she needed assistance for some reason, because she seemed able to move to get me here.

"Holy...!" She was rock solid! But strangely hollow. Like porcelain or something. "...the hell happened to you?" Was this some kind of trick? This whole situation was weird from the literal jump. What is this?

"She's a doll now."

I spun around due to the sudden voice that was sitting in an armchair with a oversized back, beside a tiny table that had plastic food set in front of it. "Who're you?" I asked.

"I am Pamela."

"Pamela?"

I looked for a light switch. Seeing nothing on the wall where a light switch is usually located, I looked for a chain to an overhead light bulb. I came up empty again. Oh. Stepping closer I pushed a large button on a small lamp on the side table. I wasn't intentionally trying to offend her, but her appearance startled me.

"Y-you look like a-a... a doll!" I moved closer back into the distance I had staggered away from her.

I thought about the creepy looking girl on the bed. She, too, I thought looked like a doll. Examining Pamela closely, I wondered if she is an honest toy. She has brown hair down past her armpits, big blue eyes that appear glassed over - just as a doll's. And she is wearing a pink frilly dress with little blue flowers on it.

"I don't understand. What's going on here? Where are we?" I got out of her solid face and sat on an equally oversized armchair beside her.

"You're in the dollhouse." She stated.

"The what?!" I couldn't believe what she was telling me.

"Maggie brought you here to help us. She was a psychic, but she..." Her words froze as if she had to relocate her voice. "She turned before you could help her in time..."

"This doesn't make any sense, though. What are you talking about?" Okay so I'm a little slow on the out take, but this is too freaky for words! Maybe I should have brought Squall with me.

"The house is a toy. It attaches itself to things, and... it attaches itself to things and turns the inhabitants in the home into dolls."

"No way!"

"The longer you're here the faster you turn. Look at your hand." She slowly turned her glassy eyes to call attention to my hand.

I looked down, and my eyes nearly bugged out of my head onto the floor. It was white! Way whiter than its usual pale peach. "Whoa! What's going on?" I held my hand up in horror; I jumped up out of the seat.

"Yay! A brand new doll to play with."

I heard a voice saying. There was a loud stomp over head. Pamela looked up the best she could then her head dropped and her gaze fell back on me.

"Hide, or you'll never get out." Her eyes went down to my hands again when they landed on the armrests of her seat.

I looked at them too, seeing that they were frozen to the chair! Oh shit!

"Don't worry, I'm gonna get you out of here, okay?" Glancing over my shoulder, I looked determined. "I might not have been able to help your friend, but you'll be safe I promise."

"Hide." She said again.

I lost a little skin removing my hands, but it was nothing compared to what could happen overall. I ran to the bed, slipping underneath it. I couldn't see what was happening but it sounded as though the ceiling of the room was lifted off. Someone was looking into it.

"Hee hee hee. My new dolly." The disembodied voice said again. I saw the weight of the bed sink in, along with a peek of a fingertips as it came down on it.

'Please don't find me, please don't find me.' I chanted to myself. When her fingers were gone, and the bed wasn't hoisted from over my head, I exhaled in relief. However, I could tell that the little girl was still looking into the bedroom.

"Do you wanna have tea with Pamela?" She asked the Sherry doll. "Why, yes, I would." She answered for her. From the space beneath the bed, I saw the chair I had sat in being moved.

"Make friends, because you'll be the next dolly." She giggled as if it was a joke. The ceiling was then placed back over the room.

"She-... gone." Pamela said softly.

"What the hell was that?" I asked, crawling from under the bed.

"House...owner...go, before...she's back..."

"What's wrong with your voice?" I asked her.

"Dolls can't... speak, but... my string..." she replied.

"Don't worry. Seriously, I'm gonna go back and get help for you - even Sherry." I ran to the door. My legs were becoming lighter than they are. I felt clumsy and just about fell over from the difference from normally and now.

"How do I get out of here?" I asked her, but she was quiet. "Damn." I mumbled to myself. But then I heard Pamela's voice.

"No one knows." She replied sadly.

'Oh no.' I have to get out of here.