It had been three hours since they began looking for Taryn.

Three hours of nothing.

Not a single clue was to be found of Taryn’s sudden disappearance.

Rachael racked her brain, trying to figure out where Taryn could have gone. The mansion was so huge, too huge. The three of them even managed to get themselves lost while trying to find her. It was like this mansion was meant to make people purposely lose their way.

Which, given that it was built during waring times, made sense on a practical level. Disorientate the enemy, make them lost, unable to find their way before being discovered and killed by the mansion’s inhabitants. There were many places like that in both the East and West that had buildings of similar likeness. Making it all the more concerning what the two friends had found during their stay.

As well as the fact that Taryn wasn’t willing to share something. Rachael wondered if it had something to do with June Suchiko and the notes that she had left behind. Or possibly in how the woman might have died? No, that couldn’t have been it. Taryn was always upfront about what she found, almost to a blunt degree.

It was strange, now that Rachael thought about it. How could those notes simply be left without anyone else finding them beforehand? Could a dead person have such power to keep things like that away from those who wished to keep their secrets hidden? Or was it by chance?

As well as those times with that maid, the older one named Yoko. Yoko seemed so desperate when conversing with Taryn. Could the woman have known about what was going on and chose to speak with her because of it? But if that were true, why was it only Taryn? Why not warn others?

Her head began to pound; she was overthinking this. Hard to understand it all while worrying about her missing friend.

In moments like that, she wished she could be more composed, more like Taryn. With all that her friend has faced, nothing seemed to scare her. No, that wasn’t true. Taryn could have hidden such things, not wanting others to see her true feelings. God knows what Taryn had seen but chose to keep quiet, lest to scare someone. And dealing with it all her life no less. That alone could have someone gone mad at that point.

At times like this, I wish I was Batman… Rachael thought with a heavy sigh, or at least as smart as the World’s Greatest Detective, next to Sherlock Holmes, of course. Then maybe she could figure this out even without all the pieces.

Giving a quick glance, she noticed how both Stephanie and Robert were also worried in their own right as they talked to each other, trying to figure out where Taryn had gone.

Stephanie even took the initiative to try and find Toya on her own to see if he knew anything but with no success. No one knew where he was.

Now they were in the main dining hall, told by one of the workers that something needed to be spoken to all of them and that they were to wait here until then.

They were stuck here, unable to leave. Every so often, Rachael would spot one of the workers checking in on them. Was it to see if they were still there or if something had changed? This whole thing was just bazaar.

Dammit. She gripped her knees as she sat cross-legged. Taryn, where the hell are you?

* * *

She could smell rain. The pleasant soothing smell of rain as the faint cool breeze drifted over her skin as the sound of rain could be heard along with it. Followed by something else.

There was singing.

A woman singing a lullaby, so softly that the words could not be heard, drowned out by the very rain.

Taryn opened her eyes slowly to find herself staring up at the ceiling of a room. One that looked similar to the place that she and Rachael shared. Her whole body ached, and finding herself unable to move, or speak. But she was breathing, she was alive.

Her gaze moved toward where the singing originated. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw someone sitting by the window, gazing out at the night as the rain fell—a woman Taryn recognized.

It was Yoko.

Taryn opened her mouth to speak, but no words would come out, her throat strained from the attack.

Yoko stopped singing but remained looking out the window. “My youngest child was about your age when it happened. Four years ago. Seems like a lifetime now...” She laughed. “It’s funny, I came here to start a new life and yet seeing you, I’m reminded of the past. Trying to escape bloodshed only to find myself further than I ever thought humanly possible. Perhaps that is why I decided to take stronger action, with both you and Suchiko-san. A debt long to be owed. It’s because of those eyes, your eyes, that I remember it. I never thought I’d see someone with those eyes again. Lowell-san.” A pause, the sound of rain filling the room before she spoke again. “Do you know what your first name means?”

Taryn still couldn’t move, not even her head with how stiff her neck was. She tried but found only that her fingertips barely responded underneath the covers of the futon. Why couldn’t she move? Had she been drugged? Was this even real?

Yoko turned to look at Taryn, who tried to keep her eyes open for the desire to fall back into that comfort of dark sleep began to pull at her. Something was different about Yoko, but couldn’t place what that was. Yoko stood and walked the short distance to where Taryn lay before kneeling and placing a hand along Taryn’s cheek. The Japanese woman’s hand felt gentle, yet cold as ice. Like all the warmth had been taken from her skin.

“Your name means death in another language, that of Greek. Though I can only assume you were not given that name for that reason. It’s a sad thing. To have a name associated with death, yet you strive forward. Not many would be willing. I can only imagine what it was that you had to deal with for being so young. But as someone whose hands have been dyed red long before I reached your age, like that of a certain someone, I can grasp an idea. It is because of this I know that such a thing won’t stop you. Even if worse were to occur. You’ll want to know more. Yet… I wish you didn’t.”

Yoko’s expression changed to something that Taryn couldn’t rightfully describe, a mix of several emotions for reasons that the young woman could not grasp.

“Honestly, I am a fool. I don’t want to see anyone else die… I could not help Suchiko-san in her final moments, but I know I can help you before then.” she looked down at Taryn once more, a sudden fierceness in her dark gaze. “If you wish to seek the truth, then when you are able, go back to the Shrine and go down the well. There is a tunnel deep underground. There, you should be able to see the truth with those hauntingly beautiful eyes of yours. But once you do, leave and don’t look back. Forget you ever came here. Forget everything.”

She then rested her forehead against Taryn’s as a strained look came to the much older woman’s face. But it wasn’t directed toward Taryn; it was to someone else. Someone whom she did not know.

“I wish I could tell you more.” She says softly as she lifts her head to look down at Taryn once again, her hand continuing to caress Taryn’s cheek. “But it seems that the demon has his eyes on me. So please, for your sake, if not the sake of the others with you… Leave this place… so you don’t end up like me…”

Taryn’s mind began to drift back into the darkness as her eyes closed, the last thing she could see was Yoko smiling almost peacefully. But that was negated by the feeling of her hand. For her hand…

Felt just like the doll that strangled her.

* * *

Her eyes snapped open, followed by the dull sensation of pain resting firmly around her neck like a noose. A fresh reminder of what had transpired as she forced herself to sit upright. Only to find that she was now dressed in the same sleeping robes she had worn since she arrived as she had been resting on a soft futon. The muscles in her neck felt strained as she touched her throat, she could feel what seemed to be bandages. She probably couldn’t talk yet, either.

How long was I out? She thought with a frown, it couldn’t have been that long, could it?

“Taryn,” a familiar voice spoke, one that was a little too close for her liking. Her gaze moved to her left, for she could not turn her neck. Her eyes went wide as her blood ran cold. She saw the doll sitting before her. Instantly she moved away, no sound immerged from her throat, unable to scream, only to have warm hands gently rest along her upper arms. “Taryn, it’s all right, it’s me. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

It wasn’t the doll, it was Toya.

He drew her back towards the futon, only letting go when she settled back to where she was before handing her a cup that looked to be tea of some sort. “Drink it slowly,” he said in English. “It will help.”

She looked at the drink before looking at him. It didn’t look like the tea that he had given her before to help her sleep. It had the smell of ginger and lemon. Taryn acted as though her finger had slipped into the concoction to taste and there was nothing out of the ordinary before drinking it at once. Its taste was bitter, but it seemed to ease her sore throat somewhat. “W-what… happened?” she coughed, hating the fact of how difficult it was to even say a single word. Even the drink didn’t seem to help, which was expected given what just happened.

“Try not to speak.” He says, his eyes falling to her bandaged throat as a look of worry came to his face. “You staggered into my arms, weak and out of breath. You had been attacked by someone, although it looked as though you defended yourself for this was in your hand. Your fingers refused to let go even when you passed out.” He picked up the dagger that she had used with a white cloth, noting how blood was on the blade. “There was blood on your clothes as well. The woman tending to you, Kurosawa-san, changed your clothes while also giving treatment for your injury along your throat.”

The doll can bleed? She thought with a frown, which didn’t make any sense. A doll couldn’t be alive… could it? Or was it possible that, somehow, the story of Priestess Kuronochi was more than just a legend? That it was fact? That the doll of the Priestess and the one that looked like Toya came from the same origin? That someone made the bodies of the dead into dolls and could move once more? How could such a thing even be possible?

A chill ran down her spine at the thought. What kind of monster would do that?

“But before you passed out,” Toya continued drawing Taryn from her thoughts. “You said something to me that was a bit concerning. It was about a doll. What was that about? This doll, what did it look like?”

She stilled as she gripped her hands tightly along her arms. Should she tell Toya? Would he even believe her? That a doll that looked like him moved on its own and attacked her. She was never ignorant of skepticism; hell, she wouldn’t have believed it either, mostly. Knowing what the dead could do with an empty vessel like a doll meant several things. Yet that doll was different; she still couldn’t wrap her mind around it completely.

“Taryn?” Toya’s voice filled with concern as he leaned a bit closer to her. “Can you not tell me? Please, I only wish to help.”

In her best judgment, she knew that she should have remained silent, but that fear and need to say it to someone, even someone who might not believe her and laugh was too strong. She just wanted to say it aloud at this point, to try and ease some of her internal panic from what just transpired. Even if it came back to bite her for it. She just wanted to say it, just once. It didn’t matter who at this point.

He frowned when she pointed a slightly unsteady hand at him. “What? Me? Are you saying that the doll looked like me?” a hand went over his mouth as he looked away when she continued to point at him in silence. “No, that’s… that’s not…”

“It’s clothing… was… different…” Taryn managed, causing Toya to go still and look back at her. “But it… looked… like you. In… every way…” she coughed.

“Stop,” Toya said suddenly. “Please don’t speak. I apologize; I should not have asked you to tell me when you’re recovering. It was foolish of me to do so.” He was silent for a moment. “But, if what you say is true, then, it still exists.”

When Taryn frowned, he elaborated.

“I told you before that I look like my grandfather. My grandfather was rather young when he died. It was said that his wife made a life-sized doll for mourning. Like what you saw at the festival. But, within a year of the doll’s creation, it went missing.”

Within the year? Taryn thought, recalling the doll when she had seen it; it looked to be in pristine condition. With no sign of wear or age. Or even dust. Like it was just placed there by somebody. If that were true, why did it have the key to that door? Was it a trap? It felt like the only logical reason, yet it didn’t make sense as to why.

“I never thought it’d still be around,” Toya continued. “Some believed that it had been found and subsequently burned, but… are you saying that the doll that looked like my grandfather attacked you?”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

She nodded faintly.

A look of pain mixed with regret filled his face as he grasped her hand tightly and lowered his head. “I’m sorry…” he spoke, his voice strained. “I am so sorry this happened to you.” his hands shook as he gripped her hand. Slightly taken aback that he took her for her word, believing what she said without question. That was rather odd…

She tapped his hands on top of her left; when he raised his head, she took his hand and traced the kanji for water.

“Oh, yes. You must still be thirsty,” before turning to grasp a bottle of water and handing it to Taryn. “Here.”

She looked at it for a moment, turning it in her hands. It didn’t look to be tampered with. And there didn’t seem to be any issues with the cap either, for it had been completely sealed. It might have seemed rude whenever something like this happened to her in the past.

Taryn would immediately become suspicious of anything handed to her, regardless of who gave it to her. Something she had grown used to doing given her family history and what her parents did for a living.

Unsealing the lid, she drank all of its contents before clearing her throat and testing her voice. Besides sore muscles in her neck, there didn’t seem to be much damage from what she could tell on her own. And her voice box, albeit sounding weaker than average, still worked.

With that in mind, she kicked off the covers and stood up to leave the room. Her body felt slightly sluggish but not like before when she tried to run or when Yoko spoke with her.

This brought Taryn pause. She didn’t even know if the encounter with Yoko was real or some kind of fever dream. Regardless, even with her current difficulty in talking, she needed to get to the others. To warn them.

“What are you doing?” Toya asked with concern, hands firmly resting on her upper arms, avoiding any pressure on her shoulders. “You shouldn’t be up and about, you need rest!”

“No!” she shrugged him off when he tried to stop her. “I can’t, not until… I speak with… them.” even if it meant hurting her throat further. She needed to tell them what happened. Bedrest could wait. “I need to… tell… them.”

Toya looked as though he wished to protest, but seemed to tamper that thought down as he then said. “Very well then, but I will accompany you. Your friends are currently in the main hall; we told them that there was something we needed to speak with them about. We were trying to debate how to tell them what happened to you before you woke.”

She wanted to ask about Yoko if the woman had come into the room at some point, but it seemed like Toya was far more concerned about her current well-being than knowing where one of the maids had gone.

Her worry for her friends outweighed everything else, as she walked out of the room with Toya not far behind, following close like a shadow. Possibly to make sure that she didn’t fall and hurt herself. Thankfully, she could reach the main hall, for it looked familiar enough. When she entered the hall, it was Rachael who reacted first.

“Taryn!” her look of relief quickly turned to concern mixed with dread.

“Your throat…” was Stephanie’s response. “Taryn, what happened?”

She couldn’t tell them the whole truth; they wouldn’t believe it. And considering what happened, it was best to get to the point. Her throat still aching; she cleared it before speaking. “I was attacked not too long ago. That’s the reason you guys were called here… I was strangled.”

“Oh my god.” Stephanie gasped as her hands covered her mouth. “Did you see the person who did it?”

“No,” a lie. “I didn’t. I managed to get away when Kitsutsuki-san found me.” She coughed. “If it wasn’t for that, I might be dead now.”

“How did you get away?” Rachael asked all too quickly.

“I managed… to stab the aslant with a knife. In… the left side of the abdomen, I think. But that’s it… I don’t remember much else.”

“We need to call the police!” Stephanie said, quickly pulling out her phone.

“We’ve already done so,” Toya offered, drawing everyone else’s attention. “When it happened, we called them right away. But because of this storm, it will be difficult for them to get here. Including the fact that there might be landslides on the roads.”

That’s new. Taryn thought. It made sense, though, with how rural the area was and with landslides being relatively common, the further you went from major cities into the countryside, but it somehow felt off to her.

“Then what about the one who attacked her?” Rachael demanded. “Where did they go? Are they still in the mansion even?”

Toya glanced at Taryn for a moment. “We inspected the room where the attack took place, but there had been signs that followed with footprints leading into the forest outback. Needless to say, we believe the attacker escaped into the woods. It may take time to find whoever did this to her.”

“Why did this person attack you?” Stephanie asked Taryn.

“I don’t know.” And she didn’t; it made no sense to her. “It’s not the first time I’ve been attacked randomly like this—”

“So how come you’re not freaking out?” Robert demanded, cutting her off. “You just said you were strangled, right? Shouldn’t you be scared?”

Taryn looked at him; he was doing it again. However, this time there was no shock in what she felt, only a dulling sense of aggravation. “You don’t know shit…” she told him, her voice still crackling from sore muscles, but she ignored the pain and spoke as clearly as possible. “Why do you keep trying to push me, Robert? What do you gain from that? It’s getting old.”

He frowned. “It’s a question.”

“And you know the answer to it, I just told you,” She responded sharply before clearing her throat again. “It’s not like when we first met when you were with Paul, where I had to explain why…”

“Don’t bring Paul into this!” he suddenly snapped, cutting her off. “You have no right!”

There was a moment of silence before Taryn spoke, tension filling the air once more between the two. “Why not?” she asked him. “You bring up my blood ties with my brother like it’s something everyone should know, but I can’t talk about Paul? That’s some hypocrisy you have.” She stopped, but only for a moment. She was just so tired of this. “Paul is dead.”

Robert stilled. “What?”

“I said Paul is dead. You take your anger out on anyone who so much as speaks his name regardless of the context. It wasn’t you who put those pills in his hands. It wasn’t you who filled his head with such dark thoughts. And it certainly wasn’t you who ended his life! Stop acting as if you killed him when you couldn’t have known that he intended to do it!”

Anger clouded his vision, and before another word could be said, Robert moved, his hand raised to strike only to come to a sudden stop when he was just about to slap her in the face only to stop right before it connected. Taryn didn’t flinch; she didn’t move at all as she looked him dead in the eye. Like she expected that kind of reaction. He moved back, realizing in the heat of the moment what he almost did. Then as Toya intervened along with Stephanie, he saw the look on the Japanese man’s face.

The look of pure anger. He had never seen such rage before.

Yet Taryn remained resolute and calm, she never once broke eye contact and merely continued, she was done with this nonsense with him.

“You want to question my life, fine,” she said as she continued to look at him. “But know it’s fair game when you start.” Another cough. “I know you loved Paul like a brother; I get that. But acting this way isn’t going to do anything. Blaming yourself over and over, taking it out on people around you who just happen to get you annoyed or angry. If you keep this up, you’ll just destroy yourself. I don’t want to see that happen to you.”

Robert remained silent, his gaze still on his now-shaking hand. Appalled at his physical reaction. Yet it was something surprisingly familiar. When one didn’t like to hear something, something that could be seen as the truth, even to the one being told, that person could react with violence. Whether it is something they would typically do or not.

Robert wasn’t a violent person, and neither was Taryn, but even she knew that if someone was pushed too far, that calm composure could easily break as easily as glass.

“Enough!” Toya’s voice practically bellowed startling everyone as he pulled Taryn close to his body. “This is getting nowhere, and you need rest.” He then looked at the other women. “I’m taking her back to the room.” He then sent a glare of disgust to Robert. “Tell the boy to get himself in order. I will not tolerate physical violence on another, be it from staff or guests. I care not for his self-deluded reasoning.” He leaned forward, forcing Robert to look at him and spoke low, his voice filled with anger. “You so much as touch her, and I’ll rip you apart.” He then stood to his full height looking down on him as though he was merely a bug. “I cannot even begin to fathom what anyone sees in you.” He then turned away and gently pushed Taryn to follow him out of the room.

Taryn didn’t speak again. She didn’t regret what she said, for she felt it was something that needed to be spoken aloud. Something that was a long time coming between the two. Something of which that Robert clearly hadn’t heard or just ignored from strangers.

But she wasn’t a stranger; she might have gone too far, and the timing in doing so was wrong, but at the moment, she no longer cared. What happened previously, being strangled by something that wasn’t human, was still too jarring for her. She wanted to tell the truth and be completely open, but they wouldn’t believe her, Taryn knew that.

And the sound it made when it moved. Like a rusty hinge on an old gate. The creaking sound of joints moving as it reached for her still scratched at the inside of her skull.

“Taryn.” Toya’s voice made her halt in her steps by repeating her first name. “Where are you going?”

Taryn realized that she had walked almost absentmindedly toward the stairs where both she and Rachael shared a room. Before she had the chance to answer him, Toya did something rather unexpected. He gently scooped her up into his arms and quickly carried her back to the room Taryn had woken up in. She was about to tell him to set her down, only he had when he reached the futon, practically sliding the door closed with his foot before doing so. Setting her back into the bed with such ease, shocked her. As he then placed the blanket over her waist, his hands firmly on either side of her, practically trapping her in the bed.

“Rest.” His tone was stern and commanding. “Do not leave this room or this bed unless absolutely necessary. I will not have you wander around aimlessly after you had just been assaulted almost twice in one day.” he leaned in close, inches away from her face eyeing her directly. “Do you understand me?”

“Yes, but…” was all she could say before she started to cough again. Only this time, it didn’t stop. When she gave one final cough, something wet hit her hands. At first, she thought it might have been saliva or flehm but came to a shock when she saw that it was blood.

The sliding door opened, and Mei walked in, her worried expression turned to shock as she rushed over with supplies in her arms. “Oh my god!” she went on her knees and grasped Taryn’s wrists to see her now bloody hands. “What happened?” she asked Toya in Japanese.

“She was stubborn and went to speak with her companions about the incident.” He said in Japanese but also gave Taryn a slightly disapproving look. “She would not listen when I told her to stay and rest.”

But that look was soon outclassed by the one that Mei gave him in return, “You let her talk!?” she snapped. “Are you crazy? Both of you! She was strangled and needs to rest so it can heal. Depending on the severity of the injury, it could take days for it to dissipate!”

She then got up and pushed Toya out of the room before he had the chance to speak.

“Now get out, I need to change not only the bedding but also her clothes.” she slammed the door shut in his face, never giving him the chance to say a word. Then whipped her attention to Taryn. “And you, how idiotic are you?” she spoke in English. “Walking around after what just happened! Be thankful you’re not dead!” she let out a breath to try and calm herself. “Now we need to change your bedding and clothes along with the bandages. And no speaking!” she snapped when Taryn opened her mouth. “Don’t. You. Dare.” She punctuated each word in English. “You wait at least a day before you try to talk. Understand? You want to say something so badly, use this.” She handed her a cheap notebook and pen. “I grabbed this along the way when getting what I needed to help you recover. The doctor of the village is apparently out of town.” She then grumbled before looking back at her. “Now then, I need you to listen to me. Understood?”

Taryn took the notebook and pen and simply wrote. “Yes, Ma’am.”

Shortly after listening to Mei’s strict instructions, Taryn found herself back in the futon with clean clothes and sheets as Mei now began to change the bandage and apply a cooling agent directly to her injury.

“You should count yourself lucky,” Mei said rather plainly as she spoke in English. “All things considered; I’m astounded that there isn’t any internal damage to your throat from what I could see. Besides the blood, you coughed up from speaking, of course.” When she was finished applying medicine to her throat and wrapping the injured neck in clean, fresh bandages, Mei stood. “I’ll be right back; I’m going to go to the kitchens and see if I can make something easy for you to eat. You may not be hungry, but you will need it in the meantime before you completely recover.”

The woman paused before looking back to Taryn when she reached the door.

“Please, don’t push yourself any further than necessary, Lowell-san.”

Taryn was then alone in the room, laying on the plush and soft futon, and she now stared up at the ceiling, completely surrounded by silence and the faint sound of rain. However, that silence did not last long as the sliding door opened, and Rachael poked her head into the room.

“Hey,” Rachael said in a soft voice as she closed the door behind her, coming fully into the room as Taryn sat up once more. “How are you feeling?”

Taryn wrote in the notebook. “Considering I almost died, peachy.”

“That’s not funny,” Rachael said flatly. “You can’t talk?”

“Hurts too much. Coughed up blood when I came back here. How’d you find me?”

Jesus… “I ran into Toya in the hallway, he came to see how we were after what happened, but Robert had gone off somewhere to reflect as Stephanie puts it. I still can’t believe he almost hit you. The bastard…”

“Don’t be too angry,” she wrote to Rachael. “This was something that was a long time coming between us. I wish it could have been under different circumstances. But it is what it is.”

Rachael merely glanced at what Taryn had written before her grey eyes moved to Taryn’s throat. “How bad is it? The injury?”

Taryn held up her hands in the form of a shrug since she couldn’t move her shoulders that well for the time being. She had no clue, then wrote. “Do you want to see it? It’s just bruising and some redness, I think.”

Rachael hesitated before nodding. She wanted to see what it looked like, mainly for one reason. Something about all of this seemed rather suspect. When Taryn spoke of what happened, Rachael couldn’t stop herself from speculating.

When Taryn removed the bandages, Rachael sucked in a sharp breath. The bruising along her neck looked awful, all around the girl’s throat was a mix of dark red and purple with a slight red tint where Taryn’s skin showed signs of friction, probably from the struggle to break free. Yet the mere contrast of her pale skin with the dark bruising nearly made Rachael feel sick.

“Is it that bad?” Taryn wrote.

“Yeah, it’s pretty bad,” Rachael said honestly. “I know you told me that you can bruise easily, but this…” She stopped short and frowned, eyes narrowing as Rachael tilted her head slightly to better look at Taryn’s throat. Or, more precisely, the center of her throat. Taryn held up the notebook with several question marks before Rachael answered. “No, it’s just… you said the guy who did this strangled you, was it with one hand?” Taryn held up her left hand showing two fingers. “Both hands.” She looked back to Taryn’s throat. “The bruising looks light along where your windpipe is, the sides of your neck look much darker in contrast. It’s odd.”

Taryn paused, a frown now creasing her brow as recalled the incident. During the moment of the struggle, she had been too panicked to think of anything else, but now that she wasn’t in danger, at least so to speak, she could think it through. How the Doll wrapped its hands around her throat, how it seemed to squeak and release, allowing her to breathe. The pressure was along the sides and back of her neck. As if the doll was trying to do something else.

Rachael also seemed to reach this conclusion as well, which led the woman to say. “I want you to do something for me.”

“What?”

“I want you to strangle me.” Which led to Taryn drawing a crude image of a peanut in a top hat in response. “No, I’m not nuts,” Rachael answered flatly. “I just want to confirm something, you’ll be the attacker, and I’ll be you.”

Taryn wanted to tell her friend to not do so, even if she felt like something about the event was off. In the end, Taryn did what her friend requested of her, acting like the assailant.

Pushing her friend down to the floor before taking Rachael’s right leg and pressing it against her abdomen’s side, then followed with wrapping her hands around Rachael’s throat, having Rachael grip her hands as if to pry them off. When Taryn had done so, she, for a brief instant, saw herself on the floor instead of her friend. She closed her eyes, pushed that thought away and began to squeeze.

After showing Rachael how it felt, for only a moment, making it quick as possible, Taryn let go of her friend’s throat.

“The grip of your fingers was lax,” Rachael said softly as she remained prone on the tatami floor as Taryn remained partly straddling her friend’s waist. “Like you couldn’t get a good grip along the back of my neck.”

Taryn glanced away.

“But the pressure,” Rachael continued, clearly deep in her thoughts. “It was along the sides of my throat. If you were trying to do this for real, I’d probably have the same bruise as you do.” She looked up at Taryn. “I don’t think this guy was trying to kill you.”

Taryn had also reached the same conclusion when doing the re-enactment of it; the question now was why? Why was the doll trying to get to her?

What did the doll want from her if it didn’t want her dead?