Mir, no, not only her, everyone thought that dolls were beautiful, cute, adorable, and any positive adjective could be put on them. And they were created for that purpose. There was almost no one who created dolls to be creepy and caused fear to whoever saw it. Naturally, except for the straw doll for cursing purposes, but let’s not talk about that kind of doll for now.

Anyway, dolls that were supposed to be cute, beautiful, adorable, and more positive adjectives could be exact of those adjectives if they were abandoned. Even dolls that hadn’t been played for years could be scary, not to mention the dolls that had been abandoned in a haunted place for years.

Moreover, there were a lot of stories where a normal doll became a cursed doll. Like the famous stories of a doll that was possessed by an evil spirit and harm people. Or the dolls that became alive when children stopped playing with them at the night. Or the doll that could grow its hair. There were a lot of stories like that, right?

That was why, for the first time, fear, a different kind of fear than the one she felt from the ghosts, started to creep into her heart. Weirdly, ever since she entered the Doll Castle, which was a ride where they entered the castle and saw a lot of different dolls from the entrance to the exit, the ghosts stopped attacking her. No, even their numbers which were countless before, now, she could only see two or three behind some of the dolls.

But that only heightened her fear. Fear of the unknown was worse than fear of ghosts. At least for Mir, that was how she felt. Moreover, sometimes ghosts moved the doll, causing sounds that surprised her. Sometimes the dolls blinked their eyes when Mir pointed the camera at them. Sometimes, in the corner of her eyes, she saw a movement of a doll, but when she turned around to look at it, the doll stopped moving.

Mir held her breath and decided to keep walking. It was dark, so she took out her phone and used the flashlight. It only made the situation creepier though. But at least, she could see somehow. And she kept on moving forward.

There was only one path. Besides the doors for the staff, which were locked, there was only one path to go. So, Mir followed that path.

Mir walked slowly. It was almost impossible for her to walk quickly. Not in the darkness. Also, the deeper she went in, the more she was breathing fogs. She wanted to rub her hand to warm her body a bit, but her hands were full with a camera and her phone. She didn’t have any choice but to sit down for a while, put both the camera and her phone on the ground, and started rubbing her hands together.

Just as she rubbed her hands, a sound surprised her and she couldn’t help but turn around to look at the source of the sound. Just as she turned around, she saw a doll of a bipedal lion that stood behind her. The doll was not supposed to be behind her…

“…!”

When she had that thought, that doll suddenly jumped. It was a big doll. It was far taller than Mir, whose height was slightly below average. Moreover, every doll in this Doll Castle was animatronic. That meant, inside those dolls, there was some kind of machine that could move the doll. Though the movement should be limited, not to the point where it could walk and jump at someone.

The doll grabbed her hand and pushed her down. Well, the lion doll was animatronic. That meant, there was something heavy inside the cute exterior that was supposed to be a cute lion. When the doll pushed her down, Mir could only barely breathe. Moreover, when the doll attacked her, the surrounding ghosts were agitated and they started attacking Mir as well.

“…!”

Mir struggled with all her might. She tried to push the doll away, but the doll attacked her aggressively. If the mouth of the lion could move, it might try to chomp on her face as well. Fortunately, it could only try that. And again, fortunately, the doll was soft, so even if it headbutt her, it was not really painful. It was only heavy.

After five minutes of struggling, Mir knew that they were in a stalemate. The doll and the surrounding ghosts couldn’t harm her. And she also couldn’t break free from this situation.

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…calm down, Mir. Calm down…

She tried to regulate her breath, though it was difficult because the doll pushed her lungs with its body weight.

But… she managed to calm down a little as she stopped struggling. The doll was still headbutting her head though, as it tried to chomp her head off…

…I can’t move. But I am safe… for now. If I calm down, they should stop attacking me. Yes, just like usual, I only need to calm my emotion. Abate my fear. Subside my angst…

She should manage her emotion… if only she closed her eyes. But she didn’t close her eyes. She was afraid of having a vision of someone’s memories again. So, she didn’t close her eyes. But that was a wrong choice now.

Because as she managed her emotion to some degree, her fear raised again. It was because she saw the other dolls started moving towards her. There were more than five dolls. She counted roughly. There were seven dolls. Eight, if she counted the one that was on top of her. More, if there were dolls that she couldn’t see because the lion doll blocked her eyes from seeing them.

“…”

Knowing the other dolls would attack her again, she became panic once again. She struggled again, this time with more strength than before. Fortunately, the dolls were old. They were almost a decade old and without proper maintenance, every time they moved, the creaking sound could be heard from their limbs. It was a fortune for Mir because of the age of the doll, Mir finally managed to rip off one of the hands that grabbed her right hand.

Thinking that she might be able to rip off the other hand, she used her free hand to pull the lion doll’s only hand. Her plan was not a failure though. She managed to rip off its hand. Now, with both of her hands free, she pushed the lion doll with all her strength. She pushed it aside and managed to crawl out from under its body.

Mir was panting when she grabbed the camera and her phone. She looked around her in panic. There was almost no way out. She instantly ran towards a small gap that would close if she was late for a second. She bumped into two dolls, pushed them aside, and started running.

The problem was… she was tired. Running was not enough. She had to escape from this Doll Castle. It was because all the dolls around her started to move around and they attacked her. Though their move was cranky, their numbers were more than enough to drown her to her death.

Mir kept on running, forgetting how tired she was. If she stopped, she would be completely surrounded. And if she was surrounded, they would definitely kill her. It wouldn't be funny to be killed by dolls...

Mir kept on running until she arrived at an open room. She looked around. It was dark, but it was a huge room because the light from her flashlight couldn’t see the end of the wall. She looked behind her. Fortunately, the dolls stopped chasing after her. Perhaps their movement was slow because they were old. Perhaps the dolls had limited area to move around. Whatever the reason was, she was safe. For now.

“…”

…or not.

Mir didn’t think that she was safe. It was because when she entered this open room, the air was so cold that she started trembling. It was as if she was in her summer clothes while a snowstorm was happening. And she was inside the snowstorm. That was how cold she felt, even though she properly wore her warm clothes now.

Mir carefully looked around. There was nothing suspicious. At least, she didn’t see anything suspicious. It was just a huge room with a red carpet below her feet. There was no furniture in the room except some paintings she saw on the wall. She kept on exploring until she saw a stage in the middle of the room.

There was a bench in the middle of the stage. Old-looking white clothes covered the bench perfectly. Beside the bench, on the right side, there was a white table with a vase filled with wilted flowers while on the other side, there was a frame with an old photo inside. Mir looked at the photo, but it was too old to be seen. No, it should be around a decade… but the photo seemed like it was a photo of a hundred years ago.

Mir stopped looking at the photo as she went around the stage. She went backstage. And then, she found something that she had been looking for, yet she never expected to see it here. It was Raleigh.

“Mir! Mir, you are safe!!!” Raleigh spoke excitedly when he noticed Mir was behind the light that lit on him. He almost crawled to her, but he suddenly stopped.

“No, no, it must be another illusion set by that evil spirit! I can’t go out of this barrier!” Raleigh shook his head as he started hugging his knees once again. Mir walked closer to him. Unlike before, he was now as haggard as someone who had been lost in the woods for days. There was blood in the corner of his lips. It seemed he had a bad day.

Just as Mir took another step closer to Raleigh, a whisper as soft as feathers, as cold as women’s jealousy stare, sounded from behind her.

“Are you going to steal my groom…?”

Mir turned around in surprise, but no one was there. Again, the same whisper could be heard from behind her. No, it was right beside her ears…

“Are you going to steal my groom?”

The voice had more intensity now. Mir turned around in panic. She still couldn’t see the owner of the voice, even though it should be nearby. She kept on turning around, but she couldn’t see anyone.

…I think it would be better if I join Raleigh first.

Thinking like that, Mir turned to Raleigh… but this time, she finally saw the owner of the voice. It was a beautiful woman. She was wearing a white wedding gown. Her transparent veil couldn’t cover her beautiful face. If she lacked something, she only lacked substance. Yes, she was transparent to the point that Mir could see Raleigh behind that woman.

“HOW DARE YOU STEAL MY GROOM! YOU THIEF!!!”

The ghostly woman screamed. Her beautiful face turned into something horrendous. Her eyes turned black and veins appeared all over her face. She raised her hand, aiming her palms at Mir who was dumbfounded. And then, Mir felt something she never felt before.

A force so strong that not only pushed her back but also thrown her away. She rolled on the ground after she was thrown five meters away. Fortunately, below her was a soft carpet, so she didn’t feel any pain at all. But still, she was dumbfounded by the force behind that ghost woman’s power.

…and more importantly, the ghost woman was moving forward with speed that looked like she was zooming in. Without thinking, Mir also turned around and started running, because she knew she couldn’t defend against that ghost at all…