Very slowly, my head turned to see that there was no one standing next to me. However, I still felt the grip in my hand. That was when my eyes went down. Standing there, holding my hand, was a little girl doll. It had a little striped tail and tiger ears. It looked exactly like an approximation of Lydia, except that it was only two feet tall, and its eyes were red. It looked up at me, the hand not holding mine contained a knife.

“Hehehehehe…” it started laughing, the knife rising up in its hand.

“DIE!” I screamed so loud that even the doll was taken aback.

Grabbing my sword, I immediately hacked down on the doll. It let out a girlish shriek, but I ignored it. As it lost grip of my hand, I put it to the hilt of my sword and struck even harder.

“Die! Die! Die!” I screamed as tears ran down my eyes.

{White Mage has increased to LVL 13.}

{Cure Disease has been unlocked.}

“M-master!” A cry came from nearby.

I looked up from the mess of strings and wood that used to be the Lydia doll. The real Lydia was on the ground. She had been bound with some string, but she had used her teeth and nails and had managed to work her way out of it.

“Lydia… I’m glad you're safe.” I responded stiffy.

“I’m glad Master quickly realized the doll wasn’t a curse that turned me into a doll like when I was made undead.”

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“That’s right, it could have been you! Ahem… I mean… of course I knew…”

“…”

“Ahhh… what can I say! Dolls should all die! They’re creepy! My cousins made me watch Child’s Play when I was really young, and then that night, they snuck into my room and moved all the dolls to the foot of my bed. Ever since, I hate them so much!”

Lydia lowered her head and started crying. My eyes widened and I held out my hands in a panic.

“No, don’t be upset. I’d never attack you like a doll! You’re my Lydia… I could…”

“N-no… master…” Lydia spoke while shaking. “I’m sorry, I can’t do this. I don’t do good with these kinds of things. I’m really scared.”

“Ah? But you were fine in the zombie dungeon.”

“You can touch and kill a zombie!” She wailed. “This is far scarier!”

Slam!

Just as she said that, a door slammed shut. She screamed and this time she threw her arms around me. I could feel her body shaking. I had written off her behavior earlier, but apparently my sweet Lydia was really forcing herself to be here. After all, it was her debt we were resolving. She couldn’t say no. The result was that she was starting to break down now.

A door opened with a creek slightly. I stared at it while holding Lydia tightly. Then all the windows on the block opened at the same time, so fast that they made banging sounds. Lydia cried out and then held me tighter.

“Die…”

“Come with us…”

“Join me…”

The voices started to assault our ears, coming from every direction. I spun around, not able to see anything.

“We need to get out of here now.” I cursed. “Portal takes a few seconds. I’d use Return, but I’m not 100% sure you’ll be taken with me.”

“D-don’t leave me!”

“Yeah, I can’t risk it, Lydia, cover me! Portal!”

I could see now there was a group of dolls running down the street towards us. They looked like all manner of animalkin and human. Were they the faces of the people who died in this town?

“I can’t…” Lydia cried tearfully, shaking even more.

“They’re something you can hit!” I growled.

“No… no… scary!” She cried out.

The Portal opened just as the dolls reached us. I leaped through, but not before a dagger implanted itself into my calf.