I awoke to the sound of rumbling. Vibrations tickled my aching bones. The vibrations ceased. With a pained groan I used my sore, but not broken, left arm to sit up. My lower back felt like it had been through a boxing match.

The ground felt slimy. With a grimace I lifted my hand up. Strings of slime refusing to part ways clung to my skin. I quickly discovered that the entire floor and wall I faced, along with my clothing, were coated in the mystery goo as well. My hair was like a mop that hung heavy with saturation.

The smell was horrific. I began to gag but clenched my teeth to fight the urge to vomit. I rotated my body to get a better view of where I was. I was in some sort of box. A metal coil started in a back corner, spiraled inside the enclosure, then exited from a large hole in the wall opposite of me. The hole was fairly large and provided a view out.

Suddenly the box lurched forward, causing me to roll backward. I hit the back of my head against the wall. “Damn it!” I groaned. I lifted myself from the muck and got on my knees. Careful of my broken arm I crawled to the opening.

The opening was a perfect circle. I rested a hand on it and peered out. The metal coil continued on past the opening and around a cardboard wall. So I’m still in the bedroom. Before I passed out the jester was right on top of me. How did I escape? I must have somehow rolled down the hill and ended up inside here. How else could I have survived?

The box lurched forward. This time I was able to hold on to something so I wouldn’t fall. Smart, right? The doll-sized locked door has to be the way out of here, but how the hell am I supposed to put a key in that hole when a key is practically the size of the door?

That’s when it dawned on me. The cat in the dollhouse. It had a miniature key hanging on its collar. That had to be it! I’d have to somehow get through the happy family, assuming they went back to the kitchen. Fighting was out of the question. I was down an arm and any youth I had remaining in my back died when the block rolled on it. Then there was avoiding the jester.

The box moved again. Its side scraped against the cardboard wall as it rounded the corner. The sight before me caused my soul to leave my body.

Following the coil, my eyes locked onto the horse of this carriage. Jagged edges of torn blue fabric hung from a round body from which the end of the metal coil was embedded into. I didn’t need to avoid the jack-in-the-box. I need to get away from it.

I slumped to the floor. “If this is its box” I looked at the slime on the wall in front of me, “does that make this the stomach?”

The toy was digesting me. I didn’t feel like my skin was burning. Maybe this goo was like a spider’s venom where it numbs while digesting. Regardless, I needed to get out of here. I could climb out and start running. Try to lose it. I remembered how fast it moved when I ran from it the first time. Nope, that wasn’t going to work.

I wracked my brain trying to come up with a better option. The jester must have arrived at another crossway because the box began to turn to the right. I peeked out and my eyes lit up.

In front of me, across an open space, was the doll house. I bit a corner of my lip. I didn’t know if I’d get this chance again, nor be alive much longer for another one. Before I could even mentally draw out a plan I gripped the edge of the opening and jumped out.

My feet hit the ground. Making sure to avoid the coil, I bolted toward the house. I didn’t get far before I heard the angry scream of a child. The jester had noticed.

If someone told me I had wings at this moment, I would have believed them. My feet barely registered the ground before they were pushing off and ready for the next step. The house was coming up quickly, but so were the scratches on the floor from the jester’s claws. The house’s front door opened outwards. I didn’t have time to pull it open. I would need to, scratch that, have to break it down.

Less than an arm’s length from the front door I rotated my body and braced my shoulder. Putting my full weight into my strike I lunged at it. It seemed like a movie. The door gave way. I landed on top of the door in the middle of the foyer. I scrambled to my feet and moved out of the way as a large white hand reached through the doorway and clawed blindly for me.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

I ran into the kitchen. All four family members sat at the table. The cat was completely gone, except for its pool of blood on the table and the blue collar in the center. I ran to the side of the little girl, the knife still protruding from her eye and gore covering the front of her dress. Leaning back I raised my leg and kicked her out of her chair and into her mother.

The son and father both turned their heads toward me. I snatched the collar from the table and ran out of the kitchen as quickly as I could. Avoiding the scouring arm, I sprinted up the stairs. I reached the landing. The door to the library was still blocked.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see two of the family members at the bottom of the stairs. I decided to take the flight up to the final floor. As if on queue the jester emitted a childlike scream and slithered toward the back of the house. “Think Kayla, think!” I shouted.

An idea popped into my head. It was stupid, but that’s all I had. The second I reached the bedroom on the top floor I ran to the bathroom. My eyes locked onto the crescent-shapped shower curtain rod above the bathtub. I Shoved the collar into my pocket then latched onto the bar and began pulling.

The entire house shook as the jester’s coil rubbed against the exterior of the house as it made its way around. Frantic scratches vibrated the back wall causing it to loudly rap against the floors of the house. My eyes widened. The jester was trying to open up the back.

I could feel the curtain rod begin to give out. I looked over my shoulder and suddenly wish I hadn’t. The family was in the bathroom doorway with the two kids in the lead. I placed one foot on the tub and pulled like my life depended on it. A muffled metallic rattle came through the wall. The silence That followed was nauseating.

Hinges groaned as the back wall of the room broke away from the house. The door slowly opened until it hit the bedroom wall.

Creak

The house tilted ever so slightly toward the wall. I nearly fell as the left side of the curtain rod gave way. I caught myself, moved my hand to the right and pulled again. The floor creaked loudly in the adjacent bedroom. I craned my head toward the open air, eyes locked onto the room’s edge.

White talons appeared and dug into the bathroom floor. Like a titan rising from Tartarus the tip of a blue polka-dotted hat broke the surface. Unmoving cheerful eyes on a sickly white face sucked the warmth from the world like two miniature blackholes. The shiny cherry red nose highlighted the unmoving smile cut to ribbons by the malicious tear.

The jester turned its head toward me, highlighting me with its suffocating gaze. With a roar I pulled until my arm felt like it would break. Under the strain the curved bar began to straighten.

Snap!

The shower curtain rod was now free from the wall. The only doorway was blocked by the wooden family which left the open back of the house. I turned to face the unholy jack-in-the-box. It leaned its head back and opened its nail-jar mouth. I tilted the rod down and allowed the curtain to fall to the floor in a pile.

The jester charged at me. I charged up and kicked the shower curtain in the air then dove to the left, making sure to press my broken arm to my chest. The landing still hurt like a bitch. The jester collided with the wall and screamed.

Before the family could react I shot up and ran to the ledge. Three stories is one Hell of a drop, despite only being a single foot in reality. It sucked being tiny. There was no time to ready myself. I stepped off and plummeted to the dusty bedroom floor below.

I hit the ground feet first and screamed in agony. I fell to the ground and rolled onto my back. While straight, I was sure I just broke my left ankle. Pain avoidance was a luxury I couldn’t afford at the moment. I lifted myself up and limped as quickly as I could into the foyer and out the front door.

Just as I hoped the jester’s coil was pressed up against the house. From behind a pillar I looped the curtain rod around a coil. Now was the hard part. Holding one end in the crook of my broken arm and the opposite end with my good hand I began trying to bend the rod around the pillar. The plan was immensely stupid, but it was all I had. Adrenaline surged through my veins, numbing the tension-brought-pain in my broken arm, and soon the bar was looped around the pillar.

Stepping through the coil I moved as quickly as I could toward the closest cardboard canyon entrance. Roughly halfway across the open floor the jester screeched behind me. I looked back and the doll crawled from behind the house. Latched onto its soft body were the mother, son, and daughter. The arm of the father stuck out of the jester’s mouth.

The toy quickly crawled toward me, its metal entrails peeled away from the house. I limped forward with an eye over my shoulder. The toy was gaining on me. Suddenly it snapped back. With its claws digging into the wood it gave chase again, only to get the same result. The plan worked! Unwilling to stick around and find out for how long I entered the canyon.

Long after the adrenaline wore off I reached the bedroom door. My entire body felt like a glass vase in a cement mixer. If this works I won’t rest until I’m out of the house and find somewhere safe. I fished the key out of my pocket and slipped it into the keyhole. With a turn the locked clicked. Unwilling to leave behind what I fought for I removed the key and put it back in my pocket. I held my breath as I twisted the door knob and pulled the door open.