Anna
As Anna slid through the partly opened door to follow Jim, a breathtaking sight unfolded in front of her. The grim lighting of the cave had faded and had been replaced by a bright white light that shone from above. In front of them was a roughly cylindrical room, around 50 meters in diameter. The walls were shaped out of toys – like the ones at outside of the cave – and towered upwards until out of sight.
In the open space between the room’s tower-like walls, countless giant toys were suspended in mid-air, held up by the Doll-Maker’s strings – which could be made out by the reflection of them in the light which loomed from the false sky above.
The floor once more consisted out of colourful, plastic-like bricks. In the middle of the room was a massive pile consisting of presents, all neatly arranged in wrapping paper, tidy and with care.
Anna and Jim looked at each other. She hesitated. Jim nodded.
“But this makes no sense. We are underground, right? If there would have been a tower that tall, we would have seen it from miles away.”
“Maybe we just got teleported far enough away? Or this is how it enters its cave and we are actually just very deep down?”
Another coughing sound emitted not too far away from them – this time more loud and clear. It had originated from the pile of presents. Jim held up his scissors, started walking forward. “Help me search. Maybe there is someone still alive hiding in there. And keep your eyes open for loot.”
Anna rearranged her ponytail to calm herself down, followed her friend towards the pile, “I think we shouldn’t be at this place.”
“You wanted to be saved too, right?” Jim pointed his scissors into the direction of the pile, which was at least 10 meters high. “Maybe the person had a similar fate… just didn’t get saved.”
Realizing that Jim had a point, Anna nodded and walked over to the pile, started examining it closer. She had made a promise to herself, and she had to back it up with actions now. Jim walked to the right, kept his scissor close as he left her field of vision. She moved to the left to cover more ground.
Right as Anna walked past one of the presents, she could have sworn she had heard another cough, only quieter this time. She also realized how well packed up the presents were, like from someone very skilled. The paper had no dirty spots or unevenly folded sides, and every single one was nicely arranged. What also stood out was that no present looked like another. They all looked unique.
How did this stuff even get here? Maybe she shouldn’t think about logic at this place too much, but it still seemed odd.
Then, another cough. This time, it sounded more like a grunt, a muffled panting.
This one! she thought.
Anna pulled one present from the pile, got it down with a lot of effort. Whatever was in there was very heavy. Perhaps Jim’s assumption had been right, but his reasoning was flawed since the person wouldn’t have been able to package themselves up from the inside.
She peered down on the box. A green and red striped package just big enough for someone around her size to hide inside of… great. Anna pulled on the blue ribbon which rested on top of the present, then pulled off the band attached to it. She used her fingernails to pull away the wrapping paper, revealed a cardboard box underneath.
Slow, hesitant fingers hovered over the box. She slowly moved her fingers to the pieces of cardboard, took a deep breath.
Another grunt emitted from the inside the cardboard box.
She opened the present.
There was a brief moment of realization.
Anna stumbled backwards in terror, almost tripped over herself while doing so. She felt a sudden pressure up her chest, was forced to turn away. The picture rattled through her mind as she felt herself shaking, fell to her knees as they gave away from the shock. Unable to contain herself, she vomited on a light blue block of flooring, her breakfast from yesterday splattering over the floor as her throat filled with sour taste.
A high pitched-scream from the other side of the room was audible.
Anna placed her left hand on the floor, managed to get up. She started running as fast as she could towards where the scream had originated from, almost ran into Jim, who had been sprinting as well.
“J-Jim. Inside of the box… I-I…”
Jim’s eyes carried a glint of uncomfortable flatness, but he started laughing as soon as he saw Anna, said, “Ha-ha-ha. I really got you right there, didn’t I?” He grabbed Anna’s wrist, looked at her with unfamiliar seriousness. “W-we should really leave now. The others are probably already waiting for us.”
“Jim… It looked like…”
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“We need to go now.”
Anna noticed Jim’s other hand shaking heavily, his scissors held in a tight grip.
She nodded.
They turned away from the pile of presents, away from these so invitingly packed boxes, and started running.
Anna did not turn around.
She did not speak a single word.
She just ran.
And while running down the staircase which had brought them to this place,
One thought echoed inside her head:
So this is how it got its name.
---
Jack
Jack ducked away to the right as a needle hissed past him. He made a surprising turn, caused the creature behind him to smash against a rock wall, debris and stones falling towards the cave floor. It screeched, the music box emitting tones in harsh frequencies.
“Yes, go fuck yourself you giant pile of trash!” he shouted, saw the beast rage in movement. Another half a dozen of needles came darting at him, which he dodged gracefully.
He had gotten Hendrick enough time, now he only needed to reach the room. Hen was going to be positioned in there, waiting until Jack led the monster in position. Once everything would be in place, the Doll-Maker would have nowhere to dodge and the bullet would hit its head behind the mask, killing it in an instant.
Jack panted, could feel the sweat run down his face. He himself was surprised by his own amount of stamina, but the fight-or-flight instinct enabled him to move faster than ever before, which really came in handy right now.
Another tunnel to the left, then to the right. He turned his head for a second, saw the rows of arms attached to the back of the beast’s body. Like a caterpillar shaped out of void it rolled forward, the strings assisting its body just passing through the solid matter of the cave ceiling like it wasn’t even there. It almost looked like a glitch in a video game, not intended to be this way by its creators.
Another hiss filled the air. Jack hadn’t been paying attention for just a second. He felt stinging pain as a needle embedded itself inside of his shoulder. He stumbled, almost fell over.
He remembered the words which Hendrick had told him last night: ‘We need to beat all three stages, then we win. All of our team members who didn’t make it get revived after we win the game. Also, there is no strong pain, remember?’
Jack clasped the scissors with both hands, closed it with brute force. The scissors snipped right through the thread, severed the connection from him to the Doll-Maker. Jack dashed to the right, dodged the other needles flying towards him.
He bit down his lower lip hard, tried to ignore the pulsing inside of his shoulder.
Questions spun inside of his head. Had Hendrick lied to make him more confident? He didn’t have much time to think, tried to make logical connections.
He took the last turn, saw the gigantic door not too far away from him.
It was there! This was the room. He just needed to reach it.
“Hey, fucker!” he screamed to anger the beast and alarm Hendrick at the same time. It raged, smashed into another turn behind him while breaking through a rock formation which had been blocking its path.
The door got closer and closer. He was almost there. Needles flew left and right past his head, clattered against the rocks close to him but missed. His shoulder felt numb from pain.
He passed through the door, found himself inside of a bright, colourful room. It appeared to be something roughly resembling a child's bedroom, only massive in scale. In the middle of it, a giant bed rested, a staircase leading towards its mattress high up. He couldn’t see it clearly from his current position, but there definitely was a reddish hill on top of the bed.
The Doll-Maker followed him inside of the room, clawed and sprinted after him in a burst of rage. The music had become too fast to follow, no longer following any rhythm at all.
Hendrick had been right. It hated loud sounds.
He lured it around an oversized toy-box, abusing the creature’s weakness for tight turns as it almost slipped over while drifting around the round-shaped object.
“Hey!” a voice shouted.
Jack’s eyes spotted a familiar person standing close to the gate he had come from. It was Hendrick, who was waving his arms to get Jack’s attention.
“Here! Fast!”
This was it! Everything was in place.
Jack started sprinting back towards the door. Another needle hit his arm, but he immediately cut the string and kept running. He didn’t care about the pain anymore.
Pain? Why was it there?
He got closer to the door again, saw Hendrick more clearly now. He held the gun with his right hand, his arm outstretched and focused on the Doll-Maker. His arm didn’t even shake the tiniest bit.
Jack was now certain.
“Kill it!” he shouted.
He locked eyes with Hendrick for just a split second, saw the unfamiliar emptiness in his gaze.
And as Jack got close enough, and his friend moved his arm in quick motion, Jack dodged to the right in the last possible moment, predicting Hendrick to take his focus off the Doll-Maker.
Hendrick pulled the trigger.
A loud bang echoed through the tunnels.
Jack fell to the floor, his leg giving away as the bullet passed right through his knee.
He saw the wide smile on Hendrick’s face…
...and there was pain.
---