Rule of Rain, Chapter 2: The Attic
Frightened, the unlucky girl returned to the kitchen door to try to escape.
But the handle wouldn't turn.
She ran through the living room to the front door...
But that, too, was locked against her.
Frustrated, the unlucky girl stepped away from the door and tried to think of a different way out of the strange house.
Above her came the whispers, laughing and cruel.
"Shhh," they hissed and tittered. "Shhh, she'll hear you."
"Hello?"
The whispering stopped abruptly, replaced by rushing footsteps and slamming doors.
"Hello?" she called again, both hoping for an answer and dreading the possibility.
Nothing but silence.
"Is someone up here?" she asked, but nobody was except her.
She tried the door closest to the stairs and found it unlocked. Turning the knob, it opened to reveal a short hallway.
"Hello?"
Another door opened to a large bathroom, streaked with blood and marker musings.
A thick, glistening patch of gore on the wall beside the sink made her feel sick.
She quickly turned away from the disturbing sight.
At the window she spotted an unfamiliar woman in a luxurious white coat standing by the water.
The unlucky girl pounded on the glass and called out for help, but the woman ignored her.
Defeated, the unlucky girl left the bathroom to continue her search for an exit.
"Wait!" she called, startled by the child's sudden reappearance. "Wait, come back!"
She followed them to the third floor, but once again, the child had disappeared.
Which way? she asked herself, staring helplessly at the identical doors.
She decided to try the large double-doors at the end of the hall, which most resembled the front door. She thought perhaps these would at least get her back outside.
Outside, owls hooted and crickets chirped, creating an eerie symphony.
"Hel--" The unlucky girl's voice died in her mouth as she rounded the corner.
She hadn't been expecting the balcony to be occupied after the vast emptiness of the house.
"Good evening," said The Wise-Looking Princess, not bothering to look at her. "You're just in time."
"In time for what?"
Before The Wise-Looking Princess could answer, a mournful sounding bell tolled loudly in the distance, drawing both of their attention to an unknown destination beyond the trees.
A childlike chirp filled the night as the bell faded.
"Good news, everybody," the voice announced cheerfully. "The funeral is about to begin."
"Will everybody participating please make their way to the backyard?"
"I repeat, the funeral is about to begin."
"Have you found what you're looking for yet?" The Wise-Looking Princess inquired. The unlucky girl stared at her in silence, unsure how to respond to such a question. "Something dear to you?"
The Wise-Looking Princess walked away without an answer.
Back inside, the unlucky girl retraced her steps toward the stairs, finding the other doors in the hallway locked firmly against her.
Only a single door at the opposite end of the hall stood open. The child who had called her by her secret name peeked out at her from the frame.
"Hurry up, slowpoke!"
She chased the child up the spiraling stairs to a cluttered attic, drenched in dust and decay.
The child was nowhere to be found.
Instead, she found a grotesque display of blood-encrusted instruments strewn about the floor.
Thinking that a weapon of any kind might be sensible at this point, the unlucky girl pocketed the scissors.
With a creaking whimper, a door she hadn't noticed before swung open to admit her.
The room behind it was lit only by harsh candle light and smelled of wax and fire and dirt.
At the end of the candle trail, The Stoic Prince sat and refused to face her.
Across from him, his cousin, The Cold-Hearted Princess sat with her arms crossed and her mouth bearing a wicked parody of a smile.
"How nice of you to finally join us, Rainelle."
"It's not like we have other things to attend to, do we, Fricorith?"
"Heavens no," replied Fricorith, sounding bored.
"Heavens no," repeated The Cold-Hearted Princess in a soft voice that made the unlucky girl's skin go tight.
"It's only a funeral for a dear friend," she said, twisting her lips into that mean little smile again. "But there will be plenty more of those, I suppose."
"But you really should try to make it to this one, Rainelle," she continued, clearly savoring the unlucky girl's discomfort. "It would be incredibly rude of you not to."
"I don't know what you all think you're playing at, locking me in here and holding me hostage," the unlucky girl said carefully, struggling to find her footing in these unusual dynamics. "But I'm not attending any funeral, or whatever else you've all got planned. I want you to unlock the doors, unlock the gate, and let me the hell out of here."
The Prince and Princess didn't move.
"Now."
"I'm afraid we can't help you with that," said The Cold-Hearted Princess, not sounding sorry at all.
"Doors lock, gates lock," added Fricorith unhelpfully. "We can't tell them what to do."
"What do you mean, you 'can't tell them what to do'? They're inanimate objects! You control them with a fucking key!" The unlocky girl sputtered, beginning to lose her temper with all this senseless prattle. "Does that sound familiar to either of you? A key! A little piece of metal with a big end and a long, thin end that you put into corresponding holes and turn them one way to lock, and the other way to unlock!"
Fricorith looked away distastefully. "How vulgar."
The Cold-Hearted Princess looked at her accusingly. "Do you think we're stupid, Rainelle? We know precisely what a key is, but a key isn't going to do anyone any good in this house."
Before the unlucky girl could even begin to formulate a response, the bell tolled again, sounding somehow louder in the attic. As if it were closer in here than outside.
"We're going to be late, Gvaudoin."
The Cold-Hearted Princess looked at her cousin, The Stoic Prince, and nodded slightly.
The bell tolled again, this time fading into the long, sorrowful baying of what must have been an unusually large hound.
The unlucky girl turned at the sound of the door opening behind her, but there was nobody there to open it. Turning back to the Prince and Princess, she felt a sharp pang of fear at the sight of their empty chairs.
They too had disappeared.
A/N: There was supposed to be more, but the game kept screwing with me and after 3 restarts, I just figured fuck it, Chapter 3 can have it.
I hope everyone reading enjoyed it, though.