• CHAPTER 2: QUESTIONS



    Helian was just as surprised as the others but she didn’t have enough time to blank out. She ran to Hazel, who was being attacked by the dolls, and slashed the dolls away from her. The twins screamed as Tana was being tackled by one of the dolls. Ralph attempted to help but he was blocked by another barrage of living toys.

    “Quick, grab a weapon or something!” She ordered as she slashed the next wave of demon dolls.
    “and then what?!” Ruthienne shouted back as she held a toy spear.
    “Then just… just… just think that you can cut them!” She ran to Ralph and helped him take out the attackers.
    “Are you joking?!” Tana shouted in anger; was never the type to simply believe in whatever situation it was. She thought Helian was seriously joking at a time like this.
    “Lufeine!!” Cried Lytta to warn her sister of the doll that was about to slash her.

    Lufeine turned around and just when she was about to be slashed, Ruthienne--armed with a lance--pierced through the last demon doll. Ruthienne herself was surprised because of what she did. Lytta ran to Lufeine, who looked at Ruthienne and thanked her before her sister arrived to give her a hug.

    “Wow…she’s ri—“ Ralph was rudely interrupted by Tana who shouted at Helian’s bizarre belief in plastic weapons. If she didn’t know better then she would have thought she’d been watching too much cartoons, and sadly that wasn’t the case.

    “The hell is this?!?! HELL!!! ‘grab a weapon and just think that you can cut through it.’?! PLEASE!!!” Tana shouted at Helian, obviously insulting her.
    “Well it SAVED your a**, didn’t it?!” Helian flared, shocked at how ungrateful Tana was.
    “Well who asked for your saving?!”
    “You BI—“ Their tackles were stopped when Ralph and Ruthienne held them back.
    “I-I think we should get out of here and find somewhere we can hide from those things that attacked us.” Suggested Lytta’s sister, Lufeine.
    “I agree with my sister.” Answered Lytta; she too didn’t want to stay there any minute more.
    “These girls are right.” Hazel agreed unanimously.
    “And where are we supposed to stay? This place could be filled with those things.” Ralph pointed out.
    “We just came from the control room before we ran here.” Announced Ruthienne.
    “Great, we can stay there!” Exclaimed Hazel.
    Ralph released Helian, who he assumed had calmed down. “Okay…Ruthienne, right? You can lead the way.”
    “There’s a problem though…” Ruthienne paused to let go of a ‘calm’ Tana. “I’m terrible with directions.” She said sadly with nimbus clouds forming above her head. She loved to help, only if she knew the way.
    Tana looked at the disheartened Ruthienne and took a deep sigh. “I remember where it is.” She said blankly. She didn’t have much of a choice as well. She had to stay with them if she wanted to survive the night—and survive those toys.

    They all followed her to the control room. A cold and eerie atmosphere hung in the air, and it wasn’t from the silent air conditioners. The shelves were filled with toys. The ones that had faces were normal, for now. All they heard was the sound of their footsteps as they walked to the control room to recuperate.

    “Here it is.” Tana said as they approached the control room.

    Everybody went inside. Ruthienne, who was the last to enter, closed and locked the door. She took a peek at the glass going to an inner room and noticed that the doll was gone. “Wasn’t there a doll clown in here…?” She thought to herself.

    “Look out!!!” Lytta shouted at Helian. She ran to the clown faced doll and stabbed it. Afterwards they took it out of the room and again the door was closed and shut.
    “Dude! You could have been clown food!!” Ralph blurted out, though Helian wasn’t sure whether he was mocking her or if he was serious.
    “Ughh!!!! Damn phone!! Damn signal!!” Tana shouted, who was sitting in a computer chair turning her back at everyone. She turned the chair to face everybody but she stopped to look at their faces. “What?”
    “You look EXACTLY like Noctis, especially with a pose like that!” Hazel said excitedly. She took a photo of her using her camera.
    “Of course I do. This IS cosplay anyway.” Tana said with a satisfied grin. She perfectly imitated Noctis’ famous sitting pose.
    “Alrighty~!” Hazel half-squealed. However, her enthusiasm quickly faded into confusion as she looked at the pictures.
    “woooow, you look gooood.” Helian remarked sarcastically.
    Hazel didn’t say anything; she was wondering whether or not her old camera had finally broken down.
    “You sure like taking pictures.” Lytta quickly commented, trying to divert the original direction of the atmosphere.
    “Thanks! Ummm….?” She stood in thought wondering what the girl’s name is.
    “Lytta…” She answered. “…and this is my sister, Lufiene.” She pointed to Lufiene who blushed slightly because of her shyness.
    “Twins?” asked Ruthienne
    “Yup!” Lufiene answered
    “I’m Ruthienne and she’s Tana.” Ruthienne pointed at Tana who already took off her hair gel and removed her contacts revealing her curly mid-length strawberry blond hair and green eyes.
    Tana smiled back at them saying “Hey!”
    Helian took out a good-quality comb from her pocket and started combing her hair. The hair gel had started wearing off, revealing her wavy locks. “Name’s Helian.”
    “Well I suppose you all know who I am. I won the cosplay contest a while ago.” Ralph said, taking off his azure kite hat. Along with it, he removed his blue green wig to reveal short, messy hair.

    They stood there silent looking at Ralph with blank expressions. Since they had no choice but to wait for the store to reopen tomorrow or at least have a staff find them when they enter the store at least two hours before the opening time. They waited, rested and stood silent for what they thought was an eternity. Changing positions, walking inside the room and even amusing themselves by fiddling with their costumes; they waited. When they had enough Ralph checked his watch and to his surprise it was ticking but the arms didn’t move at all.

    “I told you I’m not joking! Look and listen!” He took his watch out for everybody to see and hear.
    “Why is it like that?” Lufiene asked.
    “I’ll check mine.” Helian took out her own watch and to her surprise her watch is no different that Ralph’s, it ticks but it doesn’t move. “The time’s stopped!”
    “Time stopped? First are the dolls, the weapons, the phone signal then this?” Said Ruthienne.
    “Actually,” Hazel started, “The pictures of Tana I took earlier were all blank…”
    “Huh? Wasn’t that because your camera broke?” Helian asked.
    Hazel shook her head. “I already checked the insides of the camera, and it’s all good. Nothing wrong…”

    Suddenly, all the lights shut down and everything was black. There was a “tick-tock” sound like that of a watch. The sound was a mere whisper at first but slowly it grew louder and louder as if the source was getting closer and closer. The room was oddly colder. It gave Goosebumps even to the most fearless of the seven.

    “I can’t see!” thought Ralph. He kept his arms to himself not wanting to touch or feel anything that she shouldn’t have.
    “Is est melior video vidi visum nusquam quam video vidi visum quispiam vos operor non volo.” A voice of familiar language whispered in Ralph’s ear. He could not decipher what it said. But he can identify the voice itself: it was deep, definitely a male, and scratchy. He can smell the foul breath of the voice like a decomposing rat. His voice alone injected fear into his brain. His head was filled with thoughts. “What’s going on? What will happen? How did this happen? How can I get out? Will I get out?” Another thought to ponder in the middle of the darkness, only if he had enough time to ponder about it more.
    “Is anybody there…?” A scared voice came to their ears. It was soft but they can feel the shivers of the voice. “sis…?” It came again. The other five thought it must be one of the twin’s voice, either Lytta or Lufeine.
    “Lufeine? Are you there? Where are you?” Another voice came but it didn’t come from the same voice as the previous. They were apart--- far apart.
    “Sis! Where are y—“ She was interrupted when a voice was heard.
    “Grate EGO exspectata vos totus …” A voice came out of nowhere. It was the same voice Ralph heard. He was sure about it.
    No one knew what language it spoke except for Hazel. She studied latin a long time ago to improve her vocabulary. Not knowing her knowledge would be used for this. She translated it aloud knowing that She who knew that the others might not be familiar with the language. “Happily… I welcome you all....”
    The others quietly listened to Hazel intently; they couldn’t see her, but they knew it was her.
    “I’m rumex tamen EGO eram non validus ut accommodate vos totus”
    “I’m sorry but I was not able to accommodate you all…”
    “Quindecim EGO have quaero pro , iam septem have supervenio ; persolvo haud temerarius ut obscurum ut vires cado secundum”
    “Fifteen I have searched for, now seven have arrived; pay no heed to the darkness they might fall behind..”
    Hazel was trembling. The slow, whispering voice was ominous; deadly…
    “Requiro lux lucis , pro is vos must peto tamen exsisto defessus illi quisnam vultus pallens”
    “Look for the light for it you must seek but be weary for those who look weak”
    “Iam EGO mos narro bonus tamen nos mos opportunus iterum in diapente. “
    “Now I will say goodbye but we will again on the fifth…”

    The lights flickered back on as soon as Hazel had translated the last line…Everyone was motionless; frozen with fear and anxiety. From what Hazel had translated, they were definitely in danger, and they were definitely not alone.