The Night Rose

Arwin had woken up, and she wasn't in the jail anymore but an empty house.

"Hello, is there anyone here? Where am I? Smith?" Arwin shouted out loud while wondering where she had gotten herself now.

She heard giggling coming out from one of the rooms that was in front of her, and when she walked towards the room and opened it, she saw that it was a children's room.

But when the door was open, Arwin didn't see anyone in the room than an old wooden rocking horse that was going forth and back, and there was a bed with a simple porcelain doll that was in quite a badly damaged.

Otherwise, there wasn't anyone in there.

"Hello, I heard some giggling if this is a joke, then you got me already where I am? And what is going on?" Arwin tried to search her weapons, but she remembered that they were taken away by the guards, but no one answered to her; she was utterly alone in the room with the doll and rocking horse.

"Hello? Is there really no one here?" Arwin was starting to judge her sanity as she was a hundred percent sure that she had heard some giggling previously.

She closed the door and watched her surroundings once again and saw that it was an empty hall with lots of doors and turns.

There were also chairs going down and up.

There was only dim light coming out from a lantern that was placed next to the door that Arwin just had opened up.

Suddenly Arwin heard the giggling coming out again, but this time more faintly.

Even when she was a pirate and had experienced lots of different things, this was getting out of the hands for her.

She picked up the lantern, and her first decision was to go to downstairs and maybe find the front door, and when she started to walk down, she only heard how the planks were making the only noise before she heard the giggling once again and a young voice saying.

"A playmate for me play with me, come and play with me."

"Who's there? Show yourself!" Arwin shouted out but didn't see anything else, but suddenly, she saw a doll that looked exactly the same as the one that she saw at the children's room at the upstairs looking at her.

Only now the doll was little better condition than previously, and this time, it had a smile on its face.

Arwin got cold shivers and decided to head upstairs, and when she got to the place where the doll was, she tried to see around with the lantern, but she didn't see or hear anything.

Arwin picked up the doll and threw it straight to the downstairs, and she heard how the porcelain broke up, but the giggling came back along with the voice.

"Tehehe, are you scared of a doll? It's a nice doll and won't do anything to you; we want just to play." And suddenly, Arwin started to shiver out as the voice was coming from behind her.

When she turned around and lifted the lantern, she saw the same doll that she just threw downstairs standing on its legs and smiling at Arwin with its eyes moving around.

"Let's play, let's play it has been so long since I have had a playmate.

If you can hide from me for ten minutes without that, I find you; you are free to go; otherwise, you will stay here for eternity as my doll." The doll's voice suddenly changed from a young girl to a deeper pitched voice, and Arwin ran downstairs.

She didn't like this at all, and when she was running, she heard the doll counting down from ten to one.

Arwin never had seen or felt like that yes, give her a sword or a gun, and a person to rob and kill she can do it.

Give her an airship to fix or fly; she can do it; there were lots of things she could handle and do.

But now she didn't know why she was here as the last thing she remembered was that she was in a jail sleeping off peacefully while waiting for the guards to release her.

"And one the playtime starts now, you better be hiding as my last playmates were so boring that I turned them dolls and broke them immediately." The doll suddenly announced out, and Arwin didn't know what to do now.

Should she hide or fight against this thing, whatever it was?

"One little girl got trapped, and she became my best friend.

One little boy came and killed himself as he didn't know how to run in the stairs.

One grandma came and said how sweet doll and got her eyes picked out and her mouth sewn together.

One grandpa came, and I ate his heart out." The doll started to sign out seemingly they were about its victims.

"I'm a pirate I'm not a weakling who will die in hiding or running away!" Arwin suddenly shouted out clearly she had made her mind for now.