Chapter Text
“Belle! Look! I found a door to a basement.”
Bonnie rushes to Mirabelle to show her their discovery.
“Basement?” Mirabelle looks at the half-open door. “I didn’t know we had a basement here.”
You, Odile, and Isabeau join Mirabelle and Bonnie. It contains a logo of a brain at the top, and broken bricks and cement litter the area under it. Odile studies the wooden door. “Strange. It’s darker, and fortified. It doesn’t look like it belongs here.”
“And I’ve walked through this hallway before,” Mirabelle affirmed, “I’m positive there was never a basement.”
“Maybe,” you suggest, “it’s a recent addition.”
“They didn’t do any construction before the King entered.”
“Oh!” Bonnie yells. “Maybe the King built this without telling anyone. He is powerful and secretive.”
Odile peers into the dark stairwell. “He couldn’t build it himself. That would require too many people, resources, and months of planning. He’s strong but he doesn’t have that kind of power.”
“Unless,” Isabeau mumbles, “the House was built with one, and the door was sealed until now.”
“That,” Odile ponders the idea for a moment, “…would be a more likely scenario. Good thinking, Isabeau.” She flashes a small, sincere smile at Isabeau, who responded with his own goofy smile.
“But anyway, it’s odd that they would want to conceal something.”
“That’s not usually a good thing, is it?” Bonnie starts to tremble.
“The Head Housemaiden would never do anything… bad.” Though Mirabelle said these words, she wasn’t confident in its truth.
“Maybe this wasn’t her doing,” Isabeau soothed.
Odile furrows her brows. “But… if anyone would know of this basement, she should be one of them.”
Bonnie’s begins stepping away from the basement. Mirabelle turns and catches them.
“Bonnie?” Mirabelle asks. “Are you alright?”
“I-I’m sorry,” they whisper. “This just feels too scary.”
You look at Odile, Isabeau, and Mirabelle. They seem to be thinking of something to say to Bonnie, but are waiting for you for something first.
“We don’t have to go in there,” you say back to Bonnie. “It’s probably not important anyway.”
You look back. Odile is clenching her mouth, and lost in thought. Mirabelle, with a hint of anxiety, says what Odile is holding back.
“If this was hidden from me, there might be something there, something that could help us defeat the King.”
Odile nods. Isabeau, though clearly unnerved, nods as well. “I don’t like it either, but it’s worth checking out.”
Oh no. Did you give Bonnie too much false hope?
“But don’t worry, Bonbon,” Isabeau quickly recovered. “We’ll protect you!!!”
Isabeau flexes his muscles, prompting a giggle from Bonnie. They look back at the way they came before stepping towards the basement door. “Okay. I’ll trust you.”
“Just stay behind us,” Odile says, “as always.”
Bonnie wipes their tears, and nods.
Mirabelle examines the door one last time. She shakes off her confusion, and lifts her body forward. “Let’s go. Siffrin?” She nods her head to the side, towards the basement, and you take the lead.
You walk down the creaky stairs. The air is musty, and you take careful steps to avoid damaging the damaged floorboards. The narrow passage leaves little room for everyone to move, especially for Isabeau who nearly scraped his arms against the cement walls. After five minutes, you reach the bottom.
The metal walls are lined with a stripe alternating dark and light colors. On the right is a large desk with rounded corners, and an empty office chair sat behind it. On the left is an arrangement of a coffee table and a chair, made somewhat pleasing with the singular succulent in the corner. In the center is a gateway, strengthened with a ton of metal but broken down. There are panels on either side which are turned off. The air is no longer hard to breathe, and, though abandoned, the room is less damaged than the stairs.
“This is… weird,” Mirabelle says softly.
She is right. The other rooms looked nothing like this one, as if it was grafted and stuck together with tape. Odile takes the first steps, and looks behind the desk. You take a peek, and see a load of papers. She grabs the papers, and quickly peruses its contents, before taking a few and handing it to you. “Keep this.”
You nod, and store the papers in your coat.
Isabeau and Bonnie gather at the coffee table, and take a small break resting their legs. Meanwhile, Mirabelle touches the walls and desk, pondering the existence of the room she has not been aware of. This thought distracts her from Odile’s instructions.
“When you’re done,” she glances at Isabeau and Bonnie, “let’s get through this gate. There might be more dangerous enemies here.”
“Sadnesses?” you ask.
Odile looks down. “Something different, yet possibly similar.” Even you can sense the uncertainty in her voice.
You try to walk through the gate. On the panels, the cables has been worn down. You can see the wires sparking, though the security systems seem to be offline. You pass through without issue. You call to the others, and they follow you further into the next room.
At the next wall, on the left and right are two flights of stairs, spiraling into darkness. You look back at Odile, asking her which one to take.
“They’re the same,” Isabeau answers instead, and points to a sign you missed. The fire escape plan shows that the two stairs lead into the same big room.
“It’s cut off at the bottom,” Odile says. “There must be much more floors underneath.”
“How could they hide a place this deep?” Mirabelle asks. Sweat lines her forehead, but she otherwise composes her body.
You take the left staircase. Each step reverberates against the peeled walls. The railing is spotted with lightless rust. Was this place even functioning before the King took over the House? After a few minutes, you and your group reach the bottom and enter the adjacent room. It is much bigger than the lobby, and the walls are somewhat decorated with more shades and furniture. On your left, the wall contains a map of some symbols: circles with thick lines connecting them. You can’t make out what it means, so you leave it as everyone else disperses around the room.
Bonnie looks better now. They eye the room with curiosity, and touch all the walks and furniture. Isabeau seems as relaxed as usual. Odile is studying the intricacies of the room, no doubt making some comparisons or hypotheses of her own. Mirabelle is sitting down. Her mouth is frozen, and her eyes are closed. She’s shaking ever so slightly, and she doesn’t take notice as you approach.
“Mira?”
Her eyes open, and she jumps back a little.
“Ah, Siffrin!”
“S-sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you,” you sputter.
Mirabelle sighs, and composes her body. “It’s not your fault. This place is… How could I not know that this place existed? I don’t want to think about what they’re hiding here.”
You try to think of something to say, but all you can do is look down and hide in your coat. She gets up soon after.
“But now’s not the time to rest. We have to keep moving.”
You step back and let Mirabelle stand up as she calls everyone else. She lets you choose where to go, so you pick the closest door. It is a very fortified door, made of stronger material than even the basement door. Luckily, it opens when you walk in front of it.
“Electricity,” Odile mutters. “Where does it come from?”
The hallway is dimly lit. Papers litter the floor, and someone has written on the walls by scratching the surface. Unfortunately for the curious, they are now scratched out completely. Every step echoes, followed by crushing silence. Straight ahead is a dead end, but there is one door on the right. You follow the hallway, and the door opens. You and your group takes a few steps inside.
Under the bright light of the room lies a disheveled bathtub, full of blood. Red drops fall from the hand at the top acting as the shower head. Despite being filled completely, the drops of blood do not overflow the tub. You feel a sharp void in your stomach as you gaze at the red pool. It takes Odile’s voice to snap you out of your daze.
“Stay back.” She holds her arm outstretched in front of Bonnie, Isabeau, and Mirabelle.
The bathtub appears to have closed eyes. Is it sentient, then? Can it awake?
Odile turns to you. “Siffrin. Can you spot any traps?”
You take a look around, then shake your head.
“This thing feels pretty similar to the sadnesses,” she mumbles.
“It has the same aura,” Mirabelle adds.
“But it looks way different,” Isabeau’s eyes dart around the entity. “Is it really a sadness?”
“It kinda makes me sad looking at it,” Bonnie says.
“Bonnie!” Mirabelle steps in front of Bonnie. “I’m sorry, you probably shouldn’t see this.”
“What? I’m fine. Really. I’ve seen a lot of blood before. It’s just, looking at this thing does something to you, like those other sadnesses.”
“Hmm,” Odile keeps her silence.
“I thought it was just me,” Mirabelle says, “but I have felt more… empty? When we arrived.”
Isabeau looks down, one arm clutching the other. You take a step towards the tub.
“Is it doing something to us?” Odile mutters. “W-We should leave. Now.”
You take another step. The blood is inches away from your face. You can’t see how far the bathtub goes.
“Yeah, I don’t like this room.” Isabeau says. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Yeah!!” Bonnie exlaims, “Let’s go Fr—Where’s Frin?”
“Sif? They were just beside me a few seconds ago.”
“Siffrin? Get away from the bath!”
“Siffrin! Get out now!”
You peer inside the tub. The blood entrances your eyes. Your arms reach into it.
“Sif!”
Three pale hands emerge, dripping with blood. Dotted stars line their skin. They grab onto your arms and torso. You can barely struggle as they drag you into the blood. Your body sinks into the warm, comforting liquid. You think of nothing but your own watery grave. You close your eyes, and sink deeper until you can no longer breathe.
<<
You wake up on the grass. The air surrounds you, and the ground stops your fall.
What was that thing? Why couldn’t you fight back?
The sickening comfort lingers throughout your limbs. You still feel like you’re drifting into the deep blood sea. Why-
“—frin!”
Mirabelle enters the scene from the north, stopping just above Siffrin.
“Siffrin! ...Siffrin?
“Good morning! Well, more like, good afternoon, I guess… Were you taking a nap? That's just like—
“Siffrin?”
“Mira.” You say.
“Oh, you are awake. You just seemed so still.”
“It was a good dream.”
“Oh no! Did I ruin it?”
“Definitely not.”
“…Okay well… I'll be waiting in the village, alright? Come talk to me later!!!”
Mirabelle leaves you gazing at the sky with your thoughts. It was comforting, but also suffocating. You couldn’t move, but somehow that wasn’t a bad thing at the time. What kind of monster were they hiding in the House?
Burdened with horror, you get up, and go through the play.