Broken Porcelain: Chapter 2 - Distractions

Chapter 2 - Distractions

Elena walks through the halls of the second floor while watching her every step. What she saw on the ground floor startled her even though she was already startled to begin with. All the halls appear to be the same with the same kind of wood floors, doors, ceilings, and walls. After hearing and seeing what choosing the wrong door can result in, she’s hesitant to even go near one, but the seemingly looping nature of the first floor forces her to pick a door. She slowly opens it and startled to see a girl behind it.

“Haha, I’m sorry. Did I scare you?” the doll asks.

The doll is has a very elegant look to her with a long dress and her hair in a bun though she appears fidgety. One of her irises seems bigger than the other and there’s a weird grin on her face.

“Kind of,” Elena says.

“Well, there’s no reason to be afraid any longer. On this floor of the mansion, if you want something, then you’ll find it behind the next door you open. That’s how I got this wonderful dress. I’m collecting lots of gold and toys in my own personal mansion that I can get to by traveling through these doors. By the looks of it, you wanted company and an explanation on how this floor works, is that right?”

“Yes. I want to try to get to the third floor to get out of here.”

“Why would you want that when you can open a door and get everything you want? Actually, that’s not completely true. You can’t find the way out even if you want it. Every place that you see that isn’t this floor or the ground floor is a made up dimension along with the people, but that doesn’t matter. This place is Heaven. I don’t know what Mia and the others are so worked up about.”

“Yeah, but still. I want to go home.”

“If you say so, you can always join me in my mansion if you want. Just think of me and my mansion and you’ll be there.”

The girl closes the door on Elena. Elena opens the door again to see her parents.

“Elena!” her dad says.

Elena raises her hands in defense.

“What are you doing that for, sweetie? We aren’t going to hurt you.”

“Come here, Elena. You’re home,” Elena’s mom beckons.

“No, this isn’t real,” Elena says.

She then closes the door and opens it only to be hugged by her parents.

“It’s okay, Elena. We’re here for you.”

“We’ll always love you. We promised to give you a better life, didn’t we?”

“Stop!” Elena yells as she pushes them away.

Again, she closes the door then opens it to see Mia.

“Hey, Elena. Do you need anything?” Mia asks.

“Can you help me get through this floor? I keep opening the door only to see my family,” Elena asks.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t help you with that. That floor only allows people to go through it by themselves. Watch.” Mia walks into the door and into an invisible wall. “See? I can’t enter. What I can help you with is controlling what you want. Just imagine the next floor and focus on your want to escape. Don’t focus on anything else. Don’t let your other wants get in the way. Okay?”

“Okay…”

“You can do it, Elena!”

“Thank you.”

Elena closes the door and tries to do what Mia said. She opens it to find a set of stairs that go up. After breathing a sigh of relief, she goes up the stairs. As she goes up, she skips the other floors since the stairs keep going up. She keeps going up until she reaches a hatch in the ceiling that allows her to exit the mansion. Before she can think this is a trick, the other dolls that she saw from before come running out of the mansion along with Mia.

“I can’t believe you did it, Elena! You found a secret exit! I knew there was something special about you when we met.”

“I uh. I guess I did.”

Mia and the other dolls climb down the mansion’s walls by using the various holes in it as if it was a climbing wall. Elena descends to the ground and watches as the dolls run into the forest. She looks back at the mansion to see a single girl still inside. Going closer, Elena sees that the doll doesn’t have any eyes and her mouth is stuck in a creepy smile. The doll is dressed in a nurse’s outfit with a bowtie and double buns for a hairstyle.

Unsure if something is wrong with her, Elena taps on the window separating them and asks, “Are you okay?”

The doll doesn’t respond or move.

“Aren’t you going to escape? There’s an exit on the second floor.”

The face of a much larger doll comes out of the darkness next to the young doll. This face is cracked, doesn’t have eyes and has rows and rows of sharp teeth. Just looking at it, scares Elena to the point where she can’t move. With its large blade-like fingers, the large doll tries to carve words into the glass. Elena covers her ears and closes her eyes while this is happening to bare the sound of the doll scrapping the glass. When she opens her eyes, she sees that the doll has drawn a pair of eyes and what looks to be the face of a demon with horns on its head.

“What does that mean? Should I watch out for a demon?”

The large doll nods its head.

“There’s a demon in the mansion? Who are you?”

Elena goes to the front door and opens it.

“Don’t worry about the demon and just leave.”

Elena waits for the two mysteriously creepy dolls to leave but doesn’t see them coming out. When she turns her head to where they were, she sees that they’re gone. She looks inside the mansion only to be pulled in by the large hand and back into the first floor of the mansion.

“What? Was that all fake?”

Wanting immediate answers, Elena closes and opens the door she came in to see Mia with the dolls still in the mansion.

“Hm? Do you need something else, Elena? Are you hungry?”

“N-no. I was just seeing if I was still in the mansion.”

“Ah, I see. It was messing with you. Let me guess. You thought you found a secret exit?”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t worry about it. Just adjust your wants slightly and you’ll make the stairs to the next floor appear.”

“Hey, um…”

“Yes?”

“Do you know about an eyeless doll with a creepy smile on her face and a larger cracked doll? I saw one and the bigger one told me to watch out for a demon.”

“A demon, huh? Hahaha! Don’t listen to them. That was the adult and its little lapdog that you saw.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really. If they’re communicating with you personally, then that means that they have their eyes on you probably because you’re the newest doll here. Maybe they think they can convince you to join them. Just ignore them and keep moving. Remember that they’re the reason why we’re stuck here.”

“Okay.”

“See you later.”

Elena closes the door and takes a breath before opening it again. This time she finds another set of stairs. She goes up the stairs to find herself on another floor with a singular door. Through this door is a room with puppets. Elena hopes that this is really the next floor as she walks further into the room. As she takes a couple steps into the room, tiny little threads come from above and pierce her arms, legs, then head to knock her out.