Saki may be sadistic, and I think Cipher’s her
uncle, but she’s still the most friendly being I’ve encountered in this hotel,
and that should say a lot about this place.
Before
leaving Eye-See’s room, Mabel tore off a part of her sleeve and wrapped it
around one of the bigger shards from the mirror Saki broke. It didn’t make for
the best weapon, but it was better than nothing.
Leaving the
room, Mabel found herself in another hallway, of course. She comforted herself
with the fact that she wasn’t in that dungeon again, but still, she had no idea
where to go.
In that
moment, Mabel remembered something her brother had told her: “When stuck in a
maze, keep your right hand to the wall, and you’ll get out.” So Mabel turned
right, placed her right hand on the wall, and walked. The corridors of the
hotel might not be a maze in a conventional sense, but it was still a better
plan than anything else Mabel could think of. Plus, she felt kind of happy that
she was using a trick her brother had taught her.
Said joy
only lasted for a short time, when she suddenly heard someone yell: “JUDGEMENT!”
Like
before, the same kind of anthropomorphized scale dropped down from the ceiling,
carrying the same two symbols as before. The monster’s smile widened when it
saw her, and she froze in fear. The creature hadn’t even said or done anything
yet, but the mere memory of what had happened before was enough to make Mabel
want to curl up into a ball and cry.
“You’ve
recently finished your first year of college,” the monster said. “Your brother
had suffered a breakdown during his last high school exam. While you hadn’t
heard much from him the previous year, after his first college exam, he’s not
answering any of your calls or messages. It takes days before he finally calls
you up. A short while later, your brother calls you up again, saying he failed
his exam because he had another breakdown. What do you do?”
There was
no longer any doubt that the monster somehow knew things about Mabel’s life,
considering that what it just described was exactly what had happened before
her brother disappeared.
“I… I
encourage him to try again,” Mabel almost stutters. “I know he can do better,
and he shouldn’t let those mental problems get the better out of him.”
“I see,”
the monster simply said. “Let’s consult the Balance of Truth!” Once again the
scales on the creatures rocked back and forth, until the heart was dropped and
fell to the ground, breaking on impact.
“But I told
the truth!” Mabel protested, staring at the broken heart. The monster ignored
her and began to talk again:
“When your
brother comes to you for help and support, you tell him to just get better. Not
unlike a lifeguard seeing a drowning victim and yelling at them to stop
drowning. You don’t hear from your brother again, and when he’s officially
missing, all you find is a suicide note left behind by him. It was your choice.
You get to live with it.”
Mabel fell
to her knees, sobbing her eyes out, while the monster flew past her. It wasn’t
true… She wasn’t the reason her brother disappeared.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I never ever, EVER wanna see that thing again!
I’m just gonna find that room with the souls Saki told me about, bring her one,
then find my brother and get the hell out of here…
While
walking through the hallway, Mabel kept her eyes peeled, not just to look out
for more monsters, but also to try and find a door that looked out of place.
She was so focused on what was ahead of her, that she didn’t even realize what
was behind her.
“Are you
looking for something?” a feminine voice asked. Mabel turned around but
couldn’t see anyone. “Down here~” Mabel looked down and saw that it was her own
shadow that was speaking; the only thing that looked out of place was a pair of
eyes that looked nothing like hers, was embedded into her shadow.
“W-who are
you?” Mabel asked, taking a couple of steps back, but her shadow naturally
followed, and along with that, the two eyes too.
“My name is
Ombra,” the voice sounded from her shadow. “I thought you looked troubled, so I
decided to shadow you.” The voice giggled at its own pun.
“I’m…
looking for my brother,” Mabel responded, averting her eyes from the shadow’s.
“Aw, is he
lost?” Ombra asked.
“H-he just
disappeared,” Mabel said, tears starting to well up in her eyes. “I j-just want
to find him and go home…”
“Did he
leave because of you?” Ombra asked. Her tone had turned drastically more
serious.
“W-what?!”
Mabel gasped, once again inching away from the shadow. This time, the shadow
didn’t just follow her; it grew longer and bigger with every step Mabel took.
“N-no!”
“Are you
even sure he’s here?” Ombra continued asking, her tone now maniacal. Mabel’s
shadow rose from the floor, as if it had turned into a three-dimensional body.
“With a sister like you… he’d probably kill himself to get away from you!”
“Shut up!”
Mabel screamed and held tight to her make-shift weapon. “HE’S NOT DEAD!!”
Mabel lunched
with the mirror shard. Her make-shift dagger went right through the shadow.
Ombra grabbed her by the arm.
“Come on;
everyone here’s taken a life or two~” Ombra chuckled. Mabel dropped the shard
and wrestled her arm away from Ombra. Panicking, Mabel grabbed the nearest
thing she could find; the lamp behind her that was lighting this part of the
hallway. “N-no! Stop!” Ombra shouted, but Mabel ignored her and threw the lamp
at her.
The lamp
went right through the shadow and hit the floor. The light flickered a few
times before it went out, bathing that part of the hallway in total darkness.
The eyes fell to the floor; without light, there were no shadows to inhabit
either.
Mabel ran
into the nearest room, hoping Ombra couldn’t follow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Why…? Why are they saying it’s my fault? It’s
not! I didn’t- I have to find my brother soon… otherwise, I don’t know what
will happen to me…
Mabel
breathed heavily as she leaned her entire weight into the door. After a few
moments of silence, she finally fell to her knees and started crying.
Everything was starting to become too much for her, and she was starting to
wonder if she would ever be reunited with her brother.
Suddenly,
in the other end of the room, she heard something. Steeling herself, Mabel got
back on her feet and stepped forward to see what it was.
All she
found was a pedestal. Upon said pedestal stood a glass jar, and inside said
glass jar was a butterfly.
It was
small and pink, flapping its wings as it flew around the jar. Sometimes its
wings would stroke the glass, creating the sound Mabel heard before.
Taking pity
on the poor thing, Mabel released it from its prison.
“There you
go, little buddy,” she said while the butterfly flitted around, enjoying its
new freedom. “I wish someone could just free me from here…”
“Mabel”
“Huh?”
Mabel gasped. That had sounded like her brother, but there was nothing in this
room. “Is that you?” she asked the butterfly, already in tears. “Did you turn
into a butterfly?! Please, answer me!”
“It hurts”
“Don’t
worry!” Mabel sobbed, gently cupping her hands around the little butterfly.
“I’ll find a way to change you back! Everything’s gonna be alright.”
“Why weren’t you there, Mabel?”
“W-what do
you mean?” it was first now that Mabel noticed the sound wasn’t coming from
inside the room; it was more like the sound was coming from inside her own
mind.
“I needed you”
“I’m here
now,” Mabel tried to assure him, tears still streaming down her face. “I won’t
ever leave you again!”
“I didn’t have to suffer”
“You could have saved me”
“You didn’t do anything!”
“You were too busy being selfish!”
“That’s not
true!” Mabel sobbed. “I did everything I could! I didn’t know!”
Mabel let
go of the butterfly to dry her own tears away. It was then she saw that the
butterfly had grown much bigger.
“I- I
wasn’t being selfish!” Mabel screamed at the butterfly. It grew again; it was
now as big as her head. Mabel was starting to realize that this was not her
brother.
“It was your fault!”
“That suicide note might as well have been
written with your hand!”
“YoU KiLlEd mE”
“No, I
didn’t!” Mabel shouted. “My brother’s not dead! And it wasn’t my fault!”
The
butterfly kept growing, and along with it, the voices became louder and louder.
It wasn’t long before the butterfly filled half the room and the voices were so
loud that Mabel had to run.
She fled
the room, shutting the door behind her, and the voices finally stopped. It
seemed like Ombra wasn’t waiting for her in the hallway either.
As Mabel
made to leave, she noticed a plaque on the wall by the door. It read: “Caution:
Butterfly’s Room. Feeding the animals is not allowed”. Below the plaque,
someone had written in crayon: “So there’s no access for
deniers-deniers-pants-on-fires”
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