Deep Shadows and Creaking Floors

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The Mood is Write

Mom-de-Plume
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Invitation Status
  1. Looking for partners
Posting Speed
  1. 1-3 posts per day
  2. Multiple posts per week
Online Availability
It varies wildly.
Writing Levels
  1. Advanced
  2. Prestige
Preferred Character Gender
  1. Male
  2. Nonbinary
  3. Primarily Prefer Female
Genres
I'm open to a wide range of genres. Obscenely wide. It's harder for me to list all I do like than all I don't like.

My favorite settings are fantasy combined with something else, multiverse, post-apoc, historical (mixed with something else), and futuristic. I'm not limited to those, but it's a good start.

My favorite genres include mystery, adventure, action, drama, tragedy (must be mixed with something else and kept balanced), romance (again must be mixed, and more.

I'm happy to include elements of slice-of-life and romance, but doing them on their own doesn't hold my interest indefinitely.






The stranger laid sleeping in a bed hung about with dusty cloth. Pillows and stuffed animals surrounded them, and in the darkness, red eyes stared forward, illuminated only by the reflections of moonlight on the surroundings.​
The doll remained still and silent, waiting as she sat. Her hair, skin, and clothes were bleached white from years sitting in the sun, but not those iridescent red eyes. Heavy dust rested on her tiny form, and cobwebs chained her to the worn red velvet divan that faced away from the massive bay windows that gave a view of a starry night sky and a huge full moon that hung low and heavy in the sky, a tint of yellow to its silvery face.​
Strewn about the room, other toys rested in dust and silence. Some were sun-bleached, others preserved by the shadows of other objects. Time stood still, covered in grey snow and color-sapping moonlight.​
Part of the ceiling had long ago caved in, revealing an attic full of wooden crates and chests, one of which rested precariously on the attic's floorboards. The wind blew through from there, sighing in longing.​
Outside the bedroom's door, something breathed and hungered, but in the quiet nursery, a stranger slept safely under the watchful gaze of a porcelain doll. For now, they were safe, but that safety could not last forever. Whoever placed this invader inside the room did not also leave food or water.​
 
sunlight_by_leejun35-d8xirzm.jpg

Silence. That was the only thing he could hear as he slowly started to wake up. No, he wasn't ready to face the day yet. Two more minutes in bed wouldn't hurt. Ten wouldn't be completely wrong either. On the other hand, no one would miss him if he stayed there for another hour.

His mind was almost about to drift back to sleep, but then the back of his mind noticed something strange. He wasn't lying in his own bed. It wasn't an uncomfortable bed, but it did feel wrong. It felt softer than what he was used to. As his mind started to wake up more and more, he also took notice of the odd smell in the room. It wasn't the scent of his clean room with the windows always open, instead it felt shut in and the he could feel himself breathing in dust.

Panic suddenly filled him and he hastily sat up before his eyes had even gotten the chance to open themselves. It was all wrong. It wasn't his room. Dead eyes of multiple toys stared back at him. It made him shiver. Don't tell me I got drunk and ended up in some psycho girls bed, Adam thought to himself. Well, that was a nice theory, except for the fact that no one else was there, he wasn't naked and he couldn't remember having gone out to drink.... Actually, now when he thought about it, what did he remember?

What day was it? He had no idea. What month was it? Nope, he didn't know that either. He could remember things that had happened to him, but he couldn't really figure out how long ago they had happened. Did he eat those pancakes yesterday evening or was it two weeks ago? He was supposed to move into his girlfriend's apartment on Saturday, but could it be that it had already happened?

Thinking about it just gave him more questions than answers. Maybe he just hit his head and was a bit confused. It would pass. He should just get out of there for now before he got an unpleasant call from his boss about being late. It was never fun to get those calls, especially when your boss were your dad. As fast as he finished up his lawyer studies he could leave that company and pursue his own career.

Looking around in the room, he couldn't help but notice a pale white doll. Adam sighed. "Why do people insist on keeping creepy things like you in there house? It's just weird." He mumbled straight to the doll's face. He wasn't particularly expecting an answer of course. Instead of waiting for a reply, he was just going to leave the doll and its creepy toy friends. He needed some fresh air at this point.

(Picture source: LeeJun35)
 
The doll's eyes stared forward, shifting as his view of them changed based on his movement. One moment, they were vivid bloody red, the next a glittering orange, or a dull magenta. Each step around the room and each breath seemed to cause the color to shift, but the doll herself never moved. She never blinked. The only movement save Adam's in the room was the play of light off the doll and a few small glittering toys.

The moon outside turned cobwebs to silver and dust to snow, and Adam's every movement stirred up more into the air.

A quiet sound of breathing came from the other side of the bedroom door, and if Adam stepped closer, it grew louder, seemed to move from side to side.

In a few places, he could see where glue from the walls left the patterned cloth hanging down in frayed strips.
 
Adam didn't pay much attention to his surrounding as he started to walk towards the door. His fast movements made the dust on the floor whirl up around him. He sneezed no less than five times. When he finally got control over himself, he started to scan the room for something he could use as a tissue. Well, there technically were lots of things he could use, but everything was so covered in dust that it probably only would make things worse.

"Gosh, who can live like this?" He asked himself. Though most likely, no one had actually lived there for ages. There was no way a room could be that dusty and run down if someone was occupying it. Heck, there was even a hole in the ceiling.

As Adam paused all his movements, he started to notice two things. One, it was dark in the room. His eyes had probably been so used to the dark when he woke up that they didn't register it. Two, someone was breathing outside of the room. It was a very quiet breathing sound, but with no other sounds around, it was hard to miss.

That's when it dawned on him. "Haha, very funny Tony." Adam spoke loudly. Of course his trickster best friend would come up with a stupid prank like this. Maybe he got him completely drunk that same day before moving him to this scary room with the help of his immature friends. There were multiple abandoned buildings both in the city and outside of it. There were no shortage of places to take him to.

"I hope you had fun, cause I will kill you for this." Without hesitation, Adam moved towards the door. This time Tony had gone too far with his so called prank. Grabbing the door handle, Adam was more than certain that his friend would be standing on the other side, ready to take at least one punch. After all, who else could it be?
 
The breathing paused, and a hushed breath of a laugh came from the other side of the door, stopping right on the other side as floorboards creaked.

And then words became visible, carved into the door near the handle. They were carved deep, but the letters were small.

"ONCE OPENED NEVER CLOSED AGAIN"

and beneath,

"PROTECTION IF CLOSED"

The sound of cloth brushing against cloth and a creak of a rusted spring came from behind Adam, but by the time he turned, if he turned, nothing had moved too obviously, but dust floated in the moonlight in snow-like clusters.
 
Adam took a step back as weird writings suddenly appeared on the door and a laugh could be heard from the other side. He chuckled, but there was nothing but fright in his voice. "Very funny Tony. Great effects there. You almost got me." He said nervously, thinking it must be some kind of joke.

Hesitantly, Adam reached for the door again, but his eyes were glued to the carved letters. Once opened never close again, protection if closed. Quite the elaborate prank they had started, but enough was enough. It was time to end this game.

The handle was slowly pushed down as Adam battled the thoughts in his head telling him not to open the door. "It's just a prank. Everything's fine. Just open the door and go home." He mumbled to himself while he hesitated with the door handle.

Then he closed his eyes hard and swung the door open.
 
As the door opened, an icy gust shot against Adam, followed by laughter that sounded more like wind through a forest. A sense of triumph and conquest, and then, a moment later, the wind reversed and the door slammed shut once more.

From behind him, a tiny voice spoke. "No." The voice was barely audible, and immediately after, something scraped against the other side of the door. Jaws snapped and a massive beast grunted and huffed, and old wood splintered and shrieked as something raked the other side of the door.

"Noooo." The growl echoed.

Behind Adam, the doll had fallen onto her side at some point.
 
Adam was taken aback by the gust of wind. Stumbling backwards, he opened his eyes just in time to see the door shut closed again. What was going on? If this was a prank, it was a really good one, and a horrible one as well.

As scrapping sounds could be heard from the other side of the door, Adam instinctively backed further away from it. Maybe he shouldn't take any chances. Jumping out of the window definitely felt like the better option at this point. This couldn't be Tony's doing. He might be a douche at times, but he wouldn't take it this far. Even if he would be thinking about doing so, his impatience would have made him jump out, screaming something like 'I got you' long before it had gotten to this stage. At the latest, he would have jumped out when Adam opened the door.

Then it seemed like whoever, or whatever, was on the other side, became more aggressive. Adam could hear the door being scratched apart, piece by piece by something. "Damn it. What's going on here?" Had he fallen prey for a psycho killer or something? That was stuff that only happened in movies though, it wasn't part of real life. A growling 'no' echoed, which definitely convinced Adam to find another way out.

Adam took a fast look around the room, trying to find some escape rout, other than the window. At best he might break a leg if he jumped. Even from where he stood in the middle of the room, he could see that he weren't on the first floor.

He turned towards the broken ceiling instead. "Maybe the attic has a door leading down to a safer room." He mumbled to himself. It was his best bet at that point. It would take some climbing skills to not fall off all the rubble, but it didn't seem impossible at least.

Without giving a single thought or even a last glance to the toys and dolls which decorated the room, Adam started to climb. The rubble wasn't as steady as he had hoped, but at the very least it seemed like he could get up there. If not, he would just have to move some things, like the couch, to create a staircase. Hopefully he would have time.

Damn it, why hadn't he thought about barricading the door? Oh well, better to keep moving forward at this point... Or upwards.
 
The attic floor creaked loudly and groaned under Adam's weight. Ragged edges and splinters stabbed at his hand as he climbed, but it remained solid despite some loud groans and cracks.

The clawing on the other side of the door died down with an audible huff, and then the groan of wood.

"It's too late." A voice somewhere behind Adam whispered. "Too late."

The roof above him groaned, and the wind wheezed between the boards of the walls and the gaps in the roofing.

"Too late."
 
Adam climbed without too much troubles. That was until he heard something that made him loose his grip and he slid down to the floor again. The young man turned around panicked. "Who's there!" It was not said as a question, it sounded much more like a demand.

"Who are you? Show yourself." Adam continued as his body turned around while his eyes searched for the source of the voice. Someone was speaking to him, he had definitely heard it. Who was it? What game were they playing? He was tired of all this bullshit. He wanted it over and done with already.

Ignoring the dull pain in his hand from the wounds he had gotten while trying to climb to the attic, Adam started to throw the toys onto the floor, he opened any drawer or closet he could find and he turned furniture and lifted sheets which made dust fly everywhere. He didn't care how ridiculous it was, he had heard a voice coming from somewhere, so either someone was hiding in there or someone had hid something that made it sound like someone was in there. It could be a cell phone with the loud speaker on. He just had to find it.

"Get the fuck out here you coward!" Adam yelled as he kicked a chair over. His fear had gone over into anger at this point. Who dared play with him like this?
 
His tirade churned up dust until it choked the air, but the toys didn't respond, and before he began to walk around the room, there had been no footprints in the thick layer of grey.

And still, on her side on the divan, the little white doll continued to stare forward, almost eerily towards Adam, her ever-shifting gaze unblinking and stoic.

A glimpse in a broken mirror revealed moving shadows that may have been clods of dust, if they had been moving much more slowly. Breathy laughter came from behind the door.
 
Something in the corner of his eye caught his attention. Something moved. Adam picked up the first object he could get his hands on, which coincidentally was the white doll, and threw it across the room at the mirror, in which the shadow had appeared.

Adam breathed heavily as he tried to figure things out. No one was in the room, but he could have sworn he had seen movements. Something dark, shadowy, had moved around. It had definitely not been his imagination.

Frustrated, confused, scared. No single word could describe how he felt at that moment. Too many emotions rushed through him, too many thoughts entered and left his mind too rapidly. Where did all the weird sounds come from? Who was doing this to him? Adam didn't particularly care about the answer though, he just wanted to get out.

He rushed back to the rubble and made his way up to the attic again, this time with no intentions of stopping.
 
When he threw the doll, a shriek of pain came from the location as it smashed the mirror and landed below in a shower of mercury-backed glass. The scream was followed by silence, and then quiet sobs.

Meanwhile, as he struggled his way up the rubble, more cracks sounded under his hands than before, and the wood bent more easily. One of the long boards cracked and splinters rose from the breaking point. It bent sharply downward under his weight.

Whimpers came from the floor-bound remains of the mirror, where the doll had landed.
 
The climbing was much harder this time. He felt how every board he stepped on gave way for his weight and the skin on his hands was torn by the splinters. Adam didn't give up though, he kept on climbing until a board broke so badly, he fell down to the floor.

"Damn it." He exclaimed, but he didn't make any attempts to get up. His hands hurt, he didn't know where he was, he was extremely dirty from all the dust flying around and weird things were going on that he couldn't explain. He was just about ready to give up. Let that maniac kill him or let his dumb ass friends jump out and scream "surprise." Whatever. He didn't care.

After a few moments on the ground he realized something. The silent whimpering noise in the room didn't come from him. He sat up and looked towards the mirror. A small nervous laugh escaped him. It couldn't be the doll, right? Impossible.

Adam slowly moved from the floor, towards the mirror. Lifting up the doll, only holding its dress, Adam slowly turned its face towards himself. "You aren't crying, right? I can't have turned insane that fast." He chuckled, but couldn't hide his true emotions.
 
One of the doll's arms was cracked, and a leg was off, the missing limb on the floor. Red eyes glared at the man. "You broke me!" The voice was as tiny and choked as the doll, and her porcelain eyebrows were furrowed. Her mouth moved with her words, and she sniffled. "I can never walk again!" She shifted, to use her good arm to hold on tightly to his wrist so he couldn't drop her easily. "Barbarian!" She accused. "You broke me! How can I protect you now!?" Tears of actual liquid slipped from her multicolored glass eyes. "You broke me!" Her shoulders jerked with a sob of pain. "You broke me!"

Around his wrist, her arm felt rigid and hard, but incredibly lightweight.

"You broke me..." Her voice settled into a quiet sobbing again.
 
Surprised, Adam let go off the doll, but it did not drop to the floor as it had already taken a grip around his wrist.

"What the heck..." He stared at the doll, not sure what to think. What did one even say in a situation like this? The doll was actually speaking to him. That was insane. He must be insane. Wait, could insane people really know that they were insane?

"I... Uhm.. What's... This is... How... can you talk?" He definitely sounded like a fool as he asked the question with the most obvious answer, but could you really blame him? This was a too bizarre situation to actually think of something smart to say.
 
"I assume the same way I feel pain when someone throws me at a mirror!" She shouted through the tears. "My leg..." She held on tight, even as her remaining leg dangled. She fought to stay on his arm, so she wouldn't fall and become more damaged. "Please put me down! Gently!" She pointed to the divan. "And... and get my leg for me!" She sniffled as she began to slip, and tried to pull herself up.

Outside, whatever had been scratching at the door laughed, voice barely a whisper, and hard to hear over the doll.

The atmosphere in the room seemed still around the pair, as though waiting to see what would happen next.
 
"Uh... Uhm... Sorry. I didn't think you... were alive?" He said as he slowly put her down. This was weird... This didn't happen in real life. Was he asleep? It didn't feel like a dream. Though usually it didn't feel like a dream before you woke up. But he did feel pain. Or was he just thinking he felt pain but once he woke up he would realize it wasn't pain at all?

"Wh.. What are you?" He asked as he retrieved the leg for her. Obviously she was a doll, but that couldn't be all she was. Not if she talked.
 
The doll took her leg from him and hugged it as she continued to cry. Her cracked arm didn't move easily, and the crying doll used her good leg to scoot away from the man who had so permanently damaged her. "I am a doll! I am made of porcelain!" She sniffed, though the sound of snot was absent. "People are not supposed to throw me, whether they realize I am alive or not!" She hiccuped and buried her face against her broken leg. "I can never be whole! No little girl will ever love me again! You've ruined me! You've killed me!" She fell onto her side, inconsolable as she hugged her leg tightly.

"Murderer." A whispering cold breath came from behind, gleeful-sounding, but muffled from the other side of the door. "Murderer." Its laughter was leaves rattling in a storm.
 
What was he supposed to respond to that? This... In-animated object, was suddenly animated and on full audio. This must be a weird dream. There was another voice in the room, but Adam didn't pay it much attention. It was just another odd thing in an odd house.

"I... Didn't think you could murder a doll, considering... You know... You're not supposed to be alive to begin with." Adam tried to defend himself. Why was he even bothering? He should get out of there right now. But if it was a dream, what did he have to loose? And if it wasn't a dream, would it be possible for him to get out alive? That was something he didn't want to think about.

"Look, I'm sorry. I can find someone who can fix you once I get out of here, just stop crying, please." There were professionals in all fields. He could find someone whom could fix her up. It would probably cost a lot, but it wasn't like he couldn't afford it.
 
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