>Does it seem to be watching us as well?
>If so: "Am I the only one who finds those dolls a bit unsettling?"
>It does not appear to. But then, neither did the last one once you got close enough to. It still leaves you feeling unsettled, so you voice your concerns to your friends.
>"Seems so, mistress." Rin replies, directing your eyes to the students on the first floor. Fully half the assembled crowd seem to be holding dolls of a smilar make. There never seem to be quite the same combination of colors shared by the same doll, but there must be dozens of them down there. This might just be an overnight craze, but if it is, it's one of, if not the, oddest ones you've ever seen.
>Put the dolls on the same handrail. Sisters shouldn't be apart, after all~
>You return to the first doll, in order to reunite her with her green-clad sister, kind soul that you are.
>But when you touch the doll, you feel the temerature plummet all around you. An icy cold wind billows out from the doll in your hands, and although your hands are instantly numbed, you cannot release the doll. It's eyes fixate upon you, their emptiness filling your mind's eye. On an impulse, you turn around. All the people, your fellow students, are gone, and the stairs are filled with dolls. All of them starting at you, their empty eyes clawing at your spirit.
>It is when you turn that you realize the light has changed. A cold, pale blue light illuminates the building, and you turn to the window to see its' source. The entire wall is gone, leaving you with a panoramic view of what can only be described as another world.
>Distant hills are cast in shadow by the cold blue sun in the sky, burning the ground with an unearthly chill. A wide, silent river runs from the hills towards the school, dissapearing under your eyes. Dark forests with black leaves, their floors obscured by things far darker than shadows, dot the landscape here and there. And in the middle, a twisted castle rises, a brutal mockery of the land around it. It's pillairs rise like claws to stab the skies, and it stands on mislaid bricks, straining the mind as to how it might stand under the weight of its sheer
wrongness. A veil of mist hangs above above the landscape, obscuring your sight of whatever horrors lurk beneath, but even this cloud dares not touch that castle, such is its power.
>And you are absolutely certain that, from somewhere within that monstrousity of a castle, someone is looking at you. They cannot possibly see you, but you know that they are looking at you. And a voice whispers in your ear, a voice that carries the weight of millenia, a voice that stared into the abyss and drank of its essesnce, cuts through the unearthy airs to whisper in your ear:
>at last....>The sound of that voice overpowers you, and you swoon, finally releasing the doll in your hands. The next thing you know, a pair of strong arms are gripping you by the shoulders. You hear a voice speaking you, but you cannot make it out. It is as though someone is speaking to you across a vast crevasse...
