Doll House

VI. The Maze

 The world outside is not like what she expected. She thought there would be houses and cars and presumably, even a witch hut, as per the children's games. But from what she sees in the shadows, this is not where the children play in their minds, not inside this dark forest that seems to stretch on forever.

They've both forgotten for how long they've been walking and perhaps it hasn't been long at all, but the trees all look the same and the house is nothing but a distant memory for now. It should be getting light by now, surely, but it isn't. The night stretches, perhaps even longer than these woods and their bravado's left them.

Not all at once, which is, perhaps, the only thing that's kept them going. But slowly, like they've been punctured somewhere, irreparably scratched and little bits and pieces are dripping through, becoming lost forever in the soil of the woods.

In the early morning sky, the moon lingers, watches over them, for unbeknownst to the doll or the girl, the moon has been here always, as long as time and longer than this Earth and all this while, it's listened. To the love songs and the heartbreaking wails, the grief and fright you can only feel during nighttime. And it's been watching these two, hearing their pleas for help, their suffocated cried of loneliness and despair.

The moon, in its cradle in the sky, looks on. Waits for the inevitable and wonders if the two will manage to escape these woods or if the house will catch them.

These are not normal woods, but in the early hours, only the moon knows that. At will, the trees can go on forever, grow around you and even over you and any trespasser runs the very real risk of finding themselves trapped forever inside the quickening maze.

Of course, the woods can be merciful. If they choose to be, but often enough, they don't. Or they torment some poor soul, running them round in circles until they've entirely lost their minds. When the prisoner's lost his mind, the woods allow him or her to escape back into the real world, damned forever to a fate of ridicule, for each time they try and warn others about the woods or the house that lives at the heart of those woods, they're met with laughter, ignorance or worse, they're taken to houses where other people live. And they too have seen the woods and they alone know what lies inside of them.

And perhaps the woods would do that, except this is a rather peculiar situation and they haven't actually seen someone leave the house in a long, long time. It seems strange anyone would try to escape, though not unlikely. The woods are very understanding, but they do not approve of this. Children should not leave the house in the woods until they are ready to leave and Vicky Mayall is most certainly not ready to leave.

Vicky Mayall hears voices and the house needs kids like that, the house thrives on people like that. So it is decided, Vicky Mayall can not be allowed passage. An exception will be made for the girl and she will be guided back to the house, the trees will help her find her way. And yet, she carries a trespasser with her and trespassers must be punished. An old one and it is this old spirit that has mislead young Vicky. Yes, it was the doll put it in her mind to leave in the first place.

If it hadn't been for the doll, for this strange feeling of camaraderie that the doll's made her feel, the girl would've never tried to leave. And that's not good, they can't be having with that sort of behavior inside the house because people who try to leave once will try and leave again. And people who leave once might try and corrupt others into leaving also.

No.

This must be dealt with – the trespasser must be punished and the girl must be frightened into never trying to leave again. But for now, it's enough to let them wonder, let her energy waste away until the girl's grown tired and weak and all she can think of is running back inside again.