Jump The Worlds

Story 3 Pt 4: Memories Chains

Making a pot of coffee was easy especially since he always set the coffee pot up after he was finished with it for the day. Yawning, he flipped it on and dug around in the refrigerator for some of the creamer that he had bought. Finding one of the bottles, he muttered about cleaning out his sister's fridge again and found his cup. Pulling another one down, he decided to fill the kettle and offer tea or coffee for the lady when she got there.

Remembering the dream, he groaned and poured some of his creamer into his cup, adding a couple spoonfuls of the sugar that his sister bought, watching as the coffee perked. Grunting, he rubbed at his face again and waited until the machine went quiet, pouring some of the fresh brew into a cup. Stirring it up, he drained part of it and went to make sure the lockbox was still in place. Walking up to the lockbox, he pushed it back under fully with one foot, noting that it had moved not even a full half inch but still.

That was a little worrisome.

Shaking his head, he smiled as Romeo carefully padded into the living room and hopped up onto the room and hopped up onto the couch. Walking over, he scratched behind the cat's ears, getting a happy purr from the cat before Romeo laid out, Charles scratching under his chin with a chuckle. He spent the next ten minutes doing that before the doorbell rang through the house. He wasn't surprised when Buttercup streaked into the room and under the couch. The thing was huge and just heavy enough to make it hard to move it so she tended to hide under there.

Sighing, he pushed away from the arm of the chair to answer the door. Staring down at the small woman who was staring up at him in return, Charles smiled slightly and cleared his throat. "Hi. You're the one who called right?" He wondered if the woman was a family member of Lin's. He could see the family resemblance.

"Yes. I can come in yes?" she asked. Charles simply sipped some of his coffee and stepped away from the door. Their grandmother had always said to be careful when giving a stranger entrance to your home, invitations, just like names, had power. The woman smiled and stepped inside, closing the door behind her. "I am Min. My child Lin called me," she said, nodding her head. "I am descended from a very long line of priestesses. I am also second generation Japanese-American. You need my help, or so Lin told me."

Charles smiled. "Yeah, I need help. Would you like some coffee or tea?" he asked, tilting his head to the kitchen with a smile. "We can sit, and talk in the kitchen. Preferably away from Buttercup who will attack your hair," he said, smiling and nodding to her long braid.

Min chuckled and nodded, following after him into the kitchen. "Tea would be welcomed." Charles smiled and set about making one of the few teas that he knew he made well, using a small pot and a matching cup to do so. Placing both on the kitchen table, along with honey and sugar, he poured some more coffee into his cup, adding just a touch more sugar before waving to sit at the table. Sitting with her, he played with his cup, watching as she easily put a bit of honey onto the bottom of her cup before adding some tea. "Tell me about the doll."

"It's like any other doll that was made for a mother in Japan. Or...well...there's two spirits stuck to it if what I dreamt is to be believed," he said. He was to tired to bullshit his way through things and wanted to get through it. "I talked to a little girl. Named Izumi. She says her mother tried to call her spirit to the doll and trapped her with a...uh...an onyrō I think she called it."

Min sighed and shook her head, frowning slightly. "A mother's grief is hard. And if she had no anchor to hold her from the darkness she would turn to dark rites," she said. Charles nodded. "This child, what did she look like?"

"Uh, black hair, dark eyes? Sad. Chained down," Charles said, staring at her as she took a deep breath, closing her eyes once more. "Do you want to see the doll?" he asked.

"Yes, please. And tell me what else the child told you," she requested. Charles nodded, standing and going to get the doll from the lock box. He carried it with one hand, placing it in front of her before taking his seat again.

"She told me that whatever is trapped with her wants to play the hide and seek game with me," he said, her eyes sharp as she stared at him. "I was live streaming a game that was kind of based off of the game and talking in general details about what the actual game entailed and the such."

"I see," Min hummed, looking to the doll again, stroking over it. "This poor child. I can feel her, just under the anger and pain of the onyrō," she said, shaking her head. "I suggest that you play the game tonight. You only need to do this for ten minutes at most before binding the creature back to the doll. I know how to free both spirits and push the onyrō to their afterlife," she said after a few minutes.

Charles looked up from the last of his coffee, tilting his head. "What do you mean by that?" he asked.

"The onyrō was young. Older than a child, most likely in their mid-teens when most would be starting to think of marriage and family. If they are still here, they were unable to let go of their anger at their death, or unable to find the one who caused their death," Min said, smiling sadly. "It does not often happen but...perhaps they were unable to get the person because they were bound to the doll before they were able to."

"It could have been that," Charles mused, shrugging one shoulder. "So, play hide and seek with this thing for at least ten minutes. At what time?" he asked.

Min looked at her watch. "At three. You have a couple of hours to prepare. I will help you do so and then you will follow the script that I give you," she stated, Charles nodding his head. "After that, I will take the doll and clean it. If it comes out whole, I will take it to a temple in Japan for it's final resting place."

"My sister won't mind," Charles said, sighing and rubbing at the back of his neck. "Yeah, okay, let's do this. What do I need to do?" he asked, getting up to pour himself more coffee as she poured more tea for herself. For the next two hours, they went over what he had to say to the doll and the rules that he had to lay down for the game.

With her help, he prepared a room, locking it down so that it was his safe spot, having chosen a small room in the back that was more storage room since it had once been the laundry room. When his sister had bought the house, she had moved the laundry room into a bigger area, ripped out the walls in the chosen room, and rebuilt it to be a specialized storage area. She had found that she had to move out of it soon enough for all the stuff that she used for not only her dolls but their livestream stuff.

It was perfect because it had no other entry way except the doorway that was sealed shut by a door that no doll, no matter how supernaturally powered, could open. With that done, he went over everything that he had to do again before leading her out of the house. She would wait at Lin's home which was just up the road for his call. Or if he didn't call by six, which was the max time that he could play the game, she would come to force the doll back into submission and call the police for his body.

Once he closed the door, he swallowed and went to gather the doll from the lock box again, he started doing what he needed to do, candle and blessed salt water at hand. "Okay, let's play hide and seek," he said.