Chapter Text
“Just a little chunk of hope, keeps me going, keeps me going-”
~
The sun shined through the window, casting a warm spot where it hit. A soft exhale could be heard from an oversized bed. The translucent canopy obscured the view of a small girl with brown hair. Their ponytail was loose from the night before, and her night bonnet was moved around to her feet in her sleep. The large duvet covered most of her body and kept her tucked in.
The door across the room creaked open, and a tall man entered quietly. His footsteps were heavy, but they were also slow. Moving the canopy aside to get to the small girl, his calloused hands gently shook the girl awake—the rough texture from the countless hours spent at a textile factory.
“Good morning, my sweet baby girl...I know you want to sleep a little longer, but i have to go to work soon. Lisa, do you remember what day it is?” The tall man’s daughter stirred awake and rubbed the sleep from her eyes as best as she could. This brought a large smile on his face as his daughter shook her head in acknowledgment.
“Daddy, what time is it?” Lisa asked as she blocked the bright sunlight from her eyes and stared at her father in work clothes instead. The duvet fell from where she slowly sat up. Taking this as his queue, Lisa’s father answered the question by handing the small girl a present.
It took a bit before the present registered on her lap, and her eyes lit up in joy at the thought of the holiday. With sloppy motions, Lisa tore through the wrapping paper and found a plain brown box underneath. Taking the tape off the edge, Lisa was pleasantly surprised at the sight of a tiny doll with yarn hair and a green apron. She tossed the box away as she held the doll at eye level. Lisa had immediately fallen in love with the doll.
Lisa’s father had picked up the box from where it was thrown and placed it on the bedside table. He turned to his daughter expectantly; not a word had been uttered during the exchange or the opening.
“Well,” he finally asked. “Do you like it?”
Lisa blinked once, then another time before leaping into her father’s arms. The excitement was pouring out of her in heaps. “I Love Her Daddy!! Thank You so Much!!” Her tiny arms latched on tighter, and Lisa’s father wrapped his arms around her tightly.
“I am glad you love her so much. I made her myself and even made some guards for her. However, I did leave them at work and will get them to you by tonight, okay?” Lisa’s father laid a gentle kiss on her forehead before setting her down on her bed again. “I do have to go now, pumpkin, but will be back for dinner tonight. Take care of the house for me, okay?”
Lisa nodded her head furiously as she sat on the bed, a small yawn escaping her.
“If you want, you can rest a little longer before doing chores. I’ll even tuck you in.”
Lisa smiled brightly at that, the feeling of drowsiness overtaking her again. She crawled back into the duvet and waited for her father. Lisa’s father placed the doll into her arms before bringing the duvet to tuck both of them in. “Do you want me to sing to you and little Emma here?” Lisa’s father asked as she got comfortable.
Lisa’s enthusiastic reply made him lightly chastise her, “Settle down, settle down, Lisa, sweetie.” He waited for her to calm down before beginning his song.
“Just a little chunk of Hope, keeps me going, keeps me going every day. And i know that-”
Lisa’s father finished his song and found the small girl snoozing away again. He quietly got up from the bed’s edge and gave Lisa a final peck on her forehead. “You are my little chunk of hope, Lisa. I hope I can portray that every day. I hope you know that I love you, my precious daughter.”
~
The bone-chilling cold sank deep into Emma’s skin, the snow falling slightly. A rhythmic motion slowly getting her to regain consciousness. Eventually, she fluttered her eyes open and found herself uncomfortable in the chair she had been tied down to. The rope clung very closely to her skin, making sure that it would leave marks later.
Even though the snow-covered everything, she could smell the dust occupying the area coming from the abandoned factory behind her. Emma let out a sneeze and tried to move her arms to cover her face. Emma found it very difficult with the metal wrapped around her wrists. Panic set in as she focused her vision on the metal handcuffs attached to the old, rickety chair. Deciding to try and check her surroundings, she looked up from her wrists and nearly screamed.
The scream died in her throat as she took in the sight of the Hunter she was running from earlier. The Hunter leaned down to look at her in the eyes, making eye contact the best he could. His mask made it difficult to actually see any physical features, and his body shape was massive. The Hunter’s shoulders being very broad and tightly packed into a plaid shirt with suspenders. His brown hair peaked out in small tufts from above the mask he wore.
The Hunter’s green eyes gave Emma the unusually calming effect she only ever got from one person. It made her confused, but that didn’t last long. After a figure that had zoomed by, the Hunter moved to chase, leaving Emma alone on the chair. Emma decided to check her surroundings one more time before finding that nothing had changed. Nothing but the tall puppet that sat a few feet away.
Eventually, a figure came creeping in and undid all her bindings, effectively rescuing her from the chair. It was Mr. Kreacher Pierson. He grabbed onto her forearm and started pulling her into the direction of the exit gate. Loud creaks could be heard as metal came to life and the puppet that had been a few feet away began to move towards them.
“The Exit Gate is Open. Let’s Go!” The hand on Emma’s began to pull at a rougher pace, and their speed increased. Their heartbeats began to grow faster as well as the Hunter came back in search of them. Still, in a slight panic, Emma retaliated by pulling back her arm and yelling at Kreacher Pierson.
“Let me go! I understand the situation, but you are hurting me!”
The sound of metal came closer again, and Emma turned around to see what it was. It was the puppet from before, and it was carrying a large wooden torch. Kreacher only let Emma go as the wooden torch came swinging down between them, wood splintering off and flying everywhere. This effectively separated them, and Emma took off running towards the basement, where her friend Emily was last seen.
Stumbling down the stairs to the basement, Emma looked all over the scorched, black floor for the one thing Emily carried, a syringe. Emma placed the needle into her pocket but noticed that one of her possessions was missing. Her thoughts stopped, and Emma frantically started looking around the room and even the stairs for anything that could have still fallen.
“Where is it? Where could it have gone?”
Rushing up the stairs, Emma kept looking around anywhere she had gone through. She kept her eyes to the floor, looking for something small and with colors faded. Eventually, Emma made it back to where she and Kreacher had encountered the puppet attack. The puppet stayed still, no longer as animated as before. Kreacher Pierson was nowhere to be found, and the sound of a man screaming confirmed Emma’s fear.
The sight of a bright red chair let her know that she was the only one left with the Hunter. The panic from before came back in tall waves, and her heartbeat increased dramatically. The hunter was close.
Not having found what she was looking for, Emma began running in the direction of where she was tied down before. Her set of footsteps fading quicker and quicker, the more it snowed. The adrenaline she felt kept her going through the injuries she had acquired. Her sight became frantic as tears started to fall down her face.
Soon, a red light had caught up with her, and her blood froze where she ran. The hunter had caught her.
The feeling of a hard club hitting her back shocked her into paralyzation, and Emma flew towards the direction of the chair. Emma saw stars, and her head spun with many thoughts before she saw it. The thing she was looking for. It was sitting haphazardly on the chair, snow lightly covering it already.
Emma tried crawling towards the doll before the Hunter could pick her up in his balloons. Before she could make it, the Hunter had picked her up and strung her up on the balloons again. His job was almost done. She tried to struggle, knowing that it was futile with the chair right there. However, Emma was determined to not go without her possessions, and in an outburst of desperation, she screamed at the top of her lungs.
“MY DOLL! PLEASE! MY FATHER GAVE ME THAT DOLL!”
It was then that the Hunter did something unexpected. The Hunter paused and then reached over to the chair. “PLEASE!?” Staying again, the Hunter picked up the doll with short brown hair and a green apron. He held it up to Emma, who immediately grabbed the doll and held it tight in a hug.
The hunter just kept staring at Emma, his green eyes boring into her. Time ticked by, and the Hunter started to move again. Emma noticed the movement and quickly thought, ‘This is it, it’s time to go.’
Emma failed to realize that the Hunter was walking around the trees, coming over to an area where the walls had fallen and burns scorched the fallen bricks. The sound of the dungeon’s open hatch door brought her attention back towards the area around her. Confusion littered her face as the hunter dropped her down into the dungeon. The darkness swallowing her up.
Light poured from the opening, showing the Hunter’s silhouette as he stared down at Emma from above. Before Emma could get ahold of herself again, the Hunter started to close the dungeon’s hatch door. Emma just stared at him, hopelessly, as many questions ran through her mind. For a brief moment, the lighting made the silhouette look like her father’s figure as he wished her a good night.
The hatch door closed, and the darkness completely consumed Emma, nothing visible around. Her hands wrapped around her doll, and she brought it close to her face, letting her forehead touch the doll’s forehead. The questions kept growing and growing, consuming her whole before she heard it—the sound of singing through the metal.
The singing brought her back to all those years ago, when she was not Emma Woods, but instead Lisa Beck. The same Lisa that woke up all alone and waited for a father that had disappeared in a factory’s fire. The same girl cried for her father every night since, knowing that there was no way to bring him back, but wished for it so desperately. The Lisa that had died so long ago.
Emma didn’t notice her tears running until the song came to an end.
~
“-I hope that one day, things will change...But a little chunk of hope,
keeps me going, keeps me going everyday…”