Chapter Text
Esther couldn’t believe herself, but she had woken up. In a cold sweat, screaming her lungs out. Once again waking everyone else in the middle of the night. Panting and taking a moment to catch herself while Molly made herself known while the rest of the kids stared at her. Some with sympathetic expressions, some with annoyance, and the rest “Esther! We’re trying to sleep!” She said.
Esther had a guilty look on her face. It’s not her fault she has nightmares! The girl burning on the stake, the strange symbols, it all made no sense to her mind. So she closed her eyes and laid back on her bed.
She thought she heard a faint sound of thunder in the distance.
A few hours later, everyone else was up, and she already got off the bed. Her two friends, Isaac and Molly looked at her with an annoyed gaze. “You woke us all up, again! I don’t know how it’s possible with you. ” She said. Meanwhile Issac added and had a concerned look. “Did you have another bad dream again?”
Esther gave them a tired look. “It’s not just a bad dream Issac. It’s the same one. Over and over again.” She said. The boy pondered for a second. “Maybe it means something?” He suggested.
Molly narrowed her eyes with her arms crossed. “Maybe it means you’re going crazy!” She said.
Esther shook her head. “I’m not going crazy, Molly! I don’t know why it keeps happening.” She snapped back.
Their attention soon cut to Miss Beverley, the old nun who dropped off a box while the faint noise of quick footsteps get clearer the closer it got. “Here you go, kids, more things for you to make a mess with.” She said before hearing a voice call out to her outside of the room.
Ruth stepped in front of the doorway, panting almost. “Sister, the engineer has arrived.” The old nun ignored the sounds of a few of the children’s glee.
Beverely nodded. “Understood, I’ll meet him.” She confirmed, making her way out of the room. Before she stepped out, she turned her head and gave a sharp glare to the children whose excitement eroded away to silence.
“Behave. If I see any of you causing a ruckus in front of our guest while he works inside the Maner, your toys will not see the light of day, ever. Is that clear?” She stated icily.
“Yes Miss Beverely…” The children said in unison. From there, she exited the room, and left the door ajar. Not bothering to close it. Esther took a look into the box and saw the toys, though only three of them stuck out like a sore thumb. The vision of the girl’s body turned to a burnt crisp, the symbols, and the face of a monstrous rabbit’s head still felt clear.
A panda plush which Molly immediately grabbed, a tiger plush which made Issac take a good look at him. “These are quite creepy looking…” He commented with a slight frown. “No they’re not! They’re adorable!” She purred.
“I’m gonna call mine Miss Bo.” She said. Isaac went next. “I’ll call mine…Mr Stripes.” He decided.
Esther had already chosen the name of her new stuffed rabbit. Mr.Hopp. It gave her a strange sense of unease just looking at it too long. Whatever the plush was is not what it seems. For a stuffed animal it seemed not too big but just large enough to make it offputting. She pushed the feeling away as she went downstairs for breakfast.
In the end, they ate breakfast in the dining room downstairs. A few hours later, Esther joined her two friends downstairs. Molly rolled her eyes and groaned. “Finally.”
“Do you want to play Hide and Seek with us?” Isaac offered. Molly interjected. “It wouldn’t be fair, you would see Esther’s big head anywhere!”
Esther deadpanned at her. “You are so funny, Molly…” She said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice. “Don’t forget beautiful and clever!” Her friend added.
A little laugh came out of Issac from the comment. “You go count by the lift, we will hide in the library!” He said.
Esther nodded, and proceeded to go further down the hall where the lift was found. She remembered there was a note written by Miss Beverely left at the wall above the stacked boxes on contacting an engineer, but it was gone. A little smirk crept onto her face. She couldn’t imagine a day where the old nun would say please. Never in a couple of decades.
She started counting down. “3…2…1…Ready or not, here I come!” She was about to leave and leave Mr Hopp on top of the cabinet in front of her, but then she heard Miss Beverely’s voice alongside heavy footsteps from far away. “Since those two weeks, the lift hadn’t worked once! It gets exhausting going down the cellar every once in a while.” Beverely complained.
Esther looked back at the rabbit plush in her hands. “On second thought…I’ll take you to the library.” She said. She didn’t want to risk getting the old lady mad again, and have everyone pay for it by leaving her toy behind for a little game. So she turned around and went the other direction.
Her eyes caught a glimpse of the engineer while barely entering the library and it made her stop in her tracks. She took a peak out, and saw firsthand what the engineer looked like while the nun passed by alongside him. Her jaw dropped.
An enormous man, towering over the nun. The man wore a simple black cap on his head, his short hair blonde, and big eyebrows. Wearing blue jeans, and a t-shirt. His shirt strained against his chest. ‘Is he fixing the lift? I find it hard to believe he’s supposed to be fixing it. I don’t think I can blame Molly for not believing me if she sees what I’m seeing.’ Esther thought to herself.
She came into the library, and saw both Miss Bo and Mr Stripes left on the floorboard. Esther carefully placed her toy near the three, and left them there.
Quickly climbing up the stairs, she turned her head over to the left, and went over to check. Finding Issac crouched underneath a cabinet with a statue on top of it. The boy pouted. “Aw what?! Not fair!” He protested. Esther stuck her tongue out and blew a raspberry in response.
It didn’t take her too long to find Molly. In contrast, she hid behind a chair. Once she saw Issac behind Esther, a small grin formed on Molly’s face. “As usual, I was the best at hiding!”
“I don’t think you’re allowed to move to different hiding spots..?” Isaac’s voice trailed off. He stared off when he saw Beverely walk past the hallway that led to going into the library. And along came a huge man. His eyes went wide.
Molly raised an eyebrow. “Issac, what are you looking at? It can’t be that interesting-” Her voice cut off with a sharp gasp. She too saw the man, and her jaw nearly dropped to the floor.
Esther by this point had already gone quiet, seeing Miss Beverely enter the library alongside the engineer through the way they came in reminded her of the toys. It quickly prompted her to walk over there swiftly and pick up Mr. Hopp in her arms whereas it took a moment for Molly and Issac to get their bearings back before they did the same.
Miss Beverely narrowed her eyes as she looked upon the three children. The huge man gave a passive glance and he said nothing, he didn’t need to. Giving a short nod of recognition as he passed by. The matron gave none. “You three better not leave them lying around, this is your final warning.” She mouthed and walked off with him presumably to discuss the matters.
After he and the matron disappeared, Molly was the first to break the silence. “Who was that?” She asked, with a stunned expression. Esther interjected. “He’s the engineer to fix the lift.” She confirmed.
Isaac however looked skeptical and rightfully so, his face featured disbelief. “Seriously?” Meanwhile Molly looked at them like they had just lost their minds. “He’s too big to be an engineer! He looks like he eats bears for lunch!” She voiced her thoughts.
Esther blinked. “But there’s no bears here?” She added, Molly rolled her eyes. “Yeah probably because he ate them!” She retorted, Isaac snorted. “Fair enough, we should go to a different spot before Miss Beverely gets back here.”
The girl began following her two friends out of the library and her eyes looked back onto Mr.Hopp. For a split second, she thought she’d seen one of his eyes move a bit to look at her. Then back to nothing.
She reminded herself internally it’s just a toy, nothing else or more.