Chapter Text
Pierrot slowly opened his eyes and was greeted by a room he did not recognize. The place looked like a child's bedroom, it was clean, with floral patterns on the bed. The walls were a soft yellow color and the carpet a light beige. There were curtains but no windows?
He bolted upright to a sitting position and looked around confused. As he looked around he spotted- Jester? Harlequin? What are they doing here? Doctor and Ticket taker too. Jester and Harlequin were on the bed together, Jester turned on his side facing away from Harlequin. Ticket taker was in a rocking chair and Doctor shoved in the opposing corner.
Panicked Pierrot got up off of the floor and rushed over to the bed trying to shake Jester awake.
He opened his eyes slowly. “Mmh.. Pierrot? What are you doing-” Jester sat up immediately and looked around the room clearly confused and alarmed. “Where are we?”
“I don’t know”
Jester looked around to see all the other members of the circus scattered around the small room. He quickly got off the bed and walked over to Ticket taker.
“Bil” He shook him hard “Bil, wake up,”. Ticker taker woke up after a few hard shakes and came face to face with Jester.
TT: “Jester?” Ticket taker looks around still groggy for a moment before rubbing his eyes. Looking around and taking in his immediate surroundings. Ticket taker quickly stood up. Now awake and alarmed at seeing the room he was in spoke harshly, “Where are we?!”
Jester, recomposing himself from almost being knocked over by Ticket taker, “I have no idea, the only thing I have gathered is that it looks like we’re in a child’s bedroom.”. Jester began to look around at the other members. “We need wake the others up too.”
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All of them are sitting in a circle on the floor, where Pierrot woke up, quietly thinking. Jester had a stern look on his face.
Jester: “How do you suppose we get out of here?” They had tried all they could, the door was locked and no matter how hard they tried to break it down it just wouldn’t budge. There were no windows so they couldn’t break out that way. A pit began growing in Jester’s stomach when Ticket taker spoke up.
TT: “Could we take the door off its hinges?”
“I don’t see any tools around here so no.”. Jester said looking around the room
The room was shockingly barren for how well maintained it was. There was not a single speck of dust anywhere, no cobwebs, and the carpet despite clearly being old was clean with no sign of mildew or mold forming anywhere. The only furniture in the room was the bed where Jester and Harlequin were, the rocking chair Ticket taker was in, an old, teal bookshelf with a couple of children's books in it, and a vanity with all the drawers taken out. No place for a hidden toolbox to be anywhere.
“Fuck, this isn’t good” Harlequin said holding up his head with one hand. “What do we do?.”.
Everyone stayed silent, taking in the situation and wondering what to do. Harlequin sighed in frustration clearly pressed before getting up and walking towards the door.
“That’s not going to work” Jester called out.
“Well we have to do something or we’ll die here. There are no windows here and we can’t break the walls so the door is our only way out.”.
They knew he was right, but all of their options had been exhausted, the door option more so than others so what were they meant to do?
Harlequin started to investigate the door, looking closely at it this time instead of pounding on it like he was earlier. The lock was brand new, barely used, and it was strong too, barely a scratch on it from when he tried to rip it off earlier. He looked over at the hinges rusted, worn. Clearly someone had forgotten to replace them. Harlequin paused for moment thinking.
Harlequin stepped back.
Jester: “What are you doing-”
Harlequin’s foot slammed into the door just a little below one of the rusted hinges. The door gave in a little revealing a small sliver of the outside.
Everyone was shocked, when he tried that before it didn’t budge but now it was moving! How?
Jester, standing up: “Harlequin… how?”
Harlequin: “The hinges are rusted and weak, so I thought if I hit them in the right spot I could break them.”.
Harlequin prepared to strike again.
“Wait!” Jester said while putting an arm in front of Harlequin. “Let Pierrot do it he’s stronger than you and can do quicker”
Harlequin huffed and stepped back to let Pierrot in front of him.
“Aim near the hinges,” Jester said, guiding Pierrot.
Just as Harlequin did Pierrot kicked the door. The door nearly gave in fully, he kicked it again, harder this time. The door hinges broke off fully, letting the door fall opened up the room into a hallway.
The hallway had dark brown wood trim, a beautiful red wallpaper with intricate designs and patterns. It was illuminated with a couple of lanterns hanging from the wall. There was a long black rug running down the length of the hallway leading to another room.
The group peered through the doorway into the hallway, silently investigating it from afar. They looked at each other as if to ask each other “what do we do now?”.
After deliberating for a short while the group pressed on into the hallway with Jester leading the way. There wasn’t much in the hallway other than the lights and the long rug.
Halfway down the hallway Jester spotted something. On his right was an elevator. It looked vintage with the gate in front of it.
Jester: “Hmm”
Ticket taker walked forward and stood next to Jester. “A elevator?” he asked curiously.
Jester: “Yes, we could probably use this to get out if still functions”
TT: “Should we try?” Jester paused to think for a short while.
Jester: “We should look around to see if there is another exit first”. He didn’t want to press further in and potentially miss something important.
“We could try that door over there” Doctor says pointing to a door on the left side of the hallway, directly across from the elevator.
“Hmm,” Jester walks over to the door and tries to turn the knob.
*click* *click* It was locked.
Harlequin: “Check if the hinges are rusted” Jester looked over at the hinges, well maintained. Damn it, those rusted hinges on the last door were the only reason they got out, but now that they were gone they certainly weren’t getting through
Turning around and sighing, Jester said: “I guess we’re taking the elevator.”. He walked over and pressed the button to call the elevator. After a while he pressed it again and again. The elevator wasn’t coming.
“Shit” Jester said under breath. “We’re stuck”
Harlequin: “What!?”
“We’re stuck” Jester said leaning backwards, breathing a sigh of frustration. “The elevator isn’t working and the door is locked. We're stuck here.”
“We could check out that room at the end of the hall.” Ticket Taker suggested.
The group turned their heads towards the end of the hallway. The door was the same as the trim, dark brown and made of wood. A plaque hung on the door but they couldn’t quite make out what it said. He had entirely forgotten that was there.
Jester paused for a second before making his way towards the room, the others following close behind. After a few minutes they reached the door leading into the room.
”Doll Containment Room…”. Doll Containment Room? What did that mean? Jester reached for the door and began to open it.
The door was actually unlocked for once. He pushed it open to a room of full wall to wall life sized, wooden doll cases. Most of them were empty except for one slightly off center, which held a human sized doll. The doll was almost 6 feet tall, with long hair tied up into a ponytail, a masculine looking build, a broken face, and a missing arm.
Jester took a few steps forward in shock. The rest of the group followed him in some looking around others staring at the life size doll.
The doll felt familiar to Pierrot but he couldn’t figure out why? He couldn’t recognize the face, well what was left of the face they had. The only thing left of their face was a singular eye and part of a nose. The clothes didn’t seem familiar at all either, it was a white collared, long, sleeved shirt, black dress pants, a tie, and a vest with a rose pattern on it. He couldn’t recognize anything about it but the familiar feeling was nagging at him.
He looked away trying to ignore the feeling.
*CRASH*
“Whoops-” Harlequin said while holding the glass door of the doll case open.
“Harlequin,” Jester said, sounding like an angry parent.
“It was an accident,” Harlequin replied, picking up the doll. “Wait a second.”. Harlequin inspected closer. “There’s something on the back of neck”
Doctor: “What is it?”
Jester: “Leave it alone Harlequin.”
Harlequin: “There’s a wind up key here.” Pointing at the doll’s neck, Harlequin studied the key, deciding to be a little impulsive he turned it.
There was a brief pause then the doll began to… breathe?