Fan Fiction ❯ The Goddess Sagas ❯ Cursed Dolls ( Chapter 11 )

Chapter 11: Cursed Doll

Alone in a dark tower of some kind, a little girl sat on the chair, her blue eyes stared at a doll in her hands, her dark brown

almost black hair cut in a mushroom cut fell limp, looking as sad and pitiful as she was. Her white shirt she wore underneath a

short black dress had become yellowish with age. The light from the lightning out side flashed threw the one small window in the

tower casting light on her pale expressionless face.

***********************************

The group ran forward, covering their heads with their hands as they tried to cover themselves from the rain that beat down on

their skin.

" This rain is no good for my fur!!!" Mara complained with a whine.

"I'm so cold...." Carrie sniffed, sneezing.

"Oh dear, Carrie try not to catch a cold." Mimi frowned worriedly.

"Hear take my cloak." Ruto said, removing the warm white with gold engravings cloak from her person and wrapping it around

the child. It was too big for Carrie but it was enough to keep her warm.

"Thanks, I'm warm now, but what about you?" Carrie asked guilty.

Ruto laughed. "I LOVE the rain, it's so nice against the skin, I don't see how anyone can dislike it."

"Your crazy!" Mara retorted. "Who in there right mind loves rain!?"

A ghost of a grin appeared on Squall's face. " I do."

Mara laughed nervously, knowing how much stronger Squall was then she.

"Heh, heh!! Loving rain is fine!" The cat girl laughed nervously.

" I HATE the rain." Genki grumbled, ringing out his long pony-tail. " You have no idea what it does to my hair!"

The lightning crashed behind them and both Genki and Lima screamed, clinging to each other fearfully.

"Lima scared of lightning!!"

"...It freaks me out!! What if it strikes me!?"

" Guys, as much as I don't mind the rain, I certainly don't like it, and if we stay out hear, regardless if we love the rain or not

we'll get sick, and we can't save the world if we are down with a cold, unless our plan is to give Taromecika a deadly flu virus."

"Your right." Ruto sighed. "But there is no town for a long ways."

"What's that tower I see in the distance?" Carrie asked, pointing forward, the group turned to see a dark tower standing a few

miles ahead of them. The rain began to come down harder and instantly without saying a word they agreed to head over there

and take cover from the storm ahead.

*************************************

They walked into the tower, and gasped in surprise. The walls, the shelves, the floor, everything was filled with dolls.

"Wow, I've never seen a doll collection this big in my whole life!" Mara exclaimed, her eyes shining.

"It's like an toy heaven!" Carrie smiled, her expression the same as Mara's.

"I never liked dolls...." Ruto frowned, shivering. " There eyes...they always looked so soulless and empty, like corpses staring at

you accusingly... or like my father when he speaks to me."

"These dolls are so cute!" Lima giggled, looking at one up close. " They look so real."

"Hey Mimi, look, this doll it's a fairy, she looks almost just like you." Genki smiled, showing Mimi a doll of a fairy. The half

breaded girl smiled, laughing as she took the doll in her hands.

"Oh wow, she's so pretty, I always wanted a fairy doll when I was small but I could never find one anywhere."

Genki smiled, knowing that he just got a plus sign from Mimi, now if he could only keep on going doing the right thing...

"....There is something not right about this place..." Squall frowned.

"Yeah....I just can't help but feel I'm being watched....but there is no one hear but us...isn't there?" Ryan was answered when

the doors behind them slammed shut and suddenly all the dolls began to float up into the air. The group stared at the dolls

shaking, as the dolls eyes began to blink or roll, looking at them, and their arms began to move.

"Lets get out of hear!" Mara exclaimed dashing towards the door but was stopped as an fifth-teen year old girl stood in their

way.

She stared at them threw empty blue eyes, her pale hands brushed dust away from her black dress, as she stood, blocking the

exit.

"You cannot leave hear...I will not let you leave... ...."

"Who are you!?" Ryan demanded.

"My name is Melika...you will stay hear and play with me...if you can get past my 6 deadly challenges that lay up ahead then I

will let you go but if you cannot then my magic will turn you into a doll. If you can make it past my challenges then I will let you

go."

"Oh, and what makes you think we wont just pound you up and leave?" Genki smirked.

"Genki she's just a little girl." Mimi scolded.

Genki sighed, he just got a minus....

"My dolls will stop you, approach this door and they will kill you."

"I told you I didn't like dolls." Ruto grumbled.

"Lesson, we don't want trouble, we just want to leave." Ryan began to approach the girl, whose eyes suddenly flashed red and

he was sent flying back, crashing against a wall.

"Bye, bye...I'll see you all later." The girl laughed as she disappeared.

"Dolls, killing us!" Genki rolled his eyes. "Let's go!" the hyper boy began to approach but suddenly two of the dolls flew

forward, sinking there teeth into his neck.

"OWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!! GOD DAMMIT!!!!" Genki cursed throwing the two dolls off of him.

"Rya, what do we do?" Mara sniffled, looking up at him.

"What can we do? We have to take her six challenges if we are to escape from this place." Ryan sighed.

"What kind of challenges do you think it'll be?" Lima began in her clueless voice. "A game of cards? Monkey in the middle?"

".....Idiot....like are her challenges will be childish games like that!" Squall rolled his eyes.

"She is only three years older then me...I wonder how she can be so bad." Carrie frowned.

"I can tell you why."

The group turned around and watched as a doll of a child around the age of five, wearing a little red dress, it had blonde hair

and shining lively eyes.

" My name is Rosa, the 1st puppet doll Melika ever made."

"What do you mean?" Mimi asked.

"I'll tell you my story, set down and lesson."

The group looked at each other then obeyed, and lessened as Rosa started the story.

" This tower was once in the center of a village, the village has been long gone for hundreds of years, in that village lived a girl

named Melika, she never had any friends, and was often treated very cruel and teased almost everyday of her life. She began

to hate human kind and decided to avoid them by staying in this tower, her only friends were her dolls. They never teased her

or looked down on her, they did not care what she looked like or how she acted or even how she behaved. But still....she got

lonely... One day for a dare three kids that often picked on her entered the tower, and started to pretend to want to be friends.

This went on for a few days and then the kids suddenly revealed their prank. They began to laugh and tease her and then

suddenly in a fit of rage Melika somehow turned them into dolls, saying that ' she would make them be her friend.' Villagers of

course came to the tower for their kids but all of them were turned into dolls by Melika until everyone in the village was gone

and the village slowly rotted away."

"I feel sorry for her...teased like that...I know what it's like." Mimi said sadly.

"Mimi, you don't have to worry about becoming alone like that girl did, I'll gladly be by your side." Genki grinned, putting an

arm around her shoulder. Mimi blushed but then smiled.

"Thanks Genki."

"But Rosa...You said that it happened hundreds of years ago, how can she still be alive?" Ryan asked confused.

"How do you think she got the power to turn people into dolls? She sold her soul to an monster for power."

The group gasped.

"Ohh!!! Lima heard of that! People desperate for power sometimes binds themselves to monsters, they gain lots of powers but

in return they loose their soul!"

"She said something about challenges, do you know what they are?" Carrie asked, leaning forward to see Rosa better.

"No, but there are seven floors, and 6 challenges. I think you better hurry on now, Melika is not a very patient person and will

get very angry if you make her wait any longer. I wish you the best of luck."

The group watched as Rosa walked away leaving them alone to face the challenges.

**********************************

They reached the 1st floor, and saw two kitchens in the room.

"What's this?" Squall asked as the group looked at it confused. Then suddenly a tall doll dressed as an French chef appeared.

" Welcome to the 1st challenge! A cooking contest! You must beat me!" The doll laughed.

"This is the 1st challenge?" Ruto asked, exchanging confused looks with the rest of the group.

"There is no way we can loose this! We have five GIRLS on our team!" Genki grinned

"So which one of them? Remember you fail and Melika's magic will turn you into a doll."

"Um...Mara I believe in you!" Ruto smiled.

"What!? Not me, um...Carrie, I have total faith in you!"

"Eh!? Hey I'm just a kid, you can't pin it on me, but Mi, I really think YOU can cook well."

Mimi looked at Carrie as if she was crazy. "Not me! I'll be with you all the way....Lima!"

" Lima agrees, Lima can cook very well!!" The elf girl smiled, suddenly wearing a frilly pink apron.

"Contest starts...NOW!!!"

The group watched shocked as The chef doll chopped fish and vegetables like a wild man, cutting them into perfect cubes but

were even more shocked at the fact that Lima was doing a much better job then him. The elf laughed insanely as she chopped

the vegetables wildly, and mixed and stirred the batter, in a matter of moments she had the soup boiling on the stove. The doll

wasn't that much behind her but paused to see what she was doing.

"Wow, she's good!"

"All Done!!" Lima exclaimed, taking the pot of the stove, the chef doll cursed at the fact he lost.

"Now, let's see how it turned out!" Lima giggled, pulling the cover off of the pot. An foul smelling stink suddenly filled the room,

it smelled so terrible everyone in the room but Lima fell over making gagging sounds.

The group looked into the pot, disgusted at the green slop that was in it, hell, even the vegetables in the soup looked like they

were crying from the sheer stink of it. Infact....at closer look...the vegetables WERE crying and screaming....

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?" Ruto screamed angrily.

"Actually.....I don't know...."

"DON'T MAKE FOOD WE CAN'T IDENTIFY!!!!!!!!" Ruto screamed angrily.

The chef doll laughed. "It seems like you loose!"

Suddenly a puff of smoke surrounded Lima and in her place appeared a small little plushie-doll that looked just like Lima.

"Lima? Is that you?" Carrie asked looking down at the doll.

Mimi picked up the doll, looking at it sadly.

"Poor Lima."

"She makes a cute doll though." Mara grinned. "And it's not taking away much of her IQ anyway."

"Come on Ryan...Let's go to the second challenge hopefully we will be luckier there." Ruto said determinably.

"Yes, hopefully."

***************************

The reach the 2nd story and what awaited them was an giant octopus.

" Welcome to the second challenge! I challenge you to a duel!"

"A duel, huh?" Genki grinned. "Well, then, in that your case, I'm you man!" the hyper boy got into a fighting stance.

"Don't hold back now! Rock, paper, scissors!"

"Wait one moment!" Genki cut him off. "by duel you meant, rock, paper, scissors?"

".......Arisu and Nagisa should be hear..." Ryan sighed dully, Mimi nodded in agreement, while Carrie and Mara continued to

argue about who got to hold the Lima plushie.

"Well a duel is a duel." Genki reasoned.

"Rock, Paper, Scissors!" They chanted together.

Genki did paper, but The octopus just reached over with one his many hands that was doing scissors."

"No fair!! You cheated, with your eight arms you did rock, paper and scissors all at once!!" Genki exclaimed.

"You should of thought about that before, you loose." In a puff of smoke, a Genki plushie appeared, a defeated little pout on it's

little face.

Mara plucked it up, tossing it to Mimi who caught it with a gasp.

"I think you should carry that doll, he would have wanted that way." The cat girl grinned.

Mimi just blushed.

******************************

They arrived at the 3rd challenge after passing another flight of stairs filled with dolls.

A rubber doll waited for them, and this time the challenge was...

"DUCK, DUCK, GOOSE!!?" The group exclaimed together.

"Yes! Yes! Set in a circle! Set in a circle!"

Sighing the group obeyed, and lessened to the rules they all knew. One person would be chosen to be the goose and they

would tap someone on the head and the person had twelve seconds to catch the other or else they would become the goose,

but in this game whoever was the goose at the end of it...would turn into a doll...

"Hmmmmm, the goose will be the cat, choose one of us to fight against."

Mara gulped standing to her feet. ' How am I suppose to choose one of my friends?' Mara walked around the group. She

tapped Ryan's head.

"Duck."

She touched Mimi's.

"Duck."

She touched Squall's

"Duck."

She touched Carrie's.

"Duck."

She touched Ruto's, hesitating a little.

"Duuuccckkkkkk....."

Ruto rewarded her with a sour look. "Goose me and I'll haunt you for the rest of your life...."

Mara bit her lip and moved onto the doll, knowing that it was the only one she could goose with out having someone in the

group wanting her dead she tapped his head and shouted

"GOOSE!!!"

And ran as fast as she could. But she forgot that the doll was made of rubber so it simply stretched it's rubber arm forward and

tapped her shoulder.

"Goose." It smirked, and in a puff of smoke Mara became a plushie.

Ruto picked it up off the floor, frowning she glanced at Ryan.

"Is it just more or is this doll giving me a death glare?"

Ryan took the plushie into his hand, "No it's not giving you a death glare, I'm sure as a doll she looks at everyone the same

wa---" Ryan paused staring at the doll which now had red cheeks and hearts replacing both of it's eyes as she stared at him.

"Or maybe not..."

************************

The group reached the 4th challenge and in front of them stood a fat old school teacher doll.

"Hey little girls!" The teacher said to Carrie and Mimi. "Welcome to the 4th challenge! We will play Simon says! Of course I'm

Simon!!"

"Now, like we didn't see THAT one coming." Ruto muttered holding the plushie dolls.

"Good luck, Mimi, Carrie!!"

"No problem, this game is really easy." Mimi smiled.

"Hmmm, but so far all of these games were done so we couldn't win, but I don't see how they can trick us with this one."

The two girls followed the Simon says commands well, they jumped, whistled, danced, once they were even made kiss, but

they did all of the commands without fault, and now they waited for the last command.

The doll grinned. "Simon says....turn into dolls!"

"What!?" The two girls exclaimed together and in two puffs of smoke laid two plushie dolls.

"Now...why didn't we guess that would happen?" Ruto frowned, picking up the two plushies, joining them in the collection that

was growing in her arms.

*************************

They made there way up to the 5th challenge where a giant snake waited for them.

"At least this time our challenger looks dangerous." Squall commented.

"Your challenge will be the 'End catcher!' " The snake exclaimed.

"Not that silly word game!!" Ruto cried. "When are we going to get serious!?"

"This game is right up your ally, Squall!!" Ryan grinned.

"What!? Me!?" Squall gasped.

"Yeah." Ruto smiled. " You can stand to learn some more vocabulary."

"Oh fine." The man-beast grumbled, then suddenly a pair of heart underwear appeared around his jeans.

"WHAT THE!?" The boy gasped, blushing like a mad man.

"You are the ogre first." The snake hissed.

"Huh? But I thought we were playing 'end catcher!' " Squall protested.

"We are, the last one wearing the ogre pants is the loser, to get someone else to be the ogre you have to grab somebody else's

end."

"That's not fair!! You're a snake! You don't have a butt to grab!" Ruto accused.

"Well, if he doesn't want to be a doll he has to find somebody else's end to grab."

Still blushing he muttered. "Grab somebody else's end?"

He look over in Ryan's direction who turned beat red in the face, putting his hands on his butt he began to back away.

"No, no....don't you dare....you do and....I'll....I'll....I'll bite you! These fangs are really sharp!!!"

"Look Hear--!!" Squall tried to order him but then thought to himself 'that wont work....maybe I could get Ruto's...'

Ruto's face turned sour as he looked over in her direction. "I think you know what will happen if you try that."

"Time's up." The snake laughed.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Squall moaned before *poof* turning into a

doll.

Ryan and Ruto ran up the stairs, Ruto's arms filled with the dolls.

"Ryan, next challenge is the last one, I don't want to become a doll but at the same time I don't want you to become one either."

"I know how you feel, I just hope...that we can win this one..."

"Yeah."

***************************

They arrive at the top of the stairs and saw two slides, which lead to the top of the tower.

"I wonder which slide is the right one? I'll take the left, you take the right." Ruto said.

"Ok, be careful."

"You too."

With those words exchanged both of them slid down their slides.

*****************************

Ryan landed roughly on his butt, next to him he saw the end of the slide Ruto had went on, he heard something approaching

and watched one by one as the dolls fell onto the floor, followed lastly by a cute little Ruto plushie.

"THAT WAS THAT LAST CHALLENGE!?" Ryan shrieked. He picked the Ruto doll up, frowning at the scowl on her face.

"If she wasn't a doll right now, I bet she would be casting an 'Explosion' on me."

"I guess you're the only one that is left Ryan." Melika smirked, approaching him.

"You! Change my friends back!"

"No, I want to play, you guys would make great new friends." Melika studied him threw her soulless eyes.

"I don't want to be your friend you little brat! Change my friends back now!! Or else I'll kill you!!" Ryan exclaimed, his eyes

darting around wildly he saw Rosa setting on a table looking at the them sadly threw her sprit filled eyes.

"Not if I kill you first..." Melika suddenly leaped forward, judo chopping his arm, breaking it instantly. Ryan howled with pain,

staggering backward. He did not have time to recover as Melika sent multiple energy blasts towards him, each hitting straight

on.

"FLARE ARROWS!" Ryan cast the spell using the power in his sword, sending a dozen fire arrows flying towards the girl, each making impact. Melika

was stunned and he took this time to run forward, stabbing his sword threw her chest. But to his shock Melika looked up at

him and grinned, pulling the blade out of her chest.

"It seems like my dear friend Rosa told you how I made a deal with a monster, but what she doesn't know is that I AM a

monster." Removing the sword entirely from her person she held it in her hands. "And unlike normal monsters I am immortal!"

Ryan's mouth opened up in a mute scream as Melika stabbed him in the stomach with his own sword, he fell the floor, body

shaking in pain as he coughed up blood. He weakly looked at the plushie dolls of his friends, 'How can I beat her.....' then

suddenly his eyes landed on the plushie of Ruto and her words came back to him.

'I don't like dolls....their eyes always seem so soulless....'

He gasped, the whole picture finally fitting into his mind. He forced himself to his feet, Melika grinned at him, her empty eyes

studying him like a cat eyeing a mouse and Rosa stared at him threw soulful eyes that twinkled with life from where she sat.

"I've figured out how to beat you, Melika."

"Really how?"

Ryan grinned. "Fire ball."

Melika smiled unconcerned when she saw the small little ball of fire in his arms, but that smugness soon turned to horror as he

sent the blast flying towards Rosa instead. The blast hit and Melika's soulless eyes dulled and she fell to the floor, unmoving.

Ryan stared at the remains of Rosa, his friends returned to normal almost instantly and all of them crowded around him to know

what happened.

Ryan smiled weakly shaking his head. "It seems that all this time the puppet master Melika was just a puppet being controlled."

"Really? So, your saying Rosa." Genki gestured towards the destroyed remains of the 'doll.' "Was the puppet master disguised

as a doll to fool us?"

"Wow, Rya!! How on earth did you know!?" Mara asked with admiration.

"Well...I would never had known if it wasn't for Ruto." Ryan smiled, the girl looked at him surprised.

'What did I do that was so helpful?"

"The thing you said earlier about dolls having soulless eyes, Melika's eyes were empty and lifeless however the 'doll' Rosa's

eyes shone with life and emotion."

"But I wonder why Rosa would want to attack us, if the story about Melika was not true." Carrie pondered.

"Well I suppose it doesn't matter now that she's dead." Genki dismissed the question and slowly tired from the battle and the

'oh so dangerous challenges' headed towards the exit.

They reached the room they had came in and saw all the dolls laying broken and unmoving on the floor, it was a sad sight to

see, but they had see a lot worst. They were just approaching the door that would lead them to the exit when....

"DAMN YOU!!!!"

Ryan gasped as Rosa's hands gripped around his thought and began to squeeze. The demon-half twisted around trying to pull

the doll off him.

"Ryan!!" Ruto cried, taking her whip into her hands, sticking Rosa sending he tumbling backward.

"Why are you attacking us!?" Genki demanded, while Mara clanged to Ryan asking if he was ok.

"Master Taromecika order me to, this whole building, this whole place were just illusions...."

"You mean all those lame challenges were illusions!?" Ruto squealed angrily.

"Yes, the challenges were illusions created by one of your thoughts." Rosa grinned, meanly.

"Now....who could have had such stupid ideas...." Ryan began dully while everyone looked over at Lima, more then a little

pissed.

"What Lima do?" The blond blinked confused, eyes filling with tears. "Stop staring at Lima!!! Your making Lima nervous!!!"

"So all this time you were working for Taromecika." Carrie concluded. "Why? You're a kid like me, why do you want to harm

people?"

"I'm not a kid! I'm a MONSTER, anyway, Master Taromecika wants you all destroyed and Ryan captured, which is why I

lead him down to the basement, but it seems as if my plans failed. So I guess I'll just kill you all now. I can turn you all back into

dolls with a snap of my fingers so you see you cannot beat me."

The group growled angrily, not sure of what course of action to take when....

"RAY OF LIGHT!"

Rosa screamed painfully as a blast of light smashed into her back full force, and slowly her form dissolved. The group stood

shocked, trembling slightly. Ryan raised his head to see their savior of perhaps destroyer, and gasped.

"It's you!!"

It was the man with red hair, blue eyes and black cape that saved them when they battled against the water demon.

"Seems like you all still need some practice. If you can't take care of a minor monster like her then you sure as hell wont stand a

chance against Taromecika." The man spoke icily.

"Who are you!?" Ryan demanded.

"That is not you concern, I'll see you again, soon...Ryan..." The man turned his head towards Ruto.

"Your looking pretty today 'My lady.' Take care of yourself, your far to important for Taromecika to get his hands on you."

The group watched as the man disappeared in a swirl of mist.