Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Doll House ❯ Chapter 9 ( Chapter 9 )

Squall struggled within the girl's grip, trying to slide the hand holding a knife free, but so far it proved impossible. "Put me down!"

The SeeD commander tried a different tactic by raising the knife high enough to at least prick the side of her hand. Except her grip wouldn't even let his arm budge from being pinned to his side.

Zell turned his head the best he could in the direction of the struggle. 'What can I do?' He wondered blankly.

"Bi-..." The martial artist started but his words were cut off.

Squall got the gist of it, and bit down into the girl's skin.

"Ouch!" Her fingers spread apart as if releasing her grip would also release the pain.

Squall he rolled out of the way and under a table. A sad attempt for safety when facing a 70 foot child, but his mind was jumbled and still processing it all.

"You'll pay for that dolly, wait and see." The little girl's voice faded with every word.

Squall didn't have time to worry about that now, he had to cut Zell free, and then find a way out.

"Squ-... Squall the..." Zell started but was shushed.

"Ssshhh. Don't waist your strength; we've got to find a way out of here." Using the knife Squall sliced into the tape ripping the left one easily away but the right was a little gooey from Zell chewing on it. "Fuck!" Squall shouted in frustration. He dropped the knife, and tore the tape away by stretching it past its limit. "Just hang on okay?"

The gunblader knelt down and picked Zell up, holding him over his shoulder. He checked to see if his friend was hanging on tightly then he made a run for the door.

'The front door...' Squall cheered mentally going over to it. 'Where's the knob?' He reached downward feeling nothing but a smooth surface. 'Shit...' Looking around for another way out, Squall placed Zell on the couch then tried the window, but it wasn't budging. '...Maybe I can break the glass.' He ran over to the corner of the room and grabbed an arm chair.

"Rrrr..." He swung at the window then rammed the chair legs first into the glass but it did nothing. "No, no, no we can't be stuck." Squall was beginning to freak out now. Thinking of what to do to get the window open, nothing came to mind.

"Squall... The.. it's the att-..." Zell was saying but his voice kept breaking not making his words clear.

"What?" Squall asked, kneeling beside him.

"Att-ic." Zell repeated.

Squall tried to let the words register then it hit him. "The exit is through the attic?" Asked Squall.

Zell's eyes shown a 'yes' and Squall picked him back up, running to the stairs. "Which way do I go?" He asked his friend. Zell was getting a lot lighter in Squall's grip. He had to work fast or he'd lose him forever!

Irvine had always told him to feel his way through a new area, but that was put towards video games, how would it work now?

"Worth a try." Squall closed his eyes and mentally mapped out a way that might lead to the attic of the dollhouse, then he started off in that direction.

"Pa-..am."

"Huh?" Squall asked and Zell tried again.

"Ge...Pam."

'Pam?' Squall wondered. "That little girl upstairs, with the brown hair?"

Zell nodded somehow. Squall made a directional change and ran into the bedroom for her.

'Great how am I gonna carry two people?' He wondered. However, when he reached down for the girl she was pounds lighter than Zell, if anything weightless. 'This definitely make it a lot easier.' Squall had Zell's legs wrapped firmly around his waist and his arms around his neck, while the little girl was being held across his arms bridal-style.

After making sure neither of the two were going to fall he took off for the attic again. "Squaaallll." Voices called. He tried not to pay attention to them and keep going, but he threw a glance over his shoulder.

The lights down the hall were flickering off and on but it seemed unnatural to him, until he saw the cause of it. A girl that looked about twelve turned the corner in the distance and started towards them! Normally Squall would have stayed and fought, but this didn't look like any ordinary little girl, and he wasn't about to stick around to find out why.

Running down the hall the doll's laughter filled his ears as the house began to rumble beneath his feet. "Whoa! Oof!" Squall was shaken to his knees, it caused Zell to fall back onto the floor.

"Hhhaaaa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haaaaaa..."

Placing Pamela down, he put Zell over his back again, then picked her back up and tried to stand.

"You're never gonna escape. Once my house leaves your school, you'll be my dollies forever." The little girl said, laughing harder. Wallpaper pealed away from every inch of wall she was passing, and they decayed browned with rips and tears.

The paintings of farms and children that were on the walls changed with clusters of mold and rust. The children's expressions were sour and cruel. "My new dolls will be fun." The little girl was saying. "No one gets away from Ginny."

Squall tore around the next corner and ran up the hall, but froze...On the other end was a pile up of dolls, all of them looking as though an eyelash falling would make them attack. 'They're just dolls, what am I worried for?' Squall knelt down and put Pamela and Zell to the floor.

"If you want them, try to take them." The gunblader braced himself for the attack, but the dolls didn't move. 'Maybe they're just a road block to stop me from getting to the attic?'

"Squaall." Ginny's voice called.

Squall nearly jumped out of his skin turning around. The little girl had rammed herself, forearm first, into his chest bashing him with brute strength into the wall. "Ugh."

She didn't stop with once, the doll kept ramming into him harder and harder until she heard a cracking sound from his chest, then she began to laugh. When Ginny rears back for a stronger blow, Squall stuck his leg out holding the girl at bay. He pulled his right arm back and punched her cheek.

"Ah!" She cried out.

It was a mistake. Unless his eyes were playing tricks on him, she got a little taller!

"Naughty dolly!" She said swining wildly with her arms. Squall managed to duck out of the way everytime, and he kicked her in the chest. "Ah!" She cried again when she hit the wall then...

"Whoa!" Squall was flung forward by the movement of the house jerking out of alinement with the Balamb Garden. 'Oh no.' He looked over at Zell and Pamela then in the direction they had to go. "Forget her we've gotta go now." He said to himself and walked over to the two, but...

Squall suddenly sailed into another wall feeling a rush of pain in his chest from where Ginny had hit him an eigth time. Lifting his shirt he saw that his skin had turned completely porcelean and had cracked from the bashing he'd received.

"Ready for playtime, Squally?" She asked with a wide grin.

He braced himself for the attack as she approached him at warp speed. He pulled his fist back, resting all his strength into it, then just as she was close enough to hit him the gunblader let her have it.

"Aaaahhhhh!" The girl's head cracked a little, exposing that rather than rubber she was made of porcelean too!

'That's it!' Squall thought and attacked her with full force, punching her head left and right.

Ginny attempted swatting him away, but he continued to attack her feeling his own knuckles cracking away from where the house had effected his hands. He didn't have time to feel the pain from it, he had to keep the melee going. His gaze went up, he grabbed onto a chandelier and swung himself over her head, and upon the return he slams his feet into her face smashing it against the wall. The weight of his legs had shattered her head completely into the wall.

There were chunks of her shattered skull rattling about the moving floor. Her scream was still filling his ears even though her head and body were resting against a wall - motionless. The house was a different story. It pressed on to leave the area and find a new one to terrorize. If it leaves Garden they're all done for and the nightmare might begin all over again for someone else.

"Hhhaaaaauuuuuuuuhhhh!"

Squall spun around from the loud breath. He couldn't believe his eyes, Zell and Pamela had gotten up from the floor!

"Man, am I beat." The martial artist said, then he noticed where he was and freaked out. "Whoa! We're still in that creepy dollhouse!"

"Yeah, and if we don't get out we're gonna be stuck here forever, let's move!" Squall shouted to them and they ran down the hall over to the attic stairs.

"So what happened to the owner? And what was that mess in the hallway?" When they were in the attic, they each had a small panic from surprise. The cadet from Trabia stood up, shakily brushing herself off while trying to keep her balance.

"Who are you?" She asked.

"No time; how do we get out of here?" Squall replied.

The cadet walked over to the window and slid it open. The rumbling was getting harder now and they could feel the house sliding beneath their feet.

"There's ground below us but we're too high up to survive the fall." She informed.

Squall looked closely out the window, something was off. "Hang on." He sat up on the frame of the window and swung his legs out into the open then placed a foot downward. There was air at first but his foot bumped into something he was sure of it. "I think it's safe, Pamela come here." The girl walked over to him and he picked her up sitting her on his lap then he turned back to Zell.

"You follow us out, okay?" And with that Squall jumped out the window and disappeared.

"You ready?" Zell asked, and the Trabian nodded. The two walked over to the window and cautiously slipped out of it. "Oof!" They hit solid ground as though they had a slight jump up off of their beds and were never really in danger of plummeting to their doom.

"Are you alright?" Squall asked, helping Zell up.

"Oh, thank you!" The martial artist wrapped his arms around Squall's waist squeezing the life out of him.

"All right, back off." The gunblader pushed him away and shook his head.

"Pamela are you ok?" Zell asked, going over to her.

"...Change my batteries..."

"What the...?"

When she turned around, her smile was less than friendly as she began to laugh. It was low at first then she bent over and really let go.

"Pamela?" Zell said again.

"Oh boy, my brand new dolls let me out."

Zell jumped out of his sleep screaming bloody murder. "Aaahhhh!"

"Zell! Zell!" He heard a familiar voice calling to him then he opened his eyes.

"Seifer?"

"What the hell are you yelling about?" The ex-knight asked.

Zell's eyes nearly bugged out of his head from happiness, as his lover sat there beside him with a look that read: I'm gonna beat your face in for waking me up.

"Seifer you won't believe the dream I had; there were these dolls, and they lived in this house, and I was stuck there. You went on a mission and Squall had to save me, then there was this big fire - okay, so I made that part up, but the rest was real."

"Greeeat, Leonhart saves the day again, how nice... Now go back to sleep. Please, there are no AI dolls or anything dangerous out here to get you - except me, if you wake me up again." He leaned up and gave Zell a kiss, then rested his head back on the pillow and went to sleep.

"Alright, maybe you're right. Good night, Seifer." He sai. He felt his lover's arms wrap around his torso. He felt warm and safe.

A dim light glows under the martial artist's bed. A patch of moonlight? Or perhaps a pair of eyes? Quietly, secretly, a giggle came from an unseen grin.

The End?