“Really?”

Sue nods at me, hands held close to their chest. “There’s a few things we need to work on that we feel can help you out, and Navi already has everything she needs installed, so it’ll basically be the same as last time we went out together.”

“You mean the last time you chased our asses through the city?” Cat jests.

Sue doesn’t seem to enjoy the joke, pouting and hanging their head. “S-sorry…”

“Oh my gosh, no no no! Just kidding!” Cat insists, waving her hands in front of her in a panicked manner. “I should apologize, I’m still used to Zee’s antics. But I’m happy to learn yours too!”

Sue puts on a soft smile and nods. Oh they’re cute. Ah, right, it’s business time. I shake those thoughts out of my head and turn away from Sue-Zee’s house.

“You’ll be safe here too, so as long as you two are functioning at 200%, we’ll all be fine. Are we ready?”

Cat walks ahead and looks back to smile at me, her tail whapping my thigh playfully.

“Are you ready to keep up?”

Ough. I can’t tell if she’s being this way because we’re dating now, or if she knows just how to rile me up.

“Kitty, I was born ready. You take care, Sue and Zee.”

The pair nod and wave to me before handing me Navi, then turning around and going back into their home. I fasten the drone to my belt so it doesn’t have to keep up as we head into the city and we set off. Cat and I try to get ahead of the other at whatever chance we get. It’s unprofessional, sure, but it’s fun.

 

Upon reaching the edge of town, I set Navi free, watching the drone take to the skies. We maneuver through the city streets on our way to Manor Macabre, as we like to call it, because it looks like a literal haunted house. While I have some respect for such dedication to an aesthetic, that respect stops at hoarding wealth and flaunting it while doing so.

A shiver runs up my spine as we’re about to exit an alleyway near our target. That’s not good. Grabbing Cat’s hand for her attention, I nudge my nose upwards to the city roofs as she looks at me. With a nod, she picks me up from under my ass with one arm oh my god.

“C-Cat, I can get up there fine myseEELFFF--”

It’s too late. She’s already leaping up from wall to wall, climbing with ease even with only one arm. Okay, she’s definitely stronger like this. This is fine. I don’t find that-- Wait, what am I badgering myself about? We’re DATING. I’m ALLOWED to find my GIRLFRIEND ATTRACTIVE for being REALLY STRONG.

So yes. Cat is hot. Moving on.

I’m finally let back onto my feet as my partner lands on the roof.

“I expect payment for the ride, hun~”

I scoff at Cat, my tail smacking her hip as she giggles at me.

“Unprofessional. Save it for after work,” I scold in a comically stern voice.

“Oh, you can count on that~”

I roll my eyes at her. Who knew what an afternoon with Niamh could do to somebody. Or maybe it’s the dating thing. Both? Both.

Wrapping my tail around her back, I pull Cat along with me as I move over to the edge of the roof to gaze down upon the manor that is our mark. It’s a misshapen building; the second floor looks wider and more bloated than the first, an image only exaggerated by the wide roof of rickety blue tiles crowning the manor. From what I remember of the last time Cat and I’d been here, standing in front of it makes it look like the building itself is constantly looming over you, its purple curtained windows gazing down upon you ominously. Even the buildings surrounding this one want space away from it, being built yards and yards away from this Macabre Manor.

The place looks completely abandoned from the state of its splintered, dark purple walls of withered wood, the lawn’s grass yellow and decayed within the iron fence bent every which way. Sprouting from the sea of dying grass, a long dead tree to the left, a decrepit tire hanging from a rope wrapped so tightly around its branches it looks to be strangling the poor thing. And on the other, I see the dolls guarding the house have made themselves comfortable, sitting at a large ornate iron table with matching chairs, each sipping(?) tea from their cups, along with--

“Oh my god.”

Cat mirrors my sentiment with a palm to her face, dragging it down to witness once more the scene before us.

Niamh is throwing a tea party for the dolls on the manor’s lawn.

“This has to be some kind of joke,” Cat says with a sigh.

“...No. No, this is a plan, actually,” I nudge Cat’s arm with my elbow and point down to our snakey friend, who gives us a glance and a wink from where she sits.

“Okay, alright, so she has the front covered. Sue-Zee, can we get a read on everywhere else?”

“Krzt-- On it!” they answer, and we watch as Navi swoops down and around the perimeter of the manor. “Oh, wow, those are some pretty ladies… There’s also a snake woman down here? Oh, she’s waving at us! Is that good?”

“I’d be hard pressed to call it good, but…” Cat mutters to herself before shaking her head and resting her cheek in her palm. “Yeah, no, that’s fine. That’s Niamh. Don’t worry about her. She’s helping. Probably.”

“Krzt-- Got it! Alright, yeah, so there’s the tea party up front… We’re seeing ‘eyes’, that was with finger quotes, looking out of the windows on the sides… The back too, it looks like. Hard to tell if doll eyes are looking at you. Yeesh. They’re really giving me the heebie jeebies.”

“Got any bright ideas, Fox?”

I give Cat a nod, knowing full well she’ll not like my answer.

“We pray that Niamh has a better plan.”

“That-- Fox, I said BRIGHT ideas!”

Before I can hear any more protests, I leap off the front of the building, just barely grazing the wall with my claw before tightening my hand into a fist once I know I’m within the magical safe zone. The sound of a chisel scraping against stone follows my hand as a windy pick helps to slow my descent just in time to slam my tail against the wall, the rattly sound of a seesaw being pushed down by my tail end sending me flying towards the front lawn of the manor.

As I’m about to land, a sudden swarm of clouds catches me, coating my entire body in an instant. God, I must look ridiculous right now. I can barely see through this! I can definitely hear a familiar chuckling though.

“Having yourself a good laugh? A real yuck? Gigglin’ up the ghosts?”

“Oh, my, such a mouth this one has!” I hear Niamh reply, followed by the sound of her sipping on her tea as I cross my arms and hear Cat literally rocketing towards me, quickly meeting the same fate as I.

“Hey Niamh, I hate this,” Cat says flatly, voice muffled through the clouds and her hands on her hips, at least, I think that’s what she’s doing… Damn clouds in the face.

“Don’t you all worry about these two, I simply ordered some delivery for the sisters inside.” 

Ah. So that’s her plan. Despite my entire body being completely obscured, it still feels as though all eyes are on me… I can even almost hear those same voices from before, though dulled by the clouds in my ears. Odd, I figured the voices were in my head. Then again: Magic Clouds.

“...Well? Run along, you two! Hungry mouths to feed! Toot-a-loo!”

Ugh, she is obnoxiously carefree. With a sigh and a shake of my head, I begin walking towards what I’m pretty sure is the door to the manor, finding it opening on its own. Oh. No. It’s a doll opening it for us. How…courteous? In we all go, and as soon as the door is closed behind us, our cloudy disguises poof away, allowing me to actually see that Cat and Sue-Zee made it in as well.

“The disguises don’t even stay. Can never make it too easy for us, can she.”

I chuckle at Cat, who is still dusting cloud bits off of herself. “I had a feeling their effectiveness would last about as long as the clouds themselves did. Besides, this wouldn’t be the most exciting heist if we could just walk straight to the end, would it?”

She blows the last remaining tuft of cloud out of her face, arms crossed this entire time.

“You’re not wrong, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

 

The inside of the manor is thankfully much more well maintained than its exterior. The walls still look like they’re made of planks taken from a dying tree, but smoothed out with not a hole to be seen. Along the similarly wooden floor runs a long, long blue carpet spanning the length of the entrance’s extensive hallway. It’s raggedy and torn but it still looks like it’s cleaned regularly. It does not feel good on bare paws… Or fox paws for that matter. Remind me to excuse myself for that later.

Even less comfortable, however, is the decor lining the walls and drawers stretching through the hallway. Paintings and portraits of faces much too creepy framed much too close. Their eyes almost seem to watch us, at least, the ones that have eyes. Skulls and skull themed candelabras, single candle holders, candles in skulls, each and every one of them glowing with a blue flame inside. Thankfully, our darkening fur seems to take into consideration said lighting, making us difficult to spot in the dimly lit manor. Still, I’d rather not take any chances. The owner of this place does way too good of a job with the creepiness factor…

“And we thought the heebie jeebies were bad from the outside…” I mumble to myself, on my toes and sliding my back against the wall. 

I’m on edge. I don’t like this place. But I do? I want to go deeper but I’m afraid… Yet it’s so inviting…

“Brzt-- I-I dunno, I think it’s a lot cooler without all the living, human sized dolls roaming about…”

“Don’t get too used to that, Sue. Can we get a layout of the first floor, actually?” Cat asks, looking to me and copying me with her back quick to meet the wall.

“Krzt-- You got it!”

Navi swoops off through the nearest doorframe, and after a few moments, they’re out again and zipping into another. We wait for this process to repeat until each room connected to the main hallway has been surveyed, our navigators flying straight back to us.

“Krzt-- The first four appear connected to each other, the fifth and sixth are standalone, and the last two seem to lead elsewhere. There’s also stairs at the end of the hallway.”

Zee’s recap refreshes my memory just enough to get a good feel of the place. Living room over there, reading room here, trophy room, etc etc…

“Krzt-- Also yeah, dolls are in every room. One or two for each. They’re not leaving them thankfully, but be careful about passing by doorframes.”

“Got it, thanks a ton you two.” After thanking our navigators, I put my hand to my chin and think. “If I had to make a guess, I’d say Geppette is probably on the second floor in that huge bedroom overlooking the front yard.”

Cat gives me a nod, then both of us sidle along the wall, stopping just before the entrance to each room. We wait for Sue to give us the green light to go, which they apparently did end up installing onto Navi. We make it to the end of the hall without a problem, but I still can’t shake the feeling we’re… no… that I’m being watched. Like the dolls are seeing me without actually seeing me. Maybe that’s just an effect of a now actually haunted mansion.

As I’m toiling with my paranoid thoughts, I look over and see Cat beginning to make her way to the stairs. I see something begin to form around her hindpaw as it hovers over the first step. Something like a spider web begins to glow around her body directly over the step’s edge. The web pattern is only visible close to Cat’s body, as if she’d dipped her foot in water and the spider webs were the ripple. More concerning, however, is what the web is distracting me from.

“Stay!” I whisper as harshly as I can.

Cat stops mid-step long enough for me to get a look at her now doll-like foot, resembling that of a wooden ball-jointed doll. My partner suppresses her gasp as much as she can as she notices it too, pulling her foot away and watching it thankfully return to normal as it leaves the magical wall of webs. We sigh in relief.

“Well, that was only slightly terrifying,” Cat states, pulling the previously affected leg closer to her chest and rubbing at her foot. “Guess we’re not taking the easy route, huh?”

I hold my chin in thought before reaching out and watching as my own hand passes through the web, Cat’s face one of intense concern as I do so. My claw looks much more… plush on the other side. There’s almost something relaxing about seeing it like this… I pull my hand back, then whip my tail around to try the same, watching its form shift into that of a stuffed fox tail.

“Fox. Please,” I hear Cat plead, but I’m absolutely mesmerized by the effects of this web… “...Fox…?”

Tail out. Hand in. Hand out. Foot in. Taking a step upon the wooden staircase with this new plush foot feels… Exciting almost… I begin to move forward, taking that first step up the stairs into--

Thud. Ah. I now find myself pinned to the wall by Cat. This is nice. I’m not plush any more, but--

“Fox, are you okay?! You nearly walked right into that doll trap, and willingly it looked like!”

Erk. Cat’s concerns are valid. What was I thinking…? Was I thinking at all?

“Ghh, sorry Cat… Something just… came over me…” I explain, looking to the side where the web was once visible. “This house is having a weird effect on me. Even last night when we were taking out these dolls, I… I kept hearing their voices in my head, and… They were calling to me…”

My partner places a paw on my lips and sighs. “Maybe you should sit out of this one. They’re clearly targeting you for some reason, and apparently it’s working really well.”

I huff at Cat, hanging my head and shaking it as I bring my claw up to where her paw is pressed against the wall just over my shoulder. “You know I can’t let you do this without me. We’re a team. All four of us. It’s just haunted house trickery, I’m sure. Besides, who’s to say they won’t target you if I leave?”

Cat grumbles and pulls away, crossing her arms. “Fine, fine. But tell us what’s happening before something really bad happens, okay?”

I walk closer to her, the sound of footsteps on a stepladder making a windy way up to Cat’s eye level. There I take her cheek in my palm and smile at her, the girl smiling back at me.

“I promise. I won’t do anything to jeopardize my safety and especially yours.”

Our lips meet for a second before I hop back, heart now aflutter.

“Stay close to me, Ms. Vixen.”

“Krzt-- Uhh… Am I missing something here?” Zee asks, Navi’s camera looking back and forth between the two of us.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Cat answers. “Just gals being pals.”

“Krzt-- Oh, sweet! Anyways, what’s the plan now?”

I tap my finger against my chin, Cat then answering before I’ve thought of my answer.

“Alright, you two, which of these two end rooms would you suggest is the better option considering what we know about this manor’s effects on Fox?”

“Krzt-- Oh, the east one! It’s only got one doll who’s inspecting everything over and over again, whereas the west room has two dolls dancing with one another all over the place.”

“Just give us the okay, and we’ll be on our way,” I tell Sue-Zee, who I can tell is giving a thumbs up on the other end.

 

My claw grips the frame of the entrance to the eighth room, Cat right behind me as we hold ourselves against the wall just before said entrance. My eyes glance between Navi and the path forward, tail twitching in anticipation as we wait for the--

“Brzt-- Go!”

Woosh! In we go, entering the dark room, quickly turning around the corner and… Dammit, there’s not much to hide behind here, but there are suits of armour and skeletons lining the walls. We might be able to stand against the walls and hope our shadows match those of the other decor.

Getting a better look at the room, I can see it’s almost a ballroom of sorts. The floor looks much smoother than the wood used in the halls and there are instruments strewn about. Cellos, flutes, trumpets, all have their place on the floor around the centerpiece of the room: a whole ass chandelier crashed into the ground, thankfully looking like the glass shards were all swept up, but really? Just smash an entire chandelier. Rich people, I swear…

As for why the instruments are all over the place… It looks like we have the plush doll assigned to this room to blame. Clad in a gothic dress with stringy locks flowing from her bonnet, she makes her rounds about the room. She tinkers with each and every suit of armour, inspects the bones of skeletons, finds new instruments to pick up and twirl around with before simply dropping them onto the floor. An interesting one she is. Glad to see she has as much respect for the property of the wealthy as we do.

It’s a bit nerve wracking at first, watching her spin, eyes glossing over us this second and then the next…but there’s a pattern to it. Almost as if she’s like us, hearing an unheard rhythm that guides our movements… It’s a playful song, a joyful one even that makes her skip and bounce about, letting us use the seconds before turning back around to dance to our own tune, gracefully moving between knights and bones. It’s almost hard not to dance myself. It’s kind of fun, in fact… A quick squeeze of my hand from Cat gets my mind back on track, however. We’re almost at the door in the back corner of the room, prancing one step, then two the next. With Cat ahead of me, I watch her open the door in time with the doll’s song, a deft motion of her hands and a swift movement of her feet opening a path for me to--

“Hello, sister~”

Fuck. Cat’s hand is still locked with mine and she tries to tug me through the door, but the plush doll’s grip on my free claw stops me, her button eyes fixated on my own…

“We’ve been expecting you, you know…”

I feel an odd, painless prick upon the back of each of my hands. Her voice is so clear despite her mouth being comprised of stitching only, and it’s so… familiar…

“I don’t hold it against you, you know…”

Cat pulls and pulls, but I’m frozen as this doll… The first we’d encountered just last night… She pulls back, but not with any physical force… It’s as if there are strings pulling my body, not against my will, simply… guiding me…

“We are all sisters after all… We care for each other regardless of squabbles and fears…~”

She’s right… she’s family, after all… I feel something inside me letting go as a sharp hiss echoes by my side, and my hand is freed…

“My name is Annette, by the way… What might I call you, sister~?”

“Fox… Fox Vixen…”

The stitching of Annette’s mouth stretches into a wider smile as she takes both my hands and pulls me back, spinning me about.

“Fox Vixen! Such a fun, pretty name! Come with me, Fox… We have the night to dance away!”

“I-I don’t know how to dance, though…”

That familiar giggle ruminates through the air as Annette raises her hand with mine held still, twirling me before her other arm catches my back and she dips me down.

“Anyone can dance, silly… Listen to your heart and let your body move to the music of your soul…~”

That sounds… familiar. And right. That rhythm. The melodic strumming. The powerful bowing of strings. Moving drums. But something is… missing…

“...I… I want my first dance to be with my partner though…”

Annette pulls her hand from mine and hovers it over her mouth, giggling still.

“Oh my! Our dear sister is in love… How I’d love to hear more about them~”

“Her.”

“Her!”

The doll playfully hauls me back up, spinning me around in her arms once more.

“Tell me… Is she--”

POOF.

I find myself falling as Annette’s laughter permeates the air even as she turns into a cloud of quickly disappearing smoke, only to be caught by the soft paws of a lovely partner…

“Oh, Cat… You made it…” I drone deliriously. “Won’t you have this dance with me--”

Slap.

“Ow.”

Before I have a chance to register Cat’s palm on my cheek, she’s already sweeping me away to the door we’d been aiming for this whole time, throwing us in and swiftly closing the door behind us.

 

“Cat, what… What’s going on?”

“I don’t know!!” my partner cries out, small tears forming in the corners of her eyes.

As she reaches up to wipe the tears away, my eyes widen as I see…a bloody hole clean through the back of her hand. I quickly reach up and take her hand, looking over it, then back up to her face.

“...It’s okay, Fox, it’s already regenerating.”

“It’s not okay, I-I somehow missed something puncturing a hole through your hand?! I don’t understand what’s happening…!”

Before I can worry aloud any more, Cat wraps her arms around me and pulls me in, head to her chest as she holds me tight.

“I said it’s okay! Just… maybe you should sit out of this one…?”

“But I can’t leave--”

“And I can’t let you be taken away from me again. What was even happening in there?”

My mind swirls with hazy memories and voices floating about my head. “...Something was guiding my body, but I… I wasn’t opposed to it. It felt warm and cozy, and Annette--”

“Annette?”

I nod. “The doll who wanted to dance with me. She kept calling me her sister, and… and I believed it! It felt right somehow…”

Cat pulls her head away, paws on my shoulders as she looks at my face.

“So you don’t think this is mind control? Geppette is the Puppet Maker, after all…”

I shake my head, gaze drifting off to the side. “Thinking back, all the thoughts I was having were my own. It’s similar to… similar to…” 

My eyes go wide and I look back up at Cat. 

“It was similar to when I ascended.”

Cat cocks her head at me. “Wha? How?”

“Like… Like how I was thinking differently as it was happening, but all my thoughts were still my own. Everything felt right. It still feels right! It’s not a control of some kind. Just as Yombroila opened my heart to my true self, Geppette is… I… I don’t know. She’s opening my heart to something about myself I don’t understand. The goddess did say she felt energy similar to her own, yet it’s only affecting me. I don’t…”

I find Cat’s hand atop my head, the girl gently petting me as I’m pulled into her embrace once more, my mind beginning to relax as I close my eyes and hold my partner in return.

“I think we need to speak with Geppette about this,” Cat says. “Creepy as her thralls are, she clearly knows something about you that neither of us do.”

“Maybe. Yeah…”

Our embrace ends, and I finally gather my bearings enough to take in my surroundings. It’s an incredibly small space, barely larger than a closet, with a door opposite to the one we entered from, and to our left, a staircase leading up.

“...Are you ready, hun?”

“...About as ready as I’ll ever be, kitty.”

“Brzt-- Please stay safe you two…”