Words: 4607
(Edited)
TW: Not in detail, but it does hint towards SA attempt
~~~
“It’s all your fault!” Alice seemed to be more interested in Li Yan, the one who offered the body parts, and chased him with all her might.
The others found suitable hiding spots and watched anxiously as they also realized this issue. “Li Yan!” Li Bao yelled, slightly worried. She didn’t want to lose the only person she knew outside of IER. Even though they may have not been close in real life didn’t mean their shared blood wasn’t existent.
Li Yan felt slightly aggrieved. He felt that he should’ve just made Lars do the body parts, he could certainly outrun Alice as compared to himself.
Finally, he felt his stamina slowly start draining, and he got slower. His feet slowly began to trip and give up, making the others watching anxious. Li Bao tried to move out to help him, but Hailey dragged her back shaking her head. Li Bao helplessly looked at her cousin, but she understood what Hailey meant. Family doesn’t mean trust.
Lars looked calm, almost as if Li Yan wasn’t getting chased while Ji-Yoo and Soren were holding open the door for the place they were hiding, waiting for Li Yan to reach it. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Instead, Alice seemed to have suddenly sped up.
Her hammer smashed down and Li Yan could feel the wind and strength behind the force put into the hammer. He clenched his eyes closed as his hand became drenched. This was definitely the end of him. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes to wait for death, but he didn’t stop running. Giving up, yet not giving up at the same time.
He heard the others calling his name and urging him, but he knew that once he tripped one last time, it was the end. He could no longer run. He gasped, but as the hammer went down his vision went black.
~~~
He didn’t feel any pain. All he could see was darkness. He must surely be dead. Maybe as a last reward for trying, pain was taken away. He breathed out in slight relief since he didn’t have to feel the pain of being hammered by a bear half his size.
Gradually, he realized something was off. He didn’t appear to be dead at all. The feeling in his arms and legs were still there, and he could feel each individual finger moving. His heart was thumping loudly in his chest, and his eyes slowly started to adjust to the pitch black. A heavy fog and dim light slowly showed itself and he suddenly found himself outside of the amusement park. Specifically, at the entrance.
His first thought was, it was day three. Except, no one else was here with him. Li Bao, Lars, and the others were all gone. He tried to tap the circle on his neck and the chat and livestream interface popped up.
[Wow! I thought he was definitely dead.]
[Me too.]
[Thank god he isn’t! He’s my favorite newbie so far.]
His small livestream was still very active, it appeared he was alive still, but separated from everyone else. Maybe Alice had put him in a separate space to torture him? He looked around at the foggy amusement park in front of him and saw how it was slightly different from the one he knew.
This one had no bunny mascots of Alice and Bunny, instead it was only one bear named Alice. The park was still called Wonderland, but the colors were duller and there was litter randomly scattered around. The park wasn’t abandoned, but it was closed. He could see some dim lights from security guards as they checked around the premises, and before he could hide a light shone right at him. For some reason, the guard didn’t notice him and kept walking, seeming to not notice him.
Could this be the real park? Li Yan frowned. He didn’t quite understand IER and how their rooms worked, but according to what Lars said earlier this still should be fake.
He walked in the slightly ajar gates, but these gates were no longer red. Signaling once again that he was in another space. The guards walking didn’t notice him at all and were now sitting on a bench and resting.
There were a total of five of them, four men and one woman. The men were all playing jokes while the girl looked slightly nervous.
“Did we have to sign up for a job here?” She asked. “I’m scared.”
“It’s fine. Ghosts aren’t real anyways.” One of the guys laughed at her. He flung his arm around her shoulders and brought her closer to himself. “I’ll protect you.”
The girl smiled nervously, but still kept quiet. One of the other guys across from them made kissing noises, mocking the couple.
“Let’s go to the mirror place.” Another guy said. “People say that it’s the most haunted place.”
“I heard someone got all their toys stolen there.” A man with orange dyed hair laughed. The other boys started to make jokes about their toys being stolen while the girl just sat there in silence.
They all got up and started to head towards the maze, but the girl looked a bit reluctant. “Do we have to? Can’t we just stay here?”
“Babe, if it was really haunted they would’ve closed it down by now.” Her boyfriend laughed, kissing her on the head. “It’s okay.”
She just nodded solemnly and stopped complaining. She loved her boyfriend and trusted him the most. Along with the fact she didn’t want to be left behind alone in the empty park while waiting for them. Tightening her grasp, she stuck closely to her boyfriend.
Li Yan also followed the group along, but he still stayed on guard in case something were to attack him. He watched the group go into the maze, but unlike the maze from before this maze was a lot more simpler. It was less confusing and very straightforward. The area was also smaller.
As a child going into this maze, it would definitely seem a lot bigger. That must be why in Alice and Bunny’s version of Wonderland it was much more convoluted.
“Weird.” A man at the front mentioned. The other four looked at what he was staring at and were also confused. “Why is this mirror weird looking?”
“Huh?” A man pushed the mirror a bit, and found that it was actually a door. “The boss never mentioned this?” The man frowned.
“Maybe we aren’t allowed to go there?” The girl said, clutching her boyfriend's uniform. “When I patrolled the maze earlier, it wasn’t like this.” One of the boys in the middle of the group said.
Li Yan looked and realized that it was the weird tarped place he saw before, except this time it was a lot smaller and didn't have the “Drink Me” potion. It still had a rotten looking mattress and a bunch of mismatched toys, but it also had rotten food and trash littered everywhere.
The room looked lived in, but the environment was definitely unhealthy. The blanket on the plain mattress had holes all over it and there was some dried blood on it as well.
“A homeless person?” The orange-haired man frowned while another hit him. “We should go find them and help them out.” The girl suggested. She looked at the room and felt awful for the person living here.
“Homeless or not, this is illegal isn’t it?” One of the guys asked. “I don’t know.” Another shrugged. Before they could talk further they heard some small footsteps running over behind them. They all quickly turned around, but they saw nothing. They looked towards the only girl in the group in question.
“It wasn’t me.” She shook her head, hiding behind her boyfriend. “I think we need to leave.”
The men just looked at each other and laughed a bit. “It’s okay. Probably just some trespasser.”
The girl shook her head. “Whatever I’m leaving first.” Although she didn’t want to wait alone for them outside, it was better than being in here. This place gave her an awful feeling. The boyfriend watched his girlfriend leave, and Li Yan also moved out of the way as the girl walked out. He felt a little at a loss on who to stay with, but decided to keep following the group of men.
“She’s just shy.” The boyfriend seemed a bit embarrassed in front of his friends, and they all shrugged him off or gave him a small hoot.
They heard some strange child’s laughter suddenly echo. “Tsk, rebellious kids.” One of the boys clicked his tongue.
“We were once like that.” The man hummed in response, but suddenly he saw a child’s silhouette pass by the corner of his eyes.
“Did you guys see that?” The orange-haired man frowned. The other men also looked but saw nothing. “Did she infect you?” One of the guys asked, obviously referencing the other man’s girlfriend. The man just snorted, but didn’t retaliate.
The men walked into the room and started to search around while grabbing the toys. “What’s up with all the toys though?”
“Maybe they sell em’.”
“Or they just have some weird interests.” A guy snickered.
Before they could joke around more, their flashlights suddenly flicked and went out all at once.
“Are these things faulty?” The boyfriend shook his light. “Damn park.”
“This is her room.” Suddenly a child’s voice sounded out. It was soft and mellow, but emotionless. It sounded more like a robot.
“Is that someone’s Siri?” The orange-haired guy asked, laughing nervously. But unfortunately, no one answered him. His flashlight suddenly started to work again, but as he shined the light he saw that his friends were now all lifeless. The boyfriend’s body seemed to have gotten ripped apart by a toy chainsaw, and the other two boys both were covered in a weird pink slime substance.
“Guys?” The orange-haired man looked sick, his face paled. He couldn’t help but vomit over to the side while his breath quickened. His heart was pounding, and Li Yan could clearly see that his eyes were bulging. The veins in his forehead started to protrude, and finally it seemed to pop. Needles started to be thrown from an unknown position in the dark, poking his veins in a cartoonish way. It would have been almost comical if it wasn’t for the frightening scene of blood splattering around like miniature bombs being ignited in the orange-haired man’s body.
They couldn’t see what happened, but Li Yan could. He could clearly see the ghost of a small girl throwing toys at them. The toys all seemed harmless, but as soon as they got close to their target, they would suddenly gain a sense of life and turn into a more dangerous version of themselves.
The orange-haired man’s body leaned to the side and slowly fell into his own regurgitations. Li Yan felt nauseated just looking at the scene of the four dead men and turned away and looked at the girl. The girl slowly turned to him and smiled.
“Li Yan.” She smiled walking closer. Li Yan took a few steps back before eventually making a run out of the mirror maze. As he exited the maze, he suddenly ran into a warm body. He turned to look and saw the girl from earlier, except this time he was visible.
“Who are you?” She narrowed her eyes at him in suspicion. His face was pale, but he still looked handsome, so she relaxed her guard a little bit. “Don’t go in there. Leave, quick!” He hastily pushed her shoulders away but she struggled. “My boyfriend is in there!”
“They’re dead.” He huffed, trying to drag her away. Even though he knew she was an NPC he still wanted to try to drag her away from such a horrific scene. The girl didn’t believe him at first, but he kept struggling to pull her away, making her second-guess herself.
“A-Are you serious?” The girl asked. Her face was slowly turning white and her eyes reddened. “You’re joking. This isn’t funny.” Li Yan just shook his head, but soon saw the girl from before following him.
He was about to run but before he could, the girl in front of him disappeared. He was left with the child staring at him. Then, he heard the screams of the girl who was just in front of him and saw her pale face running out of the mirror maze. She could no longer see him and ran straight through his body to the exit of the park while calling the cops.
“I only wanted their attention. Is that wrong?” The little girl asked. She tilted her head slightly. “I just want to be noticed.”
“Bunny.” Li Yan said. The girl looked a little shocked and her eyes started to water. “You know my name.” She sniffed. “You know my name.” She continued to repeat this line as she rubbed her eyes.
Li Yan looked at the girl vigilantly, but he didn’t back away or run like before. Instead, he moved closer to the girl. “Can you tell me why you want to be noticed?”
Bunny seemed to have a little more favor towards Li Yan as she nodded. “Okay, but promise.” She held up her small pinky towards him with a small smile. She never said what they were promising, but Li Yan still fearlessly wrapped his pinky around hers.
“Why is your hand so sweaty?” She made a scrunched up face and suddenly Li Yan felt more annoyed than scared. Bad habits seemed to never go unnoticed.
He wanted to say something, but the scene in front of him changed again and the sky was suddenly bright outside. He was still holding onto Bunny’s pinky but she seemed to be struggling on where to put her hands. She eventually settled on holding onto Li Yan’s shirt, not daring to touch his “disgusting” hands. In her head she thought that obviously pretty people needed some flaws.
Li Yan didn’t know what the girl was thinking and just assumed she was being sticky. He looked around and saw that it was now midday and they were at the amusement park entrance again. This time, there was a group of children and an older woman at the gate meeting with a middle aged man.
“Mr. Heart, thank you again.” The old lady smiled while shaking his hand. She wore a formal blouse, but behind her was a group of teen chaperones with the words “Girl’s Orphanage” written on their shirts. Li Yan continued to search and eventually saw in the back of the group a pair of twins. One girl was identical to the girl holding onto his shirt, her hair was in a blonde side ponytail to her left while the other had one to the right. These two were Alice and Bunny.
“Mr. Heart, we actually have a girl named Alice here!” The old man urged Alice to come up, and naturally Bunny followed along with her sister. “This is Alice and Bunny. Alice say ‘hi’ to Mr. Heart.”
Alice seemed very shy and said a meek hi while Bunny formally introduced herself in a more composed manner. Both had drastically different temperaments.
“Alice, have you ever read Alice in Wonderland?” Mr. Heart smiled. The girl shook her head. “I can’t read well.” Mr. Heart didn’t stop smiling and instead patted her head. “You should read it some day. We both share names with the characters.” He also glanced at Bunny, but he seemed more interested in Alice.
Bunny also sensed this and glared at the man. The old woman luckily didn’t notice or she would have smacked the delinquent on her head. Mr. Heart ignored the girl and set his sights on Alice the whole tour as he introduced the girls around. The other girls in the orphanage looked slightly jealous.
He vaguely heard them chatting as Alice was being led around.
“What if she gets adopted by him? She could come to the park everyday.” One of the girls said.
“I’m jealous.” Another responded.
“Bunny is too apparently.” A girl snickered. “That’s what she gets.”
It seemed the twins weren’t very favored in the orphanage. Bunny heard the girls and ignored them, but the Bunny next to Li Yan stuck her tongue out at the girls. No matter how mature Bunny seemed in the illusion, she was still a child in the end.
She seemed to act more her age by Li Yan than in the illusion. Maybe due to the fact she had to grow up fast to protect Alice, the Bunny in the illusion was stone-faced. She looked a lot older than she actually was, and if it wasn’t for their matching outfits she could easily be mistaken as an older sister than a twin.
Alice seemed very timid, wanting to be near Bunny but Mr. Heart kept pulling her away slightly and trying to distract her with colorful toys and candy. The Bunny next to him looked at Mr. Heart coldly as he did this, sometimes even snapping her fingers to make his face disfigured or his voice distorted. Li Yan didn’t know if he should laugh or cry at the childish behavior of the ghost.
The sun started to set and the girls needed to leave soon. Before they left they all took a bathroom break, but as the girl took turns in the bathroom Bunny came rushing in in a panic. Her hair was in a mess, and she was a lot more rough looking than before.
“Where is Alice?!” Bunny cried out desperately, her former calm being completely demolished underneath pressure and worry. The girls all looked at Bunny with disdain then turned away as if they didn’t know her. They appeared to be embarrassed they knew such a freak.
The old woman from before, presumably the owner of the orphanage, tried to placate Bunny, but it was to no avail. Bunny pushed away the old woman before running off towards the gift shop.
“How disrespectful.” The woman sneered watching as the girl ran away. She was never close nor held sympathy for Bunny. Unruly kids deserve their punishment. She gestured towards the other girls to hurry and use the bathroom, not bothering to further inquire or help Bunny.
Li Yan frowned at the woman’s attitude, but continued to follow the illusionary Bunny. The real Bunny stayed silent following Li Yan.
“Excuse me!” Bunny cut in front of the line to the cashier for the gift shop, making a few kids and parents upset. “My sister is missing!” The cashier looked at the girl plainly.
“There’s not much we can do about that. Are you sure she didn’t just run away?” The lady at the desk continued to check out the person who was originally there, not paying much thought towards the child who looked poor.
A well-off family was next in line, and they rudely pushed Bunny towards the side. The cashier showed a much more polite smile as she began to ring up their items. Bunny was adamant on finding Alice, so she stubbornly stayed in place. The cashier finally sighed and told her to wait.
Bunny was still upset, fearing it might be too late, but she did as she was told and sat by the cashier until she was finished. Although life has always been unfair to Bunny, she never felt it more than now. Just because her clothes were a little more dusty than others, her hair was more matted, and she wasn’t as educated did not make her less of a person. Unfortunately, others couldn’t appreciate that. Everyone always mistook her for a rowdy orphan, but she just wanted to protect her sister.
Li Yan also sat by the illusionary Bunny, waiting for the cashier to finally pay attention to the neglected child. The real Bunny stared at her own self without any obvious emotions in her eyes, but her frown revealed her true thoughts.
Li Yan, suddenly feeling a bit of pity for the girl, slowly rubbed her head. Bunny looked up at him curiously, but didn’t say anything. But, she moved closer to him as if wanting comfort. So, one man sat with a child, comforting her as she watched another version of herself wait in worry.
Finally, the cashier started to close up the shop and looked back to see Bunny. Her eyes lit up in acknowledgement, seeming to have forgotten about the child with a missing sister.
“I’ll ask the guards if they have seen her. What does she look like.”
“Just like me.” Bunny answered plainly.
The woman thought the child was now playing with her and was slightly annoyed. “Little girl, you can’t just waste the time of others so easily.” She continued to scold Bunny, but the hope in Bunny’s eyes began to die out. She regretted sitting here and waiting for this woman! She knew that adults could never be trusted. If she would have searched herself, she definitely would have found her sister by now.
“We are twins.” Bunny frowned. The woman looked a bit embarrassed but didn’t bother to apologize to the child. “I’ll go talk to the guards. You wait here and don’t touch anything, there are cameras.” The woman left and now Bunny sat alone in the shop.
Bunny wanted to get up and go look for herself, but before she could she heard an awful familiar voice! It was her sister. A brilliant light illuminated in her eyes, but quickly dimmed when she heard that voice scream. She quickly got up and ran to the noise, not caring whether or not she herself would be in danger.
The sound led her to the employees only door behind the desk, and Bunny easily got through due to the cashier not locking it. She quickly ran through the small hallways eventually reaching a room with a locked door. She knew her sister was behind this door.
Li Yan watched the child desperately call out to Alice as she banged her body against the door consistently. Her sister's sobs could be heard through the door, who knows what she had gone through in the time Bunny was searching and waiting for her.
“Damn who is it?!” The door suddenly opened and Mr. Heart with a vicious face came out. Bunny choked on her sobs and desperately pushed past him. Mr. Heart obviously didn’t expect a child, so she easily got past.
“Alice!” Bunny ran towards her sister and hugged her. Li Yan walked into the room and saw that Alice had her clothing ruffled up and tears streaming down her face. Her whole body was covered in dirt and grime, almost as if she was buried alive. Mr. Heart was obviously planning to do something horrible to this child. Li Yan felt a frustrated anger surge through him along with an intense feeling of disgust.
The real Bunny held on tighter to Li Yan’s arm as she watched the scene play out. Before the illusionary Bunny could do anything else, a man’s hand grabbed her hair hard and pulled her back. She let out a wretched scream as her head was yanked backwards. Mr. Heart’s breath ran across her face as he held her head back and threw her to the wall. Her small malnourished body slammed against the wall and collapsed on the floor.
“Bunny!” Alice screamed desperately reaching for her sister. Mr. Heart turned towards Alice, advancing slowly towards her like a predator. Alice started to frantically cry and backup, even vomiting on herself to get away from the man. Before he could touch her, Bunny managed to pull herself up. In her hand was a coffee mug to which she used to throw at the back of Mr. Heart’s head. Mr. Heart started to bleed, but he wasn’t too badly affected due to the girl's lack of strength. Luckily, it still did the job and stalled him.
Bunny quickly grabbed Alice and threw her out of the room, but before she could escape Mr. Heart grabbed her by the neck and started to choke her. Alice’s throat was already sore from yelling beforehand, but now it became like sandpaper as she watched in horror. Her sister slowly lost her breath and Alice watched helplessly.
Bunny’s lifeless body fell to the ground and Alice tried to run up to her, but the door to the storage room suddenly closed. There was no human force, the event was purely supernatural, scaring Mr. Heart.
“Hey! Open it up!” Of course Alice would never open it up, she backed away quickly and ran to go call for help. Mr. Heart let out a few curses before pulling open the shut door and chasing her. As he was running, he kept being stopped by random boxes and crates falling over, almost hitting him many times. Finally, they were outside and the night guard came for his shift.
“King grab that girl!” Mr. Heart yelled, but King reacted too late and the girl already ran into the mirror maze. Suddenly, the ghost of a girl appeared behind the two men and the sun slowly started to set.
As it turned darker, the girl got more solid and Mr. Heart and King looked in horror at the girl. The two quickly made a run for it out of the amusement park.
After they left the gate, Li Yan watched as Bunny walked slowly towards the maze and met Alice who was shivering in fear. He watched as the ghost comforted the human, and saw the human refuse to leave the ghost. He realized that the tarped room in the maze must have been Alice’s home.
At first he really was terrified, but as they walked through the park he almost forgot Bunny was actually a murderous child and he was currently in an escape room. He felt sympathy for this girl, and he didn’t feel bad for Mr. Heart. Though he was unsure of King’s motives or knowledge of the situation, Mr. Heart was certainly not innocent.
He looked down at the real Bunny next to him and saw her staring straight back at him with big blue eyes. “Understand?” She asked. Li Yan nodded. She smiled brilliantly before the scene suddenly shifted to the park during the day once again.
~~~
The group suddenly saw Li Yan disappear and were slightly relieved. If they didn’t directly see his death then that meant there was a chance he was still alive. The relief was short lived, because soon Alice turned her attention towards them.
With her previous target gone, she had no one to vent her rage on. Naturally, she would move on to the next people. The animatronic bear gave a vicious grin and suddenly grew in size like they had seen Bunny do.
“Let’s play hide and seek!” The bear cocked its head and gave a robotic laugh. Everyone felt dread overcome their bones.
“You hide and I seek!” Alice smiled. “Ready? GO!” Her voice suddenly got deeper and the bear started to charge at the nearest people, Ji-Yoo and Soren. Soren reacted quickly and grabbed Ji-Yoo’s hand to run while everyone else also scattered.
“The game has only just begun.” The bear suddenly had sharp teeth protruding from the mouth. And it was not just ordinary teeth, but instead it was similar to a blender. The group saw this and took in a few breaths before desperately making a break for it.
~~~
