Chapter 1

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Poe grunted as he rubbed his head,getting up from the floor and looking around in confusion. One,two,three he lost count of how many drinks he had over the past few days. He trembled as he got up,looking around the room and making a small noise of bewilderment as he gazed at his surroundings. He was in a room with a hallway just left and a dark room stood at the end of where he was standing,beside the room was a blank canvas that was framed on the wall. There was a carpet he was standing on,ragged and littered with patches,boxes that read 'toys' or 'candy' some of them had the mysterious words 'why' written all over them. He bent down to the box,trying to open it but it was glued shut,no matter how hard he tried,it wouldn't budge. Groaning in frustration,the writer got to his feet,inspecting the room he appeared in and feeling a spark of anxiety lit up in him. "What if I can't find my way back? What if I stay here forever? Actually,how did I even get here? Where am I?" He pondered to himself,figuring it was no use to be held up in his thoughts and going to the dark room across him. When he tried to take a step into the room,he almost fell face flat on the floor,staggering back in surprise when he reached out to wave his hand in the empty space. There was something invisible blocking him from entering,like a video game of some sort. Not only that,but there was also an eerie feeling creeping along his neck when he saw the room,like something would pop out of there at any moment. He glanced around,realising his only move now was to go into the hallway beside him,the one that creepily sparked some sort of inspiration for writing in him as he took a step forward. In front of him was a corner that bent to the right,the corner housing a desk with files on it and there were posters hung on that specific section of that wall. He gulped as he anxiously went to the desk,not daring to look at what was beyond the corner as he looked at the files,hesitating before pulling the files on the table closer to him for him to investigate. Carefully,he pulled out the papers within the file,inspecting it throughly as he remembered that he'd seen these papers somewhere before. Ranpo had these papers with him in the agency a while back,it was a case he needed to attend and he had called for the author to accompany him so he wouldn't get lost. He chuckled as he recalled the time where he agreed in a split second and spent time talking random topics with each other throughout the journey to the crime scene. He wanted to be there again,cheerfully enjoying his time with the detective and not worrying about anything because of his ability,he wanted to be there not here,in some random house he couldn't escape from. With sudden warmth filling his heart,he put the papers down,trying to figure out why those specific papers were there. As he pulled his hand to his lips to try and think,his eyes wandered around,taking note of the poster that hung on the wall,eyes narrowing at it. It was a picture of a circus,a clown in front of it riding a unicycle and bold words of 'Buy the ticket now and witness the foolish clown' were printed on it. A noise of something breaking caught his attention,whipping his head around to see a raven pelted kitten plush with dark green eyes staring directly at him,causing him to stumble back after not realising it was there at first. His breath hitched as the head of the kitten followed the direction he was going,once again staring into his soul. He screeched in terror at the thought of a spiritual being haunting the plush,then his mind flashing the fact that it could've been an electronic that could move its head to sound. Taking his attention off of the weird plush,he focused back on the files and the poster,the sensation of being watched growing ever so slightly. Eventually reaching to a conclusion that it was some useless information he didn't need to know,he gathered all of his courage to peer through the corner,shivering as fear crept up his spine. Looking closer,he realised that it was another route,just going straight with another corner but this time it bent to the left. Inhaling a breath,he stalked out of his hiding place,noting down a few comments of 'run','see' or any other words that related to the random posters that were littered on the walls. As he approached the second corner,he glanced up to see a shelf with a radio on it,tilting his head,he realised that a soft circus like melody was playing from the radio,it was so soft it was barely audible. Shaking off the excess information,Poe looked at the second desk before him. It had a vase filled with roses and a written letter sat on the table with a pen that looked as if it had been used for a century. Thinking that the letter wasn't important,he brushed it off,turning to face the next turn after praying hard that there was nothing there. His prayers didn't work though as he peered around the corner,yelping in terror as he witnessed a mannequin in front,not facing him but facing the wall. The writer wasn't one for creepy dolls despite loving writing horror mysteries. In front of him was another route that went straight,another desk at the corner that bent to the left. This time,there was a window on the right side of the wall and the left side of the wall had portraits of beautiful sceneries of Yokohama. He tried not to turn back as the mannequin stood facing the portrait side of the wall,standing and staring meekly at it. Poe did his best not to have a panic Attack as he reluctantly took a step closer,trembling as he approached the mannequin. His plum eyes widened in shock as he took a closer look at the mannequin. The object had raven short hair,eyes closed and he wore a brown cape with a blue tie,wearing shorts with those signature thigh highs of his. He had a brown detective like hat on and he stood there with his arms behind his back,staring at the wall in front of him. The writer cupped the mannequin's face with his hand,thumb rubbing over the smaller's cheek as he leaned down to nuzzle it. He missed him. He missed Ranpo and he wanted to hold him in his arms instead of being in this weird and eerie house. He bit his lip as he realised how realistic it looked,from his beautiful raven locks down to his slim thighs. His heart lurched as he questioned himself why there was a mannequin of his lover in a house he didn't know off,anxiety rising in him as he thought of the possible house he could be in. Perhaps it was someone who wanted the detective for himself so he'd kidnaped the writer and held him captive to meet up with the raven. Maybe it was a stalker who had a weird obsession with the cape wearing man and made the mannequin that stood in front of him. Shaking his thoughts away,he wrapped his arms around the object,deciding to just call it Not Ranpo since it looked so much like him. Calming down and ignoring the painful tug in his heart by the action of pulling away from Not Ranpo,the brunet soothed the fluffy hair before dragging himself over to the corner of the route where the third desk was,empty just candles at the side. He turned around the corner,now daring after restoring his calmness from hugging the weird mannequin of the love of his life. It seemed like it was the last route,where the last desk stood at the last corner. He once again tried to look around his surroundings,realising there were four mirrors at both sides of the wall as he got over to the last desk,trying not to trip over his footsteps when he heard the floor creaking. His heart raced as he reached the corner,the desk empty so there was nothing to think about,just the weird and random posters that hung on each side of the wall of every route. Turning around,he walked straight,realising he was back where he started. Fear caught up to him as thoughts of being forever trapped in the room flew through his mind,confusion wrecking his brain back and forth as he struggled to think what to do next. He went back through the hallway and met up with Not Ranpo again,tilting his head and trying to find something to get him somewhere but the more he looked at him,the more he felt like drowning in the younger's arms,to be with him instead of afraid and alone with a doll that looked like him. He sighed as he got back to where he started,staring at the dark room in front of him and glancing at the hallway with the scary kitten plush. It was a loop,the hallway was connected to the starting point. Poe sat down,staring at the floor as he tried to think of what to do. If only Ranpo was here with him,they'd have been out half an hour ago. It was as if darkness had consumed him as he was left alone with his thoughts,worrying every second that something would pop up and scar him forever.
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Author's note
Sorry if the direction is confusing. I'll be putting pictures of each turn and corner in every chapter. If you're wondering,the first picture on this chapter is the starting point of the whole route,the one with the weird dark room that only appears there.

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