Strings and Buttons

Chapter 19: Spooky Ghosts

The other mother looks at him, fury burning inside of her button eyes. She snarls, showing her mangled, yellowing teeth. She points a long bony finger at him, the red nail polish not chipping despite her manhandling him.

"You can come out when you learn to respect your loving mother!"

She backs up and her face is gone, leaving Katsuki alone in whatever the hell this place is. Katsuki, still burning from anger, gets up and kicks the wall where the mirror is supposed to be. He kicks and he kicks until he feels like his foot is about to fall off, until he's panting, and his voice gets tired from all the cursing and yelling.

He can't see anything in this place, so he feels around. The wall in front of him feels a lot colder than all the other ones, which are an arm's length away. 

Great, a confined, cold, dark place. His favorite place to be. 

He can't lay down or anything, but he can sit for a while. How long is a while. How long is he going to be stuck in this place. That bitch can keep him in here all she wants, but he knows she won't.

Then she'll lose her food and her entertainment. He's about to lean back and just try to get some sleep, until his hand brushes against something cold. It's like a cold gust of air that fans his fingers. He retracts his hand quickly and sits up, about to say something until a voice stops him.

"Shh! Do not speak!! Keep still! The beldam might be listening!"

The voice is a guy, with a slightly demanding tone. Katsuki finds it annoying, but then another voice comes from the darkness, so small he might have mistaken it for the wind or stilling silence.

"Are you... Are you alive?"

Katsuki just nods, trying to focus on the voices in case they suddenly disappear. Another voice, different from the other two, comes out.

"Poor soul. Do you have a name?"

Katsuki nods again, and the three voices talk in hushed tones.

"I remember i had a name... I miss my name..."

"Do not be sad, we don't need names when we're stuck down here."

"Just think of the positive..."

Finally, Katsuki's eyes begin to get used to the pitch darkness, and he sees, at least he thinks he sees, the shapes of the voices. Two girls, and one boy, looking about the same age as himself. Though it's hard to tell. They all look down at him, flickering in and out of his vision.

"She left us here. Stole our hearts, our souls... our eyes..."

The girl who spoke has a bob cut, her bangs covering the sockets that Katsuki guesses are missing eyes. She has a very frilly dress on, though it's hard to see what color it is.

"We have been rotting here a very long time. Such a long time i think we rotted ages ago."

The other girl has a high ponytail, the black sockets clearly visible. She's wearing a fluffy coat with earrings, and a red dress.

"I was just checking to make sure all the doors were locked, only to find myself here. I never did see my parents or my big brother again."

Said the boy grimly. He was wearing stripped blue pajamas, glasses covering the black sockets on his face. The girl with the ponytail looks at him, her face twisted in distress.

"You must get out of here quickly! Before she takes your soul and your blood and your flesh! Run and never look back!"

The girl with the bob speaks again.

"She will use your life to make her stronger. Beautiful... Perfect..."

Katsuki assumes its ok to speak, and he says in a quiet voice,

"I can't leave. That bitch took my parents and I'm not getting out of here without them."

The three voices are silent, before the girl with the brown bob speaks.

"If you're really set on it..."

"Then we would like to ask you a favor, if you are willing."

The boy finishes for her.

"What is it?"

The girl with the ponytail puts her hands to her sockets.

"She has taken our souls and hidden them."

"Find our souls and we will be set free."

Katsuki stands up, the faint images of the voices beginning to get more and more dim.

"Do you know how to get out of this hell hole?"

"We do not know."

"She must let you out."

"Help us... Please help us..."

"The stone..."

The voices all talk over each other, hushed whispers so quiet Katsuki can't hear what their saying anymore. He can only see the figures of them getting darker and darker. Then, all three stop talking so suddenly Katsuki has to strain to see if they say anything more. They all say,

"He's coming."

And like the flame of a candle being blown, they disappear. Katsuki doesn't have time to question what's going on, because then he feels hands on his shoulders. He jumps and grips at them, trying to get them off. But they aren't bony like the other mothers, and he gets his answers when the hands pull him out of the mirror.

He falls onto the ground and looks at the person sitting on the floor across from him, the persons chest going up and down in quick succession.

"Deku?"

The green haired boy flinches, his face covered by a ripped-up oven mitt that seems to be a very messy version of a mask. Katsuki goes towards him, brows furrowed. After all that shit, he needs to see something familiar. Someone who isn't out to get him in this fucked up place. He reaches his hands out to pull off the mask and Deku puts his arms up, blocking him.