Mansion of Dolls (Complete)

Chapter 07 (Rewrite/Edited)

Walking through the mansion's interior again, Taryn's feeling of nausea was all but gone now. Yet what the woman Yoko had said nagged at her. Why keep the fact that she understood and spoke Japanese a secret from those in the mansion?

What was the whole thing about a demon spiriting her away? Taryn knew that it was a warning, but for what? The people here seemed nice, at least with Sato and Mei. She had seen a few other workers, but they seemed to leave her well enough alone. Not wishing to speak with her besides offering a quick hello as they walked by, but that was it.

It was a bit of a contrast compared to those of the village or even the city of Tokyo itself, people stared at her, but here in the mansion, no one seemed to pay any mind. Almost like she was a ghost to them.

Taryn laughed at herself for that, recalling Rachael once said to her before looking down at her own body. She didn't think that she was that thin, well mostly. But it was at that moment she realized that she had no idea where she was.

With a half-smile, she shook her head, figures. Whenever she was lost and thought, walking around aimlessly, she tended not to pay attention to where her feet carried her. A bad habit that she wasn't sure where she picked it up from.

As she wondered where to go, something caught her ear; she could hear a song being played in the distance. Following it, she soon found herself in what looked to be a garden encompassed within the mansion with the sky now clearly above as a Japanese pine tree grew tall and firm with several stalks of bamboo. Surrounding this interior garden looked like a little stream, as a small footbridge had been constructed to go over it and back to the mansion.

There someone sat, playing a Koto, a wooden Japanese instrument laid flat on what looked to be a low stone bench. The song this person played sounded familiar, but could recall the name of it. The piece was pleasant enough, yet somehow it almost sounded lonely. The person who played looked to be wearing a haori, a kimono overcoat. The colour of the haori was a faint green at the top before it became a soft cream that slowly faded into a bright orange, which turned into a dark red at the base with what looked to be that of white spider-lily flowers, or something like it, embroidered into the fabric. This person had long dark brown hair that seemed almost black, which stopped just at the waist, nearly touching the ground.

Was it a woman or a man? She couldn't really tell from the back.

Part of her didn't wish to interrupt the person playing, but she also didn't want to wander around a place she didn't know. Taking in a deep breath, she spoke to the person in English. "Excuse me? I don't mean to interrupt, but I'm kind of lost." The person stopped playing right in the middle of the song but remained sitting. "Would you mind telling me how to get to the front entrance?"

Then the person slowly stood and turned to face her. And Taryn soon found herself losing her voice; the person was that of a man. A tall man with rather striking green eyes resembling jade as a long singular earring dangling from his left ear. His kimono was an orange-red that turned into a dark forest green past the knee with an emblem peaking out from under the overcoat along the left side above his chest as the obi belt was completely black that matched what little black there was at the bottom of his kimono.

"Hello." She said again with a friendly smile, this time clearing her throat. "Sorry for intruding on you while you're playing. I don't mean to be a bother." But the man did not speak; he only continued to stare at her. "Um, hello? Sir?" Maybe he doesn't speak English. The thought had just accrued to her since she knew not all Japanese knew English. I should probably talk in Japanese. But she hadn't, for what Yoko had said still lingered in her mind. And for some reason or another, she had subconsciously listened.