Mansion of Dolls (Complete)

Chapter 28 (Rewrite/Edited)

The climb itself was a struggle for Taryn. Going down was so much easier than going up. Having to lift her body weight was a strain on her neck and shoulders. What's more, she couldn't even look up to see if they were getting close or not. Probably for the better, but it was why she wanted Robert to go first. The fact that he was so insistent that she go might have been due to his worries.

Worries that, as much as she wanted to press him on, he had already about her. Not to mention they talked enough about it, even if he was still coming to terms with it, which he was.

Robert was grappling with something else entirely. Something that he wasn't sure about telling. She noticed this when Robert saw the photo but quickly backed away from that line of thought. As though he was worried about her reaction. Or maybe that wasn't it at all. Perhaps he was just concerned. That was probably it, given all that happened, and all that she told him, it was the most logical reason for his reaction. Yet something about that nagged at her.

Before she got the chance to ask him, though, she smacked her hand when reaching upwards. The way up was shorter than the initial way down.

"Ow..."

"You okay?" Robert asked, looking up.

"Yeah, I just hit my hand on the exit." She told him.

"Weren't you looking up?"

She angled herself to remind him of the bandages on her neck since there wasn't a thin constricting shaft surrounding them like the first.

"Right. Neck. Sorry..."

She then shifted her body slightly, giving herself a better angle to look up. What she saw was a latch, the part that she hit her hand on, and a handle. Grasping it with her left hand, she pushed up. At first, she thought that there would be some resistance but found that it gave little to no effort at all. When she pushed it open, she was greeted with the interior of another Shrine.

Once she pulled herself out, she turned to help Robert up before closing the trapdoor. When she had, it was then that she got a better look around their new surroundings.

The Shrine itself was of a decent size but was in grave disrepair, a deep contrast to the Shrine at the top of the village. The wooden floor beneath their feet was worn-out and cracked as were some parts of the walls. Through these cracks, the glow of the late afternoon sun shined through like a colander. Even the roof showed signs of age and decay, with vines and moss growing all over the place, encasing parts of the dilapidated building in green. The grass had even taken root along some of the old floorboards that creaked and groaned with every careful step they took. This Shrine was not elevated off the ground like the first, meaning it was built at a later date then the first Shrine.

Along the walls, there were paper sutras to ward off evil and misfortune. They were worn, some torn or missing, while those that remained were almost bleached from the sun with what little writing seemed to be barely visible to the human eye.

Above them, ropes that had been dyed red now faded in colour and left to rot, falling apart in countless strands. Some fallen scattered across the floor form when they once hung, as a large bell once used for prayer, covered in a thick layer of rust and moss resting on the old wooden floor.

Even the large stone statue in the middle of the Shrine was not left untouched by the ravages of time. A deity carved stone had now been overtaken with thick green moss. The stone statue was large, possibly depicting a woman, or perhaps even the priestess who sacrificed herself for the village.

It was now almost impossible to tell what it was initially with how faded its features were as the moss-covered some of it like a blanket.

Seeing this made Taryn feel sad that such care and attention to detail were now left to fend for itself without anyone knowing it was here. Considering that this place had not been touched in who knows how long. And from the looks of things, they were the only ones who had made it for no other signs were saying otherwise.