Prologue

~***~

Dorothy allowed herself a second to control her breathing, but despite her sitting down and listening to the soft music that kept replaying in her head repeatedly, she found her fingers still shaking persistently. Dorothy blinked once, blinked again and kept them closed this time. His face was still embedded behind her eyelids. She opened her eyes again.

That was no comfort at all.

That boy destroyed everything.

But she had to find him, he could return them all, they would all be back and normal if she can only find him. And it was only these words that made her stand on her own unsteady two feet, Dorothy stumbled for exactly five seconds before she had found her center of balance.

She glanced down at the fountain, this used to flow with crystal waters at one point, an extravagant centerpiece to the indoor garden that her mansion once had. The flowers blossomed and they all danced when she shuffled her way through them. But they were all devoid of color, and their dances appeared to be exhausted in their monochrome state, even her darling roses were sucked of their lively colors. The fountain no longer flowed in water, but it did appear to have an iron smelling red liquid pooling along the bottom, a liquid that not even Dorothy's curiosity wanted to investigate. It was the only color in this monochrome world, everything was in black and white, and a million shades of gray, Dorothy feared that if she stuck around for far too long that she would also fade to a colorless state.

Dorothy pursed her lips, she got down on her knees and pulled on the loose rocks that were hidden under the edge of the fountain. Her gloves were already soiled, and her dress was beyond hope at this point, so she didn't quite mind the sudden attack of mud and dust that splayed onto her torn skirts when she had at last moved the hefty stone away. The red headed girl peeked through the opening.

There was a staircase visible below.

There used to be a pulley around the fountain room that would lift the fake rocks and properly make the hidden entrance easier to pass through, but Dorothy could not recall the location of that pulley.

That boy probably hid it.

Dorothy put her feet through the hole, letting herself slip through, glad when she felt the ground under both of her feet. There was an instance where Dorothy's dress around her thighs bunched up and slowed her down, but a twist that way and a hop this way fixed it easily. She was a depressingly thin girl, and she made it through quickly enough. Once under though, Dorothy's dislike for the dark overwhelmed her. The staircase was not long, but the water from the fountain above had eroded it to the point that it was impossible to cross without tripping, which made it all the more difficult to trust. Still, the rooms below this staircase were the only ones she hadn't checked.

He had to be there.

Dorothy held her hands out, careful to walk to the wall, then she slowly made her way down the staircase as she hugged the moist walls.

Dorothy loved Hide and Seek, she used to play that game over and over, never tiring of it, because that game was never the same, one could only imagine where any one child would hide in a house as large as this one. Now, however, Dorothy despised the game down to the pit of her soul, or whatever wasn't taken by that horrible demon.

That boy was a devil, and she had no idea what she was getting herself into when she got his attention. Dorothy should have tried a little harder, she should have stayed away from the pale, dark haired boy with the mysterious expression. But Dorothy couldn't help herself, she had walked up to him, she smiled, she spoke, she invited him to her house to play.

It was because she was so alone.

The temptation was too strong, in her town, there were only adults. Dorothy was accustomed to hopping from house to house, it was something she had always endured in her parent's everlasting refusal to stick around in one place. She wanted to have a friend for once, someone to remember her before she moved away once again. A child friend. Dorothy could not understand why she was so attracted to the boy at first.

Was it his violently purple eyes? Perhaps it was, she rarely found a person with eye colors as vibrant and oddly colored as her own crimson ones, that may have been the first connection she had with the boy. Or, maybe, it was the fact that he was an introvert, so shy and reticent that he appeared to be the most adorable of children, even though he was clearly a year or so older than her.

Or, it could be that he was the only other child that was even remotely around her age?

Dorothy didn't know, but regretted everything about him.

Clack! A pebble came loose from somewhere, Dorothy froze as she let the rock echo through the last stair. Dorothy was on the last step, and it wasn't until she was down here that she noticed the faint light behind a door. Dorothy had come to know that she should never trust a light in a room she hasn't been in, after all, premature speculation can lead to certain death. As he had said once.

Dorothy stepped as quietly as possible onto the floor, and she contemplated on whether she should continue forward. He did say that they would continue their little game of hide and seek until she won, which was something to be completely suspicious of. But her family was counting on her. She can't just leave them. She remembers back when she was happy, back when she had once felt warmth, she would have preferred that over whatever nightmare she was having right now.

Dorothy went and turned the knob.

The room surprised her, as did the the bright light and colors of the room, velvet seemed to blow up in her face. A curious and outright conversion from the dark and bleary sight of the stairs above. This room appeared familiar, but she couldn't quite recall why. Dorothy slowly scooted over to the freshly made bed, a rare occurrence to be in the mansion, Dorothy had found out, she could clearly recall the dirty and moss covered sheets she had come across in previous floors.

Dorothy's face scrunched together, the smell bombarded her mercilessly. Though the room was in near pristine condition, the smell itself would have driven anyone to tears. The air was moist and stuffy enough so that one had to try a bit harder to take a breath, and it smelled of some rotten waste of sorts. It was difficult to even think of breathing with that ghastly air trying to overtake her.

Dorothy looked down at the floor, it creaked oddly, it was groaning as if her weight was far too much to bear. Now, not only did Dorothy wanted to pinch her nose, she also wanted to cover her ears. How easy it would have been for her to run out at that moment, to give up and to waste her last remaining days in her trashed mansion, haunted by the demons that wandered the hallways without a care in the world. How simple a task it would be to let herself delve into the pits of loneliness, guilt piercing into whatever she had left of her soul.

Why? It was all her fault, it was because of her greed that she kept playing. Dorothy wanted those gifts, she wanted those prizes for herself and couldn't see the consequences of her own greed. She kept seeking, he kept hiding. And the price was quite the high one to pay. Dorothy sank into the floor, the wooden planks bellowed, creaking as if they were taking a good laugh at her misery.

Dorothy's vision was blurred, her eyes stinging as if they were suddenly leaking acid, but even if she had no eyes left she could still see that this room had nothing living besides the moss that had begun to sprout around the corners of the room, previously gone unnoticed. She could feel the emptiness inside this room, not a single living being had been in this room ever, as usually one can feel the presence of another in a room so enclosed and so silent. He was not hiding here.

Dorothy felt the truth hit her, and the girl soon found herself unable to breathe, as if it already weren't difficult enough, and choking sobs echoed out the room, into the tunneling hallway behind her. Her knees were skinned and she hadn't noticed until the moment she fell to her knees and felt the harsh wooden planks digging through her soiled socks. It burned like her tears. She couldn't care less, all she could think was that this was the end.

This was it. This was the last room, there was no where else to go.

Nowhere else to hide.

No more places to seek.

Dorothy lost again.

Dorothy shivered at the thought of what he will take from her this time. But what choice did she have? A deal was a deal, and she couldn't even bring herself to imagine what horrible things he would do to her in the afterlife if she didn't accomplish this game the way she should.

Surrender was all that was left at this point. All she had to do was call it out, Dorothy knew that he would hear her voice, as he usually would. Everytime she cried to herself, every time she gave up, called out his name. He would show up. Dorothy slowly made her way up onto her feet.

"I..." Crack...!

'I give up.' Those words died her in throat, evaporating into a choke. Dorothy slowly turned her gaze towards the wooden planks, she was genuinely surprised and not in a pleasant way. It was very much quite the opposite. Dorothy hadn't noticed before, she had other things occupying her mind at the time, but now she could see it as clear as if lightning had struck her. It explained why the floor had creaked with every step.

The floor now had the largest crack that stood between her and the door to the hallway, and it was steadily branching off into a full circle around her, as if there were a dark force that made that the floor break apart in an exact circle around her. This has never happened in the previous times she has searched through here, how is it possible that fate could be so cruel to her?

Dorothy gulped and stayed as frozen as possible, keeping a worried eye on the slowly growing cracks on the floor. This room was on the fifth floor, but she knew that there was nothing below the room to break her fall in case she did. Her father had once told her that this room was originally made for the plumbers, as all the pipes of the entire mansion always met up behind the mossy walls. Men have died from accidents in this room, and Dorothy was on the brink of an accident.

Dorothy was a beginning skater in the middle of weak, cracked ice, and any wrong move could finish her. He could hear her if she called out. Everytime, he would appear as if out of nowhere like he usually does. If Dorothy called to him now, would he respond? Would he come out of his hiding place to save her?

No. No, he wouldn't. A devil does not come to those in need, so what would trying get her to?

Splintering sounds filled her ears and Dorothy's heartbeat quickened, there was no time to run, no time to react.

In a flurry of desperation she shouted for help, for him.

"Sue! Help!" The floor broke beneath her, wood chips flying everywhere, and the terrified screams of a young girl followed into a chasm leading down into hell knows where. Dorothy looked up, her hands grasping for anything that could break her fall to certain doom, of which none existed.

All she saw was the shadowed figure of a young boy, and the last thing she saw before the world was engulfed in an inky black was the shining gold of a ticking pocketwatch.