I live in a prefecture where there's a house with blue roof tiles and decrepit
windows. It once belonged to a family of Bunraccu artisans who were known puppeteers
and famous for their lifelike dolls. But as the advent of film came along,
their popularity diminished and their children, in order to make ends meet,
slowly began leaving the family business in search of other ventures. Eventually the home
was abandoned. Over the years, the local officials have made promises to tear
the place down, but each time the cranes and workers would quietly disperse before
anything was ever accomplished. As the residents of the area, most of us
knew better than to ask what became of the demolitions. We hoped that one
day someone would make good on their word, Although many have tried. I
never expected to be involved, but there I was a member of the zoning
committee for the Chambers of Commerce, working alongside my co worker, did determine
how to expand the nearby shopping district. My co worker, Yamamoto Date,
was a man with two last names, which was problematic as custom dictates that
a man with two last names was difficult to address properly, as we often
referred to acquaintances by their surnames and close family and friends by their given name,
so it became rather confusing addressing my colleague and friend as either Yamamoto or
data due to the impressions that our department wasn't close knit, which is important
in our prefecture, as we believed that well are custom workers signified an efficient
system, which was likely why we drew the ire of the local seniors who
were gathered around the zone tape we had masked around the property that I discovered
damage around the perimeter. It looks like chah. He rubbed the woodpost smells
like it too. Ah. The old man complained, they don't even know
about the fire. In eighty three, did the officials send us newcomers?
A woman from the gatherers asked, no, it seems that man's name.
Is that A Another voice answered, M came to consensus, I whispered to
my friend, and that's why you'll never attain great office here, he chuckled.
My mother thought it was clever giving me two last names so that I
would always be addressed for me. I bet she never expected that to become
a problem, as we didn't live around here. He stood up and approached
the older man. Sir, it seems as if you are well informed of
the events which happened on this property. Could you please explain to us what
happened in eighty three? The old man cracked his dry lips. There was
a boy who wandered inside the house, who was missing for three days before
the other students would admit that they had dared the boy to go inside and
sleep with the dolls for the night dolls, Yes, the dolls. Have
you been told nothing? I've been briefly instructed by my seniors that I admitted.
However, I wasn't aware that there were still belongings inside. He turned
to me, Perhaps we would have the document and store all the items in
case the family comes looking in the future. Bah. The old man grunted.
They're never coming back here, and why not not after what happened to
the mother. The old man spat Genji, a woman clicked. Do not
spread false rumors? His eyes and rumors, how is it a rumor when
we have all heard it still scrolling about at night, waking me up,
disturbing my sleep. Give you no decency or regards to the tired The woman
clicked her tongue again. Just let them to their jobs. Do not put
ideas in their heads, ma'am, If you don't mind, I would quite
like to hear about what happened. It could prove invaluable. Benjie scoffed,
Chi, I'm doing the community of service. Then it is well gossiped that
the daughter of the household gave birth to a doll. At this, the
others gasped, hush, he can hear you? That was my line.
Gnji grumbled, bah, he said, wobbling angrily away. I hope the
house takes you, you old hag. Come on that, they told me,
as the crowd began to thin, You have to get the proper documents
for this. Save. Two days later we would learn of Cheese passing.
Many suspected that an ongoing view between her and Genji was the cause of her
demise. However, when the newspapers reported a death, they included a photo
of the alleged crime scene, and it was the way she was positioned that
made me believe otherwise. It looked as if someone had propped her up against
the wall and held her hands at a certain angle until rig and Mortis set
in and data and I finally returned to the doll house. The place was
deserted, as the scandal nearly took all of the attention, which left us
alone with the house for the first time. It was eerie to stand in
the lawn, where the overgrown weeds had pushed aside the pebbled walkways. The
rancid wood porch looked as if we would snap in half at our weight,
and the rice paper screens were pocked full of holes from lack of attention over
the decades where it had stood undisturbed. A feeling him my gut nodded as
that a slid open a door he had discovered to be unlocked, and I
was glad that we were at least met with much of the same dust that
had settled on the exterior. For me, it meant that no one had
been occupying this space. I thought they were supposed to turn on the power
that exclaimed not with as much electricals in air. He mused, it was
already old before he was abandoned. I agreed. The deed pins the original
foundations to around the Edo period. Perhaps the rats have true through the wiring.
Perhaps I snapped a few photos. It looks like we're going to need
a moving crew after all. I wonder why this wasn't noted by the local
clerks. Perhaps they were, I commented, but the records could have been
lost after the department digitized everything. He nodded, shame that we have to
cut this stuff off to a storage somewhere. Antiques are profitable today, you
know, I don't even think about it. I snapped a photo of him
holding an old paper weight from the writing desk. Come on, he smiled,
Let's go deeper inside the house. We had explored several rooms that were
filled with a musky odor, and I had adapted quite well to the smell
by now, when a sudden wave, thin stench came from behind the door
we had yet to enter. While every single panel we had come across showed
signs of age, this one looked untouched that AE reached for it, and
I almost stopped him, but as this was our duty, I watched transfixed
as it opened. Inside were hundreds of dolls lined up against the walls.
Some sat on the floor, others and shelves. No matter their positioning,
they were stacked ordered the shoulder, front to back, in neat sequences facing
outward, each of them unique and ranging in size. I led out of
gasp as my flashlight beamed into a corner where a stark figure stood against the
second doorway at the end that I laughed when it turned out to be nothing
more than a doll about his height. Almost looks real, doesn't it?
Emotion? For me? Well? Come on, then, as he walked
over and stood next to the doll, take a picture? I shook my
head. What come on now for a report? I sighed, and reluctantly
snapped a photo, the bright light consuming the darkness. And when I looked
up, that was missing that a I called out. He didn't answer.
I shot my flashlight across the seemingly endless rows of dolls that this room was
built for. Yeah, momoto, I shouted angrily, stop messing around.
Still he did not answer. I could see the doorway at the end now
slightly ajar when it had been closed earlier. I took a single step forward
in order to give him an earful about his manners, and I heard my
feet crisp the board beneath me, and jumped as the door behind me slammed
shut. I nearly went myself as I scrambled to the other side, my
flashlight bouncing across the top of the doll's heads. This isn't funny, I
shouted. I heard a scratching near by, and so I ate my flashlight
in that direction, skipping over the rows of sculptured faces until one of them
blinked. It was all I needed to see before running through the doorway on
the other the side where I came, crashing head first into d a as
he tried to hold me upright. What's wrong? He asked me that a
Alma screamed, where did you go after you took the photo? I saw
this behind me. Look, the room was unlike any of the others we
had seen. It was taller than any cathedral I had ever been inside,
so dark our flashlights shied away from the top as they illuminated the entrenched floor.
There on the ground, it was a miniature city. It's a scaled
version of the area in my motor, exclaimed, Look, I can see
my house, He pointed to a nearby corner. You don't understand, I
saw that doll blink. He waved in the off That's common with dolls.
I believe my sister had one grown up. They could pretend to leap if
you laid it down the door, I stuttered, it slammed shut behind me,
spring loaded, he answered. Most of the ones I opened were really
expensive back in the day, difficult to build properly too, but an easy
task for dollmakers. He pointed. Would you take a look at this,
it's inside the dollhouse. He reached forward to touch it, and that was
when something came out of the corner and grabbed him. I screamed as they
struggled, the light splitting the darkness as a labored breathing filled the room.
Several times I tried to help, until finally a blow struck me and I
fell backwards hard on the floor, enough for my head to bounce, causing
my carter to crack. I could hardly discern the blotted figures in front of
me as my vision blurred, but by the flashlight and the floor, I
could make out a hunched figure, white as porcelain, with long, gnarled
arms and squatched legs. It lifted Yammymudder's body and slammed him down several times
on the floor before dragging him away into the back of the room, back
into the darkness. I screamed and tried to run, but the door was
sealed shut. No matter how much I struggled, I couldn't get it to
open. I banged on the frame to avail, crying as I heard the
snarling and crunching of bones behind me. And then it stopped and the room
fell silent that I cried out, afraid to look, but eventually forcing myself
to face the seemingly empty room. He took this chance to find my glasses
on the floor and backed into a dark corner, Half afraid that something would
reach out from behind me and half afraid that the creature would appear again in
front. I pressed my shoulders against the wall and slowly crept over to the
door. I tried it again, but it would not budge. Helpless,
I did the only thing I could think of, and that was the crawl
forward and grabbed the flashlight, slowly panning the light across the room. When
I heard a noise. It was then that I realized that something was moving
inside the miniature city. I shied my light down and saw tiny figures moving
through the street. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, causing me to
lean forward on my hands and knees until I could get a better look.
Dolls, tiny animatronic dolls that were moving throughout the city, cars, even
the tiny plastic wheels skimming the road. As the maid stops and turns.
It almost looked as if the city were alive. They were moving so perfectly
that it almost looked magical. And as I drew closer, I noticed something
else unusual. It was difficult to see, so I got even closer until
I was nearly standing inside the city. I saw the doll of a woman
walking along the side of the road. She looked so lifelike that her hair
even moved, as if it were windy, but it moved oddly as pieces
of it were stuck to a nearly translucent string attached to the top of her
head. I got even closer and touched it. The doll nearly tripped,
but I didn't care. As I followed the string upwards with my finger and
shining the light into the ceiling, there were masked figures clad by the shadows,
looking down at me. They dotted the upper banisters like owls a barn.
My knees buckled as I backed roughly into a corner pulling out my phone
and dialing the police. I was so relieved that an operator picked up that
I immediately began screaming for help. I told them that I was in the
dollhouse and that there were people inside, and that they killed my friend.
The officer in the line kept reassuring me that they were sending help right away.
Yeah, that's right, I shouted to the mass people above me.
They're coming to get you, so stay away from me. But they still
watched me silently as I talked, never stopping me. And it was from
the corner that I saw it. From a pile of buses and cars on
the floor, a police vehicle righted itself and rolled onto the board. It
ran all of the red lights, and the dolls in the miniature city turned
their heads as it passed. Then, as if a curtain was slightly drawn,
a window appeared to the left of the room, and I realized that
we were now looking at the same street I was being shown on the board.
There was even a real life police vehicle zooming towards us. I saw
the red and blue lights punching the sky as the siren wailed in the distance.
I was still smiling as They turned around at the sight of my rescue,
but I stopped smiling when I saw that the creature had reappeared and was
standing on the other side of the room. It reached a long, skinny
arm around the city, and with its finger it pushed the police toy on
the board away as it neared the doll house, using its withered nail to
guide the card down the street until it rolled off the board and on to
the floor. Behind me, I could hear the police sirens disappearing, the
sound growing further and further away. The creature slowly backed into the darkness,
and the door opened. I stumbled out of the room and back into the
hall with the dolls. I fell several times as I ran away, the
door shutting behind me after every threshold, until I found myself back on the
lawn outside hunting. Then he tried to burn it too. After the boy
disappeared, I jumped at the voice behind me. It was the old man.
He was leaning against the wood fence. But all that did has caused
the lights to go on for a few years after the house swallowed. The
fire made it worse, if you ask me. Then he scratched the top
of his head, as if pulling on something. It's best if you leave
it alone. Now what I managed, I can't do that. What about
Data? The old man cracked a smile. He'll be back, you'll see,
And he was right After I'd made numerous reports to the police and my
superiors. They were squashed and I was deemed overworked the moment Data came through
the doors on Monday, completely unharmed and unblemished, except now he only answered,
Doe, I'm a motor