❖~Come, Little Children~☾

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Laurence wishes he could say that his time in this whole world was perfect and even though he loved the pure atmosphere and was living in a world he dreamed of, the continuous migraines just bothered him even more. He didn't know what it was that caused these headaches but he really didn't care. To be in the goddess' den and to be able to frolic in the house was worth the headache he received.

With a yawn Laurence ran off to the bedroom and laid on the bed thinking about all that had happened. He just didn't understand it, why were people still so upset even though they were in paradise? they got whatever they wanted with no cost at all. Anything they wanted was there for them and there was no reason for them to be mad, yet the anger and hate was still there.

Tears formed in Laurence's eyes as he thought about how unfair this was, but he still held onto hope that things would change, he felt that they would soon realize the wonders of this world and that they would love one another. When he thought about hate he began to think about the poor girl that got her hand stabbed...but for some reason he didn't care about it...why was this? he always loved everybody so why did he not care about her? He closed his eyes and soon drifted off to sleep.

 

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Samantha rather enjoyed the rest of the day she had. She hadn't known Analise for particularly long, but she enjoyed talking to the girl. Despite the age difference, the two of them seemed to get along. Of course, Analise wasn't the only one that spent the day with Sammy; Mr Bear was never left behind for even a moment. The young girl made sure to have as much fun as she could while talking to her two friends; something she rarely ever felt.

As the day turned to night, Samantha felt herself getting a little tired, which wasn't too unusual for her. She thought about the day she had been through, and the days before that. She really couldn't think of a lot of things that she hadn't liked about them, other than destroying Kyla's song. Where was Kyla? Shouldn't she have been back? She felt a little sad, sad because the only other person she had really come close to being friends with hadn't showed up again. A small pang of sadness resonated within Samantha as she lay in her bed later. I guess Kyla went home.. she thought to herself.

Upon hearing Analise thank her, Sammy let out a little gasp. She was being thanked? She couldn't remember a lot of times people had said thank you to her, or even been grateful for something she had done. It seemed like more often then not she was being criticized for something. It gave her a warm feeling, and she couldn't help but replace that wave of sadness with a feeling of warmth. The child thought more about the day she had been through. She had genuinely enjoyed the day, and most of the people there seemed nice. Samantha hugged Mr Bear tight to her chest as she slowly drifted off to sleep. She felt like saying something to Mr Bear as she drifted, something she had never said before.

"I hope things stay this way forever, Mr Bear"

 

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Xyloh heard the crash within the music room, and she quickly turned her head to see a boy and the mess he had left accidentally. She put down the violin and ran over to help. She started to pick up the flowers and fix them, "Are you alright?"​

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The boy nodded his head quickly and kept his hands down. His hands were shaky as he picked the flowers and Xyloh noticed this and addressed it out loud, "Are you sure? You seem shaky..." He looked around and nodded again as he placed the vase upright. He then started to put flowers in the vase. Xyloh was concerned why all of his replies seemed to be in nods, "...Do you not talk? I don't wanna sound rude..."​

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He looked over at Xyloh and touched his throat and opened his mouth, no sound came out. He then breathed out and shrugged his shoulders as Xyloh said, "O-oh, are you mute? I am so sorry." He nodded his head a little and shrugged at her, then he looked down at the basket of flowers and pulled out a dark rose that seemed black and he put it in with the other flowers.​

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In curiousity, Xyloh picked up the rose and examined it saying, " I have never seen a black rose before... how is this even.."​

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"It looks black because it's the darkest red."​

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Xyloh quickly turned to see Rose there, she looked to see that the boy's face had grown very pale and his eyes had widened. " They are depressing flowers... Basil, why are you putting those flowers out?" she did not seem in the least bit happy at all, but at least she found out the boy's name was Basil. He lowered his head and tightened his grip on the basket handle, "Please dispose of them." She then looked at Xyloh and nodded, " I'm sorry if he has disturbed you."​

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"What? Oh no! He hasn't disturbed me at all!"​

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Rose seemed to stare at Xyloh for a moment before she turned back to Basil and said, "Dispose of the flowers." and then she walked away. Basil started trembling and biting his lower lip. "Hey hey, why are you shaking?" Basil looked like he was about to cry, he shook his head and handed Xyloh a note from his pocket and a black rose.​

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Xyloh looked at the note but couldn't figure it out at that moment. She looked back over at Basil and said, "Do you want a hug?" Basil nodded and set the basket down and took the cat out of his kimono and gave her a hug, and she hugged him back. "You're really cold." She felt a brushing against her legs and exclaimed, "Oh my gosh oh my gosh, a kitty!" Basil sniffed and backed off from the hug and wiped a tear from his eye and picked up the cat and held it out to her.​

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Xyloh held the kitty and spoke, " I haven't seen a kitty since I was alive!" she pet the cat and looked over at Basil, "If you ever need anyone, just let me know and I'll be there." She smiled and tossed the cat a bit in the air and spoke, to the cat, "- if you don't like that just scratch me."​

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Marooooow​

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Basil made a motion that looked like he was laughing with no sound and then he nodded at Xyloh. She heard a man call for Basil and he waved goodbye taking the cat and the basket of flowers with him. Xyloh looked at the note again and almost immediately read it in normal English. She became concerned and went to look for Elly, but she could find him. She would worry tomorrow instead. Xyloh decided to go up to the girl's room and just go to bed because she was tired.​

 

It was a dull, and quiet morning. The house seemed to be colder than usual, the wind outside wasn't even howling, and the moon was not shining. No servants were running around as usual and no one was bothering to wake up the children. Instead, a purple Hyacinth laid at the foot of everyone's bed. The beds of Ainsley and Kyla were still empty and untouched. They had no flowers on them like everyone else. The grandfather clock's bell rang to single it was 6 in the morning and continued to tick on. Not even the sound of cooking could be heard from the kitchen. It just all seemed so empty.

 

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The headache that assailed him was strong and his slumber was interrupted. Laurence rubbed his head with a groan as he opened his eyes and noticed the peculiar flowers at his bed. He felt touched and amazed to see the flowers there and tears welded up in his eyes "These are surely gifts from the goddess...my goddess' kindness knows no bounds, surely songs of praise will be sung again!" Laurence said as he got ready for the day and got of the bed, taking some of the flowers with him

Despite the happiness he felt something felt off about the day and his headache just grew and grew. He rubbed his head with a groan as he moved on through the manor, ready for some breakfast or even a conversation. There was an eerie silence in the house and Laurence was not used to it, he wanted to scream out for his goddess, but his headache just would not let him do so. "Goddess..where are you.." Laurence muttered silently before taking a breath in.

He was going to yell, whether his head hurt or not. He was concerned about what was going on and he needed to fix this issue as fast as possible. "GO-" Laurence began to yell, but immediately fell to his knees and held his head "you idiot...something is going on...yelling won't solve anything" Laurence said rising to his feet as he panted a bit. Closing his eyes he took off his sunglasses and sighed as he narrowed his eyes and stared around "something is not right..." Laurence said walking forward.

 

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

The grandfather clock continued to march onward with the time. There was no light in the house; a cold draft wafted through the place as if a window was opened. The smell of breakfast was no where in the air. The twin maids weren't running around cleaning and dusting everything like usual and butler Charles was no where to be seen. The flowers in the vases were wilting and drooping, but Basil and Jonquil were no where around to change the dead ones for living ones.

 

A chilling breeze touched the young girl's skin. She shivered slightly, as much as she didn't want to wake up she hated being cold in the morning. Ever since Lili was little, she could never sleep when she was cold. No matter how hard she tried.

Tiredly, Lili opened her eyes as she slowly slid herself out of bed. Her gaze fell upon a strange puple flower. It had been placed at the foot of the bed, but she wasn't sure when. Picking up the flower she had noticed that there was one just like it at the foot of every bed. Correction. Almost every bed.

As she made her way through the house she was aware of the ominous silence it was in.And strangely, no lights were on either. There was no one else awake as far a she could tell. Nothing seemed right. Lili could shake the gnawing feeling that something dreadful wad going to happen.

When Lilica turned the corner, another person was there. Contradicting here earlier thought that no one else was awake yet. The boy was walking farther away. He was familiar. But she couldn't quite place his name. "Hey, wait!" She called out.

 

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Xyloh woke up to the silence, it felt like it should have been a normal day, but the note she still had beckoned her to erase that feeling. She read it again and thought about how two of the girls were missing. She couldn't believe she hadn't noticed that before. She didn't really know one of them, Kyla was her name? But she knew Ainsley, she was the one with the banana bread. She was concerned for both of their safety. Xyloh sat up and admired the flowers at the end of the bed. Then she got up, showered, got dressed, and left the room.​

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Xyloh had the note and the dark rose in her hand. She shuffled her way over to the guys room and cautiously knocked on the door. She knew she was dead and everything, but she wanted Elly to listen to her. That wouldn't be able to do that if she just barged in or knocked loudly. Most of the guys in this group seemed violent, and she knew she wouldn't be listened to if she riled them up.​

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Xyloh stood in the silent hallway, hearing footsteps from people she assumed were other kids, and she silently hummed to herself. Usually she would have smelled the morning's breakfast by now. Or hear the hustling and bustling of the workers in the manor, but no one seemed to be around.​

 

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The silence was quite unnerving and he begun to wonder what else was going on at moment. The boys were all in the room from what Laurence last checked, but he didn't know about the status of the girls as well. Were they in danger? did something happen to them like the the workers in the manor? More and more he began to feel the pangs of paranoia and he knew something was wrong. His next choice was probably to check up on the girls to see how they were doing at the moment and if anything strange happened to them.

He continued to walk, but the sudden voice had immediately caught his attention as his eyes widened. He immediately turned and faced the newcommer and raised an eyebrow quite surprised to actually see somebody up and about. "You...." he said placing his hand on his chin "I...kind of forgot your name..." he said having stopped his trek and begun wait for the girl to catch up to him.

Though he didn't know her name he at least recalled that she was apart of his group, the group that was sent here to cure their "sickness". It didn't seem like anything had occurred to her so he would only assume that the girls were as safe as the boys were, but were they safe? The manor gave them everything they wanted and he was grateful for that, but for them to vanish like this was just a bad omen for him. Laurence would think nothing of it, but he knew better. Before anything happened he needed to figure out just what exactly was going on.

 

With the house darker than usually it felt eerie And then there was the odd chill in the air that also made Lil feel uneasy. There was no doubt in her mind that something was going on here. And she wanted to figure out what it was and why it was happening. The staff were nowhere to been seen. or even heard for that matter. And the wilted flowers that sat on the small tables in the hall didn't help the mood.

Catching up with the boy she had called, Lili had realized that this was the person that she thought was loud in the dining room the day before. And she couldn't say she was surprised that he forgot her name, since not a lot of people asked she didn't really have to tell anybody. "Huh? Oh! I'm Lilica." She honestly couldn't figure out what her mother was thinking when she named her. Lilica is such an odd name. "Yeah, kind of also forgot your name too." At least she wouldn't seem rude since she wasn't the only one who forgot a name.

After taking another look around her, she reflected on how strange all of this was. "Do you know what's going on?" She asked, motioning their surroundings. Even though he had probably woke up not too long before herself, she doubted that he knew what was wrong. But, after all, what possible harm could there be in asking? The worst that he could say was that he didn't know.

 

No reply came to Analise when she called out for Basil. The garden was silent. The crickets weren't chirping and the wind was not blowing. It was as if the dream world was holding its breath, waiting for something to happen. But what? Were the servants playing a practical joke on the kids? Did they sleep in and forget that they had guests to attend to? But even then, little Basil wasn't about helping with the garden like he normally would have. Even though he was the quiet sort and couldn't reply to Analise anyways, it was still eerily silent.

 

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"hmm...ah yes that is a good question..." he said closing his eyes before closing his eyes and crossed his hands with a sigh as he began to think of an answer to what was supposed to be such a really simple answer. "hmm...I guess you might as well just call me Laurence for now..." Laurence said shrugging his shoulders with a sigh. The name would have to do and he really wasn't in the real mood of thinking up another name to use.

Laurence took a step forward and narrowed his eyes as he stared around the room. It was good enough to see that somebody else had managed to see that something was going on and not just nonchalantly ignore it...like Laurence would. "No, I don't know what going on here, but I have a bad feeling about this" Laurence said closing his eyes before rubbing his temples with a sigh. slowly a migraine was beginning to form, but he had to endure it to the best of his ability for now.

They were in an unknown world with what seemed to be a godly being in here. Sure she told them she was no goddess and true Laurence overreacted when it came to her, but with such powers she was practically a goddess regardless. Maybe he was overreacting, but he had to be on guard as long as possible before he would be unable to think clearly anymore. "lets go see if we can find anybody else" Laurence said calmly walking ahead. The first thing was to find the others. He walked up back towards the boy's room and raised an eyebrow upon seeing Xyloh "Ah, Xyloh...what brings you to the boy's dorm?" Laurence asked. Maybe she was curious about what was going on as well, regardless he needed to at least consult with a bunch of them.

 

"Okay." She said giving a short response to Laurence's name. Shifting her mind to think of something else, Lili realized that since this place was a Dream World someone had to be controlling it. Which was something that hadn't occurred to her before. None of the others who took the pill seemed to be doing it. If it wasn't any of them, then who?

Being unable to wrap her head around it, she pushed those thoughts out of her mind when Laurence replied to her question about what was happening. She had guessed as much. no one knew what was going on.

Lili wanted to ask if he was all right after seeing him rub his head. But decided not to since it seemed not to be bother him that much. She trailed behind her new companion as they went to go see if anyone else had waken up.The answer was yes. Because on their way up to the boy's room Lili spotted someone standing near the door. Laurence seemed to know her and she tried to remember Xyloh's name when her said it. Even so, Lili wondered what had brought the girl to the boy's room.

 

Suddenly, the sound of a music box drifted through the whole house and even wafted into the garden. The sound was hard to pinpoint, for it seemed to resonate through every wall and every room of the mansion. The wind outside began to pick up gradually as the melody played on, sending a spin chilling breeze through the hallways. It played on and on, slowly and agonizingly... Then, it finally approached the last measures of the song, and the music stopped all together. And so did the wind.

Thud. Thud.

Something was moving downstairs....

"Follow, sweet children... I'll show thee the way...."

Thud. Thud.

Whatever it was was coming near the stairs to the second floor...

And that voice... It sounded like a little girl was singing it. She sounded tired, frightening even. Her voice continued to carry from downstairs...

"Though all the pain... And the sorrow..."

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

That noise was making it way up the wooden steps now... The singing was dropping down to a loud whisper with every step it took to the top of the floor..

"Weep not, poor children... For life is this way..."

There was silence for a moment...





































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































"Murdering beauty and passions..."

A shrill of giggles resonates through the hallways of the upper floor.The giggles then turns into a shrill of cackling and laughing. The floor vibrates under everyone and a dark feeling begins to settle in...

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"Run, run, as fast as you can..." the voice whispers in everyone's ear... The sound of insane giggling sounds throughout the hallway and then the sound of metal hitting against each other.​

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The scary girl claps her metal arms together and starts heading to the large closet to check things out. Blood spills on the floor each time she claps her arms together. The closet door opens for her withouther having to touch it. She walks in it and smiles giddily. "Come out and play with me! I just want to give you a hug!" ​

 

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Samantha woke up calmly. She heard the sound of singing, and at the beginning of it it put her mind at ease. It reminded her of the way her mother used to sing to her, to try to calm her down. It was then that she remembered where she was, and more importantly that her mother wasn't there. Where was the singing coming from then? It seemed to be coming from all around her. Samantha spun around as she tried to pinpoint the location the sound was coming from, but to no avail.

She then heard another sound; a voice. A voice that told her to run. Sammy decided to trust the voice, at least for the moment, and ran over to Mr Bear and picked him up. "Mr Bear, we have to run" she whispered. Samantha began searching the room again, this time for a place to hide rather than the music; she didn't want to be anywhere near that music. She discovered a wardrobe, full of jackets. Immediately she was reminded of a movie, a movie that some children escaped to a faraway land by going through a wardrobe that looked very much like the one in front of her. Sammy quickly climbed into the wardrobe, but after pushing to the end of it she found there was no magical portal to another world, no sanctuary. Samantha closed the wardrobe doors quietly, and pulled Mr Bear close as she tried to make herself as comfortable as possible.

"Mr Bear...i'm scared" she sobbed, burying her face in the fake fur of the stuffed bear.

 

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Laurence had a bad feeling. The sudden noise of a music box was eerie for him and he just narrowed his eyes and glanced around, trying his best to find himself the source of the music and where it came from. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fist as he heard the sudden voice of what appeared to be an unfamiliar girl and Laurence's eyes immediately widened upon the sound of metal clanging.

The voice obviously didn't want to play childish game and he sure as hell knew that his suspicions were absolutely correct and that something was wrong. Did it matter though? he was in a dream and that surely meant that they were unable to be physically harmed. He really wished that was the case but he really did not wish to make that risk. He needed to act fast before Laurence did something absolutely stupid.

"EVERYBODY MOVE NOW!" Laurence yelled out as he stared over at the two girls he was with and signalled them to leave. It didn't seem like they were hurt or anything so they were fine on their own. The girl was up on the top floor, he could only tell this by the sudden sound of her voice. They needed to at least get off the top floor and find away to defend themselves or even possibly get out of this dreamworld. With that Laurence ran downstairs