Keeper of the Door's Story

[original entry for all]

You roll through the door and last in the middle of a glowing blue circle. A man with bunny ears taps his staff to the ground sealing the circle.
Try as you might you cannot move. A young girl walks over to you, a glowing black flame swirls around her in a circle. She speaks to you in calm, yet eerie voice. "Hello I am the Keeper if this door." she raised her hand and your back begins to burn, you scream in agony, the creature using your body screams in your head. She announces, "You have made a contract."
The prince steps toward you and hits you square in the chest, you fall back and your creature sprawls to the floor behind you released from your body, still locked in the circle. It cannot move either.
The girl begins to speak again, "That pain you felt...you will feel it while that creature uses your body." She waves her hands in the air and the creature dissolves, something new appears on your person.
The prince lifts the circle with a tap on the ground, it turns parallel with your body, and you are lifted from the ground. The circle passes through you and you feel a surge of energy and fall to the floor.
"Your creatures powers have been sealed inside of you, your creature has been sealed in an artifact. You can now release your creature without its powers, and it can maintain its shape in this world."
The flames beneath the girl flare up, and a black unicorn stands before you. She speaks again,"You have two choices. You can join me, or I will cast you back into the Abyss," the unicorn stomps its feet on the ground and a black goo forms before you and you slowly start sinking in...
The choice is clear, and you grip her hand. The unicorn stomps again and the goo disperses.
"Welcome to the Mansion," the prince bows
"Please join us for tea," the unicorn returns to the girls shadow which has returned to normal, as she leads you out of the room.

"Do not be alarmed," the Keeper said as she walked away from him, "This place is magical, we exist in our own realm inside this mansion. You do not have to hide anything from me."
The Prince swung open the door for The Keeper, pulling a black door similar to the door into the Abyss, but reveals a grand hall instead. A grand staircase is parted by a beautiful glass chandelier. He turns to the newcomer, "Please go select a room, the others should be about the mansion. We will brief you on your first assignment soon," he glanced up at a giant silent clock that has been stuck on the 11:59 position for 100 years, and a frown donned his face as he turned to walk behind The Keeper, out of the room.

The Keeper sits at her table in the garden, sipping Darjeeling tea. The black roses bloom and flourish, and the "sun" shines down warmly on her skin. The Prince sits at the table with her, stabbing at delicious morsels of cake with a long dessert fork. The Silent Bells begins to toll, The Prince drops the fork and stares off toward the mansion, It can't be...not so soon...
The Keeper sips her tea ans says, "The Chosen one has been contracted..."
((Sorry so late))

The Prince Puppeteer strolls gracefully through the main hall and into the formal ball room. With a wave of his hand, A round table appears with chairs surrounding and lands on the ground with a thud. With another wave the table is full of delicious smelling food, and a little creature that looks like a toy mouse with a chefs hat begin using a large spoon to dish out a rich and delicious smelling dish into each bowl, using his tail to slice bread.
The puppeteer calls forth Kibuki and she sings a sweet melody, one that does not have her true power behind it, to call the group to the room. The voice travels almost silently, but each one of them hears it in their minds, "Dinner is Served..."
The keeper walks in levitating a tray of tea and distributing the tea cups to each place, and takes her place in a Velvet lined chair and sips her own cup, as she waits for the group to arrive.

The Keeper looked over at Amanda and Daemon. They were very promising contractors, and Amanda was already showing signs of her memories. The Keeper sipped her tea and said, "Are you getting little flashes of memory back? It is due to your contract with me," she sets her tea down and looks the two over, "Ill explain later, but offerings the the Door will bring them back more vividly. She gets up and walks around the table. She sits next to Amanda and smiles at her, The Keeper looks very young up close, her clothes an mature attitude hide the fact that she is only 12 years old in the body. "When you send other creatures to the Abyss, you get a vivid memory back. The Door will thrust you right there, and you will watch it like movie. With each kill you will get another memory, another piece of yourself back." She paused for a moment and added, "But don't get too hasty with finding your memories, the Keeper of the Clocks took them from you for a reason. If you anger her too much she just might change the hands on your clock."

Red looked up at the keeper and nodded to her. She had had them when she reached the top of the stairs and just now. Red watched the keeper walk over to and sit next to her, flashing her a smile. Red naturally smiled back but it soon faded, "So, i have to kill to get my memories but if i learn to much then i might be killed myself." She said softly, looking over at Daemon who just shrugged his shoulders and continued stuffing his face. She sighed, no matter what out come she would still by dying, by the hand of Daemon or This called the Keeper of the Clocks. "You die either way." She said, looking back at the keeper.

"That's why it is called the Abyss, it is void of hope." she shrugs her shoulders, "but you will find out what doomed you soon enough. The question is, are you ready to know what kind of person you were in the past? You were thrown into the Abyss for a reason..."

"Yes, i believe i am. i would like to know why i was out there." She said, running a hand through her hair. Daemon sat up and wiped off his mouth, "I'd like to know as well, because so far, i don't how she could have ended up in there." Red shrugged her shoulders. "everyone has their dark past, and apparently i have my own to discover." she said, throwing a fork a Daemon and watching him catch it.

The Keeper smiled back at him, "The Prince bound you to this mansion for now, but I have your first assignment right here."
She slides a black folder with a white seal across the table and rest her head on her hands.
"Her name is Marline Wernicke, her father died a year ago in a hospital not far from here. If you successfully return her to the Abyss... you should get a memory back. Once the others have joined us I will explain the details to you. For now, just enjoy the food and saki." She snaps her fingers and one of the mice pours all of them a cup, another mouse brings the creature a bowl, slowly and hesitantly, trembling as it approaches the beast.

The Keeper pointed to the file and said, "Remember you kill the creature, not the girl. It is not our place to judge the contractors. That is The Keeper of the Clocks privilege, and we don;t want to step on her toes. Trust me." she opened the folder to show him the creature, "This is Doldum, the puppeteer. He has invisible strings, that one touch you allow him to control your mind and body. Be careful."
She took a sip of her saki and cotinued, "I know this may seem foolish to you, but Please make it a quick and painless death." She paused, knowing what they were thinking. Why show this Demon mercy? She pointed to the little girl, age 11.
"She is his contractor, she has no idea what is going to happen to her when Doldum is defeated. She will feel every single thing you do to him, because unlie you who has a talisman which feeds your creature power only when you allow it to, Doldum is her parasite. Doldum told her he could bring her father back from the dead, that he could change the past for her, and she foolishly didn't explore the consequences." She knew he wasn't going to appeal to his emotions, "Plus It's so much more fun watching them being dragged down alive and conscious."

Red finished her food and began to take tiny sips of her saki, "You know, that sounds almost like an Akuma, not the one from regular folklore though. The Earl of Millennium, the creator of Akuma, finds people how are stricken with extreme grief over a passed love one. He promises to bring to lost loved one and all the person has to to do is call out that loved ones name and they will come back to them. The loved ones soul is put into a constructed skeleton, but what the one stricken with grief doesn't now is that once this happen The Earl of Millennium orders the loved one to murder the one who called their name and wear their skin as their own. The loved one has no choice, it must do everything the Earl says for it now has no control. Doing this make them an Akuma, a slave and puppet of the Earl of Millennium." Red looked over at Daemon who was giving her a strange look, Her eyes widened, "H-how did i know that?" she said to herself, she couldn't quite put her finger on but she felt like she had known this for her whole life. She placed the cup of saki on the table and rested her head in her hands.

The Keeper watched as Angel sat at the table with his chain. They looked like they had already bonded, and she wondered if Angel completely understood the role of his chain in the end.
She speaks as Angel sits, though she is looking at So-so, "Welcome Angel help yourself," the little mice start dishing out food for him and the chain. She continues, "So-so Since you three are the ones that are here right now, you will get the contract. I don't care how Doldum is destroyed, just as long as he and Marline are in the Abyss before you return."
She looks to Amanda, "You are correct Red, there are many tales of Demons and Chains in folklore. The Keeper of the Clocks is actually pretty new. There have been may before her that go by many names. It seems to me that you wandered for quite sometime before you made your contract if you know about that."
She motions for the mice to pour another round of saki.

"Indeed, indeed, Sister. Sly here has missed your thousand lashes."
The laughter iced Amaya’s veins; the sound was unnatural and unnerving. But she had heard the likes of it before, in fact it sounded a lot like Cho whenever she would cry. It was as if the world itself were suffering with her, that it had to. She was certain that that was the way Cho thought it, that if Cho was not happy, no one was allowed to be happy. Maybe with her brother… Her brother?? The idea snapped into her head, she had just thought it automatically despite it being such an obscure thought. Well, he had called her ‘sister’ and they had such similarities, but it seemed such a quick conclusion to come to and be comfortable with the idea already. This was odd; maybe she had known the two before…
Amaya shook her head, no more thinking about it. She emptied her mind of the subject.
”Dinner’s Ready.” she heard through the hall, although she did not immediately respond. She heard others going towards the area, but continued to stare at the stranger. Cho seemed to be irritating the boy… What was his name? Did he mention it yet? Sly, thats what the creature had called him, maybe that was it. Either way, it was probably more impolite than not to continue speaking without an introduction.
”My name is Amaya.” she said, noticing the Sly's increasing scowl as Cho continued to probe him and his creature with giggles and her nails. It wouldn’t be too difficult to understand, though, if that thing truly was her brother. But then again, she told herself not to think about it.
”I am sorry for her. I would like to say that she isn’t normally like this, but I would be lying.” her voice was light hearted, but that didn’t stop Cho from taking offense.
”See? See how she treats me? I don’t know whos the real demon here, her or me. I can’t go five minutes without her insulting me. It’s unbearable.” Cho whined to Infernus, shooting a venomous look back at Amaya for ruining her all-too-fragile good mood. Oh well, not that it could be helped.
”How about some food?” Amaya offered to the entire group, standing and then departing before Sly had a chance to answer her. The air between them, if there had been anything in the past, would stay clearer without Cho making him miserable as she did to everyone around her with a male persuasion about them. She took to outside, seeing everyone at a table and taking a seat next to a boy in a pink sweater. Cho had followed her out of habit and the promise of food and took no pause to join at the table and float among everyone.
At the table was the Keeper of the Door, the Puppeteer, the boy in the pink sweater beside her, a boy she did not recognize, and a girl she did not recognize either. Cho must have recognized her, though, for Cho found it appropriate to go float across the table about an inch from her face and exclaim ”Hello, there, Shy One! I’ve missed you.” she then looked back to Amaya to add, ”This one listens to me when I talk.”
Amaya just looked at her, not knowing how to respond, after all, she didn’t know the girl herself. The boy next to her was blushing, almost as pink as his sweater. He looked so boyish, such a stark contrast from the other boy who was so…aged. He just looked dangerous. She was to watch him closely. This bunch was odd, she paused briefly to look back to see if Sly had followed her.

The Keeper sips her Saki, and watches the group. The Prince sits next to her and lazily stabs a piece of cake with his fork, cramming the whole thing in his mouth before pulling a lollipop out of his pocket and popping it into his mouth. He holds his cup by the rim daintily from his fingertips and glances over at the Keeper. She nods back at him, and their silent conversation ends as quickly as it began. She rises and leaves the room without saying a word and passes down the hall and through a black door with a golden knob. As she passes through her body disappears into pure darkness and the door swings shut and disappears behind her.
She decends down further and further into the darkness until she reaches a beautifully carved door embedded with jewels and glass. She reaches out to grasp the door knocker that is in the shape of a cat and taps it 3 hard times, "Bong...Bong...Bong..."
She calls through the door, "Sister, it's me. It's time for tea."

The Keeper of the Clocks adjusted the hair of one of her dolls. Its dark locks had fallen out of place. She hated when that happened. Ruined the whole image of the thing. Cheshire was hanging over her shoulder, it's gray tail wiggling about. 

When she heard her sister's voice and the loud knocks, she smiled. The Keeper took Cheshire down from her shoulder and set him on the floor. The comical cat scampered off. It didn't like morphing into its second form unless absolutely necessary. The Keeper crossed the large room to the massive, elaborately decorated door. She pulled it open and smiled warmly at her sister. 

"Ah, hello, sister! Tea time you say?" 

She walks in and kisses her sister once on each cheek, "Yes, it is time for tea."
She smiles and reaches out to pet Cheshire. The girls walk through a hall filled with clocks, Pendulums swing out of rhythm making the wall look busy. "I see you have chosen your contractor, gifted him with a third walk on the earth and his second creature. What do you see in him...what makes this one different? Do you trust him with such power?"

"Hmm..." She twirled about the hall, pleased with how the heels of her shoes clacked on the tile in time with the countless clocks' ticks and tocks. She stopped in front of an ornate table, already prepared with a fine tea set. Cheshire was filling up the cups, standing on two chibi-like paws. One of its many talents. 

"Let's just say, sister," she began. "I like him. I don't know why, but..." the Keeper of the Clocks shrugged. "I just don't want him dead. I'm pretty sure he looks better alive and well than as a doll." She dismissed Cheshire with a pay on the head, and he scampered off, ever-present grin still in place. 

The Keeper of the Clocks sipped her tea, letting the delicious warmth flow over her tongue. She twirled her dark hair around one of her fingers. "Indeed," she chirped. The Keeper set her cup down on the saucer delicately. Clearing her throat, she said, "Oh, how is Puppeteer, anyhow?" She tilted her head to one side curiously. She was making her usual attempt at smalltalk. 

"He is good, he wished he could come today...but as you know we have had some new arrivals at the mansion. They are a roudy bunch...they can't wait ti take their first contract. Prince is worried they are getting ahead of themselves, but I understand the limits of time..." She looks at her pocket watch.
A bell tolls through the hall...it fills the area with an ominous echo.
She looks to her sister and says, "A contract...did a contract just end?" The room is filled with clocks, she wonders which one tolled.