Chapter 20 - Chapter 20

Phil reacted a little late but still dodged Vicky's lunge by a hair's breadth, he ran quickly towards the door and swung it open.

"STAY HERE BIG BROTHER!!!"

Vicky's crazed scream echoed in Phil's head as he ran into the hallway.

Phil could feel the house changing and warping, short corridors become long hallways, doors vanished while some multiplied, the house slowly turning into a complex maze.

Phil ran and saw the stairs going down, he took it but somehow ended up in the basement, the walls shifted once again as Phil frantically ran in no particular direction.

He opened the door to his left and it lead to a deep pit, he tried opening the door to his right and it lead him back to the doll room, Phil quickly closed it as he heard Vicky's screaming outside of the room.

Phil was slowly getting tired and his breathing was getting heavier.

He ran for minutes until he found a hatch, he opened it to try his luck and saw a hallway, he decided to jump and found himself on the ground floor.

Phil rejoiced since he was close to the exit now, he ran towards the exit a little exhausted. Phil took minutes of running to find the door leading to the exit that would have taken him only a second.

To his glee, the front door did not change at all, Phil ran towards it with all his might and forcefully swung it open only to be greeted by a brick wall.

His eyes went wide, despair slowly creeping towards him, Phil stood motionless ready to give up. He woke up back to his senses when he felt Annie moving in his pocket, Phil exhaled as he almost forgot what he was here for, he was here to save Annie from her nightmare.

Steeling himself he sat down and rested for a minute since he did not hear Vicky near his location. He took Annie out of his pocket and tried to explain to her their situation.

"Brother, are we okay now?"

"For now yes, but we are trapped in this house. Do you have any clue how we can escape here?"

Phil asked Annie hoping she has an answer.

Hearing Phil's question Annie nodded and explained to him.

"I think I know. You see big brother before the monster came, I remember playing with my doll Vicky. Then suddenly I heard scratching above my room, I remembered that there was an attic above my room so I tried to look for what was making the scratching sounds and when I arrived at the attic I saw a dark cave."

Annie was shivering in fright as she recalled what had happened to her.

"Inside the cave, I saw a monster, it... it... it had the body of a giant spider but the head and its face."

Annie cried.

"It has the face of my father but he had multiple eyes and a fang in his mouth."

Phil tried to calm the tiny girl who was crying on his palm. He tried to make sense of Annie's story and could not help and think why the monster she saw had the face of his father.

"Annie, are you perhaps scared of spiders?"

Phil asked and Annie nodded quietly sobbing.

Annie's answer clicked in Phil's head.

'The monster had a spider's body since Annie is afraid of spiders so she must be afraid of his father as well. But how did the monster turn into Vicky?'

"Annie, why did Vicky trap you in the dollhouse?"

Annie bawled once more.

"It's all my fault. Huhuhu. Vicky was given to me by mommy before she left me; she said that Vicky will protect Annie when Annie is in danger. When the monster saw me it tried to attack me, I tried to run away but I could not move, Vicky suddenly moved in front of me and tried to protect me. Vicky stopped the monster once but her body was cracking, I saw father's face smiling widely when he saw Vicky was unable to move anymore."

Annie's crying did not stop as she slowly continued her story with difficulty, her sobs causing her to pause from time to time.

"The monster then grabbed Vicky and entered Vicky's mouth after that the monster was gone but Vicky changed, she forced me to play with her until I was tired and unable to move after that she smiled and made me into this saying that I can be the doll instead and we will be together forever."

Phil waited for Annie to calm down, he now had an idea where to go, the cave in Annie's story should be the exit out of this dream since that was where the miasma entered.

Watching Annie finally calm down, Phil stood up quickly. He heard Vicky humming from far away. He proceeded to put Annie in his pocket once again and ran away from Vicky.

He ran quickly, but Vicky's voice seems to be getting closer.

"I...FoUnD...yOu...BiG bRoThEr."

Phil heard Vicky's eerie voice and glance behind him, what Phil saw sent shivers towards his spine. Vicky now had spider limbs sprouting in her back and part of her face was cracked revealing the face of Annie's father that has multiple eyes dotting around his forehead.

Phil ran and took the hallway to his right, moments later he heard a bang as Vicky crashed before turning due to her speed.

"I'm GeTtInG TiReD oF TaG!!"

The face of Annie's father opened its mouth revealing the fangs of a spider; it screeched and shot a web heading towards Phil quickly.

Phil narrowly dodged almost getting hit by the web; he glanced and saw a statue slowly melted as it got hit by the web.

'Shoot, that's not web to restrain me at all. Fudge, that's acid is going to kill me.'

Phil frantically dodged as the picture of getting hit and dying because of the web ran through his mind. Phil forced himself to run even faster, he felt his legs screaming as his sides started to hurt.

Looking ahead of him and seeing another turn, Phil ran quickly and turned left; he saw a door near him and decided to enter it.

Phil was lucky since the door coincidentally connected to Annie's bedroom. He looked around him and saw a wooden ladder, he proceeded to look up and saw a door in the ceiling presumably the passage towards the attic.

Deciding not to climb first, he walked towards the door of the bedroom where he just entered and put his ears against it trying to listen if Vicky was near him.

Hearing nothing outside, he slowly opened the door and found out that he was in another part of the house. Phil sighed in relief and closed the door, he decided to rest in the attic and just to be safe he tried to take the ladder with him with great success.

Vicky turned to the corner as she chased Phil, but she suddenly found out that he could no longer see him. She looked around her and all she saw was an empty hallway, she screamed making the walls shake.

After screaming Vicky opened her mouth, small black spiders crawled out in droves painting the surrounding floor black.

"FiNd Big BrOtHeR!"

She commanded as the spiders dispersed. She punched the wall hard but it did not break, she huffed and proceeded to look for Phil once more.

After climbing and taking the stairs up with him in the attic, Phil saw another hallway but it was different from the others, he guessed that the attic was affected as well by the house expanding and warping.

Deciding to rest since he felt that it would take Vicky a couple of hours to find him, Phil sat down and took out Annie from his pockets.

"Annie, is this the attic?"

Annie nodded.

"Yes brother, but it became bigger as well."

Both of them become quiet, Phil rested tired from all the running thinking that after they survive he should exercise and train more diligently. Annie was staring at Phil and looked down.

"Big brother, thank you for helping Annie."

She said and hugged her knees sitting on Phil's lap.

"Many people do not like Annie, they say Annie is a cursed child, they always smile when they are in front of Annie but when I'm not in front of them they curse me again and again, Papa too. He only keeps Annie since mommy gave Annie everything when she left. I heard him saying he wanted to kill Annie so that mommy's money will be transferred to him."

Tears stream down on Annie's face. Phil watched at the crying girl and wanted to help her.

"Does Annie have no friends?"

"No, only Vicky and grandma. But papa always hides Annie when grandma comes and when grandma insisted on meeting Annie, he told Annie he will kill grandma if I tell her that he was treating me badly."

"I can be Annie's friend."

"You will?"

Annie smiled as she looked into Phil's eyes.

"Yeah, that's why I'm helping Annie right now."

Annie wiped the tears on her face and smiled.

"Thank you, big brother."

Having rested for a few minutes Phil carefully returned Annie inside his pockets and decided to walk and slowly explore the wide attic for now.

But unknown to Phil a small spider was staring at him and following him as he wandered around the attic.

"FoUnD YoU."

Vicky whispered as she made her way towards the attic.