Mathis, not wasting this opportunity, tried to see if she had any keys on her person to no avail, she had somehow gotten inside of here without opening the door.
Although there was some temptation, he didn't dare touch the mask, which had a long crack running through it now.
Attempting to check everything he could in the house, he discovered that he was truly trapped, as he had expected but still, it wasn't like she was going to remain down forever, that hit had just knocked her out and with all the adrenaline done, he couldn't will himself to hit her while she was down.
His mind had deemed that the threat was dealt with and he couldn't force himself to go against himself, so, with little choice, he gathered food and water, opened up the attic and locked himself inside of it.
He tried to see if he could perhaps bust through the roof but it was yet another fool's errand, tucking himself in a dark corner and fabricating a shelter from the funitures and items, he remained still, hoping that she wouldn't suspect him to be there once she awoke.
He could guess the time thanks to the light pressing through thin gaps in the roof, when the light started disappearing, he heard a door slam shut.
Mathis's hope meant nothing and it only took her less than ten minutes to determine where he was but Mathis still had the tool supposed to open the attic and also, he had used some rope laying around in the attic to tie the trapdoor to one of the beams and thus, keeping it from being opened at all.
He could hear her trying to open it and moving around for a few hours, she stayed completely silent however, not saying a word, he had expected her to be furious as she had previously been, instead, she was creepily composed.
After some time, all sounds stopped altogether and the young man drifted to sleep, utterly spent from what had happened.
He remained in the attic for multiple days, barely moving at all and feeding like an animal, not even daring to think about checking what was going on underneath.
Rinse and repeat.
Rinse and repeat.
Rinse and repeat.
Repeat.
Repeat.
Repeat.
He fell to sleep once again, he had stopped paying attention the passing of night and days at some point.
As he woke up, he felt stangely comfortable, he was laying properly on his back, not with his back and limbs bent in odd ways to fit into his little hideout, the ground felt soft too, not wooden and dusty, crawling with gigantic rats and little mice that didn't have any idea of what personal space was about.
He felt full, full with good food and properly hydrated, in the last few days, he had been lacking of those two things, the light seemed overwhelming, it wasn't a tiny streak barely getting through.
He was laying in his bed, the closet was placed to block the door from opening and the key was still in the keyhole.
"Huh? Wha-"
"Was it a dream?" he wondered incredulously, having a hard time believing that this experience hadn't been real, he still remembered the hands wrapped around his throat distinctively.
However, he had somehow been moved here, with everything being as it should have been, the closet hadn't been placed back and his cheek was wet with something, the windows and flaps were as they should be and could be opened like normal.
Everything pointed to the fact that it was all a dream, a hallucination perhaps.
Maybe he had eaten something not quite fresh too, the way the doctor preserved his food wasn't foolproof after all.
Mathis carefully moved the closet out of the way and opened the door, apart from his own room flaps, the rest were closed, it was how he had left them and he was able to open them like normal, there were no traces of this doll-faced girl.
He checked the room and saw no blood anywhere, she had bled a good bit on the floor and on the bed but not even a speck was to be seen anywhere, the stick meant to open the attic was in its spot as well, clean and all.
Everything in the attic was exactly as it was before too, no proof that Mathis had ever locked himself there or brought food and water here.
He looked everywhere, noticing that the flower pots were lacking in water and the flowers weren't in perfect shape, also, they didn't appear to be disposed the way they were as he last remembered them, he wasn't certain but felt they looked more like the flowers he had seen when the doctor had showed him around.
He looked where the food was kept and none of the things he had taken appeared to be missing.
He opened the front door and breathed in the fresh air, nothing was wrong.
There was nothing to worry about, it was incredibly scary and life-like, but it had all been a dream, the contrary now seemed completely implausible, if it was the case, that woman would have had to put everything as it was, including things like the disposition of all the flowers and food he had consumed.
Not to mention he had had to eject somethings while up there and that had vanished too, she would have had to carry him back to his room as well.
Get inside the attic somehow, something she appeared to not have been capable of at first, pick him up, put the room exactly as it should be and somehow disappear from a locked room.
All of this without waking him up no less.
Mathis had been worried at first, he had checked every nook and cranny of the room to be certain, she wasn't anywhere to be seen.
Unless she could walk through walls or teleport, there was no way it had all taken place.
"What a relief..."