Lost and lonely, that's Underground, Underground

“Alright! Have you come to a decision?” Little Miss asked the two sisters with a gleeful smile on her face.

Marley’s sour expression was answer enough. Yes, they had come to a decision.

And it wasn’t one she was particularly pleased with.

“I don’t see why I get the transformation,” she muttered. “I thought you liked transformations?” She asked her sister.

“I do, but we don’t know the benefit that the accessory might have,” Carly pointed out. “I’m the actual contestant here, so I’m the one who has to finish the maze. And the accessory has a way better chance of helping with that than the transformation, don’t you think?”

Marley hated that her sister was right. Dawn, on the other hand, was impressed by Carly’s reasoning. The cosplayer wasn’t just an airhead, she could be quite shrewd when she wanted to be it seemed.

“Agh, fine, whatever,” Marley said. “Let’s do this already!”

“Great!” Little Miss clapped her hands together and bounced up and down. “Then we’ll start with the accessory. Here you are!”

She held up for Carly… a glasses case?

“A pair of glasses?” Carly picked the case up and flipped it open, checking out the stylish pair of glasses inside. “Are you sure this isn’t for Dawn?”

Little Miss shook her head. “Try ‘em on!”

Carly slid the glasses on, and gasped at what she saw- or more accurately, didn’t see.

“Whoa!” She quickly took them off, before putting them back on again. She did this a couple more times to be safe. “That’s… whoa.”

“What is it?” Marley asked her.

Little Miss was all too happy to give her a description.

X-Ray Specs: Can’t go wrong with these! These x-ray glasses will see through anything that isn’t alive within a short radius! Doors, walls, clothes, you name it! And the more aroused the wearer, the further the range!

Dawn blushed and instinctively covered her chest, even though she doubted Carly would be looking at her. “That’s… actually pretty helpful,” she had to admit.

“And perfect for you,” Marley said, rolling her eyes. She could at least acknowledge her sister had lucked out. “With those, we can get through the maze really easily, I bet.”

“Yup!” Little Miss chirped. “This is one of many gifts to benefit those who come to the bazaar! And there are other benefits you may yet to find out! But first… the transformation.”

She turned her gleeful eyes onto Marley, who braced herself for what was to come. But Little Miss held back.

And smiled.

“Don’t you think…” she pondered, “…that it would be best left up to the audience, what transformation you get?”

No, Marley didn’t think that at all.

But she didn’t really have a choice in the matter, either.

Impromptu (temporary) transformation vote!

https://strawpoll.com/05ZdzmYMGn6

---

Kim wished she could say that she and Gina had escaped from that twisted and bizarre dollhouse, or at the very least, that the two women had put up a valiant fight and defeated the twisted scissor-wielding girl, or managed to get a few good hits in.

…Of course that wasn’t the case. Even as they fled with all their might, they came upon dead end after dead end. Even when they went back the way they came? Dead end.

Dakota had warned them that the maze would reorient itself as necessary to disorient the competitors. Whatever power the labyrinth held, this grungy girl had clearly repurposed it for her own devices, and the two of them were like rats running in circles for her amusement.

She caught up to them and captured them easy as could be. The last thing Kim remembered was hearing that twisted laugh, and the creak of the rusty scissors snapping opened and closed. Then she felt something sharp plunge into her back, and everything went black.

When Kim woke up, she had no idea how much time had passed. All she knew was that she felt incredibly groggy, like she’d just gone for days without sleep (a feeling she knew all too well) and that her armpits felt incredibly sore.

No wonder- she was suspended from the ceiling by chains wrapped around her wrists, left to dangle like a prisoner in a dungeon. …Which, the more she got a look at her surroundings, seemed like an apt comparison. If dungeons came with storage shelves, dolls, and crumbling pink wallpaper.

She wasn’t alone, either. Much to her chagrin, Gina had been captured as well, and was hanging up right beside her. Amelia hung suspended on her other side, and next to her was a very angry Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin. The killer’s face was devoid of her usual mirth, instead radiating a stony coldness as she glared into the inky darkness of their domestic cell.

Every last inch of her screamed “Don’t interact with me” so Kim didn’t. She just kept her mouth shut and tried to figure out what was going on.

“Ugh… my head… what happened?” Gina was coming to, looking as groggy as Kim felt. She moved to rub her eyes, only to find that she couldn’t. That woke her up in a hurry. “Whoa, did I just get done having some really kinky… …No, probably not, huh?”

She looked around and her eyes landed on Kim, Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin, and Amelia.

“…Yeah, I’m thinking kinky sex isn’t happening with this group,” she said, trying to lighten the tense atmosphere with a joke.

Kim bit her lip.

“You would do well not to make light of the situation,” Amelia said coldly. “Whoever that girl is, she brought us here for a reason.”

Kim wanted to shout “No kidding!” but she held back.

“Were we **** or something?” She asked instead.

Amelia nodded. “That is the most likely theory.”

Kim saw Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin’s body tense. She clearly wasn’t happy about that.

Gina let out a sigh. “Well, I can’t speak for the rest of you ladies, but as much as I enjoy a good bit of bondage play, this really isn’t doing it for me. Anyone know how we get out of here?”

“Oh? Why do you want to leave so soon?”

Kim didn’t know if it was possible to jump when your feet weren’t touching the ground, but it sure felt like that was what her body did when she heard the raspy voice in her ear. Her heart pounded in her chest as she gazed into the shadows, and the stringy-haired girl emerged from the darkness.

She looked even more frightening than Kim remembered. Emaciated fingers clutched the rusty scissors, which were shining in the dim light of the basement. Her pale face and sunken-in eyes bore a twisted and distorted smile, one that sent shivers down her spine.

“You just got here!” The girl said. Her crooked smile stretched even wider until it almost tore her face in half. “And it’s time for our tea party! It would be so rude of you to leave without at least enjoying some nice tea first!”

Kim gulped. “Does… does that mean… you’re going to let us go?”

The girl blinked behind her raggedy bangs and tilted her head to the side. “Let… you go? Why would you want to go? Like I said, you just got here!”

Well, that went nowhere. It was obvious that this creepy girl was missing a couple of screws in her head.

“No, no, no, you can’t go, go, go,” the girl rambled, pacing back and forth with a thoughtful expression on her face. It almost looked like she was seriously considering it. But Kim knew she wasn’t going to get that lucky.

Her clothes are so ragged, like the rest of her. And her hair is a mess. She looks awful… what is this girl? Something Dakota created for the challenge? Kim couldn’t shake the feeling that something about this girl seemed familiar.

Kim felt a light kick in her leg from Gina’s foot. She glanced at the punk girl.

“Kim,” Gina whispered. “She looks familiar, right?”

So Gina noticed it too. Kim nodded. “Have you seen her before, or something?”

Gina squinted, trying to get a better look at the girl’s face. She was humming as she set a plates and tea cups around a pink table decorated with yellow flowers, not paying them any mind. All with one hand. The other never left the giant pair of scissors.

“She looks… kind of like Sylvia, don’t you think? How she looked before, I mean,” Gina clarified.

Kim frowned. Sure, there was a resemblance… but that wasn’t what was nagging at her. No, there was something else… something about that dress… it looked so familiar…

“Sylvia?”

The girl’s voice suddenly turned sharp like the scissors in her hand. Kim had assumed she wasn’t listening, but no- she’d heard every word. And now she was staring right at them. And she wasn’t smiling.

“I am NOT Sylvia,” she insisted, stomping over to the two girls. Her eyes burned with murderous fury. “That’s so RUDE! I’m better than her! …So DON’T mention her again!”

She held up her scissors and snapped them shut in front of Gina’s face. “…Got it?”

Gina gulped. Kim winced, shivering at the intimidating look in the girl’s eyes.

“Please refrain from such needless threats of ****,” Amelia said, drawing the scissor-wielding madwoman’s attention to her, instead.

“Oh?” The girl turned to Amelia with a scowl.

“Right now, we are undertaking a challenge, as part of the Harem Hotel show,” Amelia pointed out. “**** is prohibited against contestants. Even when you captured us, you couldn’t seriously harm us, could you? The tips of your scissors had a powerful sedative so only a graze was enough to put us each to sleep. But that is as far as it could go. So please- refrain from the empty threats. Let us discuss this matter like adults.”

The girl kept glaring, obviously irritated.

“None of us have any idea why we are here,” Amelia continued, hoping she could keep the crazy child’s attention on herself, instead of letting it drift to the others. It was her duty, as their mother. (Even if she wasn’t actually their mother.)

“…So who are you? Are you part of this challenge? Did Dakota create you?”

The girl blinked, and then burst out laughing. “Shishishishi! Shishishishi! Created me!? She didn’t make me! I was made for her! I’m hers! And she’s mine!” The joy on her face left as suddenly as it had arrived, replaced with a contemptuous glare. “But then… she used me… threw me away like I was garbage… not, not garbage, I’m not-!”

She waved her scissors around frantically, cutting invisible threads as she clutched at the side of her face with one hand. “Threw me away, threw me away… but now I’m back… yes, back, back, back! And I’ll make her pay…”

As the girl rambled on, several things became immediately clear to Kim. No, this was not part of the challenge. At least, not any challenge that made sense. Whoever this girl was, she clearly had a deep, personal grudge against the host.

So why the hell was she going after them!?

“Oh good heavens!” The girl suddenly stopped her mad rant, and smacked her forehead. Her face somehow looked as innocent as a baby faun. “I forgot about the tea! Let me go get it!”

And she tromped off without a second thought, leaving the four of them hanging there in stunned confusion.

“…Okay, we gotta get out of here,” Gina said, shaking her head. “That girl is crazy!”

“No kidding,” Kim groaned. “Well? You’re the handcuff expert here, what’s your answer?”

“My handcuffs come with a key! You got a key to this one?”

“There may be another way,” Amelia stated. Both girls turned to look at her. Even Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin pricked up her ears, glancing at Amelia from the other side.

“I received a gift earlier in the challenge,” Amelia said, glancing at her breast pocket. “A whistle. I was told to use it in case of emergency, and this certainly applies.”

“Well, that’s nice. Maybe we can call a fire fighter,” Gina said sarcastically.

Amelia wasn’t amused. “Kim, this is likely asking a lot. But if you could somehow lean over close enough and fish the whistle out of my pocket with your teeth…” It was quite an outlandish suggestion. And one Kim did not believe for a second she could oblige.

“Snap!” “Snap!”

Two loud, sickening cracks cut Amelia off mid-explanation, followed by the “Fwump!” of Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin’s feet landing on the ground.

Kim and Gina looked at the assassin in shock as the girl stood up straight, and looked down at her mangled hands.

“Did… did you just break your thumbs!?” Kim felt like she was going to be sick.

“That… that’s one way to get out of handcuffs, I guess…” Gina was right there with Kim on the throwing up train.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin’s thumbs realigned themselves and her breasts shrank slightly. Apparently she could also heal injuries with her nanomachines. Quite convenient. A second later, she fished the whistle out of Amelia’s pocket and blew it with all her might.

Nothing. It didn’t make a sound.

Kim’s heart sank in disappointment. So much for that. But… at least Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin was free! She could get them all out of their shackles, and then-

“What are you doing? It’s not time for tea yet! You can’t come down!” The crazy girl stomped into the room, waving her scissors at the assassin, her eyes wild with fury. “Bad! Bad girl!”

So much for that…

---

“That’s insane…” Sylvia couldn’t believe what Holly was telling her. Vivian couldn’t believe it either.

“So there are just parts of the maze Dakota doesn’t have control over anymore?” She asked, shaking her head. “How the fuck does that work?”

“Don’t ask me,” Holly said, tired. The three girls stepped off the boat, having made it to the other end of the shore. “None of this makes any sense! I’m just telling you what I know. Right now, the producer, Mr. S, is messing with the challenge, and with Dakota in the process. That sounds crazy!” She couldn’t believe that Dakota was actually seeming more like the rational party here.

“I know sometimes producers will step in when a season is going off the rails, and may give a nudge in a challenge here or there, but something like this…” Sylvia shook her head, still finding it hard to believe. “It’s just not how the show is supposed to be run.”

“So what are we supposed to do about it, then?” Vivian asked. “If what you’re saying is true then Teach, umbrella girl, Gina, and my super best friend Kim are all in trouble! We have to go help them!”

“If this is the producer’s game, then that’s a risky move,” Sylvia said, shaking her head. Dakota was a known entity, but the producers…

She shivered, remembering her own tenure as host. “We really don’t want to bring any pits of fire snakes down on us…”

“What does that even mean?” Holly looked at Sylvia, who had turned as white as her hair.

Sylvia just shook her head. “Trust me, you don’t want to know…”

If the producers were behind this, then all bets were off. None of them were safe. At least, not in the way any of them would consider the word “safe” anyway.

“All I’ll say is that wherever the producer is messing with the maze? We really want to be anywhere but there,” Sylvia asserted.

Holly couldn’t agree more. “We need to avoid anywhere that looks like a dollhouse,” she said. “Apparently, the expanding portions of the maze are spreading like a slime mold, and causing the maze to look like a dollhouse. At least, that’s what Dakota could observe at the edge of her influence. So if we see something like that-”

Vivian practically slapped her on the shoulder to get her attention. Holly followed her trembling finger towards a side corridor on their end of the shore.

A bright pink door was rooted in the side of the rocky wall. Spreading out from it were smooth wooden boards, like the entrance to a house was growing out of the boulders.

The door swung open with a loud creak.

“…Shit,” Holly cursed, shaking her head. “We need to go the other way!”

Luckily, there was a path on the other side of the bank that was still open. The girls turned to run, and-

“PHWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”

…A loud whistle pierced through the air, startling all of them. In all three of the girls’ hearts, a spurring urge to lend a hand suddenly sprouted, and though they knew the thoughts weren’t their own, they were difficult to fight.

“That whistle… someone’s in danger, aren’t they?” Holly gritted her teeth and looked back at the open door.

“That’s right!” Vivian exclaimed. “We need to help them!”

Sylvia knew this was a bad idea, of course she knew. But she couldn’t help herself.

All three of them turned and headed for the door, even as they all knew it was a terrible idea.

---

“There we go! Is everyone comfy now?”

“Oh yeah,” Kim dryly replied. “Just peachy. I love being chained to a chair, I do it every Saturday.”

It was nice to no longer feel like her arms were being torn out of her sockets, but this wasn’t much of an improvement. Once the scissor-wielding psycho overpowered Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin again, she chained the mute woman to a big plastic chair.

…Well, to be more accurate… the chains had come to life all on their own and wrapped themselves around the assassin, sealing her movements. That was how the other girl had managed to subdue her.

She has control over everything in this place, Kim noted grimly. We’re completely helpless against her in this dollhouse of hers.

After Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin “took” her seat at the table, the other girls “joined” her.

At least, that’s how their crazy host put it.

“It’s so nice to have friends to share my tea with!” She giggled. “Shishishi! It’s just like old times! Mommy always says that you have to hold onto your friends super-duper tight so they don’t run away! She’s so smart!”

“Mommy…” It sounded so weird to Kim’s ears. “You don’t mean… Dakota, do you?”

Gina winced. As if things weren’t bad enough with Sylvia already, Dakota apparently had another “child” somehow?

And this one wasn’t even close to being sane.

“Yes!” The girl’s face morphed into a twisted mixture of joy and raw fury. “Mommy loves me… she said she did… she said… she said… but she threw me away… mommy… didn’t want me… but I came back… yes, yes, yes, I did! Shishishi! Lynette came back! And it’s going to be SO MUCH FUN when I finally meet mommy again! Shishishi! Shishishi!”

The last piece of the puzzle clicked into place. Kim knew where she recognized this girl. Where she recognized that dress.

She’d seen it countless times on the shelves. And she vividly remembered those longing gazes in the department store window, wishing for a miracle, for Santa Claus to take pity on her, to have just enough money for…

“Little Lynette?” She breathed, her eyes bulging out of her skull. “You’re… Little Lynette?!”

The girl perked right up, her eyes wide. “That’s right! You know me?”

“No fucking way… you mean, like the toy?” Gina shook her head in disbelief.

“That doll…” Amelia remembered that presence she’d felt in the craft shop the day before. The doll that fell from the shelf…

“Little Lynette… a doll?” Gina shook her head. That had been one of the most popular toys for girls in her class when she was a kid. Everyone wanted a “Little Lynette” doll.

“Of course…” Amelia muttered. “It makes so much sense…”

“See?” The girl, who was not a girl at all but a doll brought back to life, turned her wild eyes towards Amelia, batting her eyelashes playfully. “You do remember!”

“I…” Amelia’s voice caught in her throat. “I do… you were… that doll…”

“Mommy loved me so, so, so much,” Lynette swooned. Then her pleasant expression turned to rage. “But she didn’t want me anymore… after everything she put me through… she threw me away!? No, no, no! You don’t GET to throw me away, mommy! You-!”

She froze mid-rant, her body shuddering. Her eyes spread wide, and a smile stretched its way back across her face.

It wasn’t a pleasant smile.

“She’s here…” Lynette rose from the table, cradling her cheeks with delight. Her scissors pressed against her cheek. “I can feel her… she just entered my dollhouse! My guest of honor… …Shishishishi!”

Waving her scissors with delight she stepped away, fading into the shadows. “Enjoy the tea, ladies! We have more friends coming soon!”

And just like that, she was gone.

“…Okay, what the fuck is going on?” Gina blurted out.

“You tell me, I don’t have any idea either,” Kim said, shaking her head. That really was her though. Little Lynette. Of all the toys Kim had coveted in her impoverished childhood, that one had always been the one she wanted most. “A doll brought back to life… how…”

“Little Lynette… was Dakota’s favorite toy as a girl,” Amelia breathed. Her voice sounded small and weak, like she’d been wounded. She looked down at the floor. “From what I remember… apparently, it was a gift. From her mother. She cherished that little doll… cared for it like it was her own daughter. And then one day, she just stopped playing with it. I never saw it again after that…”

“I don’t remember that,” Gina said, shaking her head. Dakota had never brought a doll to summer camp. It must have been before they met. But damn… talk about twisted.

“That’s crazy,” Kim shook her head in disbelief. “A living doll?”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin strained furiously against her chains, like she’d been doing this whole time. This conversation about dolls, it was speaking to a part of her that she REALLY didn’t like indulging.

She had to get out of here, but she couldn’t.

---

“Of course we would have to go into the creepy dollhouse,” Holly muttered. She huddled next to Vivian, both girls right behind Sylvia as she led the way through the dim hallway by means of flashlight. “Can I leave? I mean, the whole reason I came here in the first place was to tell you guys NOT to go into the creepy dollhouse, but you didn’t listen. So haven’t I become unnecessary now?”

“If what you say is true, Dakota can’t find you anyway to bring you out of here, right?” Vivian pointed out, much to Holly’s chagrin.

“…Shit.”

“We have to go find whoever needs our help,” Sylvia said adamantly. She knew full well that this was probably a trap, but at the same time…

Something about this place seemed eerily familiar.

“It’s definitely creepy,” Vivian acknowledged, biting her lip. “Super creepy.”

Holly really wanted to leave. But she couldn’t say it again. After all… she was here to help people.

“Shishishishi…”

A twisted, haunted laugh echoed through the hallway, and all three of them froze.

“…Well, that’s a bad sign,” Vivian said, stating the obvious.

Sylvia squeezed her flashlight tightly, as if the thing would protect her somehow. But all it did was make the shadows on the cracked pink walls dance.

“Shishishishi…! Finally… you’re here…”

Sylvia whirled around, the beam dancing wildly through the darkness and landing on a scraggly-looking girl with mangy blonde hair.

The girl raised her head, her blue eyes practically glowing against her pale skin. She raised her gaunt hands, and snapped a pair of rusty scissors open and shut.

“My guest of honor… finally… you’re here… I’m so happy… Lynette is so happy…! This is going to be the best tea party ever!”

“Tea party?” Sylvia gulped. Even though there were three of them, something in her gut was telling her that this girl… she was talking to Sylvia in particular.

The scissor-wielding girl’s face twisted into a look of fury and she lunged at Sylvia, swinging her scissors wildly.

Sylvia fell on her butt, just barely evading the attack. Vivian and Holly scattered in opposite directions, trying to keep clear of the blade.

Lynette leered down at Sylvia and raised her scissors again, swinging them triumphantly. “She loved me first!”