Tao thought that being back inside the house would bring him some form of relief, but the moment he heard the floorboards creaking under his filthy sneakers and saw the scary wallpaper with eyes staring at him, he knew that they weren't out of the woods yet. Not by a long shot.

"Wow...How big do you think this house is? It looks like we're in a totally different part of it now," Chanyeol commented, using his flame to look around.

"I don't know, hyung, but it looks like it was built to confuse us and make anyone who enters here lose their way," Tao complained as they entered a narrow hallway with doors on either side. In an actual haunted house attraction, scare actors would have popped out from those doors in intervals, or someone would knock on them, but the silence here was deafening, nerve wracking. At this point, Tao didn't know what to expect anymore, and he didn't like not knowing.

"Should we try one of these doors? Maybe one of the other hyungs or dongsaengs are here. Maybe even Jae-noona!" Chanyeol then suggested, and despite every fiber of his being protesting against that idea, Tao still nodded, looking at the doors. They both swallowed nervously when Chanyeol took hold of the handle of the door that was closest to him. He tried to hide the tremble, but Tao had noticed it. He stayed by his hyung as Chanyeol attempted to open the door, finding it, not-so-surprisingly-locked.

"Okay... The next one then, maybe," he walked towards the next door but failed to open that as well. Feeling bolder, Tao walked up to a door himself and attempted to break it down, but to no avail.

"I don't think this is getting us anywhere," spoke Chanyeol in mild defeat.

"Well, one of these doors have to open, hyung. Look, the hallway ends by that window," Tao pointed out, wondering to himself how it got dark so soon. There were no lights out either, as if the stars and moon weren't in the mood to shine tonight.

Of course. Halloween. Why would it be a nice, quiet evening when it was Halloween? he thought bitterly to himself.

Turning around, Tao walked towards another door when he saw something flashing in the corner of his eye. Startled, he quickly moved to Chanyeol, tugging at his hyung's arm.

"Hyung! There's something there!" he said in an urgent whisper, the howling wind outside not making matters any better.

"Oh? What else do I need to burn?" Chanyeol stated boldly, though the flickering of his flame showed how he was shivering as well.

"It was small, I think...There!" Tao practically shrieked as a tiny silhouette flashed by, a faint giggling sounding in the air like a ghostly echo.

Chanyeol pointed his flame forward, but the only thing they could see was a porcelain face before it disappeared. The two teens moved to follow the strange face, when they heard something click behind them.

Frozen, Tao and Chanyeol gripped each other tightly and ever so slowly turned around to see what caused the noise.

Shivers ran down their spine when one of the firmly locked doors had screeched open like a beckoning hand, inviting them in.

The two brothers gazed at the door before exchanging a look with one another.

"So, we're choosing a different door, right?" Chanyeol asked.

"Absolutely," Tao nodded, both of them scattering, in the hopes that another door would open instead.

However, before they could even touch another door, they all simultaneously started opening and closing themselves with a bang until Tao and Chanyeol went into the opened door whilst screaming.

"I am so tired of this!" Tao yelled out of frustration when the door locked shut behind them.

"You're tired of this? You haven't even been in here for too long!" Chanyeol complained, his hand firmly on his chest again.

Tao sank to the ground to catch his breath. "I'm having a headache," he whined.

"Yeah, I'm scared, too," Chanyeol huffed, wincing as he took a proper look around the room. Over a hundred pair of dead eyes seemed to be lurking at them, silently observing them, silently smiling at them.

Tao held onto his head as he gazed back at the creepy dolls that inhabited the room. Their porcelain or wooden skins shone in the light of Chanyeol's flame, their lifeless eyes looking more dull and more dark as tiny heads softly and slowly followed their movements. Some of the dolls seemed to whisper their giggles, sounds of squeaking ringing softly in the air.

It was cold in the room, despite Chanyeol's fire, though Tao wasn't even surprised anymore. He moved deliberately and gently, making sure not to make any sudden movements that might set these things off.

"Hyung," Tao muttered as softly as he could, gesturing to another door at the other side of the playroom.

"Yeah, I saw," Chanyeol nodded, following his example and moving as quietly as he possibly could.

The heebie jeebies had taken over, Tao feeling himself jittering when a clown doll clearly reared its head 360 degrees just to keep an eye on him. Literally. One eye rolled in its socket, the other, nowhere to be found.

The atmosphere in the room grew tense by the second and it was driving Tao insane. He watched the dolls watching them, saw how some even moved to keep following them through the room, heard how some whispered and giggled as if they were making fun of them and it freaked him out.

"Why do I feel like they're going to attack us at any moment?" Chanyeol asked him quietly through stiff lips.

"Because they actually might?" Tao proffered, swallowing hard. "If so though, then what are they waiting for? Why not attack us now?"

"You're going to question our good luck, Taozi?" Chanyeol asked, scurrying away the moment two baby dolls were waggling towards him. He carefully shooed them away with his flaming torch. 

"I just find it suspicious, hyung. Everything I met here so far wanted to kill me, but these things are just looking at us..."

"So, what? You want to attack them before they get to us?" Chanyeol asked in mild bewilderment.

"What if they know something about the house? Or, even better, maybe Jae-noona passed this way! If they wanted to attack us, then they would have already, don't you think so, hyung? We could try and ask them if they know where Jae-noona is!"

Given, even Tao questioned his sanity the moment he heard his own words actually flying from his mouth, not to mention that Chanyeol was looking at him as if he had completely lost his mind. Maybe he did, after all, he was still scared out of his wits and maybe that's exactly what happened.

Chanyeol reached the door and sighed when he couldn't open it. His flame became bigger, as if he had the mind to just burn his way through all the locked doors, had Tao not grabbed his arm to calm him down.

"Chan-hyung, relax, you don't want to agitate anyone..." he warned, gesturing at the dolls as the atmosphere felt more hostile. "Whatever the reason for that door being locked, maybe it has something to do with those things," he added softly.

"Okay...so, what do you suggest we do then? Do we have to defeat them, or do you think they can help us?" Chanyeol asked and Tao swallowed, seeing the dolls moving slowly towards them one by one. He hated having to make a choice, but what other option did he have?

>>> PRE-EMPTIVELY ATTACK THE DOLLS. DOLLS ARE THE ENEMIES OF HUMANITY. THEY MUST DIE. <<<

>>> THE ROOM IS OBVIOUSLY FILLED WITH GENTLE SPIRITS. ASK THEM TO HELP, THEY JUST LOOK LIKE THEY WANT TO PLAY. <<<