Author Note: You’ve all seemed very cranky in the comments last week…..was that my fault J ? Please enjoy this week’s Playhouse m(_ _)m Do you want to play?
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The cobble stone basement underneath the Tuan manor was alight with a blue glow as Rea’s body floated in the center of a sphere of concentrated magic.

Dressed in her night gown, her knees huddled to her chest with her arms locked around them and her hair out and flowing you could barely tell she was on the fine line between life and death.

Her eyes were closed peacefully, unconscious, the magic numbing the excruciating pain from her injuries and her seal was flashing dully like a dying firefly.

Mark stared at her form with hard eyes and balled fists. His clothes were drenched in her blood from cradling her tattered body in his arms all the way home.

He thought he’d be sick from the sight of his blood covered hand brushing his Doll’s hair out of her face as her body fought for every breath in his lap.

Jinyoung could read aura, Jaebeom had telekinesis, Jackson could paralyze, if Mark didn’t have his trait of durability and accelerated healing there was no way Rea would have survived.

Her body was riddled with gashes and stab wounds so severe she would have to stay incarcerated in the orb of his magic for quite sometime, if her heart didn’t give out.

The five Dolls looked on in anguish, their eyes swollen from tears and their voices hoarse from screaming.

Karin sobbed softly into Mari’s chest as the elder Doll smoothed her hair soothingly, a firm line as little tears still trickled from her bloodshot eyes.

Chrysalis was in a daze with her lips parted as her body had a hard time breathing and was leaning her head on Faun’s shoulder.

Faun laid her head against hers, her hat disheveled and hanging precariously from her head as she rubbed soothing circles on her lower back to calm her down though she wasn‘t doing any better.

Talia leaned her back against the wall next to Miss Mona with her arms crossed and her face impassive.

She couldn’t even look at her sister right now and she was the first one to slip out of the room.

“I want you all to get to bed. Now.”

Mark commanded quietly, his voice barely a whisper and the girls bowed respectfully and while supporting each other they left through the door as the six of Mark’s closest friends entered silently.

They nodded towards Mona and the hairs on the back of their necks stood tall as Mark’s rage began to resonate from his body.

“I’m going to find who did this…and I’m going to kill them….”

“Mark I’m so sorry…..”

Jaeboem began and BamBam and Yugyeom cowered while the older four didn’t even flinch when Mark jolted around, his eyes ablaze, his fangs snarling and his voice an animalistic roar.

“I’M GOING TO BREAK EVERY BONE IN THEIR BODY! THEN TEAR THEM LIMB FROM LIMB AND AS THEIR BODY’S LAY SURROUNDED BY THEIR OWN POOL OF BLOOD, GASPING FOR THEIR LAST FEW SECONDS OF LIFE, BEFORE THE PAIN BECOMES TOO MUCH AND THEY GO NUMB…..I WILL CRUSH THEIR SKULL IN MY BARE HAND, SLOWLY, REVELING IN THE SOUND AS IT CRACKS UNDER MY FINGERS!”

Before he could change to Demon form Jackson blurred and held his shaking best friend in his arms tightly.

“This is all my fault.”
“YOU’RE DAMN RIGHT THIS IS YOUR FAULT”

Jaebeom’s chest sunk as Mark yelled at him. His voice was pained, so pained. Jinyoung squeezed his shoulder reassuringly making the elder shake his head.

“Mark, this was no one’s fault but the assailant. No one knew this would happen…”
“THEN HE SHOULD’VE BEEN ING PREPARED!”

Jackson groaned as he held Mark back and the sight made the youngest watch in fear and Neema covered her eyes with her little hands.

“Was it the same aura from the murders?”

Youngjae asked with his arms crossed and everyone turned to face Jinyoung who nodded his head grimly.

“So what do we do now? We can’t just do nothing!”
“Well what do you suggest we do Jackson? We don’t know who this person is, where they’re from, all we know is they murdered Doll candidates in alleyways for some sort of revenge.”

Mark’s body tensed, his head tilting up towards the ceiling with closed eyes as he tried to regain his composure.

“I know what you’re implying Jinyoung, don’t you think I’m suffering enough already? Rea is on the brink of death and now you want me to offer up another of my Dolls as bait to lure out this monster?”

The room fell silent and Mona’s crystal voice finally spoke up.

“Everyone’s exhausted, their judgment clouded so it’d be best not to make any hasty decisions at this time. All we can do is just hope for Rea to pull through and comfort the girls in their time of need.”

They nodded their heads in agreement and Jackson walked away from Mark as Jaebeom came up to him with an apologetic expression.

“I’ll inform all the Puppeteers, have them keep a look out, and if they hear or see anything….”
“They’ll do nothing. The culprit’s death will be by my own hands. Now if you‘d all be so kind as to leave my estate.”

Mark stared up at his ceiling as the morning light began to pour in through his curtains.

After brushing his fingers through their hair and kissing his girls good night as they slept he returned to his room and burned his blood ridden clothes and laid in bed with the idea of sleep completely out of his mind.

He sat up as he heard strange noises coming from outside. He slipped on a grey shirt and ventured out to the garden and was surprised to see Talia up and about still in her night wear.

She looked over her shoulder with her arms ready to land another punch on the oak tree and she beamed at him.

“Good morning Master~”
“Good…morning Talia. Why are you up so early?”
“Wanted to get a head start on a brand new day that’s all Master♥”

She laughed brightly and returned to assaulting the tree and Mark frowned deeply. She wasn’t activated yet there was a dent in the bark of the sturdy oak.

The brown bark was splintering and covered in a red substance and Talia groaned with each blow. He walked up to his Doll with sad eyes and brushed her twin tail over her shoulder.

The skin of her knuckles were completely worn away revealing the white bone underneath it and blood dripped from her clenched fists and trickled down her arms.

Her eyes were puffy and dark and her lips were curled over her teeth in a painfully forced smile.

“Talia stop”
“Can’t do that Master, I just started~”
“Talia it’s alright”
“It’s not alright Master, nothing is alright…..”

Her eyes began to glisten as her blows landed more frequently. Her smile shrunk little by little and by the time it disappeared her body was erupting into full on sobs of pain.

Mark pinned her arms to her chest as he pulled her into his embrace and they knelt to the floor as her legs gave out underneath her.

“I SHOULD’VE DONE SOMETHING!”

Talia cried leaning her head into his shoulder, the grey fabric turning dark from her tears and Mark kissed the top of her head comfortingly.

“There was nothing anyone could do Angel. If you think about it, she protected a lot of people….”
“I’m suppose to protect her! I’m the oldest Doll, the rest of the girls are my responsibility. We’re suppose to stick together and…..”

Her words became mumbled as she cried harder. Mark carried her quivering body in his arms and blurred her to his room.

Laying her in his bed and pulling the covers up he brought her injured knuckles to his lips as he activated her.

Her soulless eyes still glistened with tears and he forced her body to relax so she can rest. Slowly the skin on her hands grew back and once he knew her conscious had fallen asleep he kissed her forehead, lingering there for a moment, then left the room.

Once out the door he banged the back of his head against the wood and sighed. If Talia was like this he feared what kind of state the rest of his Dolls were in. He blurred to Faun’s room and threw the door open while calling up into the trees, his voice echoing in the vast forest.

“Faun, are you alright?”

Birds chirped and the hammock swayed emptily in the breeze. Maybe she was in the kitchen?

Mark opened Mari’s door and he frowned at her bed that was neatly arranged, her stuffed animals aligned and her romance novels put away with no sign of her.

“Where in the world……”

He opened Karin’s door and looked up at the giant books but her bed was shut and Herbert’s carrier door was wide open. A sign hanging from her shelf read “CLOSED.”

He started to panic, his heart rate increasing and his brows furrowing and he quickly blurred to Chrysalis’ room, almost breaking the door off it’s hinges from throwing it open hastily.

His face paled. She wasn’t there either. There was no indication she had been in the room all morning.

“No no no no no…..”

Every worst case scenario began to play in his mind as he blurred all over the house. What if the assailant broke in and took them away?

“Mona! Mona!”

Or worse, what if they left him? Hearing his Marionette reply to him in the basement he blurred so fast he almost fell over as Mona stopped him abruptly with a finger over her lips.

“The girls….”

She nodded her head towards the cracked open door and Mark peered inside and his shoulders dropped in relief.

“And these mangas were based off the original PC games but it’s strange, who would want to party with corpses?”
“Zombie party Darlin~”
“Are zombies real Faun?”
“You’re the smart one Karin I dunno haha Demons and magic exist why can’t zombies??”
“Choopa…..”

Herbert shivered at the thought of zombies being real as he sat on top of Karin’s head. She was reading Rea a manga and by the look of the pile next to her she had read her a lot of manga.

Faun was placing breakfast pastries on saucers for everyone and she pushed the empty plate closer to the glowing blue sphere next to Rea’s tea cup.

Mari was decorating the area around the sphere with flowers, mumbling to herself quietly with her eyebrows furrowed and her cheeks puffed out.

“Is this right? I don’t know much about flower arranging…..I think Rea said she liked this one…..or maybe it was that one….”

Chrysalis was smoothing out everyone’s sleeping bags with a smile on her face and the girls squealed as Mari dropped her flowers and ran away from a bee that had been hiding in a tulip.

The bee flew outside as Mark opened the door completely and the girls bowed their heads respectfully and waved.

“Hello Master, Herbert say hi”
“Choopa!”
“Good morning Master”
“Master you’re just in time for breakfast~”

Chrysalis wiggled inside of a sleeping bag and popped her head out cutely and Mark smiled.

“Hello Master”

Karin pulled Mark by the hand to join their circle. Faun held up a plate for him and he shook his head and when she frowned he sighed and took the pastry making her eyes smile.

Mari placed a flower in a teacup for a center piece and sat with her legs crossed and began sipping her tea. As the warmth of the liquid traveled down she let out a happy sigh.

Everyone looked over as Chrysalis still in the sleeping bag wiggled over like a worm and her face laid on the stone floor as she tried to catch her breath making the room laugh.

“What going on here?”
“What’s it look like Master? We’re having breakfast with Rea~ And so she’s not alone we all brought our sleeping bags down here to stay by her side because No Doll Left Behind!”

Mark decided not to scold Faun for her un-lady like behavior as she talked with full and he brushed the crumbs from the side of and kissed her cheek.

“Rea wouldn’t want us to be unhappy because of the situation right now so this is how we’re coping….”

Mari said as she sliced her pastry with a fork and knife and brought it to her lips. Karin broke off a piece of flaky crust and held it up to Herbert and he cooed happily.

Sipping at the orange juice in a tea cup Mark looked around astounded by his Dolls.

“And what about Talia?”

Everyone smiled sadly and Chrysalis laid her head against his lap and he brushed his fingers through her raven hair.

“Some people cope differently than others Master. She’ll come down here when she’s ready.”

“You are all so beautiful….and so brave….”

“Master if there’s anything we can do to help, don’t hesitate to ask us okay? We want revenge for our sister just as much as you do!”

Mari yelped as Faun knocked over her tea cup as she determinedly stood with her fist in the air.

“If I have to learn to wield a weapon Master I’ll do so. I can be a Warrior Princess.”
“I staid up reading books about murders and they say sometimes the perp will revisit the scene of a crime to relive the feeling of the act……”

Mark narrowed his gaze and frowned as all the girls looked at him with serious eyes.

“No”
“Master we know the murders occurred in Chrysalis’ alleyway. Maybe if she staid there for a bit the perp will come back…..”
“And then what? Kill her? No.”
“Master we have to try! For Rea! We have to do this!”
“You know what I should do? Lock you all in yours rooms and forbid you all from ever leaving this manor ever again!”

Mark growled deep in his throat and he looked over as Chrys tugged on his shirt with a determined look.

“Master, I can do this”

Mona bowed stiffly as Sunmi was let in by Lillith. The woman smiled while holding up a box of cupcakes in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other.

“Lady Sunmi, what brings you here?”

Sunmi grinned and shook her head as she walked up to the Marionette.

“We both know you don’t like me Mona, don’t force yourself with your formality.”
“As you wish. Thank you for your gifts now leave at once.”

Sunmi giggled and tried to walk by her but Mona kept blocking her way with her hands crossed in front of her.

“Oh Mona have a heart…oh that’s right, you can’t, because you’re a Doll….”

Mona narrowed her eyes as Sunmi laughed at her.

“Unlike you, I do have a heart and it aches for Mark who’s grieving over the death of his Doll and I wanted to console him.”
“Rea is not dead.”

Sunmi rolled her eyes while her teeth and she replied sarcastically.

“Oh what greaaat news. I hope she gets better soon then. You all must be so worried.”
“Yes Master Mark is VERY worried for HER.”

Sunmi glared and Mona smirked triumphantly.

“Look where is he? Do your job and inform him that I’m here to see him.”
“He’s having a moment with his girls and I wouldn’t dare to disturb him at this time.”
“Of course he’s playing with his Dolls. That’s all they’re good for, don’t you think Mona?”
“Oh I wouldn’t say that Lady Sunmi, he seems to play with you as well”

The two women held a steady glare, their bodies tense and Sunmi frowned as Mona’s lips remained in a firm line.

The two turned their heads as the room filled with giggles. Mark’s head hung low in shame as the girls clung onto him animatedly, their eyes wide and their voices booming.

How a mighty demon was done in by a bunch of girls with round eyes, he didn’t know, and it made his inner monster growl in disapproval.

“Alright enough enough, you’ve all made your point. Mona can you summon Jinyoung…..Hello Sunmi what are you doing here?”

Sunmi brushed past Mona and waved as the girls bowed to her and she pulled Mark away from the group, wrapping her arms around his neck and shoving her tongue down his throat.

Mari and Faun covered Karin’s eyes as they oo-ed their actions and Chrysalis averted her gaze embarrassedly.

Mona ushered the girls upstairs to check on Talia and as she looked back at her Master Sunmi opened her eyes to smirk at her and she let out an unnecessarily loud moan as Mark’s hands landed on her waist.

Mark pulled back and brushed his thumb across her lower lip and he smiled.

“What brings you here?”
“I come with gifts for you. I know how upset you’ve been and I wanted to make you feel better…”

She grabbed his face in between her hands and pulled him in for another kiss.

“I also brought the rest of the girls cupcakes to cheer them up”
“That’s very thoughtful of you Sunmi thank you”
“My pleasure, I adore them just as much as I adore you”

Mark smiled happily and brought her back in for another kiss and Sunmi crossed her fingers behind his head while tightening her arms around his neck deepening the kiss.
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Author Note: Everyone kept yelling “NO REA DON’T DIE!” and I was quietly wondering if someone would break the cycle and go “LET HER DIE!” Sick masochist Hahanah (which I’m not btw~) I had no plans of killing her….or do I? o-o See you all next week for another Play House m(_ _)m Do you still want to play?