HOME | DD

Description
She was pretty sure that it was the middle of the night.
But instead of giving in to the calls of sleep, there she was – somewhat half-awake – with her face buried under several pieces of paper scrawled with ink and pencil marks.

Mara has been trying to learn about mathematical theories and physics for quite a while now (thanks to her ‘newly-found teacher’, Xy), and she knows that she will explicitly lie to herself if she says she’s enjoying it. The truth is, she has been confused ever since Xy introduced some complex symbols that seemed Greek to her (which later turned out to actually be Greek symbols), in addition to all those confusing operations that she can’t imagine to occur in real life. She is obviously having a very hard time keeping up with what Xy is saying. Often, she just wants to silence the girl and tell her outright that she isn’t processing anything.

But then, Xy told her that ‘math’ might be their only chance of getting out.

“No one has tried it yet. And no one ever came out! Therefore, it must be the solution!”

Mara silently groaned and slapped the papers full of formulas on her face as Xy’s voice echoed from the back of her mind. As much as the girl sounded delusional, it does seem that she did have a point. Maybe she did have to learn all those to be able to help formulate a mathematical plan of escaping.

But then again, the call of sleep was strong in their moonlit room. It didn’t help that she was wrapped in her warm blankets and surrounded by pillows.

Slowly, Mara’s eyelids started to get heavy. Her vision began to blur as her mind slips into sleep. She forgot the fact that she was still sitting up; she let her consciousness fade away as her body slowly loses balance and causes her to lean forward little by little. Just as her face is on the verge of falling flat into the pillow in front of her… she heard a scream.

She bolted right up, eyes widened with the sudden intrusion.

Hair still disheveled, Mara got off her bed and peered through the door to see if anyone’s in the hallway.

As expected, she was welcomed by two inseparable companions during the mansion’s nights – silence and darkness. There was nothing more. How queer?

Intrigued by the notion that someone might still be awake at that hour aside from her, she silently walks out of the room, closing the door carefully behind her. She had no idea where the scream might have come from, but for some reason, her feet seemed to know where to go. Mara went with her instincts, descending down a staircase and pacing through a clearing that she knew was a hallway. From the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of something bright – a candle. She ran towards it without hesitation and raised it over her head as she looked around.

“Hello? Is anybody here?”

No answer came. Around was just the dark empty hallway looming over her.

She hesitated. Maybe she should wake Chelthiea and Nana? They would surely want to come.

But as she turned her heel to sprint back to their room, a faint wind brushed her ears. A voice.

“Anna…”

She froze, feeling as if her heart jumped up to her throat.

Mara took a deep breath. She must have been imagining things again. Her mind often plays tricks – perhaps it has gotten angry with her for fogging up her memory with the Law of Relativity. She should just stay calm and hold herself together as she traces back her path. She should be with Chelthiea and Nana in no time.

Unfortunately, her mind is getting good at tricks. Minutes passed, and she has been going in circles. No matter where and how she looked, there were no staircases in sight. She silently panics, and then she heard it again…

“Anna Maria…”

The voice was soft and almost inaudible, and yet it was omnipresent and clear. It echoed her name – repeating it over and over again until all Mara hears is just a vague reverberation of whispers that is calming and nice.

As if in a trance, she stopped in her tracks and lifted up her candle, illuminating a huge painting splashed with pale hues.

Mara stares at it – completely absorbed in the image that seemed to be swirling before her eyes. Stepping closer to the painting, she hears the whispers growing louder and louder, getting more mixed and incomprehensible by the second, before compressing into a single and clear word that seemed to be its message all along –

“Burn.”

She snapped out of her trance, only to be welcomed by a flicker of orange lingering at the edge of the frame. The contrasting color grew quickly and flapped at the sides of the pale shades of the painting. Then it came to her – it was burning.

She expected her heart to pound loudly on her chest. She expected herself to flee and wake the others. But instead, she didn’t move. It was as if her own soul is commanding her to stop and look.

The mansion took her whole life away from her. It’s about time that it loses something precious, too.

She just watched as the fire slowly devoured the bottom of the painting. She was calm. There was nothing to worry about…

But as the flame started to grow further, she realized that burning the painting meant burning the mansion… and killing everyone in it.

In a split second, she began to run, trusting her feet to take her to the kitchen. There’s water there, of course. It will fix everything. But on her way, a vase filled with water greeted her instead.

She snatched the vase and swiftly splashed its contents on the burning painting. It quenched a part of the fire… but it was not enough.

Mentally cursing herself, she scanned the vicinity and found another water-filled vase. She didn’t even question where it came from – she just hastily grabbed it and threw the entire thing to the fire with all her might.

With a hissing sound, the flames were finally extinguished.

“What –“ she whispered, a shocked yet stiff expression dominating her face. Her gaze locked on the partially burned painting as she tried to take in all that had happened... She almost burned the painting! And not just that; she almost burned the mansion.

However, what baffled her most was the fact that she did it with a calm temperament. It was like her conscience fled from her for a moment – like she wanted to take a life.

It was as if the longer she stayed inside, the more she becomes unlike herself.

Another wind blew. As if by a strange mechanism, she instinctively turned her head to the right. On the wall was a mirror, reflecting her worn-out face and tousled hair next to a piece of art that almost turned to ash. Like a lone witness to a crime, the mirror seemed to stare at her soul – accusing her of things she already knew.

She gave the shattered vase on the floor one last hurt look before taking a step closer to the mirror...

“What is happening to me?”

YOO PEOPLE OF THE WOORRRLLLDDD~~ //highfivesy'all

Hehe, I'm actually 'early' for something huhu
I tried to finish this since I think my sleepiness wont be here until after a few hours lol
My eyes need help like--
Anywayyyy, a lot of things has happened inside since Mara came to the mansion, and she has learned a lot since then. The discoveries were quite shocking and bothersome to her, especially the part where the people inside are mostly centuries apart in age or something like that
And that thing where she got spoilers about what's going to happen in the future - well, she's secretly frustrated that she can't go out and tell her family about it. She's very family-oriented after all
So yeaaaahhh, aside from that, other things happened because the mansion is mysterious just like that and now she's just confused
Oh, and the reason why she pulls a part of her hair back in a ribbon is because her hair will be all over her face if she doesn't, as seen in the pic (sort of)
Btw fire is hard ugh
Sorta practiced on shading(?) idk even haha
Let's just ignore all the errors in my words and in the pic lolol

Have a great day darlings! Or night~ :3 Thanks for reading that huge block of text hahaha

Description
She was pretty sure that it was the middle of the night.
But instead of giving in to the calls of sleep, there she was – somewhat half-awake – with her face buried under several pieces of paper scrawled with ink and pencil marks.

Mara has been trying to learn about mathematical theories and physics for quite a while now (thanks to her ‘newly-found teacher’, Xy), and she knows that she will explicitly lie to herself if she says she’s enjoying it. The truth is, she has been confused ever since Xy introduced some complex symbols that seemed Greek to her (which later turned out to actually be Greek symbols), in addition to all those confusing operations that she can’t imagine to occur in real life. She is obviously having a very hard time keeping up with what Xy is saying. Often, she just wants to silence the girl and tell her outright that she isn’t processing anything.

But then, Xy told her that ‘math’ might be their only chance of getting out.

“No one has tried it yet. And no one ever came out! Therefore, it must be the solution!”

Mara silently groaned and slapped the papers full of formulas on her face as Xy’s voice echoed from the back of her mind. As much as the girl sounded delusional, it does seem that she did have a point. Maybe she did have to learn all those to be able to help formulate a mathematical plan of escaping.

But then again, the call of sleep was strong in their moonlit room. It didn’t help that she was wrapped in her warm blankets and surrounded by pillows.

Slowly, Mara’s eyelids started to get heavy. Her vision began to blur as her mind slips into sleep. She forgot the fact that she was still sitting up; she let her consciousness fade away as her body slowly loses balance and causes her to lean forward little by little. Just as her face is on the verge of falling flat into the pillow in front of her… she heard a scream.

She bolted right up, eyes widened with the sudden intrusion.

Hair still disheveled, Mara got off her bed and peered through the door to see if anyone’s in the hallway.

As expected, she was welcomed by two inseparable companions during the mansion’s nights – silence and darkness. There was nothing more. How queer?

Intrigued by the notion that someone might still be awake at that hour aside from her, she silently walks out of the room, closing the door carefully behind her. She had no idea where the scream might have come from, but for some reason, her feet seemed to know where to go. Mara went with her instincts, descending down a staircase and pacing through a clearing that she knew was a hallway. From the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of something bright – a candle. She ran towards it without hesitation and raised it over her head as she looked around.

“Hello? Is anybody here?”

No answer came. Around was just the dark empty hallway looming over her.

She hesitated. Maybe she should wake Chelthiea and Nana? They would surely want to come.

But as she turned her heel to sprint back to their room, a faint wind brushed her ears. A voice.

“Anna…”

She froze, feeling as if her heart jumped up to her throat.

Mara took a deep breath. She must have been imagining things again. Her mind often plays tricks – perhaps it has gotten angry with her for fogging up her memory with the Law of Relativity. She should just stay calm and hold herself together as she traces back her path. She should be with Chelthiea and Nana in no time.

Unfortunately, her mind is getting good at tricks. Minutes passed, and she has been going in circles. No matter where and how she looked, there were no staircases in sight. She silently panics, and then she heard it again…

“Anna Maria…”

The voice was soft and almost inaudible, and yet it was omnipresent and clear. It echoed her name – repeating it over and over again until all Mara hears is just a vague reverberation of whispers that is calming and nice.

As if in a trance, she stopped in her tracks and lifted up her candle, illuminating a huge painting splashed with pale hues.

Mara stares at it – completely absorbed in the image that seemed to be swirling before her eyes. Stepping closer to the painting, she hears the whispers growing louder and louder, getting more mixed and incomprehensible by the second, before compressing into a single and clear word that seemed to be its message all along –

“Burn.”

She snapped out of her trance, only to be welcomed by a flicker of orange lingering at the edge of the frame. The contrasting color grew quickly and flapped at the sides of the pale shades of the painting. Then it came to her – it was burning.

She expected her heart to pound loudly on her chest. She expected herself to flee and wake the others. But instead, she didn’t move. It was as if her own soul is commanding her to stop and look.

The mansion took her whole life away from her. It’s about time that it loses something precious, too.

She just watched as the fire slowly devoured the bottom of the painting. She was calm. There was nothing to worry about…

But as the flame started to grow further, she realized that burning the painting meant burning the mansion… and killing everyone in it.

In a split second, she began to run, trusting her feet to take her to the kitchen. There’s water there, of course. It will fix everything. But on her way, a vase filled with water greeted her instead.

She snatched the vase and swiftly splashed its contents on the burning painting. It quenched a part of the fire… but it was not enough.

Mentally cursing herself, she scanned the vicinity and found another water-filled vase. She didn’t even question where it came from – she just hastily grabbed it and threw the entire thing to the fire with all her might.

With a hissing sound, the flames were finally extinguished.

“What –“ she whispered, a shocked yet stiff expression dominating her face. Her gaze locked on the partially burned painting as she tried to take in all that had happened... She almost burned the painting! And not just that; she almost burned the mansion.

However, what baffled her most was the fact that she did it with a calm temperament. It was like her conscience fled from her for a moment – like she wanted to take a life.

It was as if the longer she stayed inside, the more she becomes unlike herself.

Another wind blew. As if by a strange mechanism, she instinctively turned her head to the right. On the wall was a mirror, reflecting her worn-out face and tousled hair next to a piece of art that almost turned to ash. Like a lone witness to a crime, the mirror seemed to stare at her soul – accusing her of things she already knew.

She gave the shattered vase on the floor one last hurt look before taking a step closer to the mirror...

“What is happening to me?”

YOO PEOPLE OF THE WOORRRLLLDDD~~ //highfivesy'all

Hehe, I'm actually 'early' for something huhu
I tried to finish this since I think my sleepiness wont be here until after a few hours lol
My eyes need help like--
Anywayyyy, a lot of things has happened inside since Mara came to the mansion, and she has learned a lot since then. The discoveries were quite shocking and bothersome to her, especially the part where the people inside are mostly centuries apart in age or something like that
And that thing where she got spoilers about what's going to happen in the future - well, she's secretly frustrated that she can't go out and tell her family about it. She's very family-oriented after all
So yeaaaahhh, aside from that, other things happened because the mansion is mysterious just like that and now she's just confused
Oh, and the reason why she pulls a part of her hair back in a ribbon is because her hair will be all over her face if she doesn't, as seen in the pic (sort of)
Btw fire is hard ugh
Sorta practiced on shading(?) idk even haha
Let's just ignore all the errors in my words and in the pic lolol

Have a great day darlings! Or night~ :3 Thanks for reading that huge block of text hahaha