Foxtails and Fairytales: Facades and Fables of the Phantom Prince

[Arc 15] Ch.7 Cursed Sanguinite

[Sebas]

After the better part of the day, I had gathered nearly as much as I could carry and as much as Fido could consume. This was a golden opportunity and none of these dimension dwellers were nearly as dangerous or tough as the beasts in the mines. I'd seen many of their tricks on much grander scales to the point that these seemed like children compared to the hardened veterans fighting for territory against their own and the battle-hardened dwarves.

We finally stumbled on a door that was unlocked that looked promising. Most of the unlocked doors led to 'safe rooms' which weren't as safe as they were nests for grapplers. They wait for people to lower their guard and then strike. They are hard to see when you aren't looking for them which is why I missed the one that got Alpha. A rookie move, but I was distracted by both the cute girl holding my hand and the random ghost girl that showed up at the time.

This door we just opened was a long stretch of library. The shelves on the walls were half filled with books, and the other half were strewn along the ground. I've made my mistake with these kinds of festering dungeon books and anything in them is just gibberish. They are either blank or just filled with inked letters to take up space and simulate a book.

At the opposite side of the library was a door. The problem was what was between us and the door.

Mannequins.

Faceless humanoid models of wood used to style and make clothes. Each standing motionless with no clear reason for their presence. With full articulated arms and legs and as creepy as could be.

"How troublesome." I said realizing we had just walked into another trap.

Straight out of a horror movie, these mannequins wouldn't move while you were looking and were sometimes capable of blinking. So they would follow you just out of the corner of your eye. And they would follow you beyond the stretches of this room if you didn't deal with them at the source.

"We can just smash them, right?" Amanda asked.

"I wouldn't advise that. They only look like they are made of wood. They are actually apparitions." I explained. "A type of ghost and a troublesome one. They don't move while you are looking at them to make you drop your guard. They've been known to follow people around for months without making a move. Disguising themselves as scarecrows, suits of armor, and of course mannequins." I said.

"This place is nuts, are we ever going to catch a break?" Becky asked.

"This is a lucky break. Although they are troublesome to deal with, with this number of people it should be easy." I said. "We just have to watch them while I set up." I organized them so that two of them were in the doorway watching us while the other two were watching me and the people in the doorway. With so many eyes this shouldn't be too hard unless people panic or start acting crazy.

I pulled a paper for magic circles out and pressed it flat on the ground. I used a few jars of eyeballs to hold down the edges. For good luck. I used the blood I had gathered and used a brush I had to paint a circle with a pentagram. It really felt like I was casting a heathen ritual since I placed an iron nail, a bone, a cross crystal, a candle, and a twig of holly. I drew a circle of salt around it so that the monster wouldn't be able to disturb it.

In the center I placed... you guessed it, an eyeball.

"Is there a reason you have such a fascination with eyeballs?" Kaina asked.