I head towards the entrance, the gust of wind outside taunting me. As I make it to the door, I look around into the dark void that even the lights can’t touch.
I wander around the area, sticking my foot out and wiping it along the dusty floor to make sure I don’t trip or stand on something I don’t want to. Eventually, I stumble across something solid and cube-like. It feels… rough though somewhat hollow? I turn around, looking at the distant lights from the hallways. I should be able to drag this back…
I drag the object into the light, which turned out to be a cardboard box. Now what? … I don’t really want to open it. Maybe I should really just stick to being stuck here forever…The box suddenly jumps, jolting me out of my daydreaming. What the heck… It continues to bounce up and down, whatever is in it definitely wants to escape… Not that it’s any of my responsibility to make sure it gets out… you got stuck in it, you should find your own way to get out…With a sigh I shakingly pry open the box, which is honestly quite tightly tapped shut. Who tapped it? I peel off the tape, it comes off with a zzzp!
Mysterious voice: STOP!I whirl around, a small group of around 6 cats stepping into the light.Spotted Cat: If you release that one, it’ll kill us all… Not just us, but every cat here…
“What why? What’s the box…?”Spotted Cat: It’s the owner of this mansion. It’s rumoured that she’s been trapped here since forever… she’s the cause of this curse. She’ll kill us all if she leaves…“Can’t I just feed you fish and then everyone would be able to escape-”
Striped Cat: If it was so easy, we would’ve done it already… Only the cats that have recently become new here can leave by eating fish. The rest of us are doomed forever.Suddenly the box violently shakes. The tape! I already took it off…
A cat jumps out of the box, her fur a sparkly purple-grey. She turns to us with turquoise eyes.Ghost Cat?: That nap lasted waaaaay longer than expected…All the cats scramble away, dispersing like a pile of dust after someone blows at it.
Ghost Cat?: Huh? Where’d everyone go…She looks around, her eyes flickering with sorrow for a second. She looks up at me.Ghost Cat?: Hello human, who are you? What are you doing in my house?
Uhhh. What am I supposed to say. Uh.
“Uh… I woke up and wandered in accidentally… are you the ghost cat of this mansion?”Ghost Cat?: Oh me? I’m known as Lavender, you could say I’m a ghost cat, though I’m just the mere ruler of this household.
“Ruler? Are you the ones trapping these human-cats here?“Lavender: Trapping? I’m not trapping anyone or anything here… This house is just a place of everyone’s minds… if they believe they are trapped they’ll be trapped… It is just that. The sign at the entrance is just meant to be interrupted as whatever one would want.
“Huh? So… if I just believe that I can leave… I’ll… just leave?”Lavender: Well you need everyone to believe it. Currently everyone believes that if you’re new here, which means you’ve been here within one year, and you are fed fish by a wandering human, then you are free to go. Anyone who stays longer than a year will be doomed. Also something about a ghost cat.“So… I need to convince… everyone of this?”
Lavender: You could say that…I sigh, scratching my head. This might be harder than expected.Lavender: I am the ruler of this house though, I could gather all the cats in one place if you want, though they might just all die because they believe I’ll kill them… I could just gather them farther away or just change.
Her fur starts rippling from the purple to a black like a wave of ink washed over her.Lavender: I guess I could fit in like this… though they wouldn’t know that its me… they wouldn’t recognize me as a friend either… Though I could pose as you, but you’d have to hide somewhere…