░ Chapter 30 ░ (1/2)

Author Note: -drags body out from the depths- I’M SO SORRY EVERYONE I HAVEN’T UPDATED IN WEEKS I HAD NO INTERNET OH GAD THE AGONY @_@ I hope you guys are still with me and if not well…..okay I might be a bit sad lol How have you guys been? What have I missed? Tell me anything~ Last update (but I’m pretty sure I double updated hahaha) the Dolls went over to Master Jaebeom’s for help, The Mistress’ Doll Katalena was sent to spy on Chrys, if she can remember to do so, and Mark is still not in one piece. Chrys? Chrys what are you going to do about this mess hmmmm?? Please enjoy this week’s update of Playhouse m(_ _)m Do you want to play?

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He thought she wouldn’t notice but she did. For the week she’s stayed here in this small little cottage in the more country side outside of Seoul Chrysalis noticed that Chanyeol always wandered off as night came.

She would keep her eyes closed as he awkwardly tip toed towards the bed and knelt by her side quietly.

He’d wave his hand in front of her, what he thought, was a sleeping face then he would slip out of his sliding door and not be home until a few hours before the sun came up.

Once the sun came up and they were both awake you would never suspect he’d only sleep a couple of hours a night, he was such a ball of energy.

That wasn’t the only thing she found odd. He would have random visitors throughout the day. It could be early in the morning when they were having breakfast or the dead of night after he just returns from where he’s been.

They were mostly small children or the elderly. She would watch from inside as he knelt to the height of the group of small kids and listen intently to what they have to say.

Some had worried faces and some would be excited to see him as if he were their most favorite person in the world.

Their clothing was basic, Earth colored tones that fit loosely and Chrys couldn’t help but smile at the cute little hats they would wear that reminded her of the Dwarfs from Snow White.

When elderly visited he would immediately help them to the wooden bench he keeps on the edge of his garden and they would smile and shake their heads as he offered them a taste of the various berries he proudly grew.

As bright as his smile was his expression could also grow very dark and it would send a shiver down her spine. As he’d listen to them his jaw would clench, his eyes would grow dark and serious and it would be as if that playful ball of energy was just an illusion or something. But she would never ask him about the visitors or what made him so upset, it wasn’t her business.

Today she crouched next to Chanyeol as he wore his gardening gloves and clipped off the dead branches of his fruit bushes, which she‘s never done before.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to talk to him, he’s proven himself to be a nice person but the black vortex feeling inside of her from being away from Mark was sucking away her energy and ability to speak.

It took a few days for her body to stop shivering, for her stomach to stop trying to escape through her mouth, and for her to stop crying. She had to reassure Chanyeol that she wasn’t a drug user going through withdrawal because that’s what it looked like to him at first and he didn‘t like liars, he‘s made this very clear.

But that was what she was. A person going through withdrawal from being cut off from the most powerful drug known on Heaven and Earth, love.

What were the girls doing right now? Has Miss Mona found a way to help Mark?…..Was Mark okay?

She was about to frown from the thought but she looked up curiously as Chanyeol took off his straw hat and placed it on her head with a smile.

“Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing you know Hahaha!…..I was talking about the sun?…..You know what never mind you looked like you were thinking about something I’m sorry! I’m just going to be quiet now……”

He stutters his words as his face glows pink and he returns his attention to his task at hand.

“Can I help?”

She whispers quietly and he lifts his head up and looks all around curiously with arched brows. He turns to her and his face lights up dramatically.

“Oh! You said that! I thought I was just hearing things! It wouldn’t be the first time~ Not that I hear things a lot! I mean I do that’s what ears are for!……Crap……”

He hands her the gardening clips and tells her to cut off the darker branches that are beginning to wilt so that new ones can grow in their place.

She frowns. All the branches looked the same to her. After a moment of watching her completely lost Chanyeol points to a branch and tells her to clip it and he laughs that it takes her two hands to cut through it.

“You have to get rid of the dark in your life so something bright can take it’s place you know? If you don’t do it no one else will and nothing will change. Take these branches for example, they’ve served their purpose and like all things they come to their end and get clipped away, making way for something new.”

Chrys picked up the dead branch and examines it then peers up at him with rounded empty eyes.

“Can’t you save it?”

“Sometimes things can’t be saved but a lot of times they can if you really try.”

“Even when people say there‘s nothing you can do? That you can’t?”

“I’m a firm believer in if you try hard enough you can do anything but something tells me we’re not talking about my plants hahaha.”

Chanyeol peers up at the sun and whistles.

“I’m gonna go get us some lemonade then we can talk more. This is so exciting this is the most you’ve talked all week! Not that I noticed you not talking! It’s not like I was hoping for you to talk or anything!……Gonna go now…..Oh Crap!”

He gets flustered and stands, heading for the house but he yelps and falls to the floor, rolling a few feet and sprawls out in the dirt. This wasn’t the first time this week that it’s happened, in fact it was beginning to get strange.

“Coooooool Chanyeol very coooooool”

He laughs it off then grows silent as Chrys crawls over and sprawls out on the ground as well with her head next to his.

“You’re very…free spirited…you remind me of someone”

“It’s the way I roll Hahaha Get it? Cause I’m always rolling??…..Uh-huh shut up Chanyeol…..”

They basked in the sun, watching the birds as they flew over head in complete silence and for that moment Chrys felt something she hadn’t since she left the manor, peace.

“Someone close to me…..he’s in a trouble…..”

“Oooh La La El Amore~ hehehe…..Oh wait you’re being serious right now! I’m sorry! I’m listening!”

“I was told the only way I could help him was by staying away from him, but I didn’t want to leave him……”

“Then why did you?”

“Because I wanted to save him…..It’s complicated…..”

“There’s nothing complicated about that at all Chrys. You can’t help by running away from the problem. You gotta face it head on and if you didn’t want to leave him then you didn’t have to. No one can dictate your life, it’s yours and yours alone.”

Chrys sits up and peers down at Chanyeol curiously. That was the most serious she’s ever heard him be and it felt as though he were a totally different person.

He opens his eyes realizing himself and he chuckles and hits himself in the head making a bonk sound.

“But what do I know? Hahaha I’m just a lone gardener~”

“Why do I feel like you’re lying?”

Chanyeol hums curiously as Chrys’ true thoughts become known. The going out at night, the random visitors, the mood swings, she knew deep down he wasn’t just a lone gardener.

His eyes narrow and he smiles.

“I feel the same way about you Chrys and you know how much I hate liars but for you I think I can make an exception just this once.”

He stands and dusts himself off and she cringes as he once again trips over air but this time they both look towards the rustling leaves on the tree. Did they hear giggles?

“Did you hear that?”

“Yes.”

“Oh great now we’re both hearing things, trees can’t giggle am I right? Maybe it’s the heat getting to us, I’ll go get that lemonade now.”

He disappears into the house and Chrys crawls over and leans her back against the rough bark of the mighty tree.

She looks up at the branches, the sunlight twinkling in the empty spaces and leaving pretty designs on her skin. Trees can’t giggle can they? It wouldn’t be the strangest thing she’s encountered.

She closes her eyes and takes in a deep breath. He’s right. She can’t fix a problem by running away from it. She was Mark’s Deity, she loved him, she shouldn’t have left him to battle some evil Puppeteer by himself even if she would only be a hazard.

He needed her and she needed him and so do her family. She’s been alone for most of her life and to suddenly start taking orders from someone, especially some evil Demon lady who tried to kill her and pushed her out of a window, Gunny would be disappointed in her for giving up so easily.

The vortex inside her grows stronger as she thinks of Mark. The way he smiled at her, held her, made her laugh, made her miss him and the sinking feeling made her want to crawl into a hole and die but the more she thought of going back to him no matter what she had to do the stronger she felt, the lighter she felt and she manages the biggest smile she has all week.

She opens her eyes with a new found determination and her breath hitches. Someone’s hanging upside and staring right in her face with dark empty eyes that flash silver.

Before Chrys can scream the person places a finger in front of her lips and a wave of recognition washes over her instantly.

“Chima…….”

Katalena smiles and drops to the ground and before impact she turns into a shadow and phases through the ground making Chrys’ eyes grow wide.

Chima and Chrysalis went to the same orphanage together. The small girl was only four at the time, left abandoned in front of the church.

She had a pixie cut, honey copper hair with dark eyes too big for her head. She was so small and people often mistook her for a boy.

The orphanage was such a terrible place they never noticed Chima because she never spoke and always hid. But there was one way Chrys managed to coax her out.

In the sunlight she sticks her hand out so the outline is on the ground and Katalena shifts into a tiny shadow person and hugs the thumb of the shadow making Chrys giggle in disbelief.

Shadow puppets. In the dead of night when everyone was asleep Chrys would walk over to Chima’s bed and make shadow puppets in the moonlight to coax the girl out from under the bed.

From then on the small girl became her own personal shadow, following her everywhere and the two watched out for each other, until the men started harassing Chrys and she ran away leaving Chima alone.

Chima follows her out into the rain and loses sight of her and the orphanage and she drops to her knees, alone and scared. That’s when a Demon finds her, a Demon who turned her into a Doll then left her causing her to become a Rogue Doll and The Mistress took her in.

“It’s really you?”

The small shadow morphs into the Demonic form with horns and slanted eyes and nods. Chrys eyes water and she slaps her hand over her mouth to hold back her sob as memories flood her mind.

There were so many things she wanted to say to the small girl. How she wanted to explain why she left and never came back.

“I’m so sorry…..Oh Chima I’m so sorry!”

She wanted to apologize. Apologize for leaving her alone when she was the one she needed the most and most importantly apologize for forgetting about her.