#remusssanders

Who's the girl behind those eyes? Just a stranger in disguise?

Miss Mysterious, who could you be?'

-Set It Off

Okay not Miss, but very Mysterious indeed. :D

Background images are from Shutterstock

Without BG

p•r•o•l•o•g•u•e

Words: 1686

Trigger Warning: Dolls, terrifying situations, missing people, kidnapping[kinda??? Could be read as such]

If I need to add more let me know, but note this is an attempt at some spooky horror

S•T•O•R•Y

It was supposed to be a joke. 

Just a fun trip to a spooky shop on Halloween. It wasn’t supposed to end up like this. 

Virgil had always loved the fall season. Perfect hoodie season, and of course the spooks. So when his best friend Remus suggested they get Janus and investigate a creepy looking shack that was parading as a toy shop. Janus loved the idea, but mostly cause it to let the 15-year-old sneak out of his house when it was dark. What his fascination was with sneaking away from his older sister’s care, Virgil would never know. 

Virgil was of course incredibly anxious. So he left a note on his bed in case anything did happen. 

Remus was standing with his hands on his hips looking extremely proud. Janus was the oldest but somehow Remus tended to take the lead. Virgil was never sure why, but he never really cared. It was just always like that. Remus would lead them all into adventure, Virgil got them out of trouble, and Janus made up any excuse they needed. They had a good thing going on. Things were always exciting with them.  

Remus was spouting ideas about how to break into the small shop while Janus was telling Remus that there was absolutely no way they were using fire. Virgil was looking at the shop window as the two behind him went back and forth. 

“Guys. The store is open.” The emo spoke up, pointing to an old-fashioned sign that read ‘Come in! We’re open!’ in bright colors. 

The other teenagers paused and turned to look at the front of the door. 

“Its midnight,” Janus said with a confused look. “What kinda toy store is open three am?”

“The Dollhouse apparently,” Virgil replied, looking up at the wooden letters above the door.

“Maybe it’s too lure in children so they can make toys out of them!” Remus chirped, all two happily. Virgil shuddered at the thought. 

“Oh, that must be it.” The snake-like teen said rolling his eyes. “Are we going in or what?”

Before the others could answer Janus moved forward, opening the door and holding it open for Remus who skipped inside, but when the emo hesitated the eldest paused for a second. 

“You okay?” He asked. “You don’t have to come with us. We can walk you home.”

“I’m fine,”  Virgil told him with a dismissive shrug, and when the other gave him a questioning look the emo rolled his eyes. Janus was always protective of him. Remus too, but the human rat didn’t seem to ‘need’ protection as much, at least by the eldest’s standards. Thus Virgil got the most ‘babying’ from him. Not that the emo always minded. It was nice to be reminded that he didn’t need to do something, or to be assured it was fine. Still, it wasn’t always needed. 

“Really. I’m fine. Let’s go.”

“Alright, if you say so.” Janus gave him a nod before going into the shop. 

Virgil followed behind, looking around the shop. It was almost like stepping through a portal back in time. He didn’t know the exact time period the shop reminded him of, but it was definitely something he could imagine seeing it in a black and white photo if that made sense. Shelves lined the walls, all filled with dolls to the point quite a few of them looked ready to fall off. Everything was made out of wood that looked extremely old and strangely enough, despite the unlocked door and opened sign no one was in sight. Remus was already behind the only counter in the room messing with the old metal til. 

“Remus! Quit playing with that!” Virgil told him, as Janus disapprovingly shook his head. 

“Remus! You’re going to trip the alarm or something!” The snake told him. “They’ll think we’re trying to rob them.” 

“I’m just looking!” The rat whined, rolling his eyes at the other’s worry. “Besides, no one’s here to see anything and this place doesn’t look like it has any alarms.” 

“You don’t usually see alarms, Rem.” Janus frowned. 

“If no one’s here, maybe we should go.” Virgil mumbled, mostly to himself. 

Remus’s head tilted to the side a bit and he smiled mischievously at the anxious boy. 

“Awwwww, Virgin.” He said. “Got a bad fweeling?”

Despite the mocking tone, Virgil knew if he really wanted to, they wouldn’t keep going, no matter how much fun Remus was having breaking into tils. 

So the emo rolled his eyes. 

“No. We just..came. Saw the shop. So we’re done here right?” He asked, shoving his hands in his pockets. 

“Awwww, you don’t have to put on a big brave face for us! If you’re feeling like a pussy-”

“Remus.” Janus warned. 

“Whoops.” The rat shrugged slightly. “My bad.” 

The two mature teens sighed heavily. 

“Okay, what else do you want to do here?” Virgil spoke up looking between them, earning a wicked smirk from Remus. 

Oh dear. 

“Let’s go back here!” He said turning and gesturing to a doorway with those hippy string bead things in place of the door. Virgil didn’t know what they were called, but he did know that the sign above the door said ‘staff only’.

Janus paused looking at Virgil, who sighed and shrugged. 

“...Alright, remus. Just for a minute or two.” He told him. “Then we need to-”

Remus was already off exploring the back of the store. 

“Remember, Verge.” Janus spoke up before they went in after him. “You can leave whenever you want. We won’t get mad.” 

Virgil just nodded softly and followed him before Remus could break anything. 

The room was much larger than the store front. With a lot more shelves and on bookcases but various doll parts and supplies substituted the books. A small desk littered with tools was in the back corner. Running along the walls about waist level there was a long shelf built into the wall, with various completed dolls that must have been waiting to be put out front and be sold. Out of the corner of his eye, Virgil could see Janus move to a large human sized doll near one corner and Remus move to the back of the room. 

Virgil’s attention was caught by a completed doll. While there were many different types of dolls in the shop, porcelain, wooden, a few marinate dolls and barbies here or there, this was seemingly the only stuffed one. Or at least the only stuffed one Virgil could see. It had yellow yarn for hair and two blue beads for eyes. A small sweater around it’s blue shirt while the bottom of the doll was just black to infer it was wearing pants. 

The emo picked it up looking at the eyes. Why this one had caught his attention, Virgil wasn’t even sure. He normally liked the gothic things, and this was for sure not gothic. It looked like something you would give a three year old. Though, there was just something unnerving about them, like the doll was watching him somehow. Which was just absolutely crazy. Dolls couldn’t watch him. Dolls couldn’t watch anything!

“You’re kind of a creepy fucker, aren’t ya?” He asked with a nervous chuckle. Why was he talking to the doll? And why was the watching feeling replaced with disappointment? Was the teen going crazy? 

Virgil swallowed his own spit, setting down the doll. 

“Ooooookkaaay.” He mumbled. “That’s enough dolls for me. Hey, Rem-”

Just as the emo started to say his name, Remus let out a scream worthy to be in horror movies. 

Virgil turned around quickly seeing the human rat holding onto one of the sculpting tools that was laying on the desk, very tightly from the looks of it. But it was hard to tell with a bright light coming from the desk. Remus’s screams got louder and more horrified as his hand seemed to shrink and start wrinkling. It became stiff and shrank slightly, cracking before smoothing out into a pale color that could only look real on a doll-

Wait, no…

His hands were turning into glass! 

Virgil froze. Janus ran over to their screaming friend trying to pull him away from the light before it just got brighter and suddenly Janus was starting to scream too. 

The emo didn’t know what to do, the only thing running through his head was his friends’ terror and pain filled screams. It was only when something wrapped it’s hands around Virgil’s arm did he realize he needed to move. He spun to see who had grabbed him, horrified to find nothing but dolls there, one with its hand somehow holding onto his sleeve. He stepped back, feeling his chest grow tight, and his breathing quicken. 

“VIRGIL-”

Janus’ scream made him turn again, this time met with the large doll the screaming friend had been looking at before right in front of him. Virgil looked past him, locking eyes with Janus, where Remus was he wasn’t sure anymore. The teen couldn’t be seen anymore. But Janus...Janus looked terrified. The emo had never seen him so scared. 

Virgil could hear another scream leave his remaining friends, words,but he couldn’t make them out. The next thing Virgil even knew was he was running through the shop, hearing loud heavy footsteps behind him. 

The teen literally jumped out of the building, landing on the pavement hard. He turned himself over, scurrying back as he looked at the giant doll in the doorway. Frozen. Just staring at Virgil. 

Virgil didn’t really remember making his way home. But he woke the next day to his mom waking him up for school. So he went, hoping it was just a dream.  

But when he got to school, Janus and Remus weren’t there. They weren’t there the next day. 

The last time Virgil saw their faces was on the news as the news anchor talked about two missing kids, and asked anyone with any information to please speak up and go to their families or the authorities. 

Virgil never did. 

…….