-I woke up the next morning, feeling better than I did yesterday. I stoll had a very runny nose, and supposedly a cut in my throat, but for the most part my headache was gone and I felt so much greater today.

-I walked into Brahms' bedroom and he laid down in the bed casually, not disrupted in any kind of way. I take a deep breath and I put on a fake smile. I walk up beside him, and I gently put my hands on his small shoulders.

-"Good morning Brahms, it's time to wake up and get dressed." I say in the softest voice I can, sitting him up slowly and brushing his hair out from his forehead. He's moved, I can tell. "Here we are.. Stay still."

-Removing his simple gray pajamas and replacing them with his uptight outfit. I folded his sleeves and I then lifted him off the bed. I hold him to my hip tight, and I walk him out of the room towards the kitchen. The light soothes me, bring me comfort as I step into the dining area and sit him down. It feels safer in the daylight, like Brahms is less active. It's not like I think he'd hurt me, though.. Maybe.

-I set the plate of breakfast down on the table, setting on in front of him and then my own in front of myself. I look down at my meal, staring for a moment before I look back across the table at the doll. I have no appetite at the moment, my parched throat burning and begging for anything to soothe it however. The breaths I've been having to take through my mouth just to sustain life hadn't been helping at all.. But at least I can think, and focus.

-"You left me medicine yesterday." I say, picking up my eating utensils and poking at the meal sitting on my plate. "I gotta wonder how.. You, a doll without many joints whatsoever.. Managed to bring me such a complex tray with everything so organized. I'd figure that, as a ghost, it'd be difficult to do all that.. I'd figure it's a bit difficult to even tolerate my existence. Or is it that I'm leaving as soon as the cold ends? You want me out??"

-Silence engulfs the kitchen, and I can't help but feel dumber as the seconds pass. I sigh, looking down from the doll and at my plate. I just.. Don't know what to do.

-"I guess there's no point in really calling you out right now. I'm not gonna be here for long anyways. I just think you should know that I know you're not some ghost kid. I'm not stupid.. N-No ghost would bother giving me medicine."

-Of course, how does that explain the walls rumbling? The lights flickering and leading me down the hallways to my next destination.. Someone has a fuse box, cameras, a microphone- Anything else would make sense and I'm trying to go for the most logical thought process. With that idea, I look up and gaze around the room, looking for a camera of some kind. Then I stop and look at the doll.

-"You're in the eyes, aren't you? That'd be the only thing that makes sense.. Making me make your meals for you. To be fair that's better than paying rent with the money I don't have."

-My God, I really am crazy now aren't I? The paranoia of being watched; the feeling of being watched. I'm just so anxious and offset, and at this point I'm beginning to doubt myself. I'm doubting all of it; really. I'm talking out loud to a doll that I think is being used as a device to watch me. I sound like oke of those crazy theorists that talk about the Illuminati.

-"I'll play your game though. Until I leave.. I guess I can thank you for helping me, regardless of how dangerous helping me might be." I pause, staring at my food. "I'm not hungry at all.. You can just have my--"

-The sharp squeaking sound and a thwap catch my attention. My head swivels, turning to look at the freezer up against the wall. It came from over there, and it made me uncomfortable to hear the sounds of struggle and scratching coming from the same area before ceasing. I get up, slowly approaching before I get down on my knees beside the freezer itself. I look behind it, a small gap sitting between the wall and the freezer; and there it is. A mouse is stuck beneath a metal bar, breaking it's shoulder bones, and a small hole going into the wall shows me that this creature, and probably others, have been living in the walls.

-Does this explain the lights? The flickering could've been them chewing on wires. The rumbling, that couldn't explain all of it but maybe somehow there were a surplus of them. When I make noise, the rumbling is them panicking to the sudden sound. The scent, the everything.. I'm scraping the barrel, because no matter what, there was medicine at my door and clean clothes in my room. There's no explanation for that. Why bother trying to make theories when the evidence is obvious?

-"Poor thing." I mutter, reaching over and taking the trap in my hand. The mouse died within it, and I didn't dare touch it's being as I walk it over to the trash and undo it. "Disgusting."

-The body drops into the empty trash with a flop, and it squirms just a little bit more before ceasing all over again.. It's not quite dead yet, but I don't have the guts to put it out of its misery. Instead I walk back over to the freezer and place the trap back in it's place.

-"That's what you meant by clean the traps, huh?" I say, looking over to the doll as it sits mindlessly, looking forward. "Alright, makes sense.. Don't know why you couldn't inform me of that when I asked."

-I take his plate and mine and I put it in the freezer, before I pickup the doll and carry him away to begin his studies.

-Knock knock knock. The front door made me flinch as I sat in the library with the doll, reading him a book out loud. I turn to look over my shoulder, before I abruptly drop to the ground quietly, crawling over to the window. They couldn't have found me. Not yet.

-"Winona." A child like voice whispers to me as my gaze lands on a woman that looked to be in her mid-fifties.

-"Winona." I mutter back, and then I recall the rules.

. "Alright.. I'll, uh.. Answer the door?-"

-"Wait." I shiver at how much closer that voice got, and I stare for longer as she set the groceries against the front door and turned around to make her leave.

-

It looks to me like she just comes by to deliver and then leave.. Brahms never answers the door, then. Or whoever this person was.

-By the time she was gone, I made my way to the front door and opened it up, scooping up all the bags that I can before I shut the door lightly. I didn't want her to know that I'm here, I don't want anyone to know. It's not like anyone here would recognize me. I don't have any wanted posters on my name, but people can ask, and I can't let anything slip.

-I carry these bags to the kitchen and set them by the fridge before I open it up and start organizing. The previously empty fridge began to slowly fill up with vegetables and other cooking supplies, everything seemingly meant to be made from scratch.. Made me recall that the fridge would be refilled with various random items every time I went to make something new. How did I not notice that earlier? I guess I hadn't paid attention.

-Tomatoes, carrots, plus all the fruits that tag along go to the top shelves. Anything else, like cottage cheese or other extremely fancy meals sit other place. Some of these things I never even heard of before, but regardless I keep shelving until there's nothing left in the bags, and I close the fridge. Subconsciously, I turn around to look at Brahms' chair, only to realize that I'd left Brahms in the library.

.

-Shit. I make my way out of the kitchen and hurry back to the library, hoping to find Brahms right where I'd left him, but of course he wasn't there. I'm not as paranoid and freaked out by this as I was before, or would've been. If anything I'm a little annoyed.

-"Brahms!" I call out, looking around the room before I cross the hallways and check other rooms.

-I keep calling for him, attempting to locate him before I eventually come across another bedroom; dusty and dark. I opened the door to see Brahms sitting in a chair, next to a downed painting leaning against the wall. I step in and I flip the switch on, the light dim and ready to die out. I stop to look at the boy before I look at the painting.

-A lovely portrait of a woman, a man and their young boy. Old and peeling, the faces of the man and woman are cracked and have seemingly been hit, and the young boys' face seemed to be unscathed other than the curving deep cut along his features. It looked like it was meant to be a sad frown, and staring at the image gave me an eerie feeling. The boy looked much like the doll, other than the nose and larger ears, life being in the boy, yet the image still looked as if everyone on it was dead inside and emotionless. Like most paintings of people portraits.

-"Wha-What are you doing in here Brahms?" I ask, looking at the doll. "It's study time.. We don't play hide and seek during study time.. C'mon."

-I pick him up and leave the room, closing it behind me with a click. The scurrying in the walls make me panic just a little bit, but then I recall the mouse from earlier. I hug the toy a little tighter as I keep walking through the halls, the quietness of the manor bringing me a little bit of tension. I suppose the orchestra of music from the vinyl player would help ease this. After studying, though. After.

-I find it very difficult to feel comfort nowadays. Sitting in the chair beside Brahms', I find it even harder. I don't know what it is about the doll that makes me feel the way that I do. I reckon maybe I upset him and my subconscious is reading the room.

-"So, uh.." I become quiet, the music just barely muting my voice as I speak. "I've been... Wondering a lot of questions. I don't think you're going to bother answering most of them. You barely say anything back to me at all, but.. I guess talking out loud id better than just absolute silence, so.. I guess I'm just curious as to why you have me do some of these things. I understand the food, since you gotta eat and you don't wanna cook yourself, and I understand the music I suppose, and other things, but.. The doll, I don't know why you're having me take care of it. I'm still going to, earning my keep and all.."

-I guess it's foolish of me to think that anyone who would make me do these kind of things is the closest bit to sane, huh? These questions wouldn't have logical answers, if they even were to be answered. I'm in a house with a crazy nutjob.. But they sound like a child. Maybe this person is just a child themselves, and are too shy to show their face? Or are they some creep who can pull off the voice?? I have so many questions, and some of them I won't bother to ask.

-"All I know is that you're not a ghost, there's too much going on for that to be the bigger picture. Unless you wanna do something ghostly, that's what I'm going for."

-Silence; nothing but violin music as the player slowly but surely inches closer to ending. I lean my head onto the palm of my hand and my elbow sits on the arm rest. My eyes feel heavy, my headache inching closer back into existence.

-"I guess I should just stop asking questions and just get on with this." I say, mainly talking to myself at this point. "I only gotta stick around for a few days.. Nothing else.. I guess maybe I just talk to hear my own voice or something."

-The silence overcomes me as the player ends. So I get up and change the side of the record, playing the next song in line. I don't say anything else after that, too tired to be questioning things. I guess at this point there'd be no reason to. I don't think I'm crazy, and I'm already certain that I know what's going on here.. I hope.

-I read Brahms a short story that night, before going to my room, not bothering to change him nor give him his goodnight kiss. At this point the games are getting annoying, and I don't think it matters. I didn't bother changing clothes into the pajamas gifted to me, and instead I laid down in the bed feeling a mild sense of dread cover me. I don't think about it though, I think about where I'm going to go next, how I'm going to get some money and how I'm going to get out of here.. Will I have to change my identity? No, I don't think I'll have to go that far. It's not like I'm running from tbe mafia or something, I'm just running from..

-I groan as I dump a few pills in my hand and swallow them, hoping they'll help cease my growing cold. I set the bottles to the side, the clink of plastic against wood sounded like a button to me as I heard distant sobbing. I have never heard something so.. Demonic. A bipolar sounds jumping between childish crying and masculine growling. It made me so uneasy to hear it echoing down the hall.

-I wrap my arms around my body and just listen. The crying getting louder here and there, but no matter what, it's just crying. I grimace slightly, my face contorting in discomfort as I hear it getting louder, as if begging for me to make a reaction to it.

-"(Y/N).. (Y/N)."

-Fuck me if that isn't the scariest fucking thing I've ever heard in my life. The lights in my room fizzed dimly as the cry of my name seemed to get quieter and then louder all at the same time. I sit up and place my hands beside me, my sinuses clearing up as my heart beats in my chest. I thought being chased down by a group of people who wanted me dead was bad, this? I felt like I was in my own horror movie.

-"B-Brahms?" I ask out loud, and I hear a sniffle surrounding me.

-"(Y/N), come back."

-I force myself to get up and out of the bed, and the crying follows me as I urgently go towards Brahms room, and I open the door wide. I breathe heavy st the sight of the doll sitting in the middle of the room, all of the decor and contents inside thrown about the entire area in a mess. A tantrum; caused by the being sitting on the middle.

-"Okay, I'm tired of this!" I step into the middle of the room. "I'm going to leave, I'm not letting you play these games with me anymore. You give me back my clothes an--"

-"Don't go. Please." I jumped to the sound of the walls rumbling, the desk up against the wall shaking. "I'm all alone, don't leave me."

-The childish voice sounded ghostly, sending shivers doen my spine as I then dropped my eyes onto the doll.. I have myself convinced, that there's something fucking with me, but as the room quiets in silence and the crying of a child sounds so unbelievably close, the doll's face glistens. It's face was wet.

-I step forward, my knees shaking below me as I crouch down and I look at his face. There were streaks of wet coming from his eyes, and a drop seeps out from the corner. I could nearly faint at the sight, but I don't, I keep my composure. Just barely.

-The crying starts to get louder my head not being able to take the sound. I feel so rotten, the idea of a ghost child being within this doll and I..? How can I be so certain anymore that this is a ghost or not? There isn't any evidence of someone watching me. I can't find cameras, the walls shaking, the voice that speaks to me.. I've been looking hard, and there's just no way.

-"O-Okay, Brahms.. I'm sorry, alright? I'm sorry. Just.. Breathe, okay? Stop crying."

-"Don't leave me."

-"I'm not going to, alright? I won't. Not today."

-"Don't leave ever."

-I couldn't make that promise, not without putting my own life at risk. I can't imagine that the ghost child would care. Would he want me to die? So then he wouldn't be alone?

-"You wouldn't hurt me Brahms, would you?" He stopped crying, and went to silence and sniffles. I didn't like that response, so I asked again. "Would you hurt me?"

-"...No.. I'm nice." A sniffle. "I'm nice."

-With that, I hesitantly take him back to bed and dress him in his pajamas. I read to him again, staying in a calm tone, and once the story ends, I feel the tension diminish. I lean forward and press a kiss to his forehead, before I sit up.

-"...I want you to clean this up in the morning." I say, my voice wavering as I feel as if I'm pushing a boundary; like I'm asking to be attacked. "Before breakfast... I'm sorry for breaking the rules. You have a goodnight Brahms."

-I stand up, and I walk out of the room, a sense of terror overcoming my being.. I'm trapped in a house with a ghost child, a manor sitting in the middle of no where, surrounded by trees. Should I make a run for it? It seems like otherworldly forces are at play here.. I don't think I'd have a chance. I need to keep to my word... I'm not going to lie to him.

-I walk back to my bedroom, and I barely sleep the night away.