Abandoned the Basement

He didn’t get up, so I continued screaming at him for a bit more, but I got no response whatsoever, so I started shaking his body.

“H- H- Huh? D- Daisuke?” He finally replied, but he seemed really weak and his voice was very raspy as well. It looked to me like he hasn’t been eating or drinking anything for at least a few days.

Is he okay?

Why did this happen?

“Uh? What happened to you?” I asked him, “Are you even alive?”

“I- I’m fine…” He replied,

“Then let’s get out of here!” I told him, “I’ll bring you up to the mansion!”

Then I lifted his up blanket and reveal that the arm that had been infected with oil has turned extremely nasty, on top of that, it also spread to the point where his entire arm has essentially turned into an oil statue.

“You really need to get out!” I told him as he got up from the bed, “Can you stand up?”

“Yeah… I think so…” He replied.

He could still stand up, but his leg and his entire body were shaking. He probably hasn’t eaten anything in a while and it looked to me like he could topple at any moment now.

He then slowly made his way to the balcony, using me as a support. I noticed that his body was really light.

“Wait… My… the box!” Cried Dexter while pointing back to the bed. It seemed like he wanted to take the family stuff with him as well. Fine… I guessed I’ll carry it for him.

“Just get up fist!” I told Dexter, and when he got up on Sora’s back, I rushed back into the bedroom to pick up all of the stuff on the bed.

I managed to get the box, which contains the wedding rings, along with Mori’s diary, that he claimed to not recall it at all. I’ll have something to prove to him this time that I wasn’t crazy.

That’s all that was on the bed, so I ran back to the balcony and tried to get up on Sora’s back.

But we seemed to have a problem. Sora couldn’t fit two people on his back. I guess I’ll have to wait for Sora to carry Dexter up to the mansion.

“Go without me.” I told Sora so, “But don’t forget to come back to get me, alright?”

But he shook his head vigorously, refusing to leave without me.

“So what are we gonna do?” I asked him, “There’s no other method.”

He shook his head a few more times, before taking off without me, but instead of going back up to the mansion, Sora dove back down, then he proceeded to grabbed my shoulders with both of his legs, lifting me up into the air with him.

Then he started to fly back up. I was dangling from Sora the entire time, and it was pretty terrifying. I almost dropped the box at one point.

Eventually, we made it back to the top floor of the basement, Sora was flying through the corridor at a high speed, before stopping at where we originally were, near a painting of the source.

The painting was already oozing black oil. When Dexter and Sora saw the painting, both of them recoiled in fear. I guess that the oil source traumatized them?

But unlike them, I wasn’t scared, in fact, I was curious, so I slowly approached the painting, seeing it reminded me of the painting in the living room.

All of the sudden, a notebook fall from the hole, it landed right next to the painting.

I picked up the painting, and it said “Go to the bottom floor of the mansion. His room will be there. - Victoria.”

Hmm… By “his” she must mean Dexter, so I guess we’ll be going there.

“Sora!” I called him, “Let’s go! We’re heading up now!”

Sora started dancing cheerfully again, to the point where Dexter almost fell from his back.

“Whoa! Whoa!” I exclaimed, “Careful there, Sora! We are stopping at the bottom floor first, alright? We are looking for a room.”

Sora nodded, then he grabbed me again, and began to fly up into the mansion.

We flew around slowly along the corridor of the bottom floor for a bit, until I the dining room and there another door right next to it.

“Sora! Stop here!” I told him and we landed right in front of the door.

I opened the door and the bedroom inside honestly didn’t look all that good; the layout was identical to Victoria’s bedroom and my bedroom, but it just didn’t look as nice.

Instead of the golden interiors, which gave the feeling of luxury and prestige, this room just felt cold, rushed, and unbothered, some of the furniture in this room are old and even rusty, but I guessed it’s the only choice for Dexter for now.

Sora couldn’t fit through the door, so I told Dexter to come down and slowly made his way to the bed, once again, using me as a support.

He lied on the bed. I figured I should give him something to eat, and conveniently, the dining room is right next to here, so I went there and grabbed a few things and left them on the nightstand for Dexter.

“Here, eat these if you want,” I told him. He grabbed a piece of bread and started eating it while still laying down.

“C- Can you get me something to drink as well?” Dexter mumbled quietly.

“Yeah, sure…” I answered, then I walk back to the dining room to grab a pot of tea, then I brought it back to Dexter.

“Thank you…” Dexter told me.

“No problem, But I have to go for now,” I told him, “See you later, I’ll try to visit as much as possible.”

Sora and I left Dexter's room shortly after, I left the box containing his stuff on his bed, but I decided to take Mori’s diary with me, so that I could give it to him.

“Hey, Sora,” I said to him, “It’s time for you to see Violet now!”

“Violet! Violet!” Sora said as he lowered his body, gesturing me to get on his back.

I climbed up on his back, then we took off. Sora flew me up the hole that Victoria created, and not too long after, we reached the top floor of the mansion.

“Oh? You back now?” Victoria, who was still the only one in the office asked me, “And I suppose this is your new friend?”

“You don’t know this parrot?” I asked her, then I looked back at Sora and he was extremely terrified of Victoria, he was in the corner of the office, shivering in fear.

“Hmm… Let me think for a bit,” Victoria replied, then she put her hand up to her chin. She stood there, thinking about it for a while, then finally she replied.

“Oh! I remember you!” She said, “You must be Violet’s old friend, right?”

“That’s right,” I said, “He had been stuck down there for a really long time and he wants to meet Hanako again.”

“So why is he acting all scared?” She asked, “Shouldn’t he be happy to be up here?”

“How would I know?” I replied, “I don’t know what you did to him.”

“Yeah… Yeah… I’m only joking around…” Said Victoria, then she painted something into the painting and opened up a hold in the wall.

“Go on…” Victoria told Sora, “Violet is in the other side of this wall.”

Sora quickly flew away without saying anything and as Sora entered the bedroom, Victoria continued painting something again, and pulled Mori away from the bedroom.

Mori’s small body quickly floated toward Victoria and he was very confused.

“W- What’s happening?” Mori asked, “Did I do anything wrong?”

“Of course not!” Victoria told Mori, “We just need you to burn something for us.”

Since Mori’s here now, I probably give him his diary back. I could finally prove to him that he did write his diary when he was young.

“Hey! Mori!” I said to Mori, “Here, I have something for you.”

I handed Mori his diary, and as I was giving it to him, I found myself in a random corridor.

“Wait! Where am I?” I said out loud, “Mori? Victoria? Where are you guys?”

“I’m sorry, but you can’t do that.” I heard Victoria from behind me and I turned to her and she was standing there, holding a paintbrush in one hand and the painting of the Gallery in the other hand.

“Where are we?” I asked her, “And why can’t I give his diary back to him?”

“Don’t worry,” She said, “I just moved us to a random place in the Gallery, but I can assure you that there’s no danger here.”

“But more importantly…” She continued, “That diary doesn't belong to Mori.”

“What do you mean?” I asked her, “Then who does it belong to?”

All of a sudden, her face shifted from a cold and stern one to a sad and somber one. Her eyes started to tear up and with a quivering voice, she replied to me, “That diary…”

“…it belonged to Axel.”

“Huh? But I thought Axel is just Mori’s real name,” I said to her, “This doesn't make sense to me at all.”

She didn’t say anything back to me, instead, she kept quiet and began painting something, then a small couch appeared right at the wall near us. The couch was only big enough for one person.

Victoria put the painting down on the floor next to the couch and began to cry her eyes out.

This is getting awkward…

I didn’t really know what to do, so I just stand there, waiting for Victoria to calm down a bit.

What is actually going on here?