“I’m terribly sorry you had to see that, I will discipline my servant for his actions.”

John didn’t reply because he was busy washing out his mouth out and wiping off his face. When he was finally done, he turned to see the girl and her father standing in the hallway just watching him. Weirded out and wanting to go home, he obediently followed the two back into the living room. He gave a meaningful look to Chance who saw and nodded.

They needed to get out.

“Well, thank you…for the food and stuff, but if you really don’t want to leave, we must hurry back…hehe, stuff to do and all that…”

John wasn’t raised to know what phrases he should say to sound polite, so his actions seemed really forced. Both of the men were sweating up and down their backs, drenching their clothes in a matter of minutes.

Why?

Because the girl didn’t say anything. She just sat there and thought. Chance was getting the Skeletons ready and John was willing to Summon Cammie at any moment. However, Sam just smiled and stood up. Relieved, the two stood up as well before getting knocked back down again by the parents.

“Wha-What?! Sam, what’s going on?!”

Chance wasn’t saying anything, immediately choosing to call the Skeletons. John didn’t waste his time either and Summoned Cammie from his Inventory. The room was thrown into chaos as a massive, horse sized lizard appeared and then disappeared. Sam opened her eyes in surprise before requesting the other puppets to come to the living room.

The front door was smashed open as well as several windows as Greater Skeletons rushed inside and started hacking at the puppets. The little girl began to cry out and the house started to shake. Chance took the chance to deftly leap towards an open window, motioning for John to follow him. However, as soon as Chance and Cammie made it out, everything shut itself tightly, even if it was broken.

The pieces had floated back together and fixed itself. The broken dishes and furniture returning to their previously perfect appearances. John was left in the living room with 5 Skeletons, but 7 puppets and the girl. Even though he could easily beat her with his powers, he had no idea if he could leave. The rooms were locked tight and it seemed as if he was going to be locked here forever!

“Sam, why?!”

Breathing heavily, the girl had yet to reply, instead choosing to sit back down in a humph and check over her parents and servants.

“You hurt them.”

“They stopped us!”

“They wouldn’t have hurt you!”

“Then why did you tell them to attack us if we tried to leave?”

John had enough of this brat! She had almost killed them and she was blaming them?! What hypocrisy!

“I want out.”

“It’s dangerous out there. Mama said so.”

The child’s voice had sunken to a quiet whisper, aware of what her troubling actions have caused.

“Not as dangerous as in here. Let me out. I can protect myself!”

“But Mama and Papa couldn’t!”

Shit, he didn’t want to babysit a mentally unstable child!

He took the moment to look around, noticing that one puppet even had its head cut off yet it was still moving around. In the next instant, the corpse was put together just like the furniture. This power, this Skill was amazing! Could it even heal people as well?

Judging from the broadcast, Sam’s Skill was Dollhouse. It must be control over this building. If she can manipulate anything in this building, she would surely be strong!

Hmm…but that was beside the point, wasn’t it?

“Why do you want me here?”

“Because you are strong.”

“I don’t understand, we have people far stronger than I am back in Texas. Why not follow us?”

“Because my Dollhouse would reset.”

“Huh?”

“Dollhouse is my Skill. It allows me to make a place my Domain, but I can only ever control a size about this big.”

She gestured to the entirety of the building.

“Anything that was present from the beginning will be controlled by Dollhouse. I can fix things, change things, adjust things, and even grow things if I wanted to. Unfortunately, I can only cast Dollhouse on something once. Once I leave this place, Dollhouse will break and everything inside will not be able to move again.”

“Your parents…”

“Yes…”

“But why keep me here? You definitely have a good thing going on here, what with all the dead bodies and such.”

“That’s the problem! The dead bodies! I can’t leave and neither can my Dolls!”

“Then why not burn them or bury them?”

“Because burning won’t work. Even if they turn to ash, they will still be on my property. If I bury them, they will destroy the good soil.”

“But didn’t you just say that you could fix it?”

“…”

That’s right, she could have buried the bodies and enclosed the bodies to one spot and make sure the infection does not go past a certain point. She had never had someone to communicate with about her power except for Chance. And he wasn’t here.

“So can I leave?”

The girl sat down and hugged her knees.

“No. Play with me.”

“Excuse me?! Play what?! We are in the middle of a damn apocalypse! Sitting here and playing house will only waste time!”

“But Mama always played with me.”

“Kid, do I look like your Mama?”

Sam hid her face and John could tell she was silently sobbing. He couldn’t stay mad at the girl, especially since she wasn’t going to kill them, just detain them. However, that was still bad. Then he remembered something.

“Hey, couldn’t you get the house to move along with you?”

“Huh?”

“Yeah, make the house grow legs! Then you can just walk wherever you want to go!”

They spent several hours talking about how Sam could use her powers when an alert appeared.

It was Andrew, checking in since he didn’t get Chance’s report.

‘Sam, I have heard much about you. Can you tell me why you did what you did?’

Instead of being completely angry, Andrew had instead adopted a sort of calm personality. From his past knowledge, if Andrew didn’t like what Sam said, John knew that he would attack her if something went sideways.

“I…was lonely.”

‘There, was that so hard?’

“”Huh?!””

The both of the two just stood there and stared at Andrew’s face as he broke into a smile and waved.

‘Just make sure you let him come back home. He has a family as well!’

John had no idea what Andrew meant by this, but he turned and saw Sam wiping away her tears with her frilly sleeve, looking less prim and proper, her eyes swollen and nose running. But she had a smile on her face as she nodded in reply.

‘Now you be a good boy as well…um…Jake?’

“John.”

‘Right. Jean. Be good to little Samuel over there, okay? He has had a bad past.’

Eh?

HE?!

“Y-you aren’t Samantha?”

The trap looked down in embarrassment before replying with a silent nod.

John looked around the room and soon things started to slip into place. A business tycoon that was upset by his child. Or maybe his wife? Why would a boy dress as a girl from such a young age? Whatever the case, the father was reluctant to associate with his own son, driving a rift between the parents.

But they had to stay together for some reason. Instead of floundering for convoluted answers, he instead turned to Sam and asked him about it.

He was reluctant, but the crossdressing boy conceded.

Apparently, from his mother’s side, they always raised a girl to pass on the family nonsense that no one common would understand. It was all mumbo jumbo to the ears of John. But when they had a son, something happened and the mother could no longer bare children. Stricken with grief over her lack of a daughter, she obsessed over Sam, but kept it a secret from his father.

When he came home one day, early from work, he was appalled to find that his son was being treated like a doll, a plaything. The family became strained, and when it came time to deal with it, the father said,

“Just don’t talk about it again. I don’t want to hear it. This never happened. Tomorrow, he will learn how to run a business.”

At only 5 years old, Sam was subjected to the difficult life of trying to notice good business deals and how to talk to people. However, he was extremely shy and held a severe distrust of females when they kept calling him cute.

It didn’t help that his own father would sneer at him in disgust, even if it wasn’t aimed at him. It didn’t take long for the father to realize his son was not fit to take his place. So he shunned him. Wanted nothing more to do with him. He believed his son was tainted, not a man anymore.

However, Sam’s mother took it in strides, forcing Sam into female clothes day in and day out, getting him to act like a noble and getting him ‘dolled’ up.

When the apocalypse happened, they were not killed by zombies, they were killed by an ex servant that came back for revenge. She was accused of stealing something to diminish the rumors surrounding the family’s household. She stormed in with all the chaos and shot everyone as they were huddled into the living room, arguing about what to do next.

The masters of the house were the first to go, followed by the personal butlers and maids. Then, she stormed outside and shot the gardeners before she killed herself.

For two days, Sam had no idea what was going on, afraid to go downstairs. He was told to stay upstairs until they were done talking, but Sam was not willing to see the carnage. He just remained in his room, playing with his dollhouse.

When he finally went downstairs and saw his family dead, he almost couldn’t believe it, trying his best to move them and see if anyone was left alive. Sam ate enough to survive, but never left his parents’ sides. Instead, he tried to act out moments that he enjoyed in which the entire family was happily wasting time.

On the fifth day, Sam earned the Dollhouse Skill.