Fumo

On the way home from your daycare job a few nights ago, you found a little plush toy on the ground, donned with a light blue bonnet and kimono. You’ve been collecting anime figurines for God knows how long, sometimes sharing updates on your collection with friends, and judging by the overall style, you thought it would make a decent fit in your home. You felt slight bumps and vibrations picking up the object, but you were diagnosed with early onset Parkinson's a couple of years back, so you thought that may have been what was causing it. 
When you arrived home, you uploaded a picture of the plush to your group chat, and one of your fellow collectors actually recognized the character. Apparently, there are these things called "Fumos," which are a series of dolls that the Touhou Project fandom loves with every fiber, and the character you picked up happened to be Yuyuko Saigyouji from the seventh game. You know next to nothing about Touhou; aside from the fact that many of the games’ characters are inspired by folklore, and she's sort of a ghost princess, something or other. 
Anyway, you thoroughly washed it down with the help of a Fumo cleaning tutorial online, and tossed it in the dryer for about half an hour. Came out good as new, even bouncier and fluffier than it was when you first found it. You ended up falling asleep with Yuyuko wrapped in your grip shortly after. 
Your eyes opened to the outside of your own house, cherry blossom petals raining from the foggy night sky. You felt an unnatural number of heartbeats inside of yourself. It was like you had two cores, one in your chest and another in your stomach, pounding every half a second. 
A trail of pebbles conveniently leading to your wide-open entrance lit up, and you followed. Your living room was flooded with murky water that didn’t even flow outside upon walking in, and there were even a few lily pads floating atop. The less shallow the waters became as you wandered, the more objects you found sitting at the bottom. You found a rope, and your heartbeats lessened, as if the strange weight in your stomach had left. 
You walked into your bedroom to find that it was pitch black. The light from the hallway behind you didn’t even make it less dim. Staggering inside, you felt the walls around you like a blind bat, in an attempt to find some source to help you see better, until something right next to you shined bright.
It was the Yuyuko doll, sitting upright against a rocky platform. 
Shakily picking it up and aiming it toward the shadowy spaces, you found that there was nothing here other than a single, traditional, Japanese well. Vines enclosed it, and bedaubed it with dark greenish muck. You slowly approached the well, the light from the plush barely illuminating anything circled around you. 
You heard a sick, frog-like groan echo from the well, causing you to back up. Followed by the many heads of people you’ve never seen in your life, attached to monstrously sized, blue worm bodies, wiggling out of the dusky hole. 
You woke up. Yuyuko was not in your hand atop of your belly, but instead, lying on its side next to your computer monitor. How could she have gotten there? Were you sleepwalking?
Hours pass. You arrive home from the daycare yet again, stressed as all Hell from the incredibly annoying child you had to put up with. Walking in, you’re immediately greeted with a confusing mess. Ten plates scattered around the living room, nine being in perfect condition and one smashed by your feet. Rooting around the house, you found that nothing of importance was stolen, not even Yuyuko, who was still sitting in the position you had placed her. 
This couldn’t have been a break-in; who would decide to pick your lock, just to come in and make a mess before leaving? You don’t remember pissing anyone off, but if you did, why didn’t they bother touching anything in your collection?
As much as you wanted to call the police, you felt like they wouldn’t believe you. You made sure every door was locked, and kept yourself awake that night by playing one of the Touhou games your friends were talking about. You ended up falling asleep at your desk, right as you finished your torrented download of “Perfect Cherry Blossom.”
Darkness and silence reigned for hours, your computer falling into sleep-mode overtime, until you heard the quiet call of multiple small creatures, alongside the muffled noise of slithering. In front of your very eyes was the Yuyuko doll, its back facing you. Bringing your ear closer, but not too close, you hear the slithering coming from inside of the doll.
Curiosity takes over when you spot the loose string on its soft dorsum, barely showing an opening to the inside. Normally, you’d hate to ruin something so fragile in its material, but that’s the least of your concerns right now. You had to get a good look. 
Rip, the string went, as you unsteadily peeled open the doll’s back. Small, white, faceless worms festered the stuffing. And, while you couldn’t see it perfectly in the dead center, there was something recoloring the fluffy filling into a slight red. 
Something throbbing. 
Category:Lafawnda's Reading Hour
Category:Video Games
Category:Items/Objects
Category:Shortpasta