Sieglinde had to slap herself repeatedly to regain consciousness, she opened her eyes for a mere few seconds and immediately knew that something wasn't right. So even though she was tired, even though it hurt, she continued pushing and pulling at her face. The girl rubbed away any eye boogers that formed during her rest and looked around.

This is…a basement.

She woke up on the floor of a basement.

Dust covered boxes, a washer and dryer, a bunch of paint buckets and other items you'd find in a storage were stashed here. Next to a set of pipes was a small window leading to a garden outside. Sieglinde discovered all these things instead of getting out of that room immediately, as there was also a cage door at the bottom of the basement stairs. She had rattled the handle over and over, but it was locked shut. It was useless to brute force with her bare hands so she searched for any kind of item that could break the door down.

A toolkit maybe, or a metal bat, there has to be something. Sieglinde ripped through the boxes searching for anything blunt or sharp, but these boxes held nothing of use. Old clothes, toys, books, albums…Photo albums. One which had a photo of her stuck on the cover.

The photo depicted Lin at school, sitting down with her chin resting against her hand. She looked very different, but Lin could still recognize it as herself. Her hair was much longer, she wore a frilly dress and she was significantly shorter. What stood out to Lin the most however was her chest in the picture, it was a completely flat. This photo…it must've been taken when she was still in second grade, or even before that.

She opened the album up, preparing to see some gross stalker collage, but found that most pages were empty. Sieglinde was about to throw the book out, use it to break the window and maybe crawl through even though any leftover shards would rip her skin open, but when she reached the final page her whole body froze. Two things occurred at the same time she reached that page: Another picture fell out and Sieglinde heard a rattling sound from behind her back, from the caged stairs.

Sieglinde picked the picture up first. It showed her again, from when she was younger. On this exact same spot. You could only see her back. Whoever took it had to be standing right there, where the rattling continued.

Lin turned slowly, just enough so that she could see who was making the noise…It was someone short, about the same height as her. She turned further and found herself somewhat confused, somewhat relieved.

The one rattling at the cage was a girl with pink hair and a red dress. "You again…" Sieglinde jumped towards the door, was she locked up somewhere as well? Did Ms. Hanagaki do this?…Hold on a minute.

Lin took a step back, her eyes carefully traveling up and down. The girl didn't seem to be having any bruises, no weapons either. Since she seems to be walking around freely she's not a prisoner of…wherever this is. "Hey, pinky, can I ask some things?"

The girl gave a quick nod.

"Where the hell is this? Last thing I remember is getting put in a car and…and…Right! Hanagaki drove us to her house…" Was this the punishment their teacher had chosen? Some kind of escape room game at her abode? "Can you get me out of here?"

The girl didn't move.

"I'm expecting a good reason as to why you can't, other that you don't want to."

The girl didn't make any moves at all. Not even a single blink.

"Come on! I need a hairpin or- Something! There has to be-" The pink haired girl turned around and headed up the steps. "Hey! Wait!" Sieglinde pleaded, forcing her arm to go through the tight holes of the caged door. She reached towards the girl in red. "Please! Help me!…"

The pink haired girl looked back for a second, letting out a quick laugh before finally speaking. "Look at the lock, dummy." With that she headed out the door.

Sieglinde tried to take a look at the lock, but her arm was stuck so she could only look at the stairs and the…the other side of the caged door. Sieglinde nudged her head down and right there, this whole time, there was a small key already in there…Was that really here this whole time? When Sieglinde shook it, it should've dropped out so…did that pink girl put it there and just stayed quiet about it?

"…Asshole." Sieglinde grumbled, bending and twisting her arm to reach the key and unlock it. She quickly ran up the stairs, hoping she could catch up to the pink haired girl. After just a few steps however, someone suddenly jumped into her and wrapped their arms around her neck.

"Lin! Jeez! Stop scaring me so much!" It was Lucia. "We've been searching for you everywhere! Where'd you go?"

Sieglinde blinked for a while, she soon found herself getting dragged into a living room that looked like it belonged to a eccentric drag queen grandma with a fascination for bears. On the wall were portraits of bears. On the coffee table statues of bears. Brown bears, polar bears, black bears…all in a room painted mostly in stark red and white. The same colors of the paint buckets down in the basement.

"Wait…so…you're fine, Luc?" Sieglinde asked, confused at why her friend seemed so angry at her.

"I am absolutely not fine. We leave you up there for less than an hour and suddenly you just wander off!" Lucia said with a huff. She grabbed something from the living room table and handed it over to Sieglinde. "Here. It's probably cold now but Ms. Hanagaki made this for you. It's supposed to help with brain damage…apparently."

Sieglinde held a lukewarm cup with a koala bear pattern. She was hesitant but Lucia's stink eye made her quickly gulp down the fluid. It tasted disgusting, but had a fruity aftertaste…which made the already bad taste even worse.

"I don't- I really don't understand what's going on right now." Sieglinde said after a few sips, she couldn't get the whole bitter brew down in one gulp. "Where'd you guys put me after I passed out exactly?…"

Lucia tilted her head. "Passed out? Huh, I guess you did seem half asleep…We went upstairs and Ms. Hanagaki let you sleep in her bed for a while. Don't you remember?"

"No." When Lin woke up, she thought she was about to get either killed, violated or held forever in a basement. There is a very, very small chance she sleep walked down there, but how would she have locked herself up? "Was Ms. Hanagaki with you this whole time…?"

"Uh…Yeah, she taught me how to cook this tea actually and kept watch. She only just now left for the bathroom." Luc explained. "Lin, you're being weird."

Sieglinde put the cup down again and rubbed at her eyes, she wasn't tired anymore but her eyes felt like they were burning. Hopefully she wasn't allergic to anything in that tea. "W- What about the girl? The pink haired one…"

Lucia shook her head. "Aside from us and Ms. Hanagaki there's no one else here. Who're you talking about?"