Luna walked into the basement room with Theia in her arms, who lay on Luna's chest tucked in comfortably, only staring ahead, looking out for anyone who would dare approach Luna.
She walked up to the five-point star drawn with what seemed like blood under a rope dangled in the middle of the room. Luna stared down from above at it, and a peculiar smell crawled up through her nostrils.
Ew, it smells disgusting. What is this rotting smell?
Luna moved her head away from the drawing. Just as she did, Theia looked up at her and covered Luna's nose with her frail-looking small palms.
"Thank you, Theia."
Luna moved away from the middle and up to the bookshelf on the right that was devoid of any books. As she walked up to it, she looked up, and Theia let go of her nose, relaxing on her ribcage.
Ew, this smell really reminds me of the bodies that were in that dungeon. This bookshelf is empty and full of dust, Luna thought as she moved her finger across a shelf, leaving a striking line where dust once was, and her finger became disgustingly dirty black.
Theia saw that Luna's finger was dirty, so she grabbed that hand and placed the finger into her mouth, cleaning away the dust. Afterwards, she wiped the finger on her clothing, leaving it clean and dry.
"Theia!" Luna jolted as she realized what Theia did. "Why did you do that?" Luna asked with her eyes wide open and voice filled with concern.
To her words, Theia only tilted her head with one of her round eyebrows raised up.
"Nevermind… Thank you," Luna added as she patted Theia's head, whose face grew beet red. She slowly grabbed Luna's hand, placed her face into it, closed her eyes, and rubbed her cheek against it.
You really love being loving with me? Well, if so, then let's try this…
Luna placed her cheek on Theia's head and rubbed it into her hair. That action made Theia jolt in place, startling Luna in a warming way. She straightened her back and looked at Theia's face, whose visible corners of her mouth twitched and her eyes shivered in place.
Just as she saw Luna looking with her warm smile, her face progressively grew redder, and she hid her face in Luna's clothing, keeping gently hitting Luna's ribcage, punch after punch, with the side of her fist.
Haha! It's so fun whenever I tease people! I cannot get enough of that!
Luna laughed as she looked at Theia, but she turned towards the table that was the last thing beside the planked door in the room. The planked door Luna instinctively knew she wouldn't be able to come in through, so she gave up because of the bluish glow around the planks if you stared deeply enough into it.
Luna walked up to it and only saw three pages crushed into a pulp.
Hmm? What's those?
Luna placed Theia onto the table as she had her face in her palms, covering it. She reached for the crumpled pages with a smile and picked them up.
She uncrumpled those pages and picked up the diary out of her pocket, placing the pages into the book as a golden glow illuminated the room. With everything done, she began to read out loud. Just before she opened her mouth, she looked at Theia and said, "I'll read those pages out loud; is this okay with you?"
Theia only nodded, with her head in her palms still.
"Hehe, okay." Luna chuckled and cleared her throat, and began reading out loud now.
Luna glanced at the first page, yet she didn't want to read the whole thing. "Huh, the whole page has the word 'Why?' on it. I wonder… why, why, why, why?"
"You know why, Theia?" Luna asked.
Theia shook her head from side to side.
"Alright, now that it makes me think… in this room, this rope looks really similar to the one that the Painting girl hung on." Luna's eyes drooped down and her mouth drooped down as she looked at the rope.
Just as Luna looked at the rope, Theia looked up from her palms at her. She watched her silently with a longing gaze, but Luna asked, "Theia, do you know that painting girl? Whenever I saw her first, I… felt happy. But when I saw her hanging… I felt sad. Even now, I feel really sad looking at this rope. It awfully reminds me of the rope in the painting. Do you know why? Probably, since you live here. But what can you do? You don't really know me that much, and I cannot tell you to tell me anything. You don't belong to me. I cannot tell you to tell me."
"Sigh, it really got me to talk for stupid reasons that no one cares about," Luna said.
Theia looked at her with her eyebrows drooping down and her eyes glossy as she watched Luna. Her fingers gripped her dress.
"I don't know why. I want to go home, away from this place. This place makes me sad. I hate it."
Theia, hearing those words, gripped her dress with her full strength. She jumped down from the table, ran up to Luna, and hugged her leg.
Barely over a whisper, she said, "Let's go back, please. If you hate being here, I hate it too."
"I am yours," Theia responded, "so please tell me what you want to know. I'll tell you anything. So please don't feel sad. Don't be sad. So please, let's go back. I'll go with you. I don't want to be here all alone again."
Luna looked down at Theia with her mouth agape as she looked at the girl who desperately hugged her leg. Her warm smile slowly grew on her face.
"Okay!" she replied. "Thank you. At least I didn't need to bury it deep inside me again. Oh yeah, there is two more page to read."
Luna extended her arms to pick up Theia. Theia noticed Luna's movement and moved into her arms. Just as she did, Luna picked her up and hugged her tightly, kissing her on the head.
"I trust you."