The Land of LD

Chapter 42-Queen and her Jester

".............???"

Emily stared at the wall again.

'Sorry, White Queen is Dead.'
". . . . . ."
Then she looked around the empty room.
She found a small table next to sentence-written wall, small telephone with no cord or receiver, with fake flowerpot.
Then there was two crosses drawn next to the sentence as well.
"..............."
She checked one cross carefully, and there was a sentence 'cross' written in one.
"...?"
Then she checked from wall, to telephone, to door's lock again.
"..............."
For this was too confusing and seemed hopeless for Emily, she decided to call Kyle for a hint again.
"Hello, Kyle?"
"Yeaah~?⭐"
".....?
...Why do you received the call..?"
"For that, later~
There's only 10 minutes left, don't you wanna save yourself and your brother~?"
"........!!"

Clown was right....if 1 hour passes, then this place would.....
She needed to hurry up...!

"Tell me how to find a code for this room now!"
Emily's voice was merged with anxiety and haste.
"Ohhoho~ if you ask it that way, then it's asking for answer, not a hint~"
"But....--"
"Have you checked a telephone yet~?"
"....?
Telephone....?"
Emily looked at telephone, and when she saw that, there was alphabets written next to each numbers of the dial.
"......!"
"Why, you're a clumsy girl when you're confused~"
"Shut up!
...Christ...
...Fine, how do I find a code through this..?"
"Hint is 'Dead'~"
"What?"
"Dead~"
"..................."
Emily checked the telephone, but only finding numbers for D and A.
But there was no Alphabet E, and one of the dial's number was empty as well.
"................;;;;;;"

- - - 🎈 - - -

"Ngh....where am I..?"

Kyle opened his eyes to face a bright pink sky in front of him.
He sat up, and looked around.
He could see the street looking like the place of fairground.
There were booths for selling candy apples or candy, or ice cream as well.
Although if there was anything queer,
People here were all wearing same clown masks...
....Mask looking like the face of THAT clown....
"..........."
Kyle stood up, ignoring every booths as possible, and looking around to find anything to escape this place.
It seemed unnatural, but it was obvious that he had fallen into some sort of dimension which that clown had stuck him into, although he couldn't find out where he was.
He looked around, and found a wall with something looking like Rome's Mouth of Truth.
"......?"
Kyle got a brief idea to escape through by putting his hand into this mouth, so he put his hand into this.
".........."
It felt cold and hard inside.
".......I want to return back."
Nothing happened.
"....I wish to return back to help my sister, Emily."
Still nothing happened.
Kyle sighed and pulled his hand out of Mouth of Truth.
'Of course...this is not some fantasy, no way I can return this way....-'
Just then, something flipped out of Mouth of Truth to whip at Kyle, and he somehow dodged by leaping backward.
"????"
[SPEAK THE TRUTH, MORTAL!]
A deep, low voice spoke from somewhere.
"?!"
Kyle rolled and dodged as best as he could to dodge the gold chain which flipped and whipped out of Mouth of Truth.
[SPEAK THE TRUTH, MORTAL!]
"I did! I truly wish to return!"
[YOU'RE LYING!]
It whipped another slash of gold chain, this time striking Kyle's cheek hard.
"Argh!"
Kyle fell back on his back, and when he looked up, gold chain was about to strike him like a menacing serpent.
[SPEAK THE TRUTH!!!!!]
Gold chain was about to strike him again--
"I wish you would stop striking that!!"
Chain stopped in midair.
"................."
Kyle was shutting his eyes, but then, when he looked up, he could see that chain had stopped midair, as if time itself had frozen around it and the Mouth on wall.
"............"
Kyle somehow stood up, and carefully touched the chain with his fingertip.
".....?
............."