For a minute, no one spoke, too surprised to really say anything. In the silence, they could hear Hazel's footsteps crack like thunder, slowly getting softer as he walked away from them. Soon enough, it was just the four of them and their thoughts.

Eventually, Luz spoke up. "Uh... did you find something, Kris? A... dollmaking room? Why would Hazel be made about-oh, he's probably putting people into the dolls."

Kipo's mouth fell open as she looked from Kris to Luz. "How did you... Kris didn't even say anything? They're not using sign language at all, so how...?"

"Oh, I just understand them," Luz explained cheerfully, and though that made no sense, Kris nodded anyway. Kipo's mouth opened and closed like a fish for a couple second before she just decided to accept it.

"Anyway," Luz continued, now that all of that was over and 'delt' with. "So... you saw a body? In Hazel's room?"

Kris thought for a couple seconds, and then shook their head.

"There wasn't a body?" Luz asked, perplexed. "Just something that looked like a body, huh..."

"Excuse me!" Alice suddenly interjected, and they all paused, and looked over to her. What they saw surprised them.

"I don't understand what you all are saying!" Alice told them angrily. "Why are you accusing him of those things?! You say that... Hazel is a murderer, or a serial killer, but then you saw that you haven't actually seen anyone be murdered, so I don't understand how you're all so convinced!"

"Huh...?" Luz asked, but Kipo frowned. Alice was making a good point, and though Hazel WAS scary, Kris and Luz's accusations were really coming out of left field. Where did they get all of that?

"Well..." Luz paused, seeming to think about that for a second. "You see... we think... well, he's a little suspicious, don't you think?"

"I don't!" Alice was almost shouting at this point. "Hazel has been nothing but kind this entire time! He's taken care of you all, protecting you all, and yet you go after him with these baseless accusations!"

Luz frowned, looking somewhat sheepish now. "Oh... well, yeah, I guess..."

Luz trailed off, and Alice waited, probably for an apology. But Luz didn't look quite ready for that yet, Kipo could see she wasn't totally convinced that Hazel was innocent yet. They were at a standstill.

"If we wanted to check to make sure, all we'd have to do would be to find the people Hazel killed, right?" Kipo guessed, and everyone looked to her. "After all, there aren't many places to find thing in here, probably."

"Yeah... that's right!" Luz said, instantly brightening. "All we have to do is find evidence!"

"Okay!" Kipo said. "Where is it?"

"...Uh..." Luz's face went blank and she glanced around. Her face brightened when her eyes landed on Kris. "Oh, Kris knows! Or... has a guess, at least."

"Oh?" Kipo turned to look at Kris, who shrugged. "Okay, lead the way, then!"

Kris turned on their heel, marching to the door behind them, but Alice stopped them before they could open it.

"W-Wait, we can't do that!" Alice cried. "If Hazel catches us, he'll be disappointed... B-Besides, we won't find any of your 'evidence' anyway! Hazel is innocent!"

"But we need to check!" Luz argued, not unkindly. "I'm... sorry, Alice, but I don't think Hazel is who he thinks he is..."

"You have no basis for that, it's nonsense!" Alice claimed. She sounded frustrated.

"Maybe we should just ask Kris where they think the bodies are," Kipo said, sensing a shouting match coming on. Alice huffed, turning away, but Luz turned to Kris.

"Good idea!" she agreed. "Kris, where are they?"

"In the stuffed animals," Kris replied, now once again using sign language. Where they just going to switch their ways of communicating now? Kipo supposed that made sense, Kris seemed to enjoy tricking them sometimes.

In any case, Luz looked confused, so Kipo decided to pick up where she left off.

"In the stuffed animals?" Kipo asked, thinking. "Well, we don't have to go over there to find them, their over here, too."

Kipo motioned to the door she'd came through earlier, and Luz cheered.

"Perfect!" she cried. "And we won't get caught by Hazel, either."

Despite Luz's reassurances, Alice still looked nervous, so Kipo decided to help, too.

"Don't worry, we'll be quick," she promised, and Alice finally nodded. In the end, it didn't really take that much convincing, so she must have been a least a little bit curious.

With that, the four of them moved over to the door, and Kipo grasped the doorknob. But before she could turn it, she got a strong sense of sudden foreboding. Whatever was behind this door... it wouldn't be pleasant.

Of course, Kipo pushed open the door anyway.

Inside, there was the familiar, and creepy, sight. But for now, Kipo tried to ignore it, instead picking up a random stuffed animal from the self: a unicorn. Like the giraffe Kipo had studied earlier, it was wet. Kipo grimaced.

"So, it's inside here, right?" Kipo asked Kris, turning back to the group. She was surprised to find that they all had varying forms of disgust on their faces.

"Why's it wet?" Luz asked, and Kipo shrugged.

"I guess we'll find out," she said, and she transformed her hand, using the claw of her jaguar fist to cut away at the seam of the doll. It fell apart easily after that; it seemed to have been sloppily made. It practically disintegrated in Kipo's hands, and a couple of odd and wet things slid from the stuffed animal slipping down onto the floor.

"Huh?" Kipo said, momentarily surprised.

Luz's hands flew to her mouth. "What the-?!"

"Is that-?" Alice looked sick.

But no matter how many questions they wanted to ask, they couldn't deny the truth. What slipped out of Kipo's hands was a discoloured human heart, three eyeballs, and a brain. They made a wet sound as they met the floor.

"Oh... oh no," Kipo gulped. "Luz... you were right..."

Luz didn't seem particularly happy about that.

"I'm... I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation..." Alice said weakly, only partly resisting as Luz tugged her along. "...For that. That doesn't make any sense-."

Luz quickly turned around, wrapping Alice in a tight hug. "I'm sorry, Alice," she whispered. Luz didn't really know what else to say. "I'm sorry."

Alice hugged her back. "I've just never wished to understand something more."

Luz nodded. She doubted it was the same, but she understood, in a way.

"Alice, Luz, we have to go!" Kipo whispered loudly, suddenly appearing from the dark. Luz resisted the urge to flinch. "Kris and I found a way out, over here."

Kipo paused, looking at the two girls clutching onto each other before putting a gentle hand on Alice's shoulder, giving it a tight squeeze. She hesitated for a second, before saying: "Maybe there is a good explanation..."

"For that?" luz glanced around, looking at the organs sitting on the floor. This situation didn't have much room for a misunderstanding. "How?"

"I don't know, just maybe..." Kipo frowned, trying to think. "Alice DOES know Hazel better than we do, right?"

"...Well, technically-." Luz almost started agreeing before her thoughts caught up to her. "But maybe not! I don't know, maybe Hazel's a good liar or something! I think we should get out of this creepy place before anything can happen."

Luz grabbed Alice's hands, looking at her closely, practically begging. "Come on! Let's go do what we said, after all, we need to explore the world, right?"

Alice perked up for just a second, but in the end, she wasn't convinced.

"Please," she said. "Let me just say goodbye."

Luz opened her mouth, planning to argue, but she was surprised to find that she had been almost completely convinced. She winced.

"I- alright," she relented, and Alice brightened. "But we should all go, right? Just in case."

Alice nodded, and, despite the squirming pit in her stomach, Luz smiled.

Alice knocked on the door in the room they were locked in, and Kipo tilted her head.

"Can he hear that?" she asked, and Alice nodded.

"He always listens for our special knock," Alice told her. "Even if he's grumpy, he'll still come."

Kipo blinked, but she nodded, and left it at that.

And Alice wasn't wrong. Within five minutes, they heard the familiar tell-tale steps that echoed throughout the walls and in Kipo's bones. She felt an urge to run away, or get her claws out, or maybe even hide, but she forced herself to stay right where she was. She couldn't run away.

Soon enough, the footsteps stopped, and Kipo could hear heavy breathing through the metal door. It made Kipo nervous, but Alice seemed to brighten.

"Hazel?" she called through the door.

"What do you need?" a gruff voice asked back. Even when it was disembodied it still didn't sound like it was attached to anything good. However, Alice just giggled.

"Um, Hazel?" she called. "I... just have a question."

"...You're probably wondering when you can get out of there, right?" Hazel sighed after a moment. To Kipo's surprise, he actually sounded remorseful. "I'm... I'm sorry, Alice, but I don't know. There's a lot going on right now, and... and it's complicated, alright? It's... you wouldn't get it, alright?!"

"It's about those stuffed animals, right?" Alice asked, and Kipo was surprised at the straightforwardness of it. She was also very, very worried. "With the human parts in them?"

"..." Hazel didn't answer for a long time, but when they did, their voice was dark. "You... know about that now... how-?!"

"Hazel, please explain this," Alice begged, even though at this point she had to know what it all meant. "I don't know what this all means; and I'm certain you're innocent-."

Again, Hazel didn't answer for a long time. The four waited in tense silence, all staring at the door.

"Alice..." Hazel trailed off, and suddenly, the doorknob turned and the door cracked open. "Alice, don't be scared-HEY! WHAT THE-?!"

Surging forward, Kipo threw her whole weight and the door, slamming it shut. But it didn't stay that way for long, because soon Hazel was slamming on it, and it was bucking open and shut in a reverse game of tug of war.

"Dammit!" Hazel roared. "Alice! Open this door right now! Don't you want me to explain it to you?!"

"..." Alice's face was crestfallen, and she seemed to fumble with what she wanted to say. "Can't you do it from out there, Hazel?"

Suddenly, the banging on the door stopped, and Hazel suddenly went silent from behind the door. Kipo tensed up, because surely Hazel couldn't have given up.

"...This is all because of your new friends, isn't it?" Hazel suddenly hissed, and in a sudden bust of strength, Hazel shoved open the door, and sent Kipo flying towards the wall. Her head slammed into it, making her black out for a second.

Kipo slid back down to the floor, but she didn't get another chance to get her bearings before a horrible face full of teeth was on her, biting at her face. Kipo immediately flinched, and shoved the face back from pure instinct alone. It was only when the face was away from her that Kipo realized it was Hazel, but the costumes mouth had opened, revealing rows upon rows of sharp gleaming teeth, and the soft furry paws had lengthened into sharp points. His body was taunt now, looking more like an actual rabbit than a stuffed animal now.

Hazel had turned into a monster. The realization slammed Kipo in the face, and she forced herself up, looking wildly around the room for her friends. They were still all gathered by the door, eyes wide as they stared at the beast in front of them.

"Run!" Kipo shouted at them, startling them all. "Over here! Follow me!"

None of them replied, but as Kipo turned and ran down the hall, she knew they were all following. As she glanced back, she saw Alice, then Luz, then Kris, and finally Hazel, racing after them with his mouth open, snapping at Kris' arm. Kipo's eyes widened, but before she could do anything, both Kris and Luz turned around, Kris swinging their sword, and Luz moving her hand in a seemingly odd and complicated move. With their combined efforts, Hazel flew backwards, stopping right at the end of the hallway with a new, sizeable gash in his face. His mouth twisted in a toothy snarl.

Kipo turned away quickly. "Through here!" she commanded, stopping by a small hole in the wall, one she and Kris and found and then modified earlier. Kipo slipped through smoothly, stopping just before she slid into the river, and then turned around, helping Alice and Luz through. Then she reached for Kris, but as soon as their hands connected, Kris was suddenly being tugged backwards by a sudden snout clapping sown on their leg. Kris hissed.

"No!" Kipo cried, and she tugged back even harder. Kris grunted, and with a stab of concern, she saw that all her efforts were doing was getting Kris' le torn up. She could hear them grunting in pain as she pulled.

"I got it!" Luz shouted, and suddenly, Kris was released. Both Kris and Kipo flew backwards, both of them rolling backwards into the river. For a second, Kipo was confused before she saw the lower half of Hazel's jaw slide into the river. So that's what Luz did...

Back on land, Luz grabbed Alice's hand, tugging her towards the river and trying not to grimace at the inky black depths waiting for them. It didn't look fun, but the four of them had to stick together.

"Come on, Alice," she muttered, trying hard to keep her own disgust out of her voice. "We should-."

"YOU THINK I'M THE ONLY ONE HERE?!"

Alice and Luz flinched at the sudden voice, whirling around to look at Hazel, who was still speaking, somehow. But that didn't make any sense, because Luz cut him with the shadow on his mouth... but it didn't matter. Nonetheless, Hazel was still yelling at them.

"I'm was the kind one," Hazel snarled, and Luz tried to squint, looking at his mouth. Silver glinted off of it, like it was made of metal, but through the darkness, Luz couldn't see much else.

"There are others," Hazel continued, reminding Luz that he was still talking. "And they will NOT be as NICE AS I WAS. WHEN THEY FIND YOU, AND THEY WILL, THEY'LL RIP YOU APART, YOU HEAR ME?! THEY'LL RIP YOU ALL TO PIECES-!!"

Luz shook her head; this was getting out of hand. Surging forward, she wrapped her arms around Alice and pulled her into the water. As for what Hazel said... they'd have to worry about that later.