he Diary of Ellen is an anecdote released on November 2nd, 2013 written by Fummy, detailing the life of Ellen prior to the original game's setting. The novella covers the context of her home and the history behind her witch powers leading up to her encounter with Viola.
Prologue
A frail (and possibly self-mutilated) Ellen lies on the cold floor of her dark bedroom, familiarizing herself with her surroundings. She hears a powerful wind blow in through her window, and the sound of pages of a diary on her desk flipping. Ellen recognizes the latter being her own diary, in which everything about her was written. She states that although she has never written anything in it herself, she knew every word that was said in that diary.
With the contents of the red-bound book still fresh in her mind, Ellen begins to tell her tale to the reader.
Chapter 1: Back Alley Meeting
Ellen and the Black Cat
The chapter begins with a sickly, bandaged up Ellen looking out her bedroom window and watching a black cat catch a mouse before vanishing into the dark back alley. She is entranced by its beauty, graceful movements and, above all, its freedom. Her mother comes in the midst of her daydream to clean her wounds and change her bandages. Her mother then proceeds to comb her hair and apologizes for not letting her play outside. This prompts Ellen to reminisce on her present situation.
She reveals to the reader that she was born sickly, with the skin on her face and legs being inflamed. The inflammation also affected her joints, which made it difficult for her to move. No one knew the cause of this illness, much less how to cure it. There were also no decent doctors around, nor could her family afford one. She recalls the words of a fortune teller telling her mother: "This girl’s sickness is to be blamed on the wrongdoing of her ancestors. She will suffer for eternity." For most of Ellen's childhood, her mother had assisted Ellen in changing her bandages and giving her medicine. Despite this, in Ellen's eyes, her mother saw her daughter as a problematic child. Fearing the possibility of being abandoned, Ellen attempted to resolve this by confining herself inside her bedroom and having good behavior. As a result, her mother displayed a kinder behavior.
Ellen breaks away from her train of thoughts as her mother cradles her in her arms. Their moment of togetherness, however, does not last very long as Ellen's alcoholic father comes home looking infuriated. He and his wife discuss his poor working conditions and how he would be forced to take another loan. Without even casting a single glance at his daughter, he takes his wife by the hand and brings her into another room. Meanwhile, Ellen plays with the purple doll her mother bought her as a gift when all of a sudden, in her innocent eyes, it begins speaking to her. The doll taunts Ellen by telling her that she herself is a mere doll, allowing her parents to do as they like to her. While Ellen denies it at first, the doll proceeds to mock her further. Overcome with unease, she throws the doll and hides under her covers, eventually drifting into sleep.
Ellen awakes in the middle of the night with her mother sitting at her bedside. As she brings her medicine, Ellen cannot help but take notice of her mother's beautiful and healthy features. In spite of her efforts to push any bitter thoughts away, she subconsciously begins to develop feelings of jealousy and hatred towards the lovable woman.
Chapter 2: Awakening
Ellen having tea
Chapter 3: Cute Little Bottle
Ellen's illness at an earlier stage.
After Ellen's supposed death, hunters and knights stopped approaching her home to hunt her. Ellen continued to live though her condition continued to worsen as the crow could no longer slow her illness down any slower than he already has at this point. Deciding to relax on her bed, Ellen surveyed the area to find a man with a strange weapon kill a bird. Calling forth murderous rabbits to eat the man, they presented to Ellen the gun the man used intrigued with it's design. The house and grown fat, Ellen no longer able to move the cat comes forth with very welcoming news. He is now ready to give Ellen the spell to cure her illness.
Chapter 4: A Girl Who Was Loved
The chapter begins with another diary entry from the game, however focuses on Viola's point of view. Encountering the cat, she is lead to Ellen's house despite being warned not to venture deep into the forest. When meeting Ellen, she is told that she is "sick" and Viola decided to spend time with Ellen. When leaving the house, Viola questions if the house was there or not. While deep in thought wondering Ellen's origins, a dog barking returned Viola to her senses just in time for Viola to greet her father and have dinner.
Chapter 5: Ellen
"Viola". This image is a GIF. Click on it to see a short animation.
Epilogue
Begin
Begin starts where the game starts, and is written in Ellen’s point of view. She had just switched bodies with Viola and found herself in the middle of her garden. When the black cat, who appeared next to her, talks to Ellen, she recalls all of the events that had happened in the past day and deduces that some magic was still left in Ellen’s sick body. She is mildly surprised when she finds out that Viola used the magic to trap Ellen in the garden, who was now in Viola’s healthy body which could not use magic.
As she heads to the path that lead out of the forest, she is blocked by a huge wall of red roses. They were cold and hard like metal and Ellen states that; "They could easily have sliced into my neck, but showed no signs of it’" She feels powerless, ironically in a perfectly healthy body but unable to control her surroundings like she used to.
Ellen remembers the cute little bottle that she put away in the house that could destroy the roses and let her through the exit. Having no other options, she looks back at the house and realises that she will have to go back. That Viola, who she betrayed, will be waiting for her.
The last phrase in the book, which Ellen says in the ‘true ending’ of the game, is; "After all, it’s my house, yes?
It wouldn’t be killing me anytime soon."
Illustrations
The novel contains several black-and-white and colored illustrations made by the artist Oguchi.
