I was hard at work in the garden when I heard someone creeping through the brush. I thought it might be Drake. It pains me to see that black sash where his eyes should be, knowing that the mutilation is the least of his pains. He walks cautiously, but I know he enjoys the garden and sitting in the sun. I'd managed to uncover an ancient stone bench since the last time he was out and would have been more than happy to lead him to it so we could talk while I worked.
When I stood to see who it was though, Lullaby froze in place, looking as though she might bolt. "Lulls? How...?" Trinity peered out of the hole in the wall we called a door and quickly ducked back inside.
"Please don't put me back in the basement," Lullaby rasped, the doll tucked under one arm. I glared at it, and she hugged it to her chest. "I was thirsty... Trina let me out."
"Did you drink all the water I left?" I brushed the dirt from my hands as I approached. She seemed okay, shaky but not psychotic. The fact that she'd taken the doll disturbed me though. I thought she had more sense than that.
She looked confused. "There wasn't any..."
"That's weird. I left you a gallon jug and some granola bars. I wouldn't just leave you down there without food and water."
"There wasn't anything," she repeated and started to sniffle. Gods... she probably thought I'd abandoned her down there. Sunshine wouldn't touch granola, and he was more than happy to drink the water right out of the pond that was slowly expanding where the pump had been. He was really the only one I could imagine poking around in the cellar, it being "his space" for so long.
I put an arm around her shoulders, turning her back to the house. "Come on. There's water in the cooler with what's left of the ice, and there's broth on the fire... you can have some with a cheese sandwich."
"Okay." She switched the doll to her opposite side, away from me.
"You should have left that thing in the triangle."
"She's mine," Lullaby replied defensively.
"It just... would have been better. We can bury it somewhere maybe or wall it up when I have the money for mortar." I should have taken care of it earlier, but I'd wanted to make sure the exorcism was successful.
"No, she wouldn't like that at all," she said in an almost frightened voice. "She'd be very, very angry if you did that."
"You... can't still hear her, can you?" I gave her a bottle, dripping from the cooler. The ice was all but melted again. You don't miss luxuries like electricity and refrigerators until they're gone.
She gulped the water down in a few seconds. "I never could. Now I can. I can hear her, and she can't control me. I'll take care of her. Don't worry. I won't let her hurt anyone again."
I put a bowl of broth in her hands and searched through one of the bins for bread. "Just... don't take off that necklace I gave you or mess with the stitches in her chest, OK? Promise?"
She nodded, sipping at the broth with the doll tucked under one arm so that it's head stuck out the other side and glared at me with its awful little button eyes. I made her a sandwich and refilled her bowl so she could sop up the broth with the bread. While she ate, I slipped down into the cellar... there was no sign of the water or the granola bars. But who would have taken them?
Something doesn't feel quite right about any of this... Be safe and watch Lullaby closely.. I hope all is well there.
ReplyDeleteSo do I Hawk... I read Lullaby's blogpost, so I know Dollmaker is talking to her and moving (which is more troublesome than the talking). And if I see that thing running around with Lulls, I'm kicking it into the fire. But if it had any control over her, it would have prevented her from outting it on her blog. For the moment, I'm going to let her keep it, but the minute I see it make any threatening moves on anyone, it's getting walled up and "lost."
ReplyDeleteoops, should have been without
ReplyDeleteThis Dollmaker spirit is still dangerous..I just hope Lullaby realizes that. That, and that she can be free of the Dollmaker now. Maybe in time she will realize that she is so much freer to live without it.
ReplyDeleteI hope so Eternity. The way she clings to it though, I think I'd do more damage if I just ripped it away from her. She has to want to give it up, like an addiction.
ReplyDeleteSo Dollmaker can physically move this doll around.. That's trouble, you're right. Hopefully its power is greatly diminished in this new doll body though..
ReplyDeleteAnd I hope she gives it up. I really hope it doesn't come down to someone forcing it away from her..or worse, it hurting someone there. More so than it already has that is.
She feels that the Dollmaker is a part of her, and therefore she must look after it and keep it safe. Troublesome. But perhaps Lullaby can prevent the Dollmaker from doing anything harmful or destructive.
ReplyDeleteI hope so. I hope that Lullaby becomes the strong one, and Dollmaker diminishes.
ReplyDeleteHawk, I'm already considering alternatives to the doll. Leaving Dollmaker in a body that is still mobile is a kindness, which if she abuses it or continues to threaten us (as she did in Lull's most recent post), I can still solve.
ReplyDeleteSkan, it would certainly appear that way, and Dollmaker seems to be trying to convince Lullaby of the connection. Considering there's a lot I don't know about how Dollmaker came to be and that she's not a regular proxy, I don't know what separation might do to Lulls.
Eternity, so do I. I really hope that Dollmaker is some kind of split personality. But from what little Lullaby managed to learn from her grandmother, Dollmaker seems to be some kind of hereditary spirit, which makes her more like a tutelary spirit. I have to allow for the possibility that separating her from Lullaby any more than I have might be impossible. Unless Lullaby consents to putting Dollmaker away in a more restrictive prison, I won't force her to leave the doll behind at this point.