All Dolled Up!

Charlotte

At last dusk came as the sun went down. And as darkness settled, at a time when the rest of the world slept, I leapt into life. I opened and closed my eyes for no other reason than testing them out, and I flexed my fingers for the same reason. This new body of mine was around nine-tenths as large as what my original had been, though over the many decades of using it I had gotten used to being slightly smaller and it no longer bothered me or hampered my movement.

Yes, everything was still working. I opened up the display case boxing me in and stepped out of the room.

My action sent waves of dust everywhere - I frowned, though I knew the house had gone into a state of disrepair, I hadn't exactly expected it to be this bad. But no matter- I would deal with it later. First, I had to deal with the invaders who had dared to desecrate my household.

My feet treaded lightly down the stairs. Whoever this uninvited guest, or guests, were, they had not bothered to come up to see me.

Ah, I would've liked to know how many of them there were at least as that would help with planning. But no matter. I had learned over time and with experience that it was better to take a few days before 'going for the kill' so to speak.

An hour of searching the house was fruitless. I saw no one. Granted, someone had definitely been here- there were bags laid out near the entrance and their things were spread over a room on the bottom floor.

If it had just been a real estate agent or a banker who was visiting to appraise the house, then they would've just gone up and left after their business was done. They would not have left their bags behind like this or brought along things that made it look like they were planning on staying the night. But, there were currently no signs of anyone being here. There was not even an automobile parked outside the house, although I was absolutely certain I had heard one earlier.

And there were other things - a plate laid out on the dining table (whatever oaf had eaten here had not even bothered to wash it!), a bedroom with sheets changed, and the footsteps of someone much larger than me imprinted in the dust, all of which signaled that there had been someone here.

It was clear that someone intended to live here, even if only temporarily. And even if they had left, they would no doubt be returning sooner or later. And I could do nothing but wait for what seemed like their inevitable return.

As I went back upstairs, returned to my display case, and watched as day began to break, I realized that I had once again positioned myself away from the window.

Ah, too late to change things now, as I felt my body become as stiff and lifeless as the stone grotesques that had decorated the roof of the church our family used to visit. There was nothing I could do now but wait.

Charlie

The motel I had stayed at hadn't exactly been a five star experience, but I had just been looking for a cheap place to crash. Now that I had the rest of the day to work on things, I should've been able to return to that house, and I intended to stay the night from now on.

The car ride there took me past many nice, picturesque suburban houses. Sure, they might've been smaller than mine, but they also weren't dilapidated either. They also probably would've cost me more, and beggars can't be choosers, as people would often say.

The house was quite a bit far out from the rest of town - I knew I had agreed to move to a 'small town' per se, but my house was three miles away from any other building. It added to the weird, creepy vibe it gave off - and again, I could picture my sister laughing at me if I'd ever voiced these concerns to her.

I had seen the house yesterday, but I felt like I had been so overwhelmed I hadn't really taken it all in. The house had brick walls around it, though these walls had holes in various places, and there must have been a gate at some point, though it was long gone by the time I had reached there, meaning there was no obstacle to me driving right up to the front.

I grumbled as I opened the door. No, the house still didn't look much better even after a good night's rest. I did remember to get some fresh light bulbs on the way here, however, as well as some other things that I thought I would need.

I saw the dinner plate I had laid out last night was still there, and thankfully there were no ants or cockroaches crawling over the crumbs like I'd expected when I realized my folly halfway the drive back to the motel. Still, I had to make a point not to leave food around because it would definitely eventually attract those things.

And another blessing was that I had not seen any rats, raccoons, or bats as of now. I did not have the cash on hand to hire an exterminator as it was.

I began screwing in a few light bulbs as my first task of the day. I was reminded of a joke 'how many nurses does it take to screw in a light bulb? Five: one to do the actual work, one to check if they were following proper policy and procedure, one to maintain quality assurance, one to document it all, and one to be a member of the Hospital Light Bulb Change Task Force.'

I chuckled at my own joke. Now that I had arrived early in the morning rather than at midday like the day before, the house certainly felt friendlier than it had seemed earlier.

I spent most of the morning dusting the bedroom I intended to use, fixing up a dining room, and the kitchen attached to it. I was nowhere near done, but it was satisfactory progress.

Lunch was a box of instant ramen. Ah, if only the me of twelve years ago could see me now. He would probably start crying uncontrollably - I was basically eating the exact same food as him, only with arguably even worse life prospects and only slightly more money. Well, at least I was living in a larger house which I actually owned, so I had that as a one-up against my younger self.

Once I was done with lunch I really didn't have any more energy to go around and do anything, so I figured that I would get to know the rest of the house before I tackled the bathroom.

The place had three floors, a basement, and an attic. The main part of the building, where I was at, connected the east and west wings of the house, which only had two floors each. Once again, the sheer size of the place astounded me and I felt a massive headache coming at just the thought of how much work would have to be put in to get it in order.

All in all, I counted nine broken windows. It would definitely get cold during the winter even after they were fixed. The roof was broken in the east wing and the floor there showed signs of damage from the precipitation that fell unrestrained atop it. Some of the light sockets just didn't work, and there were places where I couldn't get reception on my cell phone. Dust was everywhere, a constant reminder that it might've very well been a decade since someone had lived here. There was also mold in places that I would need to clean. And this was just the house- I wasn't even going to begin contemplating what it would take the make the front and backyards even somewhat neat and orderly again- right now it looked like I lived near the wilderness if you were to take a look out a window.

The rooms all looked the same to me. Most of them were empty, though I did see one with a bed and mattress that had to be at least two decades old. There was even a piano in one room which must have been quite expensive when it had been purchased - now, as I hesitantly pressed a key, no sound came out. There were other random pieces of furniture around the house, some of them being useful, others that were now only fit for use as firewood.

Most of the rooms were completely empty which really added on to the whole haunting feeling coming from this place. Being in the house kind of felt like walking into a school after hours, or into a mall after closing, it just felt weird for such a place to be so empty. I had heard a term thrown around the internet for areas like this - 'liminal spaces', I think they were called. There was a very strange sense of uneasiness you could feel just by being in the house, as if something was just wrong about it, for lack of a better word.

I guess that was why it shocked me so much when I entered that room. A room that would eventually be engraved into my memory- on the second floor in the west wing. A room, that from the door, looked like any other, which was another reason why I was surprised by what I found inside.

There was quite a lot of stuff in there, for one. Old pieces of furniture stacked on top of each other haphazardly like a house made of cards - if I moved one of those chairs the whole Tower of Pisa would've certainly come crumbling down.

But that only captivated my attention for a moment, before I laid my eyes on her that is.

I did a double-take when I first laid eyes upon her. I couldn't believe what I was seeing - this was a joke from my grandfather, right? It was so cliché that it couldn't be real.

Inside a glass case there was what looked like a porcelain doll. The kind of old Victorian-style porcelain doll you might find in a doll museum. She wasn’t a little girl as you might expect though, she was designed to be an adult woman and what was really odd was that she was practically life-sized.